I’m an addict and I’m strung out. Its been one bad fix after another for me and at this point I am at my wits end. I have paid dearly for this bad habit for the better share of my life. The worst part is 90% of the time all my efforts go to scoring deplorable dope a best. There was a time when I thought I had a chance at beating this illicit action and even had it well at bey and under my control. Now I realize I am beyond hope and will suffer at my own lack of self control for the entirety of my existence.
I have known others through out my life with the same affliction and watched such destroy them as it has been slowly destroying me. I have seen others successfully enhance their problem so that they could make the most of their self indulgence. What am I talking about my friends? Is it my alcohol problem, I really wish that was the case. That is something I have always been able to control. I am talking about my surfing problem.
I get plenty of emails and messages asking why surfing ruined my life. The answer I always give is that surfing ruins your life when it becomes your life, your main purpose for waking up in the morning. When you get to this point your life as a citizen of our current social structure ends and your life as a surfer begins. Tons of people claim they surf and that they are a surfer, but until you have blown off some of life’s most important happenings to ride 2ft wind blown close outs or cashed out on your entire known existence to move half way across the world in pursuit of a wave that has a name you can’t even pronounce your just a dabbler.
I surf close to 7 days a week and have put myself in a situation where I can surf every day if I really want to. Those few days a month when I don’t surf I hate myself all day for it. Don’t believe me peruse the surflog section of this site. Most surf addicts are in the same boat as myself. I will even give an honorable mention to guys who although may not get to surf everyday have put themselves into a position that they can and won’t ever miss a fun day. It is very understandable if you have a wife, kids, house and full time job necessary to support the latter that it is not practical to blow off responsibility for 2ft blown out crap. Those guys have a schedule to keep and for the most part have done a stellar job to make surfing a part of that schedule.
A few days I posted a surfing blog and a positive one at that, “Better then Sex“. This blog epitomized the true essence of what surfing is all about. Its propaganda like this that has the masses stoked on getting into flopping around on a piece of foam. It fuels, magazines, websites (this is loosely one of them), movies, television, surf camps, surf schools, surfing resorts and as a direct result surfing is more popular and profitable then it ever has been even in a current period of fiscal recession. Out of this giant “surfing” population it is only maybe 10% who are truly addicted, 5% who have given up having a “regular” life for it and 1% who have given up everything in pursuit of the perfect wave everyday for the rest of their lives.
I fall into the 5%. I need to surf everyday and have like I said structured my life through many series of pain, heart ache and tireless frustration in order to accomplish this. I have also caused similar to plenty of loved ones and great friends on my journey. In all truth I really don’t have any friends. One cannot count on a person who’s entire life is based and planned around a 5 day forecast. Sure there are as far out as 14-day forecasts but those who are really serious know only the five day can be trusted. For the last 12 years my life has revolved around the 5-day surf forecast. At first friends, family, women I have cared about find this intriguing, attractive, even entertaining, but when reality sets in and they realize its not a sport, instead a way of life, a tragic one at that. Those same allies sooner or later give up. Just like you would on a hard drug user who won’t quit.
I have begged, burrowed, hustled, stole, lied and cheated in order to keep getting my fix. When things are good and the surf is pumping us addicts are stoked and awesome people to be around. When it begins to falter and conditions meager our attitudes change very fast. Instead of that happy go lucky perpetually stoked individual all the propaganda portrays you have a cranky, frustrated, irritable, aggressive, and ultimately depressed entity that is a far cry from the advertisements that got one to buy a surf board and wet suit in the first place.
As stoked as I was on Saturday with near epic River Mouth is as let down I have been since. Following that session of amazing proportions I have surfed nothing even remotely worth the price of admission. There have been bad winds, even worse tides, terrible swell angles and poor periods. To make matters worse add in the regular problems and stress of the everyday grind and things become unsettling really fast. I lost my job, my roommate, can’t keep a girl, summer traffic has been worse then ever thanks to a new highway expansion project that is going to make my life miserable until 2015. By the time that date comes the population will have doubled and the traffic as well thus making the road work to be completely obsolete. There is nothing worse then sitting in traffic for 2 hours to get to a surf spot that should have taken 20 minutes only for it to be over crowded and 2ft and windy.
