I recently spent a few days down in Santa Cruz, riding spots in town. I am a very competent surfer, and I have lived in and surfed SC in the past. I may not be a familiar face on a day-to-day level, but I know many guys and gals in the water down there.
I haven’t ridden in town for probably 9 months. What really struck me this past week was the edgy-ness in the water. I have not seen so many sour faced, dirty mouthed ocean abusers in my 20 years of surfing. The weather was perfect – clear skies, sunshine, ocean glass, 75 degrees, and the swell was pumping – first a gift from the South Pacific, and then a late-season West. During this time, tempers were flaring, and the 30-60 year old locals, who love to tell everyone within hearing distance that they were born at Dominican Hospital, etc. etc., were crying like a bunch of babies. I had one guy get mad at me because he was bitching out Marcel Soros and I laughed at them both!
Fellow surf-riders, what has happened to our sacred sport? The sport of Hawaiian kings has been downgraded to the pass-time of a bunch of losers who are over the hill and upset about it.
Like I told one grumpy guy, no one has the choice as to where s/he is born. We do have the choice to decide how to act.
Sorry to post something negative, but I was sad to see such disrespect and childishness, and I had to get it out.
They’re probably just pissed because Orange County kicked their asses in the California Cup this weekend… OC baby, represent.
Just making light of the situation, seems like it’s like that everywhere now. Surfing’s in a popular phase, so you can pretty much toss the ‘soul’ out the window for awhile. It’s more about being cool and looking tough… I suggest a Goatee, lots of tattoos, piercings, and scars – and make sure you roll up to the break in a big lifted truck.
You just now noticed the vibe in SC? Its been that way since at least 1979. Great town with quality surf and very high level surfers. But, there has always been a lot of yellin and vib’n. It is more crowded than ever. So are the roads and highways. A suburb of San Jose. Mike
I’ve noticed those tendencys since surfing PP in 1966!
And Lane was more territiorial, especially Pt at the Lane, on a small day!
nothin new there, it’s always been the us against them mentality, and the only cure for me is to avoid crowds, cameras, parking lots, or anywhere within view of the general public
The vibe in Santa Cruz is really upsetting, ruins the experience for everyone. There are a few of us out in the water that are still genuinly stoked. Just keap smiling and havin fun ignore the idiots. The only real locals are the animals that live in the water the rest of us are guests.
yeah, you are right, rooster, the bitterness has been there for a long time. It just blew my mind this past week, however, because the weather was perfect, the surf was excellent and plentiful, and there really wasn’t much to be uposet about in my book.
Reminds me of an old Chumash legend (or perhaps an urban myth) that when the Native American tribes were chased out of the SC area with the influx of European settlers (Spanish), they placed a curse on the area and its future inhabitants. It seems as though this curse is still strong – so many people with bad attitudes living in a paradise.
Soulslider, you are right – we of the good-vibe tribe must rise above!
On the positive side of this cursed town, last Saturday there was an all womens surf contest sponsored by Paradise Surf Shop at, of all places, wall-to-wall central, The Hook. The weather was perfect, as were the tides, the swell, the vibe, all that. The Hook is one of the most crowded, uptight places in town even on a mediocre day plus it has a pretty harsh core group when the waves get good. So the main core group guy was politely (really) encouraging non-contestants to surf away from the contest zone and the women and girls had great waves all to themselves for the whole day. It was great! Everyone had fun! On a Saturday when everywhere else was packed. Not bad, eh? Maybe there’s a hope in this world after all!
It’s just a simple fact of there being way too many people in the water, and a large amount of those people have no clue what is going on. Two days ago I watched a 40 year old woman paddle for a wave, and go over the falls at Sewer peak right into a group of surfers… she missed me by about 12 inches. The force of a person and surfboard thrown by a 7 foot wave is pretty major, and can do some serious damage. I surf Pleasure Point every single day. Daily I watch people paddle into close outs, not look either way and run people over. I watch people flail down the line and run over other people. I see people take off way outside and bail their boards into groups of surfers at will. I sat up on the cliff last week while that perfect south drummed it’s way through and watched person after person drop in on other people EVERY SINGLE WAVE. I didn’t even want to paddle out. What a joke. Do you think I am going to have a good attitude about it? We’re not talking about Malibu here… a one foot wave with ten kooks running each other over is a whole lot different than a 7 foot wave catapulting one surfer at another. So what if it’s an accident… when you plow your car into 10 people at the supermarket, does a simple “sorry” suffice? If I put some sharp points on the end of my bicycle, went downtown and started riding full speed down the side walk… ramming into anyone in my way… would that be cool? “Dude… sorry bro…” Yeah… I’ve heard it a million times. I watched one of my close friends take a fin to the face a while back, because some barno couldn’t keep his board under control. Why are locals pissed? Because they are getting run over, dropped in on, having to dodge flying surfboards and people, and paddled behind. And it happens to them every single day. -Carl
Here’s what we’ve got on our hands, or at least, how it appears to me.
An ever expanding / growing group of people surfing.
Finite resources / waves.
An era in American culture dominated by a wide variety of mind sets including: “I’m entitled to anything I want, and I don’t care about (or I’m completely unaware of) the impact of my actions and behavior on others.”
Mix these realities together and the result is rather predictable.
Since this is a surfboard design forum, I think I’ll stop now …
It’s still possible to have fun in Santa Cruz- the crowds often make it hard and like the fella said the I me mines seem to be winning sometimes but ya know, it all can come together. Case in point- Paul surfing Cowell’s last tuesday. Cowell’s is usually mayhem but…
In a situation like that, you have to tell the person who is endangering you, in no uncertain terms, that they have no right to do so, and that they should go learn what they are doing somewhere else, with gentler, smaller waves. I don’t advocate any violence, but discussion and (IMHO)even YELLING IS OK IF SOMEONE NEARLY KILLS YOU. I have seen at my local break guys bring their girlfriends out in well-overhead surf, where the girl can’t even sit up on the board. Same deal with beginners – some breaks just are not learner-friendly.
And if nothing else, it may make you feel better to vent…
