Who can relate to John John Florence? Alex Knost and Jared Mel are the ones having all the fun!
“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original.” – C.S Lewis
Disposable culture is peaking. Rip Curl have just released a watch that tells you how many ‘likes’ you’ve ‘got’ while you’ve been in the surf and so-called ‘hipsters’ are making people very angry on the internet. It brings to light the generational burden. Time is perpetually creeping on and the search for meaning continues for us Gen Y’ers. The reason that there is this constant pressure to define each generation in surfing is because in 1972 Albert Falzon made a film called Morning of the Earth.
The theory that’s taught in schools is that unless something’s unique and original then it’s not worth doing. My thickly Scottish, Christ-like guitar teacher at school echoed this depressing sentiment.
“There’s nay point trying to be original, everything’s been done.”
But American author William Cane said that we should emulate the greats. His book Write like the Masters sews the idea that plagiarism isn’t a dirty word and that “picking up pointers of style,” from the gurus Hemingway, Falkner, Fitzgerald (Terry and F.Scott!) isn’t a faux pas but something to be encouraged.
Ninety-nine per cent of the surfing population can’t even think about relating to John Florence. But Ryan Burch looks like he’s having fun, so does Knost, Ellis Ericson and Jared Mel and they’re taking the majority of their inspiration from Alby and the boys. If you’re going to revisit an era, make it the best one.
The exclusive shaper to my friendship group “The Peps Man” of Pepper Shapes is a beautiful throwback. Not in a contrived way, I just think he was genuinely born in the wrong era. He lets you pay for his boards in $20 weekly installments (legend) and your board is guaranteed to look absolutely nothing like what you originally discussed.
He’s got the habit of phoning you up when you’re drunk and putting ideas in your head about what he’d like to shape you and how it’s going to improve your surfing/your life.
“How about channels maaan!”
“Nah Peps lets just keep it simple on this one eh?”
“Ah, ok….so six channels yeah!”
I don’t want something that’s an exact replica of something else, something with a serial number. I want The Peps Man to creep into his shipping container bay late at night, after the obligatory 15 joints, and shape whatever he feels like. It’s progressing his craft and who knows it might just be a gem. It’s not purely original but it’s fun.
The Morning of the Earth survivors see themselves in us, to an extent. We’re searching for something; so were they. Everything comes full circle. A lot of ’em are miserable bastards. They can’t get over the crowds or the kids and possess the inherently Australian quality of having been everywhere and done everything 30 years ago and now it’s all “fucked.” This rhetoric is unbearable. Go to Indo and at any given warung there’s at least one unbearable whinging old bastard. The gems are still out there however and if you find one, cherish them.
I was pouring rosettas in an inner-city café – with a recycled timber interior! – when the iconic M.O.T.E tune Simple Ben came on the radio. A colleague asked, “This is from that surf film isn’t it?”
“Yeah Morning of the Earth,” I replied.
From the other side of the resin-filled counter an unidentified voice piped up, “I saw it when it came out man.”
I looked up from the milk jug and saw the classic weather-ridden visage of the veteran coastal-dweller beaming back at me.
“1972, wow that must have been an amazing time to have been alive.”
He grabbed his latte, grinned, and uttered his parting words. “Still is man.”