Jay's Surfing / Bodyboarding Blog

Nothing is more conducive to writing than bad weather. It keeps you inside and provides atmosphere and energy. So this morning is awesome for writing, not so much for surfing. Tropical Storm Fay is sitting stationary just overhead. Its relentless onshore winds are churning the ocean into some meaty swell but nothing all that surfable. As the 40 MPH winds and heavy rains swirl just outside my window, I came across an old piece about surf style:

"A surfer lives his/her life like the waves themselves. Although battered by cross-winds and cross-chop and bent by reefs and sandbars, they always stay true to their source and direction. And a surfer, no matter how heavy the responsibilities of life may become, will always make it to the beach. This experience goes far beyond simply the thrill of a good ride. The sun rising over the ocean, a good wipeout, the view of a perfect unridden wave, or even a joke made among friends in between sets all serve as food for the surfer's soul."

A pretty ridiculous surfing as life metaphor? I won't deny that, but it also sheds light on the surfing spirit and brings to my mind the strange reality that I have met non-surfers with a surfing spirit. Ya know, folks who were not fortunate enough to be birthed near Mother Ocean, but nonetheless exude gobs of obvious surf spirit. It's not something you have to describe; it's something you just know. Surf style isn't just the way you ride a wave but also the way you ride through life: the lines you choose and the way you respond to the falling lips and jagged reef of a day in your life. Do you straighten out or pull in and drive that shack? If you are reading this and you have never caught a wave in your life, it doesn't mean you can't plug into a piece of the surf spirit.

The spirit comes out from your pencil as you write and is present in that connection between you and your child and there is no doubt it is in Fay's wind as it lashes against my window. It's love and nature and religion all ground together, stuffed into a tea bag and steeped in the ocean of your soul.

Bring it on Fay. I want to keep on writing.

Uhg! School is coming back around for the youngsters and the days of free flowing days at the beach riding waves and lying in the sand under the summer sun are quickly coming to an end. But surfing isn't the stuff of pariahs, hippies, and maniacs anymore. Surfing is a sport these days with all the trappings of Pop Warner and little league. Ever heard of the NSL? The rambling beach rats of yesterday are fast becoming the meal tickets of tomorrow...sponsored at 7 years old and traveling the globe as a pre-teen...with hopes of making big bank on the deck of a thruster by 20. Is it a natural progression that all sports experience or a manipulation by little league parents who just happen to be surfers? Is there anything wrong with pushing your little one to compete if he/she enjoys it? Shoot, some kids thrive on competition and the thrill of winning. It's Darwinism I think.

But it's the bigger picture that makes some cringe. Surfing at its core was always a free form artistic expression that cannot be quantified, graded, or all fenced in by rules. Sounds a lot like school or politics or something which surfing was meant to be an escape from. Another idea is that competitive surfing is a viable option for kids who are without focus or direction. The truth is that surfing is all things to all people, but should always be fun and enriching to the spirit. Without those qualities, surfing is just like any activity (which maybe it is...I mean doesn't a tennis player have his/her own style and get a blast of stoke from scoring?), and as with any real dilemma, we are really left with questions because only closed minds find easy answers. Surfing is more complex than that, and in essence more simple. Did I just blow your mind? Probably not; however, kids are surfing and competing at extremely young ages (my own 7 year-old is paddling in to waves on his own and I'm stoked). Maybe it's all a non-issue, but I always thought that school and surfing were very different beasts, but they seem to be on a collision course.

