FREE RANGE YOUTH:
TIME WAITS FOR NO KID
Photography by Manu Miguelez and Pete Frieden
Words by Matt George
So far their lives have not been measured by clocks, but by the tides. Our free range youth of the Indonesian surf culture. But the thing is kids think they know better. And they don’t. Think they are in control. And they’re not. And they think they have all the time in the world. And they don’t. In reality, time has them. And the clock is ticking. And if they do not use the brief power of youth wisely, that ticking becomes the sound of a time bomb.
It is one of the premiere issues of the free range children conundrum of the surfing scene in Bali. With perfect surf year round, rides to the beach from single mom’s since birth, new boards on tap, club contests every weekend, vague parental supervision and no real thought toward any formal education, paradise becomes a paradox. A situation that appears self-contradictory but may hold a deeper truth. The truth of what reality awaits these young surfers when they cross the bridge to adulthood. Living in paradise, breathing deep of this paradise, breathing in its ease and beauty day after day, it’s easy to dream of trophies and pro tour success and being showered with sponsors money and never, ever, ever having to study for real or work at any normal job. It can and does all feel like a yellow brick road to Oz. But remember what awaited the Tin Man in the Emerald City. A slap in the face.
Most kids here do not grow up staying within the lines of any common childhood. The idea of plotting the future in black and white does not cross their minds. And who is to blame them when their lives have been lived so far in a colorful alternative universe? Yet consideration of that black and white world, the real world, especially when surfing while on the edge of manhood, is paramount to any successful surfing life. Remember, the average age of a soldier in America’s Revolutionary war was sixteen.Vietnam? Nineteen. And they fought to the death for their purpose. Would our youth fight that hard for the purpose of their surfing? Do they even know their purpose?
Childhood is a time of protection and security. Teenhood is a time of exposure and lessons. Perhaps our modern times have kidnapped this early manhood reality in a world where the internet is god. A devastatingly false god, yes, but an altar of worship nonetheless. An altar of belonging to indolence and endless hours of unproductive exposures to both the evils and the silliness of the world. But evils aside, the world is not silly. It will bite your head off, man.
While in the the real world beyond our paradisaical shores, from Australia to South Africa from France to the almighty San Clemente, kids are believing in the same falsehood. The majority of these internet numbed, fame ambitious teen age surfers are legion. Which reduces them all to grains of sand when it comes to the gazillion-to-one chance of making a living by just paddling out into the surf day after day. Bear witness, no one has done it yet. Aside from the aged retirees of our sport, name one ex-world champion today that isn’t still working real hard at it?
Are the parents to blame for this these near unobtainable hopes in the hearts of the tribe of our Indonesian free range children? Partly. Sure. But are these parents not also seduced by the Bali’s perception of ease and beauty and poke bowls? Don’t the grown ups mostly all believe it will always be this way too? Isn’t part of the joy of raising a child in Bali, the watching of them living in complete freedom, un-tethered, growing up barefoot, beyond the soul destroying confines of the conventional schematic? Isn’t that nice? Isn’t it bold? This eschewing of the common blueprint? (Straight A’s. Then Marriage. Then Kids. Then the surrender to a life of debt?)
Who needs it? Well, in the end, actually, we all need it. In two ways. A way to join it or a way to beat it. But both paths take hard work.That’s just the way of the world. Looking in a mirror can be a terrifying thing, yes? All those hard multiple truths. Parents, single or not, mostly do their best to put the answers right in front of teens.The frustration is that teens can’t see these answers. They don’t see the answers because they feel they already have better ones.
If there is a message here, it too is age old. Their comes a time, sooner or later in a teens life when they must be welcomed to the real world. Welcomed by the real world. Money and love, man. There isn’t a problem that isn’t caused by one or the other, and there isn’t a problem that cannot be solved by one or the other. And that there is a universal truth. And the only way to make sure that teens aren’t left fighting after the bell is by somehow, some way, somewhere, praying that they realize what all this time they have is really for. It’s for making dreams come true.
Not just dreaming about them, but making them come true. And when it comes to making a surfing life in Bali and beyond come true, that takes damned hard work and discipline and an ear for wisdom offered from the nightmares they call the grown-ups. You want to become a pro surfer from Bali? Go ask Rio Waida how to do it. He will tell you that the Balinese surfing dream is possible. But the trick is to wake up. Otherwise, most of our young surfers will forever believe that there is no such thing as the real world. It’s just a lie that they believe they can rise above.
