But who could have ever guessed, who could have ever possibly imagined, what toll the Covid-19 pandemic would have upon our little ol’ surfing? Less than a year ago we were happily plying a trade that had been forgotten, more or less, by the mainstream. One-time World Surf League CEO Paul Speaker’s pronouncement that The Sport of Kings would soon eclipse the National Football League as laughable as any Louis C.K. comedy sketch.
The surf industry apocalypse stretched far into the past and farther into the future.
Then came the lockdown orders, the quarantining, the social distancing, the no traveling, working or leaving and those who lived near a coast decided to paddle.
Soon, surf shops couldn’t keep wetsuits in stock, Costco couldn’t keep Wavestorms, and lineups swelled with new faces.
On the east coast, where freezing cold winter waters long kept vulnerable adult learners out, they now looked at better waves peeling, bought thicker wetsuits and kept paddling.
In a just-published The Philadelphia Inquirer piece titled “More brave souls try winter surfing during the pandemic, with sales and traffic going up,” the real troubles are exposed.
After 35 years of surfing, Chris Konicki particularly loves winter surfing — for the intense waves, often bigger than at other times of the year, and the solitude. Yet this season, he’s not quite alone.
“I was out in early December …,” said Konicki, a Strathmere, N.J., resident. “There were maybe 25 people out. Last year or the year before, you’d maybe see one or two.”
He’s not thrilled about that, preferring the tranquility of solo surfing or with just a buddy when, in the winter, he hits the waves about once a week, the water temperatures as low as the 30s and the air as cold as 20 degrees.
On it goes, detailing horror story after horror story. VALs wonderfully impressed by the bracing chill, the feeling of aliveness, the wonders of modern wetsuit technology. How surfing is naturally socially distanced and close, or close enough, to millions upon millions of Jersey-ites, New Yorkers, Philadelphians etc.
And who could have predicted that a general surf apocalypse would follow the surf industry apocalypse?
Not me.
Not in one-million years.
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actually…here in the Northeast, the VALS in Jersey destroyed snowboarding well before COVID… sorry Vermonters!
The crowds in New Jersey (Central Jersey) this winter have looked exactly like the past Jersey summer… plenty of days where softies are even number with the rest of us… common sense, etiquette, and decency are so so so 2015… and they all have the best 7-mil lobster claws Amazon.com has on offer…
You mean thanks to Circe?
Found this old quote from Lopez, “the first 20 years surfing was just a test, to see if I was really interested.”.
Pretty sure everyone on this website meets that criteria.
That being said, yeah, I think I kind of saw this coming.
I think artificial wave pools might be the answer . . .
Let’s see how long it lasts once their suits get a bunch of holes in them.
Thanks, I needed my daily reminder of why I rarely surf anymore.
The internet surf website butterfly effect as published in Classical Analysis of Wave Mechanics Edition 9,
“Each and every time an actual surfer clicks on a surf website*, an equivalent surfer begins to form in the ocean.”
*Comments included.
damn it! sorry I just made another one, fuck!
Ben Gravy videos may be encouraging some to paddle out in winter too…
With the influx of new faces, why aren’t the ex pro marketing geniuses at surfing brands able to pull their shit companies out of the dumpster?
Cause those new faces are shit company out in the line-up.
they are not in the dumpster anymore…RC/Qiky/BB etc,
all the old surfing Co’s are having record years selling sell out volumes of Hardware…..and sprotswear…these are now boom years.
the whole planet is seeing an incredible boost in beginner Adult learner surfers….Patagonia did a study that there are now an extra 3.6m surfers globally and about 120K in California.
Here in Australia , especially Bells , in the last 12 mths surf is so crowded with VALS , sometimes impossible to surf as the mix of beginners with Vals , too dangerous to surf….
We are seeing the biggest Coastal Social change since surfing began here….the influx of people to the coast who are buying renting houses…has left no rentals available for anyone and local house owners are getting 30% more…..
So there’s more coming and today will be the good old days ….next week!
Hurluley is doing MASSIVELY.
We’re sold out of the Dream-catchers and the Opinion Bubbles are going fast.
I’m looking into private yachts, and have venture capital crawling up my bum looking for a piece of the action.
What a time to be alive.
The weird thing is with the Val phenomenon, none of the new surfers can surf. Or rather, none of them are competitive. I first noticed this in Costa Rica but now it’s spread. Surfing isn’t like it used to be where there was a packing order and you only got to the top by either being an agressive wanker in the water, or by being better than the next guy. Surfing for vals is just aquatic yoga.
I’m not a great surfer but I know how to sit on the takeoff at my local. Even when it’s crowded I can get any wave unless it’s one of those rare days when the surf is really good and all the hot surfers from all along the coast descend. That might happen 6 days a year and usually in summer.
