To be a kook

Imagine if you will, a surfer.

The surfer is male. He is 20 years old, supremely handsome, blond, tanned, and well muscled. He lives to surf. He schedules his life around surfing. If he is asked to work on a day when the waves are good, he will refuse. He offers no explanation other than that provided by the ocean. If he is required to attend to some family obligation, he will go or not go depending on the tide and the swell. He surfs every day when the surf is good. When the surf is down, he surfs three times per week - requiring salt water like a plant needs sunlight. He grew up within blocks of the beach. He will live within blocks from the ocean for the rest of his life. He rides custom made surfboards. A surfboard shaper with whom he has a relationship of mutual understanding shapes them for him. He possesses extraordinary skill on a surfboard. He has surpassed beginner and intermediate stages. His surfing is self-expression. The face of a wave is his canvas, upon which he chooses to paint lines and curves. He travels the world, seeking out great waves. He may be a professional surfer. If not, he falls into one of two categories: the aspiring professional, or the soul surfer. As an aspiring professional, he participates in contests. As a soul surfer he decries professionalism, preferring the sweet smell of the ocean to the foul stench of money.

This man is a real surfer. He is a true surfer. He is a hardcore surfer. He is not a wannabe. He is not a poser.

He is also, of course, a myth. He is a platonic form, an ideal, and a stereotype. He is the combined definitions of the hopes and dreams of surfers, writers, and advertising executives. He exists only in our fantasies and in our media.

The surfer ideal is an interesting character to discuss in pure form. Asking questions of the form is analogous to asking questions of ourselves, our society. How do I see the ideal surfer? How does the world see the ideal surfer?

Can he have brown hair?

Of course he can have brown hair. We’ve seen him hundreds of times with brown hair. That was an easy question.

Can he be black? Can he be Hispanic? Can he be Hawaiian? Can he be a woman? If so, does it have to be a ridiculously attractive woman in a bikini bottom, or can she wear a wetsuit?

What about the other qualities that are variously attached to him? Does he wear surfwear fashions? Is he an environmentalist? What type of music does he listen to? Does he smoke marijuana? Does he do other drugs? Is he aggressive, hostile, loud, brash, rebellious, criminal, and otherwise offensive to social norms? Is he calm, relaxed, peaceful, welcoming, hospitable, spiritual and wise beyond his years? Does his disposition depend on weather he rides a longboard or a shortboard?

Part of the appeal of surfing is a culture and the lifestyle definition, which transcends the act of surfing. Defining a surfer in this context is more than saying "one who surfs". At times, this expanded definition of surfing is healthy. Dedication to surfing, functional physical fitness, swimming strength, and personal style in wave riding are ideals surfers aspire to. Other times, however, the definition of surfing is used to exclude, to discriminate, or to judge. A group of surfers who define themselves as "real" surfers, or "true" surfers can justify acting inhumanly to other surfers who, in their judgment, do not meet a set of criteria. Sometimes that criterion has to do with performance and surfing ability. Sometimes it does not.

Etymology, the study of words and phrases and their origins, credits surfers for bringing a more than a number of entries into the popular lexicon. "Tubular", "stoked", "radical" and "dude" come to mind. But, surfers are also credited with popularizing the negative terms "wanabe", "poseur", and "kook".

Judgmental, mean attitudes towards newcomers, and territorialism are legacies left by the Malibu surfers of the 1950s and 1960s. When popular films and music broadcast the surfing culture to the masses, attracting new surfers to the beach in record numbers, members of the clique of Malibu surfers became resentful.

Bruce Brown, the filmmaker of "Endless Summer", included a scene to mock the recent arrivals of "fake" surfer in his first movie, "Surfing Hollow Days" (1961). In the clip, an inland "wannabe" painted on a tan, artificially colored his hair, added fake surfboard bruises to his skin, and hung a fake surfboard tail from the back of his car. By itself, the scene is a harmless joke. However, It shows the early attitudes of the self-defined "real surfers" towards newcomers and visitors that evolved into localism.

Localism has been called "the stain on the soul of surfing". It is well documented in both surfing press and mainstream news media. Google's "How To" section includes an article on how to avoid getting in fights with locals while surfing. Surf spot guides list localism as one of the dangers of a spot for the traveling surfer, as if to say: "Beware of: sea urchins, sharp reef rocks, sharks, and locals." Reports in surfing magazines and internet bulletin boards allege manners of behavior including: verbal threats, taunting, pushing, cutting off or surfing around unwanted surfers, "locking out" unwelcome visitors from the take off position, deliberate crashes, pulling surfers out of a wave by the leash, fighting in the water, throwing objects from piers, following surfers to their cars to damage either the surfer or the car, and breaking boards or equipment.

