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Thursday, December 24, 2009

Confessions Of A Kook



Like golf, surfing has it's fair share of purists (or snobs, bullies, and others that are so much better than everyone else).

There are golfers that believe you must have specific equipment and dress a certain way or you just don't fit in. Forget that - you don't belong on the driving range, much less the course. If your bag is a little progressive or you happen to have a skull on your shirt you clearly must be an undesirable. Clearly.

In surfing if you don't have the right board, the right racks to attach your board to your vehicle, the right form when you duck dive, or the right spot to wear booties then you're clearly a kook.

Guess what? I don't give a rat's rear if someone doesn't like my golf gear. There isn't even a thought in my head about whether my surf gear is appropriate either. You know what? I've got a "pop-out" board in my quiver. It's a blast to ride too. Deal with it. If owning it makes me a kook then so be it.

Who else is a kook? Come on, speak up!

3 comments:

Mike said...

Isn't it always that way, Apryl? Look at most of the golfers we now call "legends," and you'll see players with funky swings. Take Lee Trevino, for instance; he got ragged about his swing constantly... but those same people will admit that he was one of the greatest golfers of all time and possibly THE greatest ball striker ever. And while most people say you don't want to swing like Trevino because his swing was so funky, even name teachers like Jim McLean teach people how to hit wedge shots the way he did.

Kooks who do good eventually become the people we emulate, so maybe being a kook isn't such a bad thing.

BTW, Merry Christmas!

Unknown said...

I think the better word is "poser". When we used 'kook' in the 60's & 70's, it was just to describe someone weird that did not fit in, whether they were trying to or not.

Using your definition, I think scratch golfers regard 8 handicappers as kooks. 8 handicappers regard 15 handicappers as kooks. 15 handicappers regard 23 handicappers as 'kooks'. 23 handicappers...

In my 60's way of thinking, anyone sitting on a surfboard allowing great waves go by and by and by waiting for the perfect wave is a kook. It's like only playing the par fives and staying in the cart the rest of the time.

By the way, by either definition, you are a kook.

Merry Christmas, Sports Writer Chick. Looking forward to another year with my 'left coast' bud...

Apryl DeLancey said...

Merry Christmas to both of you! Thanks for stopping by and leaving your pearls of wisdom.

I think judgmental people are just insecure. Poor things.