Culture shock
Things change, but they don't always change in the same direction at the same rate. Sometimes reality just takes a turn and heads off at speed in an unanticipated direction. Many of us experienced something like that in the mid-seventies when surfing turned right and headed straight into the heart of a culture many of us had spent the previous decade desperately trying to subvert.
Those who did not experience it will find it hard to appreciate now, just how different things were then. The culture was explicitly racist and sexist, a war more abhorrent and senseless than any since, had just come to an end and any questioning of the dominant materialistic paradigm was considered subversion. There was a social divide and most surfers, until then, had been on the side of the revolution. Not a violent guns and bombs revolution but a cultural revolution; a move away from war, discrimination and exploitation and if we, and the entire generation, failed it was only because no-one ever managed to change human nature. The qualities of those who seek power have never been compatible with wisdom and justice.
So surfing was never going to change the world. It was a sideshow to a sideshow, right out there on the cultural edges where no-one was paying attention and if it ever pretended to spiritual or social significance, most of us knew better. Yet it was something. Maybe a refuge or an escape or a way of quietly thumbing our collective nose at the conventions of an abhorrent society that had not yet delivered to us those bribes of security and comfort which, in time, would blind us to its faults. For some it was a form of self-discovery and so treated with a seriousness beyond comprehension in this era of market utility and ironic detachment.
It might have stayed that way but, amongst us were those who saw something else; the potential for profit. Eventually they got the attention they sought. Someone noticed. Someone saw those images; all that blue water and sunlight, that effortless gliding over curves......and we were fucked. All of us who had hoped that somehow surfing would not be drawn into the commercial morass of fully consummated greed that we could already smell, off in the not too distant future, lurking in the early eighties.
From the first billboard linking us to that liquid tooth rotting diabetes promoting, sugary shit, we were fucked. Surfing was a corporate wet dream, revolution lite, diluted even further to the shallowest possible hedonism. Ignore everything else, just go surfing. And we were merely some kind of anachronistic pseudo hippies with no power, no pull, with nothing to do but dig our own holes and let the shit fly overhead for all those many decades.
Later the advocates of pro surfing, those who chose to take advantage of the mainstream attention and the various gusts of corporate good fortune that came their way over those decades, would claim we were somehow selfish in not wanting to advertise the wonders of the surfing experience to the wider world. They would say that we were elitist, but that was never true. Everywhere we went we spread surfing. We always gave it away, but it was personal. We invited individuals in, while we abhorred the general invitation. We spread it to the kids hanging around the beaches, we gave them our boards, we taught them our skills.
They sold it to those looking for a pastime to add some colour to their lives of corporate subservience. They drew in the vulnerable and sold them the mirage of some hedonic absolute; some privileged masculinity surrounded by barely pubescent bikini clad girls in a world of continuously perfect waves. And like all mirages it was permanently in retreat, always there just beyond the grasp of even the most determined and talented. But many died trying to grasp that illusion, or became degraded by the drugs and narcissism they had been dulled into believing were their birth right. The brighter the light, the darker the shadow. Some clung to the light. Many disappeared into the darkness.
Yet times continue to change and an image as carelessly abused as that of surfing, inevitably loses its power. When the arrested paedophile is wearing a dingy t-shirt with your brand, it's over. When the terrorist waving his AK47 is wearing a cap with your logo, it's over. When you produce a product as pointless and tasteless as a wetsuit designed as a business suit, even mainstream media notice and call you out for jumping the shark. The image is worn out. The easy money is gone. The corporate charity that has been professional surfing over the last few decades has dried up. So whose turn is it now to deal with the culture shock? //blindboy
(Photo from John Witzig's 'A Golden Age: Surfing's Revolutionary 1960s and '70s')
Comments
Not so sure the easy money is gone BB, it just got turned into real estate equity.
But where to now?
Cultures that fail to value people for their contributions to community create environments where people feel the need to mark themselves as unique, special, and therefore valuable - and the easiest way to do that is with an off the shelf image.
But those images are hollow on their own, and those who do find acceptance in that image do so in the communities they form with the other lost and undervalued. Then, when the fickle winds of fashion blow past (as they inevitably do), the only things left behind are the pillars of community - standing as strong as always but sans the ornamental bullshit.
That's a very studied way of looking at it RD. Academic and also poetic.
Cheers Stu. Too many uni assignments.
what if all the communities have been hollowed out by unaffordable real estate and all that is left are french poodles, audis and SUPs at twenty paces?
Eyre peninsula.
It's a good question though - How long will those elements in the culture perpetuate themselves without the corporate teat glorifying the lifestyle?
Have you moved from Lennox FR?
