Chas Smith asks, Is surfing really the hardest sport in the world?
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
- Recently, Kelly Slater responded to an online poll asking which sport was harder, soccer or surfing, with a bombshell…neither.
“I wouldn’t rate soccer but I don’t play,” writes Kelly Slater. “I wold say skating, free soloing, F1, MMA, gymnastics etc are all at the cutting edge of ability for humans.”
Kelly Slater’s comment came just after ESPN had released their definitive list of “sports ranked by degree of difficulty” with surfing filling the lowly twenty-third position barely beating badminton and well behind tennis, volleyball and squash.
According to ESPN, the results were compiled by “our panel of experts, a group made up of sports scientists from the United States Olympic Committee, of academicians who study the science of muscles and movement, of a star two-sport athlete, and of journalists who spend their professional lives watching athletes succeed and fail."
In today's episode of Chas Smith Hates Surfing, the noted author of the North Shore epic Welcome to Paradise, Now Go to Hell, as well as the best-selling Blessed Are the Bank Robbers, "a rollicking true story of Bibles and bank robberies in Southern California", examines the difficulty of surfing, or not, and the surprise unretirement of current world surfing champ Filipe Toledo.
Both difficult and easy, depends on what you consider actually surfing on a wave
Surfing is one of the most difficult sport to progress. Especially if you don’t live in a surf town and you have work. The only opportunity is the weekend and you are just hoping there is swell, which is maybe every other weekend and you have to battle the weekend crowd and may catch 2 waves after driving 2hrs/4hr round trip when you are learning at the beginning. That’s averaging 4 ridden waves per month. Or I should say 4 waves you stood up on. Anyways, after several years of practice I am probably just an advanced beginner who can catch waves and mostly trim down the line with one turn maybe. So yea it’s hard
As a person with neck, shoulder and back pain from an injury that's as healed as it's going to be; I can attest that surfing has gotten harder. In my case at least. I now surf when I'm able to down from 2-3 times day. Surfing is hard, on the body.
After 28years of trying and failing I’d say it’s pretty tricky
The learning curve and culture is tremendously harder. The basic fundamental elements required to surf (ie paddling, catching a wave, positioning, standing) are much harder and comprehensive. Just about anyone can hit a baseball softly lobbed their way or kick a soccer ball, everyone can lob and catch a ball in badminton. Kids or adult barnies need days of getting trashed in whitewash to even stand. I can’t ice skate, but I can almost guarantee I could at least learn to stand and push myself after a lesson or two. That’s ice skating. A barn on a soft top isn’t going to paddle and correctly judge waves even after weeks of effort. All the while, our sport puts people down who want to enter (for good reason, waves are limited, etiquette, and safety). It would be impossible (and pointless) to assess/compare the hours needed to master our sport to others, but the learning curve and culture must make our sport one of the hardest.
Surfing is hard in a different way than some other sports. For instance I rowed in college, putting up a decent times in a boat takes a ton of physical training but the motion is simple. There aren't many people who have the physical capacity to be an elite level rower but plenty of people can row at a recreational level with fairly little training. Surfing physically isn't that strenuous. But understanding the ocean and being able to read a wave takes a ton of time and there is a reason we don't see adult learners ever get to a high level of competency.
All the sports listed any one can actually walk out there and do the first time; even get on a pair of skies and go 15' then fall. In surfing (I'm not talking about getting up on the white water) you have to actually time the wave and then make the drop. In order to surf you have to make the drop and making the drop most people can't do. I can walk in to a boxing ring and throw some punches, a boxer can not paddle out in the ocean ring and make the drop first time out. I can shoot a basket ball, but a basket ball player lol can not go into the oceans court and make the drop. A big time pro snowboarder once said it took him everyday for two solid weeks to time the wave and make the drop. ALL other sports a person can do right away, they may not be good at it but anyone can do it. Not with surfing, with surfing ya gotta make that drop lol. Peace
SORRY guys Motocross is the hardest AND the greatest put-down while in the line up at HB was once yelled at me "GO back to Riverside Dude and ride your dirt bike" OMG it was the most HILARIOUS and nearly spot on line I have ever heard. BUT the joke was on him because I ALSO suck at motocross.
Sucking across the board!
@@chasdsmith🤣🤣🤙.
The easiest part of Surfing, for me, was giving it up entirely. After riding pristine & uncrowded breaks all over the world for over four decades the thought of paddling out in 2024 with the hundreds of aggro jerks on Costco pop-outs at any & every surf spot on the coast was all the motivation I need to say 'I Hate Surfing".
turn in your "oregonian preppy/george plimpton homage" outfit , C... SQUASH, the most difficult of exclusive prep school games, is not, and shall not be, equated with the plebian pastime dubbed "racketball"...
now that we've addressed that; difficulty is in the eye of the beholder, a root judgement based on indivdual life experiences and biases... Fell asleep to the lilting sound of, "felip(e)"....
It’s not sport and kooks d to stop trying it. (I gave it up in 2002 after the internet ruined it forever) I prefer eating shit in a skatepark or grinding a curb. And yeah, Slater needs to just stop
Wing suite. Basejumping. Various unarmed combat techniques, skateboarding... It is quite a list.
Surfung is difficult mostly due to waves being so variable. Also you need to surf everyday or you will suck.
Surfing is quite difficult but golf is the hardest sport
No one should start surfing after puberty period….
Smelly Skater also says riding “anything” on a wave is Surfing. I disagree wholeheartedly
Tell that to jonah hill
Since I RIP, I think it’s easy bruh and I’m 83 and a 1/2
Chas no one cares about surf industry gossip , we just want to hear some good surf stories
Really, Chas? Squash and racquetball the same sport, Chas? Fake news!
Wait! They're not the same?
Different racquet, different balls, different rules, different court.
@@ctrlb4213 Uh oh.
Played ice hockey for 40 years, surfing for 38.
John Blue- Boston Bruin goalie from California caught shit as the surfer boy when played.
Ken Linsman (the rat)- Played for the Boston Bruins. Needed shoulder surgery as he surfed so much on the off season.
Anybody can say they skated, and anyone can say they surfed.
IMO....only one can take your life at the highest level
Yup, dedicated is an understatement when it comes to Kenny and surfing. I've surfed w him since '86 or so when he moved to Hampton, he fought tooth and nail for YEARS to get good, has told me surfing is the hardest thing hes done, the ice never tried to drown him.
You
He's actually on Chris's podcast this week. Raw Knuckles podcast@@zak-a-roo264
Dude looks like a pro croquet player.
58!
Fifty eight and one eighth!
zesty ahhh
Is it even in the top 100?
Surfing a crumbly one footer on a 10 foot board isn’t too hard but I don’t consider that surfing really.
Kelly is 58
soft and playful, perfect for Felipe Toledo 🌊
This is one of the things that cracks me up about Chaz, he doesn't take himself too serious. He starts off with Kelly being 55, then 57, and by the end of the video he's almost 60! He knows that Kelly is 51 but Chaz is a natural story teller.
I knew Kelly's age and still had to Google it ... he had me questioning myself @@jose828