Surfing as a mainstream sport

Do you want me teach you how to read as well, so that you can take in the last 10 pages.
Obviously all this has gone in one ear and out the other.

No need, the flyer will read. "Cheap Chinese surfboards available from Blah Blah shop Tweed Heads, tell your mates. Surfing is great, let's all start together"

Something occured to me. What are your exact motives for surfing in the first place if you place the whole importance of it being some kind of counter culture as it was in the past? Are you just hanging on to an ideal? Is it any better than someone else trying to grab on to the new ideal being sold by the Marketing teams at the big surf co's???

Surfing is a little bit deeper than one of those bands you listen to when they are new and nobody knows about it then stop when it hits the top 40. Yes sir, I'll still be surfing and looking for ways to enjoy it even more even when it goes double platinum and played on Sea FM.

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the new ideal being sold by the Marketing teams at the big surf co's???
The new ideal is a con theres nothing in it for us, other than more crowds and the privelidge of supporting some parasitic pro,s and the industry suits. Idon,t need my lifstyle promoted at my expense. Theres enough material in these threads to create thought provoking material for flyers for the general community. These people can be hurt,we have the numbers and its our dollars they need.
I keep getting an image of king Merchant sitting in his castle on top of Tugan hill, rolling around in all his money laughing his head off.

Putting flyers on the windscreens of cars is not the way to go, it just ends up getting blown into the ocean. Use the old tried and true surfers method, WAX! Been using it for years, always get's the message across and enviromently friendly.(my enviroment anyway)

If good surfers just start hasseling the shit out of beginners at every break in the world it may get a few to give it up very quickly.

[quote="s

the new ideal being sold by the Marketing teams at the big surf co's???
The new ideal is a con theres nothing in it for us, other than more crowds and the privelidge of supporting some parasitic pro,s and the industry suits. Idon,t need my lifstyle promoted at my expense. Theres enough material in these threads to create thought provoking material for flyers for the general community. These people can be hurt,we have the numbers and its our dollars they need.
I keep getting an image of king Merchant sitting in his castle on top of Tugan hill, rolling around in all his money laughing his head off.

By: "pablo"

The irony here is that the money never came from surfing. It came from selling the images, the idyllic lifestyle to non-surfers. The companies made their millions when people that had never seen the ocean started wearing 'only a surfer knows the feeling' t-shirts. Along with the push into the womens market made the money. If only surfers wore their clothes they would not exist.

If you reduce the numbers of surfers it makes no difference to them. Most surfers don't wear their gear any more anyway. And you're right, your life and the joy have gained from surfing has been packaged up and sold to other people and they want in. Doesnt that just show you that what you have is special?

Hassling beginners, educating parents, worrying about the king on the hill won't stop people surfing. Parents see it's better than stealing cars, and drugs in sport..... Name a single mainstream sport in Australia without a conspiracy, people clearly don't care.

Best advice is just get on with your own surfing. Enjoy yourself and maybe hoot at someone else next time you see them get a good wave. It's these core feelings of stoke that got you started in the 1st place.......

I read a classic quote the other day can't remember where from could have been here even by Gerry Lopez. 'surf today so you can surf tomorrow, not like there is no tomorrow'

ok seathesea you got some good points. Guess i just want someone to blame. In 1977 I surfed W Java and could,nt find another surfer.Then I was there 2yrs ago and the place had turned into a shit hole full of kooks from England Germany Poland and Russia. I,am not sure all these Places even have oceans ! I still got waves, I just had to work harder. But who told all these f#$%^ to go surfing . Mind you a good swell sorts em out.

I was thinking about how much surfing has affected my life the other day. If it wasn't for surfing I would never have made the first pilgrimage to Indonesia (I am now studying Indonesian and South East Asian Studies at uni, and have lived in Indo for 2 years, going back for my 3rd in October). I would never have started diving (I'm a PADI OWSI and it makes up about a 3rd of my wages). I would never have met 90% of my friends, who are all surfers or ocean people, who also introduced me to climbing, mountain biking and pretty much everything else I do with life. I didn't start surfing until later in life, my parents weren't beach people, we lived on a military barracks and I couldn't afford a surfboard until I slaved away at Maccas for too many months, and even then, I had to work just as long to get a wetsuit, and even then had to wait til me and my friends started getting licenses.

And I distinctly remember what started the whole thing was when I was about 14, I was looking at a Billabong catalogue (can't remember what surfers were in it) full of these pictures of blokes charging big waves and getting barrelled and thinking 'fuck! I want to do that!'. Strangely enough, I don't think I have ever bought any Billabong gear ever haha!

And I distinctly remember what started the whole thing was when I was about 14, I was looking at a Billabong catalogue (can't remember what surfers were in it) full of these pictures of blokes charging big waves and getting barrelled and thinking 'fuck! I want to do that!'. Strangely enough, I don't think I have ever bought any Billabong gear ever haha!

By: "dandandan"

Dandandan exactly surfing is about being free to do what you do!Not what you wear while doing it. The buyer who don't do buy because they think that gives them the lifestyle.
Fashion of all sorts has been about this and this only that's why it reinvents itself every season to sell, nothing else.
The people who are free are off the buycycle (bad pun but it works for me)

surfing is good where it is at now if any more attention gets drawn toward it, then it will get out of hand.