Surfers: The 2%ers
Last week I was shown an infographic of an average surf session. In it, each aspect of surfing – paddling for waves, sitting and waiting, standing on the board - was divvied up into a percentage of the whole session. Standing on a surfboard, the infographic said, comprised just 2% of the whole surf session experience.
I didn't think much of it at the time, it was Friday afternoon, my mind was moving on to other matters. Yet that statistic took hold over the weekend slowly burning its way out of my subconscious. The process was slow but by Sunday night it had consumed my thoughts. I couldn't think of anything else: Just 2% of surfing involves actual surfing!
But not only that, we spend 24 times more time paddling (47%) and 25 times more time just sitting doing nothing (53%).
If you were to invite an economic rationalist into your life – or perhaps you already subscribe to the theory – this infographic would be their first port of call.
“It makes no sense,” our imaginary economist would say while making a sweeping motion with his arm. “You spend all this money, waste all this time, invest all this energy, and yet this is all you get back? A mere 2%?”
And yeah, when you think about the number it's a bit of a shock, so you slowly nod in agreement with your imaginary economist, suddenly affronted by your wasteful ways. You think about the thousands of dollars spent on surfboards over the last twenty years, the thousands spent on petrol while chasing waves, and *gulp* the thousands spent on travel seeking better waves.
Cursory mathematics puts the sum somewhere near $50,000, but probably higher. $100,000. And for what? A sum total of three hours actually riding a wave, little of which can actually be recalled such is the fleeting nature of the experience.
“Madness,” you say aloud, and the imaginary economist solemnly nods his head. Maybe, you think to yourself, it's time to slash and burn this surfing gig. Take up a sport like football where the siren sounds and it's game on. Never mind what Wayne Lynch reckons, that's the real involvement dream.
Or maybe wait for Greg Webber's wavepool to become reality. In an interview with Swellnet three years ago he argued the merits of his pool. “No waiting and no competing for waves” Webber said. Each wave would go for 30 seconds “and in one hour you'll get 12 of them.” Six minutes of foot time every hour! That's 500% more than we're currently getting. I smile inwardly to myself, the imaginary economist smiles back. That's the kind of robust return he likes.
I start wondering if it's possible to do the same in a natural setting, spend more time actually surfing and less time doing other things. I'll have to take a hit on quality, no more waiting for the best sets, and there'll be the odd drop in or two, but the foot time percentages will certainly increase. I smile at the thought.
And there's always room for improvement. On dry land I can invest less of myself into surfing and so improve the dividends. I can streamline my life and take reign over my thoughts. No more daydreaming about surfing. No more time wasted. The imaginary economist gives me hope and a mantra to repeat. “It's all about the numbers,” he says.
Confident that I'm on the right track my economist leaves me to my own devices.
Alone again, I click online to see what's happening. First stop Swellnet to see what the waves will be like later this week, then check for airline specials to Samoa, I've heard about a wave on the north side that pumps, and I'll probably need some new boards from Pato. Might call in to the factory and talk some shit. Pull a half inch of width out of the nose of my next board and jam a quarter inch of tail lift in too.
“It's all about the numbers...”
Comments
Yeah this one is definitely a case for the economist of the soul.
Its the first thing any one looks at when designing a training program. Heats are often almost identical. Sometimes even less activity, and skis are used. It was common knowledge many years ago.
I think it was Tim Winton that described surfing as "A beautiful waste of time". Not everything in life needs to have a ROI.
A study of 15 surfers doesn't mean much. If it was done in a long period inconsistent swell it would be seriously off the mark for other conditions. If you want to actually maximise your wave riding time a good bank with a short period swell would be the best bet.
Even years ago at Uni when I studied specific training for various sports, and specific roles in those sports, and then later when in Ballina at SCU, which included periodization, cycles blah blah blah, surfing was discussed in detail, mainly as a comparison and due to the lack of activity levels.
Well I can only speak for myself but I've decided that no, it's not worth it anymore. Gave away all my gear a week ago. Time to focus on fishing instead.
I think you are right uplift and it has got worse over the years, not just because of the crowds but because of the big shift downwards in the attitude towards competition for waves. We were brought up to go hard and the devil take the hindmost. No mercy. That seemed to be the prevailing attitude right through the 70s and 80s. I know a lot of people hated it and just wanted to be all cool and groovy, but for me, if you want to take turns at something, try tennis! These days a lot of that has gone, people just sit in the one spot, sometimes for extraordinary lengths of time, waiting for "their" wave......and they consider it exercise!
