Tag: Surfing

How Instagram Ruined Surfing: No more secrets and trying to prove oneself

Posted on Posted in From School, SurfingTagged , , , Leave a comment

(This is an old piece from my minor in writing and rhetoric at Chapman University. Since most of my writing is pretty loose on here, I figured it would be cool to post something that had more structure. I wish I could find the prompt, alas I cannot. I also could not find the grade. I do recall it being a rather large chunk of your overall grade.)

Instagram can be used as a news source in a sort of way. I am saying this because very relevant things tend to be posted rather quickly in comparison to on a website. Obviously, news outlets for global events and such is most informational in its website form. However, by way of experience, if you tailor your news feed to a certain genre, you can have very timely news feed pertaining to what is going on in that genre. One example is the amount of different hip-hop Instagram pages. Follow all these pages and you’ll know about all the rap beefs and new songs that come out daily and are posted same day. It’s all about being the first to post, so it’s a race against the competing pages.

This theory of using Instagram as a news outlet can be seen in many different genres, especially surfing. If you were to follow these essential Instagram accounts of the surf world (@stab @Surfline @surfer @theinertia) you could essentially know what is going on all over the world in terms of surf. You would see posts of who won the most recent surf contests, what countries and places are having exceptional swells, and some of the craziest surf clips that would maybe not see the light of day had they not been posted. For the most part, surf media outlets post where the waves have been firing. This is where the problem resides.

This may sound cliché, but secret spots are becoming a lot less secretive since the birth of Instagram and the geotag. Prior to surf forecasting sites and the social media boom, it wasn’t uncommon to hear of spots photographers aren’t allowed in and are held sacred to the people who have kept them secretive for this long. Secret spots would soon start dying out as soon as everyone becomes Instagram crazy.

It would give a sense of a fragmented reality, as we see all these crazy good waves but don’t really know the story behind them. Since the world is so large, multiple different places can have really good waves at once, but the only people that really know the truth are the ones posting it. I know of one friend that when the waves are only O.K. he will post a photo claiming it was from the day but really was from a far better day, stoking people out and making them feel like they might have missed out (FOMO).

As well as a fragmented reality of we never really know if the waves are pumping unless we are there or know of some one in the area, we see a breaching of the private space involved in the sport of surfing. Surfing has always been an activity that in practice is somewhat private and just involves you and the ocean. Besides the people you tend to surf with and a couple people you can recognize by their face, it’s overall what seems to be a private space. However, we see increased posts of waves here and sandbars there that more and more people begin invading the private space. Now, when I surf I expect to have to interact with a stranger, which I don’t mind but sometimes just aren’t in the mood for.

With more people’s spaces being invaded, we see more people who do mind interacting with people they aren’t familiar with. We can refer to these people as “salty loc dogs.” These are older people and even some younger guys who just can’t stand new people surfing their spot. They typically tend to be loud and vocal about their dissatisfaction, and tend to act like they own the place. Here is a comical example featuring the late great Andy Irons being heckled for surfing a spot he wasn’t native to in a skit for a surf movie. (The irony is that usually the people who claim local status aren’t that good of surfers, and telling Andy not to surf a spot would be like telling Kobe you can’t shot on my court.)

Everyone needs to brag about how good of waves they scored. As a surfer, getting a good swell to surf is the ultimate challenge, and when you achieve this it is hard not to let others know. It wouldn’t be uncommon to see someone’s Instagram story perfect empty waves, and I am guilty of this as well. At first it seemed harmless, until the effects of the app really started changing the lineup.

I have a particular experience with one of the only waves I’ve ever missed from where I grew up (New Jersey). I would surf this wave before school junior and senior year of high school, and the crowd would be minor. Either it was only for good surfers or people who were known by the locals who would surf the wave. It wasn’t uncommon to hear someone getting yelled at along with the words “I’ve never seen you out here in my life.” I always was a little more cautious surfing this spots since I wasn’t born in the area, but was from a town down the road. However, my surfing would do the talking and people would notice I was just trying to surf good waves. Minding your p’s and q’s at a localized spot coupled with respect for older people at the spot can get you in the local crowd pretty quick. It was like a well-oiled machine: only people who were supposed to be there were surfing there. It’s a little selfish, but some waves should be this way, making it a lot less crowded.

