Has surfing lost it's soul?

[astro]

Heaven and Hell are both here on earth !..Its up to you where you wish to reside.

[The Family Guy]

felt pretty soulful as I caught fun waves up the coast in warm water with my son.

[steve shearer]

And it weren't just Bob either.

[oldman]

The question that is more on my mind is "Have I lost my soul?"

As for surfing, well it is a long time ago when surfing was a rebellious pursuit.

Moving into the mainstream, everyone loses a bit of their soul. Why not surfing.

[steve shearer]

To understand this we start with the quote by French existentialist Albert Camus: " I grew up by the sea and and the poverty was sumptuous...."

Historically we understand now that the great flowering of Aussie surfing, what we commonly refer to as "soul" surfing and country soul occurred when the genius of Greenough harnessed the tremendous vitality and unrestrained exuberance of the Australian working class.

As middle class wealth and a creeping foetid decadence started to erode the vitality of this movement; both by a process of assimilation that continues to this day; and a more insidious homegenisation , in the same way that a dominant bacterial culture will overgrow and squeeze out less populous forms in a petri dish the soul of surfing fled to the margins.

Now these pockets of vitality, what one might call repositories of the "soul" of surfing exist in small enclaves, sometimes visible when their activities intersect with commercial interests and aspirations but more often not.

It needs to be said that the current paradigm of surf writing as practiced by Tim Baker, Carroll et al and termed for the purposes of education and defintion "the Heroes Journey", has never managed to capture the inherent essence of Australian surfing. That tree bears no fruit.
Surfing stands more as existential endeavour : moments of absurdity ; Quixotic, Sisyphitic, carried out by individuals in the face of larger forces, often uncomprehending and inviolable. Sometimes covering huge distances easily, under the vicissitudes of fair winds, other times, and more poignantly battered from pillar to post by unassailable headwinds.....all genius, all that considers itself essential and soulful must define itself in relation to difficulty.....it is that which reveals the shield and spear. Sometimes generations of failure and careful preparation are required : bloodlines that rest on the naive assembling of raw materials by previous generations.

Surfing for the most part has become a strayed and weary bird, easily caught by hand. Allowing itself to be caught.
The eagles still soar but we live in the age of swine.


There's so much more to be said and written about this...particularly how the decline of Sydney surfing can be linked to the rise of fashion and cocaine.....all kinds of swampy backwaters and evolutionary dead ends like "modern" longboarding, the Catfish gang, Stab magazine just to name a few.

[black duck]

.... moments of absurdity ; Quixotic, Sisyphitic, carried out by individuals in the face of larger forces, often uncomprehending and inviolable.

Fcuk me, had to get the dictionary out for that one...and I'm still none the wiser

[oldman]

You might have to look up Sisyphus BD.

He had a job that made pushing shit uphill with a blunt stick look quite easy by comparison.

I liked this for bald and enigmatic statements

The eagles still soar but we live in the age of swine.

...........particularly how the decline of Sydney surfing can be linked to the rise of fashion and cocaine.....all kinds of swampy backwaters and evolutionary dead ends like "modern" longboarding, the Catfish gang, Stab magazine just to name a few.

Don't know if there is anything in that, but in terms of soul, it's hard to feel like you have left all your worries behind you when you are out the back with 250 of your best surfing buddies. Sydney has the crowds, cocaine and fashion came later.

[Nick Carroll]

jesus christmas shearer, what a load of bullshit

Terry Fitzgerald working class? Midget? Bonza Bob Conneeley? Simon Anderson? Nat Young? Barry Bennett? Wayne Lynch? Occy? Little brother? About two billion other guiding lights of Australian surfing over the past 50 years?

No, the Marxist theory of Aussie surfing greatness as class struggle just doesn't quite get there.

Within the structure of global surfing history there's a far more potent argument to be made that for surfing to really take off in any one particular nation or other, it requires a strong middle class, in which a generation of kids have the time and the money to indulge themselves rater than scrabble for a living.

One reason, for instance, why Brazil is on the significant upswing right now surfing-wise is because of the country's increasing overall wealth.

Even our friend Peely comes from middle class stock. And where the hell would we be without him.

Re surfing's "soul", jeez I'm not even going to touch that one. Does TrevG have a soul? Does McTavish? I don't know if humans have one so I'm not gonna wade in on the state of surfing's. Though I do reckon that trying to define "soul" as being whether something's kind of cool and romantic and not mainstream is fcuken stupid.

[steve shearer]

Marxist thewory????????

