The Outsider: Prologue
Courage is not a defining characteristic of the noble sport of Pro Surfing. The Sport has had no Waterloo, save the winter of 1976, when an armada of Hawaiians lined the shores of Sunset Beach with the intention to violently repudiate the Napoleon of the nascent sport, Rabbit Bartholomew.
They won that battle but lost the war; surfing moved from an essentially pre-commercial, aristocratic activity into the marketplace. Resistance to this fact is both intellectually bankrupt and morally futile; no amount of weepy-eyed nostalgia or deliberate, disabling retroism will bring back the pre-commercial Nirvana.
The future is crowds and the future is now. The question is: what kind of crowds will they be? We'll return to this question shortly.
The ASP is poised for an aggressive new phase of expansion as the global recession recedes and economies recover. The folksy era of Rabbit's Dream Tour is over. New personnel on the ASP board are career suits with backgrounds in Formula One and Hollywood. They speak in press releases, and words like 'global expansion' and 'athlete' roll easily off their tongues.
Now, surfers like Andy Irons and Dane Reynolds may be artists, wizards or whatever but they sure as shit ain't athletes. The expansion will mirror the rebalancing of the world economy with young vibrant countries like Brazil poised for greater dominance.
As a Sport surfing has always struggled for legitimacy, both in the wider world and amongst surfers themselves. Common attitudes range from mild indifference to outright hostility. Ambivalence is a common trait with serious surfers unable to resist the emotional and aesthetic impact of witnessing sublime performances from the likes of Slater, Reynolds, Parkinson and others.
At its best, Pro Surfing has a transcendant quality that belongs aboriginally to the greatest sports moments or dramatic arts performances. More often than not, it is turgid and meaningless. A parade of dross fed to a hungry beast which needs the mediocre to make up the numbers and fill up the time.
The vast bulk of surfers will never pull on a contest singlet, never start and finish their session according to a horn, never try and jag a winning wave in the dying moments of a heat, they will never expect their fellow surfers should exit the water so they can perform. In that respect Pro Surfing is unique as a Sport. No other activity has such an inherent contradiction and tension between the vast bulk of its adherents/participants and the representative elite. To understand the deep core of Latent Anger recreational surfers hold towards the industry and Pro Surfing one need look no further than this simple fact: Pro Surfing expands at the expense of the recreational surfer.
The elephant in the room is crowds. The as-yet unacknowledged responsibility of the ASP, surf corporations and governing bodies is to create a culture of respect. Respect for the very finite resource of waves and the environment and mutual respect between pro and recreational surfers in how they share that finite resource. That is the lens through which history will view the grand adventure of Pro Surfing.
But let us return our unflinching gaze back to the questions of Tahiti and Courage. The tour will be chopped after Chopes, careers will end ingloriously, without fanfare or obituary. Pro surfing shows no mercy for the fallen 'athlete'. The sense of rising to the occasion in the heat of battle will be paramount. Lewis Samuels wrote in a recent issue of Surfer Magazine that the age of bravado had passed and that pros today 'bathed in weakness'. The validity of these comments will be put to the test at Teahupoo.
Certainly, they don't apply to the next tier down, the serial tube junkies and local Tahitians who dominated the Trials. In a perfect world, with ten foot Chopes on offer, they will make a mockery of a fair slab of the Top 44.
Amongst those on the cusp, Dean Morrison and Kieren Perrow deserve the chance to put their bravado in front of the ever-advancing scythe of career oblivion.
Amongst the rest of the 44 we watch Slater's charge for momentum. His final placing at the US Open in Huntington slop will serve as a launching pad for his confidence, which remains sometimes disturbingly fragile as he fights history to attain title ten. Martinez is the most technical goofyfoot tube-rider at Teahupoo, despite the claims of the Hopgoods. He is driven by a core of anger which soothes amongst the peoples of Polynesia.