Stu, is the imaginary economist, that makes a sweeping motion with his arm, kinda skinny, and have dark, whispy yet receding hair, and large forehead? And is he wearing a loosely fitting button up long sleeve shirt with a pale pink check pattern to it?
Because that's what I was imagining..
Shoredump, I guess we've all got our own imaginary economist. Here's what I see when I close my eyes:
jesus..... Don't close your eyes, stu.......
Yeh, its good to use the whole area of the breaking wave. Around here we always tried to share around if a few were in the water, ie, take a few prime ones, hang right on the inside for a few, few mid way, then repeat. Here and other places we were lucky, you could have pumping surfs just chasing everything, no one else out. Having said that, one thing I loved about Lennox was the no mercy pack. Especially at school knock off time. Every wave was wanted by the high level ability pack, nothing went through unridden, so it was work your arse off or watch. Which is good for your surfing.
Pffft...... And? A prospector may dig for weeks, sift stones for months, years.... Then bam.... The nugget dreams are made of......
Golf..... How much time is spent actually hitting the ball? Adam Scott looks at his bank account and couldn't give a 2 hoots....
Fishing..... Might fish for 4 hours and not get a bite, let alone fight a fish.....
Surfing is a malleable pastime.... Different things to different people..... And "economic rationalists" were on that ill fated spaceship in hitchhikers guide to the galaxy......
'Surfing is a malleable pastime'
True for recreational surfers, but the breakdown is not, and never has been good news as far as selling it in the marketplace as a product, and is a real, and ever growing measure applied to every sport and specific position/role in that sport, re training.
I spend way too much time rockfishing for Jew and Pelagics. Failure and hours without a hookup is the norm not the exception.
But the rush of the strike and the anticipation keep you coming back for more.
Surfing is the same.
Uplift - " How was your surf this morning, dawg?"
Dawg - "Fuckn great!!! My new go pro timer watch scored me at 4.2%!!"
Uplift - "4.2%??!! Bullshit!!!"
Dawg - "Nah, here.. have a look......."
Uplift - ( looking at the digital readout).. "Awwwwesome!!!!!!"
Dawg _ "I know right.... My previous best was 3.8%... Best surf ever!!!!! And oh lift, ya shoulda seen this fuckn kook"....
Uplift - ( laughing) - hehehe, what happened?"
Dawg - "Mate... he just sat out the back for 2 hours... He only caught the 3 biggest set waves of the morning and got a 5 second barrel on his last wave and then went in.... I reckon he only scored 0.8%.....
Uplift - "What a fuckn kook.... "
Dawg - "Yeah, I reckon.... We were all laughing at him..... If ya can't get over 3%, you should just give it away"....
;)
Yeah Sheepie theres more too it than just catching waves,its the whole experience and getting a few good waves is the icing on the cake.2 % of something good is better than 2 % of nothing.
have had this discussion many times while driving home...up an hour and half before dawn...drive at least an hour...look around a bit...get changed ...do the long walk over the dunes, over the rocks wade out,,,paddle for 15-20mins then sit and wait for a wave that you'll ride for about 7 seconds!spend 3 hours in the water, catch 15-20 waves that are any good, paddle in, wade back over the rocks, up the dunes, get changed and drive home...6-7 hrs trip, and around 2 -4 minutes of surfing.......totally worth it! yeww
How long did you say you lived in the desert for dawg?
My soul is a desert, lift.... A dry barren wasteland.... lol
2% or 20% it doesn't really matter when you follow Dora's code...."Life is a waste of time and surfing is as good a way to waste it as any."
If catching waves took no time, commitment or effort would we still value the reward of that single great wave which can make a whole session worthwhile??
Am i just being thick? Why does it not add up to 100%?? 53+4+43+2+2= 104
I think it means 43% is total paddling 4% of which is sprint paddling.
.
Got me by a sprint Blowin;)
Aaah time expands inside the tube!!
They left out 'contemplating your naval' activity. 2% is a great return on effort.
15 male surfing athletes ride waves for 2% of their time. What am I pulling 1.25%? Shit.
Thankfully being in the ocean is a reward in itself. Paddling though....
They also forgot;
.holding your breath/hold downs
. clowning around (standing on submerged board etc)
. energy used whilst sitting waiting ( keeping balance in large or choppy conditions does burn tummy fat, unlike sitting on the couch)
. and of course unzipping and zipping the wettie for a Saturday grog bog lol
a mate of mine took up kite surfing for this reason.. alot less down time..
