Surfing

Surfing - Elements of Style by Jay DiMartino

Surfing “style” is something that fades in and out of popularity every five or ten years. That same “shabby,” “trashy” ensemble your girlfriend asks you to take off before going out can suddenly become a fashion spread in next month’s GQ.

Landlocked preppies and street kids easily purchase surf style, drop it in a sack, and leave the mall feeling like a “real” surfer. With a few well-placed stickers on the rear windshield and an occasional utterance of “dude,” Mr. Everybody USA is one of us. Although the guy has never heard of Tom Curren or Layne Beachley, he can rattle off references to The OC and maybe even Surfer Girls.

Should this piss off a real surfer? Are we any better than they are since most surfers buy into the same fashion cookie-cutter threads? Are they ripping off our style or have we surfers prostituted our true identity? The truth is that a surfer’s “style” lies somewhere much deeper than the superfluity of clothes and cars and TV. Our true style can be seen in the way we live and how we perceive the world around us. It’s not so much our words but our intonation and what we choose to speak about. And it’s not the clothes we wear but how they hang.

The “laid back surfer” is not a true characterization. In fact, many wave riders lead stressful lives and are quite high strung. I know countless successful and ambitious surfers, but their true ocean-loving soul shines bright even when heading to work or picking up the kids from school. And many times our style of riding waves is indicative of the way we live our lives on land. Very rarely does a fast, radical surfer lead a mellow, quiet existence. Conversely, most surfers who exhibit a buttery smooth approach to wave riding may not exemplify traits of brusqueness or stress in daily land based reality.

Some folks might call our style “cute” or “interesting” and decide to adopt it via purchases at the local mall.

Not so fast little buddy!

Those clothes packed with logos and images may represent surfers, but they don’t embody the spirit of wave riding. The proof is in the pudding (to coin a phrase) in that someone who has never skipped school or work to catch a swell or spent his last dollars to buy a ticket for a surf trip or driven hundreds of miles up coast to catch the waves a few feet bigger can never be a surfer. Clothes can only cover the rash and sunburn, and sunglasses simply hide the red eyes, but nothing can dull the resonant sparkle in a surfer’s smile after getting a great day of waves. You know if you possess that style when you commit yourself to the life. Perfect surf is not the only thing that draws you to the beach. You understand that it is the experience that keeps you alive and vital. The drive to the beach, the shock of cold water, the smell of sunscreen, and the meaningless conversation in the lineup all collectively make up the experience.

So we return to the question: What is surf style? It’s not clothes or long hair or talking slang. It’s something unexplainable yet somehow understood.

A surfer lives his/her life like the waves themselves. Although battered by crosswinds and cross chop and bent by reefs and sandbars, they always stay true to their source and direction. And a surfer, no matter how heavy the responsibilities of life may become, will always make it to the beach. This experience goes far beyond the thrill of a good ride. The sun rising over the ocean, a good wipeout, the view of a perfect unridden wave, or even a joke made among friends in between sets all serve as food for the surfer’s soul.

So even when it’s hard to make time for a session and life’s pressure is weighing heavy, just remember that just a little nibble on the surfing experience will make you whole again, and even though you may not look like a “surfer” or talk like a “surfer,” your commitment and passion for
wave riding give you all the style you need.

Jay DiMartino is a freelance writer and writer for About.com. You can check out more of his surf writing at surfing.about.com

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