Where is the Stoke?

Who are these people? and why are they here? I overheard this statement from a long time Newport local at Blackies on a crisp Sunday morning in November. Blackies was firing, it was crowded, and there were a heck of a lot of "new" surfers in the water, riding softtop, pop outs, old logs, and everything in between. I don't personally talk to the guy, but I've seen him in the water over the last eight years I've surfed Blackies as an adult, and he has dropped in on me just a handful of times. Sure the spot was crowded, as most any spot in Orange County, California is, but his statement in my mind is what is wrong with surfing today. Where is the stoke? or better yet, why is it so hard for California surfers to share the stoke? As surfers, we are often still misunderstood, even though more and more Coastal Americans are picking up and joining the throngs that have existed in lineups since I started surfing in 1978. We have experienced quite a bit, from the neon days of the 1980s and the movie North Shore, which at the time most surfers I knew and even surf magazines thought was the kookiest, lamest surf film of all time, but has actually stood the test of time, teaching new generations exactly why people should surf in the first place; to Kelly's domination of that aspect of surfing that drives the "surf industry," to Joel Tudor and the throwback days of riding old school boards.

So, who are these people? Everybody was a kook once in their life. Some still are. "These" people are those who are newly minted surfers, barneys if you will, who enjoy surfing for the stoke of it. They are a fact of life in virtually every local lineup, all over the world. They are pursuing that part of surfing of which that longtime Newport local, and by extension many other competent surfers who are in it, but don't want to share, have lost; The stoke.

So where did the stoke go? Surfers are getting stoked in all corners of the globe where the sport and lifestyle was previously enjoyed by just a select few, mostly expats. For example, in the Philippine Islands, the surfing subculture, a mere 20 or so years old, is thriving. For these Filipino surfers it is all about the stoke. While they certainly enjoy surfing as much as us here in the United States, they have not yet succumbed, (at least I don't think that they have) to adhering to that early 80s punk song My Wave by the Surf Punks. Most surfers in the Philippines don't maintain a huge quiver of surfboards, they are just stoked to be out in the water surfing on the board that they have under their feet. They don't have 10 different sizes of the same thruster by Channel Islands, they don't have 10 different sizes of the same hull by Greg Liddle, and they don't have 10 different sizes of the same longboard by Donald Takayama.

Most have a single surfboard and most surf not for the fashion of the trendiest name brand board, but rather for the enjoyment of the sport. Popouts are hugely popular in the Philippines. Ride a popout at Blackies and you'll get stinkeye from many of the locals of that surfspot. "Popouts have no soul" or "They chatter when it’s choppy" are the common arguments as to why these boards are so maligned, but they do work, and isn't it the surfer who has the soul and not the equipment that they ride? Of course it is. As with the construction of a surfboard, be it completely by hand, machined and then the ripples smoothed out, or a popout, a surfboard is but a tool for which a surfer expresses him or herself. Many surfers will never know that many so called shapers out there can't craft a board from a block of foam, rather, they rely on the curves of a "pre-shaped" blank, and build the board off of that outline. There is really nothing wrong with that, as the process is made easier, but don't call yourself a shaper if all you are doing is turning rails and sanding a few ruffles off a CNC'd blank. But alas, there are shapers out who are fooling the buying public with their shaping "skills" when in fact they lack in them.

How do I know this as fact? It goes back to 1981, when I was riding my cruiser home from Kmart one day when I was a freshman in high school. I happened upon an open garage door and heard the sweet sounds of a planer. I ventured in to that shaping shack, and met Jaime, the man who would shape my boards until I graduated high school. Jaime grew up with Greg Liddle and now runs the CNC machine at a local factory here in Orange County. And he has seen all manner of shaper come through the factory, and I have heard stories about this shaper and that, how some can actually shape a board from a block of foam, such as Tanner Prairie, and how others (no names will be mentioned but you know who you are) can't even smooth the ruffles off a board that came off the CNC machine.

Sorry for getting off on a tangent. Where is the stoke? Oh yeah, the stoke. Well, the stoke is wherever you want it to be, be it at your local lineup with a few friends (like when myself and my new friend Bryan caught the Point all by our lonesome, riding LOGS no less, or with the brothers Takayama, Trace, and myself catching epic OceanSlide with nary a soul in the water, or at Creek, watching my friend Kevin get shacked), it is where you want it. It is not with that surfwear company that has a slogan "Created to Destroy," or another that milks the heck out of a world champ, refuses to acknowledge the guy had a drug problem, and then when he dies, says he died of Dengue without even knowing the facts, or that other surf "lifestyle" manufacturer that hijacks a Hawaiian name, slaps a fishhook logo on sandals made in China, and then sells them to a gullible public to the tune of $120 at your local Sport Chalet, where is the stoke in that? That's right, there is none. If you are going to claim Hawaii, employ people in Hawaii and make some sandals in Hawaii. Why outsource to China. While people are free to spend their hard earned money on whatever they want, be wary of this company or that company, or the flavored shaper of the month. They are not all as they seem. They may claim to have the stoke, but in reality, you can't sell stoke.