I just finished watching a 30 minute segment of television about a professional surfer who lives in San Diego county. His giant afro of light brown hair throws him into a very predictable stereotype and the camera lights were sure to exemplify every salt and sun bleached tip of each curl. He speaks slow and draws out his sentences as if to prove that he is sinking deep into zen to find answers to the interviewers questions.
The camera pans to a clip of the pro surfer driving his brand new car along Highway 101 in San Diego. The music in the background is folksy and cheery ….and attempts to persuade the viewer that this pro surfer’s life is one led by humility.
He is narrating and explaining how he finds that when the surf is bad he spends more time with his kids and wife. And when the surf is good he “just has to get out there”.
I am frustrated when I realize that he really thinks we are in church and I have given him a place at the pulpit. His life of leisure doesn’t make me jealous. In fact, his lack of challenge in his life is quite depressing to a person such as myself who enjoys life’s trials.
But his life of leisure does make me think---------what has our society become that we can afford the glorification of such gluttony?
The camera then follows the ’professional surfer’s’ flipping flops in through the giant glass doorway of a very popular clothing company who sponsors much of his livelihood.
The confusion and frustration in my thoughts continue as he explains his role at the company.
“I have been working with Reef shoes for a while now---trying to create a flip flop that is more sustainable and friendly to the environment.”
He holds up a rubber flip flop, bends it in his hands, and continues to explain how this particular rubber is harvested from rubber trees in a region where it has ’less impact’ on the surrounding environment.
The camera again pans---the music changes----more upbeat---inspirational---yet remaining folksy and humorously humble.
“We also decided to branch out further and create and entirely organic clothing line.“ The pro surfer explained. “ It’s small now, but I would like to see the line grow and make an impact”
Here is where he lost me.
Here is where I lost it.
I have been wrestling with this thought for many months.
The wrestling thought has nothing to do with surfing.
It is simply that surfing, as a professionally sponsored lifestyle, is a great example of the concept I have been wrestling with.
In the early 1960’s surfing was not even a sport. It was more of a lifestyle of convenience for those who were fortunate enough to live in an area that was warm, with a warm ocean, and consistent small to medium sized waves for year round enjoyment.
California was the perfect stage for surfing to act upon----and cast it’s theatrical spell on youth culture.
The fascination grew due to phenomenon’s like Beach Boy’s music, surfing Elvis Presley and Beach Blanket Bingo movies shown nationwide. Eventually, the lifestyle moved away from extreme leisure and more into the mainstream as thousands of people picked up the fascination with beach culture.
A sport evolved---and competitions arose.
And finally, through the miracle of mass textile manufacturing, surf fashion was birthed.
There were many small brands that pushed the fashion movement in the beginning.
But it was probably Ocean Pacific, also known as OP, who really pushed the mass migration of surf wear into the Midwest and beyond.
Southern California has remained at the epicenter of this fashion movement. It’s beaches are full of these fortunate modern children of Cicero who grow up in million dollar homes next to sun drenched beaches.
Without boring the non surfer, or disinterested reader, with the details I will get to my point.
The surf fashion industry is enormous. The logos plastered all over shirts are impossible to miss.
A few you may recognize from past and present are Billabong, Hurley, Op, Gotcha, No Fear, Reef, Rusty, Roxy and the mega giant Quiksilver.
Make no mistake about it, these are now giant companies in the industry of fashion.
In September of 2008 Quiksilver reported that it’s consolidated net revenues from continued operations for the third quarter of 2008 were a little over $564 million. Quiksilver brand clothes are sold in over 90 countries and it’s worldwide headquarters are in Huntington Beach, California. There is no question that just this one company sold an exuberant amount of clothing-----all in the name of surfing.
Is it any coincidence that Huntington Beach, and Los Angeles county, have some of the most polluted ocean water in the United States? It only goes to prove the level of apathy which exists in Southern California’s modern movement of convenient ignorance. Surf fashion is a proud child of the lifestyle.
Back to the pro surfer who makes his living off this parade. Or should I say he parades his living in order to call himself a pro surfer?
The pro surfer who wants to encourage his sponsor to make an ‘all organic line’ of clothing.
He wants this line to “grow and make an impact”. What this calculates to is that he wants the clothing line to sell large volumes and make his sponsor high profits.
This pro surfer is convinced that by doing so he may actually make a difference in the way surfers, and fashion minded people, view the environment which he believes we need to sustain. The only difference it’s going to make is ensuring his life of leisure.
Here is my point:
Is it possible that we have gone way beyond necessities and instead we now fret, toil, work and sweat to buy non essentials? Is it possible that we have become a society of people who are so gluttonous, so consuming, and so ego centric that we have lost who we really are as humans. Is it possible that our ego’s and our need to be continually labeled and viewed by status have overwritten our simple need to sustain and survive?
Is it possible that we are so concerned about how other’s view us, and what group they put us into, that was have over spent, over consumed and over whelmed the earth with industrial production?
Case in point: That organic surf wear t-shirt is $28.….and by buying it you will help the environment?
A clothing company can make t-shirts with their logos on them, in various styles and colors, and people will pay that said company for the right to wear that logo.
Yes, you can advertise for a fashion company by promoting their logo on your chest or back.
And you will pay $28 to do so.
That clothing company will make so much money doing so this year that they can afford to pay pro surfers, whom I now call ‘professional leisurists’, to wander around the world enjoying themselves mindlessly.
These pro leisurists will burn jet fuel while talking on their cell phones to their children at home. These pro surfers will come back to Southern California and continue to promote the beauty of surfing in a polluted ocean, breathing polluted air, and wearing fashionable clothing which YOU need to buy more of… to be like them.
And somehow----one of those ‘pro leisurists’ has become so enamored by the offer, that he is actually losing his senses and thinking he can “make a difference” by promoting a line of organic surf fashion?
The problem----is the rapid consumption and strong delusion we have all come under.
The answer is not in making more organic clothing for consumers to buy.
The answer is buying and consuming less, period, so that the organic things which are still alive on this shrinking planet will actually find a little dirt to grow in.
As for me, I am thankful that my family and I found dirt to grown in. We live in the country, I work for our food, and I am going surfing in cold and clean ocean water tomorrow morning.
