How Surfing Works

think it's super cool to him. It's old school. You remember Spuds Mackenzie had that Hang twenty or hang whatever poster? Do you remember Spuds Mackenzie? Well, that's all good surf video really, according to the posters that I've seen, people still call those dogs Spuds Mackenzie's too, after all these years. Yeah. What kind of terriers? It's some sort of pit bull terrier, but it's a like a Stratfordshire. I think I have

no idea it is a terrier though, for sure. Yeah, because they go after rats and mailman so um, Chuck, Yes, can you guess when the first recorded description of someone surfing was what are you going to guess? The fifties, the sixties, Well, I know what it is, so I'm going to tell you again. It was seventeen seventy nine. In fact, did you know that? So that was the

one you're gonna guess. That's everyone's aware. Um. So. And it was, as you know, I guess, by a guy named Lieutenant James King, who at the time of the writing had just very recently become the captain of the HMS Discovery because his captain, uh, Captain James Cook, very famous explorer, um had just been killed by the Hawaiians because he had taken the chief captive in order to force them to return a boat because he surfed in their waters. And localism was rough. Yeah, I guess so,

I guess so. And apparently the tradition among Hawaiians, as far as localism goes, it was pretty serious and always has been. It's always been that way. It's very stratified out there. Um. But anyway, so James King, he first describes this this site of people riding these long wooden boards, catching a wave and riding it on in and um it kind of established or set the precedent for Hawaii

as the originator of surfing. But what's pretty cool is this is one of those instances where Europeans came in eons after something had started and actually got it right because Hawaii was an almost all likelihood the place where surfing was born. That's right, like it had started in Polynesia. They had like kind of belly boards, I think they called them, but they didn't really ever stand up. It

was the Hawaiians who first stood up. So Hawaii is the cradle of surfing, of modern surfing, and man did they ever do it? Yes, they sure did and do to this day. Yeah. Well they're carrying on a very long turdition they are. Um. Yeah, it's like we were saying. You mentioned localism, but um and I said it was stratified out there. There were actually places in Hawaii where if you weren't a member of the ruling class, you didn't surf there, and if you did, you got in

huge trouble. Um. So like the the like King Kamayamaya was a chief Hawaiian chief, very famous one. That's the club that Magnum hangs out at is named the King Kameyamaya Club. And he was noted for being like a really great surfer. Did you know that? I did not know that. Never heard of the guy, actually, King Kamama, that's pretty much the only Hawaiian chief like I'd ever heard of, probably from watching Magnum. Yeah, but he was

a great surfer. And if so, the surfing became known as the sport of kings because of that, because the chiefs um surfed and they were pretty good at it, and their social status was um exemplified by the length of their board. Oh yeah, which is pretty So the longer the board, the higher status you had as a commoner or a king. Yeah. And you could be a very good surfer and not be part of the ruling class, but you're still pretty well revered. And actually you were

called the kahuna. You're a surfing expert, so it's a big kahuna. Yes, that was the fat surfing expert. Okay, well it's a lot of those guys are yeah. Well yeah, it's like one part of the world word. You can be a big old fat guy and lay around on the beach and you're like king Daddy and have um face tattoos. How do they have those? Two? Well, the Miori do, and I think they surf. Okay, I thought we were talking Polynesia. Okay, I think oh man, I hope.

So so let's talk some more surfing history. Okay. Uh, you know they were surfing big time in the late seventeen hundreds. Uh, standing up, pushing up, doing all the modern moves, while not all the modern moves because they were pretty much long boards back then. But it was, you know, it was a huge part of society, still is. But they likened it in this one article too, like baseball was in the US, how it was in Polynesia?

And uh, even though it's all just a guess how it evolved, we have no idea really because Polynesians, uh, there's really no certainty about their movement around the earth thousands of years ago, so we're all just sort of guessing at this point. But Mark Twain surfed, Yeah, he did. He didn't have a very easy time with it. He tried it at least, right, yeah, in eighteen seventies, I'm sorry, eighteen sixty six he published in his book Roughing It.

I tried surf bathing once everything was bathing back then. It's on bathing and then like, uh, I think just bathing was when you started going into the ocean. Yeah, even though you weren't, like, you know, washing your butt right, because no one really bathed back then, That's sure they did. I tried surf bathing once subsequently, but made a failure of it. I got the board placed right and at

the right moment, too, but missed the connection myself. The board struck the shore in three quarters of a second without any cargo. I guess he was the cargo, and I struck the bottom about the same time with a couple of barrels of water in me. So Mark Twain's first experience was probably like many people's first experience was surfing.

