Has surfing lost it's soul?

[Surfin Turf]

I find it laughable to think that just because someone living some nomadic bong-smoking lifestyle doing nothing but surfing all day is somehow more 'soulful' or 'spiritually' attuned to surfing than I am.

I wonder if the term was invented by the nomadic bong head surfer to disguise what he really was ... like when you meet some real weird guy at work and people say "don't worry , he's in marketing" ... so when you meet some non-contributing lifestyle preaching dero, people can say don't worry he's a sole surfer ...


great post hatchy ...

[purple pyramids]

...
I find it laughable to think that just because someone living some nomadic bong-smoking lifestyle doing nothing but surfing all day is somehow more 'soulful' or 'spiritually' attuned to surfing than I am...

and who is claiming that that counts as soul and spirituality? bit of a straw man argument there.

it sounds more like a sour grapes rant, worried that someone, somewhere, might be having more fun than you.

[chrisb]

I find it laughable to think that just because someone living some nomadic bong-smoking lifestyle doing nothing but surfing all day is somehow more 'soulful' or 'spiritually' attuned to surfing than I am.

I wonder if the term was invented by the nomadic bong head surfer to disguise what he really was ... like when you meet some real weird guy at work and people say "don't worry , he's in marketing" ... so when you meet some non-contributing lifestyle preaching dero, people can say don't worry he's a sole surfer ...

great post hatchy ...

Agree. "Nomadic bong-head surfers" who voluntarily live off social security are simply exploiting the goodness of those members of society who work and pay their taxes. That one can continually take from society repay nothing whatsoever seems to me to be the epitome of a person without any soul.

[mical]

That one can continually take from society repay nothing whatsoever seems to me to be the epitome of a person without any soul.

Well said.

[Surfin Turf]

it sounds more like a sour grapes rant, worried that someone, somewhere, might be having more fun than you.

not so much an issue of fun ... more an issue of responsibility ...

we all want to cruise about doing nothing without a care in the world but that doesn't pay mortgages and feed children and buy beer and pay for new boards ... someone has to be a grown up in society to balance it all out ... besides some people enjoy having a "stable" lifestyle and being responsible for others and maybe they have just as much 'soul' or passion for that which makes life fun ...

sure there are people living an ideal lifestyle in someone elses eyes but are they really happy ... I don't think tiger woods is too happy at the moment and even the guys on the dream tour know it has to end on day and they will need to find some other way to survive ... and if the soul surfers were truly happy why the hell are they wandering about aimlessly looking for something :? ... I reckon a lot of people are only happy for a short time when they find happiness, then they want something more ...

many years ago I knew two guys originally from forresters who claimed they were soul surfers who were on the dole, lived out of there cars, they looked like cave men, ate sh!t tinned food out of kids plastic army helmets they found and rode a range of beaten up crappy boards ... all they had for entertainment out of the surf was to talk to people which was mostly the same story each day about their last trip somewhere ... I never envied them because it looked like a boring and restricted life despite having the freedom of not working ...

I personally reckon that being a 'soul' surfer is a selfish lifestyle ... but I am not saying it's wrong, just that it is very self focussed and if that is your thing it's better off that person does not have resonsibility for housing and feeding a family ... some people love having heaps of kids and working their arse off working two or three jobs ... and some people love digging holes ... the sure thing is that there will be so called conformists and non-conformists and everyone will say that everyone else is wrong and missing the point ...

[mical]

I reckon a lot of people are only happy for a short time when they find happiness, then they want something more ...

Grass is always greener mentaility.

even the guys on the dream tour know it has to end on day and they will need to find some other way to survive ...

Even guys on tour still have work to do like everyone else.

Interviews they don't want to do, trips to shit locations for marketing shoots, in store promos etc.

I'm sure we'd all handle it though

I personally reckon that being a 'soul' surfer is a selfish lifestyle ... but I am not saying it's wrong, just that it is very self focussed and if that is your thing it's better off that person does not have resonsibility for housing and feeding a family ... some people love having heaps of kids and working their arse off working two or three jobs ... and some people love digging holes ... the sure thing is that there will be so called conformists and non-conformists and everyone will say that everyone else is wrong and missing the point ...

Great post.

[purple pyramids]

ok, my idea of soul and spirituality seems way different to a lot of people on here. it has nothing to do with being on the dole or living off others or taking drugs and wearing cheese cloth.

it's about feeling you are part of something larger, greater than yourself. it also involves notions of communing -- be it with the forces of nature or with others, being part of a commnity of like-minded people. it's rooted in concepts of responsibility and respect. it's quite the antithesis of how it is being portrayed by many of its critics.

