Bodyboarding 1,348 views
that NINJA kid wrote:
Writing this makes me feel like an old ballie at the ripe young age of 23.
A lunch-time adventure with a stand-up in my office has led to sadness and almost disbelief on my part. In a quest to pick up a leash after snapping his in the bowl yesterday it took us five surf-shops to find a leash, or 4 if you count the shop that tried to sell him a 10 foot long-board leash.
Remember when the smallest of surf-shops (which wouldn’t be recognized as such these days) catered for surf-supplies first? These grimy little shops were run by surfers for surfers and catered for what you needed before what you wanted. (think leashes, wax, boardies, stand-up planks and MAYBE a few bodyboards) They also had iconic names referring to common surf-fantasies and videos.
Remember when these shops were staffed by the best local rippers of every field who’d work there for a chilled job with the possibility of time off if it was cranking? They could tell you what worked and what didn’t, what was the latest useless gimmick and what you really needed? These cats were chilled, friendly and often bare-foot?
Remember when surf-shops had worn-out VHS’s behind the counter of all your favourite videos which were always playing non-stop and no one cared if you stood for 40 minutes watching and didn’t buy anything, even if you were from out of town and stopping in for a look?
I do and it makes me so bummed that this net-work of chilled community-based shops seem to be disappearing or selling out and buying in to the boutique-megastore culture of fake bamboo paneling for that authentic island-look.
Your nearest surf-store has a wall of bikini’s for your girl to peruse, a wall of pristine sneakers starting at a grand a pop, including in-house designs you’d never wear aimed at 30-something yuppies looking for a life-style accessory and stands of caps, sunnies and watches with branding plastered all over them but can’t manage more than one stock variety of bodyboarding leash? A 4mm wrist leash with no swivels and more than likely in 1 colour too?
Staffed by some tan-less teenager in Puma slip-ons, Levi’s jeans and so much gel you pray he never actually gets in the sea for fear of the chemical fall-out that would accompany the event.
Before you jump in with your favourite store, I’m not denying they exist, but from the community feeling of every store I went in to when I was a kid there precious few left who know what we want, never mind what we need. We all know who they are and yes we do support them and the brands we know value us as a community all we can, we have to in the desperate hope that they won’t go the same route... but it doesn’t make it less sad.
Quote:
Who's getting their kids in to surfing or bodyboarding as a healthy lifestyle with the cold-shoulder attitude everyones mentioning from big-shops? No one ever likes sounding stupid and as a grown human being, what parent is gonna go in to one of these shops and ask the questions?
And if they do will they get anything worthwhile or some 3 year old Manta Planet that's been standing on it's bat-tail behind a cupboard in the store-room, with a reverse rocker?
They're killing the stoke before it's out there!
