kelly slater vs mick fanning starting right now in big stand-up fiji barrels
http://www.volcomfijipro.com/live/index.html
why would you not want to watch that if you weren’t in the water or pre-occupied with lawn mowing? slater getting slotted then landing cockroach, standing back up and getting another barrel on the same wave is pretty f’ing sick, regardless of scores. those guys love surfing and i’m stoked to watch them when i can.
to bring it back to shaping/boards, i would also think you could learn a lot from what the boards are doing under the feet of these guys.
Respectfully, no. The agony of defeat was the poor fellow that went limp, and cartwheeled off the end of the ski jump. I cringed every time I saw that sequence.
I just watched the Fiji final. NBC will have a good opportunity with that material.
KS was representin’ for Brevard County when he got on the boat lol.
OK. I thought both clips were basically back to back in that sequence. But, I haven’t seen it in about 40 years and my memory isn’t what it used to be. After all, Bill…I’m almost as old as you are.
...
I want a 1 1/2’‘x3’’
plaxtic ‘pro-surf’
charge card to
make me feel
like I caught
a wave and sent
an ‘Ian Cairns’
bronzed self made icon
a buck to support a
fantasy lifestyle .
or maybe not.
maybe just paddling in
to my wife on the beach
after riding fifteen waves at dawn on kam day
when nobody paddled out to join me
and some new friend surfing
the eighth go out day of his life
before leaving for his other life
on a mountain in taiwan.
Pro-motional surfing
is not
Pro-fessional surfing
what song do you sing.
ref. ‘what have they done to my song’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx_WQGp7YJg
…ambrose…
not my song.
Ian’s song .
I sing my song
alone with the ocean
and my memories of
departed friends living
and dead memorializing
a precious slice of my life.
the only thing I could do ,alright.
I love watching all of the ASP matchups, I do the fantasy surfer thing, and I’ve surfed in many (amatuer) competitions myself. I see surfing in different lights. On one hand, I see how it can be considered an art form, way of life, etc. Something that should not and can not be considered simply a ‘sport’. On the other hand, I appreciate competitive surfing. The strength, skill, resolve, and strategy of those athletes is very impressive. Pro events give me different views on things, like how the surfers paddle and take off (videos rarely show this now), equipment topics, and surf history lessons to name a few. I liken competitive surfing to watching Golf; a fair amount of talking followed by some action. For some, that’s great. For others, not so much. Any type of surfing has fans and opponents on each side of the fence.
One thing that I do agree with has to do with the commercialization of all aspects of the sport. But this is not limited to the competitive events. How many people identify/emulate/abhor one or more of these commercialized personas of the surfing world?
• The ‘competition’ surfer
• The ‘waterman’
• The ‘backyard shaper’
• The ‘pro shaper’
• The ‘surf punk’
• The ‘traveling wanderer’
• The ‘surf girl’
• The ‘grommet’
• And so on and so on
Competitive surfing may be the largest contributor to the commercialization of surfing, but if all contests stopped tomorrow, commercialization would just keep going.
Some people might choose a longboard over a fish, similar to how some will love competitive surfing and others just ‘won’t get it’. To each his own.
Maybe. But it was the advent of pro surfing in the mid to late 70s that set it all in motion. For most of the 70s, surfing was relatively underground and considered an outsider activity. Pro surfing created the corporations that exist today, and it is the engine that keeps them going. Pro surfing is the single worst thing that ever happened to surfing.
It’s not that some of us don’t “get it”. We don’t WANT IT, or need it, or respect it.
A corporate dog and pony show made to entertain adolescents.
I get the part about the dog and pony show, and I certainly don’t like our lifestyle being prostituted to sell everything from mutual funds to cereal, but…
Watch Kelly’s two scoring waves from yesterday’s final and tell me you don’t respect THAT.
Surfing popularity = crowds in the water.