Got one of them new fangled GPS tide watches for my 50th birthday (thanks Sis).
For example, last Saturday at 13th, 2 1/2 hours in the water 10 waves (avg 80m ride with best of 159m) total distance 8.5km (7.7km "paddling" includes floating with side current and paddling back to take off spot)
According to my basic high school maths, that's one wave every 15 minutes.
If I had focused more in maths I could work out my ride time based on distance and speed...........
But still had a great day, fun waves, friendly crew, not at work....what is that worth??
What the study doesn't account for is that a cognitive rationalisation of time ignores how bodies do not experience time is such a way. Bodies are "affective" in that they experience time as intensities. The 2% is intensive - focus, bodily motion, heightened sensorial intake, subjective, ecology, etc - thereby altering what a percentage of time would mean. Embodied time cannot be calculated with such crude scientific measurement.
Lovingly yours,
Benedict Spinoza.
Love the Spinoza reference Clif, contrasted with Jezza's "objective" analysis from his watch and you realise that the more you analyse the more of the experience you can lose.
Analysis vs synthesis - the benefits and limitations of science.
I won't be getting a GPS watch anytime soon, I want surfing to remain a spiritual escape for as long as possible.
North Coast of Samoa Pumps! If Jaws goes off, 2 days later Samoa does the same but about half the size and longer period. Cheap too!
'Funny wind, X will be on tomorrow.'
'Dunno Lifty that track's fucked, takes fuck'n hours too, then the fuck'n walk. Shark hole too. Sick when its on though.'
'Hey where ya been lifty, was it any good?'
Yeh, but fuck, slipped down that rocky bit, snapped the selector off the gearbox too. Left the car and walked in. Surfed on me own all day... sick waves. Something was pretty suss for a while though, seal went crazy trying to climb up on me board. Slept overnight. Insane out there, no one for miles and miles. The night sky was bullshit. Wind was around in the morning, meditated in a beautiful gully. Nungas in Lincoln have some good stories about that place, feels amasing. Found some good spots for seed picking too, looks like a desert, but so much life when you really look. Should have seen the swell smashing into the cliffs. So raw, pristine. Be no one around that way for weeks, had to walk out, just took the board and wettie and shit, made it to the main drag in the arvo, finally got a lift back with a cocky.'
Check the net for the conditions? Doesn't exsist. Ring the mobile? Doesn't exsist. Check the paper. Trucks not coming till next week. What about the TV. There isn't any.
'Surfing tomorrow lifty?'
'Nah, gotta go inland and dig X's grave.'
'Why don't ya use the backhoe?'
'Nah, you know the cockies, its a respect thing, dug his missus grave too.'
'What about the arvo?'
'Nah, gotta work, wanna get that new board.'
'Coming to the pub?'
'Nah, doing a workout... shoulders tonite... fucked if I'm having fucked shoulders!!!'
'Ha, did ya hear some young kid's comin over from WA, gonna get his photo in the mags'
'Nup.'
Years later, on the way to the surf.
'Seen that shit on Swellnet Lifty?'
'What's Swellnet?'
'Have a look at this, theyre all getting stuck in to Schmucker.'
'What the fuck is this fuck'n crap, who the fuck are all these fuck'n maggots? They're bagging his missus, kids, brothers, his whole fuck'n family, gutless fucked up cunts. He was one of the few surfers born here, none of us are angels, but fuck he's put up with some stupid shit over the years. Who the fuck are they, why don't they just go and see him in person? Remember the time that cunt sunk his dinghy and he decked the cunt in the main street, in front of the whole town. Then that other fuckwit picked him at grannies, and ended up in fuck'n hospital... the rest shit fuck'n bricks. Remember that night in the pub that pissed cunt has had a go at him, fuck'n hilarious!!! Kaboom!! He was a tough young cunt Schmucker wasn't he. Straight up, no bullshit, at least you knew what you were dealing with. If only he didn't surf so good when he was a kid, he woulda been fine.'
'What workout ya doing tonite lifty?'
'Fucked if I know, better checkout what the dawg reckons... '
The dawg reckons............. "do as I say.... Not as I did".....
What happened to Schmucker?
Nothing, he's mellowed a lot, just the same as always though. Fishing and surfing. He's ok, is what he is.
Fuck his kid's deluxe eh. They all are.