Throw in a host of new surfers, both beginners and intermediate. Its those average “I surf a few times a month or when surfline.com tells me to” that really cause all the trouble. We can thank every surf camp, surf instructor and the creator of the fish and fun shape for this. Believe me I helped, which makes it all the more ironic. Now when its small and terrible, a time when I usually had most breaks to myself or shared with a few other die hards it is packed with groms who think they could be the next Dane Reynolds, kooks who just graduated from their soft tops, soccer moms on their stand up paddle boards and valley boy Joe who just pulled up in his mustang convertible.
It is these days when I hate surfing the most. I have given up everything to go ride those terrible waves that were once uncrowded. My stoke meter was already at a 3 and I was forcing myself to paddle. When you add the crowd that level decreases to .01. That was me this morning in the dirt lot above Emma Wood, where I sat for a good hour deciding if I should surf, go home, or throw myself off the cliff in front of a passing train. The train option being my best bet especially since I failed at successfully constructing that guillotine out of the trunk of my car.
After waiting till the wind got harder and the crowd tripled I suited up and headed out. There were about four peaks working with a few sneakers thrown in. On the beach there were three telephotos and a video? I looked around. There was no one in the lineup worthy of such an entourage and the surf was barely chest high, windy and inconsistent at best. Then I saw Dane suiting up bringing things into perspective. Has the surf been that bad this season that photographers have gotten so desperate they need to try and sell pictures of Dane groveling? I guess so. He did his usual half hour of Emma.
I jumped in and the water was freezing. If it was 58 I would say it was warm. I had a 4/3 and booties on and was cold the entire time making the drive home one of me blasting the heat to get the blood flowing again. I felt like I was in the movie “Top Gun” when all the fighter jets were swarming around Maverick and Goose. There were groms paddling every which way, kooks in front of me, body surfers and even some idiot on an ocean kayak. Apparently some people got lost on their way to Mondos. I got a few forgettable ones that I had to fight tooth and nail for. Then a set wave slipped past the pack and swung wide right to me. I dropped in, it sucked up and I had a solid stand up tube, came out clean.
My initial instinct was to claim it so that if one of the photogs managed to shot it the sequence would end well. Then I realized that they were all focused on Dane and these two groms who were ripping. As I was paddling back out this random dude threw a shaka at me and I was glad to share that little bit of stoke on an otherwise uninspiring day with him. After that it was more terrible ones and more paddle battles, near collisions and tons of frustration. Finally I got my 20 wave quota and was just looking for that one more.
Of course if you surf this almost always means the ocean is going to go flat and that the good wave wont come. You have to end on a good on otherwise your whole day is going to be shit. That was exactly what happen. I got dropped in on twice. Blew three late take offs. Then finally a good left came my way. I was about to drop into when this little grom maybe 12 paddled me and closed out the section on me. Normally I let these instances go, but everyone hits their breaking point and this was mine.
I paddled up to the poor unsuspecting grom and looked him right in the eye “Did you think I was not going to catch it?”. He responded “No”. “Then why the fuck did you paddle me then?” I replied and I splashed water in his face, the most degrading thing one surfer can do to another in a lineup confrontation and usually when a fight breaks out. “You know me, I surf with you all the time and you know I don’t miss the waves I paddle for. Don’t paddle me! I don’t paddle you!” He had a stunned look on his face. So did I.
I caught the very next wave and went in disgusted with myself for such behavior. The kid made a common mistake and he was after all a kid, but I was over it. Then again when I was a kid I would not have even thought about paddling a guy who had been surfing longer then I was alive. The pecking order in today’s lineups has really fallen apart, but that is a blog for another day. Mostly I was angry at myself cause I ruined this little kid’s stoke for the day and probably put some fear into him about lineup etiquette making him over cautious for a while.
Five days ago I was out having a ball with my fellow surfers, hooting and hollering. Everyone was stoked and life was great. Today I wished I had a water proof uzi so I could have mowed down 3/4’s of the lineup. When you want to know why surfing ruined my life just mull that over for a while. Surfing sucks don’t try it.
UCB: how to get a surf spot under control, what would it take?
under control in what respect, mastering it as a surfer or localism?
UCB: Grom abuse
UCB Surf fitness
Where do I start?
MAYBE.. its joysie boys like you that come to southern California that are the problem. I started surfing at 8 years old right there at Emma wood, rincon, etc. (1991).. The best days of my life were 3′ windblown days being out with the older guys and loving when they would holler for me and get stoked when I got a wave.. CLEARLY.. Times have changed and the “older guys” just talk shit and splash you with water. What’s wrong lisante?? Surfing 6-7 days a week got you down? Poor f-ing baby. I moved to Colorado 6 years ago and can only visit these crowded breaks now.. Usually only getting 30 waves in a trip. ON MY FISH! hahaha
Bottom line is you need to stop whining and realize what you have.. And don’t be bullying around 12 year olds.. Even though they are your size.
