Surfers and Sports

I am privileged enough to live next to some of the most amazing surf in the world. No wonder every time I go to the beach I see 50-100 people sitting on the their boards, eagerly awaiting for their next ride. I find it quite comical that most of these people are fearless and willing to go head first into a 9 foot monster, yet they wear winter wet suits and the water is 75. SOFT!

Well last night I refereed a few games. It was men's league. I had a team of rugby players vs a team of surfers. The rugby players wore short shorts, had no necks and were about 6' and above. The surfers, on average, had blonde hair, dark tans (which I can't figure out because they wear winter wet suits) and 80% had some sort of ponytail.

Now the rugby players were tough and didn't complain once about a call (I didn't blow my whistle much, so there REALLY wasn't much to complain about. No blood no foul right?!)

Well these surfer dudes, they were such wingers! Cry, complain, and gripe. For dudes who look God in the face and say, "Bring in on, Bro." They hate when a guy can jump higher than them.  I have the utmost respect for surfers. It is really a tough sport. The core strength is something I wish one day to have, but know I will never have anything on Big Wave destroyer Laird Hamilton.

It is an interesting concept, however. I have friends and family members who never played a contact sport in their lives, but are killer surfers. They run like a Yogi Bear, chest forward, butt backwards, and have the hand eye coordination of a drunk orangutan. What's with that? Make a surfer chase a ball and the "Hot Factor" goes right out the window.

Yet the rugby players, played well together. They were tough. Never complained about a call (because I'm an awesome referee... :D) and were scrappy. They could catch, pass, shoot and run.  I'm sure each of them could eventually pick up a board and teach themselves to surf. They could probably pick up a mitt and learn baseball, too. But why is it that surfers who start out as surfers, can't pick up any other sports? The hard work, and determination are there, no doubt. What is it. What keeps surfers from being well rounded athletes?

I'm not really sure, but I'm going for a swim in the ocean, no wetsuit needed!