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.
Commented on Disqus? Log out, tap the Disqus button, and your old name and comments come back. The box is ours.
Your comments are still here. Every one of them.
Twelve years of BeachGrit comments came across from Disqus. Connect and we will show you how many are yours. We get your username, nothing else.
Connect Disqus to reveal.
Its fucked my life up quite a bit. The worst thing is when you get older and you start noticing yourself going backwards. Slower takeoffs, younger dudes out paddling you and getting inside you. It wears you down….But the idea of quitting. I just can’t do it. A good friend quit, he was a one time local prodigy, probably the best surfer I know. Started just surfing weekends, got out of shape, got frustrated with his waning ability and stopped. He seems like he has depression now, and it doesn’t seem to have made his life better.
Matt Warshaw did an article awhile back on how surfing can really mess with your life–if your not careful..10, 20, 30, years down the line–missed job and career opportunities–jilted relationships–is it really worth it? Or are we all just a bunch of wave junkies?
Being exiled in the mountains for work, life is becoming difficult especially when there is no snow, as I use snowboarding as a substitute to the adrenaline daily rush of my surfing addiction. My wife is now frightened of my ever-changing moods when there is no snow. Luckily all this is only temporary. I hope . I guess. FUCK.
I quit last week, but will probably take it back up tomorrow.
Wish i wrote your comment. Made me laugh..
No.
Haha. It was a bonafide question! And for what it’s worth, your “take” has missed the mark significantly. Speaking for myself at least.
My gosh this place has gone pussy on us. Took a break only to come back and find this lack of actual nuts. That article sucked, plain and simple.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Courtesy of Wardo’s PO
Going Surfing doesn’t make you a surfer. Not being able to stop surfing makes you a surfer
Did you by any chance lose this? —> http://www.theinertia.com
That ghost orchid drug is real, I did “green dragon” in Tokyo, it was very similar (the movie clip is adaptation about finding a very rare orchid in the swamps of Florida and more or less is a true-ish story)
If you surf Bondi on a busy day it makes you want to quit every time you leave the water.
I would say for me that I have already given it up several times. By that I mean given up my idea of surfing and replaced it with something a little bit different. What I did in the water when I was 20 is very different to what I do now. I had no memories of anything back then, but surfing was everything, it swamped me utterly. Now I surf with memory running through me yet at the same time it feels like a lighter experience, I’m happier with it I guess. Sorry about your cousin Limbless.
Hey is it still Smug Week?
nah going by my recent Facebook performances I think it must be fucken Humblebrag Week
🙁 Let me know when it rolls around again – I’ve got so much to give!
So is close-personal-tragedy-and/or-trauma the blueprint defensive stance to save getting ripped to shreds in the comments section then?
Smug
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
I think you forgot a Michael from your name at stab go check it out.
Yeah I don’t follow, mate. And I don’t read Stab either.
As Andy Irons said, ” surfing keeps my life on an even keel, without it I’d tip into oblivion”. If I don’t surf for a few weeks life stops making sense. I grow itchy in my own skin like an addict that isn’t getting their fix. Surfing has given me most of my friends, jobs, and has always been my method of escape when the walls of life start closing in. I could never quit.
Surfing’s even keel didn’t work for Andy. For him and those of us over 30, surfing offers almost none of the answers in life…
I think as we get older, it’s the one thing we can hold on to that is ours and done on our terms. It’s the only thing I do that is purely for me. Selfish? Fuck yeah, but without that time for me I’d kill some fucker.
True true my friend… just wish like a game of golf or tennis I could just schedule in regular sessions, ie Thursday at 3:45 is my time to surf… goddamn ocean. Hello waveparks!!
I really want wave parks to work. I’d happily drop $10 a throw for a consistent 150 metre long head high shreddable bump. While it may have all the soul of a newly fit out Mcdonalds I’d happily chase my stoke in a converted gravel pit to get access to consistent “surf”.
I hear ya – it gets to a point so it is pure selfish!!! 3 kids and I forgo shit with them to surf for sure, so total selfish cunt sometimes I am for sure. I am lucky to travel for work and a board lives in vehicle – so surf a lot. BUT no one is in water my way for sharks. chased in by 3m bullshark Friday. So as Negs says below waveparks for me to surf a schedule but also to get away from the Noahs!!
Surfing is fun most of the time, makes me happier. Good enough for me
Wondering Frye, Tyau, and Hynd’s perspective on this?
I’d love to read that…
bullshit Neg.
You live closer to Byron than I thought then? actually, I’m surprised no one pulled me up earlier… Yeah surfing though life’s troubles can ease pain better than anti-depressants but that line of where surfing is the be all and end all of your existence can be ugly, lonely and painfully dull.
I could write thousands but it’s an answer for you. You’re a mod on a surfing site. Thats one answer to “what do I do with my life”.
well don’t leave us hanging! what are the questions?
Should I leave the Wife and dedicate my life too being that old guy at the surf camp telling war stories to impressionable 20 year olds on their first OE or should I just have an affair and add 10 litres to my daily grinder?
