Surfing Waves

So I am a noob, I have stood up on occasion but definitley can not surf! However when chatting with people it sometimes comes up that I am going surfing at the weekend. Now people often go, "oh so you surf", or "Ah your a surfer" to which I always kind of move on from quickly.

I love surfing. I love being in the sea, I love the feeling of trying to catch waves, I love just floating around on a board, feeling the swell move you. I love watching the WSL, I love the clothing, I love the films.

However I wouldn't class myself as a surfer, not yet. I mean, I can't surf!

This isn't a bad thing, part of the beauty of surfing is it takes commitment and hard work and I have never had a bigger smile (well, wedding day etc) than when I get to my feet riding the smallest of white water. I don't care that for me, currently, that is it. It brings me happiness and that journey is more important than the end goal. Lets face it, if surfing was easy to learn, Hawaiians would probably not have held it in such high esteem and therefore may have had much less influence on the world.

My question to you is, when do you "become" a surfer? Really just to see what different opinions are out there.

Dex101 wrote:My question to you is, when do you "become" a surfer?

When it becomes, firmly and irrevocably, your thing.

Not when you've surfed once (or a 1000 times), not when you have your own board (or a dozen), not when you can stand up and ride down the line (or you can do a 360 air)... it's when you get up at 5am to drive down to the beach in the dark, it's when you get totally stoked in mediocre waves, it's when you go into work on a monday morning after a weekend's surf and you immediately start planning your next trip, it's when you buy a car that'll fit your board (and not the other way around), it's when you change job/partner/hemisphere to be closer to the surf, it's when you understand what the ocean can do, it's when you hoot your mate into a wave, it's when you understand the unforgivable crime of the drop in, it's when a litre of water drains out of your sinuses onto the shop's till while you buy an after-surf pie, it's when your car takes on that special smell...

drowningbitbybit wrote:

Dex101 wrote:My question to you is, when do you "become" a surfer?

........ it's when your car takes on that special smell...

.....like you wouldn't believe!

You're not a surfer until you've done an aerial 360 off the lip on a huge day at Nazarre.


just kidding. You're a surfer when you're surfing

....you start hiding money in your drawer for the next board.

There are different meanings of the word surfer. One is if you identify with surfing. Another is if you think you can surf . Another is if others think you can surf. Since you are asking us then I think you are a surfer when you can ride a wave that the average surfer would say "Nice wave".

Too broad of a term, so too many interpretations of when you become it depending on your view of what a "surfer" really is.
To most, it is the moment you stand up on a surfboard. For me it's when you actually can start, turn and stop. If some one says they can only drive straight ahead, runs over the curbs on turns and gets whiplash at every stop, I don't really consider them a "Driver".

But when does one become an Artist ? A Cook ? Are you a really good Singer only in the shower ? I think you are a Artist when people say your paintings are nice. You are a cook when people enjoy your meals. You are a singer when people want to listen to your voice.

But believe in what you are ( a Cook, Artist, Singer, Surfer ,etc. ) ,but like it or not, it's the people that will decide if you're real or not.

Forgot to add. In Japan, there's many groups. Hillbilly rockers, Goth death nurses, Disney Freaks, you name it. But one is "Surfer". It's more a fashion statement. There's guys that have the tattoo, bone hook necklace and bleached hair sitting on the beach next to their Al Merrick shortboard ........ and then never set foot in the water. But they are considered "Surfers". There's even "Surfers" that drive around Tokyo with surfboards BOLTED thru their car roof racks. But to them, I'm not a "Surfer". ( must be cause I'm wearing Crocs shoes ? )

Until today, when people ask me if I can surf I answer "I try!"

Guess the fact you don't like calling yourself a surfer yet gives a good hint you're a guy genuinely passionate about the surf, and not the image or title that comes with it.

@Waikikikichan,
I didn't know people in Japan were so worried about fashion status. That's something that kind of bothers me, how people worry so much about what others think at the point of pretending to be what they are not..

IanCaio wrote:@Waikikikichan,
I didn't know people in Japan were so worried about fashion status. That's something that kind of bothers me, how people worry so much about what others think at the point of pretending to be what they are not..

They arent pretending what they are not, they are 'surfers' who just dont actually surf. And they do that well! Its like people who are into a music scene, hang out at gigs and wear the T-shirt, but cant actually play an instrument.

Or maybe not...

The guy who dresses like a surfer but doesn't surf is just that, the guy who tries to surf but can't is just that, the guy who surfs is just that. It is because our minds require words to define things and society hasn't progressed enough to develop different words for them all which creates cognitive dissonance

Dex101 wrote: I love surfing. I love being in the sea, I love the feeling of trying to catch waves, I love just floating around on a board, feeling the swell move you.

My friend, I would say you already are!!