Hey Zuz, I’m confused: Can I just surf politics-free?

Emotions are flying high. Now, also in the lineup. After all surfing is…life.

😵‍💫 hey zuz, i am confused

With everything that is happening in the US right now, can I surf in a politics-free environment? I don’t want to have to deal with all this shit. I just want to surf.

🥰 dear reader

Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. The last time anyone waved their political affiliation at me in the lineup was…never. Lucky me, I guess. Did you mean: can you or where can you surf politics-free? Actually, it doesn’t make any difference.

Surfing is like living in a neighborhood. But I don’t mean that a lineup is a direct representation of the local neighborhood where the surfers come from. It can be, but that’s not a hard and fast rule. After all, tourists from all over the place outnumber the locals at Canoes, Waikiki.

Surfing is like living in a neighborhood because even if it’s a Malibu gated community or an NYC co-op with board approval, you don’t really have any control over who you’re going to be living next to. I could probably say that surfing is also like a workplace, or a prison, or just—living on this planet, amplified to the power of 20+ because the waves are a limited resource blah blah blah.

You are not surfing in a vacuum. Surfers are people once they step back on land. They have views. On everything. It’d be easier to surf in a bubble—whatever that bubble is for you—than surf in a lineup devoid of various opinions.

I don’t know what prompted your question. I wish I did. Was it someone in the lineup sporting a Pride flag or a red hat? Or even worse—a helmet?! Or perhaps you found out that one of your surf heroes doesn’t share your political views? It happened to me. Miraculously, I got over it.

We’re guilty of romanticizing surfing, but surfing is no different than living in society. So take the good, wise up about the bad. Surfing is worth it despite it.

Author: The Wipeout Weekly team