Simon Hetrick’s 10-minute ode to barrels, punk rock, and sideburns.
elsewhere // Nov 23, 2022
Words by Christian Bowcutt
Reading Time: < 1 minutes
Why bash immoderate things person to beryllium taken distant to beryllium loved afloat again?
“Injuries are a portion of what we bash and I wouldn’t person it immoderate different way. Time retired of the water… lit a occurrence nether my ass to travel backmost & surf,” says East Coast surfer Simon Hetrick.
Last year, Simon ruptured his eardrum. This is usually a speedy patch-up. But arsenic idiosyncratic whose ears person endured a beingness of the Atlantic’s frigid temps and signature beardown winds, Hetrick’s “surfer’s ear” analyzable the surgery. This led to months of vertigo and a hard recovery.
As idiosyncratic who has done his stock of clip retired of the water, I cognize however a surf sabbatical tin crook into a benignant of existential crisis. Your individuality — which has agelong been anchored to your surf addiction — panics.
But Simon avoided the landlocked rebranding debacle. He was capable to absorption connected euphony with his band, Crusader, and play a fig of shows. He besides planned trips to Portugal, Hawaii, and each implicit the East Coast successful mentation for his instrumentality to the water.
“Revamp”, Hetrick’s latest edit, compiles the champion of these trips. We often wonderment however East Coast guys get truthful bully astatine barrel-riding. Think Cory Lopez, the Hobgoods, and of course, Kelly. This edit answers portion of the equation — the East Coast has barrels. Heavy, imperfect ones. Arguably heavier and much imperfect than the West Coast’s predictable palate. It’s not atrocious preparation, nevertheless inconsistent it mightiness be. Maybe New Englanders person a competitory vantage we haven’t afloat recognized.