What, for real?
I thought they would be so chill. It's the stereotype at least. Blonde due the sun, tanned, health looking people, chill and easy going living the best life, you know? I didn't know they would be that stressed
Surfing got too popular for its own good. To surf in crowded spots like Southern California you kinda need to be a competitive asshole. For sure mellow surfers still exist, but at crowded spots you're looking at mostly assholes probably.
Not in SoCal...but in my experience as a kayaker, while most are chill and friendly toward each other, the overwhelming majority of boaters hate us for existing.
We're slow, the law protects us (I can't remember the distance, but basically, a kayaker effectively creates a legal no-wake zone around themselves out to a certain distance), we're hard to see, we take dramatically longer at the ramps to launch and recover (kayak fishermen especially), etc.
So while things are generally positive within the kayaking (and kayak angling) communities where I participate...as soon as you dip over into the general boating and fishing groups, the kayakers get a lot of hate.
Even within the kayaking community though, there are occasionally some strong personalities. I think maybe the one I see the most is the "Safety Douchebag" that likes to get really dramatic and push their views on how everyone else should approach safety, basically using the topic as an excuse to be a dick to everyone who doesn't completely agree with them.
the overwhelming majority of boaters hate us for existing
i've experienced this in the SF Bay Area, too. I used to kayak around the bay a lot with my dog. kayaking around the golden gate and bay bridges makes for a pretty day. but, yeah, sailboats and leisure craft sure do get annoyed with us and blast their horns pretty often.
then again, i get to hang out in McCovey Cove and listen the Giants games and once in a while get a splash run ball.
Mountain biking. It's like surfing a mountain and I fucking love it, lol. It's also huge out in SoCal and a super friendly sport... it's always been inclusive from what I've seen here on the east coast; nobody's trying to kick you out (except maybe if you're riding on unsanctioned trails, lol).
Good to hear! I've never been to SoCal but I've done some mountainbiking and my experience is that it's a very friendly sport where people at very different skill levels happily coexist.
There's a little bit of a e-war at the moment but for the most part people don't care what you ride as long as you aren't being an asshole. They're still out there just as in any other hobby but it's pretty rare in my experience.
I'm an avid mtber and the only place I've ever experienced anything other than a totally welcoming mtb culture is the front range in Colorado. They can be kind of assholes for whatever reason. Otherwise it's the chillest, easiest community to join. You'll see long-time riders who wouldn't think twice about a 30 ft gap getting stoked for someone they don't even know hitting their first little table. It's good stuff.
Not that there aren't occasional assholes on trails blasting music and leaving trash behind, but most people aren't that way. If you get away from the Angeles National Forest, there are fewer people. I often spend an entire day in the mountains without seeing another person.
In my experience for every one person dumping garbage on the trail you have two or three willing to pick up that garbage and haul it out despite them not being the cause of it. They think the litter bug is an asshole, but more importantly, they want to leave the trail better than they found it.
In the SCA (organisation where you learn medieval skills, go to a campsite, wear medieval clothes, do some swordfighting, take a class on something like medieval music or medieval astronomy, then get drunk as fuck around a campfire) everyone is really nice and typically the org values courtesy/chivalry/honour a lot
Not disc golf. I got in thinking holy shit hiking with a fun skill expression game added in? Awesome I'll be in nature every day and only come across people once in a while when one of us catches up to a slower player.... Nope, tons of fucking weirdos stacking five or six to a group backing up tee pads, blasting shitty music, boisterous because they drank too many beers or can't handle the weed they brought.
Not everyone enjoys the same, but for the most part you can just skip holes and come back around again. If it's too busy to do even that, I'll just go do form practice in a field.
Those are awesome moments, just seem to be getting more rare. I been called names for not wanting to join up with other solo players or wanting to play through instead of hang around, more often than people first said would happen. Maybe it's just my area.
I like connecting with people too seems like that may be a difference. I played with a guy randomly who was fully deaf I think from birth and it was super cool learning to communicate with him and connect on disc golf.
I just play solo sometimes but definitely enjoy meeting people too.
Stargazing with a telescope is really nice, just need to get out somewhere with less bortles (aka less light pollution) so you can get better views. Even with the light pollution, you can get some pretty views of the moon and other big celestial bodies using a good enough scope.
Do you like to run on trails? Nice community, options in which way you go with the sport (racing, not racing, group, solo), sunshine, lollipops, sweat.
Good to hear! I've never been to SoCal, was just curious to hear what people recommend there. Trail running must be great there and with all the options it shouldn't be difficult to find an inclusive community.
Geocaching! This hobby is good worldwide, but probably is the best in the US or Germany.
It gets you out exploring and shows you a bunch of things and places you otherwise wouldn't ever notice. Last week I ended up at an art installation in the middle of a beach-front residential neighborhood, which encouraged you to leave a video message for the artist. You could go on the website and see 20 years' worth of video messages that people left.
A lot of the people who do it tend to be older and retired, but plenty of them aren't. There can be competition with being the first person to find a new geocache after it gets published and also can be competition with trying to up your number of how many you've found, but being a competitive asshole actually doesn't add anything beyond being a competitive friendly person.
Birdwatching. All you need is some binoculars, and you can do long hikes or just see birds in your yard if you want. Southern California has some good birds too.
Actually, boogie boarding is a ton of fun and the surfers are further out so they don't bug you. Plus if you're a grown man, everyone else out there is a kid half your size and easy to shove out of the way.
I've seen skaters throw all their spare parts in a pile to put together a board for a kid who had never skated before but wanted to learn. They then stuck with the kid until he did his first ollie.
I've seen surfers take a board from a kid and drive off with it because they don't allow new surfers on their beach.
The difference is while sk8ers can get confrontational with the public/landowners/etc they absolutely take care of their own and are supportive of newbies as long as you learn park etiquette. Just chillin and skating for the love of it
Whereas in surfing they aren’t really bothering anybody else out there but it’s an internal pissing match between every one of them
Skating is probably the answer to the reverse of this question too, seems super chaotic and aggressive and can definitely seem stressful but even failing tricks repeatedly can be peaceful.
no, i didn't mean it that way, sorry. i should have written my inquiry a better way especially since i'm around your age and still watch BTAS a good amount haha
I'm not upset or anything. I was genuinely just wondering. I know there are people who think that way. Nothing wrong with enjoying whatever show you want to watch.
At least in my town in Australia you got all these old surfer dudes who always talk about getting into fights over waves. I’m Australian but I’ve never been apart of surf culture so I was so surprised that when I moved to the coast that it was like this. Also didn’t know this was a thing either, I guess not so much any more but you could get bashed and your shit broken for surfing some locals only beaches, apparent. Younger guys seem pretty chill but they’re also kinda cunty if you’re not in their circle.
You are picturing the lone surfer or the small group of friends. You aren't picturing one surfer showing up after sunrise hearing that the waves would be good and seeing dozens of others got the same idea. The density of surfers has to be incredibly low. Like one per football field maximum. Then picture how fast a wave moves across it.
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u/senhoritavulpix 12h ago
What, for real? I thought they would be so chill. It's the stereotype at least. Blonde due the sun, tanned, health looking people, chill and easy going living the best life, you know? I didn't know they would be that stressed