This Dude Makes a Totally Cool Point

Re: Dan Arritt’s July 29 article “Riding the Wave”:

Reality shows and advertising dollars have never moved surfing “forward.” Their portrayals of surfing bring consumerism, brand-consciousness, body image, competition and aggression into the ocean, while the entire point of the sport is to take refuge from those things for a few precious hours.

Surfing is a fat guy in decade-old trunks. Surfing is yielding a ridable wave to someone else and being happy they got a good ride. Longboard, shortboard, bodyboard or no board, we’re all brothers and sisters in the waves. By making surfing just another backdrop for ads and soap operas, its true nature -- aloha -- is lost.

Rich Gazan

Santa Monica