One surfer’s trash is another surfer’s treasure. Photo: Unsplash
As Artificial Intelligence rears its scandalous head in surfing by way of Surfline’s new Smart Cams, which the forecasting site started rolling out last month, it’s easy for many surf-going humanoids to reel, scoff, dry-heave, and otherwise recoil – and perhaps with good reason. For what is to come of the last vestige of hope for experiencing our natural arenas as the good surf lords intended? It’s a scary prospect to boot.
Surf cams, which have been around for decades, were already received with much ill repute. They were bashed, spray-painted, and otherwise tampered with; many cheered as, on occasion, their local cam would go out of service in a strong storm and not come back on until well after winds switched and leftovers had already run their course.
That is one swathe – if an undeniably large swathe — of the surfing world’s response to technology seeping into its culture as it’s plunged ever downward from its once-immaculate grace.
But then, was there ever saving anyone, anything, or anywhere from this great, if sometimes devastating, inevitability?
Lo, shall we embrace the change? There is, as with everything, time for pause.
Let’s table the fact that, yes, in (probably) most instances, these optimized cameras, which are tethered to software that can measure size and frequency of waves and sets, as well as measure and anticipate crowd size, among other things, will lead to more crowded lineups.
I’ve been having a back-and-forth internal debate over these new smart cams, and doing my best to come to terms with them. What else is a poor surfer in a crowded city whose waves are numbered to do?
One silver lining, however thinly veneered, may be that these cams could lead to a better-informed surfing public? Maybe in some instances we will somehow end up with less-crowded waves, and less poorly equipped souls? If Surfline’s written forecast – or that of wherever you choose to source yours — suggests a satisfactory 2-3-foot swell when actuality you are, along with everyone else, looking at 1-2 (and knowing it thanks to these AI-tweaked cams), most people will hang back. Those that are willing to make the best of the ankle-biting dribble will adjust their expectations and grab the log or soft-top.
Further still, maybe this new tech could lead to less bad attitudes in the lineup? If people have a clearer picture of the aforementioned marginal conditions and decide not to go because of it, those who’d otherwise be out there scrapping, frothing, disappointed, and dragging everyone else down will stay home, hit the gym, or do whatever else it is they do and leave the lesser swells to those who can still appreciate them.
Much as I dislike technology careening into my life, and especially into my surfing, there’s a potentially interesting upside here for all. Again, sure, there will be plenty of times when a wealth of extra information makes a mess of the lineup, too, like times when the forecast calls for mediocrity but the perfectly offshore wind holds or a swell continues to work for a few more hours than expected, and we all would have otherwise been none the wiser not having gone at all.
And then of course there are the egomaniacal folks who will be doing everything they can to hog the front and center of the camera on days that are good just to see themselves on the rewind feature and/or be seen. These cameras will in all likelihood be all too convenient for them, and I’m thinking of a few acquaintances and, admittedly, dear friends who’ve already done as much. Well, they’ll always be around in one way or another, and if you let them get to you, you may as well not surf at all — or ever leave your humble abode altogether.
So do us escapists, rogues, Luddites, and misanthropes all pack it in, string our boards up in the rafters, and throw our hands up in dismay? I suppose we can. This is a huge blow for adventure, for rolling the dice, for gambling on surf trips altogether, be it three minutes down the road or 3,000 miles by air. We can’t argue that. But it’s a big world and those cameras only offer such a wide angle. Maybe it comes down to the age-old conundrum of trudging down the beach a few clicks, or up and over the next bluff? Maybe the wind won’t be quite as right, maybe the swell won’t be hitting that next point at the best possible angle, or maybe it’s dead flat and we blow it and call it a day? But any inveterate surf voyager worth their ratty old neoprenes and ding-riddled board will argue that’s the better day to be had anyway, cams or no cams, AI or no AI. There’s no direction but onwards and upwards.
As for those who want the best possible waves at beaches that were already crowded to start? Well, they’re probably gonna be a little more crowded. So be it. Surfing has been blown wide open for quite some time as it is, and you were always going to have to accept a crowd save for the rare, fleeting, lucky moments that, yes, may now be fewer and farther between at the choicest peaks on earth. But take what you can get. What else is there, and what are you going to do about it?
Me, I like the idea of the young groms having their days to flail around atop any manner of craft in trashy surf that is devoid of bands of overhyped, utterly aggravated lunatics trying to huck fins in one-foot slop, which we’ve all seen and known all too well. Here’s to taking the good with the dismal. I may not ever use those Smart Cam features, but I’m going to keep holding out hope for the odd good day on my own with or without them, in thanks or in spite of them.