Okay, I have joked about Hollywood surf flicks in the past. Ya know...the campy fun of Point Break, the utter gut spasms induced by In God's Hands, my unabashed praise of the sentimental awesomeness of North Shore and, of course, how the cartoon characters in Surf's Up are probably Hollywood's most realistic surfers yet. I dug Big Wednesday and savored every cinematic moment of The Endless Summer. I have stacks of surf vids that range from Searching for Tom Curren, The Occumentary, all the old Billabong flicks like Surf into Summer leading all the way to all the Taylor Steele shred fests. Whew! That was a long way to go to establish the fact that I have been exposed to a sea of surf-related cinema in my day. However, Matt McConaughey's new attempt to drop into the Hollywood surf cess pool looks to be a real stank burger. Of course, I am basing this simply on the trailer (and Willie Nelson is in it), so I could always be wrong. But probably not. Check out the clip above of Surfer Dude and judge for yourself. However, this pile of "dude" doo isn't the only major surfing release on the horizon. Kelly Slater is looking to add something more to his already endless wave riding media accomplishments by starring in a 3-D IMAX surf travel explosion entitled the Ultimate Wave.

The question is, of course, which film will pack the house and allow Joe Movie-goer a chance to see the artistc beauty and adventure of the true surfing experience. What do you think?

All Original Surf Instruction Articles
After surfing and writing for many years, I have now drafted enough beginner info to take you from paddling and standing to doing floaters and airs. You can even learn to compete and judge a contest heat through my original articles. So get your move on and get out in the water.

Yikes... What a title! Read along and judge whether this deserves such a lofty moniker: Lots of wordwide surf events swirling this week...Flat summer blues are settling back in on much of the U.S. but the Rip Curl Pro Search Somewhere contest is finding waves "somewhere" today. Lucky blokes! Slater is the man to beat, but Parko has a shot at solidifying his second place slot with a big win. Also, it seems that Nathaniel Curran is keeping the family ripping tradition by grabbing a first place slot on the WQS (World Qualifying Series) and looks to be solid for next year's World Championship Tour. Also, Bud Browne, who was an early surf film pioneer, died at the age of 96. RIP

All this disparate surf related "stuff" makes you think about how everything that happens exists on separate but constant continuums. Who might be pulling into a fat tube at this very second, getting the wave of his life, or getting caught inside and smashed over a shallow reef while you read this? Right this second. It doesn't mean that reading about it on the computer or in a mag makes you less of a surfer or that you are somehow missing out on your human experience because you'll be that guy or girl having the stellar session at some point while someone else sits and does something trite and boring.

So what if you miss that one day of waves and your buddies say "Dude, you missed it!"...Well, you did miss it, but they will miss another day. Sure, work and other nonsurfing activities often intrude on our full ocean immersion goal, but that's life and there are other things happening out there that warrant some attention. Can you truly ignore it all and surf every day? Sure, some have done it. But you may pay in the long run because most of the world (I mean like 99.999%) can't devote every second to surfing. You might end up lonely in the end. I think the key is balance. Understand that a day of work actually builds your stoke and makes surfing even more special. That may not make the fact any better that the buoys are building and the wind is forecast to be offshore in the morning, and you have a full day of work planned, but it may give you enough strength to make it through without killing someone. Besides, none of this means you can't call in sick every once in a while.

There's surfing and then there's mind surfing. Ya know, when you're sitting on the beach watching a wave break innocently and you are imagine all horrifically wonderful things you'd like to do to it. Flying over sections and threading tubes on a metaphysical level. I remember sitting on the beach early in the morning before school with my good friend Josh Zietz, watching perfect knee high zippers and picturing ourselves as G.I. Joe sized surfers sitting in the lineup. Each of us offered a narrative play-by-play of every wave that dribbled in. "I got this one. I'm paddling, hopping to my feet...off the bottom and WHACK off the lip fins out. Jump on to the roof and float the boat over the next section and free fall into the pit SHWACK under the lip snap." That's how it went. If there was some swell, we probably wouldn't make it to school that day, but some mind surfing would suffice. If you need any help with your mind surfing imagery, check out this video. It's straight up Kelly Sl8ter-ifically heinous.

Why isn't anyone using the above catch phrase to write about the hurricane plowing into the Gulf Coast? I say "Hello Dolly." You know the song, right? Okay, maybe not, but it has been a great summer for the lower right quadrant of the nation while California has been lighting up like a Christmas tree. Let's not forget the Northeast who has also reaped (and ripped) the bennies of Big Bertha. Man...It's good to be a surfer.

