1. There is a difference between being interested in one thing and being interested in one thing more than other things. Let us speak for ourselves: we are interested in surfing, in travel, in good food, in music, in art, in literature, in design, in dogs, in photography, in adventure, in camping, etc., etc., etc. I could go on, but I want you to read the rest.

2. If everyone were selfish and did what made them happy on most days, the world would be a better place. Less killing, less crime, fewer depressed suburbanites.

3. Maybe “dude,” “going off,” “sick,” “stoked,” et al. are on their way to being among the more respected words of the English language. Shakespeare used words like “betwixt” and “forsooth” and no one said a damn thing about it.

4. We point to www.wavesforwater.org as proof of surfers using surfing to make a difference in myriad impactful ways. In one example, “Waves 4 Water has teamed up with surf company Hurley International to develop a DIY volunteer program called Clean Water Couriers, in which surfers searching for waves in third-world countries carry filters with them in their luggage.” This goes for No. 8, too, in which Mr. Anemolius writes, “You are a colonialist.” Viva Jon Rose!

5. The risk of surfing makes it all the more fun. I’d rather die being torn to pieces by a great white doing what I love to do than suffer through old age. If that’s a controversial stance to take, then consider the health benefits of surfing: you get daily exercise, commune with nature, and a steady stream of Vitamin D shining down on you. On surf trips there is fresh fish to eat, rich in omega-3 fatty acids.

6. How is the expenditure of time, fuel, and money scouting surf spots a waste if the yield is an experience we consider absolutely worth it? The allusion to addiction you make is well taken. But as far as addictions go, there are far worse alternatives. And our carbon footprint? Let’s just say that if we weren’t surfers, we’d be eating steak dinners and commuting in the SUVs we could afford to buy because of our 9-5 jobs, amounting, in the end, to a much larger hole in the ozone layer.

7. Dave Rastavich, a professional surfer, fully embodies the ‘close to nature’ vibe you speak of. His nonprofit organization Surfers for Cetaceans rescues whales and dolphins from harassment and killings (which, by the way, are probably not happening because of surfers). His group calls “ocean-minded people” to action. I’m sure many other surfers fall into that category.

8. See No. 4. Kyle Thiermann is another perfect example of a surfer who listens and responds to natives in developing countries. Watch his TED Talk: TEDxSantaCruz: Surfing for Change. There’s also Lee Ann Curren’s documentary, Titan Kids, about how surfing has helped children escape from poverty and drugs in the favela Titanzinho, in Brazil, where they live.

9. Respect on water and respect on land are two completely different things. Don’t assume that all surfers can’t tell the difference. Besides, how much can you drink if you’re waking up at 5a.m. for a surf?

10. Actually, every culture – not just surf culture – has a commercial side that can lean toward the despicable. A surfer has to eat, after all, and just because somebody figured out a way to make that happen doesn’t make the industry the sole source of evil in the universe. Not to mention that some people obviously see surfing well as a marketable skill – in other words, one that not just anybody can pull off.

P.S. We thoroughly loved your article, by the way; we just thought we’d rile up some conversation. It’s kind of like that Abraham Lincoln quote: “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.” Us surfers and our lifestyles may have their fair share of thorns, but we’d have it no other way!

A Bit Chilly Out there, bradda.

By Dr Matt Fox.

Pipeline pose, looking good for the shot but closeouts were the order of the day. (from TSP84)
Photo: Al Mackinnon

 I realise that some readers of The Surfer’s Path are Hawai’ian residents. I know because I’ve  picked up a copy of this fine publication in Hilo on the Big Island. What I say now will no doubt cause them to drop their copies.
I prefer surfing in Britain.
Let me explain. Like the vast majority of the magazine’s readership, I’m an average surfer and I have a job that requires my bodily presence, so therefore I don’t surf as often as I’d like. However, I’m a very lucky man. My job takes to me the Hawai’ian islands two, maybe three times a year, and I get paid for the privilege. My colleagues let me go in their place because they regard it as a chore to spend 18 hours flying to paradise, and they might miss some work at home. I don’t attempt understand their bizarre attitudes, but who am I to argue?
I’ve surfed many breaks on the Big Island but believe it or not, it has either been 25ft or flat on the North Shore of Oahu every time I’ve been there. Neither sets of conditions are conducive to grabbing a board and jumping in. Incidentally, snorkelling at Waimea Bay and Pipeline is fantastic, but you always have to keep your eye on the horizon. Surfing on the Big Island is both frightening and exhilarating. I’ve surfed reef breaks and lava breaks. I have the scars to prove it – though nothing serious, thankfully. Nothing makes you concentrate more on your take-off than the sight of brittle, black, razor-sharp lava staring at you through the crystal clear water.

I’ve been enough times now for the novelty to have worn off, and all things considered, I like British surfing better. The places I’ve surfed in Hawai’i have been universally packed, all year round, with locals and travellers alike. The problem is the diminutive size of the islands. There are too few surf spots for such a surf-hungry population. There are numerous ‘secret’ spots, but you need a truck with gigantic tyres to get to them, and aggressive regulars rule. If you do manage to get a wave at these places the experience is destroyed by the nagging thought that your hire car won’t have a full compliment of tyres and windows upon your return.

