Social “Surf” Intelligence: How some SUP surfers get Respect in the Surf Line-Up While Some Do Not, by Len Barrow

In the past few years I have met a few Sup Surfers that get a great deal of respect in the surf. As an Anthropologist, I have made it a point to observe there social techniques. The methods that these surfers used were quite surprising yet most sensible. Also, SUP surfers new to the game can adapt these methods with great ease. That’s the good news!


Before we get into their techniques, it is important to recognize that in In SUP surfing you are almost given absolute power in regards to which wave you want. You are figuratively given the “nuclear option” to get any wave you desire, even if you are of modest skill. Some SUP surfers who are new to the sport may have the American mentality that “I purchased this board and this is a public surf break therefore I can do whatever I want”. Technically this is true, yet with this attitude, one runs into a wall or over the nearest cliff vis-à-vis surf subculture. Surfers have their own cultural code. Most surfers are concerned with behavior and politeness, not on what you own or do on land. You may be the CEO of a large corporation and drive a Mercedes and have great prestige on land yet a strange cultural phenomenon occurs. Anthropologists call it a ” Social Inversion” . American “Land Culture” and its hierarchies are flipped upside down in the water. All of your prestige on land means absolutely nothing in the water. In fact, the prestigious people in the water are often poppers on land!


If you are new to surf etiquette and surf culture this paper will help you get along with surfers. Surfing social rules are not written down thus they are difficult for the beginner to decipher. The surfer’s code is just that, an unwritten code that has many variables according to time and place. You could actually write a large book on the code as it is most variable.


Despite the codes complexity and unwritten status a few things can be done to fit your SUP in as one of the surfing tribe.

Surf Only to Your Skill Level “Size and Conditions”


In the surfing subculture, “safety behaviors” factor in dominantly at some levels of the surfers code. When you surf your SUP in bigger waves, honestly evaluate your skill set. Regular surfers are required to do this at some time in their careers as they have endangered others. There is nothing worse than a beginner zooming down a twelve foot face into a crowd of surfers. I have been run over by a SUP at double over head Mokuleia. Let me tell you that this is not fun. The guy had a quad and it was 4x the pain across my back. I was lucky. I did not get severely hurt. Other surfers have gotten horribly injured. This will ruin your reputation as surfers will regard you as a danger in the surf. In surf etiquette and surfing subculture a dangerous surfer/SUPer are of the lowest rank, an often asked to leave due to safety issues. I am not saying these beliefs and actions are right or wrong. I am just indicating that they exist as part of the surfing subculture. At any rate evaluating your skill set will help yourself and other to keep safe.


“Talk Story” with Everyone.


In Hawaii, “Talk Story” is local pigeon for being genuinely friendly and casually chatting with people with stories for no real reason other than to talk. In Hawaii it is a normal thing to do, even with strangers. It’s actually fun and part of everyday local life here in the islands.



One guy that does this to great effect is our Hawaii State Surfing SUP Champion Tommy Chun-Min. Everyone knows Tommy! He is the only SUP even “allowed” out at Kewalo’s (this point is hyper-localized by short-boarders). Mr. Chun-Min will paddle out and actually greet everyone. Even new-comers! He always has something interesting and nice to say and people look forward to talking to him.




If you are from the states this may sound like ingenuously bullshitting your way around yet humans are social creatures. By talking to people you make social connections. In this type of connection an informal social contract arises. You become an acquaintance and generally friendly, thus must share the waves. By sharing with your new friend, he or she reciprocates (this is called generalized reciprocity in Anthropology) by giving your acquaintance respect and waves! In layman’s terms, it’s hard to burn a friend (unless you are a sociopath). Therefore make friends! It’s that simple. If you don’t believe me try the behavior.


Use Non Verbal Queue’s


After you have gotten a set wave, paddle out slowly. By doing this you are nonverbally communicating that you are not a wave hog and relaxed. If you paddle out like a Viking hell bent on pillaging the waves. People will not take kindly to this. You will get a bad reputation in short order and surfers have a way of dealing with over-zealous Suppers. Even though you can get every wave on your Sup, you cannot block surfers from taking off “BEHIND” you ruining “your” wave by surfing 6 inches in back of you. Some surfers have this method fined tuned and I see the idea developing rather rapidly.