Mine included yeah and um. So Twain visits Hawaii at a time where there are a lot of Americans hanging out there, and they were growing a lot of pineapples, and they since Hawaii wasn't a state, there are a lot of tariffs against those pineapples, and a couple of guys, two cousins with the last name of Dole, decided to overthrow the Hawaiian chieftam so that they could get the

US to annex Hawaii and get these tariffs lifted. And as a result of this, and missionaries coming and Cooks people and all that the Hawaiians had dwindled from about eight hundred thousand by the time Cook showed up to like fort and surfing kind of went with it. The interest windled um, but there were some people still surfing right and just enough so that there was a resurgence. When Mark Twain was doing it, it must have been he was probably like the first, the second, I guess,

the second white guy to ever write about it. But the third white guy, Jack London, was the one who brought surfing into popular culture. Yeah. He visited Hawaiian nineteen o seven and he hung out in one of the One of the ways that he helped spread surfing was just by writing about a guy named George Freithe. Yeah he is He basically invented modern surfing. Yeah, and was a heck of a lifeguard, as were some of the lot of the early surfers. It seems like, yeah, we're

great swimmers, great lifeguards, great surfers. Uh. Duke Kahana Maku he was a five time Olympic swimming medalist. Yeah, and he like traveled Europe and everything and gave swimming exhibitions and maybe the first guy to play beach volleyball too, Is that right? Oh, he has a great restaurant. And supposedly one of them invented the the little backboard that like the rescue board. Oh yeah, even though that that's debated, but some people I think it was freeze or freeze. Yeah. Yeah.

But he was the first dude to like stand up, do good moves. I think his boards were shorter and all. And this was you know, turning the century stuff, right, like nineteen o seven nineteen twelve, when those guys were surfing and they were surfing on like long wooden boards and I mean like really long, like ten ft sixteen feet. Yeah,

like imagine trying to maneuver one of those. Well you don't really, but they were the first one, as you said, hey, we can kind of change these boards and make them maneuverable. So they were the first ones to figuratively I guess literally shape modern surfboards. Did they create the short board, They started to they started to make changes to its. It wasn't just a flat plank of wood any longer. Nice.

Uh So in the twentieth century is when the short board came along in earnest and they added things like, uh, they made him lighter, of course, which helps UM easier to manage. The new shapes helped with stability, and then they started missing with the fins too, which I guess we can get to here in a minute. But the fins make a big difference. Of course. You know, there's a lot of a lot of stuff that the finns affect. Well, like what I guess, we can go ahead and go there.

They impact stability, feel, drive, maneuverability, and you can have all kinds of things from like a single fin to up to five. Even though I get the impression that five finns is a little obnoxious, kind of like training wheels. Wow, I don't know. I think two or three fins is what you're looking for as well. It depends what you're trying to do. Uh. The angle of the fin is called the toe and that's um the angle in relation to the center of the board, So it can be cocked,

you know, a little diagonally or just straight on. Uh. If it makes the board more responsive, the closer that the front of the fin is to the center of the board, So the closer the more it's angled, the more responsive it's going to be. Uh. And then you have the can't that is the angle in relation to the bottom of the board. So if you have no can't, it's just straight up and down. It's not angled at all. It's gonna be super fast. Uh. If it's angle, it's

going to be more responsive. So it all changes depending on how many fins and how deep they are, how big they are, what the angle is, on how you're going to drive this thing. Basically, Uh, it can be foiled on both sides or have no foil. It can have a rake, which is hard. How far back the fin curves. So if it's like a super shark fan, it's going to be different than it's if it's a little more just straight. Small rake is faster, but again

not as maneuverable. Uh. Flex stiffness that can be really super stiff or have more you know flex to them. Stiffness is uh stiff. If it's it's not as forgiving. But I think if you're like a better surfer, you're gonna want it more stiff. Uh. And then you know the base link. The smaller the base of the fin, the tighter the turns, the height and the depth of it's taller, it's more stable, but it's not gonna be

as maneuverable. So some of them are removable now, some of them are set in, but they make them now, or you can actually remove the fins, which is great for traveling and storage and I guess if you just want to mix things up a little bit. But uh, yeah, it's there's a lot of work that goes into it's just the fins along, that's just the fins on the bottom. Yeah, because I always wondered until I looked into this, like why why is that one just have one thin? Why

does that have three? Why are those fins huge? Where are those angled? Then it all matters. It all makes a difference, and it really just depends on what kind of it's like when you're buying a car, depends on what you're looking for. We have like the addition of fins. You can thank like Duke and Um and George for that at the very beginning, but they kind of popularized surfing on the West Coast, and the West Coast took over, and then about the early sixties things too, things like

