A common delusion...

General Discussion
21

i agree no one remembers the day that there where 2 foot mush burgers but when you have been surifng for a long time the good days seem to run together. I remeber the summer of 1998 on the east coast. we had all those hurricanes week after week. was that summer the best ever or was it that i lucked out ever time i went to the beach that summer. Hurricane bonnie was the shit that year. but there where also a lot of people out there everyday.

as surfers we are the future and the past, there arent many groups that can say. everyone of us decides what we are when we go surfing. you can be a longboarder classic or modern you can go retro or you can ride that new school board. you can even ride different waves surfing is un like anything else in the world. and the key is variety. a lot of young kids are lost on this concept they see 6’0 as IT and only it.

variety is the spice of life.

22
Quote:

A great observation, although I dispute some of it. Certainly this is the feeling put off by “the surf culture” (basically the surf money industry/media). At a certain point of maturity one might see more importance to paying the bills off instead of buying three pair of surftrunks on the credit card. I’m told there is a special hell somewhere in Orange County for people who leave the One True Path of surf consumerism.

What is “the surfing world”? Surfers. People who ride waves. What laughably passes for “surf culture” seeks to define valid entry by age, equipment, sponsorship, endorsements…basically by advertising demographics and related gibberish…for personal/corporate ecomomic purposes. F–k them, eh? The real surfing world of 2004/2005 is right this minute outgrowing it’s wetsuit. When do we “not belong”, for real? I put it to you all that if we surf, we belong; this includes the goofball who had to go to surf school for three sessions before he could finally stand up as well as the surf-geezer who has worn out two sets of hips.

Nels

Quote:

Nels, that was what i was talking about, so i agree with you. They create a “surf culture” that’s totally away from the true “surf culture”. My surfing world is still alive, and is feeling better than ever before. I take my van, my girl, some boards and some friends, and i spend the weekend on a place where i can’t see a house, with cold water, cold wind, some waves, and good friends, some cows around, some dolphins in the water, and that’s “my surf culture”, to spend my time where i like with the people i love.

On the other way i can understand people who feels that’s out of this surfing thing because everyone around is pushing him to ride thin boards on mushy waves, trying skate maneuvers.

I have a really good friend that’s 40, for the last years he was surfing less and less everyday. He buy his boards on a local surf shop, and he choose the board from the rack that he thought it was closer to what he wants… the thing was that he was surfing a 18 1/4’’ x 2 1/4’’ surfboard, and he wasn’t able to catch waves, and when he did, he found himself more “under the water” than riding the wave.

Well one day i saw one of my shaper’s personal surfoards, it was a replica of what Pottz was riding back in the days, with modern rails and a modern bottom configuration, but still enough volume and low rocker. I asked my shaper if i could borrow the board, and i bring it to my friend.

On the first session, he tried the board, and on the first wave, he was smiling like a little boy. “Coque, this is surfing man… i felt them i did when i was 10 years younger…”

He is the same he was few years ago, and he’s surfing more and more again, the only problem he had with surfing is that the modern industry is made for young people who likes to skate in the water with the thinner board available, and he doesn’t fit those standards. Please take note that in Spain, a “good surf shop” has 5 or 10 boards on the rack, and they’re all thin and small modern pieces of resin with little foam inside.

Dale, what has been lost? as Keith said, we gained more than loosed, for sure. I’ve lost some time trying to impress some people in contest using the wrong equipment when i was younger, other than that, everything i did was a gain.

Coque.

23

nothings been lost …it was there . and it always will be there for each successive generation of new surfers …

being a teenager hanging out with your mates, doing things you hope your kids never find out , who didnt have fun at that time in there life???

whats changed ???

more brands , more choices , more styles …

ok so surfing in the middle of winter with a woolen jumper for a wetsuit , no legrope and a dinged up old single fin you couldnt turn unless you grew another back foot may have had its nostalgic side …

but right now is as good as it gets till tommorow …

i wish i was my sons age and had all the choice of the latest equipment hes got to choose from …plus hes still got knees that work …

whats been lost ???

youth , innocence , and that sense of not knowing whats over the horizon …

lost to some , but not to the next generation …

regards

BERT

24

Amen Bert!!!

