Episode Seven: Surfing, politics, and the danger of apathy
Meeting people is easy when you’re surfing. With the ocean as a common denominator, the usual social boundaries get left behind as you reach the sand.
Over the past month I’ve met people from all walks of life: original hippies from the ’70s still clinging onto the freeway, CEO’s of huge corporations, charity workers, budding surfers from the poorest of townships, eager-eyed groms, young professionals trying to squeeze surfing in around their working timetables and silver surfers taking each day as it comes.
And for all these people, rich or poor, old or young, black or white, one thing shines through. When they are in the ocean they want for nothing else, they need nothing else; they all exist on a level plain, temporarily at least. This is the positive side to surfing, where it surpasses all other sports in uniting people from all walks of life and encourages them to live together and enjoy what is given to us.
It is hard to argue against this aspect of the sport, but lately I have witnessed a more worrying side. I read recently in one surfing publication that if politicians were to take up surfing, the world would be a better place. There is a belief amongst some surfers that their sport can somehow save the world; that the joy they extract from riding waves can permeate to the core of society and correct all the wrongdoings and misgivings of previous generations. It is a point of view that is too readily indulged by the surfing population and, while surfing has spawned several successful aid organisations making a real difference on a humanitarian level, the surfing media needs to re-invent itself if it is to be taken seriously when it comes to politics.
The rose tinted view of surfing life presented by these magazines is one far removed from the reality of daily living, especially here in South Africa. In another surfing publication, this time of South African origin, I was worried to see how two of the country’s leading surfers both failed to name their current president when quizzed. The target market of these magazines is the U25’s, the very section of South African society that sorely needs encouraging to take a more active role in their country’s future. There is a responsibility on the part of the magazines, particularly in a volatile society such as this, to present some strong role models. But the opposite seems true as they seem intent on indulging the apathetic, slack jawed ignorance so often levelled at surfers across the globe.
South Africa is undergoing major change following the ousting of president Tabo Mbeki and come next April, when elections will most likely bring the highly controversial figure of Jacob Zuma to power, the country will enter its third phase as a democracy and social boundaries will once again be redrawn. An already complex society will further fragment as power shifts, for the first time in the new era, from one major tribe (Xhosa) to the next (Zulu). Exactly how this will affect South Africa’s multi-national society remains to be seen but one thing is clear, there is no longer room for ignorance and apathy here. It is the younger generation on whose shoulders the burden will fall heaviest and they need to be motivated to take an active interest in the situation now facing them. It is astonishing to see just how few of them, especially in the coastal towns and cities that I have spent time in these past few months, are really aware of the situation, and their responsibility to take an active interest if the country is to continue to prosper in the future.
South Africa has a huge surfing population. Not only that but they are, by and large, young, open minded, forward thinking and passionate about their home country. Through surfing, there is an opportunity to reach a very large number of South Africa’s younger generation at a time when it is most needed. There is a chance for the surfing media here to move away from the traditional stereotype and act authentically. If they want to continue to peddle the notion that surfing can indeed save the world, then now is the time for them to act.
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