Scottish slab – Rick Willmett, or “Aussie Rick” as he’s known by the local boys. He moved from the warmth of Eastern Australia to Scotland … just for the waves. Never mind the cold! This wave is known as Number 10s and though not the reason for the name, it’s a definite ten on the heavy scale. (from TSP89).
Photo: Al Mackinnon

Hawai’i has an endless summer – over there it’s  boardshorts and rash-vests all year round. Anyone can turn up with a pair of shorts, hire a board and leap in, anytime. There’s nothing there to put you off. Also, on these islands, the ocean is never far away. Surfing is close, accessible and pleasant. Easy-peasy.
In Britain, or any other Northern European country, you have to suffer for your sport. Cold water, inconsistency, biting wind, numb hands, ice-cream headaches and the long journeys for a surf check are just the start of it. ‘Don’t bother’ is the message you need to overcome to ride waves here.
However, it is the negatives that make cold-water surfing so rewarding. Only those with true dedication, fitness and patience will bother, and the final experience is exquisite. The crowds are usually small, and the opportunity to find empty breaks is huge. Plus, a steak and chips with a pint of warm beer tastes a thousand times sweeter on a cold evening after a spin cycle in a 9ºC washing machine.

Maybe it’s just my regular haunts making me feel at home, or maybe it’s the pleasure of riding a perfect wave in February when my chin is blue. Maybe it’s about having low expectations and being proved beautifully wrong over and over again.
Hawaii may have the heaviest, hollowest, biggest and most famous breaks in the world but for this average surfer, perfection comes in a 5/4 steamer.

Photos:

Top: Pipeline pose, looking good for the shot but closeouts were the order of the day. (from TSP84)

Bottom: Scottish slab – Rick Willmett, or “Aussie Rick” as he’s known by the local boys. He moved from the warmth of Eastern Australia to Scotland … just for the waves. Never mind the cold! This wave is known as Number 10s and though not the reason for the name, it’s a definite ten on the heavy scale. (from TSP89)

This is My Wave

OK, surfing is a selfish activity, but that’s not going to stop me doing it.
I’m selfish. I wish I wasn’t, but I am. I invest more time and energy in surfing than is helpful for my relationships.
Recently, I tactlessly suggested taking my surfboard to a funeral because I knew there was a good surf spot nearby. Didn’t go down too well.
Surfers are nice people, but in an ideal world they wouldn’t have to share their waves. Maybe occasionally, in the dark days of winter when the sun has called in sick with Seasonal Affective Disorder, there are glimpses of camaraderie. On days like that I’m willing to share a piece of the violently cold sea with a few other shuddering souls, but it’s difficult to be so giving in summer when the swell is less consistent and the sea is caked in tiny black bodies like the windscreen of a car.
So, can it be argued that surfing brings some benefit to others, even if unintentionally? Well, to be honest, I’m struggling. There is something to be said for how some sporting achievements inspire us – for instance, maybe somebody climbs something that hasn’t been climbed before and they stick a flag on the top. Best of luck sticking a flag in a wave. Big-wave surfing possibly falls into the ‘inspirational’ category, but the average surfer’s accomplishments go unrecorded and unwitnessed. I often don’t have any idea how my friend’s session went even after we’ve been surfing the same salty cocktail all afternoon.
Since I was inspired to try the sport in the first place by watching someone ride a nice wave, it could be argued that the act of surfing itself is a positive force. A friend of mine figures that because surfing makes him happy, he’s a nicer person in polite society. And I guess it also keeps the groms off the streets. In any case, these are all secondary, by-products – they aren’t the reason why we surf.

Many surfers I know have a strong work ethic, but it’s got nothing to do with their paid employment. They believe in earning happiness.

Personally, I don’t surf to inspire the human race, which is fortunate because, in surfing terms, I’m a good example why we should be humble. And I don’t do it to chill me out or keep me out of mischief. In fact, surfing has made me moodier now – when there’s no swell, it’s written all over my face and not in a pretty way. I surf simply because I love it.
But, surfers aren’t just hedonists. They are often devoted and in devotion is self-surrender. We put ourselves through pain and indignity. There are long periods of enforced denial. If you don’t live near the sea you may have a long drive. You may also have to get up painfully early to catch the right tide, or miss the crowds. More often than not, the conditions are poor. If you want to surf more than once in a day, at least here in England in the winter, you’ll have to get changed in a freezing car park and put on a shrunken, sticking, gritty, sodden wetsuit. Parts of your body will go numb. The average Hindu holy man who’s decided to find moksha (liberation) by standing on one leg for 12 years probably doesn’t put himself through such self denial and discomfort.
Many surfers I know have a strong work ethic, but it’s got nothing to do with their paid employment. They believe in earning happiness. They’d like to avoid the hard work if they could, but on some level they realise that without it, the rewards would feel less sweet. So they learn self-discipline, patience and, (in my case anyway) a lot of humility. Surfing is fundamentally selfish, yet its unwitnessed, transitory nature, how difficult it is, and the sheer magnitude of the opponent, leave slim pickings for the ego. In fact, any residual ego will likely slide out of your nose onto your forearm at the first inconvenient moment that presents itself after a session anyway, no matter how beautiful the last wave you caught.
But most of the time there’s negligible cost to others, so it’s good-selfish, rather than bad-selfish. If you didn’t feed the dog because you were too busy rushing out for a surf, you might be drifting towards the rocks of bad-selfishness. But all the rest? It’s excusable. We’re only neoprene-coated humans after all.

