The surf world has been swirling the last week with all kinds of interesting flotsam and jetsam. From drug testing to Tebowing to a surf-related arrest in Chicago that somehow involves Kelly Slater, see if you can find any rhyme or reason to these loosely connected surf stories. The only theme I see is that surfing is becoming more and more saturated by outside influences and and further spread out among the cultural landscape.

First, the ASP has finally made up its mind on drug testing its competitors. And the penalty for breaking said policy could lead to "at least one (1) year Ineligibility for the first violation and disqualification of all the Surfer's individual results obtained in all relevant Events with all consequences, including forfeiture of all medals, points and prizes..." Now, that includes testing for both performance enhancing as well as  recreational drugs. There are some loopholes and wiggle room for the athletes if you read deeper into the language, but for the most part the ASP is falling in line with mainstream professional sports and most of the top 34 surfers have expressed their support of the policy and are hoping that it will boost the image and marketability of professional surfing. Lay surfers seem to be expressing concern about a general dulling of the edge of surfing as it looks  more and more like tennis every day.

To further this argument, a surfer was photographed "Tebowing" as he cruised along a wave in Hawaii. The local broadcaster said he was part of the "Tebow-mania" while at the same time, Quiksilver has rolled out its football franchise boardshorts. I'm getting woozy.

For the last story, we travel to Chicago where an artist, poet, and tea company employee Rex Flodstrom was arrested for surfing. Come on! The guy is hardcore. Give him a break. Evidently, the rules governing riding "perfect" waves in Lake Michigan are even harsher than the ASP's drug testing policy as Flodstrom was hauled off to jail, prompting none other than Kelly Slater to Tweet "Surfing is not a crime...Maybe a few of us should attend court with him."

Meanwhile, you can go chill at Surfer, The Bar which has opened at the North Shore Turtle Bay Resort where you can hob nob with legends like Mark Healy, Clyde Aikau, and Fred Hemmings while they share insane stories from their lives in the ocean. That actually sounds like a good time.

So there is a bar-version of Surfer Mag, surfers acting and dressing like pro football players as they ride waves, Kelly Slater coming to the aid of a Chicago poet, and professional surfing shedding its hard-partying image.  Please allow me to process all this for a moment. Maybe I need to go chill and for quick longboard session to clear my mind. But like the elements of foil relate to the overall shape of a surf board, all these stories have one thing in common, they speak to the greater narrative that is the wonderful art of surfing.

Music and surfing are inseparable. Their kinship goes back to the ukulele no doubt as Hawaiians recomposed amidst post-olo board sessions (picture Eddie and Clyde Aikau chillin' around a fire after a Waimea session, ukulele and some cold ones in hand)  , but the term "surf music" waxed electric a generation later as Californian beach culture exploded. 1960's acts like Duane Eddy and The Ventures developed the instrumental rhythms that would stoke legions of surfers. The sound was honed to perfection by Dick Dale and exploded in beautiful absurdity via The Surfaris' "Wipeout." While the genre faded as the 70's approached, surfers still turned to music as fuel and therapy. But as the years went on, the sounds of such giants as the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Lynard Skynard, and the Stones showed how difficult surf music was becoming categorize, but the power to amp was always the secret ingredient.

Reportedly, Rabbit looked to David Bowie for tunes to get tubed by while Tom Curren looked back to the Who to inspire his swooping cutbacks.

The 80's saw the rise of the modern surf flick and bands featured in movies like "Son of the Last Surf Movie," "The Performers," and "Mad Wax" became synonymous with pre-surf stoke sessions. The Hoodoo Gurus, Gangagang, the Talking Heads, the Untouchables can conjure vivid images of entire movie segments with a single chord or verse.  At the same time, traveling surfers had gravitated to Bob Marley who defined the parameters of reggae and consequently created a genre that could probably be most closely associated with the term "surf music."

