What is a kook?

maybe

Michael Peterson status
Jul 23, 2011
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Like others have said, kook is primarily etiquette, regardless of what they are doing or riding.

Had a small, fun logging day recently and a dad decided to teach his kid how to surf in the shallows right in front of a crowd. Dad is a kook. Beginner takes his SUP to the pier on a 3-4 day and can't control his board - kook. Wealthy, entitled, and privileged guys who surf good and scream at locals the town south of them who grew up there - kook. Jimmy M from 'Nado. King of the kooks.
 
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santacruzin

Kelly Slater status
Oct 17, 2007
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valley purgatory
Ignorance + Arrogance = Kook.

A beginner who is being respectful and doing their best is not a kook.

Someone who rips but acts like an entitled dickhead is a kook.
Yes! difference between the beginner who fucks up owns it and listens to a more experienced surfer telling them what they did wrong and the entitled “fuck you you don’t own the ocean “ beginner kook
 
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maybe

Michael Peterson status
Jul 23, 2011
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A kook is someone who doesn't understand or respect their surroundings.
There are days when Slater is a kook, cstreet is a kook and all of us are kooks.
get over yourselves donkeys - enjoy the ride.

Yeah, but not so much really, right? Kook has evolved into a general derogatory term and divorced of any real meaning besides that, it seems, and the only real criteria is that someone pissed you off for some reason. It’s like calling someone a fucker. Is that really a bad thing? It’s actually saying that you may have a good sex life, like, “Don’t drop-in on me, dude who fucks.
 
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_____

Phil Edwards status
Sep 17, 2012
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Kooks come in lots of flavors. Maybe too many flavors nowadays . We could agree on that/?
 

JSC

Nep status
Mar 11, 2008
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I can't formally define a "kook", but a few of them probably hang out here -

IMG_6858 2.jpg
 

PJ

Gerry Lopez status
Jan 27, 2002
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"Kook" is Hawaiian for "piece of sh!t"?

I love that if it's true.

Hey kook!
I read this somewhere years ago, maybe in Surfer Magazine or The History of Surfing, and I can't remember the exact details but some West coast mainland surfers went to Makaha in 1947 or so and lived out there in tents for a while. They learned the Hawaiian word for Sh!t - kūkae. They wound up back on the Mainland West coast at Trestles where they used to say "I've gotta take a kūkae" and then go out and squat amongst the pines. This became "I've gotta take a Kook" and then Kook was used to describe things which were Sh!t. So I do think that's true.
 
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afoaf

Duke status
Jun 25, 2008
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View attachment 114284

I'd disagree with 1,2, 3 and 4. I can't remember ever seeing a kooky kneeboarder, and there are some SUP guys who shred. Look up "Jess Leedy SUP". Big beachbreak tubes. Going straight (not straight towards the beach) is fine if they're not out of control. The guy at the beginning of plasticbeartrand's Swarmi's video above who probably couldn't dodge someone on the shoulder if he had to is a kook.


ACTUAL GENIES