I simultaneously love and hate this video. Visually, it’s stunning. But the prose? Every surfing cliché imaginable. I’m not one to typically knock existential waxing on the metaphysics of surfing. Dave Rastovich had a great thought recently where he talks about the meaninglessness of being considered a professional surfer. If you were an alien observing planet earth, he says, you’d see weird little creatures wiggling on waves, and some wiggling a little bit better than everyone else. And it’s kind of weird to think that the better ones get paid for what they do.
Wow, that’s totally true, I thought. But it was also original. I’d never heard it before.
Talking about the water as a force for cleansing? Or waves as “intriguing forms of energy” because they are produced by storms and travel for “millions of miles”? It’s true (sort of). It’s the feeling I get too. But it’s all just so cliché. And at the risk of sounding like a smart ass, the circumference of the earth is only about 25 thousand miles, so “millions” is a little exaggerated.
I want to like this clip. I do. Alana Spencer is a great surfer. The imagery is superb. And overall, it’s very well produced. But the cliche is too overpowering.
Which begs the question: How can we talk about surfing without sounding melodramatic, or overly existential? It’s fun, definitely. But to be honest, the rat race of it all can be overwhelming. Surfing a big wave spot? Daunting. Surfing isn’t all rainbows and unicorns. At least not all the time. So why is there an affinity to show it as such?
