Why we surf - an attempt to articulate it in depth

[zingomar]

After watching Bombora (which I enjoyed) I was left feeling that no-one really pinned down the many dimensions of why we love to surf. So here goes my try in no special order:

1. The primitive thrill of the hunt:

i.e. the search - going out hunting for surf, scoring a session or wave for personal satisfaction and to show off and to bring back to tell and impress the tribe.

2. The primitive desire to explore and wander

We evolved to wander the globe and find new areas and places. We still love this - new spots, new countries with surf as a meaningful and exciting goal - what is over the hill or around the bend may be genuinely exciting. Most tourists wander from destination to destination with a sesne of going through the motions and are thinking about what is for lunch. Surfers travel with excitement

3. The desire to show off in a dramatic way

Waves provide a stage that is missing for most of us in day to day lives. Being on a wave you stand out and are watched by paddlers and those on the beach. We may pretend we don't care to be seen but we do. Getting tubed or pulling off a big move gives a little moment of being centre stage. How often do you get a hoot in life outside surfing??

4. The visual beauty - waves can create some amazingly appealing visuals that few other sports can begin to come near (skiing, diving, rock climbing come a bit close)

One reason the surf industry can be so successful is that the visuals of waves and surfers are so strong and "cool". Streetwear, skate fashion imagery etc just can't compete with the appeal sun surf and beach.

5. The ability to wrap oneself in the beauty of nature - see, feel, hear and taste it

Most visual beauty is something you see rather than experience. In surfing you can wrap yourself in it, touch, feel ride and get thrashed about by it. Sex is one of the few other things where you can get so involved in beauty (if you are lucky)

6. The sensation of weighting and unweighting and subtle direction changes at speed

Roller coaster designers have long known these thrills but recently discovered that subtle weighting and unweighting while in motion give humans a lot of pleasure - more so that radical direction changes. Surfing is full of this as you weave up and down a wave

7. The ability to taste and overcome real fear without life and death being at stake and with a soft landing

Surfing can confront you with all sorts of fear situations in heavy waves and big waves with just a short paddle from the beach. Our ancestors would have hunted or escaped from wild animals both hating and loving the fear sensation then and later around the camp fire as stories are told. Surfing can do the same at a host of levels.

8. Scarcity of the peak experience

For most of us the peak experiences of pefect waves are rare and it is hard to totally get your fill. So often you want more or had a fleeting taste of a new level of speed or a deeper tube and want it again. Wanting draws you back. The average surf is not magical but the peak moments definitely are.

9. Waves are ephemeral - they disappear

Familiarity breeds contempt, so the fact that you can't sit a wave in your living room for years so that it gathers dust and becomes just another object perpetuates their appeal.

10. Hanging out with mates with a purpose and something in common that gives you stories to tell and adventures to share

11. The sense of achievement from learning new skills and pulling off good moves

Surfing wraps all of the above together to make it unique and hard to be matched in any other human activity.

[marcus_h]

Missed a vital one there in your soul searching waffle zingo. FUN.

Oh and chicks love it...but im married now, so i'll just stick with fun.

[zingomar]

Well chaps, I must say your interest in my wanking is most appreciated.

Just the other day I was out in the lineup at Bells and had everyone enthralled with my recitation of my theory of the contextualisation of ritual hamsterisation among non-sequential fractual derivatives. A topic that always sparks strong debate and is soon to be taken up by K. Rudd in his next article in The Monthly.

But I digress...

[mustkillmulloway]

I think you've done a pretty good job there zingomar. What's inferred in many of the things on your list is the escapist possibilities. Because at 42 I still surf because a) I can (not to be underestimated), and b) to get the fcuk away from job/kids/mortgage/and any other commitment life demands of me.

i also surf so that i can look at that photo of Gertrude and Delilah, all oiled up...and the plethora of possibilities when they came to fully appreciate the quality of each others' rack.

i surf because i have a phobia of toilets

by surfing i cleverly disguise what i'm really doing in the sea

and it's socially acceptable

pumping out the sly poo and pissing in my shorts at will was deemed un sportsmen like behavior every other sport i tried b4 i started surfing

[vb]

Admire your fortitude Zinga addressing this cynical crowd with some very vaild (IMO) points. Sometimes I'd wax-up lyrical, paddle out, look around me and think the sparkling insides of them tubes were straight out of Aladdin's Cave. Most times, however, it was pure ego. Loved showing off. Fcuk was I GOOD!

[Trev]

I doubt ego has much to do with it when you start out.
Maybe more about sharing with your mates.
I probably started, looking for social acceptance (very shy).
I think the longer you do it the more the enjoyment comes into it.
And there's no doubt getting a hoot or a compliment from others in the surf when you hook a good one, is enjoyable.
It's not why you get out of bed before dawn and paddle out at first light, though.
Being among the first out there, watching the sky lighten, scoping the incoming set and pulling into a nice smooth (wave) face and the feeling it gives you is what it's all about.

[lambert]

trevG, is your last name gibney perchance?

[admin]

Great post Zingomar! In fact, I liked it so much that I created a new category on RealSurf's home page for such contributions and posted a copy there as well (with a link back here of course!).

FWIW, I reckon some surfers (like me for instance) really enjoy speculating about just what makes riding waves so important to us, while others, who enjoy surfin' every bit as much as we do, don't feel any particular compulsion to ask why. If something's fun, it's fun and knowing "why" doesn't have any relevance. But for those of us in what might be called the Julius Sumner Miller camp, asking why is all part of the fun isn't it Zingomar?

[Beanpole]

Well chaps, I must say your interest in my wanking is most appreciated.

Just the other day I was out in the lineup at Bells and had everyone enthralled with my ritual hamsterisation
But I digress...

So now its ritual abuse of hamsters too zingomar,eh :?

[Trev]

trevG, is your last name gibney perchance?

Nup.
refer pm

[zingomar]

Having an appreciation of why we surf beyond just "fun"may be a wank to some, but to me it adds dimensions and depth to the experience.

Rabbit once said that surfing is the greatest actitivity man has ever got into. Now that is a little over the top. But once you understand the many dimensions to the experience, you realise it is pretty special and you can enjoy it the more.