Is the grass always greener?
Now this is a serious question. Would you? Imagine how many hours you’ve spent in the water, perfecting the little things like balancing your board when paddling so its nose neither points straight to heaven nor dives beneath the brine. Or popping up sans nobs and also without a hitchy knee nor hobbled stutter.
Duck diving.
The hours upon hours pushing first with hitchy knee in middle then graduating to foot on tail, gliding underneath the most menacing white wash barriers.
I could go on and on all day here without even arriving at actual surfing. Actually standing on a wave and gliding upon its surface.
It’s the little things that make surfing so difficult to master and the bigger things too.
So would you trade it all, the hours, the pain, but also the elation, the singular glories to be like the Moroccan/New York rapper French Montana if you could live like him too?
Would he trade his life for yours?
Much to ponder.
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.
Don’t go to Pt. Dume, you’ll cry. The OGs there surf all they want and still managed to build insane careers. Really fucks up your excuses for why you’re still hanging drywall.
Love how so-called GL’s on here talk about lawyering up and cashing in like little bitches. Let’s get lawyers involved and leashes and Gaths and PFDs will be mandatory. Shit will boomerang on you fast. Best leave that shit alone.
Google tells me that’s a reference from a movie I’ve yet to see, so I can’t appreciate the humor if there was some.
He got rid of the tigers. Probably because they’re tigers.
Just in case anyone’s interested: That “duty of care” you reference is inapplicable when a person “Assumes the Risk”. There’s a long history of cases (think ski slopes) that make it clear that when a person willingly enters a risky situation such as a ski mountain (and certainly a surf break) the normal duty of care which would give rise to claims for negligence, etc. doesn’t apply. In short, there’s no case against a VAL unless he/she does something intentional.
No. He was shot in the head in 2003 and once bought a pair of endangered Bengal tigers.
It’s unclear if these events are related.
Scott, Mick Taylor IS the Rolling Stones… or was.
Where’s Jackie Chiles ??? We got a case.
great reference
WTF is a VAL? Is that some kind of California term for someone not from the coast (valley)? Serious question….asking for a friend. Glad I don’t live in California.
Vulnerable Adult Learner.
We are happy you don’t live here too.
“Llamahood” liberating not stealing from rich Vals and giving to the needy core
My cornea’s and cochlea’s just got simultaneously bum raped……..
Definitely Moroccan silk tho
Not the right guy to ask. On Sunday, was surfing with son, he got a few and then decided to go in. I swapped boards to compare my previous ride with the new update. After a few more I decide to come in on a short right hander into close out. A bald, overweight VAL with brand new $1200* 9′-ish mal, is dropping in. I figure it’s ok because he is heading right and I can bounce off his wake. As I commit to the whip off the top, (on my backhand for full image), he over balances onto his heels and cuts back towards me. I’ve got nowhere to go, as I was not expecting such a manouevre, and the nose of my board just catches the rail of his board as it comes back under my feet. Pop up to review the carnage; my board has a little finger sized chop about an inch back from the nose; his board has a two thumb width chop about two inches into the foam about 3′ back from the nose.
So, yeah, I’m happy with my level of competence in the water and the fact that the chances of going overseas in the foreseeable future are zippo. On the other hand, I at least have the option of checking the waves most mornings. Sure that is balanced with moments of brain asking internalised questions of “are you really making a success of your life?”. Which isn’t a good thing to have to think about some days. But mostly I’m ok with it.
*current price of this brand.
After having lived a precarious life for over 25 years the only benefit of finally having more/some money ,besides creating a family was Health Insurance ? Did everything I wanted to do ,surfing every day , partying every night and traveling with the latest surfing equipment etc for a generation , with very little cash but couldn’t afford to have a permanent partner or kids .
Permanence is over rated and impure. Change is the only imperative. Health insurance is blood sucking middle men, the parasites of society. Surf travel is more than “getting wet” at your local. Big spinning ball, go have a look LNPie.
He is my favourite VAL – the catch no waves VAL. Happily the most common sub group of VAL.
pretty sure wealthy, engorged, arrogant, venerable, adult learners get to do regular stints in places like Fiji, the maldives and the carribean and have been doing so for hundreds of years. sign me up.
(weavals have been ruining trips for the common man for centuries and continue to do so. pretty sure I have spelled weavals incorrectly but the correct spelling doesn’t work)
The conundrum being , you can surf perfect waves 2 months a year but you can only surf these perfect waves like a VAL ? I’d rather surf shit waves as a grumpy local than completely ruining perfect waves with a level of surfing I left behind at age 12 ?
Pretty sure frenchy Montana would be the lesser of two weavals.
Imagine the lawsuits that could come with a VAL on VAL collision when both traveling 1 mph on wavestorms..
Invest in VAL Crash Test Slo Mo Dummies Now !
Non non non! Can’t kid a kidder! That, was Sasha Cohen, messin wid ya. Or, if not I’ll eat my hat!
Video killed the radio star
Video killed the radio star
In my mind and in my car
We can’t rewind we’ve gone too far
No No No No No
No No No No No No No
No No No No No
This is a little glass half empty Ed. Nice cadence though.
Maybe Maybe May
Be Maybe Maybe Maybe
Lacked some conviction
THERE’S NO LIMITS!
Jebus H Christ that was fucking painful top watch, even on skip, with the sound down.
What a douchey fuckwit. And I don’t mean his VAL-itude.
Money cannot buy taste. (repeat 1000 times)
Agreed, what a self righteous arsehole. Rappers don’t surf and surfers don’t rap.
Except in NSW ! We have one in my old club .
These mumble rappers don’t even rap…
I was hoping this was a Borat-like parody. I’m still not sure.
Ignorance is bliss. Show me the money.
The older I get the more sense that saying makes.
how dare he expose a secret spot. The locals there are gonna kill him!