The ponies run, the girls are young,
The odds are there to beat.
You win a while, and then it’s done –
Your little winning streak.
And summoned now to deal
With your invincible defeat,
You live your life as if it’s real,
A Thousand Kisses Deep.

There have been more than a couple of eras in surfing, and quite a few changes with surfboards over the last 75 years since it began as a modern pass time on the beaches in the United States.  One of the consistent themes through out the art is  it seemed to naturally draw to it,  the individualist and non conformist.

Sometimes this would be in the image of a beach bum who would do anything to surf including when necessary break the law… while other times it would be a professional or working class person who, once they entered the ocean to ride waves,  had their lives changed in such a manner it would would take on a lifestyle rather than a pass time.

The early surfers had gathering places, hierarchy, rights of passage and favorite craftsmen.  This trend has to some degree continued up until today, but up until the beginning of the Professional surfing tour it was mostly earned via reputation through style and skill in the water or ability to design functional craft and in some cases both.

Some of the first surfing crazes did make some folks a lot of money, but the times in between crazes were some of the most productive times in board design and surfing. In the late seventies was pretty much the beginning of the industry as we see it today, but unlike some of the past attempts to get rich from surfing…much of the current surf industry was started by actual surfers with a goal of not only creating a pro tour that would fuel their own goal of of being able to make a living from the sport, but would energize other surfers to seek ways to market the surfer look or sell some functional equipment to the growing population of surfers around the globe.

Some of the early companies were truly hard core when they began.   In many cases the products were functional and unique and the companies going along with surge in economy around the globe and New wave movement in music for youth were primed to rake in the profits with surfing related products. Surf shops which had formerly mostly only carried surfboards and a few soft goods and wet suits,  now began to look for Fashion pieces and many began to take on the appearance of department stores with buyers, models, sponsorship and advertising.

I set out one night
When the tide was low
There were signs in the sky
But I did not know
I’d be caught in the grip
Of the undertow

The industry would begin to drive surfing and the damage was almost immediate.  Surf shops found out early that with surfing radio shows, phone in surf reports more like sales pitches, magazines following the tour of sponsored surfers…there was a hordes of new young surfers who wanted the look and all the trappings of a sponsored pro without having to earn it and so the shop sponsorship born.

Not that there had never been deals before or that there had never been surf groupies before, but never before had surfing fit more closely into the mainstream pop culture and shop owners had figured out a way to buy a certain amount of business loyalty through shop discounts. The end result creating a different type of hierarchy than there had ever been before.  The look, the talk, the position in the industry side were starting to slowly creep up on being a unique individual.

I’d like to tell my story,
said one of them so young and bold,
I’d like to tell my story,
before I turn into gold.

By the end of the eighties, both music and surf fashion had reached it’s first peak.  The New wave became progressive and progressive gave way to rap and along with that… Surfing had begun to follow trends rather than actual shifts in design.  Surfing icons would still drive equipment in the water, but pop culture fashion and surf fashion began to inner marry and those that surfed had already begun to leave the spirit of being draw completely to the water for multiple sports like snowboarding, motocross and later even wake boarding.

What had started as an austere calling back to the sea was now a full fledged billion dollar business complete with executives, sales forces. marketers and actuaries figuring out how to create the next trend rather than sticking with the spirit that made surfing interesting to begin with.  Many of these were failed pro surfers, former pro surfers, ex shop owners, non surfers, unskilled or locally non influential surfers with money or local rippers who had made enough connections to get their friends in the company side to give them jobs.  Most of the time qualifications were of minimal interest as those doing the hiring were doing so based on relationships rather than ability.

So you see I’m not naive.
I just would like to believe
Ah what you tell me.
So don’t give me the world today
And tomorrow take it away.

As the 90’s began, pop music was again going through another change very similar to the one that had taken place in the late seventies and early eighties.  Rock and metal were again taking the forefront, fashion was called grunge and long hair had given way to shaved heads and body art, but unlike the late seventies and early eighties there was little left of uniqueness among the surfing masses.

With the invention of the three fin performance board in the early eighties a refined version of that had become the standard and the masses of youth who began surfing because of an ad or slogan were now uniform both in dress and attitude.  Diversity of equipment was frowned upon and conformity had become the call for all but the most dedicated individualist.

This change had also taken place among many on the industry side and even with those who had formerly hand made surfboards to live their lifestyle.  The idea with many was now  to see if they could make it rich from surfing  as some before them had done.  Where before it was the result of loving the sport and wanting to find a way to live a lifestyle by the fruits of their labor…it was now being driven by the goal of being a ” player ”  in the industry.   It was now about  the deal.

There was a major gap between the cultured board builders who had been part of an industry that happened by accident and the industry folk who had created an industry built on fantasy of pretending to be authentic.

One side was still creating, perfecting their craft and presenting a well earned following with consistent quality as they always did,  while the other side was creating models and a branded uniformity to sell to masses of created followers seeking identity.  usually with products created by the craftsmen’s experimentation.

So come, my friends, be not afraid.
We are so lightly here.
It is in love that we are made;
In love we disappear.
Tho’ all the maps of blood and flesh
Are posted on the door,
There’s no one who has told us yet
What Boogie Street is for.

As the 90’s finally ended and gave birth to the 21st century,  the industry side had learned how to tweak the markets with ease to get a quick response.  Even with a down turn or two at the end of every decade…the tale weavers would create yet another surge, but something new was now in place that gave the ability to profit from surfboard which still remained the soul of surfing and change one of the last core and authentic side of the surfing.

The vast majority of master craftsmen up to this point still simply carved out a living by hand to some degree, but some of the marketers were now being made over seas with ultra cheap labor. This was  creating a product that could be sold to the masses with huge margins and marketed like a pair of board shorts and sold to shops like a floor plan.  Many board builders thinking about a way to retire or perpetuate income by lending their name to the over seas product validated something that had been maligned in years past for being only for novices and for not being authentic.

Unknowingly or in some cases on purpose to get a jump on other board builders,   these board builders were helping to create what would become a competitor who would copy their designs and re package them rather than setting up a business where the shapers themselves could benefit long term.  All but a few would still have to find a way to retire and the deal makers would still be making deals off the reputations, creations and uniqueness of the shapers and selling their false version of what the original surfing spirit actually was.

It’s coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It’s here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it’s here they got the spiritual thirst.
It’s here the family’s broken
and it’s here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way

So here we sit as those who like to ride the waves at the end of the first decade of the 21st century.  The waves are still rolling in on our beaches around the world and the surfing industry is now almost fully driving what happens in surfing from the latest fashion trends to the types of surfboards sold in shops.  Board builders craft can still be found in surf shops, but with the higher margins on imports and terms given the shops…the day of the board builder partnering with retail stores is beginning to diminish.

The deal makers now have territories and a few large stores who order enough to keep them making a better than average living and the art of surfing that started off as uniquely individual has almost completely morphed into a pop culture with little that resembles the original spirit of paddling out and going surfing.

There does appear to be some last vestiges of it’s former self that remain in an underground movement that ironically is taking shape in the form of how surfing actually began on equipment that we thought long extinct and shaping skills that were once appreciated.

At least for some, there is a growing underground with an open mind… concerned with a return rather than the latest creation that will change the future.  Freedom rather than conformity.

And everybody knows that it’s now or never
Everybody knows that it’s me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when you’ve done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe’s still pickin’ cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

All lyrics in between the paragraphs were written by the great Leonard Cohen over his various albums.