Surfing is such a strange endeavor, if you really think about it. First, you learn a skill to learn a skill (pop-up). Because you can’t really learn to surf until you can stand on a board. Then, once you can do that in all kinds of waves from steep and technical to slopey and fat, you can start to learn to actually “surf.” How to use your rail on a wave, and how to use your body to do as much as possible, with as little movement as possible. And then, once you sort that out, that’s all you wanna do, other surfers be dammed.
Like this, guy, filmed at Duranbah recently. It’s a perfect example of how frustrating our little endeavor can be. He’s probably been surfing a good portion of his life. The bodyboarder he punches has probably been riding waves for most of his, too. The YouTube page Raw Surfing posted this clip from D-Bah – on the southern end of the Gold Coast, Australia – of a surfer who loses his s*** after a bodyboarder ends up in front of him. He actually throws punches mid-wave. And the bodyboarder was on the wave first. That’s the ultimate in surfing frustration. Throwing punches mid-wave at another surfer that was actually in the right. There just aren’t enough waves out there to satisfy the amount of people who love to paddle around on fiberglass.
Surfing requires that we compete for a finite resource. The best waves are always the most crowded because they often feature the easiest take-off spots, with the best bang for your buck. Meaning that making the drop is easy, and you usually get to lay rail into a quality wall. Hence the crowds. And the anger when someone sits in the lineup long enough without getting a good ride? It’s like a drug, right? This guy just couldn’t get his high. So he took it out on the boog. Such is our surfing life. But don’t get me wrong. I’ll still paddle out tomorrow.