“I shared a vagrant optimism that some of us were making real progress, that we had taken an honest road, and that the best of us would inevitably make it over the top. At the same time, I felt that the life we were leading was a lost cause, that we were all actors, kidding ourselves on a senseless odyssey. It was the tension between those two poles - a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other - that kept me going.”
― Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary
Puts on beret and red scarf of the martyrs of the revolution.
In a deep voice while puffing and chomping on pipe.
"It's all surface - the pure simulacra of society of the spectacle - nothing but sideshows - in the service of commodity fetishism and consumption if it is part of capitalism (whatever class you belong to). The main show is the economic system that fuels the process, which FR points out.Audis or Fords, french poodles or blue heeler, SUPS or shortboard. It will keep on keeping on - feeding off its own shit (apparently you can polish a turd). Regurgitation at its finest."
But come on ...
How could anyone not love the wetsuit as suit? It's a thing of beauty, magnificence. I bought two. Always good to have two suits for the week. My only suggestion is that next release have a pin stripe model. OH, and a smoking jacket.
Human nature is an interesting one. What is it? Is there even such a thing? There are plenty of cases of young children being raised with different animals, totally adopting that nature. So, despite wanting to escape a certain culture, surfing just added a new uniform, or badge to it. Depending on where you surf, that is always unconsciously the case.
Overall, western culture values money above all else. See what happens if you have zero. As globalisation occurs, colonisation is still up to the old tricks, still spreads.
Its hard to see surfing change so much, so quickly, but, so has the foundational culture, so it had to. The internet is in the desert now. Its got new rules now. There was once the no camera rule too. Never in the east though, they always took pictures. I saw a kiwi in West Java once, playing surfees, trying to keep shitty, wobbly, crappy Cimaja a secret. At night he was showing his mates pictures of blacks. Fucking hilarious.
But, is it human nature, or just conditioning. Traditional Indigenous Australians were/are humans too. So are North Sentinel Islanders. They didn't/don't value money. So we think shit about them.
We had/have all these genius's in the west. And the east too, we recognise some of them, in our wisdom. Do we really though. Traditional Indigenous Australian Cultures, and The North Sentinal Islanders Culture are easily the longest, continual, most successful ever. Their natures are nothing like ours too. So, they never had the problems we have blessed them with. All those genius's, like Einstein, Hawkins, they get prizes and stuff, and money to do stuff with.
There is another scenario. Maybe closer to the truth. Maybe the truth. What if the real genius's, the most intelligent of all humans, that is, those that make our genius's look like dumb fuck's, like absolute fucking idiots and dim wits, were born Traditional Indigenous Australians, and North Sentinel Islanders? Top of the class so to speak, cream of the crop. World's most successful Cultures by miles and miles, no one else even comes close. So, they used that real genius, as true genius's would. For good. Real good. Yeh, I know, how the fuck in hell could that be possible,... them lot with fuck'n better genius's than us, ffaaarkkk oooorfff! Just fuck'n lucky cunts! And anyway, what happened to the cunts!
Western surfing was always doomed. The forest at Grafton became a jail. The gazza was always doomed. Penong's got a pub. The Bora Rings in Lennox are probably a fucking soccer oval. The forest in the middle of Elliston became a Model T race track of all things, then a swamp. DY's got cops and robbers. Not human nature, just the wild west. The wild colonial boy still running amock, shitting in his own wetty and flicking it at his maaayyytes. Write a book or zillion, maybe a best seller. They never had them either, those most successful ever Cultures.
Uplift, there is a very credible line of evolutionary thinking that suggests we are individually much stupider than our distant ancestors and modern hunter gatherers. It is so easy to survive and breed that those who would never have managed in traditional societies, which are more physically and cognitively demanding, have been passing on their genes.
Is this the same evolutionary thinking with a logic that slips into "survival of the fittest" modus operandi?
And uplift, you cannot be a genius if you don't get a trophy. It just doesn't count otherwise.
clif the "fittest" in that phrase refers to the way an organism fits its environment not to fitness as it is more widely used.
Uppity is a shoe-in for this seasons Most Improved.
he's very much the better for a recent spell.
Without a doubt we are more stupid. Longevity speaks for itself - 40+ thousand years? Western culture won't come close. Our scramble for the last pint of semi skimmed before a bank holiday gives us away. Any skills we have are dumbed down by the generation with the next gen freaking out if minecraft goes offline. There are plenty who could go bush, for a while. A surfers reliance on Mother Nature should lend itself to a different way of living but the connection is often missed or played at, little enclaves here and there soaking up the realness, diesel genny chugging in the distance. Over the fullness of time nature will refind it's balance, our interference will no doubt leave it's mark but will there be anyone around to see it? We may be, like 'surf culture' of the 60' and 70's a blink and you'll miss it phenomenon with stragglers recounting tales of when the waves pumped and there was a maccas on every corner.
