“Dude, that last one had the biggest end section, and I totally bitched out”
“Bro, did you see my last wave? I tried to pull in the barrel on that one.”
“It’s so good out here! Way better than yesterday.”
It was not so good out there. It was not better than the day before. And there were definitely no barrels.
There’s a period in our surf adolescence we all go through commonly called Grommet-hood. You paddle for every single lump that rolls your direction. You never shut the fuck up, annoying everyone in the water. You surf for over 4 hours a day. It’s a glorious time.
On the other end of the spectrum we have the grumpy old guy. You sit and wait out the back, hoping for something to basically land on your head so you don’t have to paddle much. You don’t surf until 9am, at the earliest. You hate a crowd, yet you surf with one every time you decide to paddle out. You have more complaints than waves caught. This sounds rough.
I find myself somewhere in the middle, leaning toward the old grumps. So, naturally, It’s taken a lot of respite on my behalf to bite my tongue the past few days. Luckily the waves have been fun. But shit, the groms nowadays suck. Nobody teaches them the rules anymore. Dads and coaches just push them into set waves by the age of 6. That’s what you’ve got to do if you’re building the next Kelly Slater, right? And kids in general just suck today. They are raised by youtube and the internet, and all of that sucks. They all think they should be famous. Maybe some can surf, and maybe some can’t. But almost all of them have a bad attitude.
They paddle for waves that you are clearly already into. They back paddle the shit out of you. They will take off straight in front of you. They will run you over. But I guess they are having the most fun. So who is really winning?
Fuck you old guys.
Cheers,
hwilsin
Drew Stanfield