Report - 0.5ft waves. Strong NW winds all day
Its not really surfable today
Recently I have been reading a few of the surf magazines available in stores. So to begin with I am going to have a bit of a rant.
It seems that they all pretty well have the same basic stories and content. The magazines obviously think this is what sells. A quick perusal of some the online forums will reveal plenty of opinions as to how this has come about. However I am not going to enter into that argument, for now at least.
What I seem to be seeing over and over again is some article about 4 semi professionals getting an all expenses paid trip to Indo. Granted sometimes they do go to other locations, but even then they have paid guides and the best pre-booked accomodation available. Of course these guys can all surf well, providing good pictures. Tracks even included a DVD as part of their Contrasts issue. But none of these guys had any personality. With the exception of Tom Carroll who gets respect as the living legend, their stories and lives just aren't interesting. Neither do I care if one of them has just lost his major sponsor. Are we meant to feel sorry for this guy?
Surely there must be someone out there in the surfing world who is doing new, exciting, interesting, dare I say it groundbreaking stuff.
The latest SW issue features nothing but stories on how the latest round of champions either won or lost. There is one story about a guy who lost out in the early 80's, but its still about professionals. Its all just comes across as a cross promotional piece by the big brand surf companies. I really struggled to maintain interest in these articles.
Then I came across "The Surfers path" This is UK produced magazine. I have almost read the latest issue from end to end and so far have only seen 1 reference to Mick Fanning which is an ad placed by Rip Curl.
The other articles are about everyday guys and their interaction in one way or another with the ocean. This particular issue features heavily on artists and their perspective on surfing and their work. I understand that your average 15 year old doesn't give a rats about art, neither did I at that age, still don't for the most part. However, these guys have interesting stories and lives which make the article readable.
Towards the back of the magazine there is a feature on coastline erosion. In previous editions I have seen features on the working of tides and their effects on surf. It all adds up to a better understanding of the beach, waves and the ocean.
Hopefully we will start to see more of this in other magazines.
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