Pretentious! Self centred! Little arseholes!
Bloody hell. I surf because it's fun.
Surfings image ? Maybe when your a teenager you might care.
....so grocer you don't surf when it's cold or you are likely to get stomped by an outsized set or suffer sunburn or are one of too many chasing too few waves? None of which easily fits any definition of fun that I have encountered. But most of us still do it so while you may surf only for fun maybe there is a bigger game you haven't noticed.
BB it sounds like your trying to push your insecurities onto the rest of us. Maybe it's because you experienced the 60s & 70s. Lucky you I say. It seems your seriously attatched to the changes in surfing & it's perception. It is what it is. I just spent 3 weeks at Ulus, went with some low expectations re crowds etc & was so pleasantly surprised. It's all about attitude, how you except or reject the current reality. Tomorrow morning I'm contemplating putting on the steamer n booties for an early, it's all good. Maybe I've missed your point. Cheers anyway...
So you only have fun in the surf when its warm and your in boardies?
I don't get it...
Nothing wrong with Surfings image or perception by the mainstream if that's what you're concerned with. I know plenty of non surfers, many that never see the ocean and they imagine all surfers are fit , healthy and capable.
Doesn't mean they are going to wear , or ever have worn a Billabong T shirt.
Surfing in the new age like any other corporate venture will always ebb and flow, it will inevitably rise again when someone finds a new angle to profit. Its human nature to modify but the beautiful thing is you can choose to soul arch or 360 air reverse in any location on the planet. Progress always brings pros and cons. Ok, the landscape has changed and how you choose to exist in the environment is entirely up to the individual. Surfing will always remain a personal expression to many a blank canvas with every wave. Only a few ever get close to mastering it and then someone pushes harder and raises the bar. Exciting stuff.
Back in the day was good thou.
The more uncouth might say 'get yer hand off it blindboy'.
Headline: "Baby boomer surfer has culture/identity appropriated!!!" The HORROR!
They took our surfing lifestyle...wont someone think of the children!
Such wringing of hands over such inconsequence.
Mr Blind, you be Reelin' in The Years:
Now your patrons have all left you in the red
Your low rent friends are dead
This life can be very strange
All those day glo freaks who used to paint the face
They've joined the human race
Some things will never change
Son you were mistaken
You are obsolete
Look at all the white men on the street
Get along, get along Kid Charlemagne
Get along Kid Charlemagne
1976, and the dream was almost over
Very sad but true spiggy. I remember actually buying that album when it was first released.
The arc that most subcultures go through is from underground to mainstream. Of course the best time to jump on board is when its all just kicking off. It's less self conscious and people are more likely in it cause they are ahead of the game and full of passion.
Capitalism is fucked but you don't have to buy into the BS. As long as you can still catch a wave that's the main thing
I dunno about this surf culture stuff blindboy. It always seems a bit contrived to me.
At it's heart, surfing is just something to do when you have some spare time. It's got no greater purpose than that. Yet many hang a bunch of extraneous crap on it and call it culture. I'm no anthropologist but it always reads to me, like nothing more than a broad summary of the interests or likes of the majority who partake in the fun. And maybe how they treat each other. To me it's got nothing to do with the act of riding a wave, it has everything to do with the people who do it.
Early on, surfing was done by counter culture, hippy type folk. That doesn't make surfing special, it just means it was something the really interesting counter culture crew did. To my way of thinking, surfing in and of itself, had and has, no culture. It's just something people of a certain type, do.
As it grew more popular, naturally the diversity of those who do it increased. We end up with a crowd of people that includes the country soul people and on the opposite end of the spectrum, the Tony Abbots of the world.
Of course, when more people like something, you can sell more stuff related to it. I don't see it as a cultural shift, just a result of more people enjoying the fun. Only now, instead of it just being something people do, there are enough people doing it that it can form the basis of making a living for a few more people than before. Again, no shift in culture, just what happens when more people get in on the act of riding a wave.
Maybe I'm missing something, but I really don't see how surfing, as a thing, consists of anything more than being something to do. The changes around it are just because it's more popular so a little industry has developed around it. As a result we don't just have one type of surfer with a subversive perspective, we have many types with all manner of perspectives.
And yeah, people are making a living selling stuff related to it, and they want to continue making that living.
I enjoyed your point of view Benski but I still disagree with it.
Finding analogous activities would you say Fishing has no culture? Mountain climbing? Free diving? Bird watching?
There's a culture to all those activities: shared interests, heroes and villains, writers who have waxed lyrical, media, hierarchies etc etc.
