Few things are more at risk from the modern world as the humble secret spot. As surfing continues to explode in popularity, and thousands more mainstream types enter the fold, certain nuances within the culture are often lost. Today we consider the secret spot; a nebulous concept whereby certain individuals presume ownership or an attachment over a secret wave and expect all those who find it from thereon to be just as careful. Often they are not and soon you your spot is filled with 50 flapping kooks ditching boards in front of you and pushing down tubes on you. Here’s how to keep your spot off the grid.
1. Fuck social media
Nothing excites a kook more than stoking the envy of his fellow kooks by posting photos of the waves he didn’t catch on his Instagram or Facebook. Had he actually pumped through a couple of chambers he/she’d realise that no amount of insta-fame would be worth jeopardising that experience for. But he didn’t and so the next best thing to actually getting barrelled is lying about and showing photos of the waves you didn’t catch. FB and Instagram are the bane of salt-of-the-earth surfers everywhere. The very idea of social media runs in direct contravention of the spiritual and humility based tenants of surf culture. There is just no reason to bring secret spots into this world. Show a shot or two to your friends who already know the spot, sure, but exposing it publicly to a 1000 people or using it to boost your insta-followers? Get fucked c^^t.
2. Choose your sidekick wisely
Knowledge of secret spots is earned via a long, painstaking process of driving backroads, getting lost, getting skunked, earning trust and piecing together bits of information from a various sources. This drawn out process helps keep the spot secret as well as breeding a certain protectiveness of it amongst those who know about it. That protectiveness doesn’t necessarily extend to someone who didn’t go through that process, however. i.e the person you’ve just brought along with you to split petrol costs with. Easy come, easy go, might be their attitude unless you make sure full well they’re aware of the privilege and sanctity of the experience.
3. Learn the art of gentle confrontation
You see someone you don’t know, or who looks like they don’t belong, and they’re snapping a million photos of your spot, it might be worth gently asking what they’re doing and where those shots are likely to end up. It’s also worth letting them know that you and everyone else who surfs the spot would appreciate it if they didn’t end up on social media or getting circulated around some office email chain. This especially relates to pro surfers. If they’re filming or shooting your spot, tell them no names, no regions and it’d be great if they’d crop all the landmarks out. Their career and publicity is not to come at the expense of your secret spot.
4. Internalise your joy
It’s hard when you’ve had the best day ever getting pitted with no one around to resist the urge to yell it from the top of the tallest buildings. But simple logic says that if you do that you’re seriously jeopardising the chances of it ever happening again. Internalise that joy, replay the visions of tubular joy over and over in your mind, let the passion for surfing and life in general flow into other parts of your existence. Just don’t tell no one.
