I like a lot of things about surfing. I love to Shortboard, longboard, Handplane, fish (thats surfing, not the boring rod and pole thing), and I occasionally find a day when I watch the SUK's and think that it is the best board for the conditions. I also enjoy watching Pro Contests. It helps me keep irrational dreams alive. To be that good at one thing, one of the best, all of us have dreamed at some point in our lives that we could experience that. It keeps us alive. Of course it's better to be good at many things, but that dream is still powerful. Most people seem to lose interest in the pro contest scene in thier 30's, but for me, it's always been inspiring to see what those guys can do, especially under the pressure that they are. It's one thing for someone to boost a sick air when out freesurfing, but quite another when their are so many things riding on them sticking it. Pro surfing has been bumped up a few notches in the last few years. You play by the Damian Hardman rulebook, and in these days you'll make it no where near the top 100. You do well, you keep going, you keep your sponsors, you keep traveling the world on someone else's dime. You flail, and you gots to start thinking about what you are really gonna do with your life. It's been well publiziced lately how many of the younger guys are having a problem with finding/keeping sponsors in this economy. It's hard to feel sorry for em when so many people are out of jobs and so many are being sent back to a new war. With that, everyone has their own set of circumstances to grow by. One may learn about life from living six months in a fox hole, while another may become a good person by having to carry a six board coffin through the airport after surfing one heat in crumbly onshore surf. (oh wait, onshore is the new offshore.) OK he lost in perfect surf. I don't know, maybe that is worse. Regardless, it's all learning. So, where am I going with all this babble. I was watching the Sunset contest last week. It was big and pretty unruly. Not clean at all.
No visions of the perfect MR style wounded gull sweeping turns, connecting the peak to the inside. Just, big, ugly, mad ocean. It's the last qualifying contest of the year. It was in the round of 64 I believe. Jordy Smith was in a heat with 3 other guys. Jordy is already on tour and pretty much in position to stay. One of the other three is on the bubble to qualify. He's gotta keep going or he's gonna have to grind away for another year. Jordy is in second with a minute to go, the other guy that needs the score is in third. He needs a measly 3 point ride to pass Jordy. Basically stand up and make one turn. Seems easy enough. Unless you are talking about huge, unruly Sunset. Seconds tick away and it seems to be pretty much wrapped up. With 10 to go, the guy starts to paddle for a wave, lifts his hands off the rails with less than 2 seconds, stands up, drops in, one average sweep under the lip, wave closes out, and he straightens for the beach. Now we go to commercial. After we watch some spoiled kid pull into a perfect tube in Indo, wearing his 10 way stretch trunks, which happened to make it so he could tweak ever so slightly and pull under the lip, we go back to the scores. 3.7. He moves on. Jordy is out. The qualifier needed to get at least get third in his next heat to qualify for the tour. I didn't stay to watch and see if he did. To me the point was made. It could have went the other way. I sat and pondered this for a while. What it would be like to have your whole world turned upside down within a matter of seconds. I guess it's all happened to us to some extent. Some more than others. The one that comes to mind is the guy who recently lost his wife and two young daughters when the military plane took out his house.
Such a catastrophe. Everyone has their horrors, this guy enough to fill a stadium. I hope that someday he will find something in this that helps him. For me, much like the fledgling qualifier above, it all happened in "One Turn". It wasn't surfing, it was skiing. 20+ years ago. But, thats another story all together.
No visions of the perfect MR style wounded gull sweeping turns, connecting the peak to the inside. Just, big, ugly, mad ocean. It's the last qualifying contest of the year. It was in the round of 64 I believe. Jordy Smith was in a heat with 3 other guys. Jordy is already on tour and pretty much in position to stay. One of the other three is on the bubble to qualify. He's gotta keep going or he's gonna have to grind away for another year. Jordy is in second with a minute to go, the other guy that needs the score is in third. He needs a measly 3 point ride to pass Jordy. Basically stand up and make one turn. Seems easy enough. Unless you are talking about huge, unruly Sunset. Seconds tick away and it seems to be pretty much wrapped up. With 10 to go, the guy starts to paddle for a wave, lifts his hands off the rails with less than 2 seconds, stands up, drops in, one average sweep under the lip, wave closes out, and he straightens for the beach. Now we go to commercial. After we watch some spoiled kid pull into a perfect tube in Indo, wearing his 10 way stretch trunks, which happened to make it so he could tweak ever so slightly and pull under the lip, we go back to the scores. 3.7. He moves on. Jordy is out. The qualifier needed to get at least get third in his next heat to qualify for the tour. I didn't stay to watch and see if he did. To me the point was made. It could have went the other way. I sat and pondered this for a while. What it would be like to have your whole world turned upside down within a matter of seconds. I guess it's all happened to us to some extent. Some more than others. The one that comes to mind is the guy who recently lost his wife and two young daughters when the military plane took out his house.
1 comment:
Love, Gary. It all comes down to love.
I'm sorry for your friends nightmarish loss. I can't even begin to imagine. Keep your love strong, though. Tell those you love that you love them. Daily.
What more is there to say?
-Steve ShShSh
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