Surfers in the nineties were pushing surfing to radical heights and thus needed more musical energy. Surf movies exploded with frenetic soul from Jane's Addiction, Nirvana, and Sublime (and if memory serves even Limp Bizkit and the Offspring). Tom Curren provided his own soundtrack to "The Search" and single-handedly put a guitar in the hand of every pro surfer for the next decade, inspiring the likes of today's surf music purveyors like Jack Johnson, Donavon Frankenreiter, and Timmy Curran. While the Beach Boys didn't even surf, today's biggest surf rock artists are also top-notch wave riders themselves.

What does that mean? Did surfing influence them to create something great or are surfers just so narrow minded we only support our own kind? The big question is what's next?

Undoubtedly, I missed about a million great bands that have stoked you out. So share your favorites with the world and include them in the "comments" below.

The weekend...a holiday...a day off work and it's flat. Is that some kind of a joke? A full 24 hours of navigating a world without waves. Is that some kind of ironic slap in the face or Mother Nature's response to our nonsensical pandering to an artificial schedule of days and labor. No matter how you slice it, a day off is an excuse to go surfing, but it's flat. So what now?

Maybe you are checking the beach today in New York. Maybe you're waking up in Hawaii, or checking the buoys for tomorrow's session in Bali. Oooh! You Aussies have no idea how lucky you are to live Down Under. That's the crazy thing; surfers sometimes have no idea how lucky they are just to be surfers. Heck, I owe my life to surfing. I wouldn't have traveled to all the interesting places and met all the awesome folks around the world (or my wife for that matter). Every session has made up my collective self and who I am as a human being.

Maybe there is some real reason why it's flat on the day you have off. It's the day for guys and girls who take surfing for granted to think about how lucky they are...just to be surfers. Sure, we can't all go full-on Dave Rastovich and save the whales and dolphins everyday. We do have jobs. But you can go pick up some trash at your local beach. Give your shaper a hug. Join the Surfrider Foundation. Think about what life would be like without surfing, and then most of all stay healthy so that you can surf when the moment arises (sounds like a Viagra commercial). And when that next swell hits, ride every wave with a smile and dig life for the happiness it brings.

But probably, after you mind surf those little peelers and dream yourself into the miniscule Lego dude sized barrel, you'll go scrambling for the best surfboard for those tiny waves. But I guess, I am just hoping that we surfers will not just remain consumers of accessories and resources, but maybe we can sometimes create and give something back because we are lucky to be surfers in the first place.

Holy Moly! Looking over the year end ASP rankings, there is one theme that screams for attention: Brazil has arrived. Traditionally, South American surfers seemed to hang on to the tour by sheer determination and guts, but the most dominant innately talented surfers generally hailed from surfing strongholds of Australia and America. But just take a gander at this year's rankings. Gabriel Medina finished in 4th ahead of Jordy and Julian and Mick. And he didn't do this by slogging it out with 9th and 17th place finishes,. He won events convincingly. And what needs t be stated is that he only hopped on tour at the mid year cut off. Bam! Big airs and big turns (sure, in smaller waves), but he also made  the quarters of the Pipe event, Dare I say this is nothing to be sneezing at? Which brings me to the next great South American hope: Adriano de Souza. De Souza is more seasoned and emits less flash and spark, but with 4 straight top-10 finishes, he ain't just lucky. This guy has repeatedly beat the best and for fleeting moments lead the tour at 1st place.

Now Heitor Alves does come off as the traditional work horse rather than an innate surfing talent, but his moments have been brilliant all over the world, and he comes in a respectable 16th in the rankings, just above a young and aggressive newbie Miguel Pupo. Pupo is cut from the same cloth as Medina but may lack that competitive animal inside. That remains to be seen, but his radical aerial attack looks to be looming over the more traditional players for next year. My prediction is that Gabriel Media will improve on his 4th place for next year, and his rising star will serve as a herald to all those little Brazilian surf rats looking up to him. De Souza will remain steadfast in the top-10 and Pupu will be a major giant killer for 2012.