Teahupoo vs Chopes
Chopes chopes chopes chopes....
Isn't Teahupoo the name of the village? Who named the break, Poto?, ask him (them) what the wave's called.
Likewise with Grajagan, that's the village across the bay so call the surf spot whatever you want I reckon. I doubt the villagers are gunna give a shit! Etc etc...
As an aside who named DP (rhetorical question), there ain't no desert and it ain't no point break.
That side of Lombok is in a rain shadow and quite dry and deserty compared to the other regions around it, hence the name (I believe). Point/Reef that's another argument.
braudulio wrote:Isn't Teahupoo the name of the village? Who named the break, Poto?, ask him (them) what the wave's called.
Yep, Teahupoo is the village at the end of the road. It's a geographical place name. Not sure who named the wave or even if they named it something different.
Craig wrote:That side of Lombok is in a rain shadow and quite dry and deserty compared to the other regions around it, hence the name (I believe). Point/Reef that's another argument.
Lombok is on the eastern side of the Wallace Line - or as I like to call it, Wally's Line - and is drier than Bali and places further west.
Heaven forbid someone could shorten the name of a wave/town. Next we'll be shortening the names of countries themselves ;)
Craig wrote:That side of Lombok is in a rain shadow and quite dry and deserty compared to the other regions around it, hence the name (I believe). Point/Reef that's another argument.
yeah fair enough, but so's the entire Bukit. Anyway I think it probably had more to do with misdisinformation back in the day before the interwebs. Mind it's still 'wet' enough there for malarial mosquitos, or at least used to be.
Interesting Stu, how's this also..
"The distributions of many bird species observe the line, since many birds do not cross even the smallest stretches of open ocean water"
"Some bats have distributions that cross the line, but other mammals are generally limited to one side or the other; an exception is the crab-eating macaque. Other groups of plants and animals show differing patterns, but the overall pattern is striking and reasonably consistent."
Wally's Line touches on a few scientific fields: flora, fauna, human migration (the Lombok Strait is so deep it remained a waterway during the last ice age). Plenty of good reading if you're that way inclined.
@Stu
I enjoy a righteous rant on a slow news day. You could've also included Taranaki in your NZ list. I was there last year and heard locals call it the Naki plenty of times. How dare they!
I don't think it is disrespectful.... We do it to out own breaks... "Alex", "Dbah", "Shippies".... Shortened slang is actually part of our Australian culture, "stu", "dawg", "Yorko"....... "maccas", "Dick", "Bill", "Bob".......
Is not allowing us to practice "our culture" disrespectful to us? Or aren't we allowed to have "our ways"? It sounds like someone looking for a fight over nothing, almost reverse racism.... I don't see people in Oahu going into argument mode over "pipe", or "the bay"...
I have seen a few people get shitty over "It's Wagga Wagga!!! Not Wagga!!! Do you call Woy Woy just Woy??!!" :p
BTW, Burleigh heads is the name of the town/suburb and also the break, as is Kirra, as is Lennox....
"Just like you want people to pronounce your country's name right...make an effort to pronounce the name right!"
Ha ha ha...nice try Tony. Firstly, I pronounce Teahupoo correctly all the time. The argument is abbreviation not pronunciation. Secondly, I could care less how people from OS pronounced place names here, leave alone if they abbreviated them.
Far as I can see you're conducting a proxy argument to tell me what I'm allowed to say. And it's a weak argument at that.
Not another Kiwi, Stu... Hoe dare he question your intellect on words bro.
Now that's disrespectful IMO ;)
Oh yeah how dare you call it Pappas..? It's Mammas remember sshhh.
Bro? That's brother to you, Welly.
We don't abbreviate any words around here, right Tony?
Mentawais vs Ments
or
Men-ta-why vs Men-tah-wee
If its an official local name then i guess the only people who have a right to correct you or get upset are locals, but even then if they do its a bit sad.
Breaks that are not known by official location names then you can call them what you like, naming rights etc is a hoax, call waves what you like, in some cases the more names a break has if its remote or semi secret the better as causes confusion.
Gawd. If this bloke was serious, surely he'd show respect for the indigenous language by correctly spelling it as Teahupo'o.
Correct apostrophe placement is very important. So it would seem.
Some people are just to precious about shit like pronounciation, my mother used to try and beat the kiwi accent out of me because it wasnt the Queens english. I know plenty of people who have a cry about pronounciation in NZ and it really is just a load of bollocks. Language is a form of culture and culture is only static in museums. Every surf break I know around my Naki coast has an abreviation, a few examples, fitz, waizees, boggies, backers, ahus, patch, gravies, p road, the list goes on, and it circumnavigates the whole country. This fellow sheep fondler needs to lighten up and get a grip and go surf Rags.
It wasnt poto who found it it was Mike Stewart, Ben Severson and Hoouli Reeves who spotted one wave out at sea spitting only just looked a bit different to the rest of the closeouts.
Pretty sure they named it and it stuck after the road in there.
Houoli first called it "better than pipe" for magazines.
Yeah but if the locals call it one thing and then you call it another 'outsider's name' to a local.... better duck for cover haha!!
what about lengthening names?
the left at the northern end of Thirroul, when it works, is nicknamed Thirrouluwatu - definitely disrespectful to ulus :)
Yeah, my niece calls it the Superbanky.
Kids have no respect:)
This morning I was taken to task by someone on Facebook for calling Teahupoo Chopes. "Teahupoo is its name not Chopes. Show the respect for indigenous language," he said in a mildly condescending way.
Aside from his assumption that I'm disrespecting the Tahitian language - is that even possible? - by abbreviating Teahupoo it got me thinking about how precarious his position is. Within the surfing context, Uluwatu is often called Ulus, even by locals, while Grajagan is universally called G'land. Then there's the myriad names that don't even employ local nomenclature - Macaronis, Scar Reef, Desert Point etc etc etc.. Where does that fit into his disrespectful spectrum?
Over in New Zealand - my accuser was a Kiwi - I've heard Papatowai called Papas many times and Whangamata called Whanga. Again there's probably plenty of other examples too. Do the locals really get het up at the abbreviations?
In the Anglo world this goes on all the time without protest: Narra, Margs, Lenny, the 'Bu in SoCal...shit, even calling it SoCal would be disrespectful in his eyes.
Stepping outside of the surfing bubble: Am I dissing the Italian language when I call my cappucino a cap? The Germans when I called kindergarten kindy? The Spanish when I call a mosquito a mossie? This shit can go on and on and on if you want it to.
This kind of thinking is scarily conservative. It wants to keep cultures and languages - usually indigenous cutures and languages - stored in formaldehyde never to evolve or progress, and anyone who dares use wordplay or abbreviations is desecrating the culture. That's my cerebral interpretation of the issue.
My more blithe take is that they're just words; unless there's a particular meaning or custom then use them how you see fit. It's not always classy but it's mostly fun.