Words by Matt George
So far their lives have not been measured by clocks, but by the tides. Our free range youth of the Indonesian surf culture. But the thing is kids think they know better. And they don’t. Think they are in control. And they’re not. And they think they have all the time in the world. And they don’t. In reality, time has them. And the clock is ticking. And if they do not use the brief power of youth wisely, that ticking becomes the sound of a time bomb.
It is one of the premiere issues of the free range children conundrum of the surfing scene in Bali. With perfect surf year round, rides to the beach from single mom’s since birth, new boards on tap, club contests every weekend, vague parental supervision and no real thought toward any formal education, paradise becomes a paradox. A situation that appears self-contradictory but may hold a deeper truth. The truth of what reality awaits these young surfers when they cross the bridge to adulthood. Living in paradise, breathing deep of this paradise, breathing in its ease and beauty day after day, it’s easy to dream of trophies and pro tour success and being showered with sponsors money and never, ever, ever having to study for real or work at any normal job. It can and does all feel like a yellow brick road to Oz. But remember what awaited the Tin Man in the Emerald City. A slap in the face.
Most kids here do not grow up staying within the lines of any common childhood. The idea of plotting the future in black and white does not cross their minds. And who is to blame them when their lives have been lived so far in a colorful alternative universe? Yet consideration of that black and white world, the real world, especially when surfing while on the edge of manhood, is paramount to any successful surfing life. Remember, the average age of a soldier in America’s Revolutionary war was sixteen.Vietnam? Nineteen. And they fought to the death for their purpose. Would our youth fight that hard for the purpose of their surfing? Do they even know their purpose?
Childhood is a time of protection and security. Teenhood is a time of exposure and lessons. Perhaps our modern times have kidnapped this early manhood reality in a world where the internet is god. A devastatingly false god, yes, but an altar of worship nonetheless. An altar of belonging to indolence and endless hours of unproductive exposures to both the evils and the silliness of the world. But evils aside, the world is not silly. It will bite your head off, man.
While in the the real world beyond our paradisaical shores, from Australia to South Africa from France to the almighty San Clemente, kids are believing in the same falsehood. The majority of these internet numbed, fame ambitious teen age surfers are legion. Which reduces them all to grains of sand when it comes to the gazillion-to-one chance of making a living by just paddling out into the surf day after day. Bear witness, no one has done it yet. Aside from the aged retirees of our sport, name one ex-world champion today that isn’t still working real hard at it?
Are the parents to blame for this these near unobtainable hopes in the hearts of the tribe of our Indonesian free range children? Partly. Sure. But are these parents not also seduced by the Bali’s perception of ease and beauty and poke bowls? Don’t the grown ups mostly all believe it will always be this way too? Isn’t part of the joy of raising a child in Bali, the watching of them living in complete freedom, un-tethered, growing up barefoot, beyond the soul destroying confines of the conventional schematic? Isn’t that nice? Isn’t it bold? This eschewing of the common blueprint? (Straight A’s. Then Marriage. Then Kids. Then the surrender to a life of debt?)
Who needs it? Well, in the end, actually, we all need it. In two ways. A way to join it or a way to beat it. But both paths take hard work.That’s just the way of the world. Looking in a mirror can be a terrifying thing, yes? All those hard multiple truths. Parents, single or not, mostly do their best to put the answers right in front of teens.The frustration is that teens can’t see these answers. They don’t see the answers because they feel they already have better ones.
If there is a message here, it too is age old. Their comes a time, sooner or later in a teens life when they must be welcomed to the real world. Welcomed by the real world. Money and love, man. There isn’t a problem that isn’t caused by one or the other, and there isn’t a problem that cannot be solved by one or the other. And that there is a universal truth. And the only way to make sure that teens aren’t left fighting after the bell is by somehow, some way, somewhere, praying that they realize what all this time they have is really for. It’s for making dreams come true.
Not just dreaming about them, but making them come true. And when it comes to making a surfing life in Bali and beyond come true, that takes damned hard work and discipline and an ear for wisdom offered from the nightmares they call the grown-ups. You want to become a pro surfer from Bali? Go ask Rio Waida how to do it. He will tell you that the Balinese surfing dream is possible. But the trick is to wake up. Otherwise, most of our young surfers will forever believe that there is no such thing as the real world. It’s just a lie that they believe they can rise above.
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