Article
The Wall
Will surfers ever grow up?
We try to fool loved ones into thinking surfers are responsible adults. Really, we are children facing a wall. Photo: Ellis
This article is from our 2012 Big Issue. Click here to see what else is inside or here to purchase a copy.
1: KID TREASURES
The severity of my problem didn’t dawn on me until my brother took a cold, hard look at my garage. With our first baby on the way, my wife had asked me to organize the man cave, to make room for strollers and car seats. She knew better than to ask me to get rid of any surfboards—41 at last count, not including those stashed in Chile, Indo, SoCal, and up north. My wife asked me instead to sort through the wall of boxes that had recently been displaced from my childhood home. I’d been putting it off for months, despite the enticing labels scribbled on boxes in Sharpie—“Surf Journals, High School,” and “Kid Treasures.” I knew of Pandora. I knew from years of practice that ignorance can be bliss.
Then one winter day, I cracked a beer and lifted a lid, and found myself sucked in by the talismans and artifacts of my formative surfing years: webbed gloves, warranty tags from my first Victory wetsuit, stacks of journals detailing each session, wave-by-wave, from 1990 onward. Instead of purging and moving on, I began to nest. I organized my ’80s back issues of SURFER on a shelf. I plugged in my boombox and sorted and stacked cassette tapes. When I unearthed the pile of surf posters that once decorated my walls, I began putting them up behind the board rack, along with my Hendrix posters and old sunburnt photos. I felt not just a twinge of nostalgia—I felt content, at home in a way I hadn’t in a long time.
Then my brother came over, took one look, and asked me why the fuck I had re-created my childhood bedroom in the garage.
It seemed like a valid question—one my wife was too kind to ask me. There I was 35 years old, and still so obsessed with surfing that I feared my daughter’s birth would coincide with an epic swell. Beneath the nuclear family façade I felt very much a child, who was about to have a child himself. Hell, I was hiding out in my re-created childhood room, reading faded surf mags while my wife read baby books upstairs. Honest truth: I’d managed to grow older without ever growing up…and I suspected it was my devotion to surfing that infantilized me.
2: CHILDISH ACTS
Once, when our passion was young, surfing was considered a childish act—a thing of whimsy, like catching fireflies or playing Go Fish. Then surfers just kept on surfing as they grew into middle age. But this merely represented an extended adolescence, no more admirable than a gamer living with mom at 30. When I began the journey, being a surfer was synonymous with being a burnout. As the globe became dotted with ostensibly responsible adult surfers who balanced family, career, and water-time, surfing’s reputation changed. The Sport of Kings became known and generally well-regarded as an actual adult activity, like playing golf or doing yoga.
But where grownups saw upstanding citizen-surfers, I saw weekend warriors. I dismissed these surfer-adults (an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one) as kooks, or good surfers who were slowly becoming kooks due to how little they got to surf. The rest of us, who happen to have “lives” but are still mad about surfing, are merely trying to fool loved ones into thinking we are responsible adults. Really, we are children facing a wall. We are standing at the base of it, dripping wet, sand in our hair, salt drying on our skin. We are unkempt and dry-eyed, happy and peaceful, looking up in awe at that big obstacle we’ve yet to climb over, wondering about the mysterious land called “adulthood” that lies unseen on the other side.
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Comments
May 20, 2013 8:25 pm
great read, thanks. I’m in the new dad status too.
ps: I don’t know about you guys, but i think about surfing every single day. When I buy a new board, i start thinking about the next one.
Surfing is rad, i’m not giving it up, unless I have to.
February 7, 2013 10:02 pm
Great article.
Do we run to the ocean to ride the waves, or do we use our passion for waves to run from the wall and all that entails?
December 7, 2012 1:13 am
At age 60, I have many waves behind me and many before….and i believe every well ridden, or just well, ridden and enjoyed… generates mana to the world.
December 6, 2012 2:54 pm
I have been in and around the ocean for 30 years. As I got older my jobs, relationships and life revolved around my time in the water. Well at 32 years old I broke my neck in a car accident. I am fortunate enough to be able to walk but now have spinal fussion from C3-T1 which does not allow me to look up. I tried to surf again but as you can imagine it is pretty darn impossible to paddle and see what is infront (or to the side) of me. I am so very grateful for the all the sessions I did get over the years. Surfing helped me spirtitually, physically, and socially. Some days are tough (offshore winds & swell) but being in a chair or dead is much worse. To all that read this, ENJOY EVERY SESSION YOU GET because you never know.
December 6, 2012 11:40 am
The sentiment that “surfing is a selfish, useless act, on par with masturbation,” is invariably true. However, drawing a comparison as simple minded as this fails to showcase the differences between either activity and television, exercising, or reading. None of these things lend to a more successful individual any more than surfing does. To real surfers, the amusement of surfing, exploring and socializing is leagues beyond that of which television can supply, yet a vast majority of our world’s civilization is constantly adrift in a zombie like state of wasted vitality while plopped in front of the tube getting fat. And is there really any more monotonous of an activity than running without going anywhere, on a treadmill for example? Or lifting large weights in order to appear more robust to the fairer sex? Yet people that exercise are regarded with admiration among society. And as for reading, aside from increasing our vocabularies and exposing us to different ideas, we are undoubtedly ignoring every adult-like responsibility while indulging in it. I’d simply rather be getting pitted.
