We’ve all the heard the surf clichés. Over and over and bloody over, ubiquitous to the point of platitude. “Surfing is not only a sport, it’s an artform and a lifestyle all in one.” “Surfing is a rebellious sport for rebels.” “Only a surfer knows the feeling.” “My bru, you snake me one more time, I’m gonna moer you china.” “I’m getting a rash from peeing in my wetsuit.”
And stuff like that. To Trident, half the appeal of surfing is that it simply is not a traditional sport. There is no outlined playing field, no traditional team structure, no official rulebook – although there damn well should be as we all know. We digress. The pro’s can rip it up, right next to some tannie cruising on her longboard. It can be as mellow or as hardcore as you want it to be – and oftentimes you have no choice nor power over the levels of intensity. Go to J Bay in contest season, and you’ll be surfing right next to Julian, Jordy, Gabe, Italo and Kelly. You simply can’t do this with other sports. Try play tennis next to Federer at Wimbledon and you’ll most likely get tasered.
Surfing; Artform, Lifestyle, Sport or is this heading a simple cliche?
Some surfers hate competitions, others thrive on it. It’s all good. Not much can beat free surfing when the conditions are pretty good, however, watching a WSL heat in firing waves is pretty much up there too. None of this matters though, when we consider surfing’s next big step in evolution – being a part of the Olympics. Other equally important evolutions are wavepools, zip free wetsuits and the valuable contributions of the older beginner (mainly to emergency rooms, keeping doctors flush with a ready supply of patients needing minor to severe stitches).
Of course, similarly to wavepools and adult beginners (ie: surfers with cash to spare), it must be noted that surfing in the Olympics may help grow the sport/artform/lifestyle (ie: add more money to corporate surfing cash cow machine). Trident believes in growing the sport, fer sure. Trident however, remains hesitant about what this actually means, apart from the obvious already crowded lineups becoming more clogged than the Masterchef toilets.
Jordy volunteering to sideline himself from the Olympics due to his knee injury was upsetting, particularly to the South African surfing community, bruised and battered by the events in the country of the last coupla weeks. Still, we SA surfers have a reputation as fairly good surfers, so we shall see.
However, we’re not discussing our prowess in surfing, but rather whether surfing actually fits comfortably in the spectacle.
Olympic Surfing – Poseidon approves. (Or does he?)
Trident’s humble opinion is one of the best fictional depictions of the Olympics as Asterix at the Olympic Games. Not much can top that we say. If you don’t recall that classic comic, Asterix and his pals didn’t really belong in the Olympics then either, yet went for it regardless. Classic underdog tale. The Romans cheated by taking the famed magic potion, and ultimately lost.
Not sure how exactly this relates to the Olympics, but one thing is for sure – Japan has small waves at best in their summer. Small and kak waves is the next most likely scenario. Nonexistent waves is the worst case. Maybe Jordy’s big frame might not have helped in their gnome sized swell, but we remain mildly optimistic we can score a medal from our team of Greg and Bianca. However, why there areonly two surfers on the SA team, compared to say – the Yanks and the Ozzies – Neptune only knows.
More on this as the Olympic tale continues.
