I’ve got a confession to make. I have previously declared my hatred for surf cameras. You probably know this. Well, I am now here to admit mass hypocrisy on my part.
See, the thing I loathe about the cams is the basic idea of it; checking the waves before you go surf. That’s fucking lame. The reason it’s lame is because the cameras make you lazy. Think about it – if I can roll over in bed and scope the waves on my phone from the comfort of my home, why would I load up the car, waste the gas and time in driving down to the beach just to see the same thing? I wouldn’t.
Therein lies the issue. Over the years I became complacent. I was surfing less and less. I don’t know if you’ve made this realization yet or not, but the waves ALWAYS look worse on the camera. And, in checking the waves at my convenience, it’s been so much easier to justify why I’m not going to surf that day. My excuse list has gotten remarkably lengthy.
So, yes, I do hate surf cameras. I surfed much less because of them. However, maybe I should actually be thankful to the cams for keeping the lineups fairly empty. I have gotten a few surfs recently where the waves didn’t look all that fun, but it was much better than expected. That was the usual outcome when I was in the habit of watching the cameras – think negatively about how the waves look; force myself to get out there anyways; get stoked that I did paddle out. That’s basically the program I am on now, but I drive down there. I check it with my own eyes.
Now here’s where I admit to my fraud. I’ve been going back and watching my rewind clips for at least the past 2 years. If you’ve been following along with this blog at all, you’ve likely seen some crudely screenshot waves of mine. That’s right. The shit talking camera hater actually uses the cams for one of the lamest things you could possibly use it for.
I get it. It sucks. And I’m here to say I suck. It’s true. So that’s why I finally canceled my surfline subscription. I’m not going surfing to see clips of myself surfing every single session. I’m not that self-centered. I don’t need validation for anything. I go surfing because I love it. Because I feel like I’m not as shitty of a person when I get out; I’m not a grumpy bump on a log. I’m more like a happy, salty dog.
That being said, I still have a collective of clips from the past little while. I’m thinking about making a little edit with all of them. All the boys I judge with are always poking fun at me because of it, but then they ask to see more clips. My cousin and I have just made a bit of a commitment to film each other’s sessions basically anytime possible, so I should hopefully be able to have some real footage soon. Not for you, it’s for me. I like to see myself surf and try to improve where I can. I’ve only got a few more years left of that. Then begins the downfall of age.
I’m not even sure how the regular surfline works, the free version. Maybe I can still watch the rewind. I don’t even look at the forecast anymore, so I’m not worried about that. I just surf no matter what. I did get completely skunked at Uppers last week. I told you all a while back I was going to get into forecasting myself too. Fuck. I’m terrible.
Anyways, there you have it. A confession.
I don’t know exactly what happened, but the water got cold as shit! I wore a short arm on Saturday; hot. Wore a full suit this morning; fucking cold. Keep that in mind, but get in the water. Swell is on the way (from what I hear).
Cheers,
hwilsin
Drew Stanfield