Question: Would you ever stop surfing?

Limbless Jack

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What would it take for you to give up the great game?

My cousin killed himself over the Christmas break. He left no note, so no one really knows what was going on.

He did send his sister this video a while back and said it explained him:

I watched this and immediately thought about his surfing. He started before going off to college and quit in his late-twenties. I never asked him about it. I started surfing around the same age and still surf.

Could you quit surfing. Is it easy?

Maybe at this point in your life you have different goals, different ideas that lead you away from the surf. Like giving it all up and moving away from the water. You sell your gear to some kid on Craigslist and move to the Midwest. Then you go through a series of hobbies and sports chasing the high you used to get from surfing.

Maybe a slow but continuous growth of responsibilities and commitments makes it happen. Perhaps having a child and gaining weight does it. Maybe the end comes when your wife asks why there are surfboards lying around.

Would you still consider yourself a surfer as you slowly grow apart from that part of your life? At which point do you stop identifying yourself as a surfer?

Maybe at this point in your life you have different goals, different ideas that lead you away from the surf. Like giving it all up and moving away from the water. You sell your gear to some kid on Craigslist and move to the Midwest. Then you go through a series of hobbies and sports chasing the high you used to get from surfing. Eventually, you land on running and whatever the latest craze might be, like rock climbing.

Is surfing even good for us? I’m in my thirties and am only just starting to figure out my career after a string of menial jobs. If I gave surfing up now entirely, would I be free to chase a real career? Is surfing keeping me at the blue-collar work level, like so many of the other surfers we see in the lineup.

I need to keep moving to feel like I am accomplishing something. I feel better when I surf. I am less agitated and it keeps me in shape. Studies have even shown that surfing helps people deal with PTSD. It keeps kids out of gangs, teaches people how to cope with anxiety and builds solid communities of people dedicated to the ocean.

On the other hand, I hate any job that keeps me out of the water or inactive. I need to keep moving to feel like I am accomplishing something. I feel better when I surf. I am less agitated and it keeps me in shape. Studies have even shown that surfing helps people deal with PTSD. It keeps kids out of gangs, teaches people how to cope with anxiety and builds solid communities of people dedicated to the ocean.

Jean-Paul Satre, the French philosopher, once said that we are “condemned to freedom.”

We have to have a purpose in life and I wonder if surfing is mine.

I don’t know… fuck fish.

Cold: Snowy Tubes Are Best!

Michael Ciaramella

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What would it take for you to surf in sub-zero conditions?

What’s the coldest weather you’ve ever surfed in? Was it thirty, forty, fifty degrees Fahrenheit?

This particular session took place in sub-zero wind chill conditions. ‘Twas the morning after a fresh snow in New Jersey, and the system responsible for the pow left a few ripples in its wake. Post-storm offshores are a consistent meteorological pattern this time of year, making tube time a foregone conclusion. This is what New Jersey surfers live for.

East coast surfing is unique in its reliance on local storm systems. Waves come not from massive low-pressure systems in a far-away corner of the sea, but from the sideways gales of a coastal squall. Because the wave-inducing storms are so close to the receiving shoreline, swells are quite fickle, often coming and going in a few short hours. If you miss the window, you might be out of the water for another two weeks.

This means preparation and an undying commitment to forgo school, work, and familial duties. It’s not a great way to maintain relationships or a functioning bank account, but what are you gonna do? Not surf?

For guys like Sam Hammer and Rob Kelly that’s not an option.  They’ve constructed their lives in a way that caters to a swell’s unpredictability, and as a result they get more barreled than most. I won’t try to tell you that the waves in this clip are tremendous, nor that the surfing is a spectacle. But it’s an interesting piece that gives a little insight and a lot of credence towards their chosen lifestyle.

You don’t gotta love it, but you damn well better respect it.

Rip city: Japanese man makes adventure!

Chas Smith

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Have you ever been caught in a vicious rip current? Did you survive?

I’m still in Japan etc. Snowboarding. Pow. Turns. Miso. Edamame. Etc. but did you read the story about the Japanese man who is in Australia and drifted 6 kilometers out to sea whilst surfing Bulli Beach south of Sydney?

