Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Weeks 8 and 9 -- Surfing beyond the waves
As I was looking at the youtube videos for week 9 and the art galleries for week 8 I couldn't help but make the connection about how well surfing is extending to a world beyond the waves. Drew Brophy is an incredible artist and man, having met him at the Salt of the Sea event earlier this quarter where he came to Porter and presented on his work. He has taken his enjoyment of surfing and the waves into a career that he enjoys. Aaron Chang has also taken the waves and turned them into something land-locked can enjoy - photography. Speaking of land-locked, How about that German River surfing!? It is incredible how much these people will go through and the dangers they put themselves against to ride the waves they have. This is what dedication to a sport looks like. I felt my heart twing when the older speaker (the one with tatoos up his neck and who spoke English) said that his dad had a heart attack when he (the son) had gotten caught in the whipping whirlpools that follow after the river tides. For those who don't even have rivers to explore, they either find tarp surfing or surf parks to indulge their interests with. The young and thrifty find tarp surfing to be a great fix - mixing the surf likeness of skateboarding with the tube type experience of a large blue tarp barrolling over-head. For the older and wealthier folk, surf parks are looking to be the future -- extending the joys of surfing to all corners of the Earth and taking the sport from the unpredictible natural wave to a real areana, turning the professional realm of surfing into a real sport.
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Meagan -
ReplyDeleteThanks again for all your help at the Salt of the Earth event, and I'm glad you got to meet Drew Brophy. I really enjoyed his talk that day as well. I'm very interested in your concluding notion of a 'real sport' - what makes a sport 'real'? Or perhaps easier, what has kept surfing from being considered a 'real sport'?
- Trey
Meagan -
ReplyDeleteYou make some interesting points, but I don't think surfing, whether in a wave park or not, can ever be judged objectively (I say this from the perspective of a former professional surf judge). In the old days, surfing contests were decided by the length of ride, but ever since Fred Hemmings controversial win at the '68 Surfing World Championships in Puerto Rico, judging criteria has shifted to focus on the 'radicalness' of the maneuver and where on the wave (how 'critical' of a section) the maneuver is performed. That said, judging panels are comprised of a few people who are looking at the performance of each surfer on a comparative basis for each heat or event — but the judging is always subjective. There is never a default winner as there is in a track race or a soccer match, where the fastest time or the highest score wins. Yes the highest score wins in surfing, but those scores are only accrued through the subjective lens of each individual judge, who has to factor in not only the nuanced nature of the maneuver and the criticalness of the wave, but other ephemeral aspects such as style as well. It is because of this that many 'soul surfers' feel that competition is antithetical to the expressive and artistic nature of surfing — viewing waves more as blank canvases rather than potential point producers. But that is beginning to delve into a deeper philosophical rift within surfing that I don't have the time or wherewithal to delve into here. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts,
Trey