Jeeze, BA, please spare us - is this gonna be another one of your tired old rants - don't you ever shut-up about being a "local?"
BA sez: Localism - yeah it's here, it's back, and I guess you kooks better get used to it!
You're gonna have to live with it, I enjoy it!
I won't bore you anymore with crap about who I am, or where I learned to surf -
I even bore myself with it -
BUT, regressing some (actually a lot):
In the forties and early fifties, surfers up and down the California coast used to welcome visitors from other surfing spots.
Even the WindanSea locals would tolerate, and even party with visitors from other beaches (or so I've heard).
Please note, I said visitors from other beaches, or at least those who seemed as if they were coastal, locals and they RESPECTED others' beaches, and the local surf rules.
BUT - regressing to my era:
Way back in the early sixties, when Hollywood made "Beach Blanket Bingo" and "Ride the Wild Surf" we thought it was pretty funny, and the girls looked okay.
Then, The Beach Boys and bla, bla - it got crowded at the beach.
Localism became a pretty hip thing to practice.
NOW - to the current surf era:
If you won't listen to me - a harmless old guy - maybe you better listen to a young girl who writes a column
- Off The Lip -
in a local paper.
I've never met her, but she's my new idol!
Here's some stuff she's written:
Excerpted from "The Coast News" June 5, 2003.
By Lacy Ottenson
ottenson@thecoastnews.com
Locals: MTV will kill surfing
Lacy's opening salvo:
She quotes an 18 year old male surfer from Carlsbad:
"I hate all this bulls-t. They try to make it look like we all get along, but we don't."
"We're going to end up with a bunch of 10-year-old girls running around the beach annoying the crap out of everyone."
Lacy gains some momentum with her appraisal of MTV's Web site and Surfer's Lingo Dictionary:
"OK, MTV, you forgot one (definition). How about 'kook'?"
"Definition: anyone who visits your Web site to find out how to act like a surfer."
BA sez: Yeah baby - you go grrrrrl!!
Lacy continues:
"This is just a small example of how ridiculous the main stream media is making legitimate surfers look like."
Lacy then launches another bunker busting blast at MTV.
"But it's not just the guys who think the new wave of surf exposure is lame"
Lacy quotes a 20 year old Carlsbad female surfer:
"I think it's good that girls are finally getting the respect and exposure they deserve, unless it shows us as dingy, cute, little surfer chicks that are into it for the fashion and boys..."
"Once commercialism of the sport takes over in the girls' side of things, we're going to look as cheap as Barbie dolls."
Lacy wraps up her column with a blast that should scare all of you kooks (notice I said kooks, not beginners) out there - where ever "there" is:
"It's sad that no matter how loud these surfers shout, it will only fall on deaf ears."
" It's not right. "
"Surfers have no say as to who can surf their beach and why."
" Hopefully, as summer approaches, and as the water fills with eager people, the real surfers will find a place to call their own."
" Thats all that they ask for."
It ain't over yet guys, Lacy keeps bombing 'em with facts:
"It's not a territorial thing, it's a matter of limited space."
"Sure the ocean is as vast as we can comprehend, but the good breaks are not."
With the invention of surf cams and stupid TV show aimed at the general public, our secret breaks are becoming overridden with people who don't know how to surf..."
"... If you don't know how to surf, go surf a flat break."
Lacy, my new heroine, stays on target with a laser blast:
"If you're surfing because it looks cool on TV or you want of taste of the lifestyle, fly to Hawaii, or wear a Hawaiian print T-shirt and fisherman's hat, so we can tell who you are."
"North County surfers are sick and weary with locals whose fuses are running short for the inexperienced."
Now, Lacy drops the Neutron Bomb:
"And I don't blame them."
All they have are their boards and their heart, which is one more thing they have over the crowds of teenage surf wannabes."
Lacy - you done good!!
Thank you!
Later,
BA