swellnet...is the honeymoon over?

[wolruss]

Suitably impressed Well done Steen on extending the "Mahalo"(is that the way you spell it S.Rock) and to Stu for the courage to find out what it's all about. Not everybody gets it, that's cool....don't want everybody to get it..... but a the mind is like a parachute - usually works best when open. Corny but applicable. The comraderie was a big thing for me as I thought there were very few of us left in the water until a few years ago & it was Steen who lent me a few boards to try out.
Well done guys.

Cheers Wolruss

[SFKneelo]

What Walruss said... less the loaning of boards and such

[barry]

that was a nice read

[Smokin Rock]

well done Russ
your comment on whether or not people "got it" or not got me thinking.
"mahalo" (thank you) is painted on many trashcans here in the islands.
i've heard a tourist gush "the Hawaiian's have such a beautiful word for trash....mahalo". at first i wanted to correct them but then i thought of an interview with Paul McCartney where he was asked what he specifically meant when he had penned a particular lyric. he replied that it was not really important what he meant but rather how the listener interpreted the lyric. what it meant to them.
so are kneeboarders the tourists who glorified the trash or the songwriters who continually have their work misinterpreted? or both

[Steeno]

cool thoughts Mike

I would say we are the songwriters.

very cool way of putting it.

kneeboarders where the first guys to write songs about surfing in the tube and in the pocket.

interpreted incorrectly is what the surfing industry did to it.

[Smokin Rock]

thats pretty much how i saw it
we were rockin the blues when disco took over

[wolruss]

Just about everybody I've met in the kneeboarding fraternity have had the same cool vibe, welcoming to our family.....which by the way I thought Mahalo meant (guess that make me a tourist hey) & as Stu said in his write up thats the feeling he picked up on when with Kneelo's and something thats lost in the larger world of surfing, I'm proud to be a part of that and I certainly wouldn't like to see it lost because everybody started to think what we do is cool...there is plenty of youth coming through in our part of the world that'll keep the fires burning.

Cheers Wolruss

[Smokin Rock]

hey Russ,
the word you're looking for is "ohana" which means family

[RMcKnee]

Mike, that's a good point you made. I think like Steen that we're songwriters rather than dumb tourists, but then again there's a strong argument for seeing all surfers as dumb tourists misinterpreting Polynesian culture.

The slogan says "only a surfer knows the feeling", but just exactly what feeling is it? The answer to that question is potentially as varied as the number of surfers on the planet. George Greenough is famous for saying repeatedly that for him surfing is all about the feeling he gets riding a wave. That's at the heart of what many kneeboarders love: the sensation of speed, proximity to the wave and water, the sense of involvement we get from being so close to it all. George actually found a more effective vehicle for achieving those feelings and ... he gave up kneeboards to ride air-mats. It can be no coincidence that the big boom in kneeboarding happened when it was the most effective way of getting intimately involved in the wave: tube-riding. Board design has moved on from those days and now surfing is often as much about what happens above the wave as on or in it. Despite design advances I don't think attitudes amongst surfers have changed all that much. As much as kids in 1960 wanted to look good hanging 5 or 10, kids today want to look good boosting airs or wafting fins.
As I see it there's less ego involved in kneeboard surfing. In an overcrowded surfing world where ego leads to more ugly incidents, anger, frustration and violence, anything that helps increase the good vibes has got to be a good thing.
So, our little kneeboarding ohana is fulfilling a really important function in spreading aloha through the surfing world. Think of us as ambassadors of stoke. Cool!

[Smokin Rock]

this is interesting stuff! it's good to see others thinking along the same lines the "ambassadors of stoke" is very true. as the only kneeboarder on the north side of this island i get guys coming up to me every season and say stuff like they haven't seen a kneeboarder in 20 years and thought it was an extinct artform. the only ones who give me sh&t are my friends i think in this ever-changing world it's comforting to see something from surfing's past. one day at 69's i got a killer barrel and this 20 something kid came up to me and told i had just shattered his whole perception of surfing. he said before he saw me he didn't even know kneeboarding existed and now he's dealing with the fact that not only does kneeboarding exist.....it's a totally viable and interesting way to ride a wave. we sat in the channel for a few mins and i showed him my board and discussed the differences regarding kneeboard design.
if i had brushed him off, or been a ass... that golden moment in time would have been lost. i hope he left that day thinking not only is kneeboarding pretty cool but the guys who ride them perhaps still had that original stoke and aloha that all the magazines and websites and advertisements try to sell but can never deliver.

[Steeno]

Mike's ticking the Aloha box

[womble]

Only a kneelo knows the feeling

the swell starts lifting
on his board he is shifting
moving as one they paddle with grace
he slides through the ocean
natures beauty in his motion
as he pops to his feet and glides down the face
with bottom turn stalling
the wave jacking and walling
setting his line as the wave starts to throw
lining up the next section
offshore pure glass perfection
they say its a feeling only a surfer could know
negotiating the curtain
with an outcome uncertain
racing for freedom at the end of the line
and as he heads for the shoulder
he thinks no one is bolder
but glances behind at a sight so divine
busting out through the ceiling
is a surfer who's kneeling
behind him and deeper on the foam ball he rode
with a wry grin and a smile
man he'd witnessed some style
but that kneeboarder was untouchable with the skill that he showed

[wolruss]

Hey Mike, Mahalo on clearing up the Ohana issue and great to see we're all thinking along the same lines,( some more eloquently than others ) and Womble is that your own wordsmithing, haven't seen that before...loved it.

Cheers Wolruss

[womble]

Womble is that your own wordsmithing, haven't seen that before.

Sometimes Old Crazy gets all lucid and things start making sense ... but the medication helps to get our human train wreak back off track ... toot toot.



I liked the earlier analogy of the songwriters and tourists (dumb or not) ...

... but what of the painters ... surrealists ... abstract expressionists and the likes ... misunderstood geniuses ... arguably ahead of their time ... or simply nonconformist mad men with a talent ... and a passion to match.

If Picasso had surfed ... it would have been on a kneeboard ... Pablo Picasso was not an asshole ...

And Vincent poor Vincent ... truly misunderstood ... not sure about the ear thing though ... I like wearing designer sunnies ...

[Steeno]

http://www.swellnet.com.au/news/2197-al ... d-champion