I would come back to this spot winter break of my freshmen year, after being in school in SoCal but itching to surf this spot again. I heard from a friend down the grapevine it was doing its thing and made my way up the road. I arrived on the beach to see my favorite surf spot on the east coast going off. One thing was different: it seemed a lot more crowded, and seemed to be increasing in numbers out surfing by the minute. I went to take a snap to send to my 2 friends out in CA that grew up surfing the wave and was greeted with a “HEY NO PHOTOS” by a boogie boarder on the shoreline. I wasn’t too fazed since he was a boogie boarder (I now salute draggers but in my youthful ignorance definitely did not) and went on with my day. I would suit up and by the time I was in the water it was the most crowded I had ever surfed the wave. Probably 20 surfers, 20 boogie boarders, and 10 people bobbing in the water with GoPros. This made my surf session more dodging people in the water rather than actually surfing.

However, secret spots do still exist, again as cliché as that sounds. Check this clip of a wave only 4 people have surfed, and it might just stay that way if people keep their lips shut and put their phones away.

On top of the ruining of certain spots, people can get caught up in posting lots and lots of photos on their profile, even if they are not what they seem. We see the constant “who can do this better” on Instagram, and the surf community is no different. Everyday people are posting photos whether they authentic or not to make the illusion they are always scoring waves or always landing tricks in the photos they post. It can be a separate world, or act as a public diary of someone’s surfing progression. We can see it as “that different place,” where people can show their surfing talents when not actually surfing right in front of you. Instagram is changing the way we view media of the sport in many ways.

Overall, is Instagram going to kill surfing? No. Will it make it more public and “cool?” Yes. Exactly like the Olympics coming up in 2020. We can see popularity rising, but the ocean isn’t getting any bigger so I guess I should surf as much as I can before Huntington beach starts to look like this. (I swear some days it is pretty damn close.)

 

East Meets West: Surfing

Posted on Posted in East Meets West, SurfingTagged , , , , , , , Leave a comment

I grew up surfing on the East Coast. The birth of my surfing existence is on the beach up the street from Ocean Hut Surf Shop, and would be stuck up that beach until I got a drivers license junior year (NOTE: Sandy was this same year so not only would I not be able to get my driver license on my birthday, I also would not be able to access Lavallette beaches for months after). Once a legal NJ driver, I would being adventuring outside the Lavallette bubble to surf waves like Bayhead, Manasquan, and Jenks (the only wave I will admit to missing when in CA). While my surfing journey was heavily rooted in NJ, I was able to experience a handful of California waves in between trips out west throughout high school. Even though I rarely get to surf it now a days, Rincon point is a wave I know light the back (side) of my hand. I would put in hours at the point when out west for a family trip. When I came out to check out colleges out west I was introduced to Lowers. Maybe when the sand is right and the moons align, these waves can be half mimicked back home. But in my experience, I can count on two hands the amount of times this happens. Surfing on the East Coast and West Coast differ very heavily. And I would learn this after spending a mere Semester at school. Both have their positives and negatives. When I was greener to the West Coast, I would find very little to be missed about surfing in NJ. But perspective is everything, and in the ever-growing sport of surfing, things are changing very quickly. Let’s take the deep dive.

EAST:

jenks.jpg

Surfing on the East Coast is much more of a waiting game. You simply cannot surf everyday much like other places. Now I know sometimes even the most wave rich coast can look dismal, and a soft top or log might be needed. But there are plenty of days I can remember between every season where there is LITERALLY no surf. “Lake Atlantic” is a term often coined in regards to how dismal the ocean can look. Now to double down on this, even when there are waves, it often can be in unfavorable conditions or less than ideal conditions. Winds are often way more prevalent on the East Coast, so no matter how early you wake up some days, it is still choppy. I can recall waiting for hours on hours just for a single hour window of favorable winds. This again brings it back to the waiting game. There are some spots that handle certain factors better, but wind tides and swell direction all play a major role in how the fickle beach breaks take shape.

