Ask Carroll

[Nick Carroll]

and what do you think of MR's flying saucer shape? i've never had one of his boards but they always look beautifully made...

Haven't ridden one, but my experiences of MR's boards have been splendid, so I'm sure it's great.

[Nick Carroll]

Nick, what's the longest post on a Real Surf forum?

kerrist, I dunno. Maybe one of squid's old "Foamballs" posts. I never saw them actually posted, but squid sent me the full manuscript for an opinion. If some of the chapters were posted whole, they'd make anything else look pretty stumpy.

[Lucky Al]

nick how's dave's pronunciation of "re-entry" here: http://vimeo.com/86219043? how would you spell that, could you spell it.

[Nick Carroll]

riennhry.

what a great bloke.

[Nick Carroll]

You've mentioned a memoir.
Do you intend it to be a candid book, and if so are you feeling any pressure with respects to disclosure about real people still alive?
How do you intend to deal with this issue?.

Yeah, I think that's almost the definition of memoir as opposed to biography; you have to be candid. Memoir implies emotional involvement; biography implies explanation. Surprisingly enough I am not yet feeling very much of the pressure you've outlined; perhaps it's because nobody else has read any of it yet, so nobody's said "Oh fcuk! Are you sure...?" Or perhaps it's in the intention -- I don't have the goal of writing gossip about famous surfers or whatever and I reckon anyone who eventually picks up this book in the hope of reading that sort of thing will be pretty disappointed. Or further, perhaps it's because I feel like this is a story from my point of view, about me and my family and friends, and I sorta don't mind standing or falling on its honesty. Actually now I think of it, I'm more worried about one of 'em saying: "Why didn't you put that bit in, you chickenshit bastard?"

Who/what was that and did it make the cut?

Well I didn't have anything or anybody in particular in mind, I just wondered, because there's a hundred stories not in that book. But nobody's said that anyway.

[Clif]

Hi Nick,

What do you think of surfing being used as a social development tool e.g. in West Africa, Hawaii, Costa Rica, etc?

Surf Aid International has done good stuff.

However, do you think some surfing NGOs are working in a colonial way (in developing countries) and others being used in a neoliberal way (such as when used to 'help' disadvantaged young people while not really addressing the structural issues that really keep them disadvantaged)?

Is it adequate to simply say 'we mean well' and is it ever ethical to profit off association with such projects?

Should such surfing NGOs have transparent evaluations?

In short, what do you think of the 'surfing can save the world' narrative?

[Clif]

ps. I know some projects are done sensitively and well and do you know of any?

[Nick Carroll]

Hmm, I dunno clif, it's a really diffuse field. Surf Aid is one I watch a bit more closely, mainly because I've supported them financially and in other ways, and they seem to do really good stuff.

Other such organisations, like I said I dunno. I imagine it depends on how you measure their performance - what you consider to be important. To me the whole 'means well' thing is just fluff, you have to look at the mission and what occurs as a result. Indeed one suspects many people don't know what underlies their own impulses when it comes to charitable works.

If the goal is to empower local people through opportunity, well, they'd better be ready for the empowered local people to be less than grateful, or at least do things they hadn't expected as part of the empowerment.

It's a real tangle of intentions and hopes etc so you can only measure it in simple ways, the way Surf Aid does for instance, like are less people getting malaria? Do more people have a plan for earthquake/tsunami survival?

And how much of a bureaucracy is building up around it, bureaucracies consume a lot.

I strongly believe that people who donate monies and energy to any supposedly charitable NGO thing should insist on knowing as much as possible about what they're doing and where the money is going, that's the only realistic way to achieve transparency, I mean who else is going to monitor such organisations?

I think you've probably gotta be cautious of ideologies of any kind in the equation. If the profit motive works toward a goal there's nothing inherently wrong with that in my opinion, but it should be clear and open, which is a big ask in many third world nations. If it is practised under a cloak of charity or whatever then it's bound to fcuk up at some point.

I think the idea that surfing can save the world is touching but completely out of touch with the world.

[Hollowed out]

on that note do you know much about the "nev house' project that nev is shopping for investors as at first glance it would appear a very innovative initiative for assistance for undeveloped or disaster affected regions of which many surfing zones certainly feature.

[Nick Carroll]

They sent me a prospectus, but I decided against investing. I just don't know enough about the field and there's not enough evidence for or against its potential to make it worth my slender investment dollar. I did think the projections in the prospectus were pretty fcuken Fantasia type stuff, I mean they outrank every other potential investment return in the known Universe. So maybe I just missed the greatest investment opportunity since the Poseidon uranium mine in the early 1970s. Oh well.

[pinhead]

Nick, is this video channel an attempt by unscrupulous marketers to discredit Firewire surfboards:
Note all the boards "Tested" are FW's

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiFmAPr ... ture=watch

[Clif]

That nevhouse project is problematic, I reckon. It's about making $ from development funds to build houses for people who have had homes knocked down, been evicted, etc due to the poor (often corrupt) governmental policies and corporate interests. Then the this crew come in and don't support locals (whose interest may not coincide with their own) to politically challenge and change those policies and interests but accommodate the policies and corporate (e.g. Real estate) interests. The goal should be to challenge policies and reject such interests not to ameliorate them or even profit off them (however cloaked as well-meaning) - there's a lot of money in this white savior industrial complex

see this article: http://m.theatlantic.com/international/ ... ex/254843/

In short, people don't need houses built for them but efforts made to stop what they already (often against all odds) have built and set up themselves from being knocked down to build offices and homes for the middle class and rich. But I guess there's no $ in that approach.

[Nick Carroll]

Nick, is this video channel an attempt by unscrupulous marketers to discredit Firewire surfboards:
Note all the boards "Tested" are FW's

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiFmAPr ... ture=watch

Damned if I know. You mean like through embarrassment?

[pinhead]

Nick, is this video channel an attempt by unscrupulous marketers to discredit Firewire surfboards:
Note all the boards "Tested" are FW's

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiFmAPr ... ture=watch

Damned if I know. You mean like through embarrassment?

Yes - if I put on my tinfoil hat and look at that video. I can imagine some FW hater, smart-arse putting up video of FWs being surfed by someone who is a total kook. These videos would get embedded in forums every time some posts a FW review and generally go viral. The message being - you say your ripping on your Vanguard but this is what you look like.

I can't think of any other reason why anyone would post video of themselves surfing so badly.

[Nick Carroll]

Ah yes but that would be to deny the surfing obsessive's deep capacity for self delusion

[pinhead]

Ah yes but that would be to deny the surfing obsessive's deep capacity for self delusion

Man, its that deep?

[ajohnsen]

Ah yes but that would be to deny the surfing obsessive's deep capacity for self delusion

Which is exactly why I do not want to see footage of myself.

[Beanpole]

That video was awesome. I reckon I must have seen that guy out at Bondi.