Do both! Swing for the fences I say. Many do.
speak for yourself bru
I think about it all the time. As I get older, fatter and subsequently more of a kook it gets harder to find the stoke. You get in arguments in the line-up, it’s always so crowded, my back hurts, I want to spend time with my kid.
I do know two guys that were rippers who just gave it away… Neither of them seem happy. One chases the dream in Triathlon (fuck….. that….) the other is a mess.
If you stop surfing you were never a surfer in the first place
I think you’ve read one to many surfing adverts from the mid-90’s Lemmy.
I’ll elaborate for what I think Lemmy wants to say: “I did not consider, even in passing, that I had a choice when it came to surfing. My enchantment would take me where it chose.” – William Finnegan. Just like any activity/profession/etc., there are some of us who were destined to do it, for the rest of our lives, while the other participants come and go. Like Finnegan, many of us have no choice; I couldn’t stop even if I wanted to – I am literally a part of the ocean and my boards are extensions of my mind. Maybe that’s what Lemmy meant?
Spot on shoooots
good point from the ace of spades
Greg Noll agrees.
Firstly, sorry for your loss.
As for if I’d ever quit surfing, I’d say when I can no longer shortboard, I’m done… probably.
Vimeo Ben Skinner if you think your performance takes a drop with a longboard, Shortboard to Longboard to Bodyboards. Puritans are fools…
No thanks. 🙂
I’ve had two hip surgeries in the past five years. I used to shortboard at a high level, now I’m just thankful to be in the water. I’ve even switched my stance and started longboarding. Like my good friend Anthony Tashnick told me, “Why hassle with 50 kooks at Mavs when you can get five times the amount of waves on a longboard in two foot Shit?”
Total hip replacement a year ago. If anything that’ll put lost shortboard prowess into perspective. Plus there’s a surprisingly satisfying learning curve to mastering chunkier surf craft. Actually makes two foot shit fun. Fuck “purism”.
Takes the pressure off performance and puts the focus on fun!
Performance = fun
Well, when the performance you’ve grown up to strive for turns into a painfully destructive reality, that correlation goes down the drain. But I insist! If your body can take the “performance” act of surfing- hit that fuckin lip!
Disagree if your truly skilled something that is a challenge to ride makes it more interesting and less stale, get a stand-up barrel on a log, you might be blown away….
Riding different crafts doesn’t mean you are less skilled but going straight down the line vs getting barreled are totally different. I think most strive for the guy in the barrel not just trimming the line
I agree.
Car accident?
Wonder if there is a correlation between sitting on your board and hip replacement with surfers? I know a handful of surfer’s aging from mid 30’s-60’s all have had the surgery. Concerning…
I fell for it and looked him up. Performance longboarding is worse than SUP.
Taylor Jensen is better than Skinner. He’s the real deal. No need to go all ayatollah
“So-and-so high-performance longboarder is better than so-and-so high-performance longboarder.”
That is like going to an ice cream shop where all of the varieties of ice cream are flavored like different types of shit. Dog Shit Dream, Horse Shit Shortcake, Baby Diarrhea Brulee, etc. Like, I’m sure the shit of someone who has only eaten organic fruit and grains might taste slightly better than the shit of someone who has been eating Taco Bell for 3 weeks straight, but its still gonna taste like shit. This scenario, where you eat shit flavored ice cream and pick the “best,” can be directly applied to comparing performance longboarders.
Hahaha so much hatred it’s hilarious. I’m sure you are a shortboard warrior. Don’t blame others just because they’re having fun on different crafts size. Read above comments of Neal Kearney and Swaveanddeboner it might teach you humility. Or not. I don’t give a damn
You would be incorrect there. I have a very diverse quiver. I have logs, shortboards, fishes, a weird mini-simmons-like thing, a few mid-lengths, etc. I spend more time on boards longer than 7’6 than on shortboards. That being said, I personally think that watching someone “rip” on a high-performance longboard is less entertaining than watching a middle school NSSA contest. There are better craft for that style of surfing and forcing that style onto those boards makes for a very ugly combination. High-performance long boarding is the roller blading of the surf world. It is already dying away, and it will continue to do so until it is even more niche than it already is.
Now you got me curious. What size is your mini simmons weird thing? As for longboarding I don’t care if it’s dying nor its popularity, I love carving or hitting the lip on a longboard. maybe because I feel more the power of the wave due to the big inertia of the board. Or maybe because I am 6’5 and cause it’s easier for me than for a smaller surfer. But in the end Isn’t it all about fun ?
True! Haha the mini simmons is somewhere in the 5’2ish zone. I’m 6’2, so its a trip to ride. It’s incredibly fast and borderline out of control. Very fun for the points where I live. I imagine I’ve reached higher speeds on a shortboard, but the glide achieved while high-lining a mini-simmons or midlength or log certainly feels faster.
Nice description I want to get one now.
You can get those flavors in Venice.
Somehow, someway, Peter Schroff is involved.
Mind…. Blown.
yeah its not pretty. I have more appreciation for logging, theres a grace to it that you have to appreciate.
Little fat twins are fun….
The funnest* found this fucker in a dumpster I do resto’s so it’s gonna be a great one https://uploads.disquscdn.c… .