Where did you surf today ?

[Nick Carroll]

Surfing was a way to get away from, and thumb your nose at the corporate world, its very antithesis, now, for fcuks sake, it has been subsumed into that corporate world.

Reject that stultifying corporate embrace, rebel NOW while you can still tread the path of freedom.

I reckon by far the most interesting thing about surfing culture is the way in which the boomers and post boomers have made their choices about surfing based around this thought. Like surfing is not a Western idea at all, it's why people still struggle to reconcile it as a sport, and when the modern surf culture got rolling in the late 60s and early 70s (and there weren't many surfers through that time by the way) surfers in the US and Aust and Sth Africa and Brazil and a few other places had to figure out how to define it against their own imperatives. That figuring out, struggle in some cases, has ended up driving everything from pro surfing to the surf industry's branding and growth to surf forecasting to "adventure" surf tourism, to most of what most surfers now subconsciously have in their heads as "what surfing is", or what it's supposed to be, or whatever. Even what cranked is describing above, "thumbing your nose at the corporate world", is a product of Western society, not of the original urge to catch a wave. But the choices themselves have been fascinating.

Like it's really difficult to surf and not sense the opportunity for freedom in it, what Midget called "freedom from other people's ideas". But are you ever free from other people's ideas? Maybe cultures stop growing when too many ideas have crystallised and been found wanting in some way or other.

[ajohnsen]

What are you doing over there, Nick?

[Nick Carroll]

Right now? Getting ready to go spend a few hours with the magnificent Joey Buran and listen to him describe his choices to me. Very interesting person ol Joey.

Then come back and go for a surf at Lowers which is kind of fun today again, lil hurricane swell

But then, oh god, Lemoore to watch pro surfing's latest idea crystallise ... or not ...or somewhere in between. Re-entering a bubble world that's weirder now than it's ever been.

[Thud]

Oh he is also on to the latest craze at pro contests: the VIP Pass. Both the WSL pool CT and the air contest in Waco are selling VIP access to their events, with all kinds of extras, better food, better seating, Blink-182 etc etc. At Lowers your VIP pass gets you special seating, food, meet-the-athletes, a whole "experience" "curated" by some crew. In hindsight it's amazing how long this has taken to catch on, like VIP passes at pro events till now have basically meant you get a not too great lunch and a bunch of surfers sneering at ya.

Sounds like the X games. Kind of interesting to see surfing trying to emulate skateboarding, well kind of. Trying to make it accessible like skateboarding but at the same time making it exclusive. Make your fking minds up WSL. Getting half pregnant. Just open the fun parks and be done. These cats don't know what they are doing.

[Drailed]

so try not to judge that if you can bear it.

Cant stop, wont stop!

[Nick Carroll]

so try not to judge that if you can bear it.

Cant stop, wont stop!

you're such a fcuken bitch d dog. everything's ALWAYS fcuked. no wonder only about four Britishers can surf.

[Drailed]

so try not to judge that if you can bear it.

Cant stop, wont stop!

you're such a fcuken bitch d dog. everything's ALWAYS fcuked. no wonder only about four Britishers can surf.

So it's 5.50pm in California and it seems Carroll is drunk already. I am blaming it on the jet lag.

[steve shearer]

We can't not judge though Nick!
Every single piece of human thinking is a judgement, our minds are just not capable of perceiving reality without it.

I think it's fair, legitimate to question assumptions and background to a journalists world view. You think and have a certain world view because of your life history and background, just like me.

When it comes to pro surfing, surfing as sport, what is almost unique about it is it's parasitical and adversarial relationship with the great mass of recreational surfers that it relies on. Wimbledon doesn't take anything away from a club tennis player; there are plenty of tennis courts. The Masters doesn't stop Joe Blow from playing 18 holes.
A week long comp at Trestles though does impact. There is no other Trestles that can be substituted. If the swell of the year arrives during that time then it's a very simple zero sum game. They win, you lose.


And how did this lopsided situation arise, what sustains it?
Every surfing organisation orients itself towards and maintains this situation of privileging the very few at the expense of the many.

Most surf media up until now, speaks not for the rec surfer who is apparently the audience but in favour of this world view.

When I listen to ABC Grandstand I feel like they are addressing me as a fan and giving me a comprehensible summation of events. When I listen to WSL commentary I get the opposite impression: they are addressing the broadcast from the perspective of the organisation and the pro surfers. They perform sins of both omission and commission. They neglect to address the reality of a poor performance or a boring heat, they inflate reality to make it seem better than it is.