When you paddle back out outside, sit down on your SUP on occasion. I am a Symbolic Anthropologist. My writings are not just the musings of a non-violent person. When you are “erect” on your SUP while surfers are lying down it conveys a “dominance display” type behavior on behalf of the SUP rider even though the Sup surfer does not mean it. This may sound funny but it occurs. By sitting down you convey the message that you are chill and respectful to all. If you think that sitting down on you SUP is for weak people, I have seen Bonga Perkins, Duane Desoto, Robin Johnston and Kanoa Beaupre use this method quite frequently. They certainly are NOT weak people. In fact they are rippers who get along well with others.




Always Look Backwards to Observe Who Did Not Get Waves.


Kainoa Beaupre is respected by both shortboarders and longboarders as he has a special way of sharing. Mr. Beaupre will often look back to see who is getting waves and who is not. If a set wave comes in and is heading towards a person who has not gotten a good wave in a while, Kainoa will yell go! go! to that individual. He has even done this kindly to me a couple of times before. Even though he can get every wave, he makes sure that everyone has fun. This endears Kainoa to all. Mr. Beaupre has a lot of Aloha. He is a buddy of mine and this is one of the reason I dig him.



The good news is that SUP surfers and Board surfers can get along. There is no need to have conflict if we practice a few pleasantries. Basically it’s all about sharing the waves. And Guess what!

SHARING=ALOHA

SHARING=ZEN

Zen Chopsticks By Len Barrow

We here at Zen waterman have not done a Zen philosophy oriented article for a while so I thought I would have a go at it.  This article has to do with a land-based program yet we will see how the Buddhist ideas inherent in the activity could be applied to our ocean activities

Every year I run a program with a few other teachers at Roosevelt High School (RHS) on Oahu.  It’s a really beautiful project.  The students learn about compassion and kindness by proactively helping the homeless  through  the Honolulu Institute for Human Services (IHS).  The program is called RHS for IHS. The IHS is the key institution for helping the homeless on Oahu in Hawaii. 

My motivation for engaging in this program is not religious.   Despite this they come primarily from Zen Buddhist philosophy.  As we shall see in the forthcoming story, the core of Mahayana Buddhism (which includes Zen in its scope) is compassion and kindness for others.  The motivation to help others is the natural outcome of meditation and paying attention.  This sounds weird but we shall explore this phenomena  later in this article.

Here is another unusual fact about the Zen practice.  According to the great Masters of old; without the motivation of compassion for others (Bodhichitta) focused in your practice, Zen is worse than poisonous garbage.   In fact Zen done in self-interest is called “Zen sickness” in which one turns into a “hungry ghost clinging desperately to grasses and reeds”  by the old masters.   Trust me, you don’t want to be a hungry ghost!

 I therefore try my best to steer away from my ego in the water and on land.  It is the most difficult thing that I have ever tried to do.  Despite this, social projects based on others well-being help me along the rugged Zen road.

As we were developing the program with my fellow teachers a question arose:  “  How the hell do we get self-centered, arrogant modern teenagers to engage in compassionate social action?”.  It was almost impossible to do it with adults and must surely be harder with teenagers given their egoism and our culture of selfishness.

We came up with a solution.  I would give them a little Zen parable (among other things).  This story worked extremely well in getting the students to have compassion for others.  If a fourteen-year-old high school student can understand this to the point that they take social action, we as adults should be able to comprehend this mythology and take social action also.  The “myth” goes something like this:

One day long ago a man was practicing Zen and managed to attain enlightenment.    His insight was so great that it allowed him to visit heaven and hell.  The man decided that he would visit hell first.  As he entered the hell realm he was surprised at what he saw.  There was a great rectangular table that was twenty feet long and a number of feet wide.  There were ten people seated on one side of the table and ten people seated on the other side of the table.  On the table were luxurious foods and the finest beverages that the lands could offer.  Saphron and ambrosia scents wafted through the air.  Well the monk was quite impressed.  He stated “jee wiz, well hell is not that bad after all”.   His thoughts were suddenly interrupted when he saw intense anger and frustration on everyone’s contorted faces.  He quickly realized that the people were frustrated as they  could not eat their food as their chopstiks were over three feet long!  They could only look at it and they were extremely hungry, angry and sad.  Hence, the hell dwellers  spent their days yelling at each other and blaming the person opposite them for their predicament.

The monk asked the folks in Hell “how long have you been here?”.  One individual viciously spat back and said, we have been like this for ten Kalpas!……(In Sanskrit:  literally 10,000,000,000,000 trillion years!).  The monk was aghast!  He thought that hell was a really messed up place.  The monk wondered what force could curse people to such a grim place?  He hastened to get out of hell and go to heaven.