After bitching about all that can be wrong about surfing at home, let’s talk about what’s right. For the most part, when it’s on it’s on. Nothing is quite as satisfying as rocking up to the beach to see perfect A-frame waves with not a soul in the water. With surfing’s growing popularity, this is much less common than it used to be. But plenty of days in the Fall and Spring I could see peaky chest to head high wedges with no one out at my local beach break. The crowd was me, my dad, and who ever else I wanted to invite. Plenty of times it was just my dad and I. Plenty of times it was just me. The solitude of a solo session is something very hard to replicate, and I would say a third of my surfs at home would be sans surfers. It could get a little spooky, but getting first pick of any wave puts that in the back of your head. My local beachie is still super reliable for being empty, but when it’s just not doing its thing I can enter the fray by driving 15 minutes north. My junior and senior year of high school was flooded with sessions in Bayhead and at Jenks, where you could find ledgey barrels a plenty. Anytime I’m home, I try to hone in on a session at Jenks.

WEST:

Surfline-EPK-Surf-Poster-Trestles

Surfing on the West Coast is a lot less of a gamble. Wake up around sunrise and check the cams to cherry pick the best sandbar. Plenty of times I have been at the ocean and checking one spot while the cam for another is open on my phone. This is both a blessing and a curse, but for sure more of a curse. There are very few secrets left out here. Also, where I live can take almost any swell angle. Solid south swell? Spot X. Medium sized west swell? Spot Y. Combo swell and offshores? Spot Z. As far as wave quality, what the West Coast has going for it is the amount of different types of waves you can find within an hour driving on the freeway. Whether you are craving beach break barrels, rippable reef A-frames, or lined up points that offer up 20+ second rides, the options are there. You can truly think about the way you want to surf, and take a short drive to find a wave suitable for that. There is a ton of options, and on top of that before you even leave your house you can watch a camera to weigh out whether the drive is worth it.

With all good comes the bad, and this is referring back to the cameras. Where I live, there are actually more than 10 cameras within the handful of miles radius. There is a ridiculous amount of people out at just about every spot too. It is always more crowded when it is a little smaller, which it often is. A solid swell is needed to really trim the fat of novice surfers. The increasing crowds and inviting beaches just keep getting more and more densely populated. Since there are so many waves, you can escape the crowd if you get crafty enough. But plenty of spots that I used to surf with a light to moderate crowd are now ridiculously jam-packed. The crowds start before you even get in the water, too. If it’s on and passed 7AM, it’s too late. Parking spots can be scarce, and if it is street sweeping you might be walking quite a bit before you enter the ocean. When it get’s crowded, it starts bugging everyone. You see a ton more eggy folks when it’s crowded, and that really can drag the environment way down. Especially if the one being chirped is you or your buddy.

____________________________________________________________________

Both coasts lay in a special place in my heart. I feel as though if I spend too much time in one, I really start to miss the other. Right about now, I would love some less crowded waves. But I know when I am home, and it is flat, I’d love even just a waist high wave to jib around on. Since I live out in CA, I am thankfully there is always a rideable wave and often can be pretty fun. But scoring a swell back home tastes just as if not more sweet.

QUICK CLIPS: Five <5 Minute Surf Clips to Froth Over (Throwbacks)

Posted on Posted in Recommended, SurfingTagged , , , , , Leave a comment

Sometimes the waves look terrible. But sometimes you also could just be itching so hard to surf, you just need that little extra nudge to get out there and tackle the high tide or wind chop. There are a couple surefire ways to speed up the process. One of the easiest? Slam a cup of coffee and get your froth on. Sometimes you might have already had a cup or two and don’t want to push it. Sometimes all it takes is the buddy system. Phoning a friend and hoping they can also look past the meager conditions or less than favorable factors. Once there is someone with you, they can either bath in the misery of bad surf with you or share in the score. Because you need someone else to back you up that the session was fun when the cams are blue.

If you are out of joe and all your friends are occupied or MIA, then there is only one last hope to get your energy levels up and take a dip. This is the surf clip. A surefire way to get you off your ass and in boardies or a wetty. Sometimes, it is matching a clip to the waves you are going to surf. Others, it is seeing your favorite surfer blitz waves to a classic tune. The frothiest of them all however is the vintage clips you grew up on. Seeing the nostalgia and also ripping from the past makes itch to surf to make the inner kid in you happy. While it is easy to get sucked into a time warp of vintage sessions, I like to keep it quick and get out of there after 1 or 2 clips. Here are 5 vintage videos to get the gears in motion. I will describe why I like them in a single sentence.

