"I was an extreme boogie border, so this was the next step up."
Hello, 2021 and how did you ring in the brand-new year? Socially distancing with loved ones while air clinking champagne flutes? Boldly ignoring stay-at-home orders to get punk in drublic? Sitting in your once lightly crowded lineup shoulder to shoulder with hundreds, thousands, of new faces?
Oh boy.
If 2020 brought us one thing it is many, many, many new surfers. So many that California surf shops cannot keep boards on the racks. So many that Maine surf shops cannot keep 7mm wetsuits on the hangers.
Crystal Ouimette, co-owner of Black Point Surf Shop in Scarborough, Maine told News Center Maine:
“We got a lot more surfers now. But the issue that we’re having is there’s nothing. I can’t order winter boots if I sell out of them. Winter suits I literally don’t have any. I have two women’s suits hanging left. That’s it. Normally we stay super stocked all winter we have access to reorder if we had to, but there’s no neoprene there’s a crazy rubber shortage just due to production delays more or less. It’s like southern California,” she said. “You’re like, ‘what are these people doing for work? It’s like Wednesday at noon what are you doing?'”
Great question. Another question, the writer, Lindsey Mills, opens the expose thusly:
The pandemic and the relative isolation that comes with it is prompting a lot of people to try something new. Something they never had the time to do before. For example, a lot of people appear to be bundling up and grabbing their boards. Did you think we meant snowboards? Nope. “I was an extreme boogie border, so this was the next step up.”
The “extreme boogie boarder” is not revisited nor explained. I have no idea who he or she is or anything about him or her.
Or they.
The more I ponder, the more fascinated I am.
Extreme boogie boarder? If you are reading can you please email [email protected]?
I have many questions.
No, the article has it all wrong. When you’re an extreme boogie boarder, surfing is a step-down. Obviously the only step up is stand-up hydrofoiling on the methane oceans of Titan.
One really good thing about all these boards flying off the shelves is that soon, all of those same great boards will be up for sale for a fraction of the price because the kooks and lazyfucks that didn’t take any time to actually learn to surf and instead binge-watched the Mandalorian on Disney+. Time to reap the rewards!
Noosa, having most of it’s breaks in the National Park, is by very definition owned by no one. As a result it’s hard for any group to really lay claim to it and present a solid front because so many different people move through it. The closest is a group of older longboarders that congregate at Granite. But they don’t rule by force. They just catch every wave making it a living hell.
U know, it’s really messed to hear y’all all bitch about having to share waves with kooks or out of towners! Although I understand wanting to keep it to yourself I would never openly whine and bitch about it! That is precisely why surfing will never be considered as a real professional sport! With professional money! Think about it, it’s not ur fucking wave! Look at it like this, u take ur kids to the coolest playground in town. Only to watch ur kids get bullied or beat up and told “locals only”! The whole aloha spirit is bullshit! Or maybe I should say as long as u stay out of the surf! I live 200mi from the coast here in Alabama! I don’t know why I have this love, this unbelievable urge to surf but I do! Never a day goes by that I don’t daydream about surfing! Or one day retiring to a place I can surf when ever I want! So it’s very frustrating to hear folks whine and cry because somebody from the outside wants to play on ‘UR’ playground! U don’t realize how lucky u are to live near a good break. U would rather bitch about having to share it! U don’t realize that the more people surf the bigger the sport will get! The more money pro surfers will make! The more money put into surfing, means prices drop on surf equipment! But I’m sure u don’t care for that cause it means more traffic at certain breaks! Again I understand not wanting to deal with that but somebody like me who truly loves this sport shouldn’t have to worry about knocking somebody’s teeth out just to get into the lineup! I shouldn’t have to worry about taking my brother or a couple boys with me just for back up! That’s fucked up when U consider that ITS NOT UR FUCKING WAVE! U know as well as I do, the wanna be’s will fade off after a while. It happens every year! And I shouldn’t have to worry about beating the shit out of some punk 20yr old and then being threatened with a lawsuit. (Like in 2018) I hope the little hairy vagina reads this too!
Oh yea, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Lol
Lawyers, and barney fife
Comment of the Century
Naw, you’re mistaken. Cape Cod down in Mass has a White Shark problem. Maine doesn’t have an issue with sharks. Only two incidents with any sharks in the past 200 years here.