[Chillin]

I ws just thinking that maybe many view 'soul' as what it was like in the past? For instance, i cleary remember taking a pic of myself and a couple of mates at the local a few (5) yrs ago and saying to the guys that we will look at it in the future as 'the good old days'. S'funny though cos recently i showed that pic to one of the guys and he said that we looked like soul surfers, ya'know, just hanging out, surfing, yakkin and not giving a shit.

[roy Stewart]

Surfing doesn't have a soul, individual surfers have souls.

Since denial of the existence of the soul is currently in a pandemic pattern, one can safely say that although surfers souls still exist, they are often ignored and neglected.

It is ironic that many of those who talk about surfing soul and market 'soul' do not believe that souls actually exist.

.

[mical]

Well, thanks for that Roy (have you been using sunscreen again?)

I thought this topic had started it's final gasps but alas, Roy enters from stage left




.

[purple pyramids]

just to settle who gets the dole cheque -- 44 years old. came of age during punk with the Do It Yourself ethic, not the 60s. but it all dovetailed well with george greenough.

[steve shearer]

I find it laughable to think that just because someone living some nomadic bong-smoking lifestyle doing nothing but surfing all day is somehow more 'soulful' or 'spiritually' attuned to surfing than I am. Matter of fact I think it is a fcuking ridiculous notion.

That is fcuking pure BS HAtchy.
Jeez, you IT geeks will defend your right to mediocrity with a vengeance.
"Spiritually attuned" is actually a workable notion.....;lets apply it across a few concepts. You saying because I tinkle around on a guitar that I'm as "spiritually attuned to making music as Mozart, or John Lennon or Stevei Ray Vaughn or fcuking Trent Reznor.
Of course I'm fcuking not>......they've dedicated their lives to making and playing music.
Of course they're more attuned.

Because I like walking up hills am I as spiritually attuned to the Himalayas as Tenzing Norgay, Edmund Hillary...Reinhold Messner?????

You aren't as spiritually attuned as Greenough, Brocky, Banksy and many, many others Hatchy.....not even in the same fcuking ball park mate.
When it's time for humility you IT geeks come up with the most breathtaking arrogance......
Greenough's surfing life, attunement, soul, call it what you will is like a magnificent slow moving river; one that started as a violent onrushing stream in some far-flung high reaching place where oxygen is rare.
Don't compare your muddy puddle with his deep broad river.

Nomadic, bong smoking surfies: what is this the fcuking annual knitting circle of the Country Womens Association?
"oh those horrible, horrible drug smoking surfies...nothing but a drain on society"
Fcuking hell you guys make Tony Abbott look like Hunter S Thompson.



For a start what the fcuk would anyone know about how much an individual gets out of surfing and how deep the devotion, love and dedication to it runs in their veins?

Easy. You look at how much of their life they devote to it. What they've sacrificed for it and how much their committed to it.
Yeah, you could call Chris Brock a dope smoking ne'er do well......if you see surfing as just another recreation....but I see him as a respected artist, someone who laid down( and continues to lay down) a beautiful body of work.....a template of how people can live simply and still be happy.
We might need some of that wisdom one day soon
It's more truthful to say as Karlos did, that to sacrifice family, career and familiarity was just too hard, to much of a leap into the unknown. Or that it's too selfish....but don't equate part time dabbling with the real thing.
Cause it ain't the same....not even close.
Don't equate dabbling your fcuking toes in the water with swimming the English channel.

[Lucky Al]

with all this talk of the dole i must say i believe very strongly that it is a good thing, not just for individuals or families but for society in general, and that we would all be better off if we stopped attaching stigma to recipients and referring to them as bludgers. people need time to think and sort things out and work out what they're capable of and how they can live fulfilling lives and be of use or interest or inspiration to other members of society. some need six months, some a solid year, some a lifetime, and that's fine - we should accept and respect and support all of them, and assume that given the time and chance everyone will eventually find a way of realising himself or herself as a responsible and beneficial member of society.

[nu boy]

O.K. I want everybody here to go and look into a mirror and say (you are soul,you are soul,you are soul)continuously for at least five minutes and Im sure some of you will find the spiritual meaning of it all. :? Go now and good luck.

[Yuke Hunt]

And in summing up the argument for the negative your honor ... I would like to point out that although Mr Shearer is a cranky opinionated old crunt ... he writes wonderfully entertaining prose ... poses some very interesting questions ... answers others with wit and guile ... waxes windscreens with a finesse rarely seen ... and proves unequivocally that the soul of surfing is far from dead.
Hail to the bus driver bus driver bus driver ... hail to the bus driver bus driver man.