– This piece and photo by Morgan Maassen appeared in the Agree to Disagree column of TSP81

10 Reasons Surfing ‘Sucks’

Surfing’ cool, but beware the pitfalls. 

By Raph Anemolius

There’s plenty that’s great about it, but, please, watch out for these:

1.     It turns you into a moron, only interested in one thing. Think about it. Anyone who’s interested in one thing only is BORING! This is a universal truth, therefore you are in danger of being really fucking boring.

2.     It makes you selfish. Yes, whether you admit it or not – your obsession with surfing comes first. You’ll miss work, play and quality time with friends; time you could spend helping people who need help; time you could spend making yourself a better person. You will leave wonderful girlfriends/boyfriends because they ‘just don’t get it’; you will cause pain and anger to your parents or spouse; you will miss key moments in your childrens’ upbringing and important moments in the last years of your parents’ lives. This stuff is irreplaceable, but it’s ok, you got barreled again, dude.

3.     You will start using words like ‘dude’, ‘sucks’, ‘going off’, ‘sick’, ‘mate’ and a host of other perversions of the English language, no matter where you’re from. Balinese, Russian, Australian, French, Cornish – everyone succumbs eventually/occasionally and we all sound like twats. That’s because the original perversions mostly came from California and Australia and twats in those countries don’t know they sound like twats. We just absorb the twat-shit that these people have spread through their economic and psychological control of the sub culture. To any sane human being, we sound like twats and that’s that.

4.     We get arrogant because we think surviving a big drop or making a tube or riding Uluwatu or our home break or any fucking thing to with surfing makes us somehow better human beings than other human beings. It doesn’t. We are as good human beings as we are good human beings, regardless if we surf or not. Male surfers buy into the myth that they’re cool because chicks – who are as simple and dirty as guys underneath all the pretence – find surfers’ body-shapes and tans horny – in much the same way men find strippers automatically horny. (‘Wow! They’ve got tits!’) Doesn’t make male surfers great people. Female surfers think they’re great because so few women surf that they get off on being a step above fellow members of their gender. In many subtle and truly shallow ways, being a surfer makes us think we’re fantastic. And we’re not. Unless of course we are – but that’s an entirely different story.

5.     Surfing is dangerous. Skin cancer, surfers’ ear, staph infections, spinal injuries, shoulder and lower back wear, red eyes/pterygiums, shark attack, pollution exposure, damaged hair and water on the brain that makes you stupid.

6.     You will waste time and you will waste fuel. Both time and fuel are money, so you will waste money, too. You will stare at computer screens for hours when you’re not surfing, wishing you were surfing, looking for a hit in some sad vicarious form, planning your next surfing excursion and dreaming of ones you can’t afford. Later you will drive around looking for waves and checking spots just around the corner or, fuck it, 500 miles drive away just because you’re a radical dude and you want to impress your friends with how hardcore you are. If there’s no rideable surf there, or if it isn’t as good as the surf you just left, you’ll happily drive back and surf that. You waste hours of time, gallons of fuel and therefore uncountable amounts of money. And did we mention – you add carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that probably wouldn’t be there if you weren’t a surfer?

7.     Your whole ‘close to nature’ vibe is only a skin you wear when it suits you, unless you really are someone that cares about nature and maybe even does something about protecting it. You don’t automatically qualify as one of those people just because you’re a surfer.

8.     You are a colonialist. Might as well buy a pith helmet right now. You’ll fly to foreign shores and not, probably, give a damn about understanding, integrating or having any awareness whatsoever about the impact your presence has on the destination community/culture. Not your problem, mate. You’re just there to surf.

9.     Surfing will start to make you think idiots are heroes. People who take huge amounts of drugs, drink like lunatics and drive rental cars like assholes suddenly become worthy of your respect because they’re often the same people who take off late on huge waves and pull into giant tubes and get spat out. Watch out for this. They could still be assholes.

10.   It’s a beautiful thing, but you need to be careful to retain your sense of right and wrong, good and bad, time and place etc. Surf culture is fuelled by commercial interests that know no depths. In their search for sales, they will say anything and sponsor anyone to promote their products. Just because you love the sensation of riding breaking waves, don’t let these things turn you into a twat.

Photo by Sean Davey

Words By Leighton Alcock
(from TSP88)
So much has been written about localism and the dark underside of surfing that sometimes rears its head. Having surfed all over the world for 35 years I’ve realized it comes down to three things.
– Your own self-esteem.
– Your comfort with the actual surfing location.
– That built-in radar and evaluation process aimed at other surfers.
These observations come from having grown up at a famous, hard-breaking South African beachbreak in the heart of the city, frequented by a mix of high-energy young surfers, ageing longboarders, a small crew of female surfers, and a regular stream of kooks in over their heads and transient surfers. It’s the usual mix you’ll find at most busy surf spots.
The surfer that gets into fights and arguments has probably been doing it his whole surfing life. Ninety percent of the time, even if there are 30-40 people in the water, there’s a mellow vibe with everybody getting their fair share of waves and many chatting amiably. But the easy dynamic can change in a split second.
Surfers have a heightened sense of their surroundings when they enter the water. They scan the environment constantly to position themselves in the best spot for the best waves, but there’s much more going on. Experienced surfers have a highly tuned, built-in scanning and evaluation programme in their brains that appraises the surfers around them, rates them in a sort of compatibility order and computes how much respect they deserve.
I’ve often seen a mellow vibe in the water change when one aggressive surfer paddles out, even before he catches a wave. It’s as if his presence, and vibe, are noticed and seen as a challenge to the mellow status quo. In order to compete for waves in his aggro-heightened environment, everybody else has to up their levels own of aggression, too. And so it descends.

