| vagabondsurf.com It's about life - not "lifestyle" |
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| BODYBOARDING CLOSEOUT? |
| "With light, we can use our eyes. With dark we must use our instincts." -Suzanne Cheavens |
| The question truly becomes this: is the activity any less fun because there isn't a magazine to document it? The information distribution channels are still pretty much intact. Action will be displayed in video and online. Bodyboarding-specific surf shops become more important. Anyone online with a non-AOL isp probably has a little space reserved for them to put something up. There are free webhosting businesses, yes, complete with their obnoxious popup ads, waiting for you. There are places like vagabondsurf.com who encourage submissions. You are your own ray of hope and sunshine. Wouldn't you just as soon see pictures of yourself and your friends bodyboarding or messing around, rather than one of a handful of world class sponsored pros in one of a handful of tropical paradise locations? Think of it like this - maybe a 500 pound gorilla just got knocked off bodyboardings back. It's a bummer for the people who made a living working at or for or selling to Bodyboarding magazine, but my guess is most of them can make more money elsewhere and I can't imagine it has been a whole ot of giggles around the offices lately anyway. There is no U.S. media outlet to tie sponsorhip incentives into now, and that's bad for the professionals. But how about you? Free at last, free at last... You can now look with pity at the endless Doo Dah parade of standup surfers with their 6'2" squashtail thrusters...at guys and girls and men and women with their 10' longboards (who wants to carry one of those?)...you are now free of the yoke of conformity. You always were, you say? Well, yes, that's true...unless you've ever felt like a second-class surfing citizen because of your choice of equipment. The mechanics of discrimination and judgement don't make a lot of noise, but instead set hard and fast and quietly like concrete or epoxy. The insanity of judgementalism in surfing, and primarily sandup surfing, is beyond the pale. As one who partakes of most forms of waveriding, I can tell you it isn't anything special anymore. For standup surfers to scream "I'm special and you're not!" to bodyboarders, bodysurfers, mat riders, or whoever - while they are in about a 10-100 to 1 majority, is humorous...at best! Bodyboarding magazine is gone again, for a while at least, but the act remains. You remain. The longboards and shortboards have assumed the peak of acceptance and now proudly reside in houses and garages in the place of honor golf clubs used to have in the 1950's. What are you going to do? |
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