The School of Surfing?

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.