Association

Location : Cherating, Pahang, Malaysia.

I was gonna go to bed....but then I got high.
I would have caught the morning surf....but then I got high.
Now the waves are all messed up and I know why....
.....cause I got high..
.....cause I got high..
.....cause I got high..

Tonight will be an early night. I went down to Kijal this AFTERNOON and the waves are all messy, mushy and totally uninviting. I went in to catch 5 measly waves anyway because I felt a sense of regret for getting stoned last night.

Yesterday, it was nice and glassy...totally fun. I'm anticipating the swell to stay throughout the week but the fucking forecast changes everyday. Think I'm going to give God a call and ask him wassup with the weather...

I got wind that some of the new kids on the block in the local surfing scene want to create a Malaysian Surfing Association(MSA). Apparently, they're spreading the word about some professor from somewhere creating an artificial reef on Tioman Island and it will be built with some kinda surfing accommodation or resort that caters for surfers. Yeah rrrrright.....for only 3 months of the year! HAHAHA.....this is because our poor wave-starved Malaysian boys and girls have only got 3 months of a whole year to surf where else the rest of the year is flat. They claim they've even managed to acquire government approval for the project and its going ahead. Well, I'd like to see that happen and see how far they're going to take it. As for the MSA, I hate the idea of opening up surfing in Malaysia because I don't want to see assholes with an attitude problem surfing our waters. And trust me, there are MAJOR assholes out there. I speak from the experience of surfing with lots of nationalities in quite a couple of countries. When they told me they're starting an association, I asked them why and then came golden silence. That wasn't a very good impression - an association without an agenda. Maybe they were stoned or something when I asked them. Maybe I'm blind but I have not once seen the self-elected "president" of the MSA surfing in the water. I wonder if he even surfs. Maybe I'm forming early conclusions and being too judgemental. Maybe I'm being prejudiced or even defensive. Maybe there's quite a bit of localism in me, more than I imagined. =) But I'd really like to see how this goes too. These guys were staying in the room next to mine and as of now, the owner of the guest house, June, has just told me these bozos left without paying for their rooms. I am really surprised to hear that because its something I'd never imagine would happen to someone as nice as June. Maybe they will pay later? Who knows? Nobody knows them. They don't talk to anyone and they don't mix around. I smiled at the "president" and he just stared through me. So much for MSA. As of now, they won't have my support. I doubt I'll ever support mass propaganda of Malaysian surfing.

As for Malaysians taking up surfing, there is also a lot of macho attitude involved with surfing. I hate that. Surfing in Malaysia is still at a very infant stage - the kind of stage where more and more people are starting to think that it's "cool" to surf when in actual fact, nobody outside Malaysia gives a shit if you surf or not. Last weekend was the first time I saw the new Malaysian surfers in the water and they seem to be surfing without any ethics. 5 surfers taking off on one wave? This is one avenue where MSA can make an effort to improve surfing in Malaysia - to instil surfing ethics. To clean up the whole surfing area at Kijal. To get Strawberry to allow us to access the beach instead of being stopped by the major security assholes guarding the gate. If the new surfers keep dropping into waves, there will be a fight in the water soon.

When I used to go surfing in the fisherman village, a big group of locals would come out just to watch what the heck we were doing in the ocean with something white(surfboard). The people in the shops would question what outsiders like us were we doing in their village. Today, they asked me how were the waves and when I'd be coming to surf again. Tomorrow there might be some kinda resort built there and the whole village wiped out. Haha....but you get what I mean, right? Now, we get 5 surfers dropping into one wave. If we don't watch it, soon it will be like Bali where 30 surfers drop into one measly wave.

Think I've bitched around enough for today. I'm going to go clean Kelly up.

Posted by Ripcord at October 27, 2003 04:29 PM