The surfer with good-self esteem is confident in his own skin. He has worked out where his place is in the social standing of the break. He has nothing to prove and just the pleasure of being in the water is enough.

The older longboarder has experienced most situations, is usually happy with his lot and sits far out and waits for hours until his “bomb” arrives. It is accepted that he’s paid for it with his long wait and he’s begrudgingly left alone.
The young hotties have much to prove and are competing with the world for their place in the sun. If they’re any good they’ve probably paid their dues and learned the etiquette needed to keep things from degenerating to the dark side.
The surfer chicks – I have yet to see any abused at all, and actually think the explosion of beautiful young women in the line-up makes everyone behave
better.
Having paddled into many of the most contested breaks all over the world I can honestly say I’ve never had a problem. There are some tricks to it, though. Before you even paddle out, gauge the mood, watch for a while. If you’re a stranger paddling out among the local crew greet other surfers and show respect. Good chance you’ll get a stare with little immediate acknowledgement. What you’ve done is kicked his evaluation system into life with a tiny positive. It’s important not to act like a “rash” and be all over the other surfer, talking continuously and complimenting him on his great waves, etc. All surfers hate crawlers.
Then (importantly), sit and wait. See who’s taking off and who isn’t, who’s waiting for waves and their turn to take-off. Take it slow, absorb the vibe and slowly integrate yourself by getting a few of the lesser waves, gradually building up. Be contained, quiet and humble and within hours you’ll be filed away in other surfers’ minds as “cool” or “ok”. Play it smart and you’re in for life.
We all make mistakes. To my undying shame I admit to one. On a boat looking for surf in Indo, there were 12 of us and we hadn’t found good surf for two days. We motored round the corner at Lance’s Right to find it 6ft and perfect with only three others in the water.
To my eternal regret I was one of 12 South African surfers who immediately jumped into the line-up as the boat did a full speed fly-past and went off to anchor further away. It was a massacre. Instant crowd. Instant anger. Instant aggro. To this day I still remember the look of loathing on the faces of the three Australians surfing there.

They bailed in disgust, and I felt ashamed for my part in bad lineup etiquette.

In truth, if we all move thoughtfully and respectfully, there’s just no need for it.

In a recent meeting with my editors, I found myself doodling tubes and A-frames on a napkin. In the pool during our family reunion, I had to stop myself from practically going into a trance making little swells with my hands and tracking them to the cement wall. I’m obsessed with waves. I’ve got waves hanging on the wall, waves on my screensaver, and so many photos of waves they won’t even fit in my computer anymore. I’ve arranged everything in my life so I can live across the street from the waves. And, of course, I obsess about riding waves, tracking their every movement from first ripple out in the Pacific to their arrival in California.
It’s a fun obsession, but I’ve often quietly wondered (and a few girlfriends have confirmed) if this obsession might be a little unhealthy. Why don’t I know much about other natural phenomena: photosynthesis, tornados, I don’t know – bird migration?
But recently I had an epiphany that conveniently releases me of this guilt: obsessing about waves actually gives me (and all surfers) special insight into, well, everything. Let me explain.
Scientifically defined, a wave is “a disturbance moving through a medium”. With surface ocean waves this “disturbance” is air moving from high pressure to low, wind. The “medium” is the sea. Wind disturbs the water by making ripples that act like sails for more wind. Those sails catch more of the wind’s force until the ripples become swells, which then travel across entire oceans until they grind against a hard surface and become our playgrounds. You know that already. You’re like me. But what’s cool about the scientific definition of a wave is that it describes the craziest thing about their true identity, something you may not know: waves are illusions. Watching waves bend into a cove, for example, it appears that the wind has pushed this water across the ocean, but the seawater is actually not moving much at all. The disturbance is moving. The force of wind is being transferred from ocean molecule to molecule, atom to atom in a kind of domino effect that reaches all the way across the ocean, surging through the salty blue until it disperses in a crash (preferably with one of us in the tube). In other words, a wave appears to be a fixed entity moving through space, but it is really, as Steven Kotler (author of West of Jesus … ) once wrote, “the memory” of wind energy transmuting through the sea.
How does this help us understand anything? Because – and remember back to your crusty old physics professors – virtually everything is made of waves. We are literally surrounded in waves, composed of waves, floating on waves, and drowning in waves. Light and sound move in waves. Electrons, the smallest pieces of matter, also act as waves. Heat is a wave. Our cell phones, radios and computers communicate with each other in waves. The list goes on. And though these waves’ movements are not identical to ocean waves, they share the same basic principles of movement, especially the fact that they’re, in some sense, illusory – “a disturbance moving through a medium”, not solid. A surfboard, for example, may appear solid, but it is actually made up of countless tiny electrons, waves of energy, with space between them.
I think surfers, from playing so much on the waves, already know what this implies for life. It means that life isn’t as serious as the boardroom executives and our school principals told us.
Life is more like a wave. After all, just like that domino effect of energy from wind to sea to beach, our bodies are constantly taking on and leaving new material, new molecules, as we move across the sea of birth and death. The ocean water that gets drilled into our noses, ears, and throats, becomes part of our bodies. Just like every wave is part of the ocean, we are literally inseparable from our surroundings.
So don’t feel guilty about being too obsessed with surfing. Next time someone tells you to be more well-rounded, explain to them that you already are: you’re exploring the nature of all phenomena.

