What are the tell-tale signs that surfing is over for you? And what is on the other side of a life without waves and surfboards?
In Chas Smith’s most important video to date, the noted author and hater of surfing lists the tell-tale signs your time as a surfer might just about be up.
How do you know when the time is right?
- You’re on too much foam. Big Surfboard will try to tell you, ‘Hey man, the high-performance surfboard is only for a tiny segment of the population, the segment that surfs well. You need to be on a longer, thicker board. Go try a nine-footer, try a Glider, try a thick, squashy fish.’ Trying something new might be fun…sometimes… but if you no longer have a high-performance board in your quiver or you’re unable to ride it with grace and art, you need tot quit surfing.
- When you hate it if the waves are great.
- When you look at Surfline and see it’s one-foot windblown slop for the week and you punch the air and go, yeeeeah!
- When your first emotion stepping a toe in the water is to cringe.
- When you look at your friends on surf trips via Instagram and your very first impression is, what a waste of time and money. Scrolling through their posts, seeing them shoulder hopping and not really in the tube but stoked, if your first inclination is to think, what a waste, it’s time to quit surfing.
- When you travel to Paris for the Olympics instead of Teahupoo where surfing will be but then in Paris you start to get itchy ’cause it’s too closely connected to Olympic surfing and you fly north to Copenhagen, then you know it’s time to quit surfing.
And, what happens when you quit? Can you still call yourself a surfer?
And, then, what happens when you no longer surf? What new experiences open up?
Essential.
