Willamette Valley Dabblers

[Howly Wolf]

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[Tex]

i did not know Oregon had a "most famous surfer" title....and I have never heard of Chaz Smith. Interesting post Howly, I may check out the podcast. Maybe we should start an OSP Podcast lol

[Tex]

I would vote that our first podcast would be on wave parks.

[Howly Wolf]

Zzz

[BOX]

Hi, BOX from Newport here on the line. Long time listener, first time caller. Love the show, btw. Tex, Howly, keep up the great work! Ok, so, I have a question for you two, or really for anyone if any other callers want to chime in: are adult learners the same/just as bad as "dabblers"? Asking for a friend. Thx!

[Tex]

I love you guys....absofuckinglutely nailed it with the KBOO analogy. Well done. I would venture that adult learners are not the same as dabblers. To me, including the term learner implies some level of long term dedication to a single pursuit. Dabbler implies trying it out maybe on a random/periodic basis. Full disclosure, this response was posted under the influence of ashwaganda.

[Major Lazer]

Funny stuff For Oregon scale, I'd say a dabbler is anyone who surfs seasonally or less than a few times a month on the average.

Never been sure or not if I liked Chaz's writing style. I'm definitely not a subscriber to Beach Grit, but his article in TSJ about growing up in Coos Bay surfing was decent. Need to read one of his books.

Now Oregon's most famous surfer.... Gerry Lopez? No?

Haven't seen that mural. I can count how many times I've been downtown on 2 hands in the last year and haven't missed it.

[Tex]

Good LORD- i might be a freakin DABBLER based on ML's sesh metric. How about 30 year dabbler???

[Tex]

I would also agree that Jerry is our biggest surf icon in Oregon. The bigger question, most popular/best surfer born and raised in OR waters.

[BOX]

Good LORD- i might be a freakin DABBLER based on ML's sesh metric. How about 30 year dabbler???

No worries, Tex. Based on the number of sessions I've put in over the past few months, I don't even think I make dabbler status

But you know, the weather's getting warmer so it looks like dabbler season is on for this kook

[harg]

I'm no expert, but Dabbler sounds an awful lot like kook. Adult learners (along with most of us) go to the beach to enjoy the ocean. 100% down with that, regardless of skill level or times per month. Dabbler sounds like the dudes that go to the beach to head nod at people and say 'sup', and then paddle out mostly so they can say things to their friends like 'bro, i came so close to getting that bomb' or 'man, i went up to hit the lip, and the foam ball just caught my rail', or 'dude, it's totally backdoorable'. maybe that's what's cool tho now?

[BOX]

Thanks for the reassurance, harg & others. I just put that up there as a half-joke as I’m keenly aware of the disdain some folks have for late learners like myself, especially after COVID.

And I get where a lot of those people are coming from. They don’t want crowds at the break or to be hit by a giant ditched log in the wash. Makes sense. Neither do I. That’s why I do my best to respect the lineup and follow the etiquette. But to the other folks who hate just to hate, well, I try to pay it no mind. I'm not there for them. I’m still going to surf no matter what people call me (though I’m partial to “gray grom” myself… ).

[Howly Wolf]

Zzz

[Howly Wolf]

Zzz

[Major Lazer]

I guess I just always default back to an article I read as a kid in the 80s that always stuck with me. Was an interview with the late Derrick Ho (RIP) talking about the growing popularity of surfing and surf brands especially inland and him saying you're not a surfer unless you live at the beach and surf every day.

So perhaps many of us are in fact dabblers........ just glad I had many years close to the words I aspired to as a grom. Just nothing else like living and breathing that salt air 24-7 tuned in and surfing every day there were waves and hard to believe I am closing in on 16 years of Willamette Valley dabbling