What Surfers Do Outside of Surfing
Surfing is more than a sport or hobby. It is a way of life. While this claim is largely true, verified by the guy who unpacks his new foam board from his convertible, there is more to life than just surfing when you live in the South Bay of Los Angeles.
Here, you are likely to find surfers of all skills levels from various walks of life. Yet, it is rare to find a professional surfer bred out of the South Bay, as it is difficult to spend time in the water when most of it is spent sitting in traffic. When you finally get there, you are forced to surf typically mediocre waves with 200 of your closest friends. There is also much more to do in a city as urban as Los Angeles, which can be distracting for anyone pursuing a career in surfing. Nonetheless, a few individuals have managed to balance life both in and out of the water.
I sat down with three local surfers in the South Bay, at various stages of their surfing careers, to talk about what they do when they are not battling crowds and fickle conditions. Surfers Tracy Parkes, Andre Anorga and Matt Pagan demonstrate that there is more to life than surfing. This is the Complementary Series.
