Barbarian Days A Surfing Life by William Finnegan
by Parker · 20 things on Twos
- Even in a mild mannered crowd, it was important not to show up anyone
- There are many families in Hawaii—multigenerational surfing families, ohanas rich in talent and tradition, known only to one another
- Surfing spots were named after the families who lived in front of them. Patterson’s. Mahoney’s
- Hawaiian surfing less a victim of successful missionary zeal, however, than if extreme demographic collapse, dispossession, and a series of extractive industries—sandalwood, whaling, sugar—that forced the surviving leaders into a cash economy and stripped them of free time
- The Hawaiian creole language is known as pidgin
- The rule of thumb is that a wave will break when the wave height reaches 80% of the waters depth—an eight-foot wave will break in 10 feet of water
- Cross-stepping is when you cross one skate over the other while skating
- UC Santa Cruz was an exciting place. There were no grades, no organized sports. Maximum self-direction was encouraged
- “God provides”
- 90% of college dropouts never return to get a degree
- People who tried to learn how to surf at an advanced age, meaning over 14, almost had no chance of becoming proficient, and usually suffered pain an sorrow before they quit
- Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel
- Be a rolling stone
- “Honey, get it while you can.” - Janis Joplin
- One fire means you are find just staying the night. Two fires means you are not fine and need help. Three fires means emergency
- The intensity of my shame and self-loathing was unsettling
- In 1965-66 more than half a million Indonesians were killed in massacres led by the military and Islamic clerics
- Getting old as a surfer was just a long, slow, humiliating process of becoming a kook again
- You have to hate how the world goes on
- This isn’t even maintenance. It’s just trying to slow the rate of decline