Correct usage of term 'Surf(ing)' - General Tiki

B BC-Da-Da Member Joined: Aug 14, 2002 Posts: 161	B BC-Da-Da Posted posted on Wed, Aug 28, 2002 12:31 AM If you use Sex Wax, then you are a square anyway, so who cares. On a Pop level, Surf went corporate sometime in the '60s. While the iconography still looked good through 1967, it went downhill really fast after that. That Surfers felt/feel they own waves or territory has nothing to do with their level of ego or greed, but is more a spiritual attachment to something that they devoted themselves to wholly, only to see it uprooted by half-spirited trendy Hodads, who only appealed themselves to the waves as a means of being au courant in the early '60s. Plus, the invectivness of guys like Miki Dora towards the onslaught of newcomers only ads to the fiendish dichotomy of the Surfer image: the waves both are dangerous and mystical at the same time, while the Surfer is also both devout and seditious. Check it out. When it came time for Surf to be translated into Pop iconography, many instrumentals were given titles of Surf spots or surfing positions, BUT, they were also given names of vampires and other eccentric creatures. The same Pop Surf culture embraced Hot Rod lifestyle by 1964, and Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth's Rat Fink shirts were very popular and seen as part of the same carefree teenage lifestyle... they were a part of the L.A. vernacular. These Pop examples weren't nccesarily representative of what true Surfers were like, but that is what the inexperienced believed about them and it is part of the mystique. The truth probably lies somewhere in-between. Imagine that you had been surfing the same places for fifteen years, with less than a hundred people in the whole state doing the same. Then imagine being in your late thirties or early forties and having hundreds and thousands of young teens riding those same waves, but with little experience and even less devotion. I think the post-Gidget environment for true Surfers had to seem little confusing. At the same time, they ended up looking like heroes and exploitation their image to make loads of cash, so there is no need to over-romanticize them... only to say that I can understand their initial frustration. Sorry to go so far off of Tiki topic.

If you use Sex Wax, then you are a square anyway, so who cares. On a Pop level, Surf went corporate sometime in the '60s. While the iconography still looked good through 1967, it went downhill really fast after that.

That Surfers felt/feel they own waves or territory has nothing to do with their level of ego or greed, but is more a spiritual attachment to something that they devoted themselves to wholly, only to see it uprooted by half-spirited trendy Hodads, who only appealed themselves to the waves as a means of being au courant in the early '60s.

Plus, the invectivness of guys like Miki Dora towards the onslaught of newcomers only ads to the fiendish dichotomy of the Surfer image: the waves both are dangerous and mystical at the same time, while the Surfer is also both devout and seditious.

Check it out. When it came time for Surf to be translated into Pop iconography, many instrumentals were given titles of Surf spots or surfing positions, BUT, they were also given names of vampires and other eccentric creatures. The same Pop Surf culture embraced Hot Rod lifestyle by 1964, and Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth's Rat Fink shirts were very popular and seen as part of the same carefree teenage lifestyle... they were a part of the L.A. vernacular.

These Pop examples weren't nccesarily representative of what true Surfers were like, but that is what the inexperienced believed about them and it is part of the mystique. The truth probably lies somewhere in-between.

Imagine that you had been surfing the same places for fifteen years, with less than a hundred people in the whole state doing the same. Then imagine being in your late thirties or early forties and having hundreds and thousands of young teens riding those same waves, but with little experience and even less devotion. I think the post-Gidget environment for true Surfers had to seem little confusing. At the same time, they ended up looking like heroes and exploitation their image to make loads of cash, so there is no need to over-romanticize them... only to say that I can understand their initial frustration.

Sorry to go so far off of Tiki topic.

Post #6974 by BC-Da-Da on Wed, Aug 28, 2002 12:31 AM