Taj Burrow in Stranger than Fiction = Future forward style over a song from Metric in pristine pumping surf, opening with a crazy alley oop lien grab.
Bobby Martinez in Mixtape = A fellow goofy foot blitzing sections and blasting airs to hip-hop.
Andy Irons in Campaign 2 = Charging backhand turns as hard as your backhand tubes, to a song everyone knows was in your section.
Dane Reynolds in Stranger Than Fiction = Absolutely ripping in mostly beach break conditions, making it relatable and not relatable at the same time.
Parko from Free as a Dog = Scoring offshore tubes with just your mates to a song you might have been dancing to at the local watering hole the night before the score.
 Bonus: Andy Irons in Campaign = Because every Andy video section is gold.

Texas 1st Timers

Posted on Posted in SurfingTagged , , , , , , , Leave a comment

0gio166_0gio166-R1-018-7A.jpg

Wednesday afternoon through Friday afternoon, I found myself in a completely foreign state in both a literal and figurative sense. The literal? I was spending my first visit to Texas. After hearing so much about it and having plenty of pals that hail from the Lone Star state, I was eager to see what the deal fully was. I was lucky to travel here for work, but more on that later. We would arrive and just from the airport drive alone, it was pretty much everything I had imagined. It loosely reminded me of a town close to home, but an even more to the extreme of rural. Tons of flat land, excruciating heat, and strange smells were aplenty.

We would be staying in Austin, in two super luxe houses that always had the AC cranking. From the grocery stores to the streets, there were a large amount of characters very different than our group of ~10 Californians. Wednesday night I reached Texas nirvana, indulging in by far the best BBQ food I’ve ever eaten. We arrived to Terry Blacks BBQ in Austin and hit dinner line ASAP, as all of us hadn’t eaten much since our 7 o clock LAX flight. The only thing holding our stomachs over was Chick-fil-a nuggets and waffle fries. I would select some green beans and corn bread, for my sides, along with a whole avocado showing my true inner Californian. When we got the the main meats, I had to have a sample platter. I was dead set on brisket, and got some jalapeno cheese sausage and a pork ribs to switch it up. The brisket required no knife, and was so juicy and smooth. I hadn’t ever tasted meat like that.

Fast forward after some Chappelle stand up post BBQ pig out, and we find the sun barely rising over the horizon as we drove in our sprinter van. We were making the commute from the city of Austin to the rural town of Waco, which happened to house one of the latest and greatest wave pools in America. To say I was stoked would be an understatement. The commute was pretty desolate and lacked any real beauty aside from a blood orange sunrise. We did happen to stop at this place Buc-ees, which had every weird nic-nac, texas gear (I think they even sold guns?), and some gas station breakfast burritos plus coffee. The coffee was so bad we chucked 5 full cups into the garbage and drove through the nearest Starbucks. In a mere 45 minutes we would arrive at our destination.

It’s a little tough to put words to what was going on all Thursday. This is where the figurative foreign state of mind comes into play mentioned earlier. Never would I think of going on a trip to Texas to surf, and not only surf but also surf fun waves with a full BYOB set up in piss warm water and one hundred degree weather. What the hell? We would have the pool from eight to eight, and had some stoked surf shop workers who sold Hurley product all summer to reap the benefits of this trip. Everyone had a smile on his or her face. From the beginner surfers learning their way around the waves, to Yadin Nichol and Brett Simpson tearing the place to bits. When it was all said and done, no one really had any words left to describe the day. If anyone wasn’t stoked, it was on him or her. I surfed through lunchtime and survived off half of a Bucceys breakfast burrito and some fruit and trail mix. And I wouldn’t want it any other way. No bad days out here in Waco. I hope to return soon.

While we didn’t get to really see Austin, I was unbothered. We had both Wednesday and Thursday night to explore the town and nightlife, but neither night materialized. Wednesday we had all woken up at 4AM and were beyond cooked after running errands all day. Thursday, after again having an early morning and at least 5 hours of surfing under our belts, no one had the excess energy to burn. Don’t worry, plenty of Lone Stars, Modelos, and White Claws were crushed from sun up to sun down. And then some. While I’ve heard so many good things about the Austin nightlife and the scene in the city of Music, I will have to wait until next time. If there is one (which I think there will be).