How cold does it get there? I often debate going up to a 6.5mm but feel restricted enough In a 5/3mm
Gets down to 32F some years with below zero wind chill and there’s usually a fair bit of wind. I have a 5/4 for winter with 7mm boots and 8mm mittens. It’s warm enough but if the air is especially cold and there’s a wait in the water for sets, you can feel it and get the shakes eventually. Everyone feels restricted making the jump from 4/3 to 5/4 in the fall here at first but you get used to the extra rubber after a couple weeks. Definitely wears you down faster at first but you get stronger paddling faster and then you don’t really think about the rubber or the cold and just surf.
Extreme Boogie Boarding: Boogie only with Chaps.
Rent on hold, car payments on hold, nothing to do in the day, no in class school, unemployment checks with extra stimulus money. It will come to an end, back rent will be due, no more stimulus. A lot of used equipment on the market to help make ends meet. Give it 6 months.
I’m trying. Hard. It’s not easy
Is ‘crazy rubber’ anything like ‘Japanese neoprene’?
Can’t wait for the used board racks to fill up with good deals once all these pandemic tool bags quit in 6 months
Oh u optimist. Reading bg is making me wanna become an extreme canoeist. I have a little piece of paradise that I truly feel is going to blow up. It’s killing me. Roaring 20-s are coming. Being on an airplane and seeing other surfers makes me wanna vomit
They quit after that first hard paddle out. I’ve seen this type of “surfer” my whole life. Bought the board,and best gear for stage props. These people are good for surf shops, and bad for people on probation.
Can someone with a direct line to the Stab writers PLEASE let them know what the actual meaning of “savant” is? I’m getting kind of sick of them essentially calling skilled humans ‘retards’ in every second article. It seems like it’s their favourite word at the moment and they keep using it even though they don’t know what it means.
Uh..might also wanna check that 1st definition. TDS on the other hand, spot on.
1 : a person of learning
especially : one with detailed knowledge in some specialized field (as of science or literature)
Yeah, this past year has been insanely crowded here in Maine. With the border closed, we don’t have Quebec down so much but more NY/NJ/CT/MA plates up than usual. Not far from NY or Boston, and a lot of people have summer homes here and came early since they were out of work or work remotely. We could bank on the tourist season Memorial to Labor Day and it usually tapers off by the time Atlantic Hurricane season kicks on. I don’t know about any extreme boogie boarders, that crap definitely tapers off after summer up here. As for the extreme, not sure what that even means. Nobody wears 7mm wetsuits up here, most wear 5mm in the winter while some push the limits of a 4.5mm and get the shakes after awhile. 7/8mm mittens and booties are a necessity though. If people who don’t know what they’re doing are buying 7mm suits, I’m cool with that because they won’t be able to make the paddle out in that. Surfline forecasts have been an indicator for how crowded it will be but thankfully there are days when Surfline is off and there’s only a handful at good breaks and then days when it has a good forecast there are an extra 50-100 but only at well know spots. The hurricanes and nor’easter swells have been nice because the inside paddle out can be so challenging it thins out the crowd naturally which is pretty great. Hoping for more of that this winter and for more nor’easters.
I’ve had encounters with extreme boogers.
Pickers can’t be choosers.
Funnily enough I was living in Maine back in 2003 on the J1 visa, wanted to get a wetsuit for my girlfriend at the time, so we went down to that Cinnamon Rainbow surfshop to get one for her. Surfed mostly at Higgins Beach, good times!
After ringing in New Year’s Day with a session at 3 foot super bank I can confirm we are all fucked
no rubber required.
You need some sort of protection. That being said, one of the hot rats up here says he prefers surfing the Snapper/Rainbow stretch more than Noosa. In his words, at least at Snapper there is a sense of hierarchy. If you do the right thing, wait your turn, the local boys will send you a wave every now and then. Noosa is just a shit fight with dickheads catching a wave, falling off and then paddling back in front of everyone else.
He’s lying. What he really means to say is that, being an out-of-towner, there’s no real consequences for burning people because nobody knows your face. Also most of the problem at Noosa is getting a clear path on a wave as all the kooks ditch their longboards.
Well, to be fair, the kid is all stickered up and does rip.
Did you say hi to Occy for us all? There’s gotta be enough material for a surf ads story on the super bank holiday experience .
Didn’t see occy, but after being pretty bummed on my board selection (only board I could fit was my dick fish from previous write up) I’ve just spotted an al Byrne six channel in the garage of the joint I’m staying at. The swell has kicked a little today too. More as the story develops