Then go play in the waves.

Jaimal Yogis lives and surfs in San Francisco. His first book, Saltwater Buddha, a memoir of surf travels, will be released this May. More at http://www.jaimalyogis.com.

Words by: Eliza McKay

During my long three years away from waves, I would wake up from dreams that I was duck-diving and gliding on clear, green, vertical beauties that rose over me, through me, and under my feet.

But even though I could still surf well in my dreams, in reality, once I returned to the waves on a three-day surf trip to Cardiff Reef, California, I had reverted back to beginner status. My pop-ups were slow. My wave knowledge was confused.

On my last day of my surfing trip, a friendly guy in the parking lot asked me warmly if I had a good session. I confessed to him that my skills had regressed and the reason for it: I had moved inland to a polluted city to find work on my career path. Now, finally, after three years, I had a few days that were free of responsibility to go on a surf trip.

“Yeah” he said gravely, “sometimes you have to go where the work is.” But then his face brightened with a smile in a flash of an epiphany. “See that guy over there?” He pointed. “He and I are both about a hundred years old and we’re still surfing. You’re still young. You have decades in front of you. You’ll find yourself in waves again and again. It’s not over for you yet. You have lots of time in the waves to look forward to.” I smiled with happiness at the simple truth in his statement.

A week or so later, I surfed for two days in Neah Bay in the Pacific Northwest and caught some waves. Then I travelled further north to visit my parents, who live on a steel sailboat. While watching a surfing DVD with me, my father remarked, “I think these people are full of themselves.” I asked him why he thought that. After a long pause, my father explained, perhaps judgmentally, but at least pragmatically: “Because these people are all talking about surfing as if it was something so mystical – but it is just the act of gliding on a wave. It’s just a sport. That’d be like saying each time I head out in my boat it’s because I want to feel my soul and talk to God!”

You would think, after all my magical wave-rides found on spiritual sojourns on the surfer’s path, that I would have vehemently disagreed with my father. But I nodded gently. I think what my father was trying to tell me that if I wanted to remain humble and open to wisdom, then that meant admitting that I don’t know.

No one knows for sure. I don’t know if there is a God; many gods; a sentient creator who watches us from above; a living universal presence; a deeper spiritual meaning to gliding on a wave. I’m not certain whether surfing is a soul sport. Does the soul exist? I can only hope. The human mind is just not capable of processing the enormous sum-total of facts that will solve this great mystery.

However, there is one thing I do know with certainty: I love surfing. I will always return to the waves, for they will always taunt me in nightly dreams, reminding me that wave-riding is still present in my subconscious, even if it not in my day-to-day life. And so for this love, I will surf whenever I can, as is possible, even if I can only do it infrequently, due to the priorities and sacrifices that make up the threads of my daily life. Because, when I’m gliding on a wave, my head clears and my thoughts evaporate. For a spectacular frozen moment, I’m staring down at an eternity of whirling green and blue time. I lose my mind due to the sheer joy of it. Meanwhile, my soul is all I’ve got to guide me on the ride ahead.

Recently, I picked up a copy of a surf magazine.

Purely by accident, it fell open to a page with a quote about contest surfing by Billabong’s VP of Marketing. In a moment of remarkable candor the guy says, “If all we’re creating is a bunch of little competitive robots then we’ve all failed.”

Since I’ve always regarded “competitive surfing” as an oxymoron, the quote got me to thinking. What if your home break is Lower Trestles, J-Bay, Thurso, Pipe – or any good surf spot with enough real estate to host a contest?

Now, let’s say a swell starts to show, you’ve got some free time and you plan to surf on Saturday. Then you find out there’s a contest scheduled. All day Saturday. At your break. On what may be the best day of the year!

Ask yourself, “What right do they have to be there at all?”

Here’s what the organizers, the competitors and all the corporate sponsors are saying to you:

“Yeah, OK, it’s a public beach, but we own it this weekend. We’re bringing trucks and tents and amplifiers and we’re going give some loudmouth a microphone and let him shout non-stop for eight hours. Oh, did we mention? We’re not going to let you surf at all!”

This is a little like a cult of fanatics arriving at your door and telling you they’re going to move into your house for the weekend. If this was about your home – not your home break – you’d call the police.

Maybe it’s time to take a look at what it means to be a surfer in 2008 – now that every lineup is a competition and every kid with a contract thinks he deserves more waves than you.

“Contests are good for the sport,” they tell us. “What’s a day or two out of a whole year?”
Well, you could argue competition is NOT good for the sport. It’s good for people making money off the sport.

