The Heat Is On
...as in a lot of heats, aka contests.
I invite you to tell these two legends Comps suck… Keyhole’s Shay Rainger and Sam Keane
It's easy to be a contest hater and jump on the soul train. It's low hanging fruit. Over the years I've seen it happen sooo many times, a surfer will be all anti-comp. More often than not it is a late comer to the culture. They have picked up on a thread of dissension, not bothering to understand the context and then ran with it. Then their children start going in a few comps, and they flip into being the worst helicopter parents ever. When their kids burn out and they flip back to being a contest hater. Sadly predicable.
Fun times at this year’s Keyhole Boardriders Single Fin day
Here's the deal dummies; surf contests do not define a surfer. It's merely a small aspect of a surfing lifestyle. If you wanna do them, cool. If you're so over-competitive that you can't stand losing- that is cool too.
Dune Kennings came second behind Will Hardie this year
But he won the free-surf the day after
Why the rant; I've been in the game, shooting comps, shooting free surfing and writing about it all for over 30 years. I've been surfing for 50 years. While I have a handle on our surfing culture, I also have learnt enough in that 50 years, that 'Surfing' is a broad and varied beast. I actually think, contrary to my own punk ethos, SOME people need to learn some Zen about it. So I do raise both middle fingers to contest haters, because they refuse to see the bigger picture.
A surf comp is entertainment. We all know it's hit and miss and weather reliant. But when the elements all come together it's a fricken spectacle.
The first World Championship League comp is on right now. You can tune in to Bells HERE
Then in a mere week The Backdoor King and Queen of the Point at Manu Bay, Raglan will be held. It's been drawn out into a 5 day event, the draw has got that big. Why, because the King and Queen get wild-card entries into the inaugral Raglan World Championship. That's pretty fucken cool.
Piha’s Leia Millar will be at both the King and Queen AND the Boardriders
Between those comps there's the Boardriders Cup in Whanga. NZ Premier tag team event where the winning club gets to compete next year at the Ussher Cup on the Goldcoast. And the Sequence Junior Pro in Gizzy.... that's a lot of heats. A lot of lossers, and a lot of good times.
Check out Surfing NZ's event page HERE