Reading all the posts, I can’t help but think you get out what you put in. As with everything in life…surfing is no different, there are still new waves to find, adventures around the corner, progress to be made, and history to be taught. It may seem that in our society of today, it costs more to experience this (time, money, job, family) but it is in the end up to YOU to make surfing the experience you want it to be…if it is not, you haven’t tried hard enough or other things are more important.

retodd

25

I think the main pitfall is that we tend to slip into the surf media’s definition of what “surf culture” and the surfing world is because it’s thrust upon us in magazines, TV, etc. This info is very easy to pick up (as opposed to going out into the physical world and actually taking part) and is merely a ploy for business people to develop and exploit a market. Why do people say that Rastovitch started a movement? Does anyone really think he is the only guy out there not riding a 6’0" chip every day? Not to take anything away from Rasta, but the only reason people think this way is because the media packages that info and feeds it to them. This is the “next big thing” that can be developed into new product lines and sold. Why? Because the market thrives on selling new product. If your old boards not broken, then they can sell you a new one by saying that the one you have is obsolete. Whether it actually is or not does’nt matter as long as it gets the sale. Remember when everyone started pitching their longboards in the 60’s? Yeah, some of them were real logs but then again some of the Transition Era boards really sucked as well. The point is to decide for yourself, not parrot what’s told to you verbatim.

Don’t confuse marketing with culture. Surfing is not what’s in the mags. It’s what’s out in the water

26
Quote:

Each generation thinks it`s more advanced than those which have gone before. Yet many people insist surfing was better when they were young…

What`s been lost along the way?

I’ve lost the baggage of being even remotely concerned about what others think of my surfing equipment of style of riding…Liberating…

To me surfing’s about the same as it ever was, probably better…

But then I’m not living in California…

27

He He.My hot little surf chick has turned in to a 50 year old friggin Garden Club Lady and won’t let me get stoned or drunk anymore.See ya later I have to go get some mulch and Xmas decorating crap.Jeeze. RB

28

Paul Jensen hit it. It is liberating. I really don’t think about it anymore. Life is too short. Still just as stoked after 32 years of surfing and I still live in California.Mike

29

The new surfers who start out on modern boards will learn just the way many others did. It all takes time, and it’s time that will tell whether or not the surfing sparks will fly in an individuals brain.

There will be a percentage who will give up for whatever reason, crowds, cold, unsuitable boards, frustration, or just riding a passing fad. Maybe they just don’t have, or don’t want to make the time. No bright sparks there.

We must keep in mind that not everyone who starts surfing is going to get into it.

There will be a precentage who will get into it, keep learning, and eventually find what many here have found. Perhaps they will eventually feel the escence, the soul, the beauty, nature, whatever, and their open mind will eventually open further to influences of the past.

They may, like many here, let it engross and dominate their lives to the point where they do nothing else. They may just smile and walk away.

In my early years I was sure that eventually everyone was going to surf. It’s more fun than anything else I’ve ever done, and I thought everyone else would feel the same. Both sadly and happily this is not the case.

Nothing’s been lost along the way, it’s still out there waiting to be discovered, and always will be. It just takes certain influence and strength of character to find it these days, especially with so many other interesting and outrageous distractions thrown in front of us.

What you seek you find. How you let your life unfold is ultimately up to you, not societies expectations, or even others around you.

To those who understand, just go for a surf. Need I say more?

30

Mmanzi,

Ok - I agree 100% with every one of your statements about media validation and primary source viewers. But the article was about coming up with a title to send into the mag cause Rasta was NOT riding a surfboard in perfect tropical waves - he was riding a mat (What was he thinking?).

Everyone pretty much says the same thing, and that is the kids are alright. Maybe they have more choices but how can they make the right choice if their research is done through the magazines like you and I did? Could you look through a current magazine and tell me how to start surfing? How do the kids start? See - surf schools… and so the disposable thruster and wet-suit and don’t forget your backpack and travel bag. Here’s a coupon for merchandise, congratulations you are a consumer er I mean surfer.

Maybe what we really lost is that when the articles were written for Surfer (60s-70s) they were about travel, fiction and design forums. Now they are Quicksilver in Indo, Billabong hits the Azores, Chemistry Surfboards re-invents the shortboard revolution! Bert said that you need to do an infomercial and throw in some coin NOT just write an article about design to get published.

And I think I am sad that the culture and the magazines aren’t the same anymore, that product and culture don’t equate anymore, that everything is sales and numbers and you won’t buy the surfboard that is perfect for you at the local store and you can buy a cheap board at COSTCO and exploitive marketing and…

But I do like Swaylocks.

