Surfing: It Is Supposed To Encourage Exploration
Posted in Sports on September 16th, 2009 by Damian Papworth – Be the first to commentI tend to surf at Mermaid Beach most of the time. The waves are certainly not the best the Gold Coast has to offer, by a long shot. The main reason I surf here though is to avoid the crowds. Its a funny thing, surfing and crowds. There is not a surfer in the world who professes to enjoying surfing in an overly packed line up. Yet as an observation, we often needlessly exacerbate crowding through sheepish behavior (IE. Following the pack).
On the average day, Mermaid Beach has three or four peaks, though only one will be taken advantage of and by a big, poorly distributed mob. When I get there, instead of jumping in right away and paddling out, I take a moment to ponder the scene and choose my spot wisely. Ultimately, my decision will be shaped by the quality of the waves rolling in and the amount of surfers in a given area of water. Personally, I am always willing to give up a bit of wave quality to be able to have plenty of room, though that’s just me.
I’ll sometimes end up walking about a kilometer in either direction to determine which wave I really want to catch. Once I’ve caught one however, it’s almost invariably the case that one of the surfers crammed into the pack will branch off and come surf the spot I’m at. It’s not clear to me why they didn’t do so at an earlier point, since the wave had been breaking there all day long. It seems to be a matter of a lack of imagination on the other surfer’s behalf, not realizing the wave was there until I chose to catch it.