Writer Thad Ziolkowski, whose memoir On a Wave reportedly tells the story of a “disenchanted, unemployed English professor” who goes surfing in Queens only to be reminded of his youth as a surfer in Florida, had a few words for the New York Times today about Quiksilver’s upcoming New York Pro surf contest.
In an editorial titled: New York’s Urban Aloha he had the following to say about a large West Coast fashion brand invading his personal peak.
Imprinting the Quiksilver brand on New York’s burgeoning surf scene makes perfect sense from a business perspective, but the corporate siren song threatens to sour the mood of surfing in New York, which for the moment remains a bastion of surf spirit. It’s a spirit that companies like Quiksilver claim to value but have in fact helped degrade elsewhere, peddling a vision of surfing’s blithe, blue allure that studiously omits the ugly realities of overcrowding that such marketing abets.
Leave it to the New York Times and a writing professor to use 990 words to say: “locals only.”
[Link: The New York Times]
