Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Community
My name is Christian Erik Coker. My parents are still together and I have a 30 year old sister. She has two little girls of her own. I am a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, half native american male, born and raised in Virginia Beach, VA. Ever since I can remember, the beach has been my backyard. When I was around 6 years old my parents let me ride my bike to the beach by myself. From there I fell into a community that is internationally known and locally respected, the 1st street surfers. I had no idea at the time that I was going to be part of any group. I just wanted to surf and 1st street had the best break. Every day before and after school I would meet my friends at Jr. Market, then we would all ride our bikes to the beach and go surf. To be a part of my community you have to live in the area near it. And if you don't, get the hell out! Most people would call my community unwelcoming and violent, we call it protective of our territory. The way we were brought up was to show respect to those who were older than us or surfed better than us. Also, it was the older generations job to make sure we knew our place in the line up and our responsibility to the beach. I remember once around the age of 13 I threw a piece of trash in the sand. Three older surfers saw me do this, picked me up and stuffed me into a trashcan for what seemed like an hour. Now sometimes we would get picked on like this for their amusement but most of the time the hazing and abuse taught us lessons about respect for the earth and for the community.
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I think this is a really interesting community! I have never lived by a beach before (the closest one to me is about an hour away) and the way everyone treats eachother within your community is definately different. I think everyone would be interested to hear what you have to say. I don't think most people live in a community like that and your narrative will probably open peoples minds up to other communities unlike their own.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great topic! I like how your passion for surfing as a kid became a lifestyle for you as you grew older. This community seems really close-knit since you not only lived in the area, but hung out with this group on a daily basis. I think it would be interesting to hear how you have adapted to life at college and away from the beach.
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent topic, Christian! It sounds like you have a series of personal experiences to draw upon that paint a clear image of what it means to be a community member, and you are welcome to include more than one in your narrative. The story of being stuffed in a trash can sounds like an important one to include to emphasize the dynamic of the community. The way that these lessons taught you to respect the earth sounds very important to your community, too.
ReplyDeleteI think its great that you've contrasted the way non-members define your community (unwelcoming and violent) against the way that members do (protective). I think you can explore this theme deeper within your narrative.
Have you thought about how you want to address the research component of this essay? You may want to research the surfing community in general, or see if you can find a local article published about the 1st street surfers!
I really like the idea of your topic! At first glance, I thought you were going to simply write about surfing in VA Beach, which is great, but not very unusual or exciting in anyway. But as you began to talk about the beliefs and traditions in your specific surfing community, I realized just how different your community actually was and I think it will be very interesting to hear about. I hope that you incorporate many more vivid examples like that ones you wrote about above!
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