Gidget and the Beach Boys. Surfing just exploded, right, and now we have just the I guess the the change from surfboards in nineteen twelve to two thousand twelve, and that hundred years, it's just incredible and exponential. And then it hadn't changed much for the thousand or so years leading up to nineteen twelve, So everything is kind of

took off in the in the twentieth century. And um, now you can basically categorize the kind of board that you're holding or surfing on um as either a short board or a long board, right, well, I mean yeah, and then there's dozens of other boards within those categories. But yeah, those are two big categories. So like, if you're pretty good at surfing, you're probably going to use a longboard, right, It depends what you're looking to do. But like you, if you are a novice along boards

not the good one to start out on. Well, I mean it's easier to stand up on because it's large and more stable, and but you're just gonna you know, you can't maneuver it and cut back and stuff unless you're like super good, and it's it's I guess I can to either like driving in the big Cadillac down the highway or being in your little sports car. Yes, you know which you could learn to drive on either one of those. You learn along board. It depends what

you're after. I would be a longboard guy now would In my earlier days I tried surfing, it was like I tried the short board and well it's just that that was the thing. But now I would get up on the long board and to stand there like walk up and down, hangd in do all that. Have you ever seen one of those Frankie and the Net Beach movies where they're surfing and they're just they are just literally standing there with their arms out, like moving side by side, and in the back it's just the green

screen behind them. And longboards you can get a couple of people on them and two people if you're good, and you just stand there and wave your arms. I designed, apparently from what I've seen. So okay. So you've got longboards, you've got short boards. You've got the fins um, the sides of the surfboard, the rails impact how the thing moves. Um, whether or not it's a curved the bottom the board, the bottom of the board, the rocker, uh, if it's

curved or not, and how much it's curved. I imagine um makes the board a lot more maneuverable than more convex it is, right. Um. And then you've got longboards, which are about nine ft long up to twelve ft long, which is just crazy to me, Like you could fit three people on. They're pretty comfortable. Yeah, I've seen like a lot of people on a long board, like when

they do the tricks and stuff. I can't name a number of people, but I feel like I've seen at least four or five people get up on a long board. And then you've got fun boards, right, they sounds like the most fun. What's a lot? What's it on board? It's kind of like in between a long board and a short board, and U it's fun. It's best for tricks. Um, I think if you wanna like really kind of shred

or whatever. And also I should probably say I have no idea what I'm talking about here because I've never served. I think people have understood that by now. But um, the short board is obviously better for that because you can, like you said, you can shred the wave, right, Uh, But in a longboard's harder to maneuver unless you're really really good at it. Um. But a funboard just kind of falls in between those two, Like you can kind of rest and relax and just stand there if you want,

but you can also maneuver. Right, that's my impression of the fun board. I have to look into it. I've never heard of the fun board. Oh you had and I had? Really, Yeah, I really genuinely have, believe you one thing, I did know what I was talking about. Uh So back in the day, they were all made of wood. Um. Now you can still get wooden surfboards.

In fact, I think a lot of the purest you can still get, like those sweet handmade wooden surfboards, but mostly these days they're gonna be what's called popouts, uh, mass manufacturer. They pop out of a factory mold where they get the name, and they're either polystyrene or poly your athane, covered in fiberglass and resin and um. But you can still act, you know, hand make those two. Obviously, you can get kits or you can pay, you know, thousands of dollars for some dude in California or Hawaii

to hand shape your own sweet little board. Yeah, Tracy said. The surfboards cost between a hundred and fifty and five dollars. I think that's when you're shopping on Amazon dot com. Yeah, yeah, I found some that were pretty awesome for less than a thousand. I mean, like the vast majority or less than a thousand. Hours kind of surprised because I thought she was way off, but she wouldn't off by that much. No, And I think that you can spend over a thousand

like anything. If you get like the sweet dude right hand makes him and he's done for it, you're gonna pay pretty buny. But I mean, like I even came across one. I was Proctor Surfboards, and they do custom boards, and even those were like less than a thousand. It's pretty neat. That's nice because that makes it an egalitarian sport. You think so a little I'd say this is a

little pricing. Um, it definitely is, but I'm saying, at least it's not like the gap between the the poor man surfboard and the rich man surfboard is not ten thousand dollars, it's thousand. Yeah, yeah, that's that's what I mean. Yeah, you can easily be priced out of it, but you can still get a decent surfboard for what a couple

hundred bucks? Yeah, I had I bought a surfboard for fifty bucks that I just kept for in college because I thought it was cool to have in the corner of my living room and I took at the beach couple of times and it sucked. Did your bedroom look like a pottery barnteen catalog scene. I've never seen that. They frequently have surfboards like like stood up in the corner. No, it was just Chuck's silliness in the day. So did

you say that stuff made of polyurethane. Yeah, and it's covered in a resin I did, and fiberglass, which makes it light. It makes it brilliant. But I can also imagine that if you get hit by one of these things, it hurts bad. Yeah. I mean they're they're lightweight, but it's just you whack somebody in the head with it, or if you get stabbed with it. You know, they're sharp on the front and sometimes on the back. I would never buy a sharp surfboard. I'd just be afraid