I think it is more of an observation than an analysis of my session mk1.
The data output doesn't cover the what I clearly remember from the session, the late drop and bottom turn around the section onto a clean face followed by a nice long ride with a few cutbacks, the high line to dodge the paddlers followed by the cutback around the mal rider, hooting the young bloke on a single fin into the wave of the day, the surprisingly warm water (for Vicco), the shoulder burn after a long session etc etc
Fair point Jezza
Jeff Smux,come back mate, miss those W.O.T.D. pics .....your good with the lens ,dig ya facebook page pics.
I just wasted 0.02% of my day reading this uninspiring disputation... Obviously no waves at moment
Stu, that 2% reading is over the mark by a fair margin for the great bulk of east coast surfers. 2% would be a good day, a rare day.
So why go surfing.
Let's get realistic. Time actually spent surfing, 1 %, maybe. Time wasted = 0%
Time spent paddling. 45%, but it wasn't a means to an end, it was an end in itself. Could have gone off on a run, tied myself to the weights machine, swum laps in the pool, but I'd only be doing that so that I could maintain sufficient fitness to go surfing. Keeps the weight down, the concentration exercised as well, and keeps the metabolism going, and gave the heart and lungs a workout.
Time wasted - 0%
Time spent sitting on a board - 54%
Time wasted?
If I was sitting there whinging and bitching about crowds, getting aggro with the last c@#$ that dropped in on me, thinking about who was giving me the shits the most at the moment, stressing about work or thinking about anything other than being out there in the water and watching the ocean's moods then I have wasted all that time.
If I sat around talking shit with friends, laughing, chatting with a complete stranger, sat silently enjoying the moment, sat consciously taking in every facet of being out there, the colour and feel of the water, the location, the dunes and trees behind the beach, the salty taste, the wind and the effect it was all having on every cell in my body - time wasted = 0%
I don't just go surfing any more, I paddle out and see what happens, everything else is a bonus.
People practice meditation for years, devoting as much time to it in some cases as we do to surfing, and the best that any can hope for is mere moments of complete and utter stillness, a silence that can last for seconds over a whole year's worth of meditating for hours a day. I know that from personal experience.
And that moment can change every other moment in every other day you ever have from that point forward.
You can't remember those moments with any clarity either.
Surfing a waste of time, hell no. On my death bed, my regrets will be all those times I went into the office.
That, my friend, is a waste of time.
I spent yesterday driving 250km and back to get 6 nice waves in a 2 hour session. It just happened to coincide with a work assignment so all was good. But think of the actual percentage of time on waves for the overall time (they were nice long waves -not big but uncrowded,long ride and heaps of fun ). It was worth it. CH always is when its like that.
That was not a waste of time at all. Yes the crew on and offshore were good to interact with and added greatly to the experience. Even chatting about a historical local infamous character nicknamed as - "10men" , seems he had a polite pleasant side to his personality that i had never seen - just not when he was surfing. It was all about "tenmen 20% , rest 0 .2%. That to me is the real turn off in surfing -the narcissistic wave hogs that we have to share the water with sometimes.
80% of the time sitting on 'yer arse?....
The "soul" reason why bodysurfing rules!
yew.
Just had a look at this forum and I think the thing which is most clear to me is yes, absolutely friggin yes that 2% is worth it. Although clearly only a minute percentage, on the right day that 2% accounts for some pretty bloody amazing memories/feelings - not only for the rest of the time spent in that session, but for weeks / months years in some cases.... My best ever tube only accounts for probably somewhere in the region of .00001 percent of all the time ive ever spent surfing but shit, it was good and that few measly seconds wobbling through a heaving tunnel, whilst thinking I was killing it is still something which made the previous 10 years of surfing worth it in itself...... Anyhow, from my own calculations I have worked out that in regard to sex - roughly 20 percent is spent begging, 25 percent is spent trying to find the bloody condoms which arnt where I left them, a further 53% of the time is trying to hold off from the inevitable and 2% is spent in the throes of the orgasm, the best bit!.... Well that doesn't stop me from doing it and enjoying it.... Although on second thoughts Im thinking now that I perhaps need some help and advice in regards to my own calculations
I regularly get up around 8% of my session actually wave riding, that's four times what it's claimed that 'we all get'. It's one of the reasons why I class so many surfers as mere floaters.
Lets hear about your last throaty barrel Roy.
People in glass houses mate.....
you surfing point waves Roy?
then doing the walk around?