“Contest surfing teaches young men and women valuable lessons about discipline and values and life.”
Like what? Dependence on the Great Commercial Tit for a paycheck and self-esteem? Competition teaches you lessons about business, not life. Or, at least, not about those uniquely valuable parts of life that pure surfing addresses better than just about anything.

“Contests raise the level of the sport.”
Talented surfers won’t stop pushing their limits whether contests exist or not. Besides, since when was great surfing about conforming to rules?

“Contests support the manufacturers who support the sport.”
The major clothing sponsors would do just fine if every real surfer stopped buying surfing-related products. The market is non-surfers. That’s where the money is.

“Competition promotes Aloha spirit.”
True Aloha doesn’t have anything to do with profits and exposure. Where’s the Aloha in creating winners and losers?

“Hey! Lighten up! Contests are just entertainment.”
When a generation of surfers thinks the goal of surfing is sponsorship or that surfing is about proving yourself to businessmen, it’s not “just entertainment”.

Surfing was shaped by renegades – imaginative individuals who would laugh at the contest mentality today. As if to prove this, the enlightened Billabong Veep went on to say, “Surfing has always thrived on characters, but true characters are getting harder and harder to find.”

The great surfers of the past would likely ask, “What does letting others decide your worth have to do with surfing and a healthy respect for the ocean?” Or, “Whatever happened to Expression Sessions – where the best came together not as rivals but as friends?”

Maybe “for the good of the sport” we should stop rewarding obedient behavior. Stop glorifying all the little competitive robots, throw out the rulebooks and fire all the judges.
You want to do something positive and instructive? How about once a year we identify the five men and women who have contributed the most to surfing the previous year.
Then, without fanfare or scorecards, give them a whole day to surf at Malibu or Rincon or Ala Moana without anyone else in the water.

I’d support an event like that. I’d even go there to help keep the wannabe punks and broadcast pimps away.

But don’t get me wrong. I don’t have anything against contests.

In fact, I lay awake at night wondering how non-surfers will judge us and whether surfing will ever be as profitable as team sports. I mean, why bother if we can’t attract influential sponsors, media coverage and a strong demographic fan base.

Without those, there’s no sustainable long-term revenue potential at all.

Without those, surfing is just…pointless.

A surfer for ‘about 100 years’, Neil Stebbins was Hawaiian field editor for Surfer magazine and Editor and Creative Director of the ski magazine, Powder. His stories and photos have appeared in more that 40 magazine titles worldwide.

The IOC and contemporary sports

In the past few years the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has dramatically evolved in its view of the so-called extreme or contemporary sports and their place in the Olympic Movement.

The very positive effect of the inclusion of snowboarding in the Winter Games has also been a great wake up call for many. Another example of this positive evolution is the inclusion of BMX in the Beijing Games.

Presently diverse stakeholders around the world are friendly to the possibility of surfing’s inclusion in the Summer Games. This is in part because surfing has a well functioning and structured IOC-Recognized International Federation (the ISA) and National Federations, but most importantly it has to do with the realization that without “pruning the Olympic Games tree” by adding relevant new sports, and excluding no longer relevant sports, the tree itself will become less relevant and vital.

What are the hurdles for inclusion in the IOC GAMES?

The biggest obstacles facing new sports hoping to be included in the Olympic Games Program are the strict requirements for inclusion and the length of time the process requires. A new sport should start its campaign at least nine years before a particular Olympic Games, because the final line-up of sports is decided by the IOC seven years before any given Olympic Games.

Surfing’s chance for inclusion will most likely involve the development of wave parks with suitable manmade waves. Several such parks have been in operation for years, but recent technological improvements have raised the bar, and we now have an unprecedented ability for producing high-quality performance waves. At least five companies have made significant wave making progress, as can be seen in this video example of Japan’s Ocean Dome with high quality and very contestable waves…

Consistent with current IOC rules, the decision on the Sports Program for the 2016 Games will be made in 2009 in Copenhagen. The IOC will also announce the host for those Games (finalists are Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, Tokyo and Chicago). The selection for the following Summer Games (2020) will be made in 2013.

Note: The inclusion of Snowboard and BMX in the Games was not as complicated as the inclusion of surfing would be, since both sports were considered “disciplines” of existing sports (snow skiing and cycling respectively), and not “new sports”. The inclusion of a totally new sport (like surfing), as opposed to a “new discipline” of a currently included sport, is a much more complicated and involved process.

Additionally, the process for inclusion of new sports will always encounter a huge hurdle. Since the Games have an IOC imposed ceiling on the amount of sports and amount of total athletes, the inclusion of new sports necessarily implies that a currently included sport will most likely be removed from the Games, or trimmed the amount of athletes in such sport.

At the end of the day, the process comes down to a vote by all IOC members, some of which are presidents of federations of sports currently in the Games. Hence the vote for inclusion could end up resulting in the exclusion of the sports of the person casting the “inclusion” vote for a new sport…

In other words there is a full potential for a big conflict of interest: What might be great for the health of the IOC and the Games (bringing new, contemporary youth or extreme sports that will result in better ratings and sponsors interest), might be the worst for some currently included sports (such as aging, obsolete, or no longer relevant sports) that will be “kicked out” of the Games as a consequence.

Asking those “endangered Olympic Sports” for a vote approving the inclusion of new, younger sports, when that could result in the termination of the Olympic status of their sport, would be like asking the happy patrons of a club, to “vote” themselves out of the club, while they are having the best time of their lives… Not a very likely outcome.