of it. What would you do. I get one that's more rounded. You get a boogie board, which we'll get it an inner tube. Um, okay, so you got your off board. Another really important thing that you have to have you have to have all this other stuff um aside from the leash is kind of superfluous. It's nice. It's an add on. You have to have wax because polyurethane resin bound surface tends to be slick, especially when you're standing on it in the water, and you can

use wax to basically create like a traction surface. Yeah, for your feet, it helps for sure. And they're also that like completely slick on top, like where you stand, they'll have like, you know, the I don't know what's not sand paper or maybe the sand paper Okay, I was wondering glashed into it to help out a little bit, but not always. Again, surfers are very particular about what they like and what they don't like, and they're all

sorts of choices. And is is dr zog sex wax like the wax or is that just the wax that guys like me you've heard of. I'm sure that was the stuff that we wore as teenagers. Like that's like saying was was it was the guy the Sun Damila and guy Panama Jack. It's like saying was Panama Jack like the lotion of Choice. I think it's sort of like that, but Panama Jack was the lotion of choice. Was really the t shirt of choice for sure? Yeah,

rolled up sleeves. Yeah. So board shorts. Tracy Wilson wrote this. Tracy points out board shorts are sturdy your versions of swim trunks. I didn't know that. I guess they're beefed up. Well, they have they have a tie, so it's not just like um elastic. Yeah, is that the difference. It's got a it's got a strong tie. They usually don't have elastic. Um. Yeah, all right, and they are sturdy. Yeah. I just think they don't come off as easy. I think they're designed

not to be. Could that'd be embarrassing, rash best Um, those are just like the little short sleeve um Oakley shirt that you wear that keeps your and she she says it helps a bit chafing with impact with the water. Maybe true, but if you've ever been on a surfboard, your chest it gets a little chaped as well from the sand and stuff like that, so that protects you there. And then of course wet suits when you're cold or if you're in the Pacific Ocean, which you know usually

year round, they're wearing wet suits up there. Yeah, I guess the wet suits probably not superfluous. I mean, depending on where you're surfing, you have to wear a wet suit and you're either regular surfle or your goofy foot, which means which foot do you put forward? If you put your left foot forward and your right foot back, it's just standard. And then if you turn around and put your left foot back, you're known as a goofy foot. Same with the skateboarding too. Yeah, and I don't know

if well surfing led to skateboarding. Some say I think it directly led to skateboarding. Uh. And I don't know if that's a slag to call someone a goofy foot or to be a goofy foot or not. I think it probably was originally, but so many people skate or surf goofy foot know it's just like a term. It had to be a slide because they would have called it like a cool foot or something if it was like super cool to do it that way, or if like a really popular guy named Tom had done it,

they'd be like, well it's Tom footed. Well, wherever you put your your foot in the rear, that's the one you want to have. The lesha attached to and that is not superfluous either. You want to have your board attached to your ankle because if you fly off, you don't want to have to go swimming too far to get it sure. And it also can you know if it's attached to your foot and you're having trouble, you can grab hold of your surfboard. And it's another good

reason to help save yourself perhaps. So how do you learn to surf? Josh? It's uh. I think one of those things that it's easy to learn how but very very difficult to master and it takes tons of practice. And I want to also I want to give a shout out um too too. We got a lot of that history from a site, from an article written by a guy named Ben Marcus, and the article is called

from Polynesia with Love, Good Stuff stuff Uh. And then um the surfing handbook dot com has this whole section called Beginners Surfing Tips, and they have everything you need to know. They're so friendly and like one of the one of the things that they just kind of put out is like this mantras, like just go into this whole thing knowing that you're not going to be good right away. That you're going to fail, and it's like,

just try not to get frustrated. And certainly if you start to get so frustrated that you don't want to surfing more, they say, like, take a break, like it's supposed to be fun. It's sure, you don't get so uptight, and just basically don't come in like you're going to just be a champ right away. Takes tons of practice, and a lot of the practice starts on land, like practicing the pop up. Yeah, I had the opposite experience that you described, which was easy to do, hard to master.

I had a really tough time doing it at all. Yeah I did. And everyone in my little group that had never done it, like, we none of us could stand up on that first day at all. Well then, oh yeah, yeah, I think on um, I mean like if you're just looking at it on paper and thinking about what you have to do, that that's not that much to it. It's like, but being able to do it mastering it too, Yeah, I can imagine um, and it will be for me too eventually. You can try it. Sure.