I recognise that thinking from being around events. You get trapped in that weird bubble conversing in that slightly distorted fashion, whether you think that or not.
That, by and large has been the tone of the surf media........things are changing now. The old models have broken down.
Ironically it was Ziff and his billions which broke the nexus between the surf industry , the mags/media and the pro tour, as you have alluded to.


People in the pro surfing bubble find it very difficult if impossible to comprehend their 'otherness" with respect to people who don't get paid to surf for a living. Whether that situation: the alienation of pro surfing from the recreational surfer base that sustains it, is a fatal flaw in the model remains to be seen.

[Drailed]

Boom. Shearer just delivered a truth nuke!

[crabmeat thompson]

Oh that, thought it was about the surf ranch or something.

Strange the WSL silence that kind of stuff, it's what viewers want

Absolutely I want to see more of that stuff WSL

Medina was pretty tame - compared to Bobby Martinez

yep ... surfing was at it's best when personalities were encouraged to blossom; then a wonderful byproduct of that were the rivalries. some heated, all of them pretty epic for a viewer to tune into.

now it's homogenised, sterile and has all the appeal of a mouthful of thumbtacks.

[Drailed]

Oh that, thought it was about the surf ranch or something.

Strange the WSL silence that kind of stuff, it's what viewers want

Absolutely I want to see more of that stuff WSL

Medina was pretty tame - compared to Bobby Martinez

yep ... surfing was at it's best when personalities were encouraged to blossom; then a wonderful byproduct of that were the rivalries. some heated, all of them pretty epic for a viewer to tune into.

now it's homogenised, sterile and has all the appeal of a mouthful of thumbtacks.

and in a mother*ffckn wave pool with blink 182 playing Crabmeat. can you honestly believe it!

[steve shearer]

The messaging is truly mind boggling.

The say they want a new audience of kids then get a band that appeals to 45 year old cube monkeys who smoke bongs on the weekend and watch Alex Jones clips for relaxation.

[crabmeat thompson]

and in a mother*ffckn wave pool with blink 182 playing Crabmeat. can you honestly believe it!

no brother, i honestly cannot.

apart from a few good heats in good waves at jbay ... i've not watched any wsl this year. i haven't missed it, thought about it or been inclined to put it back on my radar, as each passing event seems to be more calamitous than the one previous.

[BA]

That’s man on man heats in surfing I am referring to

Braithy got a tingle in his undies for a second.

[Nick Carroll]

I think it's fair, legitimate to question assumptions and background to a journalists world view. You think and have a certain world view because of your life history and background, just like me.

I agree, question away. A fair bit of my life history and background is on the record, probably more than any other surf writer. It and numerous answers I’ve given to you and others on this site I reckon conclusively demonstrate that I’ve done a lot more in my surfing and non surfing life than live in the pro bubble world. I was really enmeshed in it for a while, but it’s only ended up giving me more perspective if anything, especially on this ultra weird new phase. So maybe rather than just raise up some old idea of who I am based on I dunno what, question your own assumptions on it.

[steve shearer]

I reckon my assumptions on it are definitely on the record and up for public debate more than any other surf writer.

But maybe I'm wrong, I don't know if you remember the conversation we had when you gave me a ride from Bells to the Melbourne airport. I raised the possibility that everything I thought was wrong.

I'm invested in my own thinking, I doubt anyone who has to commit their thoughts to paper isn't, but I'm also prepared to interrogate my own positions and admit they could be completely faulty.

[ctd]

When it comes to pro surfing, surfing as sport, what is almost unique about it is it's parasitical and adversarial relationship with the great mass of recreational surfers that it relies on. Wimbledon doesn't take anything away from a club tennis player; there are plenty of tennis courts. The Masters doesn't stop Joe Blow from playing 18 holes.
A week long comp at Trestles though does impact. There is no other Trestles that can be substituted. If the swell of the year arrives during that time then it's a very simple zero sum game. They win, you lose.

Ever try playing at Augusta National Golf Club during the Masters?

All you are really saying is that most professional sports take place at locations that are never accessible to the average person. So when they take place, it doesnt affect the average person; whereas in surfing all locations (bar a very small number) are accessible to everyone.

Which is the better situation - no one has access ever, or everyone has access other than for a week a year? Seems to me that surfing is the complete opposite to 'privileging the very few at the expense of the many.'

[steve shearer]

All you are really saying is that most professional sports take place at locations that are never accessible to the average person.

Nah, thats not what I'm saying at all.