Leisure, surfing. --- .This section is about surfing. Topics include: --- 1/24/2006
Leisure, surfing. --- (1) Bathing symbolism. Cleansed. Renewed. Refreshed. (2) Redemptive symbolism. Going down. Coming up. (3) Wave as risk, danger and action. Between waves is calm, peace, inaction, safety. Surfing alternates risk and safety. --- 5/16/2004
Leisure, surfing. --- (1) Surfers are utopian anarchists. (2) Surfing is a hedonistic nature ritual. --- 09/20/1994
Leisure, surfing. --- Beach: Sky, ocean, sand. Warm colors, tan and dark blue and light blue. Horizontals, minimalist. Flesh, young, healthy. Warm, relaxed. --- 12/30/1992
Leisure, surfing. --- Beach. (1) At the beach everyone is half-naked. This has two effects. (A) We are all exposed, laid bare, physically and psychologically. (B) We are all equal, without the markings of social status (clothes, jewelry). (2) The rhythmic sound of the ocean waves induces a hypnotic trance that relaxes us like a massage. (3) There is a visual minimalism of sand, ocean and sky that has the effect of a Rothko painting. (4) Its a primal, primitive state. Civilization is dropped. Like "Lord of the Flies" or "Robinson Crusoe". (5) The beach is a "vacation zone" or "leisure zone" where everyone agrees to relax and have fun. No work allowed. Society sets up "zones" where certain behavior is expected. (6) Salt air contains negative ions which improve mood? (7)(A) The act of bathing is a symbolic cleansing, renewing ritual. (B) The act of diving in the ocean and swimming is often used as a metaphor for carnal knowledge. (8) There is a whiff of physicality, sensuality and sexuality at the beach. (9) Rest, relax, recuperate. De-stress, calm, recharge. Get healthy. Find center, balance, harmony. (10) The beach is a childlike place. Innocent and playful. --- 8/20/2000
Leisure, surfing. --- Good surf is big, long, fast, tubing, glass. --- 09/08/1993
Leisure, surfing. --- How has surfing affected modern american society? Language: surf slang. Dress: surf threads. Attitude: mellow, california lifestyle. Why has the influence of surfing been greater than climbing? --- 01/01/1993
Leisure, surfing. --- How surfers describe waves and the sea. (1) Size: large preferred over small. (2) Shape: closing out is bad, peaky is ok, lined up is good. (3) Smoothness: glass is good, rough is bad, windblown chop is worst. (4) Speed: fast is better than slow. Power means big and fast. (5) Direction: compass direction coming in from. (6) Break direction: breaking left, right, or both ways, or closing out. (7) Break style: tumbling forward vs. tubing. (8) Steepness: steep and droppy vs. shallow. 9. Color: green, blue, gray, black, brown, etc. (10) Wind: speed and direction. (11) Water cleanliness: clean or dirty. (12) Number of waves in set and time between sets. (13) Other: crowded vs. uncrowded, sunny vs. cloudy days, warm vs. cold air and water temperature. A good day is big, fast, glassy, lined up, warm, pumping, fun and rare, usually in Hawaii. --- 12/30/1995
Leisure, surfing. --- Philosophy of surfing. (1) Outdoors, in nature, in wilderness of ocean, not on a ball field. (2) Non-competitive for the most part. (3) Solo, not a team sport. (4) Non-professional and non-commercial for the most part. (5) They tried to make surfing a big business. They try to sell surfing and beach culture to the masses. That is not surfing; that is marketing. Surfing is still about paddling out. --- 1/9/2004
Leisure, surfing. --- Somewhere a guy with perfect mind and body rides a perfect wave perfectly on a perfect board with a perfect babe waiting on a perfect beach. (Or makes a perfect ascent of a perfect climb.). --- 05/27/1993
Leisure, surfing. --- Surf gives you sunrises and sunsets. Surfing gives you landscapes, waterscapes, and airscapes (all very important). It is simple (need only board and waves). Summer sport. Strenuous and skill requiring. Outdoors. Alone. Natural and wilderness. Active. Dangerous. Bad part is you have to wait for waves. It is not instant gratification. --- 09/08/1993
Leisure, surfing. --- Surfboard design. (1) The ideal prototypical surfboard. Perfectly symmetrical ellipse from nose to tail. Perfectly symmetrical rocker from nose to tail. (2) In reality a squash tail is preferred. And the rocker should be moved forward? --- 6/30/1998
Leisure, surfing. --- Surfers are prone to Buddhism. (1) Each wave is unique. (2) Waves are short lived, transient and ephemeral. (3) Cyclical. Another wave is coming. Waves repeat. (4) Thus, a wave is like a human life. (5) Water. In between the concrete and the ethereal. Water is amorphous. Water flows. Water is changing. --- 10/30/1998
Leisure, surfing. --- Surfing is a solo, dangerous, non-competitive, nature activity. (1) Arguments for surfing. Surfers are in tune with nature. Surfers care about the environment. Even though their plastic surfboards and wetsuits are environmental disasters. Environmentally friendly, pure surfing is body surfing. (2) Contra surfing. Surfing is mindless fun. --- 4/28/1998
Leisure, surfing. --- Surfing is about more than riding waves. The taste of saltwater and seaweed. The feeling of warm sand between the toes. The sight of sunrise or sunset over the ocean. The feeling of the rocking ocean swells. The sight of girls in bikinis. The physical exertion of paddling. Surfing is about all these things. Surfing is not just about standing on a board that is planing over water. --- 10/30/2005
Leisure, surfing. --- Surfing. Aesthetics of waves, boards, and babes on beach. Beautiful. --- 09/08/1993
Leisure, surfing. --- Surfing. When you get tubed in surfing, you are essentially shutting out the world completely, withdrawing totally into a watery tubular womb, or tomb. --- 01/07/1997
Leisure, surfing. --- The beach as (1) An environment. (2) The act. (3) The psychology. (4) The sociology: locals, pump house gang, surfer girls. (5) The philosophy. (6) The fashion. (7) The music. (8) The religion: paganism!. --- 12/30/1992