The title words are from the surfer sub-culture of which I was a part in my high school days in Torrance, California. About which, this:
Cowabunga, Dude! The biggest wave I ever attempted to ride was perhaps six feet and THAT scared the beejeebus out o' me. You have no ideer about the sheer terror that ensues when several tons o' water breaks over yer head and tosses yer ass around like the proverbial rag doll. Oftentimes you have no clue about which way is up and THAT is scary. Yet another reason to marvel about how I managed to survive my youth.
This lil clip also brought to mind watching Bruce Brown films in various high school gyms in SoCal while I was in high school (c. '62 - '63), long before Endless Summer came out. Ah, nostalgia. What WOULD we do without it?
Cowabunga, Dude! The biggest wave I ever attempted to ride was perhaps six feet and THAT scared the beejeebus out o' me. You have no ideer about the sheer terror that ensues when several tons o' water breaks over yer head and tosses yer ass around like the proverbial rag doll. Oftentimes you have no clue about which way is up and THAT is scary. Yet another reason to marvel about how I managed to survive my youth.
This lil clip also brought to mind watching Bruce Brown films in various high school gyms in SoCal while I was in high school (c. '62 - '63), long before Endless Summer came out. Ah, nostalgia. What WOULD we do without it?
The closest this midwesterner ever got to surfing was body-surfing at China Beach at DaNang. (Great story there about one special day which I once related at length at Lexs' place) Old Buck a surfer AND a motor-head...DO tell! lol
ReplyDeleteCowabunga!
Yeah, I had a typical SoCal teenaged live back then.
DeletePS: I didn't know Bruce Brown was putting out films pre Endless Summer but upon reflection it makes sense...But how'd he get them into the school system?
ReplyDeleteIt was SoCal, Virgil, even the teachers surfed back then. You know how those "special events" used to go, right?
DeletePPS: I took a big-busted brunette vixen/fox from Terre Haute, Ind. to see Endless Summer--she thought it was the most BORING thing she'd ever seen--wanted to leave in the middle of it, lol. Obviously NO appreciation for surfing--the only thing she ever surfed was the mattress, lol.
ReplyDeleteWell, there's a place in this world for those kinds o' surfers, too. ;-)
DeleteWell, we don't have monster waves here on the East Coast, at least not that often. But on the coast of Rhode Island on the great Misquamicut Beach...we do get them.
ReplyDeleteI was body surfing with friends when I was 14 - my first time. Having fun and generally enjoying life. As a monster wave came rolling in - I'd estimate it was 6 feet tall given that I was 5'4" at the time and it was going to crest over my head - my friends started yelling at me and gesturing. I thought - because I couldn't hear them - they were just excited about the wave. What I learned later is they were trying to tell me to go under it. Since I didn't know - I tried to surf it.
Upside down, right side up - it didn't matter. I was pounded up, down and sideways - could not get above water, started to take IN water and generally started to feel myself panic. Eventually I washed up - literally - on the beach in a pile of seaweed about 20 feet from where I started in the water. Only to see my friends and a bunch of other people going thru the water - looking for me. Everyone thought I had possibly been sucked out or drowned.
It was the closest to drowning I ever hope to get; to this day some 35+ years later - I still fear ocean waves and will only go in if I'm with The Oracle and if the waves are only 3 feet high. And sometimes I won't even do that. The beach is my favorite place to be but the water isn't.
I've had experiences similar to yours, Kris... bein' tumbled ass over tea kettle and nearly drowned... but I always went back. Which is why I say I'm grateful for having survived my youth.
DeleteI'm a mountain girl. These wave thangs amaze me. I have a 14 year old cousin who lives in Hawaii and posts great pics of waves and surfing. Maybe I'll visit, but not surf. I do remember learning to do the "pony" to "Surf City" in Red River one summer back in about 196o-something.
ReplyDeleteIn re: visiting Hawaii. Discretion is the better part of valor, as "they" say. I wouldn't do it, either, but I MIGHT have... 30 years ago. ;-)
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