For years, Hamish Patterson (aka “The Illusion”) has billed himself as the “surfer dude reporting from somewhere on spaceship Earth.” The guy’s built a cult following on Youtube essentially delivering hot takes on anything from weed to bowl cut maintenance (which has over 1 million views!) to getting fired, and he’s also available for private phone counseling appointments.
The Illusion’s fame ultimately landed him on Tosh.0 for a “Cewebrity Profile.” (Check it out here.) And beyond that, his videos are a veritable internet rabbit hole of content – trust us. But probably one of the most compelling of his videos was one he did more than four years ago announcing to the world that he’d quit surfing.
“Surfing is no different to me than crack cocaine, heroin, alcohol, pot, whatever it is, man,” says The Illusion. He goes on to make some interesting points about how surfing brings him less joy, and that he “just wants to be like the dudes that surf Ohio,” because they’re stoked to surf the Great Lakes even when the surf isn’t so great. The argument is somewhat convincing, if not a little funny. But spoiler alert, he still surfs:
