“SURFING” for the rest of this article will refer to one quote taken from Out of Order. The simple statement was “I surf!” At the time I heard it I thought it was just a funny quote on how everyone these days claims they “surf.” But looking more and more at those simple two words I have come to find that the reason I got so tense on the computer was that the surf industry is catering to the “I surf” crowd. Don’t believe me? Next time you are on the beach look how many people are wearing the Andy Irons boardshorts, or Parko’s or the New Fanning Lighting Bolt shorts. Then take a look to see how many of them have any interest in surfing. Still not convinced? How many people at your local break do you think are actually skilled enough to ride a Fire Wire board because they need the added flex of the parabolic rail? Probably the same amount that needed the new $300 dollar sneakers to be a better basketball player. No? Still not convinced? Then tell me why the most popular selling boards are soft tops or plastic molded style boards? Easy answer…because they allow the “I surfs” to cheaply afford a board they can drag around and strap onto their cars the wrong direction. (for those of you who don’t know it’s tail first)
“SURFING” has become Nike’ized! What do I mean? Look at footwear and sports clothing up until about the early 80’s. Cheap only a few choices (black or white converse) but they served their purpose. Then we got the Air Jordan’s, of which I myself was a victim. All of a sudden sneakers became $100+. Did they jump for you? Did they make you faster? No. The people who wore them were the best athletes in the world regardless of what shoes they wore. But masses of people saw them wearing these shoes and needed them so they could ” “Be Like Mike.” Sports gear became common everyday attire. It spawned sub-cultures (wiggers, hip-hops) and also became status symbols. If you could afford the two hundred dollar shoes you must be good at sports!
Flash forward 25 years and here it is happening in our sport! We went from pure sport to pure sport culture. A sport that was wrapped up in itself and its way of life has turned into the modern day whore of the sports world. We have our subcultures too. Come on how many people dress like “surfers”? That is a subculture, the people who wear it but have nothing to do with the actual sport. What is so amazing about skate shoes that they cost $80? Why do flip flops cost $45? Because they have a bottle opener in them? Here is a hint. Buy the twenty dollar flip flops and a $.99 sent opener, save twenty five dollars and fill up your gas tank and enjoy a beer that wasn’t opened by a flip flop that may have stepped in dog S@#T! Why has so much of our once close knit surf culture become so far out of reach. Because we are popular now! The Fanning’s, Taj’s, Parko’s, Irons’s and Slater are our Jordan and LeBron. I guess what sent me over the top was after seeing all of this stuff on the computer I turned around and my brother was wearing Volcom basketball shorts. The meshing, literally, of our sport and sports culture had become complete.
I guess the point of my massive rant is that I love surfing. I love going surfing, I love photographing people surfing and I love to talk about people surfing. I hate seeing surfing whored out to the highest bidder. I respect people who surf for the pure love of it and I am envious of anyone who can make a living doing it. Just keep in mind what you are representing when you sign your soul and the sport of surfing’s soul on the dotted line.
I hope in the upcoming months I will share more of the many positive sides of surfing that I live for. But it is hard to ignore the worlds’ ugliest boardshorts constantly being thrust into my face on the computer and in the magazines. Does surfing need “Air Jordan’s”? No but “SURFING” does! Which one do you do?
(please feel free to respond even if it is just to tell me i suck because i dont care! No i like feedback, negative or positive)
May 5th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
hey man, ya know not too long ago i thought of it that way. then a friend of mine, who is a very experienced surfer to say the least, finally told me to quit my bitchin, in so many words i guess. he explained it to me like this. no matter how hard you or i or any of us try your not gonna stop the industry, and in a few ways i guess its a good thing, but with the expanding comes those people who talk themselves up or tell everybody they surf cause they grabbed a friends board a couple of times, or even just people that play off the style cause they think its cool. basically your not gonna stop those people, theyre gonna keep sayin what theyre sayin and buyin what theyre buyin. the only thing we can do is one of two things. somehow make surfing not cool or make it seem like a very bad thing. or the second more realistic answer is to keep surfing and get better at it. do this until you dont even care about those idiots anymore. love the movie OUT OF ORDER by the way.
May 6th, 2008 at 7:14 am
Due to time constraints i have to reply quickly. First thanks for the response and although you disagree with my posting thanks for approaching it from a thought out point of view instead of “you suck, you are wrong.” Secondly, and hopefully i will have time to address this later i was not necessarily bitching at the industry for wanting to increase profits(that is what business is for) but more for the way it seems they approach it. We are quickly approaching the Gotcha, Instinct, Maui and Sons style whoring that surfing went through in the 80’s. It is just a direction that “surfing” i do not feel needs to go. I want to bring back MCD because surfing needs a MORE CORE DIVISION to watch us carefully as we move ahead into unforseen ranges of profitability.
Just remember….an expensive whore is still just a whore!!!!
May 6th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
i actually dont disagree with you at all, i think your very right. i guess i just changed my point of view from worrying about it to just trying to get to a level in which that bull wouldnt effect me as much as it has in the past.