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What Is a Kook in Surfing? Queen of Kooks, Batu Karas and Why Surfing Should Still Be Fun
Surfing has a way of making you feel incredibly cool and completely ridiculous within the same five minutes.
One second, you're gliding across a wave, feeling like you finally understand what you're doing. The next, your board is going one direction, your body is going another, and someone in the lineup definitely saw the whole thing.
That is basically the spirit behind my short surf film, Queen of Kooks, which was shot and made in Batu Karas, West Java, Indonesia.
For me, surfing has never really been about being the best person in the water. It is about the feeling you get from it. The freedom. The friendships. The chaos. The wipeouts. The very occasional moment where everything comes together and you think, wait… was that actually good?
And then, obviously, you fall again.
Watch Queen of Kooks on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/CWGNqy3p7rU?si=xvRcpMoxR_8G0n5O
What does “kook” mean in surfing?
If you are new to surf culture, you have probably heard surfers use the word kook before.
Traditionally, a kook in surfing is someone who does not really understand surf etiquette, ocean safety or how to behave in the lineup. It can describe someone who paddles through the wrong part of the break, drops in on other surfers, gets in the way without understanding priority, or acts as though they know more than they do.
But like most surf slang, the meaning changes depending on who is saying it.
Sometimes “kook” is used seriously. Sometimes it is an insult. And sometimes it is just what your friends call you after you do something unbelievably stupid with your surfboard.
My definition is probably closer to the last one.
I do not think being a kook automatically means being a beginner or being bad at surfing.
For me, a kook can be someone who knows how to surf but still manages to do funny, clumsy things along the way.
Which is unfortunately a very accurate description of me.
I can catch waves. I can surf. I have had sessions where I feel really good in the water.
But I can also walk into something while carrying my board, throw my board into the water in the strangest possible way, completely mistime something, fall for absolutely no reason or come out of the water and immediately hit my fin on the rocks.
That is the energy.
Why Batu Karas was the perfect place to make Queen of Kooks
Queen of Kooks was filmed in Batu Karas, a small surf town on the south coast of West Java, Indonesia.
And honestly, I cannot imagine this film being made anywhere else.
Batu Karas has this very specific rhythm to it. Surf, eat, sit around, talk about the surf, surf again, laugh at whatever happened in the water, repeat.
It is the kind of place where surfing is woven into everyday life rather than treated as some separate activity you squeeze into your schedule.
That made it the perfect setting for a film about the less polished side of surfing.
The movie was not meant to be about perfect waves or trying to make me look like an amazing surfer. It was meant to capture what surfing actually feels like to me: funny, frustrating, addictive and full of moments that do not make it onto the highlight reel.
Batu Karas gave us exactly that.
The waves, the people, the local surf culture and the relaxed atmosphere became part of the story.
Every surfer has been a kook
Professional surf clips can make the sport look extremely polished.
You see the perfect wave, the clean turn, the beautiful noseride and the smooth exit.
You do not always see everything that happened before and after that clip.
The missed waves. The bad positioning. The wipeouts. The weird paddle-outs. The board hitting something it absolutely should not have hit.
Every surfer has made mistakes.
Every surfer has been a beginner.
And that is partly what makes surfing so addictive.
There is always something else to learn.
Surfing does not have to be competitive to be rewarding
Surfing can be very competitive.
When the waves are good and the lineup is crowded, everyone wants the same thing.
You paddle for a wave. Someone else paddles for it. You miss it. Everyone sees you miss it. You turn around and pretend nothing happened.
It can definitely be embarrassing.
But some of my favourite surf sessions have had nothing to do with how well I surfed.
One session in Batu Karas stands out in particular.
It started raining while we were in the water, and the whole mood in the lineup changed.
Everyone was cheering each other on. People were sharing waves. Everyone seemed to get a chance to surf.
The energy was completely different.
It was one of those moments that reminded me why I love surfing in the first place.
Surfing can be competitive, and there is nothing wrong with wanting to improve.
But it does not have to be competitive to be rewarding.
Sometimes the reward is simply getting out of the water happier than when you went in.
Why I love longboarding
A big part of my relationship with surfing comes from longboarding.
I have tried shorter boards before, and the feeling is completely different.
With a shortboard, I often feel like I am trying to control everything.
With a longboard, I feel more free.
And freedom is probably one of the things I value most.
When I catch a wave on a longboard, I want to move around. I want to walk toward the nose. I want to experiment.
Sometimes that experiment ends with me immediately falling off.
But that freedom is exactly why I love it.
There is something really beautiful about being able to play on a wave instead of feeling like every wave needs to prove something.
Making mistakes is how you improve at surfing
One of the biggest lessons surfing has taught me has very little to do with surfing.
You learn a lot when you are willing to look stupid.
When I watch videos of myself surfing, the clips that make everyone laugh are often the clips I learn the most from.
I can see what went wrong.
Maybe my positioning was wrong. Maybe my weight was in the wrong place. Maybe I rushed something.
And because I can laugh at it, I do not have to feel embarrassed by it.
I can just try something different next time.
That applies to so much more than surfing.
When you are afraid of making mistakes, you become afraid of trying things.
But when being a little bit silly is allowed, learning becomes much easier.
Maybe the real kooks are the people who forgot how to have fun
One surfer we spoke to during the film gave a definition that I loved.
To him, the real kook is not necessarily the person learning.
It is the person who has forgotten what surfing is supposed to feel like.
The person who gets angry at everyone.
The person who deliberately drops in because they think every wave belongs to them.
The person who makes beginners feel unwelcome.
Every good surfer was once learning.
Everyone has fallen.
Everyone has been scared.
Everyone has misunderstood the ocean at some point.
So if someone calls another surfer a kook simply because they are learning, maybe they have forgotten their own beginning.
So, am I actually the Queen of Kooks?
Probably.
Not because I cannot surf.
But because there will almost always be something happening around me that makes my friends laugh.
Sometimes I surf well.
Sometimes I look like I am wrestling the ocean.
Sometimes the kook moment happens before I even make it into the water.
And I think that is part of why I still love surfing so much.
I do not need every session to be perfect.
I do not need every wave to look good on Instagram.
If I am smiling when I walk out of the water, I had a good surf.
And maybe being the Queen of Kooks is not such a bad title after all.
Watch Queen of Kooks, filmed in Batu Karas
If you have ever been humbled by the ocean, fallen in front of an entire lineup, missed a wave you absolutely should have caught or simply loved surfing even when you were not very good at it, this film is for you.
Watch Queen of Kooks on YouTube:https://youtu.be/CWGNqy3p7rU?si=xvRcpMoxR_8G0n5O
For more surfing, wipeouts, Batu Karas moments, travel and behind-the-scenes clips, follow me on TikTok:
You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel for more short surf films and episodes of Somewhere Along the Way.
Because surfing is not always about being the best.
Sometimes it is just about having the most fun.
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