Against the backdrop of COVID-19, we turn our attention to some of the trends that have emerged in our collective surfing cosmos and impacted our favourite pastime.
Tribal Localism
Surfers have always been synonymous with protecting their spots. As Ben Mondy summed up when COVID was kicking off: “Each beach does it differently; the local codes can be violent, based on superior surfing skill or combine a myriad of more subtle means that keep non-locals uncomfortable in the line-up.” With social distancing laws put in place due to COVID-19, the locals-only approach has never had it so good. Localism has gone mainstream and been revived under COVID-cover.
Raging at the WSL
With no Tour in 2020, it has become a sport in upon itself to ram the boot into the WSL and all their cronies. From E-Lo at the tip of the spear to the production team shooting random replays out of the cannon each week or the latest product review from Koa Smith and his big white teeth. I’m just glad we’ve still found something about pro surfing we’re able to rage about in lieu of any actual professional surfing.
Mid lengths
Even The Ed who rarely deviates from his trusty 5’9" round tails has been caught up in the mid-length madness. Though, anything that brings relief from surfing Bondi on a daily basis can’t be bad for you. The mid-length is king and everyone is riding them. Your neighbour, the learner, the former shredder, and the jaded old guy on the point who now can’t believe everyone has caught on to what he’s been riding for years. Get on one. It’ll blow your hair back.
Interstate License Plates
Faaark orrfff caaaaaarnt. Have you felt your blood pressure rise higher this year than seeing an interstate number plate pull up to your local? Fuck me. In COVID? Are they keeeding me? When everyone was in full freak out mode earlier this year one famous Australian pointbreak had reports of faeces (unconfirmed human) getting smeared under car door hand handles if you weren’t from the home state. Nasty.
Punching Sharks
Bring back the biff! The best advice in 2020 when it comes to handling the ocean’s apex predator is apparently throwing haymakers. After the fourth hit from a great white in four months, Surf Life Saving NSW might have to adjust their contradictory “shark smart” tips to just avoiding surfs at dusk and dawn. Full power to Port Macquarie man, Mark Rapley, who launched off his board and threw a flurry of punches at the white that had his wife in its jaws and ultimately saved her life last weekend. What in the actual fuck?!?
Shapers Not Complaining
When was the last time you heard a shaper complain about the price of a surfboard not going up relative to inflation in 2020? Me neither. It’s been a gold rush for surfboard manufacturers since COVID-19 hit and Scotty from Marketing started handing out $750 a week for a new stick. Forget the bog roll and groceries, quivers have never looked so full. And shapers have never been happier or more essential.
Surfer-Environmental Activism
Re-wind to the start of the year and the country was on fire and about to be invaded by a bunch or Oil-swigging Norwegians called Equinor who wanted to drill the Great Australian Bight. But surfers stood up for the coast and won. Led by former Tracks Ed, Sean Doherty, Patagonia and backed by thousands of people young and old turn out to protest. Equinor and the Bight movement might have sparked a fire among surfers to realise what’s around them what they’ve got to do if they want to save it. Since then Seano has been appointed the new Chair of Surfrider Foundation and is leading the charge to tune more surfers into PEP 11 – a potential offshore gas field between Newcastle and Sydney. Other surfers have joined the ranks of environmental activism, like Ace Buchan and Tasmanian Senator Peter Whish-Wilson. Both are trying to protect the Tarkine, a region of Tasmia known for its incredible rainforests that is currently under threat from logging. Maybe surfers do actually care about the environment.
