This Week In Not Surfing.

There was surfing in New York this week! And I didn't surf.

But Veterans Day! Of course the big story with that is that once more "the man" came down hard on a bunch of good people just trying to do right. Not the "man" who wouldn't let good Christian folk hand out food to homeless in Texas. No, the "man" who wouldn't let good Surfer folk celebrate the sacrifices of members of our armed services. Here at the Endless Bummer Surf Blog About Not Surfing, we like to call a spade a spade and call out the bizarre Police culture that insecurely fosters impunity, but in this instance I have to just feel a little bad for the unthinking automaton captured in that infamous picture posted on many social media streams. I mean, the guy was likely just following some sort of dumb ass set of rules, and probably enforcing them in the dumbest ass way he possibly could, but still, rules are rules and we pay these people to make sure many good rules are enforced. Like not littering. And not burning shit that shouldn't be burned. And not murdering people. Again it comes down to a cultural weakness. That beach park cop guy is employed specifically to make sure the state doesn't get sued for something. That sort of fear based decision making from the top just trickles down to the basic active DNA of the system. Like the cop culture of being bullies. So... beach park patrolmen are lame.

The internet is often lauded for making the world smaller, for bringing people together. The sad thing is that the internet fosters fads of hatred and recrimination with such facility it repeatedly makes space a touch too small, reducing any natural margin for error.

The medium is the message sometimes I guess. And that poor guy was just at the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong message. And of course in one's moment of making a tremendously bad decision one's worst enemy is the internet.


So a couple weeks ago I got to peripherally partake in a podcast with Ty Breuer, an experience I immediately flagged as intrinsically "fun." Being the troglodyte I am, I am far behind in the podcast craze, but there's never a time too late. Today I made my first go at recording a podcast and hope to repeat it as often as possible. More importantly, I've been talking to Ty Breuer about him starting a podcast, which will be far more successful, especially in a surfy sense, than anything you'll hear here. But that shouldn't stop me from having a good time failing.

(I strongly recommend, no urge, you to wear headphones and to set aside a menial, brainless task that will take roughly one hour and thirty seven minutes and doesn't create too much incidental sound.)



In other news, the tattoo on my arm just got even better.