Hey Dibi: Are Surf Towns Just Make Believe?

Editor’s Note: Have a question for Dibi Fletcher? She’s definitely got answers. Or at least a perspective. Don’t hold back, shoot her a DM on Instagram and ask away. Here’s this week’s dispatch from the Matriarch of Radical…

Hey Dibi… I’ve surfed the same break for 20 years. Lately, I sit in the lineup and feel nothing like I used to. Did I lose it? - Burned Local
Hey Burned Local.. Familiarity can dull even the coolest things we do. You need to change things up. Take some time off to do other things. Learn something new. Stretch your mind. There’s so many awe-inspiring opportunities to take advantage of there’s not enough time to even make a dent. So, stop being a dullard, get off your butt and open your mind to the magic around you.

Hey Dibi… As a young kid I fell in love with surfing it seemed so soulful. Now it feels commercial, crowded, and performative. Was I just gullible? - Surf Burnout
Hey Surf Burnout… No, you were young and saw it through that lens. Now that you’re older and have a broader perspective, you’re experiencing surfing without the filter of youth. I think the actual art of surfing waves hasn’t changed much over the decades, but the crowds and the business around surfing have changed dramatically. Is it possible to separate them or are the lines so blurred they have become one and the same? That seems like a question that only you’ll be able to answer satisfactorily for yourself.

Hey Dibi… I moved to a surf town for the “lifestyle” but it feels cliquey and territorial. Did I buy into a myth? - Cracks in the Surface
Hey Cracks in the Surface… AH, the real estate brochure version. The small quaint beach towns of my youth are now so overcrowded and overrun with speeding teens on e-bikes they don’t quite live up to the dream scenario you may have pictured in your mind. But like everything in life there’s the plus and the minus and it will be up to you to decide if there’s enough on the positive side to offset the drawbacks.

Hey Dibi… My boyfriend likes to drive all over checking out every surf spot before picking a spot to park and finally paddle out. Sometimes this will take all morning, I don’t know that much about surfing, but it seems to me the first or second place he checks the surf the conditions look better than when we finally make it to the beach and he paddles out. - Beach Girl
Hey Beach Girl… I have to say I laughed out loud when I read this. When I was a kid my Dad used to drive up and down Pacific Coast Hwy checking every spot from Newport to Lowers and by the time we would finally get to the beach it would be blown out, and the tide would be wrong for the spot. I always wonder why the procrastination as he was very decisive in every other way. I’m surprised he didn’t stop just to get my brother, sister and I out of the car to stop our constant complaining. I now understand it was as much a part of the ritual to him as actual surfing. Perhaps your boyfriend feels like he needs to see it all before he makes up his mind to paddle out, to heck with the conditions.