I think you missed the point my friend. For starters I was adversely disgusted with myself for my behavior, though when I started surfing back in 1991 I would have been stuffed in a garbage can for such a display as the youngster I splashed. Yeah it still doesn’t make it right. Usually I get out of the water before such an outburst takes place.
Second the point of this blog is to get people to think about if their life choices are worth it or not. You obviously decided that moving to Colorado where you would not be able surf at all unless you traveled was the correct life move for. I personally would never move to a place that would not allow me to surf sometimes let alone all of the time.
I have lost a wife, a serious girl friend, the respect of my entire family, gave up a budding career in music and countless other seemingly amazing social advancement opportunities all so that I could surf every day. Its a paradox. That is the point I am trying to make.
I dont hate groms or children, or people who ride fishes or weekend warriors I just get a bit frustrated by the current state of surfing society. Normally I am one of the most stoked people out there. I have just felt really worn down lately.
I am sorry if I offended you. I dont think I came as an elitist in this blog. I tried to leave it up to interpretation and that being would you rather have a balanced life between surfing and life or a life where they are one and the same. Maybe I missed my point. Either way next time your in the area hit me and we can share a surf. I will buy you a beer after.
Chris
chris also has shared the stoke for plenty of us, taking 13 year olds surfing, lending them boards, fixing their boards, hooking kids up with jobs etc.
Having a surprise for them in my pants…
Oh and my name is spelled Lisanti in Italian “i” is pronounced like “E” in english
Brian go surf on your stupid fish once a year at Mondos and shut up.
Never have surfed Mondos.. My fish is 5’11 not 12’10.
And I come out about 6x/ year.
Unless you’re 6’4″ and 250 pounds there is absolutely no need for you to be riding a board that big. With that said, my immature jab was more to insult the fact that you didn’t even read the article carefully. Please refer to Chris’s long-ass comment regarding where the faults in your criticism lie.
UCB What would your tombstone say
Yeeeesssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
UCB The Landon Prophecy
oh man!!!! John is hot
If there weren’t people like you in the lineup, no one would have ever gotten better at surfing.
I’m probably one of those shitty assholes that would piss you off in the lineup. I think I learned on this site, that I’m an AV man? or something like that… my apologies… I also used to be one of those choads with the telephoto lens too.. remember?! haha
I think its time to switch drugs… And you need to choose wisely… You can’t become a super addict to snowboarding or skating, they are just as crowded… You need to take up something in the sky. Or get one of those flying squirrel suits… I promise, when you show up to the mountain… it will not be 2ft and crowded…
Dude that squirrel suit thing is ridiculous. I think I am going to take up rally car racing…
Power of 10:
1. Weapon of Choice
2. The ‘N’ Word
3. Long Hair
4. Harry Potter
5. Vegetarians
6. The Olympics
7. Fat People
8. Fishermen fishing in the lineup
9. Speedos
10. Foreign Girls
oooo this is a really good one Nick.
Power of 10
1. bar fights
2. haircuts/hair styling
3. gay marriage
4. Nicolas Cage
5. granny panties and their implications in a relationship
6. backside barrel rides
7. roommates
8. tits or ass?
9.The Fountainhead
10. how drugs/alcohol change/enhance/worsen settings and situations
I feel like we have done the hair cut thing on the p10 to verbatim. replace it with something else please…
1. bar fights
2. fast food
3. gay marriage
4. Nicolas Cage
5. granny panties and their implications in a relationship
6. backside barrel rides
7. roommates
8. tits or ass?
9.The Fountainhead
10. how drugs/alcohol change/enhance/worsen settings and situations
now this is a good list
^10: 1 Pink slime
2 Why does house music repel mexicans like deet does mosquitos?
3 aqua dueces
4 worst way to die?
5 why does the sex always end?
6 long distance relationships
7 is it gay to suck your own dick?
8 Airplane movies
9 chinese food
10 do you think alfie has a motive when he shits out of the litter box?
Now we are talking Kooky that kicks your July’s list ass. Solid gold.
[…] Living Life as a Junkie August 17 2012 Truth of why surfing ruined my life is revealed in a angry rant about bad surf conditions, kooks and over crowding in the line up. […]