Friday we would wrap up the trip. After checking out of both places of stay and having a mellow morning with coffees and classic breaky foods, we would make our way to the airport. Austin has a really nice airport, complete with nice water refill stations, decent food and coffees, and even bathrooms strictly for pups. I walked past those and was kind of tripping. Texas now has a strange place in my heart after this trip. To think within 12 hours I went from eating some of the country’s best-prepared BBQ to getting tubes and a perfect punt section in the middle of nowhere. Talk about a trip. Thanks Terry Blacks, BSR, and Hurley for a couple fun days in the office.

Surfing but not in the ocean?

Posted on Posted in Edu. Archive, SurfingTagged , , , , Leave a comment

(This is an old piece from my minor in writing and rhetoric at Chapman University. Since most of my writing is pretty loose on here, I figured it would be cool to post something that had more structure. I wish I could find the prompt, alas I cannot. I also could not find the grade.)

With the 2019 Freshwater Pro approaching, I thought this piece was fitting.

Surfing to me is one of the things that can get you closest to mother nature. Already surfing at a base level, you feel very one with nature. As you excel and gain more and more confidence when standing on a surfboard, the experience turns up a notch and becomes a whole new beast. The barrel (when the wave covers you up and then you get spit out of the tunnel of water that was just around you) is the apex of this feeling. Literally the only thing around you is nature. It is an experience that is tough to explain, because words don’t do it justice. What happens when nature is replaced? Technology these days has been constantly making nature substitutes, and one recently was made that could totally change surfing.

When I was growing up as a young surfer, something like this was fairy tale talk. Never had anyone given a thought to the perfect wave, let alone it being a manmade one. Wave pools starting gaining popularity when I was in high school, so the magnitude they are being created at today is a fairly recent feat. Sure, there have been plenty of wave pools, and some really good ones at that. The wave garden, another wave pool, makes a wave any surfer would love to surf. It’s a performance wave that has lots of variety in the types of waves and sections that present themselves. The thing that sets the Kelly’s (Kelly Slater, the most accomplished surfer in the history of the sport) wave pool apart is that Kelly’s pool is actually the closest thing on earth to a perfect wave. Some waves in nature can be considered “perfect”, but Kelly’s is literal perfection, even to the point where he can alter the wave at his wish, making it perfect for everyone. Below is a video that breaks down what’s going on under the hood of this milestone for surfing.

Like stated in the video, does the search for the perfect wave end here? Just for the case of argument, here is the closest thing we have found to a perfect wave. Its in Africa, and requires a whole lot of prep work to get there. From flights to driving on dunes, all to arrive and potentially see the wrong tide or swell angle. This wave is as perfect as it is finicky. Even when it looks perfect, pros often admit its a lot harder, with underwater currents moving super fast, and the unpredictability of the wave breaking over sand.

This wave is the closest thing to perfection, and like stated above, hardly is ever perfect. This is also leaving out the fact it is only a left, where a regular footed surfer would maybe enjoy it less since he has to surf it backside. Kelly’s pool can go both ways (left and right), and literally comes down to a science.

Contrary to what you would believe, not everyone is stoked on the wave pool. Is it the perfect wave? Is it even a wave since it is not in the ocean? Lots of people are up in arms about the debate. Personally, I think anyone who is against it just is jealous they can’t surf it (like in the video earlier, it is a private property/prototype, and not open to the public). But, I have to say I somewhat agree. Since surfing at its finest is bonding with nature, would feel the same way coming out of an artificial barrel as we would a real one mother nature sent us? Only the people who have surfed it know the answer to this one, and most of them say it feels just as good. One thing that also had the surfing purists infuriated was that Kelly’s pool has replaced the Lower trestles contest in September on the 2018 WCT (World Championship Tour) present by the WSL (World Surf League.). Never should a wave pool replace the only surf contest surfed in America (it’s a world tour; Lower Trestles is located in San Clemente, CA; no other wave in the United States can support a world tour event).

This made many people angry, and many people began to say this:

(The person who said this, Noa Deane, faced heavy scrutiny and ended up apologizing for the statement.)

Kelly ran a test even earlier in 2017, and I would say the surf enthusiasts were split. Some thought it was an awesome event. Some thought it was boring, watching everybody surf the same wave. Nonetheless, the surfers in the event were stoked, and whether the public like the idea or not, everyone is going to be watching in September to see what unfolds on the artificial wave. It is such a perfect wave, it will be similar to slope style snowboarding, in which surfers can plan their run out ahead of time. This hyper reality is uncharted territory in the sport of surfing, so it will be interesting to see how it pans out.