There is nothing here to be into

Last night I got rip-roaring barstool drunk with my great friend Joe G. Joe is a filmmaker and he’s made some of the best pieces of surfing cinema to date (Secret Machine, Year Zero, Strange Rumblings, etc.). So last night we got to drinking. It started with quiet conversation, a margarita, and a taco. It finished with us huddled in the corner of a dive bar gripping whiskey and Heinekens while DJing on TouchTunes and scribbling ideas on napkins. I walked home fairly tilted, my pockets full of scribbled-on napkins and a huge TouchTunes tab. But I knew, somewhere among the smudged hieroglyphics in my pocket, was the road map out of this mess we’re in.

Now maybe you don’t feel as though we’re in a mess. And that’s fine, some of you need to focus on the really important things in life — like surviving a day in this damn world, I get it. But for those of us who’ve committed our strange lives to the subtle art of surf culture, this place looks like hell and unfortunately for Joe and I, we’ve seen it have flashes of brilliance. So we know what we’re capable of. But right now, we’re a long way from glory. Currently, the whole damn industry is owned by one company. We’ve become the machine we once offered respite from. Surfers are somehow boring. And the ones who aren’t boring are nowhere to be found. We’re flooded with constant content but I couldn’t recall a single memorable clip. I went to two surf shops recently and neither one sold ding repair. They suggested I go to Ace Hardware and buy boat resin. So Joe and I got drunk. For you. And the first thing we decided was that we need to do this. We need a voice and a place for us. However small, we need somewhere. A community. A place to create together.

A few days later, I reviewed the napkins, made some notes, took Ernest Hemingway’s advice to follow through on what you say you’re going to do when you’re drunk (as a means of keeping ones mouth shut), and I set some meetings, I made a website, I named the damn thing and well would you look at this, we’re here. Inherent Bummer is a thing. What that thing becomes will be up to us but to begin my friends, begin.—Travis Ferré