Heavy Seas of Love at Duct Tape

If you understand surfing as a lifestyle, more than a sport, then it can be argued that the majority of us are living it in the suburbs, working 9-5 to support two kids and a dog named Ralph. You ride a shortboard, with a squashy tail, a five fin configuration, a deckpad and a leash, while hankering for clean 5 foot waves as the ultimate canvas for your limited but enthusiastic self-expression. Somehow, we find ourselves pigeonholed into the narrow vision of competitive shortboard “progression” as the de facto surfing reality. How did “our culture” lose sight of surfing as a rich smorgasbord of beach experiences, a rijstafel of different approaches, a whole damn rainbow-hued multiverse of ways to get your stoke on riding waves in the ocean? Instead of burgers and chips, we could be dining on little plates of serrano ham, crispy anchovies, slow-baked peppers and wild olives and washing them all down with rare cold cervezas. Mainly, and this is the important bit: “we could be having loads more fun!” Ultimately, this metaphor was spelled out as the central message of Joel Tudor’s Duct Tape Invitational presented by Vans at the Playa Zarautz in Basque country. An […]