Post Pipe

Pipe is over. Kieren Perrow won the thing. John John had the highest heat tallies throughout the event, but sometimes the guy with that stat doesn't win. Slater had his heat of the comp against JJ, and in my opinion totally legitimately beat the kid. Word to the wise: do not let Slater have priority when he needs an 8+ ride. KP was on fire the whole event, and if I would have read my pre-pipe post a little more closely I probably should have taken my own observations from that winter watching pipe and put my money on him. Hindsight always 20/20. And now the moment all the guys on tour and all the fans of surfing have been waiting for for 9 months is here: the break between ASP seasons. The guys on tour can chill with their families and the rest of us can stop watching contests online and get some real work done. One thing I kept hearing/seeing/reading over the past few weeks is how the surfers really feel that they "have the best lifestyle" of any one in the world. Every time I hear that I get a bit jealous - I feel like I am not in it enough - I don't surf three times a day any more. But then I sit back and remind myself that even though surfing is not my sole occupation any longer, it is still a massive part of my life. I mean I am not being flown around the world searching for perfect warm water reef passes, but I am in it. Every session gives me enough joy to last at least till the next one, clears my head, invigorates my limbs, and sends pulses of stoke through the core of my being. And at the end of the day after this PhD coursework is all done and dusted who knows, I just might write my dissertation in between sessions at random firing locations. All that said, surfing is a great lifestyle, definitely one of the best, but I'm sure there are some other folks out there that are pretty happy with the paths they've chosen, and good on them for that. If there is one thing that I agree with Aristotle about it is that happiness is both fleeting and relative. -D