It’s all about the attitude out in the water. You paddle out into the line-up here in Santa Cruz and the vibe is often so somber you have to ask yourself why these guys even surf. What’s the point? They act more like its a job than a pleasure. I don’t understand it. Where’s the joy?
Many of the breaks I surf on the Big Island aren’t the greatest but the vibe is all about fun. People just glad to be out in the water even if it’s 2 foot slop and their riding everything from longboards to McDonald’s fast food trays.
One day I surfing one of the breaks where I live and someone dropped in on this hardcore ripper type I know. His response, I kid you not, was to scream at the person who dropped in, “What do you think I’m out here for? My health?!”.
I’ve always figured fun is kind of like sleep: something that you do to recharge your batteries for the more important stuff.
MarabouSlim,
We look at the world very differently (which is fun for me). Whether it is my work, my passions, my art, my family, or things I do for my personal growth, all of it is better if I keep in mind that fun is integral to every part of it. Without fun there is only effort and exertion - struggle rules. In essence you become a stoic. (A dead end philosophy that never did anything creative or useful). Without major doses of fun, I would never take the time (or the ice cream headaches) to surf where I live.
Surfmats bring the fun. Can someone do art in closed out wind blown waves? Maybe not, but you certainly can work on the wave-craft that will imporve your art when the canvas is ready. Besides it is fun.
Hey, I have a lot of fun surfing too, you know. I was just trying to say that I can understand that others look for something different out of surfing than simple “fun”.
For example, I don’t think big wave surfers have much of the kind of “fun” that we might have on surfmats on windslop days. I also don’t think that the experience of a perfect tube ride can be described by the simple, trivial adjective “fun”. This doesn’t mean that these surfers are going to be unfriendly in the lineup or look like they are suffering. It simply means that they are out for something deeper in the experience than a few giggles and are unlikely to be able to find what they are looking for when the waves are terrible, even if they were on a mat.
Me? Like I said, I’ll go out in any conditions, on any craft (hope to add mat to that soon) and just take from it whatever the day brings.
I HATE SURFING!!!..damn its so horrible ,people need to settle down,im out to have fun , i dont care how good or bad it looks from shore, im gonna paddle out and see it from the other side…alot of times its alot better out there. i found myself in the line up cussing somebody the other day , he said"settle down man, all you had to say was get out the way and i would have." then i felt bad, so i paddled down to a less crowded spot …and it took alot of waves to forget it…anyway i guess the point is …IF YOUR NOT HAVING FUN OUT THERE,WHAT THE HELL DID YOU COME FOR?!.. go sit on the beach.
… I don’t think big wave surfers have much of the kind of “fun” that we might have on surfmats on windslop days. I also don’t think that the experience of a perfect tube ride can be described by the simple, trivial adjective “fun”.
MarbouSlim,
I knew we were going here. To have a discussion without first defining terms, will end in a discussion that only defines terms. I think we define fun differently.
For me, fun is the pleasurable absorbtion in the task at hand. The absorbtion may or may not be in counterpoint to the pleasure, giggles are not required.
Whether we have have the kind of fun as big wave surfers is a good question. I saw “Riding Giants” this weekend. I believe that Greg Nolls was having some very good fun on some of those enormous Waimea waves - at least his grin said so.
Regardless of how we define fun, I wish you many good waves.
more important than fun?!! omigod, who is this person? quick, take off the tie, unbutton the top button on his nicely pressed shirt… phew… we almost lost him.
surfing brings out the best and the worst in people. i never really thought about it, but the very notion that people can be grumpy and selfish and egotistical in the freakin’ ocean!.. what is this race coming to? as for the best… mats and logs and pieces of 2 x 8 , water logged longboard with kelp streaming off of the barnacle-laden fin, if it is an ocean craft and i have the honor of riding it in the waves (or the soup), the day is complete.
All this talk of fun I just got my new Newmatic from Wetsand after my old 4th gear flyer I loaned to a buddy got slashed on the reefs of indo it was 21ys old and still going strong. Hope I can go another 21yrs.
more important than fun?!! omigod, who is this person? quick, take off the tie, unbutton the top button on his nicely pressed shirt..... phew... we almost lost him.
Hey, I went to great pains to say that I personally get lots of “fun” out of surfing. I was just saying that I could see how their might be people who are looking for something a little deeper. It might be about definitions, like CoyoteSurf says. To me, “fun” is one of those simple, trivial words kind of like “cute”. A girl can be cute and that’s all good but it’s quite a different thing than would be described by words like amazing or stunning or whatever. Similarly, we can “fun” in life, but what I’m really chasing overall is something more complete, something more accurately described by words like bliss or nirvana or pure love or understanding or…(I’ll let you know when I find it).
Don’t worry, I haven’t pressed a shirt in years (heck, you won’t catch me in shoes in the day time except maybe in the dead of winter) and my approach to life is certainly anything but stodgy.
it’s not about the best, what you look like or how you surf, it’s all about fun, and pushing 50, i rather enjoy some of the things that bring me back to my youth…
ahoy slim. all in jest. i was just kiddin’ around. i would be a fool to pretend to be a psychic seer of swayholics lives. peace. and long live the bare-footed!
I guess it’s that kind of wisdom that gets a large high quality steak named in one’s honor. I wonder what the Earl of Porterhouse would have to say on this subject?