The Hipster Cometh
The following article was written by blindboy
Older generations disapproving of younger ones is such a common theme throughout human history and across all cultures that it must be deeply built into our psychology. If it was not, a few moments reflection by those inclined to criticise would lead them to the obvious conclusion that they cannot win. The old grow weaker and less influential, the young get stronger and more influential. This is the remorseless logic of the human condition. Inter-generational conflict is not won by a battle of ideas so much as by siege. The young simply out last the old.
The period of intense cultural conflict in the sixties and seventies is a classic illustration of this. The culture we have now of racial and gender equality and open sexuality arose from the conflict between the generations that had survived depression and war and those who had grown up in times of peace and plenty. Those in power at the time overwhelmingly disapproved and opposed the changes but time and voter demographics won out. Interestingly, surfing at that time, in many ways, ran against the trend. The previous generations of surfers had been easy going, free wheeling characters much more interested in getting out there and enjoying themselves than in formal competition. It was the generation reaching maturity in the early seventies that established what would become the mainstream surfing culture for the next forty years.
Surfing has never been a single uniform entity, but for much of its history there has been a central culture around which the outlying groups arranged themselves. If you want to study it look no further than the surfing media. Styles, personalities and standards of performance have all changed over time but the constant has been an aggressive determination to move forward; ever faster, ever harder, ever bigger, ever deeper. And this has not just been at the elite level, that was the ethos most surfers took with them into the water, a clear determination to compete for the best waves and to surf them to the best of their ability.
But nothing lasts for ever. Different circumstances demand different responses, and so comes the hipster-surfer, a sub-tribe of the broader hipster movement, characterised by retro sensibilities and a non-competitive attitude. It might seem a strange transition that an urban culture arising from the trendiest sections of New York should resonate so strongly with surfers who, collectively, have never exactly been known for their interest in fashion, politics or art house films.
One factor has been the shift in the class structure of the main surfing areas. The beach side suburbs around the east coast urban areas were once dominated by blue collar workers and those with lower middle class white collar jobs. The talk in the surf was more likely to be about brick laying and which bands were playing the local pub than banking and Almodovar's latest film. As anyone who has sat around in a crowd waiting for a set recently knows, that is no longer true. Different classes have different values and the upwardly mobile classes that now inhabit these areas do not share the competitive macho attitudes that once dominated in the surf.
Crowding is another factor. Previous generations of surfers, in most of the centres of the sport, had access to plenty of waves. Even in the urban areas keen surfers could always find enough waves to satisfy the competitive drive so central to the culture. That has changed. Crowds have grown steadily over time but in the last decade they have reached levels that are a disincentive to serious surfing to all but the most committed. How can you take performance seriously when the reality is that you cannot obtain enough waves to develop your skills?
The hipster-surfer has solved the crowd problem by chilling out and being happy with what they can get and, in the process, attacked surfing's central cultural pillar. The retro low performance boards make a clear statement of intention - this is not about ripping and tearing, this is not about ever deeper, ever faster, ever harder. This is about style, about cool in that pure 1950s sense of detachment. This is jazz, not rock n roll.
Once this is appreciated the level of hostility they generate is easily understood. It is not the beards or the retro boards that annoy older surfers, or those of the younger generation who cling to surfing's traditional values. It is the psychological shift. Those who once may have considered themselves subversive are now themselves subverted. The notion that surfing is a competitive sport with an ever upward trajectory of performance is under question.
The implications of this are hard to predict. It may be a fashion that disappears as slowly as it has appeared but it could, just as easily, be a permanent cultural shift that threatens not just what has been the underlying ethos of surfing for several generations, but the whole concept of surfing as a competitive sport. ZoSea aim to make professional surfing a mainstream sport but it is hard to see them succeeding if future generations of surfers do not share that vision. Coloured t-shirts, point scores and hyper serious analysis of performance would not seem to fit the hipster-surfer style. It may even be that the dream tour ceases to be a dream and becomes a mere memory as competitive surfing slides into irrelevance.
Draw the battle lines if you must but take care to look which side you are on. The great siege engine of time will undo those who cling to the past. //blindboy
Comments
As a collective, surfers seem like a big bunch of sheep as much as any Australian sub-culture. In Oz, we really resent people who are happy to be different and indulge their individualism.
I don't really follow surfing as an entity, so I'm probably misguided but I reckon pre-2000 the amount of shit you got in the water was related to how different your board was from the standard 6'0 - 6'4" thruster. Before pop-outs, surfers were effectively riding pop outs anyway. Clone boards. It seems like it took Rasta riding a fish before the masses felt like they had permission to try something different.