So basically, when I say it's kind of easy, there's just a few steps. Basically you want to swim out. You paddle out on your stomach to um the breakers. Right, and this is where the waves are starting to turn into white caps. They're breaking. Um. And when you get to this line where is it where all the surfers hang out, what's it called the lineup? That's where all the surfers just hanging out waiting for the wave, right, talking philosophy and music and how to beat up people

who shouldn't be there. You want to go in a curve because you don't want to get beat up up and you want to avoid the waves, and you just basically it'll make it easier to paddle out there. Um. And it's easier than not get beat up from getting

in another surf's way. So when you get out to the lineup and you're I'm starting to catch your wave, you want to be facing the shore and as a as a wave starts to swell, as a swell comes in and starts to break, you want to be right on top of or right in front of it, right, And you're paddling really fast trying to catch the wave.

As they say, yes, I think that's even in bold um and uh right, as the right before the way starts a break, or right as it starts to break, like maybe to your right or to your left, you do what's called the pop up. Right, You do like a push up, and then you pop your feet underneath you, and now you're standing and you can apparently, right, well that's the that's the process, and you can apparently like get onto your knees and then get onto your feet

and it can work. But apparently, like don't want to learn to do that because it's a really bad habit and it's going to keep you from really surfing. Well, right, So what you want to do is push up with your with your hands and then put your feet underneath you and stayd up and kind of a crouching position, and now you're surfing a sideways, yeah, crouching position. And then that's it. That's all there is to it. Yeah. Yeah.

My favorite part when I tried it with back in college and stuff was when you're sitting out there with the other dudes and there aren't there's no surfing involved, when you're just like sitting there feeling cool, bobbing up and down with the surfing guys. Right. I used to like that a lot, a lot of standing around and talking just sitting down on the skateboard called dimple butt because of the grip tape eventually would just kind of

form a little pattern in your butt. You actually ride at the skateboard sitting down, you're just sitting there talking, talking shop with the other thrashers. Yeah, so when you're going out, you mentioned, you know, you to go out in a curve and not like go with this thing

straight on. If you've never done this in and you don't have anyone teaching you how, it can be very frustrating because you will paddle out and the wave will bring you back into shore over and over and over, and then eventually you're just gonna go to the beach bar with your surfboard looking cool. But what you want to do is what's called the duck dive, and that is as the and this is on a short board, as the wave approaches before it's like cresting and falling

on you. You just want to push down on the board and go through the wave and come out on the other side. And if you do this right a couple of times, then you'll be behind where the waves are breaking and you're all good to go. You're you're maneuvering yourself out of the way of most of the force of the wave. Yeah, and it's the duck dive. I think they call it that. You actually roll upside down. And what's called the turtle roll with a long board. But I bet you can duck dive with a long board.

Maybe not, I don't know. I wonder about that. But yeah, with the turtle role, you roll underneath the board and then pull the nose down, right. Yeah, that's the turtle role. Duck dick sounds easier, turtle roll sounds more fun. I've never been on along board. I should try that. Um. So let's talk about waves, man. This is see that's funny because I'm kind of like we're finally at a point where I know what I'm talking about. Yeah, the physics of waves, right, so um yeah, you can't surf

without waves. And if you really want to surf, man, you have to understand what you're dealing with, like what you're writing. You know, if you're going to shred a half pipe, you better understand the physics of wood, right, So if you're gonna hit the bonds I pipeline and and by the way, we were talking about duck diving

and all that. For these huge mavericks, like you know near San Francisco at Princeton by the sea the Bonds Eye Pipeline, most of these dudes and ladies are being towed by like a jet ski because they're just too big. You can't be like, see that fifty ft wave. I'm just gonna duck dive. You will be uh duck comfi if that happens, right, Yeah, you get towed out there by like a personal watercraft. Right. So we're just gonna

cover what you know, your average West Coast surfing waves. Okay, so if you're if you're out to sea and some wind suddenly whips up, you're probably gonna see some white caps, right, which is like basically like froth, just the water being batted around by the wind. But there's also gonna be a little crests that form, right, and these crests, uh give the wind a little more service area to work with. And all of a sudden you have what is called a um peak, yes um, and this peak starts to

travel away from the direction of the wind. Now we're not talking about just like a nice little breeze or something. We're talking like hurricanes typically to form a good sized wave, but any wind could conceivably create a wave. Right, Yes, So when this peak starts to travel away from the from the wind, it actually expends a little bit of its energy and it goes from this kind of choppy wave to this nice rounded thing called the swell. It

doesn't look like there's much to it. The reason it doesn't look like there's much to it is because it's actually really deep at that point. Right. So you get a bunch of these swells lined up. Um, as they get closer and closer to shore, and the they start to make contact with land at the bottom, the ones in front start to slow a little bit, the ones that back started to catch up, and sometimes they combine

into large swells. Right, that's right. And as these are like, yeah, they get together essentially going in the same direction and say, hey, come on, let's make a let's make a big wave. And it's called constructive interference as far as wave physics goes. Right, Um, what's cool is if you look at a wave from the side, it looks like just like what's called a transverse wave, like something like you're looking an e G

or something. It's the wave length that the trough and the crest are up and down, but they're moving from left to right or whatever. Left right. Yeah, But really what a wave is doing is actually an orbital wave where all of this motion is actually making a circle as it moves along. Right. These are the molecules actually. Yeah.