31

Crowds, clothes, egos…that’s all just peripheral. Surfing works because it doesn’t come cheap. You really have to put in the hours, days, years. And you’re never done learning. Anybody can lay down the platinum Visa for a board, wetty, racks for the Benz…but you can’t buy talent or experience. And when you do it right, you feel proud of what you can do, for yourself, not for anyone else.

Surfing works for the same reason people appreciate skilled carpentry. For the same reason people still read books and leave the TV off. For the same reason we have children and not just adult friends. For the same reason we build our boards and don’t just buy pop-outs.

Nothing really worth doing comes cheap. And I don’t mean about money.

32

That’s good for a much needed laugh first thing in the morning… How sober/unsoberly I can relate… Does it get any easier to get old?

33

Heres another laugh: "everything is getting better and better, every day, in every way". THATS DELUSIONAL! American surfers are incredibly spoiled. Wealth of material things. Poverty of spirit. Mr. Natural was right!

34

Good happens, too… (thanks, Nels!)

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/printme.php?eid=59117

35
Quote:

Maybe what we really lost is that when the articles were written for Surfer (60s-70s) they were about travel, fiction and design forums.

Maybe the difference between the specific “Then” and Now in the media and among surfers in general is that in earlier times the vibe was much more inclusive, rather than the current incessant divisive bleating we get now. I shudder to think about being in high school today. Imagine the kid with the hots for a girl, who shoots him down because he has a Hurley t-shirt instead of a Volcom. Judged by the brand you choose to wear! Or judged by the store/shop you patronize…this has nothing to do with surfing at all, but is certainly human.

36

Is the very thing that we are communicating on the salvation of the surfers ? Before this forum existed we we’re crawling along at tree ring growth speed. Look how far we were left behind the main body of production compared to the 70’s, now design is EXPLODING into the lead - hell, everyone wants to try something new even if just to cover a Clark blank with epoxy (which Greg Mungall was doing in our area many years ago anyway). The design tribe will forge into the lead and assimilate the techniques again. From what I can remember it was Stussy’s insight that the surfboard could be a secondary item to apparel at his shop in Laguna Beach - reversing the model that Hobie and Greg Noll and every other custom shop was founded on. When I went in a shop and picked out a surfboard it was the event of my life! Even if it was a fat, tracky boat. Man I loved the smell of that Dion resin and the velvety smooth polished surface. (1 minute pause for the old timers to recompose themselves) Now when kids go into the shop it’s - I want two Volcom shirts, some Quicksilver pants, a Rusty button shirt and for the surfboard - Oh, it doesn’t matter they were all made on the same machine… you pick dad!

That’s what else we’re leaving behind or losing, the custom shop…

37

I wonder if it’s really changed that much?I started in Hawaii around 1963 and all us groms(gremmies back then) wanted a Phil Edwards model board.Why?Because Hobie had great ads and we saw Phil in the surf movies.When the mags advertised baggies with competition stripes we had to have em.How many Da Cat surfboards did Greg Noll sell because of the ads with Dora?He sold a pile of em and they were real crappy logs.When the short board underground revolution hit we all grew our hair long.drank smoothies,called beer drinkers “juicers” and rolled joints…just like the guys in the mags.I am now one of the old geezers that bitches about how it used to be and little thrusters suck etc. etc.Maybe I ought to pause and think before I speak eh?.I do miss the smell of Purple Waxmate though.Can you still get that stuff or do you have to go to Ebay and pay 50bucks per bar? RB

38

self respect

39

Hang in there epac - my best friend who had the single hip replacement surgery just after you hasn’t been back to teach his auto shop and wood shop class this whole semester but is going back after Christmas/new years!

Wow, cleanlines - “same old crap as it’s ever been” but then at my lunch break I went down and saw the most perfect little tubes gently caressed by offshore winds breaking cleanly (perfect for a mat!) at Newport Point with no one out but a pod of dolphins and my mind wandered off and I really tried to imagine that the boards that I’ve owned were there, tail in the sand for me to see once again. In my mind I was checking the shapes out like they were brand new. I once again felt those curves and sighted down the side to checkout the rocker, rails between fingers, feel the fin foil, nose and tail, beautiful pigments, pin-lines, airbrushes and clear foam. There I stood in the sand and watched my surfboard gallery run through from my first ugly brown Dexter pop-out belly board through to the self shaped big-boy thruster. All aces and queens. The plusses outweigh the minuses. And doggone it…

Another thing I miss/lost is all the old boards that I sold!

40

everytime i hit the water i am a little kid again…however, if we don’t start getting serious about environmental issues, it ALL may be lost…