Enter the Youth Summer Olympic Games

In a smart decision, which speaks to the vital importance of younger athletes and audiences for the future of the Olympics, the IOC announced the 2010 Youth Summer Games (Singapore, 2010).

Unfortunately, the IOC decided that only sports from the “regular” Summer Games would be included in Singapore. Some of the world’s most popular youth sports, including surfing and skateboarding are not slated for inclusion.

This is unfortunate, as surfing is one of the most visible and inspirational extreme sports, practiced in all continents, and loved by countless millions of fans. After all, surfing has been the “mother sport” of skateboarding, snowboarding, windsurfing, kiteboarding, wakeboarding, and other great modern “board sports.”

The 2009 Olympic Congress: An opportunity for positive changes

For the first time in history, the IOC has created a Virtual Olympic Congress. In preparation for the 2009 Olympic Congress (a kind of constitutional assembly that is held from time to time), the IOC has invited all sports leaders, and even members of the public, to submit proposals for improving the Games and the IOC. This welcome move is fresh air for the whole Olympic Movement.

The ISA Sands of the World ceremony, a strong symbol of peace and unity in the world through surfing.

Learning from the success of others

The phenomenal success of ESPN’s X-Games, which focuses on action sports, youth sports, and an embracing of youth culture, has certainly been noticed by the Olympic Movement.

The X-Games have a fast decision-making process on inclusion of new sports or exclusions of others. They also have shorter times between X-Games (one each summer and winter), and a precise focus on viewership needs, that has turned the X-Games into a very powerful example of how to make things happen in today’s sports-and-media world.

The short list of “new” sports for the 2016 Games

The five sports on the “short list” for inclusion in the 2016 Games are rugby, karate, roller sports, racquetball, and golf. Currently there is only room for two additional sports for those Games. The IOC could also decide not to include any new sport at all for 2016.

While very respectable, and certainly credible, none of those five sports could be considered a contemporary youth sport. Some might not even attract large numbers of additional young sports enthusiasts to the Games’ audience. Most likely many of those young viewers will continue to flock to the ever growing X-Games audience, following the stars in what they consider relevant sports. Young fans want to watch “cool” sports, sports that inspire them, and that are related to their lifestyles…

Why surfing in the Olympics now?

Until recently, the Olympic Movement gave not much consideration to surfing as a potential new sport in the Olympic Games. However, many stakeholders are now considering the viability and desirability of including surfing. New wave-making technologies have played a part in this re-evaluation of the possibilities. But perhaps the most important factor has been the realization within the IOC, that by passing over some of the most vital contemporary youth sports, the organization might have done a disservice to itself, maybe even weakening the Games popularity and relevance for the younger demographics.

This prior direction appears to have changed, with the inclusion of BMX.

The case for Olympic Surfing

Surfing is truly a global sport, more popular and more widely practiced than many current Olympic sports. Surfing is pursued in every corner of the world, in more than a hundred countries. There are now over 25 million surfers worldwide! Because of its enormous popularity and cachet, surfing is used as a marketing tool by banks, fashion brands, cars, watches, and countless other entities, not to mention the multibillion-dollar industry of surfing’s own lifestyle brands.

Surfers are a strong and positive influence on young people around the world. They are a very relevant part of our youth’s culture and serve as inspirational figures, naturally representing the Olympic values.

If surfing is included as an Olympic sport, it will be great for surfing, of course. More importantly, however, it will be a great contribution to excellence and relevance of the IOC’s Summer Games and the Youth Summer Games.

Recent experience has shown the IOC that the inclusion of a core youth sport has been a great boost to the health of the Winter Games. The incorporation of snowboarding as an Olympic sport immediately made the Games cooler for teenagers. It was a win/win situation for all stakeholders.

The incorporation of surfing will be an additional great step in that direction.

What will be the impact on society of Olympic surfing Wave Parks?

The wave parks created for the Games would remain in the host city, and continue to provide further opportunities for the integration of diverse socioeconomic, ethnic, religious, and age groups long after the Games have moved on. This is what surfing has already done on ocean shores around the world. Places with wave parks will become part of a new, better world. Everything will change radically when surfing becomes a reality, regardless of where the surfers live, by the coast or away from it.

Opportunity for public and private sectors

Governments that fund the building of sport centres, stadiums, courts, and swimming pools will realize that Wave Parks are also good ways to provide a better future for their citizens. When wave parks are integrated into the recreational facilities of most cities (as tennis courts; tracks and soccer fields are now), surfing will no longer be an “elite” sport reserved only for people who live near the beach or have the ability to travel to exotic places. Like football and tennis, surfing will be embraced by a larger number of individuals, who will be physically and psychologically healthier thanks to surfing.

The private sector will thrive on this opportunity. From the entertainment industry to the venue operators to the lifestyle industry, all will have expansion opportunities. Students of all ages and social groups will be able to enjoy waves and familiarize themselves with the ocean’s motions at the wave parks. These wave parks could further serve as educational centers for the Earth’s threatened ocean environment; they will be “lighthouses” for better understanding of life in the oceans, and for the benefit of new generations of more environmentally-friendly citizens.