The monk then visited heaven.  To his surprise he saw the same exact things that he saw in hell!   There was a great rectangular table that was twenty feet long and a number of feet wide.  There were also ten people seated on one side of the table and ten people on the other side of the table.   To his amazement the people had great expressions of happiness and joy.  In fact in their demeanor,  the monk noticed a great serenity and calmness.   The monk was perplexed as he saw that the occupants of heaven had the same three foot chopsticks!   

The monk sat and watched the occupants of Heaven do something miraculous yet so simple.  The heaven dwellers would use their huge chopsticks to pick up food from the other side of the table and HELP feed the other out of compassion and kindness.  This act was kindly reciprocated by the person on the other side of the table and all were well fed, utterly content and wonderfully happy.  The monk attained a deeper enlightenment when he saw this.   He thought  “To help another through compassion are the keys of enlightenment”.   The monk also thought to himself that those in hell are in hell for the sole fact that they don’t help each other.

The monk reflected “how amazing it is that Heaven and Hell are exactly the same place”.  He went back to his life with the conviction to be  kind and compassionate to all beings with a will to help all.  The monk lived happily ever after.

Well what does this have to do with the surf?  I have another quick little story showing how you can apply the “Zen Chopsticks” spirit to the surf.  I saw two beginners a few months ago floating around at Ala-Moana.   Everyone in the surf was talking like “oh great,  these people are just going to get in the way”.  The locals were getting very frustrated and flustered at the novices.   In a way they were creating their own hell by not helping them. 

I am lucky because I am a teacher at heart and I asked the surfers if they wanted to catch waves.    They heartily agreed and I positioned them to catch a swell.  As each beginner caught waves they became very happy.  Happiness is contagious.  I was laughing my head off as they caught long rides while expressing gigantic smiles on their faces.  It brought me back to a time when I was a beginner.  This period was marked by pure stoke.  I was so happy and conversely they were surf stoked.  We have become wonderful friends since.

The point being, by helping others I was creating a heaven out of a hell!   Mind you, in Zen, Heaven and Hell are the same place.   In this philosophy,  it is to the extent  that you are compassionate and helpful that shape what world you are in.  If you are a jerk to people, welcome to Hell.  If you are GENUINELY  compassionate and helpful, welcome to heaven.  Can you now see that  this is so?   It is really that simple.  If 120 fourteen-year-old students at Roosevelt High School can understand this and take social action with the homeless (they raised over 2,000 dollars and 2 TONS of canned goods), I hope we as mature adults can grasp this wonderful phenomena.

In this world of hyper-capitalism,  ultra-violent video games, and pure narcissism,  people wonder why they are so miserable despite having the luxuries of modern materialistic life.   The answer is elementary.    Quite simply they don’t choose to help others.   Sometimes I am amazed at the behavior of some Americans (like myself).  I am not a saint but it is my professional Anthropological opinion that it is almost  ” hip” to not care for others  in America.  It is cool to flaunt your selfishness.  If you don’t believe me “just turn on your t.v.” and flip through the channels.  You may also choose to play your child’s video games, where you can literally shoot prostitutes after copulating with them (Grand Theft Auto) and bayonet enemy soldiers in the face (while getting points for it!?).  Has not caring become part of our culture?  

If it is we are in trouble.   In a Zen view,  not caring and being selfish will only lead a person to exist in a hell realm as a hungry ghost clings to brushes and weeds.  When people don’t care about the environment and trash mother earth we get global warming and the like which is already affecting our happiness.  In a way we have all collectively created a type of hell.   When people don’t care about the social environment and others  well-being you get social abuses like homelessness, war, violence in the ocean,  spousal abuse, elderly abuse and child abuse.  Again these are types of hells which we have collectively allowed to be created.  If you want to understand the universe,  just look in the mirror.

A question arises:  where do you stand?  Are you truly happy or frustrated?  If you are not content , maybe moving outside of yourself to help strangers may be a solution to your sadness.  It is not that hard to do once you get started. 

In short, just spread da Aloha!!!!

Thanks to all the RHS teachers who developed this program. You are all bodhisattvas (Buddhist compassion super- saints) and you don’t even know it!  That’s you Mr. Kim da surfa.   Cheeeee haaaaa.

Aloha Len Barrow

Occasional Letters:  Nov 1, 2011

Meet Gino Bell from the Westside by Len Barrow

Gino Bell is a top longboarder and former US Championship finalist from the Nanakuli on the Westside of Oahu.  He is basically a full blooded Hawaiian whose ancestors have lived in the area for hundreds of years or more.  Gino is known for his uncanny ability to observe the waves and make the best of of any conditions from two to twenty feet.  He is a true waterman.

