Eddie would go, not watch. Photo: Jack Dekort
I just had to leave my desk at work for something and I am annoyed.
What I am annoyed about is that the event forced me away from my desk for roughly half an hour. But that isn’t the worst part. I was watching a surf movie on YouTube at the time and forgot to press pause. Thank goodness there wasn’t a competition at the moment and I wasn’t watching live heats.
How many other people are in the same position as me? We live a little to far away from the coast for us to go surf every weekend so we have to actually make time to plan a trip instead of it being a given that every Saturday morning we are in the line-up.
I have planned a trip to Portugal for the near future and am pretty lucky to have a gym at my work. Every day, I do some cardio in preparation for my trip. I want to be in at least a little better shape by the time I hit the water, as I rarely get this amount of time away from the family and work to be allowed to go surf without being made to feel guilty about my priorities. I’m not wasting this chance.
While I’m on the treadmill or the bike, trying to get my heart rate up and my BMI down, I watch downloaded surf movies on my smart phone. Whether it is motivation or entertainment, I am not too sure.
How lucky are we? We have never had it better.
At the click of a button, we can access videos, blogs, RSS feeds, social media, live event coverage, swell forecasts and so much more. We can comment, “like,” contribute, tweet, share and download. This is great, isn’t it?
With so much readily available, we no longer have to wait. We don’t have to go to the beach to actually see if it is pumping anymore. We can check from the safety of the couch or bed or desk. Even if it wasn’t firing, we would probably paddle out anyway because we had made the effort to be there.
Not having the patience to wait a month for the next surf magazine has lead to their demise. Are surfers cannibalizing surfing? Has the internet made us surf less?
The Vans Triple Crown of Surfing set record figures of viewers of an action sports event with 1.1 million streaming on finals day. It was a Saturday. Why weren’t we surfing? Don’t get me wrong. Finals day was amazing, but I can’t help but wonder how many people opted to watch instead of go surf themselves.
With the Eddie waiting period, Mavericks firing on all cylinders, Australian Boardriders Battle Final and Volcom Pipe Pro a couple of days away, there has never been a better time to stay at home and watch. We can watch others go, when we should go ourselves, and then we can read and be told what to think about it afterwards.
