Waves for kooks looking for cool backgrounds for their next Instagram chop-hop? Or no?
Tell me.
In your considered opinion, are novelty wave exciting and intrepid and adventurous?
Are they cool?
Or are they the epitome of millennial douchbaggery?
If I were a Gen X contrarian, I’d be inclined to write novelty waves off as the domain of self-absorbed kooks who sacrifice size, length of ride, and the ability to manoeuvre just to get a cool background for their next Insta chop-hop.
But guess what?
I’m a millennial!
I love chop hops and quirky backdrops, and I reckon we get plenty of ‘manoeuvre’ training from all those daily surfs we get, while novelty wave haters sit in office cubicles pondering whether they still have the dexterity (and the immune system) to successfully navigate a wave like this.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BSYQM66D_3Y/?taken-by=beach_grit
Also, snaking seven year olds in Newquay harbour made me realise that no matter how shitty a wave, nor how many times you bog a rail, if you do it near something hard and full of barnacles, it’s kind of fun.
Fun?
Sure.
And if the threat of bacterial infection and stitches don’t get your juices flowing, novelty waves often provide an audience of non-surfers who ohh and ahh at every botched cutback and flailing highline.
Good for ego? Yes!
Bottom line.
Are novelty waves faux by definition?
Or does their inherent thrill make up for their inconsistency, tendency to be polluted, meagre size and so forth?