Surfing’s Gone Soft

Surfing, like all sports, ebbs and flows. There are periods of all out hi-fidelity progression, and there are recessions to lo-fi. There’s culture, counterculture, and counter counterculture. At some point in recent memory, a swath of surfers looked at where professional high-performance surfing was headed with full rotations (and 540s! er, 720s?) and said “uh uh.” “Let’s take it back to fun,” they said. Around the same time, foam surfboards were reserved for surf schools. At some point, as trendsetters often do, someone said “Fuck it,” and took one out for the sheer irony. But also because, maybe, surfing is just playing in the ocean and shouldn’t be taken so seriously. The result of all of this is the Soft Top Revolution. It’s a revolution for the people!