It is easier to be stupid and naturally brave than to be exceedingly intelligent and still completely brave.

Pipe

It is easier to be stupid and naturally brave than to be exceedingly intelligent and still completely brave.

The surfer’s ideal, what he hopes will always roll in over the horizon and particularly into a waiting period, is a wave that will be from shoulder high to twice overhead and will peel either left or right with mechanical consistency; a wave which appears in sets of three or five and one in which the time between sets is not exaggeratedly short or long. He hopes for this wave always, but such a wave will come, perhaps, once every thirty heats. The surfers call them “fucken firing” conditions “brah” and those who have never learned to dominate difficult waves, windblown trash, closeouts, gutless knee-high beachbreak simply defend themselves against the regular run of less than stellar conditions and wait for an all-time day to attempt any brilliant work. These surfers, often from Hawaii, are the ones who have never learned to surf all waves, who have skipped the bottom rungs of California, Florida or Sydney slop by being promoted to “the next big thing” by some great day at the Pipeline with waves that suited them. They have art, personalities, but no métier and, since courage in small and gutless surf comes with confidence, they are often frightened simply because they don’t know their trade properly. They are not naturally cowardly of horrible conditions, but are made cowardly by having to face horrible conditions without the knowledge, experience or training to handle them, and since one out of every sixty waves is ideal, most times you see them their work will be dull, defensive, ignorant and unsatisfactory. If you see them with the wave that they want you will think that they are wonderful, exquisite, brave, artistic and sometimes almost unbelievable in quietness and closeness in which they work under the lip. But if you see them day in and day out unable to give a competent performance with any wave that offers any difficulties whatsoever you will wish for the old days of competently trained surfers and to hell with Hawaiian phenomenons and artists. Yesterday at Winkipop the waves were clean and very small. Not necessarily wretched but also certainly not ideal. In fact, far from ideal and especially for a Hawaiian accustomed to the power and daily perfection of the islands. Roy Powers is not known for a small wave attack and he surfed against a man known for awe inspiring performances in onshore closeout ripples; a man who has been made famous in trash. It is these sorts of heats which are the easiest to tune out.

But yesterday Roy Powers defeated Dane Reynolds by catching a better wave and surfing it better than Dane Reynolds. Dane popped a substantial air, moving quite far down the wave and he also snapped off a few fins free turns. Roy, however, caught a bigger wave at the end of the heat, where the judges like to see them caught, and rode it well, floating over a large section and re-entering in free fall fashion. Roy’s style in the smaller surf is unfinished, each pump slightly too quick and rigid. But he surfed well enough and smiled at the end of the heat; his eyes, very blue, smiled as well.

Roy Powers proved that Hawaiian surfers can, indeed, be more than competent in some of the worst conditions; that they do not need the scarily good and great waves of the islands in order to shine. To hell with Hawaiian phenomenons no more and maybe to hell with Californian phenomenons.

Dane, as is his way, was gracious after his defeat. He congratulated Roy for his win and wave selection.

I left Winkipop after the heat and drove back to Melbourne for a late afternoon lunch. I could not watch any more poor condition surfing because I do not believe in costume but I do believe in blacks and in grays, in dust and in light, in high buildings rising on the river Yarra and in the suburbs around Melbourne, in movement, in my own balls, in writing, and in what I have seen, felt, touched, handled, smelled, enjoyed, drunk, mounted, suffered, spewed-up, lain-with, suspected, observed, loved, hated, lusted, feared, detested, admired, loathed and destroyed. - Charlie Smith

Stab Magazine

It is easier to be stupid and naturally brave than to be exceedingly intelligent and still completely brave.

It is easier to be stupid and naturally brave than to be exceedingly intelligent and still completely brave.

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