This weeks UCB makes a winner of Kooky Kyle who at press time has quite the lead thanks to snagging some extra points. I post extra point questions everywhere on this site. There is still one more extra point floating around that I will triple if anyone gets it. It was like four or five blogs ago I think. Also the power of ten for June is up for grabs, get those lists in before or on the 30th of they wont count towards this quarter. Kooky Kyle’s suggestion was “International surfing Day”. Now I may have wrote on this topic before someplace either here or back in the myspace.com days, but I have new ideas on the whole thing.
First off International Surfing Day is a FAKE HOLIDAY that was initially created by the Surfrider Foundation in 2004 to boost beach related environmental awareness. Beach cleanups, pledge drives, bbqs, earth conscientiousness and good vibes on the whole were had. At the time I thought it was a pretty rad idea even if it was stolen from skate boarding. Since the late 90’s on a random day towards the end of June an unofficial skate board race was held through all five boroughs of NYC. The event was completely underground and on the appointed day thousands of skaters would show up and basically clog the streets of New York for a day. Eventually word got out and International Go Skateboarding Day took its place all over the world.
At first things were cool, simple and all in good fun. Then the surf industry stepped in and said lets use this day to hock more product and make more money. The Magazines jumped on the bandwagon, videographers, pro surfers, surf shops, surf schools and anyone else who makes a buck off surfing. Today much like the actual sport of surfing International Surfing Day is nothing more then another American Hallmark Holiday (I will coin that one) but with out the cards, although at this point with Target and Macy’s, yeah Macy’s, embracing the surfing lifestyle to make major dinero its only a matter of time before Hallmark will be making “Happy International Surfing day” Cards.
Maybe it can have a guy deep in the barrel getting burned by some yuppie kook on a fucking soft board arms all flailing going straight fresh out his surf class he paid some surfer business man $100 bucks an hour for. Sto00000ke! Surfing is so cool. Or it can have some dick head pro burning some average guy just happy to squeeze an hour in before work. Either way nothing spreads the aloha spirit like ruining another surfers day.
Happy International Surfing Day!
Lets go back to the Macy’s thing again. I was suit shopping there the other day cause they were having this crazy 60% off sale. I actually found a really smooth Alfani two piece Charcoal Grey suit that I am going to wear to my cousin’s wedding at the end of August with a black shirt and red tie. I am going to be styling. As I am doing this I walk by an entire surf section with all the brands, Volcom, Quicksilver, Rip Curl, etc. There was a giant picture of Mic Fanning on the wall, a poster of Taj boosting. I almost cried then destroyed the place. Instead I shook my head and was stoked to have disconnected myself from the surf materialistic world. I feel bad for all my friends who own surf shops lord knows how you compete.
A sneak preview of my new suit. I looked like shit this day. I don’t trust mirrors so I always take photos whenever I am buying a high ticket item. You can imagine when I am all done up this is going to be the shit.
Did I surf on International Surfing Day you ask? Well if you read the surflog on occasion you would know I did not cause I hurt my back trying to pull a Kerrupt Flip at New Jetty earlier in the week after getting all pumped off it when I wrote about in the most recent power of ten blog “I Gots Power“. For myself and most serious surfers every mother fucking day is International Surfing Day. For me it has been that way for 21 years. I don’t need a special day to get me pumped to go surfing and if you do then you really need to rethink your priorities in life. There have been a few times in my life when I had forsaken surfing and I was miserable cause I tried to prioritize my life more mainstream. Then I readjusted my thinking and got back on the horse.
Yes I was a sell out for a long time. I did the pro-surfer thing, the surf shop thing, and even the surf school thing. These days I am a complete surfing recluse. I wear all black wet suits, ride wide surf boards some with original art work done by my friends. I show up, go surfing then as fast I was there I am gone. No or minimal surf clothing, image or fanfare. If it was not for my neck tan these days one would not even know I surfed. I think most people just believe I have some strange skin disease that only allows my head to tan.
Actually I got this chick at the bar the other night to fall for that and almost got her to pity fuck me. I went up to this woman to hit on her and after a few words I could tell she was over it. She was doing the usual looking around the club, checking the phone, I am over talking to you sort of thing. I was about to leave when her friend comes up to me and like a total bitch says “yuck why are you only tan from the neck up?”. “To tell you the truth I suffer from a skin degenerating disease called pigmititus and can now only tan on my hands and from the neck up. Its similar to the skin disease Micheal Jackson suffered from. I must say I am a little self conscientious about it and now you have embarrassed me and I must leave”. I turned to walk away and she grabbed me and was all apologetic bought me a shot of Patron and then chilled with me the rest of the night. It was classic. Now I know how that dude in the wheel chair pulls all those chicks. Stupid California girls, got to love them.
In a world where commercialism has taken over every facet of life (phssst if your a hipster, if the majority of the population has embraced your style then you are not too hip anymore) it is sad that surfing has been taken down with it. On the up side with anti commercial warriors out there like Dane Reynolds and Bobby Martinez maybe more will follow and we can take back the soul of surfing. In the meantime Taylor Steele made a film recently where he picked one random day and filmed surfing all over the world on that day. No special title needed. Here is what International Surfing Day is really about:
Surfing Ruined My Life 