Ocean Waves, Wave Parks and the soul of surfing

Wave parks will not replace ocean waves. They will be complementary. Millions of people live far away from the ocean, in places where surfing can’t be practiced. Wave Parks would allow many of those individuals to surf.

On the competition side, the ISA believes that Olympic surfing will, of necessity, incorporate manmade waves. By standardizing the waves for surfing competition, the luck factor of getting a certain wave in the ocean will cease to become a sometimes important factor in determining the winner or loser of a surfing competition.

So what now?

As President of the ISA, one of my challenges is to rationally show the Olympic Movement the convincing case on how much good to Olympism and to the Games, Olympic surfing will be. Things are a bit easier nowadays, since the Olympic leadership is very aware of the challenges it faces, and is increasingly sensitive to opportunities to expand the Games audience and role in today’s world.

One of the ISA’s jobs is to continue the path begun by Hawaiian surfer and multiple swimming gold medal winner Duke Kahanamoku, who in 1920 asked the IOC to include surfing in the Olympic Games.

Final words

A long time ago, I realized that surfing was the best thing that ever happened to me. I want to share that happiness with the rest of the world. Some so-called “purists” might say, “You’re betraying surfing’s soul by bringing Wave Parks into surfing.” I don’t think so. I don’t believe that the soul of surfing requires it to be an elite sport for the lucky few who live near the ocean’s waves. My vision is of surfing as a democratic sport – one that, while teaching respect for the ocean, allows for a better integration of mankind, through a common love of wave-riding and the oceans.

Surfing is a sport that has grown up and continues to mature and evolve, as other sports do. Just like football (called soccer in the USA), playing on the street or on a perfect field is not exactly the same, but wherever you play it, the football passion is the same. Today, the sport of football is not the same as it was at the first FIFA World Cup in Uruguay in 1930. Compared to the footwear they wore, the balls they played with, the fields they played on, today’s football is another sport. Still, no one thinks that the sport of soccer has lost its soul. The young boy or girl, alone in his or her backyard or kicking a ball against a wall in a poor neighbourhood, are enjoying soccer with the same passion, the same happiness as footballer Leo Messi does.

My hope is to change surfing’s paradigm. The pleasure of riding a wave is not going to change regardless of surfing inclusion in the Olympic Games or the building of many more wave parks around the world. The ISA’s goal is to add a new surfing experience, to make what already exists for the 25 million surfers of the world, available to the many – opening the surfing experience to many more millions of new surfers through the building to wave pools around the world.

Inclusion of surfing in the Olympic Games is an important part of the job.

Eight times professional surfing world champion wrote to me a few weeks ago: “I am sure wave parks are our way into the Olympic Games, if that’s one of our directions, which it very well should be.”

I agree.

Fernando Aguerre is a surfer and the President of the International Surfing Association.

I am an addict. A man driven by a recurring compulsion to engage in a culturally misunderstood activity that contributes no direct benefit to society or myself. Furthermore, I am overtly aware that pursuing this activity will result in harmful consequences to my mental wellbeing, my social interactions, and ultimately my home life. This is the price of addiction.

The more opiate I take, the more I require to feed the hunger. Tolerance to my drug increases with each hit. It’s very simple, the more I have the more I need. I am past a harmless want. The quality of my particular drug varies so wildly it teases me. Every time I take a hit, just after the initial release, there is a moment of deflation. A moment where I am already questioning where I will get a bigger, better, cleaner hit?

I haven’t been a weekend ‘user’ for several years now. My pastime is almost my full time. My living conditions, my career, my friends, are all shaped and manipulated by my drive to get more. I have no handle on this. I am subservient to its will. It has bound me and shackled me. I am not its master; I am its mannequin.

I love my drug. I love it as if it were a new puppy in my arms. I will defend it beyond rational reason and speak passionately of its healing qualities. A clear indication of dependence. For I know what it is doing to me. I justify its every oddity and sympathise with its followers however removed they are from myself. In many respects it has become my religion. Aghast as I am at the horrors of fundamentalism, I try to keep an angle on my dedication to the cause. I play it down in front of non-believers, as they simply wouldn’t understand. I do not pray, or have any shrine towards which I kneel. I have no god to direct my desires to.

My desires are kept in check more by science than faith. Observing meteorological charts and weather systems. By anticipation and calculation. These are my humble devotions. When I go to rest at night, to allow me to sleep I have to visualise being absorbed by my opiate. It calms me. Clearing my thoughts of unwanted clutter. This is the beauty of my drug, my personal relationship with it. The psychological addiction that prevents me from thinking rationally is much the same for those who believe there is a God. It just makes perfect irrational sense.

Surfing is my addiction, my religion and my nemesis. I love it and loathe it, but not in equal measure. It deprives me of time and energy but provides me with unequalled passion and emotional connection. Above all else, it is my therapy for dealing with life. It allows me to live in the present by the requirement of necessity. There is no space for past guilt or future concerns when being consumed by natural perfection. It allows me to be selfish and compassionate simultaneously. For all the things that I fear about this master, like a puppy, I am unconditionally devoted.

Teacher, traveller, writer, surf addict (in descending order), Conrad has had several technical articles published online through his past life as a sport psychology lecturer and bio mechanist via the University of Plymouth, in the UK. He now lives and works in New Zealand where he keeps his habit under control somewhere between the powerful beachies of Piha and long peeling left points of Raglan.