The Challenges of 'Secret Spots': Skiing vs. Surfing

As a ski and surf writer, it is impossible not to note the similarities between the two disciplines. From travel to competition to athletes to gear design to history to style, ski media and surf media share much of the same DNA.

More specifically, Surfer and POWDER bleed the same ink. Their pages, old and new, share themes of mysticism surrounding good conditions, a shallow but unshakable obsession with beautiful women wearing spandex suits (skiing) or bikinis (surfing), travel stories, contest coverage, gear reviews (hot boards, hot wax, topsheets, airbrushing).

Perusing an old issue of POWDER one morning, I noticed something unusual. Under the "Publishing Advisory Board" was the name "Steve Pezman." The same man who, along with his wife Debbee, launched The Surfer's Journal. The address to send contributions was Dana Point, a distinct surfing hub along California's Coast, close to the breaks of Trestles and with several breaks within its own town lines. Not so much a skiing hub, though.

Then again, this highlights one of the strongest parallels between ski writing and surf writing: each audience’s attitude towards spots.

In skiing, “spots” might be specific trails, routes, descents, or glades. In surfing, “spots” are mostly confined to breaks: waves, reefs, a certain length of beach where a wave forms with a specific swell direction. Skiers and surfers protect spots due to similar concerns: overcrowding, finite resources, the pristine nature of quiet areas of land or sea, and concern for guests’ safeties at dangerous or unfamiliar spots.

I'm in the car with my friend Erik.

One of his hands grips the steering wheel of his Tacoma, the other holds the phone with his friend's voice coming through. His friend is in South Lake. "It took a dump on the Mt. Rose area," I hear through the phone. Erik laughs a singular chuckle. We're headed that way already.

I met Erik in the water at Uluwatu, and it doesn't surprise me that he treats skiing like surfing: every spot is different, and each storm will make one particular spot the best option for that day. Down to the hour, actually. Also, spots are, like surfing, the essence of the skiing experience. Change the location of the descent, and you change the vibe, the welcoming (or unwelcoming) nature of the other skiers around you, and the difficulty of the session.

I had never treated skiing like surfing before moving to Tahoe. As a kid, I simply put my skis on, hiked up to the lift (a slow triple called “Snubber”), and there I was, at the base of Sugarloaf Mountain, the resort I would spend the rest of the day within. Yes, there was extensive sidecountry, yes you could get lost in the resort, but it was nothing like the Tahoe area and its many mountains.

For all of the similarities, however, the attitude towards location between skiing and surfing is vastly different. While certain spots are kept secret in skiing, there is more of a shared, communal feel with knowledge and conditions-chasing. Historically, back when skiers were proudly proclaiming their equipment as "207s" they would just as proudly declare where they were using those skis. The pages of POWDER Magazine read quotes describing the location and the conditions like: "St. Moritz, we had about two feet of powder."

Even the photos in POWDER include a location, much like a dreaded geo-tag in surfing, all the way back in 1981. "Skier: Chris Deluymyea. Place: Beaver Bowl, Alpine Meadows."

This is hardly the case in surfing’s history. Even SURFER covers would caption their photo “the secret thrill” instead of outing the wave or even, more generally, the country the photo was shot in.

With skiing, even today with the increased popularity of the sport, growing complaints about crowding in-bounds and on the skin track, the pressure of finding untracked powder getting harder and harder, there seems to be no animosity to hide spots. Sure, there are NewSchoolers threads with "secret" glades at certain ski resorts, or the entire infatuation with backcountry skiing, but even then, skiers seldom go alone.

There is no respect for "mysto-skiers" who venture off-piste alone, because if trouble strikes, the idea is to have a partner.

Or perhaps, it's just a cultural difference. Interviewing professional skiers, as a green writer for POWDER, skiers had no problem detailing where they went and why. The culture of sharing information in the interest of safety and community is prevalent, even when it comes to spots. Friends have no problem sharing where they ski first on a powder day, or where they avoid on the weekends.

In surfing, there is far less community initiative when sharing breaks. In fact, locations that are shared often manifest into an act called localism: wax on windshields. Finger wags from pickup trucks at anyone holding a camera. Wooden signs, painted with “no cam no photos.” In Oahu, it was the cautious side eyes of surfers paddling out in the channel at spots without Surfline cams (what few of them there are), the hastily-whispered "you won't post these photos, will you?"

In Indonesia, it was the distrusting glances from local photographers who, fairly, did not want any part of foreign photographers taking away their wages. It was the excitement over getting a barrel shot, and then being threatened into jamming it into a computer drive for eternity.

In Maine, it was the raging comments of irate surfers who couldn't believe you would mention the state of the wave you frequented as a child.

These spot protectors disregard the fact that I’m working a labor of love, self-funding projects and chasing swells to places without hot water and internet for months on end to catch a photo of one perfect A-frame. And that their own travels were likely fueled by someone else sharing a spot with them through an iconic surf film, via word of mouth, or a poetic entry into a surf journal. No matter that I wasn’t the first to write about these spots, and I surely won't be the last. They treat me as the enemy, through and through. My experience is far from unique.

In 1974, Surfer Magazine published a piece titled, " The Forgotten Island of Santosha ." For those who haven't already read this story, "Santosha" was a hokey name given to a nearly-perfect wave to protect it from the general public. Author and surf historian (and former editor of Surfer Magazine ) Matt Warshaw later commented that the authors made it seem as if "Santosha" was an even better wave than Uluwatu.

Even before surf cams were the norm and everyone and their mom could look up any spot in the world on Google Earth, surf writers kept the best spots quiet. "Santosha" was not publicly revealed to be Tamarin Bay, Mauritius, until 1985, twelve years later. The same principles I experienced a year ago were set in stone even back then.

Perhaps the most glaring similarity between surfing and skiing is how both endeavors have retained much of their original soul and culture despite the lift upgrades, digitization of iconic films, new contests, and changing styles within each sport.

Spots will always be held sacred in our minds, whether it's our first wave caught at a new-to-us break, or the first trail we descended at our home mountain. The unique qualities of spots, too, are always going to change and be up for battle by those who cherish them.

Villas are built on the cliffs in Bali, destroying breaks as we know them. Developments threaten backcountry access. Resorts seek funding as the ski industry changes. But above all, spots are the cornerstone of the sports we love, and protecting them is as important now as it ever was.

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