Hipsters are just the latest to catch the attention of the masses. Boogers got it, longboarders have copped it and now the masses are turning their attention to the latest crowd to dare to be different. We just don't like difference here in Oz. Maybe that's your point too, it's late and I'm not thinking totally clearly.
The error of youth is to believe that intelligence is a substitute for experience, while the error of age is to believe experience is a substitute for intelligence。
I love this quote from Oscar Wilde.
I don't particularly like Hipsters, but maybe they're on to something. Maybe they realise that surfing, in any shape or form, is just really fun.
Nice post Benski and nice article BB.
PS You will never catch me surfing in a collared shirt.
Ive been working hard to perfect a salt-water leather jacket. I know the fonz has already been there, but my ones are going to be cream coloured for the tropics.
I couldnt disagree more that surfers have never been that interested in outward appearance. I moved to the southern end of Newcastle in the late eightes and surfed through 89-95 up that way and can tell you if you didnt wear the uniform of brand name boardies and a surf T you were ripped on fiercly, I remember being told by a few folk you can't wear baggy jeans and a surf T. Personally I am glad the macho shit is starting disapate from the scene as it really doesnt add much to the expereience paddling out having to be ready to get into a volient confrontation to get a wave, I am sure most people don't surf to have a fight.
P.S Hem-stret I think if you use the leather of an aquatic mammal like an otter with an exposed red drop sitch I'd buy one.
BB.. it seems like so.....
Once at my local there were at least 100 guys on the beach everyday picking out a bank and going surfing... all reflecting the same attitude to surfing, the same dedication, though for different reasons.
One-day I noticed someone didn't show up. Then another day another didn't show up..... Etc etc.
Now as I still do what I have always done I am pretty much the only one who continues to show up and do my thing....
Yet as each departed another took his/her space, and yes that other is of a different mind, different time, and different world.
Is surfing changing, are surfers changing?
Yep, has been so all along.
The illusion surfing has sold has been broken. The idea that performance surfing is achievable for all has always been a myth. I for one find it liberating to see fun attitudes in the surf. It reminds me of days gone by before surfing was marketed.
I must now do what my family couldn't do for me, and that is respect change, accept it for what it offers, not what it challenges.
Old man Geoff McCoy wrote in a hugely controversial Tracks article somewhere back in the nineties that performance surfing and its surfboards were a marketing hoax. He came to that conclusion after working with his Zap design which he created for Cheyne to surf sort verticle arcs with, which for the day was ground breaking, but the fact was for a lot of surfers they were just too difficult to control and therefore fun was sacrificed.... He was speaking from his experience, but at the time was shouted down by the in crowd.
He is now the only surfboard manufacturer I know who is a growing concern and that may be because he designs his boards to address the fun of going surfing, not the hype of performance. And his sales, his customer base, reflect your article.
Cheers BB, nice work.
Hipsters don't worry me as they disappear when the waves are good.
Bear G. beat you, you could add a collar.
Since when are surfing well and having fun mutually exclusive?
I didn't mean to imply that gannett, only that hipsters can have fun without aspiring to surf well.
bb, I appreciate the unmistakable effort and probable research you undertake to come up with posts such as these; your introspection and definitions of eras long past is exceptional .. but you weren't there old mate, and as far as I can make out you didn't check with anyone who was there before you hit the print button.
There are a few of us who were there and still draw ragged breath, and without being asked by any of them I would suggest on behalf of all of them that next time you fancy writing about something outside your particular era you might look for a little inside info. Like engage one of them but not me.
This criticism is reserved for mention ^ of the sixties only - We were the owners of that particular intellectual property.
.. it's been a pleasure, and btw, is there anyone else out there over 69 who hasn't been shot by the coppers?
peterb I started surfing in 1964.
Retro boards be damned. There's a guy....nay, gentleman, whose taken to riding a penny farthing along the Manly beachfront lately. Is cycling in trouble? Have we seen the last Tour de France?
Swellnet is usually a source of reasonably broad minded articles on all things surf. This however couldn't be less relevant to anybody that lives outside of Eastern Sydney or perhaps Byron/Noosa if it tried ...
Surf anywhere between Cronulla and Gnaraloo on a half decent day and the neo-luddite gang will be essentially non existent. You will still find the lineups near 100% populated by committed people riding functional boards, all jockeying hard for the biggest and / or best waves they can catch. And I expect this will remain the case for obvious reasons.
