The Annual Christmas Gift Guide

 The top 10 gifts to get a surfer are...

(drum roll please)

Well to begin with you don't need ten new things,

knowing that is the biggest gift in itself

Surfing is an experience maybe a lifestyle but not a product.

That truth outlasted both Surfer and Surfing.

You can't buy a set wave from The Queen...

If you did walk around the point handing out 100 dollar bills to all your new friends you are bound to miss someone and you are going to get stuffed. Then again just paddling out on a good day would be worth the price of admission. 

I suppose there is some stuff required.

I ALWAYS get email from hairy naked body surfers who will argue the point and then send pictures

but we tend to get more and more and more stuff, some of the stuff never get used, a waste of the materials and energy that went into the manufacturing process and lots of this stuff ends up in a landfill. That's a thoughtful gift for your great, great, great, great, great grandchildren who might be cultural anthropologists.

So what do you need?

Do peaks come in a ten pack with a side of offshore winds?

More importantly during the gift giving season, what do you need that someone can buy you?

Grandma is more likely to pick up the pop out from the offshore sweatshop than the custom board from your local shaper.

'It had all those pretty plastic flowers and it came with matching shirt and trunks dearie."

If grandma is jiggy with it and knows your local shaper (happy belated birthday wishes go out to Pendo BTW) then good for you and your obviously outstanding genetic lineage. Grandma may have even gotten handplanes for all the grandkids this year.

Ok so where does that leave us?

Wax

(wax on wax off)

I had a standing order for surf wax for all gift giving occasions for years

If you see me at the beach, ask me, I have some.

Hopefully the humor of a mat rider with a huge stash of wax is not lost on you.

So where are we now?

more is out

less is in

waves come in sets

But don't come from a store.

The truth is no thing you can buy will make you feel like this

"Family treasures can't come thru the front gate"

So ask for a new beach towel.

If it's a magic towel so much the better

One more thing

There is art

✩
and I
of course
include crafts
under the art umbrella
and purchasing something
that's made by hand
is going to put
money in the hands
of someone paying rent
and could be a source of
enjoyment for a lifetime

If you find yourself in Eureka 

stop by Matt Beard

In the LA/OC area
I have no idea but shop local
You just gotta poke around