| Stressed out surf speak could well lead to the demise of surfing as we know it |
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Census figures suggest the workforce is shrinking. The Federal Government’s new industrial relations reforms guarantee most will be working more for less pay. The population is ageing, corporations are wielding more power than ever before, but surely even that isn’t reason enough for surf speak to sound stressed out. What is going on when not even surfers are relaxed and comfortable anymore! The price of progress is here to stay. Why though encroach on our last great refuge to talk about your pay? Stressed out Surf speak could well lead to the demise of surfing as we know it.
When you really think about it 99.99% of us basically surf for fun and or relaxation. Surfing, whether we like to admit it or not, could really be classified as a pretty effective modern form of therapy. A worth while surf combines a decent physical workout with a stylish serve of self-expression and a mental massage thrown in for good measure. It’s a unique balancing act no pun intended. Let me quote Greben, Raltoff and Volnskos, A method of psychiatry, second edition, 1985-via JK: “Such a setting becomes one in which the ordinary pretences and conventions of daily life are suspended. It is a protected place, an operating room of the mind, in which vulnerability and honesty are encouraged. ” That sure sounds like green room time to me-tube riding or surfing as part of the subconscious healing process.
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Cruisin with the dolphins.
Now there is a small though arguably growing percentage of enthusiasts who treat surfing purely as sport or even work, (I don’t want to delve into the sport v lifestyle debate in this forum) other than to say for most of us surfing is still pretty much a healthy relatively inexpensive form of escapism right? To support my argument there’s no need to go any further than quoting the late, great Mickey Dora courtesy of the early 90’s doco Surfers-The Movie 2. “My whole life is escape. My whole life is this wave. I drop into em, set the whole thing up, pull up the bottom turn, pull up into it and shoot for my life, going for broke, man …and behind me all the shit goes over my back - the screaming parents, teachers, police, priests, politicians, knee boarders, windsurfers. They’re all going over the falls head –first into the f-----g reef and I’m shooting for my life and when it starts to close out I pull out through the bottom or out the back…and I pick up another one and do the same goddamn thing !”
The Celibate Rifles articulate the relaxed simplicity of the surfing lifestyle perfectly in their song Tubular Greens, “All you need is a friend and a beach to be free, don’t need to have money to surf right in.” You know the deal - a couple hours of free time and you’re out their, man versus nature’s elements. You immerse yourself in the water, leaving all your general concerns on land, catch a bunch of waves and usually return to shore stress free and on a natural high.
Late 70’s,early 80’s Qld fashion.
Now whilst out in the line up you often engage in some general banter with friends or associates and when your away from your local it’s no big deal to have a rap with complete strangers. It really is quite social when the vibes are good. The surf tends to be a great leveller -our tribe generally gets along reasonably well regardless of socio-economic, religious, political or racial backgrounds.
In my 32 years of surfing, various forms of surf speak greetings have faded in and out of fashion. The surf speak of the day I would argue has always been an interesting and accurate barometer of the times we are a living in, and that fundamentally is what this article is about.
Puberty Blues era Cronulla.
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The 70s
When I was a micro grom in the 70’s riding a Frank William’s Hot Buttered single fin it was all, ”Howzit goin man or bro?” The standard reply was mostly, “cool man” or “cruising.” Everything was pretty mellow besides the occasional bit of over hyped Cold War propaganda or perhaps “The dismissal.” Gough and then Fraser was PM, Nifty Nev was premier of NSW. Joh was still in in Qld, Amco flares, Miller shirts, Crystal Cylinders jackets and Golden Breed T’s were the shit, Neil young,,Hendrix and The Stones blared out of smoke filled Kombies and MP was surfings anti hero.
Nifty Nev in the late 70’s.
Dewey and Paul in the 70’s.
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The 80s
Before that, older crew informed me things were even more casual in the psychedelic sixties. The standard response to “Hey how are ya doing” was usually, “groovy” or even “cosmic.” Surfers were stereotyped as stoners or even outlaws who roamed the highways in small nomadic gangs, stopping off wherever the waves peeled, in their bid to escape PM Menzies’ middle class mediocrity and anything to do with The Vietnam war. Nat was Nat and that’s that, Midget and indeed “Gidget” were doing the stomp. The Beach Boys and The Beatles ruled the airwaves.
Cronulla Point fashions in the early 80’s.
As I hit my teens in the eighties it was all high performance thrusters thanks to Simon. Three to the beach, fluoro, Quik, Billy and The Curl dominated. The Punk rock explosion led by The Pistols a few years earlier was followed by new wave and polka dots. Bob Hawke became PM, Midnight Oil, The Sunnyboys and INXS rocked, Double J. MR, Cheyne then TC one and two, BL, Kong and Pottz ruled the tour and everyone from Paul Hogan to Hawkey and strangely enough even surfers adopted G’day. G’day mate or How ya doing mate became the basic greeting in or out of the water? The standard response was almost always a pretty non- plussed, “all right” or “not too bad”. For cooler cats it was more like “just kickin back” – or “takin it easy”. Unemployment was into double figures at the time and a hell of a lot of surfers seemed to be on Bob Hawkes surf team – or The rock’n’roll as social security payments were referred to in those days. A lot of us were quite literally taking’ it easy.
Butto fluoro 80’s.
