FOMOOGS

Have you heard about FOMO or ‘fear of missing out’? According to the Urban Dictionary, it’s the fear that if you miss a party or event you will miss out on something great. The surfing version of it is FOMOOGS** = Fear of missing out on great surf. It’s very common amongst surfers and usually comes up when:

You are sick – Surfers suffer more than other people when they are sick because not only do they have to endure the actual sickness but they suffer from severe FOMOOGS.

You decide to sleep in – sleeporsurf ?, sleeporsurf ?, sleeporsurf ?, sleeporsurf  ?…a decision many surfers have to face every morning ie whether or not to try and fit in a pre-work surf. Sometimes, sleep-in wins but it’s hardly worth it as you’ll be gripped by FOMOOGS until Frothers or Uge hit your inbox to release you from the grips of FOMOOGS by revealing what you’ve missed out on (or hopefully telling you it was sh*t anyway).

You can’t decide which beach – that’s the most annoying case of FOMOOGS. Me and my friends suffered a lot from that one when we went on roadies. It’s a familiar scenario to most surfers….You are on a roadie…you check the first spot and you all agree it looks ok but maybe, what about the one around the corner? What if it’s better? We better check it out…you arrive around the corner, it’s also ok but not quite the perfection you were hoping for…FOMOOGS in full swing…You check another one…it’s sh*t…back to the first spot … oh no ! By the time you get back wind’s in, tide’s changed, not as good as before. And the FOMOOGS comes true, you don’t just miss on great surf but on any surf at all.

If you did not grow up in Australia but in Austria [insert any other country with a looooong winter where sunny days are a rarity], FOMOOGS is even worse as we also have fear of missing out on sunshine. We are so trained to get out of the house as soon as the sun peeks out. In Austria, you never know how long the sun’s going to last before it disappears for an unspecified amount of time. So you better make the most of it. Even after almost 10 years in Australia, I still feel bad when I sleep in or don’t get to go outside as much as I like on a sunny day.

This weekend, I was a bit under the weather. Usually, I suffer from a severe case of FOMOOGS when I’m sick or sleep in. However, surf was not great at all. Yesterday, it was small and choppy with the sun out. Maybe a few fun ones to be had on the mal but nothing too exciting. Today, Sunday, well you just have to look out of the window to see not very inspiring conditions today at all. So no better weekend to get a cold and never has a sleep in felt any better with no FOMOOGS to report at all…

Tomorrow looks equally ugly with lots of rain (thank god for the rain though) and wind. So chances are that you won’t miss out if you sleep in tomorrow. It looks like the wind’s dropping by Tuesday for a fun morning of surf.

Enjoy the rest of your week gidgets and friends of gidgets.

x Clauds