Flowers for the Comment Brigade: BeachGrit Readers Elevate Discussion After Bondi Atrocity

"Everyone bringing it, from Hippy to Otto to Bexy to Com and the rest of you trapped in the human condition, all sharing stories, sharing opinions."

What a few days. Beginning with DR sharing his experience of the horrors of the Bondi massacre, to hundreds of comments over six articles by four esteemed BeachGrit writers (three established, one new one, already established in the larger surf writing ecosystem).  

And maybe it was the vulnerability shown by DR to start it off, in his own curmudgeonly way, but of the hundreds of comments on these articles, almost all were worth reading.

Even the ones calling out DR and Chas for “what does this have to do with surfing?”

To those in that latter subcategory–note: a growing number of surf bodies are disallowing Israeli surfers from surfing over the Gaza “genocide” and/or are being lobbied and petitioned to disallow Israeli surfers. 

Oh, see what I did there?  That word choice, “genocide”?

What other surf (or more accurately, for BG, surf adjacent) outlet has had the maturity (BG, mature? Hah!) to devote a running discussion, based on their four lead writers, to this issue of religious terrorism, broadly defined, and how it may (or may not), have anything to do with surfing?

Forty plus years ago, Spicoli branded our kind as drugged out space cadets. Somehow, this image still remains, despite Hollywood’s efforts to dispel it, or worse, perpetuate it.

Yet, for free, we have an all you can eat buffet spread in front of us: DR, with years of editing experience, multiple books, perfect smile; Chas, with years of writing and field work and a Master’s in language studies; Monty–well, I don’t know anything about him, but that he has a hard on for imagined shark fiction; and JP–everyone knows my beef with him (rabbits!), but even I recognize, he can write, and BG is better for letting him share those shavings with us. All weighing in, on this horror in DR’s back yard.  

The magic below the line

But the magic really happens, when it’s good, down below.  No, not tranny dick down below (sorry, DR), but the rest of us, our gangly mix of hirsute, overweight, traveled, stubborn, cranky, opinionated cunt brigade of punters.  Everyone, bringing it, from Hippy to Otto to Bexy to Com to all the rest of you anonymous beautiful fuckers trapped in the human condition, all sharing stories, sharing opinions, thinking you have (or don’t have) a solution to this same human condition (RIP Offrocker).

There’s often no right and wrong, broadly speaking, given the human condition, but a finer granular level of thinking and feeling, I posit, that can emerge, by listening to others. How much more so on these wicked problems related to religion, fundamentalism, gun violence, demagoguery, and testosterone overload in impressionable young men (and sociopathic older men).

Rare, after all these years, that I get excited to read more of the same on BG—which maybe says something about me (and quite a few of you), that keeps me coming back anyway.  Rarer, still, to want to keep checking the comments, to see what has been added, so I can learn a bit more.

So, an offering of flowers: to Chas and DR, for curating this place, and putting their reputations on the line more often than not, within a wider sanitized surf ecosystem.  Flowers, to Monty and JP for weighing in. 

Flowers, to the many punters who offered something, even if a “Fuck you” because that is needed, too.