From: mascdb@gdr.bath.ac.uk (C D Burdorf)
Newsgroups: alt.surfing
Subject: Why professional surfing sucks
Date: 8 Sep 92 10:06:54 GMT
Distribution: alt
Organization: School of Mathematics, University of Bath, UK


Hello all,

It's been raining and I'm not going surfing for a while, so I've decided
to rant and rave a bit on my pet peeve: Provessional surfing.

My main thesis is that professional surfing degrades the sport
or art of surfing for the rest of us.  The main reason for this statement
is that I see professional surfing taking a lot from the sport and giving back
very little.  Firstly, professional surfing has somewhat successfully made
surfing a more respectable endevor which I argue is undesireable.  Secondly,
professional surfers for the most part are a self-indulgent
lot, who make lots of dosh doing what the rest of us like to do, and cause
our products to be more exspensive.  Thirdly, professional surfing gives
more exsposure to a sport with limited availability and one that due
to the limited amount of places on the planet to surf (especially near
urban centers) can never support more than a tiny amount of the worlds 
population.  

My first point is that surfing is better if unrespectable.  Perhaps
some of you are too young to remember the excitement there was 
around the sport when it was unacceptable.  Sneeking out for an early
morning surf before school or work used to be a rather naughty thing
to do.  Something that brought one derision and disgust from others
if caught at it, and it made it all the more fun.  Professional surfing
has somewhat succesfully changed that image by presenting surfers as
something like golfers or tennis players.  Nowadays going for a morning
surf is like having a quick round of tennis before work or school (it's
no big deal).

My second point was that professional surfers are basically a waste of
space.  They do things for the wrong reasons.  When a professional surfer
goes for an aerial or gets vertical it's not because it's cool or its
fun, they do it so they can get a photo in a surf mag or score points
in a contest.  It cheapens the entire experience.  As far as I can
tell the only pro surfers with any redeeming values are Tom Curren because
of his leadership in supporting the Surfrider foundation (environmental group) 
and Richie Collins (because he's wierd and he speaks out against surf
fashion--he doesn't have a clothing sponsorship as a result).  Someone
like Tom Carrol is a complete waste of space, with his million dollar
sponsorship deals which we the surfing public pay for when we buy 
products.  Also, he's got a total "I'll cut you off" attitude which
doesn't promote a friendly attitude in the water.  I remember one
story in particular where he was on a trip to G-land which was given
to him for free for escorting some real surfers over there and he told
them on the way over that he was going to cut them off and they better
just accept it.  I'll tell you if he cuts me off I'll be aiming my
board for an off the lip on his face.  

When I was in high school surf stars were treated as goofballs.  Everyone
I knew thought that David Nuuihwa, and Mike Purpus were goons worth hassling.
I was  respected for having cut off Michael Ho in Hawaii, and Buttons 
Kuliokalani at Trestles.  Anybody who could burn those goofballs was
considered cool.  While we all liked looking at photos of Lopez at Pipeline,
we all thought he was a complete geek.   Pro surfers were not well thought of.

It all changed with Thomson, MR, and Rabbit.  While Rabbit was a bit
of a counter-culture hero and Thomson ripped big waves, MR slowly brought
professionalism to a sport that was better off without it.  Nowadays, the
only counter-culture surfing heros that I know of are Christian Fletcher
and Matt Archabold (both of which come from my old stomping ground -- Orange
County).  While both Christian and Matt surf in contests, they snub their
noses at the ASP and don't make a big deal out of contests.  Their surfing
is too radical to be scored well in contests, but they don't coopt themselves
and surf like the other pros just so they can do well in contests, they
have some integrity.  Case in point:  Brad Gerlach was asked what he felt
the reason for his improved performance on the ASP tour was (he finished 2nd 
last year) and his response was "I made a consious effort to surf less 
radical."  Judges are conservative and don't give people points for taking
chances, they just want to see nice smooth maneuvers.

Thirdly, what professional surfing does for the sport is it gives
it more exposure to the non-surfing world and therefore encourages
more people to surf.  The planet doesn't have enough surf spots
to handle even 1/10 of the population to surf.  Most good surfspots
in the Northern Hemisphere are overcrowded and it keeps getting worse.
To keep surfing enjoyable to those of us that practice it, we need to
have it removed from the public consciousness and have it go back to
the underground so that people that do it just to be cool and trendy
will stop and then there will be more waves for those of us that
practice it not for attention, not for money, not to be cool or 
fashionable, but because its fun and we like it.  People make the
argument that pro surfers are responsible for a lot of the design
innovations.  Are they?  I notice that one of the big things these
days are bonzers.  Well, bonzers were developed in the 70's by the
Campbell brothers in Oxnard, Ca. at a time when pro surfing was
at a low point and without any pro surfers to test out the design.
Pro surfers are not needed for anything, and do far more bad for
the sport than good (if any).

Any Comments?

Chris