There is no large swell imminent in the early part of the waiting period. That will test the mental fortitude of those on the cusp. It's doubtful some have the fortitude to fight and in that sense the cut-off can't come quickly enough.
Pro Surfing must embrace a sustainable future if it is to survive and develop a peaceful co-existence with the recreational surfers on whose goodwill it depends.
Tune in for daily reports from your correspondent over the waiting period.
Comments
We talked about this in the forum thread about surfing being a mainstream sport. We didn't get a consensu, but rather two distinct points of view emerged I think.
1. The money making arm of surfing (which needs the tour to survive) is screwing us over and we should try to stop it somehow, and
2. There's nothing we can do to stop the impending crowds as the money making machine needs it and will do everything it can to increase them, so we might as well get used to it and chase more marginal waves as required.
We certainly can't go back to the days of Morning of the Earth in all its hippy glory, which is a shame in itself, but I think if you're prepared to work a bit you'll still be able to get waves to yourself from time to time for some years to come. Personally, I don't buy gear from the big companies as my way of pissing into the wind.
fully agree. and i now vow to never browse surfline again. only this website. so ben, make sure you take it easy with the quikmoney, corpobong and ripdeal ads.
Can't wait for the rest of your comments SS.. Top Notch pal.
'You are not from the Castle, you are not from the village, you aren't anything.
Or rather, unfortunately, you are something, a stranger, a man who isn't wanted and is in everyone's way.'
'Surely I haven't made this endless journey just to be sent back again?'
But, to be sure S, you will return, and you will be victorious.
But in the meantime, fcuk the hegemony. Go the rebels who walk alone. Long live the mavericks of this pointless and beautiful pursuit.
better park your hemp covered arse on a stool at the ladiest lady boy bar you can find, and start giving us some qualude fueled poison on the downfall of western culture as parralleled by a surf comp on a reef break with no swell.
Excuse the spelling. The rabbits just got destroyed by the fucking westies and im pissed in every sense of the word
I like your writing and stories Steve. Just a couple of things though. The vast majority of my mates who surf thoroughly enjoy competitive surfing and hang out for the next comp. Second, I live within 15 mins drive of snapper and can surf numerous beaches to myself - they may not be of snapper quality, but I have fun.
i enjoy watching competitive surfing on the tv, live, but there is nothing worse than rolling down the hill to your local on a w/e and spying that f$%kn blue tent thing set up in front of the most consistent bank on the beach with the pro-wannabe locals flappin around in the water (and the beach), blasting their ludicrous horn and whatnot.
but i gotta say, i was first attracted to surfing without the slightest knowledge of the organised, competitive side of it. it looked like fun to me and I wanted in.
if you want to blame anyone for the crowds blame the pro 'soul surfers' like Gary Green and now Rasta for living the true surfer's dream. their lot looks a damn sight more attractive than being consistently humiliated by Slater & Co.
this your best work yet. good to have you back.
the last good thing to come from a "pro"contest was the trifin in 1981(bells simon anderson).....
(corrections welcome)!!
id bet we´d all be riding tri fins anyhoo. just not to the massive sheepish level we did in the 80s-90s and even today. get off your judgemental arses and tri somthing different!
closed minded fools!
its not fashion its surfing!
Keep it up Steve, we want our moneys worth!!
heheh
Yor article hits the spot Steve
feeling warm and fuzzy thx
Nice one Steve.
All of us 'recreational surfers' keep complaining about the corporate greed, the increasing crowds, and the whole contest thing.
Do what alot of us do down here on the South Coast do... dont buy the over priced commercial surf labelled crap, support your local shaper, bar the wanna be contest heads and their flouro singlets, and just go surfing!
Thats what its all about, always has been and, hopefully, always will be.
not hard to understand is it mickman?
i cant stand a sales man.
i worked i a surfshop once and quite after pissing the manager off for giving helpfull advice.
i can tell you all from experiance most the famous shapers are nothing but good sales men. some even believe their bullshit!