Going slow while asking someone even slower to drop in on you so your mates are impressed with how little you care might be cool in Bondi, but its completely nonsensical to assume that reflects (let alone influences) what's happening elsewhere around Australia.
On a related but slightly different point, there is absolutely nothing subversive about being a 'hipster' ... you'd struggle to find a more homogenous group of people outside of downtown Pyongyang. True conviction can be found in a multitude of places in the surfing world, the hipster movement (in my opinion) is not one of them.
Fair point blindboy. The joke really is on us then.
We used to laugh at the kook with the shiny new board and $20 haircut. But at least we knew he wouldn't catch a wave.
The modern equivalent has a shiny new old-fashioned surfboard and a $50 haircut. And he catches more waves than us!
Being from the younger generation, I can't help but think that the surfing of yesterday had much more substance to it. Most surfers my age (generally) appear to be a boring bunch. The older blokes have the character, the kind you could have a few beers with. The guys aged from 25-35 are all pissed off all the time - even outside of surfing. Growing up in the 90s wasn't that hard was it?
For all the pisstaking and post-ironic putdowns they suffer the whole hipster aesthetic is based on a yearning for simpler times. Vinyl records, old leather shoes, Super 8, landline telephone sets, retro surfboards - all artefacts from a time the younger crew never knew. I reckon it's a protest against the pace of life kids now grow up in. It's there way of trying to latch onto something that actually has/had substance in the maelstrom of media and throwaway products.
In that sense it's perfectly understandable.
"Surf anywhere between Cronulla and Gnaraloo on a half decent day and the neo-luddite gang will be essentially non existent."
Oh really?
Yup ... give me a lineup anywhere in there whereby
Whereby what? I'll give you locations where young kids may not rule the lineup but are present in enough numbers to be noticed as a distict crew with traits mentioned above. Torquay, certain parts of the Mornington Pen., mid coast SA, Perth.
Yup ...
Give me a lineup anywhere in that zone whereby you'd expect to see a material 'hipster' presence.
Open to being proved wrong (and could be on some of the Perth/Adelaide city beaches) but on balance, that's a pretty empty and swell laden few thousand kays of coast. I live in WA and you'd wait a very long time to see a lineup whereby the guys on the 'fun' boards are in any way shaping the agenda.
"but on balance, that's a pretty empty and swell laden few thousand kays of coast."
True, but it's not known for influencing the surfing culture either. That comes from the urban or populated hubs. Gold Coast, Sydney, TooCool (Torquay).
FWIW I can't see the surfing culture changing i.e foregoing competition...but I can see the base being eroded somewhat by younger kids coming through the ranks that don't share the same attitudes as their elders.
Maybe, which is why we have a Senate after all.
But that's the whole point behind my original post, this is a narrow debate affecting specific areas where there's apparently critical mass of surfing Amish. It's local politics really, I'm more interested in a national debate is all ...
Happy to respectfully agree to disagree mate, this is a very low impact debate on my surfing life after all.
Cheers
at what age bb? ...
12
Then your perspective is as a boy aged twelve in 1964 - mine is a 15 year old in 1959. We missed each other by miles
So feel free to give us your perspective.
The unwritten law of blogging is to never link it (the blog) to a comment elsewhere - and mine has perspective writ large upon it.
As you like.
Who cares at what age!
I did this, I did that back then, I was here, I was there "We missed each other by miles"
Good article BB, again.
You seem to get some negative replays always! Why?
Just like your last thread "Accidental Lifegaurd."
I would love to see some of these people, who with their negativity write something better.
Correct me if I'm wrong I read this thread as something to do with fashion?
Or was it about Hipsters, those little fishy boards?
I think fashion is like a roll of toilet paper, It does go around and around and everyone can wipe their bum with it, but it will come back and go around and around again.
Thanks wellymon it was aimed at the fashionable sub-tribe of surfers but coincidentally they often ride those very short hippy twins or quads. I don't mind the negativity as long as it doesn't get personal. It is always good to hear the other side of an argument or a different view.
I was chatting to a 60 year Byron local about the current explosion of Hipsters around Byron and we came to the same conclusion- most of the current Hipster crew cant be considered genuine as their retro equipment consist of "fake"- ultra light Mals.
Thus few Hipsters ride behind Spectators for fear of losing their boards and the groms and older crew can get a wave off the Point if theyre lucky
@BB
Fair enough, You must have a good set of shoulders on you.
