Never Since We Left

Well, I held up my end of the bargain last week and I went down and rode that one wave I said I would ride. And before I carry on and bore you with any more talk of me, myself and my injury, I want to say: there is nothing more healing than dunking yourself in the ocean. Do it by any means necessary. 

Let’s forget about the fact that it was an excruciating paddle — which was all of 10 yards off the beach — or that I could muster only one shorebreak wave (I got a pump and a float in before crumbling on the sand in pain). But walking up the beach I was the happiest boy in all of HB. I surf(ed). The rest of the weekend I might as well have had spaghetti arms, wetsuit rash, sandy toes, tan lines and salt crusting over my eyebrows because I was stoked.

In fact, I was so stoked that I basically ignored our website and all of you for most of the week trying to create our whole new surf world. We published like one thing until today, completely disregarding deadlines and responsibility — which I wish I could say was due to me just going on a surf bender (not yet!). The real reason is we’re building something great, but it’s going to take patience and moments of disregard for “the feed” and us putting on our “masks against conformity” — a term used by surrealist writer/painter Leonora Carrington who has captivated my heart this week). 

The current media/brand/surf situation is a race to the bottom that includes conforming to popular demand for more, more more and nailing the SEO headline by correctly getting the words “Taylor Swift” and “Travis Kelce” to go alongside the word “surf” so that we can all doom scroll on our phones together, liking and commenting until we’re all loving the same plain oatmeal with no butter or sugar.

Well, we’re not doing that. We’re gonna do some trailblazing over the next few months and go ahead and make this surf world a better place to shred with more high-end entertainment to get you saying: “I surfed.” Because at the end of the day, we exist for one reason: To get you so inspired to surf and live well that you’ll do anything, risk your neck even, just to get wet. —Travis Ferré

[Above artwork: Dear Diary — Never Since We Left Prague by Leonora Carrington]