All these Vals just float around in the lineup. I don’t think they are even in it for the purpose of riding waves. Certainly not in it for performance surfing. Small mercies I guess.
but when you go to our local supermarkets there’s all these now wearing Q/S…Bbong, Rip curl…..sportswear as they think that’s what surfers wear….so boom time for the Kook brands , made by Kooks worn by Kooks…FFS did I just make a brand ……???
Hardware is booming, no doubt. Glad to hear shapers are finally getting their share.
Can confirm this. Ran over two VALs this last year, full on t-boned them at top speed. They were apologizing while paddling/burning me/not pulling back.
I was longboarding at my local beach in really crowded conditions. Got a racer inside and it was kinda punchy so I couldn’t pull out the back. Two kids were racing me towards the 3 foot shoulder and I saw a 250 pound linebacker of a 40 year old lady sitting further past these two facing the beach with her LB nose pointing 4 feet up in the air.
My choice was 1. straighten out and run head first into the two kids at top speed, 2. get past them and let this lady LB nose hit me in the face or 3. try to highline it over her submerged tail. I chose three and I hit her tail so fucking hard my single fin cut in to her tail past her stringer. I went flying and my board got washed in. She saw her tail and started crying. Didn’t know whether to apologize, or cuss her out so I just shrugged and paddled in after my board.
An old timer friend came up and told me how fucked that was and how these newbies need to paddle down the fucking beach and not try to sit on the peak. There’s no self awareness at all. When I was learning I would go to some shitty out of the way place so I wasn’t fucking it up for others. Mainly cause I KNEW I was a kook and I didn’t want to fuck it up for others.
Because the COVID kooks are less interested in quik/bong/rip t shirts than longtime surfers are.
bingo… if Vineyard Vines or Brooks Brothers made a 5-mil they’d be crushing the Jersey VAL market…
In the photo, is that guy the “wounded pterodactyl”?
Louis CK is funny, BUT – what’s with bashing your meat in front of chicks? Like Harvey Weinstein and that poor plant he busted on, in front of that actor. I dont get it, just pound a hooker ffs
I wore 5 mil lobster claws in NY yesterday and thought I’d be giving High-4’s the rest of my life for post surgery amputation…took 15 mins to be able to turn the key to start the car… 45 mins in the water (37 degrees ). Big thank you to Canada for the north wind flow ….
How hard to paddle and stand up, let alone duck dive, when that covered up?
Man,, glad u asked … maybe it’s age(45), cigs, wine… whatever . But to be honest I was tired 20 mins after being out. Waves were small too, 2-3 ft . Sad. But it’s heavy dude … and when that water washes over you it takes breath away , knocks the shit outta ya… feels like concrete on ya back!!! And yeah, to pop up feels like liftin a bag of f**kin bricks ,,,, but I’m pu**y , so keep that in mind. ….
I find that first paddle out with each successive thickening of the wetsuit is a tough one. The difference in a 5.4 from a 3.2 is night and day, let alone with 5 mill gloves and 7 mill boots. Those surfers who shred it in the thick stuff make it too easy. What about heated suits?
remember when the Quiksilver heated vest came out? i was gonna denounce Catholicism and pray to the board of trusties at Quik. soon found out a 2×6 brick digging in your ribs whilst paddling dont work too well in the surf. yr right, the transition from 3/2 to 4/3 aint bad, but the 5 mil is tough on the shoulders.. with the 7 mil boots you feel less connected to the deck… the water temp aint horrible at 40(ish),,, its that f**kin wind that cleaves your insides in two…..
Btw forgot to mention, and I’m gonna get snickered at, I ride my winter “step up” 6’5”x20”x 2.5 (liters gotta be around 38). Even if the waves are 2-3 ft…. I found more board/ float makes it easier to get around
The one “good” thing about where I live is it’s basically flat year round so crowds don’t matter. Waves are always shit. Nothing like boards on cars in winter and it’s ankle high and you just roll your eyes.
you had me at “lineups swelled with new feces”
I’m telling you, surfyboards built from sun-whitened dogshit blanks are the future.
Night surfing is the only solution
this had been…but go you to to firing rincon or malibu at night at alas you’ll get your fill but fuck man it’s BOOKED with kooks. i feel less bad, under the cover of light-polluted darkness, burning cats. nonetheless i misgive re: my place amongst these times
One does what one must when the waves are firing like that.
Ill take a lineup of VALS over 30-40year old has beens and never weres.
You ARE a has been and never were. You just don’t know it yet.
I don’t claim to be and that is the difference.
You haven’t surfed with this new crop of vals, have you? All of the entitlement, none of the ability. At least with the has beens/never weres they can surf well enough to not waste waves.
My local break got overran by them this summer but they were pretty easy to navigate
Yeah I don’t know about that.
You prefer being back paddled for hours on end?