Reminds me a bit too much of how Ryan Lovelace was treated years back when he first showed up here with the nerve, THE NERVE!!!, to try to shape hulls.
I didn’t have to read the whole thing to agree with the sentiment. Just heard about a company whose CEO borrowed against the company to buy a wave machine company among other bad investments. Look at the hit companies like Billabong and Quicksilver have taken the last few years. And compare that to all the new Surf Industry start ups who run adds and rent booths at trade shows then disappear. I don’t read those tea leaves though; I just count the number of Sprinter vans loaded with Surftechs that I see in the parking lot of the commercialized little beach town I live in every weekend. And; Although I don’t have much use for “Trustafarians”, Ryan Lovelace has earned his stripes. Thanks Doc.
Remembered the name of the company; WeWork.
The article hit on some points I agree with, I guess. Somebody offered up this gem in the comments though:
Hey, all you have to do is open your eyes and look around you, the world we live in is increasingly polarized, people are less and less willing to tolerate other viewpoints and respect those who hold them. There is no way the “surfing world” or “culture” is going to be immune.
Furthermore, while there are a lot of things about the surfing experience that have deteriorated (since I began surfing 50 years ago) with advent of the corporate takeover of the surf media, contest scene, and industry, the truth is that the surfing world has always had an element of elitism and exclusionism. The site hawaiihistory.org tells us: “Surfing was especially popular among chiefs, they could reserve the best resources and locations for themselves, declaring a favorite beach ‘kapu’ - off limits - or by ordering the best koa or wiliwili trees cut for making their boards.”
In my opinion no one “owns” the ocean, or any portion of it, and no one has any more right to it than another. But by the same token, basic laws or rules of conduct dictate that respect for each other’s safety and well being, and respecting a certain order in the lineup (i.e. no one person or group hogging all the waves, respecting right of way to the guy who gets the wave first) will go a long way to ensuring everyone has a good time.
Its true that there is an element of “selling out” (I still vividly recall a popular surfing icon’s quote from an old surf movie “if you’re going to be a surfing champ, sometimes you just gotta go out there and be an asshole”), but we also have all benefitted, with the advent of better wetsuits, better board designs and building materials, better access to surfing locations and awareness of surfing locations, better surf videos than we ever imagined possible back in the day (I follow Jamie O’Brien, Nathan Florence, and Koa Rothman on YouTube, and love videos with Torren Martyn or Ryan Burch).
Personally, I’m very little connected to or involved in the mainstream surfing culture today, but I love the video clips, great wetsuits, etc. I still love surfing, and I think there is plenty of room for variety in choice of surfcraft, and I believe with the right attitude we could all share the waves and get along in the water.
I try to reflect that attitude whenever I go to the beach, although I admit probably imperfectly. I try to share wax, loan a fin or a fin wrench, or a leash, or give a compliment, do something positive for others, every time I go to the beach. Heck, I’ve bought booties and even wetsuits cheap at yardsales and then given them away to someone in need at the beach. This keeps the experience positive for me too, cuz I surf crowded so cal point breaks and its easy to get bogged down in complaining about the crowds, etc. But a little positivity goes a long way.
I also try to maintain that attitude here on Swaylocks, although I’m sure many would say imperfectly (and like I say, I don’t deny it), but I try to tolerate other viewpoints, avoid saying negative or insulting things (even when I’m thinking them haha), give a “like” or a compliment for a post, help out when I get PMs requesting some aid, etc. Its an imperfect world, but we can always find some small way to make it a little better for each other, if we try.
Just a few random thoughts from an old guy.
Insight, born of life experience. Thanks for being here, and sharing.
Preach it brother.
I for one have benifited from your positivity on many levels, from the first time I encountered you on the Tree to sea forums, when I was first contemplating making my own board, until now with the social media sharing and commenting.
As far as body boarding goes, I have two foam edge board nugget Belly boards in the shed at the moment, I had machined up from broken mals, and I can’t wait to finish shape and then glass them. At 44 I think I’m beyond caring, heck, I’m frothing on hand planes and flippers lately. Im at the point where I have been getting to the beach when its overhead and I haven’t had a board in the car, in the past I would get bummed, now, I grab flippers and a hand plane and just get such amazing feelings in the barrel and riding the open face on a hand plane.
Ps im learning this song right now cause it just sums up my attitude these days. Just last week a super awesome local surfer/teacher like me hit a parked semi trailer on his way to work on the day the grade 12 students were graduating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5beMtt-YGA
Negativity sucks, waves are awesome, I think everyone on here probably thinks the same way, we’re the rejects of the cool group, we haven’t bought into the, “by the latest model cause the stab guys reviewed it so well” mentality. We share stoke, we spread stoke, and most of us make positive vibes our currency.
