A surf session is one of the only times you can escape being “connected.” I don’t mean from nature, from other people, or from feeling something that might be bigger than you; I mean from the internet, mobile communication networks, and all those other things that come with such connectivity. If you’ve seen Samsung’s latest “innovation,” that is about to change.
In a video released by Samsung Brazil, it looks like we, as surfers, can now stay connected to live, up to the second sea conditions, and what our friends are doing later (or at the same time they’re not surfing). Through building an LED screen and a hatch for your smartphone into a pretty Batman-looking surfboard, Samsung is making sure we’re plugged in even while we might be trying to unplug.
According to one article, “[s]adly, the Galaxy Surfboard is just a one-off concept right now,” leading me to believe two things: The author doesn’t surf, and there are people out there who would buy this when it becomes available commercially (and they probably don’t surf much either – but I believe we’re all purists).
Sure, there are probably people out there who want to stay up-to-date all the time, linking themselves into every possible communicative interface available through networks of ever-expanding cell coverage and more apps designed to keep you in touch with what people say they are doing than ever before. We’ve all bumped into them on the hiking trail as they check their phones, or listened to their car alarm at the camp site. We know they’re out there waiting for a cool, shiny-looking surfboard that is Matrix-ed in so they don’t have to be alone in the water.
I’m actually going to go out of my way to avoid taking this article in an expected direction – the rebuttal. The commentary from the surfing purist about how riding the waves is all about being disconnected from humanity and reconnecting with the ocean, the heartbeat of the earth. It’s just too expected, and given enough time, there will be more articles discussing this angle than you can shake a broken fin at. Instead, I’ll try something different.
At the end of the video spot Samsung proudly says “Progress knows no boundaries.” There are probably far more people out there who believe this expression than people who might actually want to purchase this Matrix-surfboard. It might even be what drives people to compete, to better themselves in their surfing, and to create awesome new moves that maybe 0.03% of surfers can pull off. This is fine. But I’m going to rep the other gang of surfers. Call us the 89% who are just out there to have fun.
Progress is overrated to this 89% of surfers [note: I made that number up]. It’s what makes people hostile in the lineup and drives nails between groups who might seriously have a great time if they just hung out a little. If you want to talk about being in the moment and actually, almost fully enjoying that rush – that ride, the ride – then worrying about abstract concepts of progress is a massive head fake. It’s frustrating in its limitless potential – for every trick you master there are four more new ones that beg to be tested.
Experiencing disappointment after a session all because you didn’t nail something a rubbery pre-teen from the tour throws down like nothing is a little crazy. It’s complete contradiction from the enjoyment of the sport/pastime that got you in the ocean in the first place (the 89% might not always consider surfing a sport. We’re too relaxed for that).
This surfboard – the Samsung one – doesn’t represent a technological development or progression that makes any sense. Neither does the idea of perpetual, exponential development as a surfer or as a society. It does represent Samsung identifying a market that it wasn’t making money from – then deciding to drop in. Then again, that doesn’t surprise me. It will surprise me if I start seeing this surfboard with the heart of a smart phone at my local break…mostly because there’s no cell coverage.
