| vagabondsurf.com It's about life - not "lifestyle" |
 |
| SHEDDING THE SKIN |
| It's been a long time since I've put up anything having to do with bodyboarding. This is being written on May 1, 2003, with a late Spring storm coming into Southern California. Summer is nearly here, and the beach life is about to kick into high gear. The truth is that I was going to drop coverage of bodyboarding last October. No matter where I looked locally I couldn't find any sign that bodyboarding was really maintaining a viable place in the surf world. I was certain that in places like Hawaii and Australia, with warm waters and first-class venues, bodyboarding was maintaining a performance pace that justified coverage. The problem was that I was seeing nothing in the realitive hinterlands of Southern California which would lead me to think the sport had much more of a future than simply being a little league activity to the masses. BodyBoarding Magazine was my barometer for the U.S., and I was a harsh critic of it. I tried to be positive with suggestions, and I wrote high praise of their choice of Manny Vargas as Editor, but when that didn't pan out (for whatever reason - and if you read back you'll see I didn't lay blame on Vargas) I pretty much tossed in the towel. BodyBoarding Magazine soon did the same. When that happened, out of both a little guilt and a little loyalty (I did, in fact, used to contribute to BodyBoarding in the 80's) I decided to keep the bodyboarding section open. Eventually the website business and e-zine which Jay and Vickie Reale run ramped up to the point I hardly felt there was a reason for me to push the bodyboarding coverage here at vagabondsurf.com...until I started hearing from former BodyBoarding Magazine staffers. I also get involved in a lot of tiffs about surf mats vs. paipos vs. bodyboards. Why would vagabondsurf.com push surf mats and lay off bodyboards? Surf mats pre-dated bodyboards; aren't they retro to the point of irrelevance? Wooden paipos? What's up with that? Here's what's up with all that: bodyboarding really, honestly, has a place in the surfing world. This isn't some linear organization chart I'm talking about here. Bodyboarding is a totally valid way of riding waves, and not just for Mike Stewart or Jeff Hubbard or anybody plastered all over the old magazines. But bodyboarding will not be seen in this manner if bodyboarders don't choose to believe it. It isn't seperate, and it certainly isn't equal in terms of general surfing attitudes and perceptions. Attitude and perception are two different things, folks. And remember the old saw: divide and conquer. If you let standup surfing and it's influential arms and legs tell the world, and tell you, that bodyboarding isn't part of surfing, then they will keep the power and control. Bodyboarding belongs, period. Standup surfing seems mired in a period of self-worship which can only lead to an epic tumble. There are rumored to be 2 new bodyboarding magazines coming out in the U.S. by Summer 2003. I've seen neither at this point, but I encourage you to support both strongly. While I still feel a loss at the demise of BodyBoarding Magazine, and wonder at what could have been, lately I see that folding as perhaps a shedding of a skin. The living creature continues on, with only an old skin left behind, having served it's purpose when required to. Bodyboarding lives, as long as you water it regularly. |
| Copyright (C) 2003. All rights reserved. ***** |
 |