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The 90s
In the 90’s soul made a brief comeback after the fluoro overkill and Gordon Gecko style crass commercialization of the 80’s. Clean Dahlberg thrusters, black wetties, “The Search”, grunge, hell, even flanno’s made a semi return. SonicYouth, Nirvana, Mudhoney and Dinousaur Junior were the hip sounds of the day. The most common answer to the inevitable “how’s it going mate?” morphed into “just chillin”. Later in the decade Howard became PM and big business bling was suddenly back in vogue. Slater owned pro surfing and in tandem with AI still does today. Interestingly reverse psyche terminology like the word “sick” was born and ecstacy and dance party culture dominated.
Sparrow and TF '81.
Over the years Hollywood and scores of other tribes and subcultures ripped off “our” catchcrys. So words like “sick”, “going off”, ”chillin”, ”cool”, “cruisin” or millions of our too- numerous to mention words and phrases before them, were eventually adopted by the mainstream. In the past that’s when we’ve been “over it” and ditched them. New terms and phraseology were always inevitably invented allowing us to stay true to our tribe, maintaining our means to remain unique both individually and/or collectively, if you get my drift.
As surfers we have always had our own god (Huey), rituals (praying for surf, sacrificing boards on headlands), language and fashion. We know that and so do they. They being the mainstream masses. There was always that divide and we liked it like that and I suspect so too did they.
Bob Hawke and TC.
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Most observant readers by now would have picked up on the fact that most basic surf speak responses to a simple greeting over the past forty years have traditionally been pretty casual. They always reflected the times, suited the territory and summed up the supposed relaxed vibe of a tribe or counter culture at peace with itself. We were after all, “out there” to dodge the general pressures of society-whether that is work, school or relationship stress weren’t we?
So it is with a certain degree of concern and I guess even regret, that I feel compelled to reveal a new disturbing trend - which based on the above observations, may suggest there has been a seismic shift in either the make up - or at least general attitude of our tribe.
The new wave of replies I’ve detected to the old “How ya going?” or more contemporary, “What have you been up to” question, have commonly become, “just chippin away” or scarier still, “busy” or sometimes even “flat out” or “Frothing”.
What is going on here? What has happened to our subculture and for that matter society in general? Talk like that in the water is sac religious surely. Surfing and surf speak as far back as I have traced it in this piece has always reflected our free and easy lifestyle vibe.
Davo in Punk mode.
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Analysis of the new millennium responses to the old, how are you going? Question suggest otherwise. Surfers as a group have changed radically. Now I know in the day and age of public surf companies, monopolized mall surf boutique chains, and moulded mass marketed surfboard models, that might seem like stating the obvious. Repeated work like references such as “chipping away” and the more common “busy” suggest surfers have fully embraced the mainstream work ethic. Not that there’s anything wrong with working for a living -it’s just that we never ever took our jobs into the water to the current extent
It goes without saying that, up to a point, staying busy kind of keeps you young. Mild levels of stress are reportedly good for us. Some sort of structure in your day definitely gives you a sense of purpose-no argument there.
However it’s very easy to slip over the line that divides healthy activity from busyness for its own sake, and to assume inactivity is somehow letting the side down.
Social researcher Hugh Mackay said, “When it comes to working hours, Australians have gone berserk. We work longer hours than most comparable countries. In overtime alone, the full time workforce is absorbing thousands of jobs that could have gone to someone else.”
Busyness has become the new badge of honor. If you’re not busy you must be washed up, on the billy or on the demon drink. Not busy? You must be a loser if you’re not full on busy. I recently overheard a guy down the beach say he only had a twenty minute window in reference to how long he had allocated for a surf between jobs.
Sparrow and TC 1980.
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Early 1900’s British philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell once proposed a four hour day. His point being that with a bit of reorganization, this would guarantee enough work for everyone, and also allow us to turn our minds to the wiser use of leisure and the enrichment of our lives
His observation, way back in 1935, was that people were working such long hours that they were too tired to enjoy active and civilizing leisure pursuits, so they fell into passive forms of recreation - going to the cinema, watching sport, listening to other people play music.
Nothing much has changed huh - except arguably the mediums-nowadays. Today it’s all about home cinema-huge flat screen televisions; pay TV, computers, playstation and ipods. Independent cinemas like The Valhalla, Chaveul and Footbridge theaters have all recently closed.
Shaun Munro early 90’s.
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Russell stated that a combination of more education (especially in the liberal arts) and more leisure is a recipe for a more creative, fulfilling and contented life. But for the moment anyway, pollies and more alarmingly not even surfers seem to be listening.
Sure sounds like the price of progress is here to stay. Why though encroach on our last great refuge to talk about your pay?
It doesn’t feel quite right to sign off without at least floating an idealistic solution. How about this radical idea. Quite simply: Work less, live more.
It is blatantly obvious that the increased pressures of working life – heightened by the consequences of economic reform over recent decades are having a negative effect on family life and recreation time (surfing).
Kong in the 80’s.
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Of course most suits – ie politicians, business people and economic rationalists would be sceptical (god help em most of them were sceptical about climate change until recently also). There only come back is that we are more prosperous than ever before. This may well be the case on paper but at what cost socially? Higher levels of divorce, drug dependency, depression, single parenting, hyper activity, sleep disorders, mental illness and of course less leisure time are all side effects of all this work and no play ethic.
“Governments alone can’t cause such distress without the people who let them get away with it”. Or in simple speak politicians change their tune when enough voters signal they want their leisure time respected. Go surfing more!
Modern day sportsmen at Billabong.
Story by Ben Horvath. All photos from Joli’s archives. Special acknowledgements to distinguished social researcher Hugh Mackay whose columns in Saturdays SMH provided much inspiration and several direct quotes. Also Johnny Kwala ex Underground Surf antagonist, underemployed youth culture commentator, and bro whose quotes I simply sometimes just rip off. Thanks JK.
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