I've got an awesome pair of flares, that my wife designed and made for me.
When I wear them, I get awesome comments and when I say I designed them and my wife made them, they all want a pair?
13 pocket flares.
mmmm.. Fuck I do look good in them!
Much as Iove a pair of flares wellymon I think the market is still moving in the skinny jeans direction......but when it moves, you're ready!
With ya bonds showing too.
I didn't even realise they existed until I was forced to go to Noosa for a mal comp. Seems they don't like short fast barrels like my local beach is renowned for.... You guys stay in your corner and I'll stay in mine!
the hipsters to be vailid need to be more rebellious , it wasnt fashionable to be a surfer in the 60's and 70's on the FNC ie how many Hipsters pull cones and shag in the Kombi-Sandman then paddle out, shower nude in Palm Valley and wear cheesecloth and crochet bikinis? They would be fined for not paying a parking fee or their cars broken into
"You seem to get some negative replays always! Why? "
- says wellymon
"Older generations disapproving of younger ones is such a common theme throughout human history and across all cultures that it must be deeply built into our psychology"
-says blindboy
Blindboy has a superior view of the entire ant's nest of human activity, he sees us all worrying our sorry way to the grave; all the nations of all the people in all of the continents over all of time - This magnificent mountain top vision is only shared by the great philosophers and great writers - Socrates, Derrida, Joyce, and now blindboy. Swellnet is blessed.
Its a bummer all these johnny come lately hipsters are spoiling a fun pastime.
Been surfing short fat flat wide boards since the 90s. Even Lost etc are knocking them out now.
Gutter crawlers, Mush Maulers, Sand Shovelers, every week there is a new marketing tag being added to a LIs fish / Simmons inspired design. All the mainstream big names have them now.
I think the hipster movement has jumped onto the neo retro movement fairly recently.
A lot of these new Esky Liddish boards with SB inspired bottom curves came about by the meeting of the Neo retro movement hanging with the left dwelling fringe SBers
I think this meeting has inspired the quiver fetish of today. The quiver fetish quotient being your skill level is inversely proportional to the amount of boards you own.
Now if I walk down the beach with my drinks tray under me arm I get called a Hipster not a Bogan.
Speaking of drinks.....
Joycey? A great writer too!? That lad's a talent, innit. Something in the water up Coolum way.
I'd engage you here whaaaat (!) but you are an unspecified contributor, therefore not of any relative value. Blindboy, on the other hand, is an irresistible target. A bullseye every time.
peterb I am humbled by your praise but you left out Dostoevsky, surely The Hipster Cometh can be compared to Crime And Punishment in its profound understanding of human nature.
only left him out because I couldn't spell his name properly
Hey peterb, unless you have something to sensible to contribute, why don't you just stick to your blog. And don't forget to take the wax off your board after each surf sesh, the chicks might just not like you anymore... http://petebowes.com/2011/09/08/why-chicks-dont-dig-you/ (at your age these things should be a priority...)
Contributions must be sensible, eh?
@whaaat: Point taken, but if I want to hear old farts talking crap I might as well jump in the water at my local on a 1ft day
I like the kids and what they've made. A focus on the aesthetic rather than competition? Slowing down in this constantly connected virtual insanity? Perhaps what makes them radical is, well, not being radical at all. Those who ride traditional longboards around these parts do it technically and beautifully; I cannot complain.
But in some way it's dulled my interest in riding this sort of equipment, after nearly 20 years. I can't pinpoint which way. The sheer glide and momentum of a 1960's Cordingley was an absolute revelation and just so completely alien in 1994. Now things like this are placed on pedestals at auctions or in museums.
Crowds and compositions of craft in the lineup go through periods of stasis and change. Perhaps the greatest loss (or good-riddance) will be the old mongrel nature of surfing and being a surfer. Good article BB.
Thanks for the traffic nebasha. BB and me are sure to carry on here, he has credentials.
Can someone answer me this - Why would you ever ride a fixie bike?
Gears are one of the most inspired and creative ideas of all time, and they work on retro bikes too.
I guess there is nothing cool about hills.
@ peterb: always happy to help out ;) Actually really enjoy reading your blog. Maybe stu can use some content diversification.
@rubydubbie,
Ask Froome or Contadel, those no shouldered, skinny armed big leg people. You know that Tour De Frog thingy.
They have hipster as well! the red and white poke a dot tight suit.