You can have your whatver the hell u said and I'll raise you an MP, a Herring, a Chris Brock, etc etc.
I'm talking about the over-arching narrative.
To argue against australian surfing's working class ethos and roots......as opposed to middle class respectability and petit burgeios (sp) values seems kind of soft Nick. With increasing wealth comes decadence......without little ol Slater and his drive to find the public love his alcoholic father never gave him the whole US industry would still be in fcuking short pants.(and that was just Curren mark 2 as far as the psychological drivers go).
What?....they were gunna find a bona fide surf star in wealthy, decadent California?

Hahahhaa.....it takes hardship to make hungry and that has nothing to do with Marx.
Soul's just a fun word to say....essentially meaningless. It flies off the tongue like "Peelies a fucking kook hodad from Mt Isa"
Hi Shane.

[steve shearer]

I love the way you stand up for IT geeks Iggs.

It makes me feel like joining the IT geek union.
Can u sign me up.
And wearing the T-shirt around Byron Bay........

What?????

Byron Bay is full of IT geeks already.

Actually IT geeks make the best resin tinted over-priced retro board riders.....and I know that for a fact. So stick that in you fcuking database and smoke it Bill.

[steve shearer]

sure....and BTW...only IT geeks say redundant.

[mical]

Though I do reckon that trying to define "soul" as being whether something's kind of cool and romantic and not mainstream is fcuken stupid.

Luckily that's not what I was wondering then isn't it.

'Soul' for want of a better term, to me is:

the guys who just live to surf,they get jobs that allow surf time ..... when they hit the ocean the catalist ignites

if ya wanna surf single fins, do it. you'll realise they're limitations soon enough. who cares what anyone says. just dont try copy anyone.

I get up at 4.15 and try to be first one in the morning, sometimes I am, sometimes Im not, but always I get a knowing glance from the guy that beat me out to the lineup, a smile that recoginizes that how lucky we are to be out in the water at that early time scoring good waves and riding whatever craft we want

Then and now there's many surfers who don't follow trends in surf clothing and board design and surf purely for the enjoyment. First in the water at sunrise, surfing isolated waves in any weather.

Hatchman's commitment to paddle out in onshore fat-faced freezing junk, rain, hail, or shine, time and time again, and exit the water grinning from ear to ear without ever getting barrelled in his life

In my opinion, I do not believe it has.

[mical]

Sometimes I swear Shearer has a little stash of the purest mescaline and treats himself to just a dash now and then...

He's got every right today, it's his Birthday

[oldman]

the whole 'soul' thing, and all it's associated imagery, nuances, and inferences is retarded, redundant, and repulsive..

Yep, what he said.

Btw, before there is cocaine there is money...it's the rule.

That follows!

[Yuke Hunt]

hatchman's commitment to paddle out in onshore fat-faced freezing junk, rain, hail, or shine, time and time again, and exit the water grinning from ear to ear without ever getting barrelled in his life is far more heart-warming than ...

So you were stoked to see the hatman stoked ...

And that is the essence of surfing ... the heart and soul ... its not some intangible puristic realm ... it is quite simply the joy and understanding of the act ... a consciousness of the true spirit of surfing ... a shared awareness that as a group the majority of surfers have ... thats the soul of surfing.

That and the correct use of sunscreen whilst caressing my 7S and monitoring all the latest gossip at quickripabong on the iphone ... in between taking loving sips of the foaming decaf-soymilk-latte apres-pilates in a northern beaches cafe ... prior to racking up a couple of lines and heading home to surf the internet before mumsy calls me for dinner.

[mical]

monitoring all the latest gossip at quickripabong on the iphone

Uh uh, it's the iPad now Womble.

Hatchy's DYING to get one

[Chillin]

Haha, so pirate the operating system and call it an ipatch..

[Nick Carroll]

To argue against australian surfing's working class ethos and roots......as opposed to middle class respectability and petit burgeios (sp) values seems kind of soft Nick.

Perhaps, although you yourself are of middle class roots, as are I'm sure 90% of Realsurf's contributors. (even Rockin' Ron. Christ, call ME vacuous. Check out your fcuken nickname.) Don't be too quick to take the piss out of the middle class. You wouldn't want to be living in a country without one.

It's not bitterness, it's love. No! Hang on. It's not "class", it's demographics. Surfing's been around in Australia for over 100 years, and it's waxed and waned with social and demographic changes far more than through the influence of a few apparent magicians, working-class or otherwise. PU foam and the Baby Boom generation, coupled with post-war affluence in Australian cities, were the real triggers for Australia's great flowering in the late 60s and the 70s. That and the cultural split with the surf clubs, which is the biggest significant surf-cultural difference between here and California (other than the actual surf conditions).

Maybe I'm just growing up but I am beginning to prefer learning history to "soul". Though I'd take the present day over either.

happy birthday by the way shearer! is it really?