Why I hate Voyage of the Swell

In case you never read the interesting information on wetsand.com here is an update as to what you have been missing. There is this girl and her friend, sailing around the world in a 40ft sailboat and its all being sponsored by their parents, wetsand.com, and private donations. Take a look at it, its interesting stuff. Ohh and you will understand my argument/rant a little more thoroughly.

Ok, on with the rant. This girl is completely jaded in my opinion. She has the luxury of owning a damn 40ft sailboat while people pay for her to just globetrot chasing surf. Now normally, I would be totally supporting her and what she's doing and in a way, I still am. The problem lies with her opinions, her worldview, and her lack of true surf exploration. First of all, when reading through all of her posts, as soon as she makes it south of the border her attitude towards Mexico and its people immediately turns negative and almost pitying. She kind of looks down her nose at the people and frankly, I don't like that. Yes you are so lucky to be from southern California and rich and all that mess, but you need to have a little more compassion for these people. What you see crossing the borders and the people actually living there are 2 totally different things. Im not saying shes all negative, but it just looks that way, to me at least.

The second thing is her worldview. Im totally into and understanding of the all natural, oatmeal and fruit dinner type of stuff, but this is getting a little bit far. She gets invited to go with some Costa Rican fishermen to help pull up their nets and help with their catches, and she says "me and shannon had already talked and prepared ourselves for the carnage we knew we would see. We told ourselves this is a cultural learning experience". oohhhhh kayyyyyy.... thats not exactly what she said, but close. Ill leave that one alone.

The last thing is her lack of surf exploration. This girl has the number 1 way to explore surf. We happen to enjoy a sport or ritual or pastime that involves the ocean and a coastline. The number one way to access these coastlines, is with a boat. In my opinion, you cannot beat a sailboat for its cheapness to operate and overall lower cost than yahts. If you read through her blog, she basically hauled ass down the coast of Mexico. She passed up so many key surfing spots its sickening. She set out and headed to the most popular areas and bypassed what some would call the best secrets in Mexico surf, AND she's got a damn boat!!!!! Dont even get me started on her little stint into Central America. She completely bypassed Guatemala, which for the most part is largely still unexplored. This alone should go down in the books as pure bullshit. How can you even begin to call yourself a surfer and an explorer when you cannot even spare 1 week on the Guatemalan coast? After this she flys right past El Salvador which has some of the best rights in all of Central/South America. Some even consider the wave in La Libertad to be world class, and thats not a statement we just throw around. Next she completely passes Nicaragua. We have all heard the stores of uncrowded, and completely safe surf. I could maybe see her skipping El Salvador due to security reasons, but Nicaragua???? CMON! Then she heads straight into, ready for the drum roll??? COSTA RICA! The most fucking Americanized third world surf zone on the planet. She heads straight into Ollie's Point area, which again, is a well known and crowded surf spot. She sounds in her post like she even complains about the crowd a little. umm HELLO??? YOU HAVE A FUCKING SAILBOAT, STOP FARTING AROUND AND SAIL AROUND THE BEND! This entire post may sound like a huge jealousy bit and frankly Im not ashamed to admit that it is. I think I could do a HELLUVA better job with less surfing skill than her. She would obviously outsurf me and thats ok, but she lacks that true sense of exploring. You put me on that boat, and Im not complaining about low supplies and crowded surf. Ill eat fish raw, and be a damn sea hardy pirate and surf my brains out in untold lands in Central America. She sails her ass right into the shopping mall of surf spots and claims to be on a global surf expedition in daddy's boat. whatever im done with this shit.