Personally I find the theme of this article to be pretty far from the truth. I’m not going to get into reasons that surfing is in fact an extraordinary way to spend our time or the importance of cultivating youthful traits. Instead I’ll conclude by echoing, the time is now – let us all step away from this wasteful activity. And once all the line-ups are empty, those of us that were able to stand strong against societies judgment and that of any newly converted responsible adults, will be left ripping your favorite break without a single convoluted soul blocking our line :p
December 6, 2012 4:52 am
Great article. Some of the reply’s very inspirational.
December 5, 2012 3:05 pm
I’m 40 and been surfing since 15. You can have a full time job and still surf, just have to make time for it. I’ve been prudent with my money and am taking some serious time off next year to travel and surf.
The whole thing is to not get too caught up in keeping up with the Joneses, and have an understanding wife. And in those moments when you don’t feel like it, push yourself to go surf anyway, you’re always the better for it.
December 5, 2012 11:44 am
To the mouth that roared–it’s Sloat Blvd. not Sloat St. I guess the new way for all transplants is to change the names of places and things. Doesn’t matter if it was named over 100 yrs. ago. OB hmmmm?
December 5, 2012 8:48 am
As if I’m not proud enough, this article (along with every word I’ve ever read by Mr. Samuels) makes me really fucking proud to be a surfer.Forever.
December 5, 2012 7:24 am
really enjoyed this article…. I need to get in the water!
December 5, 2012 6:16 am
Wonderful writing. 51 years old, newly (and first) arrived daughter –Vera– right yesterday, and my closet full of wetsuits. You were fast, Lewis, just 38…
December 4, 2012 4:05 pm
As I type this I can hear the swell off the left point break outside my window in Morocco (yes left point in Moroc). I am 48 with a metal hip. This was a good read mirroring some thoughts I have had recently, well maybe have had for ever. It’s all a balance: be it music, surf, family, life. Live for today but plan for tomorrow. Easier said than done, as most deserving things are. I will work here another year and a half before I return my house blocks from reefs I have surfed most of my life. My work, and my wonderous family, have all allowed me to keep surfing around the world. Surfing keeps me in better shape than any other activity. Keeps me calm. Keeps me happy, and this then allows me to give that much more back to my family and the world. Coverting the energy ot the sea to good deeds…So, maybe not too worthless: a gift that keeps giving. Though I still cringe like I lost winning lottery ticket every day I miss it (usually due to work: the paraodox!). Yea, ok, peace, go find some empty waves …or better, near-empty ones with smiles all around.
December 4, 2012 9:21 am
Rad.
December 3, 2012 10:53 pm
Nice intelligent piece…50+ yrs of surf…my only regret is missed days of being in the water. Go fer it!
December 3, 2012 10:38 pm
Unreal, loved it! The problem is I just keep banging my head against the wall can’t seem to get over it.
December 3, 2012 9:28 pm
Mr. Samuels:
Beautifully written, and highly introspective– especially for the oft-flaky genre of surf literature.
Might someone point me in the direction of more of his writings? Cheers
December 3, 2012 5:40 pm
After surfing for better than 3 decades, I’ve heard all the arguments from non-surfing friends and family; grow up, support your family better, buy a house, go back to school. Well, I did go back to school, graduated college, got a better job, and bought a house. I now have 3 sons that I take out surfing and it’s given me a credible excuse to silence the surfing haters.
When the kids are grown, I’ll take the grandkids out. As far as I’m concerned, those who keep telling me to “grow up” are just boring and jealous. I always laugh about the fact that chasing a ball around a golf course is “adult”, yet charging double overhead is “childish”.
My advice would be to surf until you’re unable to surf anymore, and in the meantime, make it a family event and introduce a new generation of shredders into the club. Cheers.
December 3, 2012 5:10 pm
ugh… we’re useless. great article.
December 3, 2012 5:00 pm
Great article I am 51 been surfing the north atlantic for 40 years and dont plan on stopping, I have a 21 year old daughter and a beautiful wife of 22 years surfing is a priority, better than drinking drugging or golfing keep the stoke goin Lewis your dead a long time,
December 3, 2012 3:19 pm
I don’t agree that to be a “true surfer” you have to reject financial success. I know plenty of surfers that rip and made it rich through their own hard work and success.
Lewis, maybe you can do it one day.
December 3, 2012 10:58 am
Just fantastic. Samuels blows the other surf scribes away.
December 3, 2012 9:08 am
Another great article Mr Samuels, This kinda reminds me of the classic “playing Doc’s games” when the author is questioning the commitment he makes to surfing. I haven’t started questioning it yet, but at 30 years of age I can see that over the next ten to fifteen years my priorities may change. For now though, surfing is (family and health aside) priority number 1!
December 3, 2012 5:53 am
At age 60, unable to go in the water, I’m sure glad I spent 35 years surfing when I could, between jobs, family, and school, and I don’t regret a minute of it. You only live once.