Do you even live here? Photo: The Inertia
Welcome to Episode Two of Split Peak. This is a special edition of The Inertia Podcast, and the second in a series of debates where we take on some of surfing’s most controversial topics and have a back and forth to shed light on the subject. In this episode, I sit down with The Inertia‘s Social Media Editor Juan Hernandez to chat about localism in surfing. Its pros, its cons, and if there’s a way we could be doing it better.
I’m coming at things with a “wouldn’t it be awesome if,” attitude. A hope for the future of surfing that features a few less surf fights and punched surfboards than we see in the water today. My thought is that if we were to think of localism more as a responsibility to one’s surf community and less as a privilege that results in more waves, things could be a lot more civil in the water.
Juan agrees that localism isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, but he’s got a few more reservations as to whether we can actually change localism for the better, or if we should just do away with it entirely.
I was stoked where this conversation took us, and the deeper understanding of one of surfing’s most confusing and contradictory aspects. In the end, it feels like the problem of localism cuts to the core of what it means to be human, and taking a closer look at the problem gives us a lot to think about in regards to ourselves and how we interact with the world. Give ‘er a listen and feel free to leave your thoughts below.