In professional news, Sunny Garcia is battling back from legal problems (i.e. jail and probation) to re-qualify for the World Championship Tour. In the small stuff these days he's not as light on his feet as he was back in the days of Surf into Summer or Filthy Habits (seen above shredding on Kauai). But there is no denying his chops at big Sunset, Haleiwa, or Pipe. Or heck, I've seen the guy take apart a plethora of west side spots in Hawaii. I remember stretching on the beach at sunrise before a go out at at Yokahama Bay and staring wide-eyed at Garcia going suicidal into some nasty rights over dry reef. Quite heinous...I must say. No worries Sunny. Youth is not that big of a deal anymore. Just look at Slater and Knox who are ripping all over them little whipper snappers.

How has Hollywood Treated the Surf Culture?
Do you remember where you were when In God's Hands was released? Or can you recite any of Keanu's lines from Pointbreak? Probably not. Take a look at some of the most memorable surf moments in modern celluloid (Irony is a factor here, andThe Endless Summer is exempt from this list for obvious reasons).

Not only did I just get out of the water after three straight days of bombin' hurricane surf courtesy of Bertha, but I also finished a great book about one of surfing's most outrageous individuals.

Miki Dora was a surf maniac. He bled and breathed the lifestyle and pulled hijinks and hoodwinks along the way from SoCal to South Africa to France to New Zealand to Chile and beyond. No job and no responsibility from day one to his death bed and with surfing at the top of his to-do list, Miki Dora lived life close to the bone and left burnt bridges and a trail of fake checks and passports in his wake. The title All for a Few Perfect Waves highlights the problematic nature of the surfing lifestyle just as Dora's life epitomizes a blend of the surfing dream and the surfing tragedy. What do surfers have to give up to ride waves? I don't mean just hitting the waves once a month on a Sunday afternoon. I mean really committing to the salt, sand, and sun to be there whenever it's on. It takes sacrifice and end up affecting others in your life. Your wife, your boss, your kids, maybe even your pets. It's Shakespearean almost...almost.

The problem with waves is that they are here and then they disappear...whoosh! Gone like ghosts and unique like snowflakes. Your surf experience is only as rich as your last session. Everything else is just a vapor. My goal: Get to sleep and grab the last few drops of that Bertha swell in the morning. Get every wave you can before you die. I think those memories will be more valuable than money when it's all over.

Waiting for a hurricane swell in the summer in Florida is like...Well, there is no hyperbolic simile that possibly expresses that feeling. Tropical systems in the Atlantic are notoriously erratic and fickle. Back in the olden times of yore when there Internet forecasters and wave cams were only a magical dream, we didn't start salivating about a potential storm swell until the buoys popped up or the storm tracked into the swell window. But now...two weeks out with the hint some tropical development, surfers wax up and start stretching like Pavlov's dog. The whispers start to swirl about what spots will be good and what the winds will be doing and then whoosh. The storm dissipates or changes course. This isn't the case in Hawaii or Cali since the Pacific in so much more alive and dynamic.

Jagged coastline and a multiple of directional swell generators enable those on the Pacific Rim to stay ever positive about the coming swell. East coasters, however, become jaded and pessimistic with each promise of a new swell broken by high-pressure ridge or the push of some week trough. Sure we can lay claim to mosquitoes and alligators and snakes and humidity and swamps and rednecks (not that there's anything wrong with that) and having the most phallic shaped state in the bunch (sorry Idaho), but the lack of credible summer swell can be maddening (especially when economic concerns have derailed a scheduled surf trip...uhg!). But rest assured Floridians, you can always say that Kelly Slater is from your "area" and that about two years ago, the surf was really good.

but hey! The buoys are inching up, so I'll be up at dawn ready for whatever Bertha is serving.