Do you imagine a world where love of surf unites the world?
Earlier today, a tear plopped onto my keyboard. I was moved by the simple beauty of a friend’s post on Facebook. He had shared a movie called Women of Color As a Powerful Form of Resistance.
The three-minute short revealed an organisation called Brown Girl Surf “that teaches girls of color to surf.”
It is an important film because it shows “other women of color that surf is not a white man’s playground” and “that the water is a safe space for women of color because the water is honest.”
The group’s leader says it’s “definitely not a good time to be a woman of color in America” which I presume to be a fork in the eye of America’s 45th president.
Anyway, the friend, a polite and nice little kid who lives in San Francisco, had wrapped the shared post with the message, “The world would be a better place if everyone surfed.”
Which is a fine thing to say.
When I was a child I, too, imagined a world where world leaders wore golden locks from all their surfing, where the Russian president would horse around with his American counterpart, joined together by their love of the ocean.
Of course, I soon became aware that surf did shit for a person’s emotional IQ, that altruism didn’t blossom on the ocean’s seabeds, feeding osmosis-like, into anyone sitting on a surfboard.
But I have a lousy personality. I’m the kind of guy who won’t talk to anybody unless I want something off you.
Therefore, I ask: would the world be a better place if everyone surfed? If the seas were filled with joyous wave dancers? Where colour, religion and so forth were left on the shoreline like your pretty new Leus towel?
An earthy paradise or living hell?
(Watch the colourful girl’s movie here.)
![Women of color surfing as a powerful form of resistance [insights]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-9jKErn8KBk/0.jpg "Quiz: Would The World Be Better If Everyone Surfed? 1")
I see plenty brown skinned girls surfing in Hawaii. Is this not the case everywhere else?
black people are like rocks in the water.. straight to the bottom
Regardless of colour I still spin out on how many people do lessons these days.
The world has finite resources and we can see how much everyone gets along at the moment as they squabble over acquiring those. Waves are a fickle, inconsistent resource and crossing the high-tide line is somewhat like entering a Hobbesian state of nature. Sadly, drawing on the concept of coloured women surfing, if women in the Western surfing worlds have historically been intimidated or discouraged from entering a line-up, I can’t imagine a paradise-on-earth in the waters of other, more severely patriarchal nations.
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Ergo, world would be terrible if everyone surfed.
I have lots of black friends, none of whom swim or are comfortable in the water. They really are not interested in surfing when I have invited them. I have female relatives and friends who ask me to “teach them to surf”. I have bought boards and wetsuits for them and they did not want to keep at it even when invited. People like what they like.
Good for her! It’s nice to see black people and women surfing. The SJW rhetoric though, particularly from the program director, is pretty obviously a form of narcissism. Which means they truly are surfers.
I used to leave my towel/a change of clothes on the beach. Lazy dog owners and their incontinent hounds soon put a stop to that.
Generally speaking, surfing is best far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife, so to answer your question: sure they can all join in the fun, as long as they’re not madding.
It feels like almost everyone surfs right now. Surfing seems to have exploded in popularity particularly in the last 5 years. If only all those new surfers understood etiquette and manners in the water..it’s turning into a living hell
You look at the person next to you and cuss in your mind about them trying to snake you. You look on your other side and think about how you can snake them. Same as world politics.
Politics is all us white men are going to have left if this trend continues.
NO
Fuck no
There must be seven billion eating, pissing and shitting humans on earth by now. Can you fucking IMAGINE if everyone surfed? IMAGINE!
Lennon did! Or was it Lenin? Stop Stalin, no one can fuck IMAGINE, even if everyone surfed!
A loosed lousy personality I believe you meant.
I believe leaving your race on the shoreline deprives the idea of success. Our differences are our avenues of approach. I have much more interesting conversations with people I have little in common with than when there’s much in common.
It’s all learning. Being open to that.
Surfing is a conduit. It is not a bridge.
Food and music are reliable bridges. I can learn more from that than a library. Surfing is the conduit or road that gets us to those moments where those bridges stand in front of us. Then you don’t worry about language barriers.
Unless you are seeking directions to the train station. Then, you’re fucked.
Who the fuck seeks directions to the train station? If you don’t know where the train station, airport and/or nearest beach is, you’re fucked to begin with.
There was intelligent life before Google Maps.
I like getting nostalgic with the Thomas Guide.
no, it would not
Sounds nice, hopefully most of them stick to wave pools.