But if but you could, you can make a you could make an animation where you could trace the movement of the waves and it'd be like this, this kind of big circle that goes from the back of the wave to the crest into the trough and then back down again right right. So, um, that's that's a wave. And as it gets closer to the shore, um, it starts to slow down. And when when it hits land, the force of land or the immovability of land and the force of the wave combined to push the wave

upward above the water surface. And then the run of the wave starts to slow before the back of the wave, which means you have a wave breaking because the back crashes over the front, and if you have a really steep bit of land, you're gonna have a really steep um crash. It's going to form a barrel or a hollow wave. If the slope of the land that the

wave runs into, the swell runs into. Because a little more gradual, you're gonna have what's called a crumbling wave that just kind of breaks slowly in in in a kind of a nice gentle pattern. Yeah, it's what happens when water meets land. So if you've ever seen a wave, you know, a hundred feet out in the ocean, it means that there's some sort of shallow reef right there making that happen. Yeah, because a wave is about one

point six times it's um depth. The height of a wave is right, or it's it's depth is one point six times it's height. But yeah, but I mean if you're riding a six ft wave, which has a lot of power to it, that's still only what less than ten ft of water that you're dealing with out there. That's a lot of water, Yeah, it is, But I mean, like that's still pretty shallow and you can hit the

bottom surfing, I think is the point. Yeah, absolutely, Um, And you know that the the shape of the land under the ocean makes a big difference and what kind of waves you're gonna get, obviously, So that's why the surfing like really good surf spots in the world are super limited, Like, you can't man make this stuff. They've tried, Yeah, but come on, I mean that's stuff that's lame. Um, it's all mother nature, dude. So the best surf spots in the world are few and far between, especially if

you're looking for the big giant daddies. There's only a few spots on Earth that you can encounter those, right, So, wind obviously pays a big difference, not just in the formation of the wave but in how it blows on shore offshore. What you're looking for ideally is a gentle offshore wind blowing towards the wave. Uh, if you're blowing if it's an onshore in coming from the ocean towards the beach, um, it can be a little rougher to

deal with as a surfer. So well, at days, with the gentle offshore wind, that's when the surfers hear that on the radio, they get up early, go out there at daybreak. Is that the best time to surf daybreak? Well, I mean there's all different times, but yeah, or maybe that has something to do too with well, not with people just having to go to work. But I used to see people on the pch all the time, like

super early morning and then in the evenings. That's pretty cool. Yeah, but maybe it has something to do with the best waves too, because you know, surfers will blow off work if it the best waves. A written in bro, That's when I'm going. I've seen Summer School and UM Fast Times at Ridgemont High. I'm familiar with surfing. UM, so we were talking about UM. I thought that I don't think either one that's actually had any surfing. Did they

really did? Really? Sure? They talked really Summer School definitely had shots like establishing shots surfing. UM, I don't know if they actually showed any and Fast Times in Richmond High. They're in the valley. There wasn't many waves, but Spaccoli of course was. It was a surfer. Yeah. Well and at the end, you know that that was the great ending. He rescued uh, Mick Jagger from drowning while Surfing's the little interview with Stu and what do you do? Hired

Van Halen to play his birthday party. I know he won some sort of competition. Well, the competition was saving Mick Jagger's life. Huh. No, he has like a trophy or something and the dream sequence. Um, okay, so we're talking about we're talking about the power of waves, right. Did you know that a cubic meter a cubic yard basically a cubic meter of water. That's not much man, we're talking like this, that weighs a ton. What do you mean it weighs a ton. It weighs um two

thousand two pounds. So if you took a box that big and put water in it, it would weigh two thousand pounds. Yes, yes, at four degrees celsius. It's very specific because you remember from the metric episode, like they calibrate like that. But yes, it weighs a metric ton. A cubic meter weighs of metric ton, when like a gallon of milk just weighs like a couple of pounds. I don't know. I looked it up, though, I swear I looked it up, and I actually double looked it up.

I was like, because I thought the same thing. It seems like a lot um. But yes, there weighs a lot of Yeah. So um, when that's when that comes crashing down on you. It's kind of a thing, and there's different kinds of wipeouts, but apparently the worst kind of wipe out, which I think Tracy described as falling

off of your surfboard. His called going over the falls and it's on one of those hollow barrel waves right, are just very very powerful because they hit land really quick and break really quick, and when you get caught in the lip that part where it's breaking at the top, it trips you up and basically throws you right in front of the wave at the trough, so you have like the full force of the way just doing this orbital wave right over you. You're You're like in a

washing machine at that point. So falling in, falling off your board, wiping out is one danger. Yeah, we should probably talk about surfing dangers. I want to alert people to these things because they're out there. Have you ever been caught up in in a wave like that? Yeah? It's scary man. Well, and you feel completely helpless like mother nature has got me and is throwing me around like a little rag doll and I am completely helpless to do anything about it, and then feel like you're six.