@nebasha: I only write for lobsters
@velocityjohnno, I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. I can appreciate the shift as being a reasonable response to prevailing circumstances but having grown up in a culture in which you were expected to give it your all, I have some regrets about its passing. Not least, that for the first time in my memory, there is virtually no talent coming through in the 16-20 age group at my local. There are the kids and there is an older crew of good surfers but there is a huge gap between them and this, I believe, is related to the intense crowding.
I started on 9'6" and we used to have a lot of fun on those boards but I was never really passionate or committed to surfing until boards went short. That changed everything. These days I have no problem with longboard riders of my age or similar vintage but I have to say I consider the 20-30 year olds who want to use their fitness and the length of their boards to grab an outsize share of the waves as nothing less than a blight on the sport. If you talk to them, as I do from time to time and not always in words of one syllable, they all say that's why they ride them - to get more waves. So yes, if they continue to do it after a polite request to give the rest of us a go I have no qualms about dropping in or snaking them.
It would be nice to think that most longboarders were aware of the issue and exercised some restraint but my experience is that what they consider restraint is inadequate. It's all a bit sad really but I don't go surfing to watch a bunch of long boarders sail past me on the set waves. A bunch of good surfers on similar equipment to my own 6'2" and I am happy to surrender if I can't compete but not when they want three feet of surfboard and thirty years age advantage! Luckily a lot of hipsters go the other way and are surfing boards under 6'0. No complaints there!
Writing just for lobsters, eh? Now that is a niche market.
peterb, I have heard you described as a bit crusty but I never guessed you were an actual crustacean.
- or jewfish, by the kilo - depends on the size of the piece. Some folks even pay money.
Lobsters, Jewfish?
Paua's & Pipi's?
To the gent above who mentioned 'fixies' - there is a surfing parallel. Riding a brakeless fixed wheel bike with any degree of dexterity in conditions other than the sidewalk between coffee shops is bloody hard. Not unlike riding a heavy, flat log or similar, in conditions outside of 2 ft peelers. There is a purity and joy in the endeavour though. But it requires commitment. Fashion isn't commitment, it passes.
Above mentioned log is sans leash - always.
I'll take a hipster any day over the "wave jet" riding tool who invaded the alley a couple of days ago. this madness must be stopped.
That "wave jet" riding tool" has been at the Alley for weeks now!! Don't worry about being on the inside, when he is standinding up before the wave has formed more than a lump, andf then noiserly motors back out past you before the next set!!! Give us a break!! I agree JesusZ this madness has to stop
"The notion that surfing is a competitive sport with an ever upward trajectory of performance is under question."
This is hardly a new phenomenon, though, is it BB? Whether surfing is to be conceived as essentially a sport or an art form is one of the enduring tensions in surfing. If "hipsters" have brought this question into sharper relief, or given it renewed emphasis, this is a positive, in my view. A very minor segment of the surfing population surf competitively, and few would support the ZoSea vision of surfing's march into the mainstream, and the increasing crowding which will inevitably follow in its wake, which, as you point out, has already reached levels which detract the enjoyment which we derive from surfing (especially here on the Gold Coast). As it is, professional/competitive surfing exerts a disproportionate influence upon surfing relative to the rate at which surfers participate in it.
I don't see the supposed suspension of the upward trajectory of surfing - of which I can discern no evidence in these parts - as necessarily a bad thing, either. The shift towards more user-friendly, and less performance orientated, surfboard design was a reaction to an approach to design predicated on progressive/competitive surfing, which was inutile for the majority of the surfing population. Perhaps the hipster culture, and the assorted of unweidly craft of which the members of this culture are so beloved, has taken design too far in the opposite direction. And yet I'm reminded of Phil Edwards' remark that the best surfer in the world is the one having the most fun. If hipsters derive enjoyment from riding craft that is not ostensibly geared towards performance surfing, more power to them. Just make sure you can control the thing, or wear a f*cking legrope!
I enjoy your writing, by the way. It certainly provides food for thought, and is a refreshing departure from the grammatically- and syntactically-impoverished drivel produced by the much of the surfing media.
The notion that surfing is a competitive sport with an ever upward trajectory of performance is under question."
Surfing was never a sport or an art form. It has always been a pass time. A pass time for all that are interested to make of it what they will. Some who are so inclined gather to compete and pointscore each other, others enjoy all the elements and just like to cruise and enjoy. Others combine travel. There is lots of ways to enjoy surfing. No single one has the right of way over another. As difficult as that is to understand for some.
