Surfing Waves

Hi!

I found the word "choka" on surfing-waves, tried to do a little research on it and... got stucked Only couple of records found after googling it for couple of hours...I contacted some surfing schools in California and none of them have ever heard the word.

Have you heard it beeing actually used on the beach? Do you maybe know its origins? How come the word's so rare / difficult to find on the internet - is it old school or simply rarely used?

I would be very grateful for any information or tips where to look for it!

Joana

Besides your mention the only other time I read about the word choka was doing a search to see what you were talking about . There was a post in 2008 about slang words with a post of 80 slang words most of which I have never heard of. It may be a local slang......but perhaps one of the other posters here have heard it used.

Is this just a different spelling of "Shaka"?

In Hawaii, surfers say "choke" a lot. You can use it in place of Plenty , "There's choke waves". But if you drop in, they might say "brah, you like get choked out ?"

Choka in Australia can mean really full, short for choka block.

So many guys out there , she's choka block!

as Jaffa said, chocka (or choka) is short for 'chock -a- block' which derives (I think) from 'chocks' (the things you use to wedge items in place) ie it means things are tight/full/crowded

Being Australian we create slang (chock a block) and then use the diminutive of the slang (chocka), because the whole expression is too long for our simple minds.

To use Jaffa's topic

dtc: 'how is the surf today'
Jaffa 'mate, its chockas'

Unlike a lot of so called 'aussie slang', this is an expression actually used

Should I explain no wukkas ?

dtc wrote:Being Australian we create slang (chock a block) and then use the diminutive of the slang (chocka), because the whole expression is too long for our simple minds.
...
Unlike a lot of so called 'aussie slang', this is an expression actually used

What is it with you australians and thinking you invented every slang term?!?!
I get it so often over here - an aussie telling me the meaning of a word they think is theirs when its, for example, cockney rhyming slang.

Anyway, the term chocka (yup, from chock-a-block, meaning full. Also chocker, or chockers) was probably around before the first white man got to Australia! It's a pretty common phrase in the UK, particularly London and the southeast. I've never heard it in the line-up, but I've heard "gor blimey, it's chocka in 'ere tonight" in the pub many, many times

Best I can do is this . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JXwzlRcYWk

I wrote scripts for early colonial days street theatre , much of the slang was derived from the convict flash language of the London convicts who were shipped out here. Still is.
A lot was occupational or purely descriptive "he has head like a dropped pie" Post war migrants , Greek and Italian added new phases. But WOG was an English expression.
Paul Hogan Norman Gunston and Barry Humpreys brought many phrases back to prominence .
PC has killed a lot of gems of expression.

jaffa1949 wrote:But WOG was an English expression.(

...which is an odd one, because most English people would consider that to be extremely racist and to be a slightly less offensive version of (and to mean the same thing as) the n-word.
I was horrified to hear it when I first came here, but then worked out that it meant something different in australia and was basically harmless.

dtc wrote:as Jaffa said, chocka (or choka) is short for 'chock -a- block' which derives (I think) from 'chocks' (the things you use to wedge items in place) ie it means things are tight/full/crowded

I found the word in a different context. It's supposed to mean: bitchin', awesome, cool, great, gnarly:

http://travel.india.com/articles/watch- ... -his-turf/
http://www.sfgirlbybay.com/2010/02/01/c ... the-world/

It appears here as well: https://surfing-waves.com/surf_talk.htm
Looking for the author of the insight

drowningbitbybit wrote:

jaffa1949 wrote:But WOG was an English expression.(

...which is an odd one, because most English people would consider that to be extremely racist and to be a slightly less offensive version of (and to mean the same thing as) the n-word.
I was horrified to hear it when I first came here, but then worked out that it meant something different in australia and was basically harmless.

The whole set of British terms for the colonised countries populations were quite racist and very class structured, but one Australian peculiarity is the use of derogatory terms being turned into terms of affection!,,,

A pot stir here, calling an American a Seppo! Further endearing yourself calling him a Seppo B.stard.
Pommy Bs too. Inflection meant a lot for emphasis of meaning.
We once had a boot polish called N Boy made a lot of American Vietnam R and R visitors very unhappy