It does no matter how old you are, And if you're six, boy, that's really scary. Um So riptides are dangerous and that's one of the things that is at play there. Uh, that is the water returning to the sea, and that retreating water can be a fast moving current to take you really far out to see before you know it. So they advise you. You know, I've always heard like swim uh uh perpendicular way, parallel, parallel, always

get this confused to to avoid the rip current. It's been perpendicular to the shore, away from the shore until you pass out. Uh, So that can be kind of scary, the pull of the rip current. Um. You can also hit stuff underwater. Like we said, if a waves out there, whatever its height is I think times one point six that's how deep the water is. So you can very easily, especially in a heavy wave, get thrown to the bottom. You can get thrown on a coral reef or hit

by another board. Yeah, which brings us to um etiquette. Surfing etiquette. There's because it can be very dangerous to run into people and because you know, really great surf spots are few and far between, that means that there's often a lot of people out there. So there's there's kind of two informal rules of catching a wave of who gets precedent, right, Um, I guess first one up or first one or closest to the break that gives you the right of way. Yeah, and everybody else has

to get out of your way. And if they don't, what happens to them? Well, people, if you're in a nicer area, people might say, hey, bro, that's not too cool. Here's how it's done. Or they might just drag you to the beach and kick the crap out of you and break your board and throw it in the back of your car and put you in that car. That happens and what Regardless of what beach experience you have, they're probably gonna call you a kok too, what a kuk?

That's somebody who doesn't follow surfing. I bet you'll hear other words too, But I'll bet cooks in there. So are we at localism? I wrote an article why do surfers have gangs? And it's a thing, and it has been a thing for a long time. I know most people think of surfers is like thiss in spouting, easy going, uh, philosophical beach dudes, and a lot of them are like that, but um, a lot of them are not. Surfing has been tied to violence over territory for many, many years.

And that is because, like we said, there are only so many surf spots in the world, and when dudes like you and me get all excited to go try it out, we're taking the limited amount of space and waves that exists for them. That's why I'm going to try and Dubai first, and Dubai a wave machine. Now you should, I think if you're taking a class or something, they know to go to a place where you teach classes and everyone else knows don't go anywhere near the classes.

So that's a good thing to do. Um. But surf gangs has been around for decades, and localism since the seventies is gotten kind of bad in some areas, and the boogie board was a big reason why, because all of a sudden, this thing was invented for all these little kids to go out there and they can ride waves without any experience or technique or skill whatsoever. And they don't know the rules and they don't care, uh, and their parents don't care as long as they're not

in their hair on the beach. So thanks to the boogie board, the violence picked up in the seventies and there are well established surf gangs, even though you won't hear them call that. Yeah, the wolf Pack in Hawaii on the North shore of Hawaii. They're they're just a family, but they can also be pretty violent. Um. Russell Crowe did a narrated a documentary called bra Boys Blood is Thicker Than Water about Australia's Braa Boys and they were

some tough dudes since the nineteen sixties. Who have some of which have spent time in and out of jail. Uh, the Averton brothers in fact, I think one of the Aberton brothers made the documentary. But if you ask them, you know they're just protecting their area and something sacred to them. Yeah, don't don't be a cock. Southern California, No, San Diego has long been noted for localism, right, Yeah, I didn't know that. Um, the Silver Strand locals to

SSL and the ox Nard Shore locals San Diego. No, those aren't the pier Point rats um in the eighties and ninetieses or just some of the notorious surf gangs that you know they have run ins with cops. Some of people have been beaten to death. In two thousand seven in Lahoya, a surfer was beaten to death. Hawaiian surfer was killed in a fight in two thousand eight. So this stuff happens. And um, if you go out to surf, just don't don't be scared. You know, like

these people are gonna hurt me. But it's definitely cool to to try and ingratiate yourself somewhat. Bring them maybe like, um, some home bake cookies or something out to the lineup, ask questions. There's probably some nice guys would be like, hey, dude, which you should probably do this and steer clear of the red hot chili peppers. You ever run across them in a lineup, you want to get away because they are bad dudes. As far as surf gangs go, is

that a real surf gang? Don't you remember in Point Rake? What what were they the They were like a surf gang. They were like the rival surf gang that they're in the movie. I don't think I knew that. Yeah, but that was early on for them. That must have been their formative days. That was in the eighties, um or early nineties. Was that early nineties it was maybe like he directed that was Katherine Bigelow, that was one of