If you want to get a better perspective I suggest you volunteer at the next and nearest Surfing for the Disabled days. (something I don't do enough). You'll be surfing with a bunch of people who have no agenda, just love being in the elements, having fun, don't care what there riding or what anyone else is riding, never stop smiling. How many of you can say you've had a session at your local like that.
Cheers to all that do attend.
I think all you angry Kelly worshipers should get over yourselves.
@bb. Well done to save a life the other week. Pitty you couldn't of done it with a bit more grace. But still a great achievement. You've inspired me to take more notice of others around me.
I loved the article and I wish I could write as well. I am 54 and have a variety of boards to suit the conditions including a MR style twinnie at 5'8" and a 5'2" fat, round quad. I agree with the mal issue (don't they get bored riding those things?), they should be banished to fat waves and leave everybody else in peace. If I every ride one somebody put me down (and don't get me started about single fins, been there done that and it was rubbish). The whole deus hipster thing is interesting with the bikes (which I love) and the boards (which are not logs just dogs). Just more colour in life I say.
Thanks for the comments bornagainst, chris-lemar and memlasurf, I appreciate the thoughts that have gone into them. I find some of the comments, even some of those that might be quite critical, to be very useful.
Sums it up pretty nicely, me thinks
How easy it is to put people in groups and lable them.
All these retro boards,mals,logs whatever are just a part of surfings evolution. They are the visions and creations of the very people/pioneers discribed in BBs article. When someone new enters the market these are what's in at the moment so that's what people buy. Hardly the fault of the consumer. Maybe you all should be attacking past Icons for putting their names to these products and convince them that we should all be on the same boards.Then there would be even more unhappy people in the water all looking for someone or something to lable and blame.
What is wrong with surfing a difficult board but doing it to the best of your ability? What's the difference?
Why have a socially acceptable quiver, one board for each particular set of conditions when you could have one board and try to master it in all conditions? Again what's the difference?
What I always admired about Greg Noll was that in some footage he would be at 25ft Wiamea then the next scene he's at 12ft Pipeline on the same board.
@ Chris, the most likely reason that Greg Noll was riding the same board all the time is that he was flat broke, living the dream. Given the cash I'm sure he would have had a board for every break. Also modern surfing was in it's infancy and they probably had not figured out what a pipe board was, if all the log riders back then were blissfully riding there logs seeing no need for improvement and that attitude stuck, we would all be riding logs today.
If your ever after some furniture come and see me at;
CRUSTTY FITZPATRICKS CUSTOM ANTIQUES
"We make to order"
Definitely not criticism on my part, BB, just offering another perspective.
@Chris: Clearly it is not a pass-time, or exclusively so, for professional surfers. And the conception of surfing as essentially an aesthetic pursuit has a long lineage to some of the seminal figures in surfing. None of these conceptions are mutually exclusive.
@Crustt I take your point about seeking improvement. You are right. I guess my point is that for what ever reason GN took on these breaks with whatever he had and I admire that.
If someone paddled out on an old dunger or whatever into a line up should they be judged and labled by the so called elite. As with GN that board might be all they have or it might have sentimental value, it might be challenging to ride or they have health issues and need a larger board. Judging and labelling without knowing any of thier circumstances is not on.
I hope the H.....R tag never takes off. Another imaginary group for us all to fear or we might loose every thing.
P.S I'll contact you about the furniture when the stuff I have no longer suits my needs. Do you have any junk mail I can browse through on a Sunday morn while I'm in my chair with my favorite Nanna rug.
@bornagainst. Clearly it is a pass time. Professional surfers are a sub group to a world wide pass time. The numbers of people making a profession from surfing compared to the number of participants would be miniscule. Otherwise how could a profession exist.
If I was to ask you how you passed your time I'm assuming you would indicate: writing (I had the dictionary working overtime in your short post)and somewhere in your list would be surfing.
I know I'm getting old but I would hate to get to a stage were I start to beleive that all I needed to enjoy my surfing is to make sure I have the latest set of fins in the limited edition colours (dearer but will out perform the standard colours)with Mick, Joel or Kelly's photo on the packaging as conformation.
I only hope those fins are made in countries that have better working conditions than those in Burma.
I also like to paint and draw in my spare time, Chris. It has little artistic merit, but I'm pretty sure it's an artist endeavour, as well as a pastime. Anyway, we're quibbling over minor details. I agree wholeheartedly with pretty much everything else you've said.