6 kilometers!

Let’s read about him!

He got into trouble in a current, tried to paddle back into shore, but the waves were too big, he told police.

“He was attempting to paddle back in for six hours before he ran out of energy and drifted at sea,” Inspector Darren Wood from the Marine Area Command of NSW Police said.

He spent the night clinging to his surfboard and it is estimated he spent about 16 hours in the water.

Luckily, the eagle-eyed crew of the 300-metre long container ship MSC Damla spotted the man on top of his yellow surfboard.

As he drifted alongside the ship, the crew threw him a life buoy, and were able to pull him aboard.

He was given food and drink and warm clothing, and the crew contacted authorities. A boat was sent out to the container ship to retrieve him.

He was taken to Wollongong Hospital where a doctor said he was in surprisingly good health with high spirits, and he was discharged Friday afternoon.

Police said there was no active search conducted for the man, as he was not reported missing.

The surfer told the police he had travelled to Australia a couple of times before.

“He appears to be travelling by himself, and that was why no-one was alerted to the fact that he was stuck in this rip and that he was out there,” Inspector Wood said.

And what a feel-good story!

Have you ever been caught in a really bad rip current? I was once in Oregon and had to cling to a rock whilst my Nev potato chip got ripped off my leg and probably went all the way to Japan.

Kalani Chapman wipeout
LIfeguards successfully perform CPR on Pipeline big-waver Kalani Chapman after a wipeout at Da Hui Backdoor Shootout.

Kalani Chapman Almost Dies at Pipe!

Derek Rielly

By

Big-waver found unconscious, no pulse, after wipeout… 

It’s a sobering sight to see lifeguards surround a lifeless soul on the beach as they take turns pumping his chest, desperate to kick-start a dead heart.

Yesterday afternoon, in the final heat of the day’s Da Hui Backdoor Shootout, Kalani Chapman rode a Second Reef Pipe wave to the Ehukai sandbar where he wiped out in the tube. He didn’t come up.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPQPNhUhOE1/?taken-by=johnnyboy_gomes

Competitors Seth Moniz and Nathan Florence saw Kalani’s tombstoning board and pulled him to the surface with his leash. Unconscious, Kalani was dragged onto the surf patrol’s sled and taken to the beach where CPR was successfully performed.

Kalani, who is thirty four years old and the half-brother of another Pipeline charger Shawn Briley and nephew of North Shore icon Owl Chapman, was one of  handful of angels who rescued Evan Geiselman when he was knocked unconscious at Pipe last year.

You can see Kalani’s rescue, below, at the fifty-second mark. Hawaii News Now – KGMB and KHNL

Eureka: Introducing our new star!

Chas Smith

By

The contest to Be Our Next Rory Parker ends with a bang!

Three-ish weeks ago Rory Parker left the building and maybe broke some hearts on his way out the door. He didn’t break my heart. I didn’t care and was also glad to be done with his limp whinging, his overcooked noodle of a bad attitude. In my eyes the Rory Parker Method was summed up, quite neatly, by his ham-fisted hatred of children.

Easy targets with no way to punch back.

Anyhow, it excited me to get on with it. Was there another voice out there waiting to be heard? An undiscovered star who simply needed a stage?

And of course there was! As fate would have it an eleven-year-old girl smashed any piece of writing that has ever been on our beloved BeachGrit!

Sabre Norris!

Oh did you read her work today? It is splendid in almost every way from rhythm to timing to content to delivery to voice to style to honesty to lack of pretension. It was glorious to read, funny, informative and… well… fun!

The perfect blend!

I read it just minutes ago (in Japan, snowboarding etc.) over the great Travis Rice’s shoulder. He had to turn around four times, four, and say, “She wrote this?” I smiled and nodded yes.

Sabre… you’ve got a very bright future no matter what you choose to do. A Matt Biolos surfboard (trust me… you’ll love even if you have a board sponsor already). And a spot on BeachGrit whenever you’ve got something to say.

I would write “You win!”

… except we are actually the winners.

Photo: Justin Jay/@justinjayphoto
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