I’m not big on surfing per se, despite the title of this blog. Since the age of 5 my life is a mix of sailing, windsurfing, kitesurfing and more recently SUP’ing. I’ve never lived near a proper surf spot when I was young and when I moved near one the winds are so awesome I can’t be bothered ripping the waves without a kite. Oh, and there’s the weird culture.

Yup, surfers have a rather bad rep amongst all other boarders. But they do work so hard for it! Only recently a girl got almost ripped apart on a surfing forum because she dared to ask a question about a wetsuit. I mean c’mon! Screw searching for it! Whenever a question of this sort is asked on kiteboarding or SUP forums there’s tons of answers mixed with tons of experience. But hey, the elite can’t be bothered. Shame that it’s always down the few tits screwing up everyone else’s reputation.

Like the underdeveloped, middle-aged, lifeless dicks from the “Bad Boys”… erm… “gang” in Lunada, CA. Somehow they are still making headlines. Somehow no one (so far) has put them in their place. Even the local sheriff’s office doesn’t seem to be giving a flying furball. Really? Think about it – how can a grown arse man be part of a gang of “surfers” harassing tourists. And hey, they are proud of it! How much does your life needs to suck for you to become a part of this? By the looks of it they deserve a good whopping, that’s all. How the hell police haven’t got their arses kicked is beyond me – all 40 of them. There’s a lawsuit happening right now to – asking for a $30,000 fine per head and naming local police as useless. Only because you can’t “twats” in legal documents. Read more at The Inertia – Bad Boys Surf Gang.

Surfing made some more splashes in the boarding press this week. Seeing how our type of sport gets more traction with brands is sometimes a good thing. It’s quite awesome to see people ripping waves on the telly. Like this brilliant Samsung ad:

But it doesn’t suit every brand. One of the things that piss the living shit out of surfers of all sorts is the rubbish in the seas. If you’ve never been out around the UK’s coast you have no idea how much stuff is floating around and messing up the environment. Even leaving the environment alone, hitting a bloody plank or a car tyre at full speed sucks big time. And nothing winds us up more than, apart from dogs taking shit in the water with owners going “not my flipping problem, can’t get in the water” (we’re always happy to overcome their objections, shame about the phones but hey ho, not our flippin’ problem) tons of rubbish left over by beach-goers.

Even with movements like #2MinuteBeachClean there’s still a lot to be done. And encouraging people to use tiny plastic bottles for water isn’t helping much either. Evian decided to run an advert featuring… someone who supposed to be a surfer but isn’t. Sorry buddy, not even close. Not a good choice of theme given that the company produces over 6 million plastic bottles per year with tons of them ending up in the water.

Ok, ok, rant’s over, got this off my chest. Time to get the weekend going and the wind seems to be slowly picking up!