[mical]

bowing.gif (10.95 KiB) Viewed 5556 times

A fine and truthful retort Shearer . . and so coherent whilst on a mescaline comedown

[Grooter]

I find it laughable to think that just because someone living some nomadic bong-smoking lifestyle doing nothing but surfing all day is somehow more 'soulful' or 'spiritually' attuned to surfing than I am. Matter of fact I think it is a fcuking ridiculous notion.

That is fcuking pure BS HAtchy.
Jeez, you IT geeks will defend your right to mediocrity with a vengeance.
"Spiritually attuned" is actually a workable notion.....;lets apply it across a few concepts. You saying because I tinkle around on a guitar that I'm as "spiritually attuned to making music as Mozart, or John Lennon or Stevei Ray Vaughn or fcuking Trent Reznor.
Of course I'm fcuking not>......they've dedicated their lives to making and playing music.
Of course they're more attuned.

Bullsh.it shearer.

Ability has got nothing to do with it, just because you're not as good as them does not mean your not as spiritually attuned to it. And secondly the act of "making music" is very different to the act of surfing a wave. It's not even the same concept because unlike playing a musical note, which is predictable, repeatable etc.... a wave isn't.

My old man works a 9 to 5, has done for over 40 years and yet he still, in his mid-sixties, gets on his drums and belts out classic rock covers with his mates at various gigs all over Melbourne. The man loves it, he breathes it, he taps his feet and hands constantly to music, try telling him that he is not more attuned to making music as Dave Grohl just because he's also taken on the bigger responsibility of raising a family, worked hard, put his kids through school etc...

You aren't as spiritually attuned as Greenough, Brocky, Banksy and many, many others Hatchy.....not even in the same fcuking ball park mate.
When it's time for humility you IT geeks come up with the most breathtaking arrogance......
Greenough's surfing life, attunement, soul, call it what you will is like a magnificent slow moving river; one that started as a violent onrushing stream in some far-flung high reaching place where oxygen is rare.
Don't compare your muddy puddle with his deep broad river.

Got it, don't devote my life to it, can't be as spiritually attuned to it.

I guess you really have to be a monk to be called a true believer to eh? Church on Sunday folk can't be as close to god as a priest right?

This attitude is why religion is so fcuked, it is a holier than thou mentality that over-complicates and tries to create some class hierarchical structure within it that only rots it from the core out.

Easy. You look at how much of their life they devote to it. What they've sacrificed for it and how much their committed to it.
Yeah, you could call Chris Brock a dope smoking ne'er do well......if you see surfing as just another recreation....but I see him as a respected artist, someone who laid down( and continues to lay down) a beautiful body of work.....a template of how people can live simply and still be happy.
We might need some of that wisdom one day soon
It's more truthful to say as Karlos did, that to sacrifice family, career and familiarity was just too hard, to much of a leap into the unknown. Or that it's too selfish....but don't equate part time dabbling with the real thing.
Cause it ain't the same....not even close.
Don't equate dabbling your fcuking toes in the water with swimming the English channel.

The problem with you shearer is that you have this fantastical notion that just because someone who doesn't devote their, life, responsibilities and a whole lot of other things to a physical act that they somehow can not love it as much or be as deeply devoted to it.

It's akin to saying that love is something that is measurable.

It's usually the sign of someone that has a lot of questions within their minds that they are afraid to answer, usually about self-worth, so they feel the need to fill their void with the actions and words of others for fulfilment and likewise use them against others to class them upwards or downwards as their perception dictates.

[mical]

The problem with you shearer is that you have this fantastical notion that just because someone who doesn't devote their, life, responsibilities and a whole lot of other things to a physical act that they somehow can not love it as much or be as deeply devoted to it.

It's akin to saying that love is something that is measurable.

Hatchy, why so defensive mate? It's not an attack on your passion, just an opinion.

You've chosen to have kids, get a mortgage, career, marriage and that's all beautiful.

No one thinks you're any less of a surfer because of that.

But I ask, what's more important to you:

Surfing/House
Surfing/Career
Surfing/Marriage
Surfing/Kids
Surfing/Garden
Surfing/Nice car
Surfing/Friends

Some would be highlighting surfing in 90% of the cases, some would only highlight 10%.

It doesn't make anyone a better person than anyone else which ever way they lean, but surely you can see what Steve's talking about.

The more you love something the more importance you'll give it in your priorities and life choices.

I'm not saying that it's a right or wrong way to live, it's just personal choice.

Just my opinion though mate.