Here is the question. Why should a middle aged guy, ie over 40, surf? In particular, why should he go back to surfing after a 25 year hiatus?? What is the attraction?
No, the real question is "why did they quit in the first place?" I can understand how somebody can get into surfing and live that life and one day wake up and discover - whoa, dude.....I'm over forty. you know, the days just blend together....seasons become years......and you're still doing what you've always done, only bolder and better than ever....still just as stoked and still waiting for that perfect day.
Even if you find yourself a kazillion miles from the beach at some point in your life, if you're a surfer know you're going to get back to the break at any cost because you have no choice. ultimately, nothing is more important, matters as much, or could ever keep you from it. you'd die getting there just like you'd die doing it if it came to that.... just like that moth flies into the campfire......it's instinct - it's impluse - it's uncontrollable, and it's life itself.
Not that you don't have a life or an alias that gets you through your slack time on earth. You might even wind up doing something as horrible and meaningless as selling auto parts just to get through, but like the blues brothers, you're on a mission, and maybe you're the only one who knows just how important that mission is, but you gotta do it cuz you have no choice. It's divine pre-destiny.
Top Ten Reasons Middleage Guys surf!
10. Cool Clothes:
At our age no other sport allows us to be so
fashionable wearing baggy shorts & shirts, sweatstained ball caps,
and praying mantis rainbow shades.
9. Cool Cars:
Living in suburbia living vicariously off of surf movies,
we have no good reason to own a fully tricked out HUMMER. But if
we're going on a surfari to say, Central America (or just braggin
about going), then a guy's gotta have the appropriate wheels. Right?
8. Cool Language: (see Surf Jargon)
It's not often in our high level business meetings we
get to say, "Dudes, Mackin, Worked, Housed, Floater, Airs, Kooks."
So surfing allows us to enrich our vocabulary and syntax.
7. Cool Magazines:
Guys get tired of reading Forbes, Money, Fortune and
Golf Digest. The surfing rags have more pictures, so we don't have to
read, plus once a month you get a nice butt shot of the Reef Brazil
girls. (Did we mention "Woodie" in the language part?)
6. Long Boards:
Riding the big ones (boards and waves) announces you're
at the top of the food chain in surfing. They paddle easier, catch
waves sooner, and you don't have to throw your back out turning them
like you do on those damn potato chips.
5. Travel:
There's nothing like a good swell as an excuse to blow off
the weekend "Honey-do" list and go to the beach.("It's only this good
once a year sweetheart, I can clean gutters anytime!) For those who
can get away with saying you're going to some South Pacific island
that has only thatch-roofed huts, no running water or
electricity and only raw fish for food, having a Tavarua brochure on
your coffee table has a certain cache to it. Of course, most of
us won't go since there are no hot tubs or places to buy cigars.
4. Male Bonding:
Though not normally a team sport, surfing seems to be
dominated by guys. So if you're so socially maladjusted you can't
find a girlfriend, there are plenty of guys out in the break
between sets you can bitch to about women.
3. Virility:
Scientific studies by Dr. Peter Amschel have proven
conclusively that straddling a surfboard in very cold water causes the
gonadal tissue to contract and shrivel, thereby stimulating and increasing
the production of testosterone. Though surfing is a unique activity
in which this occurs, you can always dip your balls in a bowl of
icewater, but it's not nearly as much fun.
2. Three Words - Chicks love Surfers!
1. Alt.Surfing:
A great newsgroup to brag about your surfing exploits,
even if you live in the armpit of Ohio, and because basically people
who really know you wouldn't believe you anyway.
"They tell you that you'll lose your mind when you grow older. What they don't tell you is that you won't miss it very much."
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