I want the 70s back. Get the masses excited about the other action sports; I want surfing to be looked at as something like curling
Surfing well is something I respect, the fact that it happened when someone was keeping score is unfortunate.
Maybe I should put the Gery Lopez quote back on as my signature, “Surfing isn’t what it used to be, but it’ll do.” Some of you sound really jaded.
I’m a month away from turning 52. Been surfing since I was 10 or 12 (depends whether you count riding inflatable rafts as surfing). I never saw a surf contest (aside from a friend who did the WSA back in the day and the NSSA contests I did in college) until web streaming came about. I used to be a grumpy old man too, complaining how the new guys had no distinctive styles compared the guys from the 70’s (who could mistake Bertlemann from Hakman from Richards from Shaun?). But once I started watching I got totally into it. I thoroughly enjoy it now. Fiji was epic. Three tube waves! I was hoping for a CJ ? Slater final. I definitely have favorites. Slater (he always seems to me an underdog, because really , how much longer can he dominate?), CJ, Taylor Knox until this year . Yeah the old guys. Parko. Now Jordy’s style is looking smooth and powerful (just don’t do those supermans).
That said, I saw my aunt recently. She’s from Austria, lives in Connecticut. She started going on and on about Kelly , and how she didn’t like Adriano (good taste). She doesn’t surf and used to scoff at me back in the day (in the 70’s when surfing was associated with rebellion and recreational drug use). So she is one of the ASP’s new customers. Like watching basketball or something.
Here’s the really sad thing though- like Drop knee, I think my shoulder’s going bad. Surfed this AM and it hurts like hell now. So maybe in the not too distant future, watching ASP or youtube videos might be the extent of my surf experience…
For me pro surfing is like pro golf. I only like to watch golf on TV when Tiger Woods is in the hunt and I only like to watch Surf Contest webcasts when Kelly Slater is in the hunt. You know you are watching magic that you may never see again in your lifetime.
The only thing more boring than playing golf is watching it.
“Golf is a good walk, spoiled” - Mark Twain
llilibel03,
Good to hear Dropknee. I keep hoping it will just go away by itself as many aches and pains do, but this is going on two months now…
the whole asp exists to sell boardshorts, but I watch it…on mute mostly. alex grey suuuuuuuuuuuucks. Gotta be happy for those guys and girls that make a living surfing, but most who have gotten to this level of addiction to an internet surfboard design forum don’t care for all that surrounds, and makes possible, such a ridiculous thing as a surfing competition… but I watch it.
Surfing as a true a true spectator sport will never take off. The audience that pro surfing has now might grow by 10% or so but it will still be small potatoes. Americans don’t even like watching Pro Soccer on TV. Skiing has been working on getting an audance in the US for years. In Europe top skiers are treated like Rock Stars. So why would Americans in Ohio or kansas get excited by watching a bunch of Surfers in 4 foot slop duck it out at Huntington Beach. They might tune in if there were enogh shots of girls in skimmpy swimsuits.
Take kelly Slater the most populer surfer in the world. I bet he could walk down the busiest street in Chicago and only a hand full of people would know who he is, if that. Put Tiger Woods there and almost everyone would Know who he is. Surfing is waning as a cool in thing in the eyes of the masses. people shelling out $1000 for a cool Board have found out that surfing is hard and takes dedication. Thay are now unloading those boards on craigslist. How many ads have you seen." 5 year old board used a handful of times. paid near new condition. asking $500."
GSI had to liquidate a bunch of boards and reorganize under ownership of the creditors. others like Simon Anderson also were forced into Bankruptcy. Burton wants to dump Channel Island. The sportwear companies are doing OK since they are not seen by the Public as exclusively “surfing” They are more about Fashion then Surfing.
Those that hand craft boards are starting to recover from the melt down. It’s still crowded at the most popular spots. There is now more variety of craft in the line up. Surfers are discovering what works for Kelly may not work for them. There are different approaches to riding waves.