Twitter Killed the Surfing Star
Stuart Nettle May 4, 2010
Here are some sage words for the kiddies, 'think twice before you meet your heroes.'
Yeah, I know it sounds like the sort of advice you might get from a cheap-arse fortune cookie but, trust me, in an age of celebrity and spin it's wise advice.
Wise because, when you mull the statement over, the question begs: how do you regard your heroes? Are you the type of person who views them as exceptional beings, beyond the realm of normal human judgement, or do you see them as ordinary folk, beset with the usual suite of flaws and foibles yet blessed with one special talent?
Are your heroes still heroes after you discover they are flawed?
My first experience of getting to meet a hero was when I was young tacker of twelve or thirteen and I met Tom Carroll. It was at a store signing and he was giving away posters of himself bottom turning at Pipe wearing a black vest and blood-constricting nut huggers. There was a long line of equally nervous groms and, as we approached the desk, Tom wrote a message to each of us and signed it off with an autograph.
Come my turn and he asked my name and then went to work with the pen. Beaming a big smile he turned the poster around and handed it to me: To Stew. Theres always room for won more. Tom Carroll.
Caught somewhere between starstruck and dumbstruck it dawned on me that while Tom had an incredible cutback, and could ride Pipe like no other, he couldn't spell very well. He'd even fucked up my name. Err, thanks Mr Carroll...
It's probably not the sort of thing that would bother most kids but I was a precocious little twat. I'd had the importance of spelling drilled into me from a young age. And to this day you won't ever receive an SMS from me using txt tlk. NVR! Whether it be shopping lists, notes for the fridge, or jots on the hop all my messages are correctly spelt and punctuated. And I'm not beyond correcting other people's shopping lists or fridge notes either. I am a born editor.
I'm also not beyond judging other people on their spelling. I can tell what sort of person you are by how well you spell. I believe it is a benchmark for good breeding. An insight into the sort of character you are.
Which is why Twitter is a dangerous tool for todays surfing heroes. Users may only be allowed 140 characters per tweet, but there is much more to be gleaned than what the words say. And it is why if you are as anal as I am it is a good idea not to follow pro surfers on Twitter.
After all, Twitter is the very next thing to meeting your heroes in person. It ain't a flesh and blood experience but you get to know their innermost thoughts, like what flavour noodles they just had and how late their plane was.
But it's not the inanity that bugs me, nor the bewildering need to have private conversations in public, no, it's the atrocious spelling and grammar of these people. Don't they care about the image they are projecting? What about the kids who look up to them?
Does Mick Fanning think it's cool to be careless with capitals? Has Bobby Martinez even heard of a full-stop? Is Jamie O'Brien just making words up?!
And the one person who really should know better, he being the only professional surfer who has written a kiddie's book and therefore got pull in the playground, Adrian Buchan, is lowering the tone with his flagrant use of double negatives.
It's enough to drive the modern grom to despair. The fantasy can no longer be sustained. With the amount of media interaction these days kids have no choice but to find out that their heroes are flawed, that they can't spell very well, and that worse, they may even be prone to the same prejudices, biases and impulses as anyone else. In most instances, all they can do is surf really well.
So perhaps this social networking business isn't such a bad thing after all, levelling the playing field as it does. Though I should offer one last bit of advice: if you ever meet one of your heroes in person at least make sure he knows how to spell your name correctly.
Postscript: Fifty bucks to anyone who finds a spelling error.
Comments
You may correct "other peoples shopping lists". I haven't noticed spelling mistakes in my quick read but I shall correct an editor's article because it should read "other people's shopping lists". In this regard, I am constantly amazed at the poor spelling and grammatical ability of the surf media!
Is it 'therefore has pull in the playground' instead of 'therefore got pull'??
I need this 50 :D
I'm sure the ASP are enjoying the free for all that seems to be happening during contests on twitter.
"...they may even be prone to the same prejudices, bias' and impulses as anyone else".
The plural form of bias is biases. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/biases
I'll send through bank details shortly :D
Geez, these media sharks will turn on you in a heartbeat.
First word Stu. "Here's" should read "Here are" as "words" is plural. I'm a pro proofreader/technical editor and a bit of an arse too ; )
Aside from the ones already mentioned, there's the obvious ...
"txt tlk. NVR!"
Give the $50 to Shearer, he needs it to help him get to Tahiti for the conny.
