You know the look some dogs have when you stare into their eyes? It’s a gaze that makes you wonder if the creature in front of you is either completely mad or an absolute genius. Either way, you realize it knows something you don’t. That’s Tom Curren’s Instagram.
With Curren, as with many great men, it’s often difficult to know if you’re in the presence of brilliance or madness. Maybe it’s a little bit of both. @curfuffle’s feed is a lot like his surfing. It’s unique, thought-provoking, confusing, enviable, unaffected, enigmatic…
His posts are like fragments of an impossible jigsaw, or perhaps a treasure map. Unlike the typical Insta feed of a pro surfer or recognizable figure (I hesitate to say “celebrity”), Curfuffle gives very little away. You won’t find any #goals, endless avocado shots, or activism of any kind. However, you will find bizarre fin set-ups, mutated skimboards, pictures of random people that he appears to have photobombed, and a partial screenshot of an iPhone lock screen with stock wallpaper (uncaptioned).
Knowing the comparatively little that we do about Curren, we might assume he would shy away from Instagram. Flashiness and self-promotion have never been his bag, but self-expression and effortless mastery have. Curren’s feed leaves you with as many questions as it does answers, again, just like watching him surf. He’s playing chess while the rest of us are still playing checkers.
It’s hard to express how brilliantly obscure it is. And so refreshingly uncontrived. Curren is eccentrically invaluable and honest among a world of carefully curated images that make up the augmented reality of social media. He’s like a puff of smoke. Shapeshifting, graceful, and gone almost as soon as you begin to see it form. Again, it’s just like watching him surf, which I love to do. I missed the man in his heyday but I do try to do my YouTube homework. I copy little bits and pieces. I try to imitate the way he flattens out his trailing hand, pointing his fingers forward, and skims it low over the surface of the water on a forehand bottom turn, like a blind man reading braille.
These little affections give me great pleasure, but I know they’re merely a microcosm of the entire package. There is an innate knowing in the way Curren rides a wave that is forever out of my reach. It’s fitting that what he shares with the world has a similar aura. I’m not going to pretend I know what half of it means, but I’m sure interested in trying to work it out. Above all, I’m sure he couldn’t give two hoots about who is following or not following his page, and I love that too.
Tom Curren remains an enigma on water and on land. He is the last true bastion of free-spiritedness. He is unaffected by the ebb and flow of surf industry trends, and he is still the most interesting man in surfing.
