Where did you surf today ?

[ajohnsen]

Very good, Wyreless

[offshore1]

I thought show bags was realsurf code for scrotums.

[steve shearer]

Why people see such a need to belong and to perform these cliched surfer dude rituals is absolutely beyond me.

Got to say, this idea of surfing as some kind of communal activity which is curated and sold back to you , is not a cliche, it's actually quite a modern idea.

I really have very mixed feelings about it.

[Hatchnam]

Surely it's all marketed at euro backpacker types. Kooky Instagram culture stuff. It's the surfing equivalent of camping outside the iPhone store waiting in line for the new release

[Rustt]

Surfed the local point was about 5 foot was feeling a bit lazy and it was a bit windy so I took my 8'8" out ,seriously over gunned. Was good fun got a few good barrels and then took one big one that I got clipped on and just as I was having the realization that rolling around with a board that size was dangerous I felt my elbow and hand get smashed.
Consider myself very lucky as fin cut through my wettie and just grazed my arm but then smashed my hand and pressed the futures fin 1/2 an inch into my board, hurt a bit. As usual wife considered it a self inflicted wound. _20170823_113631.JPG

That's one swollen mitt there rusty.

It's come up quite well, I expected it to be black by now the swellings gone down and there was no real cut just a bit of an abrasion. I'm pretty rapt as I did the exact thing a few years ago and tore ligaments and sprained my wrist, put me out of the water for a year. All's sweet.

[Rustt]

Why people see such a need to belong and to perform these cliched surfer dude rituals is absolutely beyond me.

Got to say, this idea of surfing as some kind of communal activity which is curated and sold back to you , is not a cliche, it's actually quite a modern idea.

I really have very mixed feelings about it.

I think it's fcuked.

The the bloke who runs the falls at Lorne was going to do yoga surfing retreat, with intermit performances from the likes of Jack Johnson. He was blown away by how many walls were put up. I love this redneck wonderland, it was dubbed the festival of camel toe.

[Davros]

Battle of "The Pole" on the 23rd of September is where it's at. Longreef v DY.

[ajohnsen]

I would quite like a thing like that that was focussed more on actual surfing rather than incorporating so much of the wellness industry. But, any actual surf camp is usually grom-focussed and I'd feel like Donald Friend.

[foamy]

Yes, this should be in the Uninteresting Trivial Facts thread.

The Joy Division album cover image came from the doctoral thesis "Radio Observations of the Pulse Profiles and Dispersion Measures of Twelve Pulsars,” by Harold D. Craft, Jr. (September 1970). Harold was at the Arecibo Radio Observatory and started using their very sensitive equipment to analyse the first pulsar recordings.



Though I see the Surfing World graphic has altered the image.

[steve shearer]

Joy division, wellness industry, it's all a confusing fit.

[JET01]

I love this redneck wonderland, it was dubbed the festival of camel toe.

I love camel toe

[Davros]

Using the Joy Divison cover is fk'd on so many levels. But typical of surfing's cultural cluelessness.

[Nick Carroll]

Joy division, wellness industry, it's all a confusing fit.

well it's a bit millennial free-form, you know, something borrowed, something blue

I think surf culture has elements of both individuality and communality and that in many ways the communal, or the strengths and benefits of the communal, is not recognised as clearly as the individual.

Think of John Sevo's famed quote about this crowded world and surfing letting a man be alone with his thoughts. People love that very romantic idea of surfing (though it has a shade or two of lurking horror, who really wants to be a man alone with his thoughts very often). But the nut and bolt of surf culture arises in greater measure from the communal, the group of locals who surf together for years, the memories you gain from surf trips with mates, the interactions between shapers and clients, the shared stories, surfboards sold from hand to hand, the empirical development of surf knowledge over many years, and the simple straight up learning that goes on between surfers watching each other ride waves.

Big surf contests, when they were really open affairs, were expressions of that -- sounds like they often still are for kids and even QS surfers. In any case I think gatherings can be really good for any surfer, they open up doors that otherwise might remain closed for a long time, and it is different being in each other's presence -- it's not the same as a forum, even one as entertaining as this.

Maybe the SW one looks a bit off-putting to some, not a good cultural fit or whatever, but I can tell you it does not arise from a cheesy place in Blakey and Co's hearts, they really want to do social shit and bring people together.

[ajohnsen]

Still, I reckon they should have issued surfing licences back in the 60s and capped the number available, as per the taxi industry. That would've kept the crowds down.

[Rustt]

Na, disagree, it's fcuked. someone is profiting from it that is all I see.

If you want to attend a gathering of the surfing tribe or whatever you choose to call it. Just go surfing when the waves are pumping.

[ajohnsen]

Maybe the SW one looks a bit off-putting to some, not a good cultural fit or whatever, but I can tell you it does not arise from a cheesy place in Blakey and Co's hearts, they really want to do social shit and bring people together.

Our (my) cynicism is probably more a function of having seen the Great Marketing Machine of the West grow in intensity over the last few decades. The various components of that festival - meditation, yoga, whole foods etc - have become synonymous with culture capitals like Bondi and Byron where there is a perception of vacuity and a lack of integrity underpinning them. I'm sure there are a great many authentic followers of these movements, but the shallow, squeaky wheel tends to gets the grease, with Gwyneth Paltrow sitting atop this vast mountain of excrement.

Anything that reeks of a lack of authenticity, unfortunately, even by association, will be mocked.

That said, I could sure go a kale and rice milk smoothy with activated almonds.

[offshore1]

I went to a paddle out for a local legend who passed away after a long, sad decline.
A paddle out is about as close as surfing has come to communal communalistic communilism.
It was pretty good, despite having a fair share of posers in attendance, but all in all it was ok. Sort of a community affirmation of shared values. but I'm a still a bit conflicted. Maybe I shouldn't be such a purist.

[Drailed]

Na, disagree, it's fcuked. someone is profiting from it that is all I see.

If you want to attend a gathering of the surfing tribe or whatever you choose to call it. Just go surfing when the waves are pumping.

That's it brother. Anything more and you wanna be taking your hand off it.

True watermen fly under the radar.