Hide the Stoke 

Editor:

This letter is in response to Hank Sims’ article, “Where to Surf” (Dec. 5). Let’s be honest, the article could have done worse. Much of the dissatisfaction that I have heard in the past week (both on land and in the water) is in response to the general brazenness of the article, which was very much a slap in the face of the local surfing community.

One point that Sims attempted to make, and which I would like to argue, is the whole “logic” that local surfers here are “rude and brutal to outsiders.” Had he done some actual journalism, he would have found that, by and large, this is not the case.

I think a more sound “logic” would be that this “rude and brutal” atmosphere does not exist here very much because our local spots largely stay out of the mainstream surf culture’s lexicon (i.e., as a result of little exposure). When profiteers like Hank Sims, Dan Duane and their ilk exploit this aspect of our local culture, we feel a definite loss of something special.

Mike Kowalski, Samoa