A little window into one of the subsets I'm a part of.....Sunday afternoon when there is a birthday party for one of the kids in our group (always someone's birthday) the daddy's gather off to one side and first go over the morning's surf, then anything interesting in the past week, the wind and tides, current injuries and then after a few bintangs it's on to someone getting excited and telling a story ending with something like "when it's big you better be scared....fear keeps you sharp it does!" That out of he mouth of a grandpa of 71 years of age, easy 8 beers deep and starting to quote "Big Wednesday" shortly after......
That's culture....I had to learn to surf just so I could have someone to talk to......
Nothing commercial in our crowd....I doubt anyone has bought a surf magazine in the past year or two.....in fact, I don't even know where I would go to buy one in this surf Mecca.......I can't remember ever seeing one....most everyone I know has their wives shop for their boardies from the discount warehouse outlet.....could care what the latest trends are......
Another group are the beach boyz in Kuta....I played soccer with them at low tide the other day becoz the waves were gone.....their culture consists mainly around renting boards, selling drinks, a giglio gig here and there and surfing........that's the bottom line, beginning and the end....it isn't about the "scene"....it is about surfing and surfing as much as you can......
Some teens look for something that will define them.....skater, surfer, stoner, skinhead......maybe they are the same ones who define who they are later in life by their professions.....I never was much of a follower or a nester and don't care for pigeonholes.....part of why surfing is so cool as an activity....no need to join a club or team, no defined hours of operation or length of a game, no levels, certificates, no enforced style that you have to correctly practice your art under.....outside the rules of etiquette you can come and go when you please and do whatever you ant or are able on a wave......you can do it in a crowd or by yourself, on a hugely long or obscenely short board....use it as a time of mental quiet or as a time when you boil hot emotions into an aggro ball of white hot fury to be unleashed on the next unsuspecting wave......
I'm sure that there are even modern day versions of "Beach blanket bingo" hanging out here and there......I have no idea what you refer to when you say the culture is commercialized.....it's whatever you want it to be;
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2015 3:42 pm