Cliques and gangs of locals claiming ownership of surfing spots and inflicting bodily harm on other surfers is an extreme example of the elitism in surfing culture. A subtler, but vastly more common example is the liberal application of the term "kook". I've heard surfers call other surfer kooks both in shouted complaints across the water and in murmured commentary to friends. To be labeled a kook is to be relegated to a lower status of worthiness. Kooks are told to "get out of the way". Kooks do not deserve their turn on waves.

The terms "wannabe" and "poseur" are clearly derogatory. Most of us would hate to be called either. However, one magazine article I read on the population and demographics of surfers used the term "wanabe" interchangeably with synonyms such as "recreational surfer" or "weekend warrior". The author described a "hardcore" surfer as one who surfed three or more times per week, among other charictoristics. Those who met his standards were the "hardcore" crowd. Everyone else was a wannabe. The article contained charts and graphs of California, Hawaii, Florida, and the East Coast marked with the population of "Hardcore" surfers in each area, and the corresponding population of "recreational/wanabe" surfers.

When I read the article I felt small. In his analysis, I was most definetly a wanabee.

The magazine writer, however, was not alone in his tendency to impose classes among surfers. For all the stereotypes and associations applied to surfers by television, film, and mainstream culture, the fact is that no one is more judgmental of surfers than other surfers. A shop owner that I talked to openly used the "hardcore" and "wannabe" class distinctions to describe his clientele.

"Well, you've got your hardcore surfer..." he said. "He's the guy who surfs all the time, and skips work when the surf is up. Then you got all the weekenders and the wanabees."

The defining traits of a "hardcore" surfer vary by whoever is defining him. The shop owner I spoke to defined a hardcore surfer as one who holds surfing as a priority over work. This theme is common enough. A bumper sticker in the 1980s read "Real Surfers don’t Work." Alternately, the magazine article about hardcore and wanabee surfer populations claimed that hardcore surfers are those who subscribe to surfing magazines. Advertisements love to show real surfers as those who wear the latest beach fashions. Surfing films promote real surfers constant need to travel. The surfboard shaping community understandably promotes the idea that real surfers buy custom shaped surfboards rather than stock models or used boards.

As someone who had a full time job, didn't subscribe to surfing magazines, could count his surf trips on one hand, and had never bought a custom shaped surfboard, I had to draw the logical conclusion. I was a wanabee. I was a kook.

Realizing that I was a wanabee was a wonderful revelation to me. Once I got through the stinging pain in my pride, I accepted it and embraced my kookiness. I realized that I was happy being a poseur, a wanabe, and a kook. I was happy, because all the things that would be required of me to stop being a kook were things that I was uninterested in or unwilling to do. I liked my job. I planned to keep it. I loved my wife and my daughter. I wanted to keep supporting them. I couldn't see an urgent need to change out my wardrobe for surfwear clothes with nifty labels, and I was pretty sure that the next surfboard I would buy already existed. I could buy it used for half the money and it would still be a lot of fun to ride.

The best thing about accepting I was a kook was that I was free to go about my love affair with surfing. Fortunatly, very few definitions of kooks, wanabees and poseurs have any relation to one's enjoyment of surfing, or passion for the sport. I could surf every day, love my time in the water, swim with dolphins, get away from the stress and business on dry land, breathe the cool moist air, smell the ocean, and be a kook.

More Later

-Travis

Copyright 2004 Travis R. English

Sources.
1. "BoardTrac, an Orange County-based marketing research firm, estimates there are 2.58 million surfers and body boarders in the country who spend approximately $4.1 billion annually on everything from surfboards to sandals."

2. Final day of Action Sports Retailer expo in S.D. a chance to reflect on rosy outlook
By Terry Rodgers, San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE 01/20/04

3. Venerable surf scribe Matt Warshaw, author of the soon-to-be-released Encyclopedia of Surfing replies:
"the Superstudy....23 million (International Surfing Association).
http://www.surfline.com/community/whoknows/05_12_surferpop.cfm

4. "Raise your hand if you surf" article, found on Surfline.