her first movies. I didn't know that. Yeah, that was a great movie, so we should point out Tracy points out that surfing it's pretty cool. Not many sports have spawned a musical genre and a film film genre like surfing has You know, there's not a lot of songs about basketball outside of I guess Graay, Maaster Flash and maybe run DMC. But people aren't writing songs about football

or croquet. There's no croquet songs, but if they are there from like the yeah, not good surf music was a huge thing, though it still is in a lot of circles. Uh. And then of course the movie's point break, what's your favorite? Have you ever seen Big Wednesday? No good movie? Have you seen Surf Nazis Must Die? I have not? That's a good one? Is it? Is there actually surfing in it? Yeah? Yeah, there's a lot of fights on surfboards and yeah, people shooting one anothers on surfboards.

And Big Wednesday is a classic. Blue Crush is a more recent one that covers the ladies and um, Emily loves that movie, by the way. And then there's some great documentaries, the Old Endless Summer movie that was really great, And then Endless Summer two was not bad. And then there's recently more recently, Stacy Prolton made a one called Writing Giants, which is awesome anothere called Step into Liquid,

which is really cool too. Yeah, I think that's like number two or something like that, and like the best after Endless Summer. Yeah, well in the summer night stuff was cool, but that was like old school, and today they have the technology to like get inside the tube and go underwater, and it's like the footage that gets pretty amazing. It's very thank you, go pro Ah, you got anything else? Nope? Cool. I can't wait for you to try it. That's the next thing in this podcast

is for you to report back of your experience. Okay, I will go. I think be good. You'll you'll you know, if you spend a day or two, you'll be able to get up and go like, hey, I'm surfing, look at me, I'm Frankie Internet. But I mean it's crazy what you're doing though. You are standing on top of a plank of fiberglass on the writing water. Yeah, you know it ain't easy. No, I'm sure it's not. Yeah, and uh, I already can just feel my ankles can banged up on surfboard. Do you have good balance? Are

you good at stuff like skateboarding? And I'm not so bad with balance surprisingly for my size. I'm I'm I can stand up on like one leg that's balanced. Yeah, it'll be okay, you're able to surf a little bit. It'll be fun. I'm not. I'm gonna go in there with an attitude suggested by the Surf Guide have fun. Yeah, it's gonna be fun. Yeah. I'm not one of those people that gets all aggravated. If I can't do something

like that, you don't get agro bro. No man, no, wait, what's the point I quit doing it before I got aggravated. Well that's good. That's how it helped more quitter than I am. Aggro Um. Do you want to learn about surfing? And I mean like pretty decent amount about surfing? You can type that word into the search bar at how stuff works dot com. And I said search bar. So it's time for a listener mail. I'm gonna call this uh black museum. Yeah. Remember we talked about that in

the death Mask Eupside. I still want to go. I was really hoping somebody would write in and be like I can actually get you in there. No one did, no, but I bet if we really pushed for it, we could. Well, let's start pushing lots of about hands and the name. All right, guys, just got done listening to your show on Death Mass. I heard you mentioned the Black Museum and you said they should make a movie about it.

I instantly had a flashback of listening to a radio show by the same name when I was a team. Although it was in the early nineties. My local AM radio news station I would air old radio dramas in the late evening and I would tune in occasionally. One of my favorites was The Black Museum. I went and looked it up. It was. The Black Museum was one radio crime drama based on real life cases from the files of Scotland Yards. Black Museum. Orson Welles was both

host and narrator for stories of horror and mystery. Uh So the show would open with Orson Wells speaking from London Big Ben chimes, and then the Black Museum with the pository of death here in the grim Stone structure on the Thames which houses Scotland Yard in a warehouse of homicide where everyday objects a woman shoe, a tiny white box, a quilted robe. All are touched by murder.

So that sounds pretty cool. I mean and Orson Wells to like him saying things like that for sure, Chuck Bryant saying something doesn't have the impact of an Orson Wells's uh so there you guys. Maybe someday, uh, somebody will make a TV show about it or a movie. And for now you can go on the internet and listen to the old episodes gip do you want of them? And all. So that's awesome, big fan, looking forward to seeing your TV show soon. That is Dan from San Diego,

which I believe means whales. No, it doesn't. What does san Diego mean? Uh, it means sat Diego. That's right in Spanish. I would not quote Anchorman and ruin this g rated podcast. Um, if you have some I guess additional information for something that we've talked about, or if you can get us into the Black Museum, we want you to get in touch with us. You can tweak to us at s Y s K podcast. You can join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff you should know.

You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at Discovery dot com, or you can hang out with us online at our House Stuff you Should Know dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how Stuff Works dot com. Brought to you by Toyota. Let's Go Places