What is a kook? Depends on who you ask. Photo: AI Generated
Surfers have no shortage of ways to bag on each other. But no single insult gets thrown around as easily and as often as the four letters K-O-O-K. It’s universal. It’s a mic drop insult while simultaneously having next to no impact because, well, we’ve overused it as a slur.
There’s another commonly used surfing phrase that usually comes with negative connotations: barney. But what’s the difference?
I’m full of kook moves. And trust me, people are eager to let me know, as if I wasn’t already aware of it. Or am I just being a barney? Or are you being a barney? Are we only kooks up to a point? Or are we all forever going to be kooks? Honestly, it can make your brain hurt.
The B-word is often used interchangeably with the K-word and I think we can all agree it’s tough to keep up with what’s what. Sterling Spencer has a concise explanation on the very simple, and not even subtle, differences between the two when he interjects the suggestion that a kook is a beginner in the surf, and they just can’t help it.
“No, no, no. That’s a barney,” he says. “You can be a good surfer and be a freakin’ barn. Like, you’ll see ’em paddle out and your friend is like ‘Dude, the freakin’ barns are paddling out.’ The kook is the soil. A beautiful lotus flower can’t grow without the mud, so you have to get through that mud-kook stage. You just have to accept it. You have to be humble, the ocean’s gonna humble you. You’re gonna wear weird things.”
Now you (and I) have a reminder of when, where, why, and how to sling the phrases at one another – and in the proper context. See the podcast exchange, below.