Gino Bell is also a great Hawaiian ambassador to the sport of surfing and I feel it an honor to write about him because it gives me a chance to diffuse the stereo-type of the Hawaiian surfer.  If you are not from Hawaii you may have a distorted picture of Hawaiians involved in Watersports.  This may come from various media sources including some surfing periodicals and movies.  The movie Blue Crush depicted Hawaiians as greedy, sexist and violent  surfers (If you don’t believe me watch the movie again).  The movie North shore did more of the same.  Various surfing magazines have always focused on the Hawaiians who were aggressive and violent as drama and colorful characters sell more magazines.  They don’t bother to tell you that these people are a tiny minority of the population.

Hawaiians who are great watermen- ambassadors like Duane Desoto (World Champ from the Westside) and Bonga Perkins (3x World Champ) get minimal press-time.  I was surprised to find that when Duane won his world title he got a little corner article in the sports section of our Honolulu newspaper.  The surfing magazines also barely mentioned it.  This is really unfortunate and this type of coverage does not convey the truth of the matter.

Zen has always had at its foundation the “effort” to uncover the truth behind perceptions. That’s why this interview with Gino is most relevant to this blog.  Gino is a real old school Hawaiian.  I first met him it at Nanakuli Tracks (a surf point) about 15 years ago.  I saw this Hawaiian guy just ripping it on his longboard and I must admit I was a little intimidated.  He was “talking story” with everyone and I noticed that he was making sure that everyone was getting waves (when was the last time that you have seen that, if ever?).  When a set came he generously yelled “Go bradda Go!” to me!   Gino then introduced himself to myself and we have been good friends ever since.

Gino Bell is humble, helpful and full of Aloha.  Most importantly, he is like most of the Hawaiians I know.  He is not the falsified “media version” Hawaiian.  If you are not from Hawaii and have never met a Hawaiian, I hope this interview will shed some light on who the Hawaiians are today.  Secondly pay close notice to what he says about paying attention to waves, sharing waves and Aloha.  I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Until Next time!

Len Barrow  

We hope you enjoy the Zen Waterman video interview with Gino Bell:

A Totally True Story From the Surfing Shores Of Hawaii by Len Barrow

It was a typical sunny morning at Daimond Head. I pulled up into the parking lot of the surf break named Lighthouse. The waves were good; a glassy head-high swell with a mixture of east and southwest swell pushing together to make perfect small A-Frame peaks. As I focused my eyesight on the break which is about 200 yards below the parking lot I noticed that it was unusually crowded and my initial optimism was dulled like a kid who goes to the toy-store but can’t find his “perfect” toy.

My thoughts shifted to the characters that inhabited the break (or shall we say Zoo) like territorial chimpanzees who were all hyped on being the Alpha Ape of Lighthouse. I knew the characters all to well. There was the “tapped “ dude with barbed wire tattoos on his neck and who’s body was cut like Bruce Lee. He had this truly frightening glare which he used to effectively intimidate those he perceived to be weak and feeble. Mr “Tapped” had the bizarre habit of taking off and going left strait into the rocks and he seemed to enjoy it. There was the “Bully”. He was large and muscular but could not surf. He caught many waves as no one complained about his greed due to his muscularity and his ability to induce fear in others. Once someone quietly grumbled and the Bully chased him around on his surfboard in almost perfect circles while simultaneously screaming at him. It was both hilarious and grim to watch.

My favorite guy to check out was a person who I called “Troubles” . Troubles was almost universally hated by everyone as he was intensely aggressive and greedy. He dropped in on all and seemed to regard myself as the lowest link in the feeding chain as he loved to drop in on me as I never retaliated. His behavior got him into numerous fist fights which remarkably took place barefoot on the reef while standing in two feet of water. They were amazing affairs as they lasted some minutes and invariably ended up in bloody faces and especially bloody feet. It made MMA cage fighting look like child’s-play. Troubles adapted to the situation of getting punched out too many times by learning Kung Fu. This hardly helped as the fights were just elongated and more violent not to mention most spectacular.

Everyone was out to greedily get as many waves as possible (myself included) in the “Free Market” of surfing. The general attitude was if you could not take the heat of lighthouse then you were a kook and should not be “out here“. Survival of the fittest seemed to be every-ones mantra.

