Champion, where are you going?
Sports coaches will rarely tell you that they loathe certain behaviours brought on by the competitive practice of their sport – behaviours of parents, aspiring athletes and accomplished sportsmen and women alike. Yet some of them suffer in silence as they observe this perversion of the sporting ideal.
As a result, apprentice surfers in training often turn the surf spot into a battlefield, much to the displeasure of amateur surfers who don’t catch a single wave amidst the ultra-performing and completely enraged surfers.
A coach with his tripod, sitting on the beach, gives an indication of the atmosphere at the peak: a dozen aspiring surfers are probably throwing themselves at anything that moves, leaving only crumbs for the other users of the spot.
Sporting excellence and behavioral excesses
Of course, competition encourages excellence. But it also generates behavior that is inappropriate in a so-called civilized society. Even in combat sports, there are rules, and MMA fighters shake hands after spanking each other in the ring.
These observations are my own, since a fervent defender of winning at all costs won’t take offense at an athlete’s obnoxious behavior if it’s validated by a good result.
Some surf champions exude talent and humility, while others behave like teenagers all their lives: arrogance, cheating, bad faith, petty strategies to disqualify opponents, refusal to accept failure, insults to the judges.
In sport, it’s natural to admire the best athletes. Champions humble us by pushing the bar high, and surfers all have a professional who inspires them more than others.
I don’t have a cult of the champion, but I do have my favorite surfers, those whose technique and humility I admire. In competition, they’re no pushovers, but they seem to be having fun, enjoying themselves, while others embody all that’s negative about competition: arrogance, cheating, aggression, refusal to accept defeat, immature statements and footballers’ tactics to disqualify their opponents in front of the judges.
As long as, during a competition, the surfer stays within the limits imposed by the rules of the game, my point of view should take nothing away from the merit of these surfers who fight to stay at the top. On the other hand, I’m less enthusiastic when they’re training in the middle of other surfers and ruining the session by putting them in a competitive situation in spite of themselves.
Fight yourselfe
The specialized media present two facets of surfing: free surfing and competitive surfing. It’s worth pointing out that the most famous free surfers have all been competitors, so it would be absurd to think that competition doesn’t lead to excellence.
However, I see in this opposition an inherent truth of surfing. If competition is about surpassing oneself, surfing offers anyone the possibility of surpassing themselves without facing an external adversary.
If we can define a sporting adversary as a partner who helps us to surpass ourselves, theocean is the ultimate and primary adversary. And it is in this respect that the surfer is his or her own champion, a formula that may be a bit racy, but is applicable to many outdoor sports.
What surfer hasn’t thrown himself into the water, uncertain of his chances of success, faced with the dangers of a launch, violent currents, murderous lips, and pushed his limits away from the crowd, without speakers or spectators?
In a society that encourages one-upmanship and war against imaginary competitors, it’s wonderful to be able to achieve sporting and human fulfillment through surfing, without having to compete.
For me, that’s where the magic of this sport lies: offering the possibility of surpassing oneself, apart from others.