Sorry, random dirbble over.
Have a listen to the song, smile at the irony.
Competition for limited resources with a human population that has been increasing exponentially.
Population was 3 billion in 1960 and 6 billion in 2000 (currently 7.7 billion).
You ain’t seen nothing yet – rising sea level, micro- and nano-plastics, heavy metals, sewage, industrial waste, toxic algae blooms…
Glad to see he mentions that New York billionaire who bought the WSL. I have had to deal with him in the water. He’s a total donkey. Been trying to learn to surf for about 15 years, still can’t.
One incident:
I’m minding my own business, catching a few little waves. He shows up with 4 or 5 other beginners. As I’m paddling back out after a ride, he says “You’re catching too many waves”.
I said, “I can only catch one at a time. You can have all the others. Besides, you’re 20 years younger than me and riding a board two feet bigger than mine. You’re letting an old man make you look bad.”
He says, “You think you own the ocean”. I replied, “If you really believe that, you should find a different hobby to suck at”.
Funny Sammy. When I’m in the groove and seem to be in sync with the ocean, catching a lot of waves, I’ll paddle back out really slow, sometimes I just let the current push me back out. I do this to let thers have more time to get waves. I tend to surf where there’s a lot of people I know, so I want to make sure we all have a good time. We pretty much all feel the same, and will often tell someone to go instead of taking a wave.
When a donkey says something, my favorite response is “you can always go in”.
Generally the donkey can’t surf anyway… And after a little verbal back and forth they usually do go in. Haha! I never paddle in after a little verbal exchange. I just paddle out the back and around behind the donkey.
Well, this is a spot I’ve been surfing for over 40 years, so I know most of the regulars. This guy and his crew are newcomers, in the grand scheme of things.
On this particular day I was the only one out. Then he showed up with his ‘entourage’ and somehow expected me to accomodate them. Nope, not gonna happen. It’s like coming into my back yard and telling me how to behave.
The places I surf have been where I lived, so it really was my backyard once. I moved up to the mountains in 1998, but I still surf at those spots. I once had a guy try to snake me then give me shit when I wouldn’t kick out. We had words and I tell him that he can take off behind me trying to snake me, but if I’m on a wave or going for a wave, I intend on riding it, so he’s going to ride behind. He pulled the Hawaiian card. Well I happen to be Hawaiian, and a 3rd generation surfer. Told the guy that, and that I used to live across the street pointing to the building, that I’ve been surfing there since the mid 70s, that I know all the regulars and I’ve never seen him before. Then we paddle out and he sits next to a young guy I know so I ask the guy “you know him?”, and he says yeah. I tell him what happened and the guy gets upset again. He eventually paddled over and surfed another spot.
I’ve probably told the story before, but I almost took a guys head off at Little Cape St. Francis. No locals there because it almost never breaks. Damned good when it does tho. Watched this ol Haole boy blow his take off on several waves to the point that I told this young Wahine to not back off. “Take off in front of him. He’s not gonna make the drop anyway.” After watching him do it again, I took off on the wave behind him. When I made the drop; There he was floundering in the whitewater and in my sites. If I stayed in the wave, I couldn’t miss him. So I reacted instinctively and kicked that 10’2” out as high in the air as I could get. I was dropping in and turning as I dropped so I had a lot of momentum. Real “fly away” kick out. I survived and so did he, but he paddled back out and started bitchin’ me. He started whinin’ about seeing his whole live flash before his eyes etc. There were only 3 or 4 of us out. The guy kept bitchin’. Was gonna whip my ass etc. He went up to the parking area and waited. By the time I had ridden 15 or 20 more really great waves and went in; He was gone. Had never seen the guy before and never did after that. And Maui is just not that big of an Island. He was probably a kook from Iowa(no dis to farmers and democrats), who came out of the wood work once or twice a year and thought he should get his share of the “heavies”. Lowel
I’m so grateful that I grew up surfing far far from any “surf culture.” Didn’t discover what I thought I was missing until I came to California, then realized how good I used to have it. I’m no angel, and can be a d!ck in the water and on land, but do make an effort not to be.
I love the ocean, water, and surfing. The rest of it just tends to get in the way.
Geoff McCoy told me years back that he always regrets allowing Quicksilver to plaster their name on his team rider’s boards , back when the clothing companies started their great corporate run. Things have gone downhill since then . Geoff is in the process of writing a book …and it should be a very very interesting read.
I’ll watch for it. Some good reads the past few years that cover and reflect on our more recent history. Books by ; Gerry Lopez, Michael Hynson, Nat and others.
I really enjoyed GregkKnoll’s book…it showcased a few people and they got some long overdue credit from the broader surfing community…like Bob Simmons