No doubt the culture of surfing has got more diverse and less "profound" but to say there is no surf culture just seems to fly in the face of reality.
Swellnet is part of it. You're on here contributing to it.
Yeah I do see what you mean freeride. And my thoughts aren't fully formed but to my mind that's a different thing from what blindboy was talking about. What I got from the article was a discussion of the interests and goals of the few who surfed. That was always bound to change as the surfing population grew, and doesn't represent any culture, I don't think.
I think the culture of surfing, if it exists, is very regional. I've found the way surfers interact in the water is very different from place to place. I don't know a formal definition for culture, but if it's about how a group self organise and arrange their accepted norms (which is how I think of it), then it's a local phenomenon in surfing. Of course there are widely applied rules and etiquette but that's about how you surf. The local heroes and villains are surely the most important to the group in terms of setting up the local culture. Equally, being locals they're also irrelevant once outside any region.
I don't see the other stuff as culture, but rather just the disconnected activities of those who get in the water. Frequently that might be the only thing that they have in common.
yeah, good points. Very much agree it's regional/tribal.
BB the quandry you and those from your era face is having been in the race since the first lap and as those plastic men in those Saturday morning slot cars start to fade into the distance and shrink in the rearview mirror of the pack it would be a bitter little pill to swallow for sure, having to bear witness to what happened to "Your" culture but the truth is like any culture you never really get to own it. You can have an influence, you can be attached to it but it's constantly changing and that's really what defines a culture right? It was like any great revolution and simply lay there on the ground for whoever chose to pick it up.
Go hang out with a bunch of teenage surfers, they could not give a flying frick about any of that stuff they just paddle out have fun and mold surfing to thier lives and thus the culture with it and I'm sure in 40 odd years will be stunned with "What happened".
Don't panic or lament brother man just keep enjoying the ride and shining a light, an influence. There will be another wave along directly and if you paddle hard enough and have positioned yourself just right you will get to ride it.
Awesome little bit of wordsmithing BTW.
Yep, I think you have surmised it well. The current teens couldn't give a flick.
BB needs not lament the past but as you say enjoy the next ride. Better still go on a surf trip with them.
I don't know abut the 60s/70s being the first lap of the race, certainly an interesting time in surf culture. I agree though Shane that culture will always be constantly changing. Benski think about the fashions, music, art, ethos, language etc associated with surfing through the years, these are all cultural attributes. Nice piece of writing bb
Great article BB. You got me thinking and questioning.
Then I re-read it - and just felt your whole tone is down on life, tears over something lost, I lost my virginity over the wrong chick stuff. In fact your article reminded me of going to school re-unions. I noticed the keenest participants to revisit past history are always the guys that were stars at school, top footy players at school, top academics at school - but, despite their past achievements - today they are washed up nobodies going nowhere.
You reckon surfing was great in the 70's? Crap. It sucked.
Yes, I remember the racists. The sexists. The bullys. the fat fucked boards. the faulty legropes and awkward wetsuits. The fights in the lineup. The aggression. The bludgers, the team of them, wanting to suck off the system, break the rules, sell dope, flaunt the system.
BB - for you - maybe the 70's were great.
Photo in mags, chicks at your feet, sponsors throwing you coin.
For the rest of us - it sucked.
To conclude - BB you are the greatest free thinking writer in the modern surfing world - I write this - not to see you fail - i want to see you soar. Describe me a future, but please give me some optimism.
"To conclude - BB you are the greatest free thinking writer in the modern surfing world - I write this - not to see you fail - i want to see you soar. Describe me a future, but please give me some optimism."
Nothing personal BB, but I think you write a lot of material with a great deal of emphasis on getting a reaction rather than writing for writings sake. No doubt it just me.......I have noticed you have lots of loyal followers.......
Surfing in the 60's to mid 70's was a symptom of the time. A glimmer of hope. The last chance to go a different way. But that is all gone now. We are all going full throttle down a dead end street in a car without breaks no matter if you surf or not and the majority seems to be very all right and happy with it otherwise it would be different. What you do? Hope tomorrow mother ocean is good to you and lets you into a few nice ones .....
Were losing our world and it's your decision to have it crushed in the cogs of the capitalist system.
Surfing HAS a culture, it just depends on how it has shaped you.
when I read about surf culture ...I wonder which one......?
the one presented by the Industry /media......or the real one ?
In the 60's.....surfers were tough...fighting was as much apart of the lifestyle as paddling out.
Women were treated as second class citizens..and racism was rife...Morning of the Earth showed one dimension ....hippy trippy ......meanwhile down at the pub on Saturday nite...it was abuse the women and fight nite....
Presented or real?
Or was there more than one?