Let's, for a minute, leave aside some of the more outlandish claims made by the writer and consider what it means to be a complete surfer.
History inevitably becomes mythologised.
We'd all like to think that the surfers in the past were a more cohesive, friendly, altogether nicer bunch of people than we are now. Nor were the lineups any emptier. Until very recently you either rode the board that was in fashion, or you didn't surf. In the 60's you rode a mal until McTavish came along with those nasty panel vees and started the shortboard revolution. You don't need a lesson in design history to know that it's only in the last decade, at best, that there's been a renaissance of not only longboards, but other, alternative surf craft.