I received many comments regarding my previous installment, "The Ethics of Surf Camps." So many, in fact, that I've decided to continue the discussion this week. Although I singled out surf schools and surf camps as contributors to crowding in today's lineups, clearly the larger issue at hand is overcrowding at surf spots in general. Indeed, most of the feedback I received focused on this bigger issue.

Crowds are one of the realities of surfing in modern times. As surfers, we all experience this problem, and most of us are forced to deal with it on a daily basis at our local breaks. Nobody I know enjoys a more crowded lineup over a less crowded one. Nobody I know wishes there were more surfers rather than less.

If one would like to point fingers, surely there are plenty of culprits. Madison Avenue manufactures the mass-media fantasy-image "I am cool if I surf." The irony here, of course, is that surfing is cool. They know it, and one can hardly blame them (given their chosen profession) in trying to capture it, package it, and sell it. Hollywood, in its infinite yearning to be cool, to embody cool, has repeatedly attempted to latch onto the surfing chic. As with most cultural phenomena, naturally, Hollywood ends up butchering the very essence of what they endeavor to represent, perpetuating the very worst aspects of a particular trend or subculture and in the process feeding a society ever-hungry to devour stereotypes.

Another easy target in the contribution to surfing crowds is the surf industry itself. How dare they attempt to mass-market surfing so they can sell more product. Where is the "soul" of these organizations? After all, did surfers themselves not create them, motivated by nothing more than eking out a living so they could spend more time in the water? We can certainly point fingers at the media as well. Surf magazines, video, and film have likely done more to promote the sport in the past ten years than anything else. They record and disclose new, exciting, remote spots worldwide. Drop a few hints as to locations. Plant the travel seed in surfers and would-be surfers around the globe.

How about Bruce Brown and Endless Summer? Did that film and its national tour not spark the launch of thousands of surfing lifestyles across the country? While we are at it, we might as well even accuse "The Duke" himself, Duke Kahanamoku, the so-called "father" of modern surfing. Perhaps no other single person in the history of the sport did more to promote and popularize surfing to the world-at-large.

You can see where I'm going with this. The list goes on and on. The popularity of surfing, the promotion of surfing, is all of our responsibility. We are all to blame. You . . . me . . . the surf companies . . . the media. We all do our part simply by participating in the sport, getting excited about surfing, talking about it with others.

In addition, we are of course primary consumers of the media and promotion machine. Before we are so quick jump on the surf industry, let us not forget who supports them. Yes, there are many forces at work marketing the "surf lifestyle", not least of which are the surf companies themselves. But you and I buy wetsuits, boards, and other products from them and, I, at least, do so gladly. I also buy and read the magazines, and, once more, look forward to the travel features.

A very complex issue, this is. My theory is that, as humans, no matter how independent or solitary the surfing experience is for us, we inevitably want to share it with others. In the end, our inherent desire to interact and draw together our enthusiasm wins out. We are social beings, and we have a need to participate in, and communicate with each other, a set of common experiences. In one extreme example, look at Jeff Clark and Mavericks. For years he surfed the spot by himself. Never mind the mind-boggling, ludicrous even, aspects to this—surfing a wave as big and dangerous as Mavericks alone for 15 years. When he finally let others in on the secret, he was motivated by a desire to "share the most exciting wave that he had ever ridden."

There has always been an attempt to market the surf lifestyle to a mass audience. From The Duke to Hollywood's Beach Blanket Bingo to current Nissan television commercials our modern society has continuously sought to promote, capture, and capitalize on the surfing spirit. The difference now is, due to the information and media explosion that has taken place over the last ten years, those attempts are succeeding like never before.

So, yes, we live in a crowded surfing world. Surfing is the only sport or pursuit where individuals are competing, against each other in many instances, for a limited resource (waves). This inherently creates unique dynamics, many of them negative, such as territorialism, protectionism, exploitation, yes even "crusty-ism" (as in, "I remember when me and my buddies were the only ones surfing here. . ." and so on).

I offer no magic bullets, no sage advice on how to ease crowding within surfing lineups. Tolerance is key, as is patience. Knowledge and education will also go a long ways in easing friction for both neophytes and veterans alike.

Although I try hard not to become jaded, at times it is difficult. There is an underlying current beneath the entire "extreme sports revolution" that chafes my shorts, and it rests within the motivation behind participation that is inextricably intertwined with mass-media-produced imagery. For me personally, what it boils down to is purity of purpose at the individual level. I don't care if someone learns how to surf at a surf school, through a friend, or simply through the hard school of knocks. If their motive is a pure love of the sport, and they have the fortitude to persist, then so be it. Welcome, even. However, if their incentive is driven by image-conscious derivatives of media exploitation, then I do take issue.

The bottom line in all of this: surfing is an extraordinary endeavor, and people are always going to want to do it. If it weren't for the built-in barriers to learning, and the fact that waves are a limited resource, I have no doubt surfing would be one of the most popular pursuits in the world. I take solace in the belief that, whether driven by my own self-serving ego or not, the underlying attraction beneath all the marketing hype, all the "surfing is cool" portrayals, all the Hollywood allure, is the purity, simplicity, and beauty that embodies the singular pursuit of riding waves.

Get some waves. - DL

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