Despite the characters aforementioned , lighthouse has a few wonderful people who make order of the whole mess not by being the oppressive violent alpha males but through the use of a more fraternal, caring attitude. “Mr K” can be counted as one of these people. This man was an excellent surfer. In our sport, surfers who become exceptionally good sometimes become very arrogant. Surprisingly, Mr “K” was the most humble guy you could meet. His explosive surfing was fascinating to me given his mellow personality. He was also a native Hawaiian from the East side of Oahu raised in the ways of old Polynesians. I knew this as his family name was an old Big Island name and he reminded me of the Kupuna or old Hawaiian aunties and uncles that I grew up with in Hawaii who were invariably filled with wisdom.

Mr K had an amazing ability at the surf break of Lighthouse. Before he paddled out Mr. Tapped, Troubles, the Bully and a host of others would be engaged in the most socially dysfunctional cultural vacuum of bad vibes, yelling and hatred. It seemed like the war in Afganistan had relocated to the waters of Hawaii.

In to this boiling cauldron, Mr K would paddle out, all five foot six inches of him. He would start off surfing the inside, doing strait ups, airs and smooth cutbacks. The “lower ranked’ people were assigned a position on the inside where they got the left over junk waves that the “high ranked “ people did not want. Interestingly Mr K would stay among this group and show Aloha to them.

In regards to Mr K, it is important to ask the question, what is Aloha?

Aloha is unmitigated love or compassion for anyone, despite their race, social rank, your relationship with them or your position in life. It is like pure compassion. When you show Aloha , you invite anyone into your “house” (whatever that may be, surf break, social space, etc) and treat them as if they were your brother or a long lost friend. Then you SHARE what you have. You do not just reserve love and sharing for your immediate family and closest friends. It goes to everyone. Aloha was what Mr K. did and was.

Mr K would often introduce himself to the “lower ranked people” and got their names. He always did this with a big genuine smile. What he then did was most unusual given our present culture model of free for all competition, instant gratification and bizarre video games . He would go to the outside of the break and greet the Bully, Troubles, and Tapped and a host of other alpha males. They all intensely respected Mr. K as he surfed ten times better than all of them and in addition to being very Hawaiian (no one could tell him “I was here first” as his Family had been here for 800 or more years) he had an amazing social ability with people based on his Aloha. He would paddle for waves then let the wave go so the lower ranked individuals could get waves. Mr K would then introduce the Lower ranked folk to the higher ranked folk as his personal friends!

As I work as a professional Anthropologist this social phenomena and its consequences were amazing to watch. After Mr. K did his thing the break would invariably become more calm. The vibe would turn peaceful and people began sharing waves. No one would yell or intimidate others as I truly think that they were afraid and embarrassed of being a jerk in front of Mr K. The surf break actually transformed from a dysfunctional oppressive social space to a functional setting based on one mans Aloha. Mr K became the Alpha Male via compassion and social consideration, not violence and intimidation.

I think he knew what he was doing. In Hawaiian culture, the natural outcome of Aloha is a state of Lokahi and this results in things being Pono. Lokahi is a type of balance of all things. When things become disordered and unjust in the Hawaiian worldview of old, the act of Aloha is one way to reset things into natures equilibrium. This results in relationships that are in their best position for all concerned hence they are Pono , or honorable and fair. It is a socially ingenious Polynesian system honed by hundreds of years of existing in a harsh island environment where there was no other alternative but to get along or perish.

I think this could be a lesson for all of us. Every time I see Mr K doing his thing, I am almost forced to reflect on my own behavior as I am often greedy in the waves and much to aggressive and selfish in life. As predicted in the Hawaiian model of thinking or philosophy this causes social problems for myself and sometimes constructs distorted relationships in my world; not to mention other peoples worlds that I disrupt.

If there is anytime for reflection it would be now, given how short life is and considering the worlds generally poor social and environmental condition; in other words, a world that is out of balance or out of Lokahi and hence not Pono (the most beneficial order to all).

The following are not abstract or lofty questions. The world is in front of us and this century is arguably the make or break century for the human species and its survival. If this is not an important reason to rethink our relationship to others and the environment I don’t know what is.

Do I reserve kindness and Aloha for just for my immediate family and friends as is typically the case in our society? Is this a truly healthy thing to do in the long run (for it is easier)? Shall we shelter ourselves in our own “personal gated community” mentally cutting out the world or should we engage the world in different more socially and environmentally realistic terms? May we consider the well being of others that seemingly have no relationship to us or those who are of a different ethnicity and class even though it does not benefit us directly? Could we think and act on the health of the social and physical environment?

Maybe the real question is should we have Aloha?

Thanks Mr K………..

written by Len Barrow