Writings in cyberpace

A web log. A blog. An online diary or an outpouring of thoughts. Every one has one these days. The biggest blog site on the internet, Xanga, receives a somewhat trivial 457,387,645 page views per month - so there are lots of people writing blogs and reading them too.

So are all surfers too busy rewaxing their boards, repairing dings or drinking Abbots Ale to be writing? Are there surfing blogs out there? And if so who has their finger on the pulse - who is writing with passion about our beaches and our sports? Given just how awful our summer has been, it might be time to start investigating the surfing Dickens, Shakespears and Stevensons out there.

By name alone Beach Bum stakes a claim for attention. If anyone is going to be in touch with the surfing vibe, surely he has his finger firmly on the throbbing pulse. Beach Bum doesn’t disappoint. His brilliant snapshots of surfing life are varied; if he’s not bumping into unique characters like ‘Harry the Hat’ or sea monsters in Ireland then he’s musing on ‘Wet Women and Wax’ (he’s got pictures too, check them out!). His recent piece-de-resistance is the coverage of the first-ever Cornish International Nude Surfing Festival that took place this summer in Perranporth. You should like the blog and if you are ever trying to spot Beach Bum in the line up, he shouldn’t be too difficult to spot. He’s the one not wearing a wetsuit. Or boardshorts.

If there is a beach blog that is likely to be the surfing equivalent of David Copperfield, then it should be ‘The Barrister Blog’, otherwise the education was wasted! As blogs go this is about as well written as you could hope for; it captures the romance of being by the ocean as well as combining an incredible amount of references to the best of surfing literature and history. Intermixed are all sorts of other life and environmental observations. A sample of his blog captures the essence of our sport.

“If the ocean is the earth’s heart, then the tides are its steady beat. Surfers spend hours sitting on their boards rising and falling with the waves and marching to and from the surf in time with the tides. It is no wonder then that many describe surfing as itself a religion.”

Definitely written by a surfer.

The ultimate surf blog though, with daily musings from the heart of British surfland, (if there is such a place), is the Surf Nation blog written by Alex Wade for The Times. There’s no standard reporter type blurb here, just high quality snapshots of life across the beach going fraternity. Interviews with lifeguards, reports from competitions or just observations from the life as a wave hunter, this blog is the granddaddy you just pull up a chair beside. Pick of the recent highlights – the Laws of surfing; which are all too true. I’ll leave you with an observation that we can all relate to:

7. Do not, ever, tell your partner that you'll be back on dry land in "just an hour or so." This never happens and for some inexplicable reason non-surfing partners left in cars for three hours at a time want to kill you when you come in stoked.

Three of the best that you will hopefully enjoy. Once you have done with those head over to Xanga and there’s another 24,148 surfing blogs waiting for you.

A web log. A blog. An online diary or outpouring of thoughts. Every one has one these days. Including Surfing Genie.