Hey Stu! Don't mock Jamie for making up words. He makes Twitter fun! Speaking of making up words. Cheap-arse?! I'm also anal and looked it up to check the spelling and guess what?! It's Not a word in the dictionary. Trust me! ;)
P.S. It's making up words, not making words up. Like this... -Muah
Gawd...I know I'm prone to a mistake now and then, but the first friggen word?! Yet thanks to the post facto abilities of electronic media further readers will be none the wiser. Thanks for the proofread...
Muah: you're looking in all the wrong places.
It's God. G-O-D.
Seems like you are a bit adverse to the apostrophe of possession, Stu. I realised there's another one missing - todays surfing heroes. There would also be some debate about using a comma before the word "and" and, while mentioning this conjunction, just as rare to start a sentence with the word. You have done it twice in the one paragraph. After all the proofreading/editing from your readers, I hope there is a very obvious spelling mistake that we have missed.
It is all about context. After all language is arbitrary. So what if professional surfers write on twitter like you highlighted, especially the top guys. Judging people on how they spell is rather appalling, what would you know? I doubt you can sit there and not be guilty of shortening your words when you are txting ur m8 abt da wves @ ya locale. Oh, but since thats private it does not matter. Calling the kettle black any rational person might say to you.
Good day.
Modern grom? I think you mean post-modern grom with your referencing to today's 'text'.
beyondsea, I'm happy to report that I've never resorted to using SMS language when sending text messages. Sure, everyone's pissed when they receive four consecutive SMS' just to let them know what time I'm meeting them at the pub, but at least I don't have to cheapen my sentence structure.
Yeah, turn dictionary off.
I bet you didn't get Tommy's autograph because he is a good schollar. Who gives a rats arse anyway, the guy farken rips and that's all that matters. TC was known for ditching school to persue surfing and it is his ability in the surf that drove you to get his autograph. He probably figured you out as a poindexter and mispelt your name to piss you off.
Antifroth, I just pissed myself laughing outloud in the office at that comment. Haven't used the word poindexter in ages! I even read it twice, haha, nice one mate.
lIKE yOU sTU, i aM aPpalLED aT tHe flaGRANt fAIlurE Of pEOPLE to Use cAPITOL lETTerS.
antifroth, don't confuse him by using TC, spell it out for him. Spelling is one thing but genre and context analysis is an area that he didn't quite understand at all by the evidence he has presented us.
"Defiantly" a good morning for a surf with not a cloud in the sky, SW winds keeping it nice and clean and 2ft or so on our beaches. Check all your exposed beaches as they will be getting the most swell. Winds are forecast to go SSE/SE so once again check all your southern pockets on when the wind kicks up.
Who wrote this report for Maroochydore? Because Swellnet is clearly setting a bad example for 'modern groms'. (whatever the hell that term means is beyond me and I bet any post-structuralist for that matter)
Stew-it mit gt cnfsd bcos usin tht frst wrd 4 tht sntence is syntactically incorrecti-mondo.
"My first experience of getting to meet a hero was when I was young tacker of twelve or thirteen and I met Tom Carroll"
Your syntax is worse than those pro-surfers you whinge about.
I am a born editor.
Yeah, and Mick Fanning is a linguistics scholar.
You go Beyonce! You go girl!
Seven comments! Whoooo...
You can change the world!
Thanks "in the bottom is tops".
I check Swellnet all the time and finally had enough of this Stew-it guy and his writing habits, this just topped it off. I guess some people really do think their this don't stink.
Keep tweeting pro's, the more you tweet and more envy will strike envy into Stew-it's heart.
Good day.
think you oughta see a doctor about your irony deficiency beyondsea
Did he really write '...won more!'
I'm with you Steue, have to really concentrate to use abbreviated forms of words even in text messages.
Stew, that's just unfortunate.
@chrisb
I think you mean "averse".
You can't be "adverse" to something.
:-)
I love this one. You hear it daily.
Ha ha ha! I am also very anal but as a professional driver I let out my frustrations with a finger or a toot directed at the flawed road user.As an editor your keyboard must get replaced at regular intervals after getting irate over grammar.Made me laugh anyway.Stay cranky so they know who is boss!
While we're on the topic...I know he's dropped to no.7 in the world and this topic died months ago but who the hell is Bede Durbridge?
http://www.swellnet.com.au/galleries/771-teahupoo-on-the-tweed
Nooo....don't point it out! You'll start that Beyondsea fella off all over again. I'd better change it before the Froot Loop sees it.