There are places in the world where you are killed for saying what you think. Where the free act of expressing your opinion can end up costing you your life. People who risk their lives to defend their rights and who risk their lives and those of their families, their children, to achieve what they believe is a better world.

There are people who confront drug traffickers, corrupt politicians, corrupt judges… Dangerous people… People who in the grand scheme of things are important and there are brave people who do important things.

When I think about this, I actually laugh and I also get worried that there are people who are so brain damaged that they are insulting, disrespecting each other in a loud voice, in an argument about surfing. About something so small, so much less important in the grand scheme of things than what was just mentioned, like surfing.

As with everything in life, and I have said this hundreds of times, there are people who think one thing, people who think another, and for thinking differently no one deserves a violent gesture, mistreatment, or an insult. It is the basis of freedom, it is the basis of the wealth of opinions and diversity.

Precisely, the desire to impose opinions, to insult others for having the opposite opinion, is the basis of absolutism, of dictatorships, of torture and of all the evils that have beset the world from time to time and that still beset it. It is everything that is wrong done by people who are wrong.

I think it's great that there are people who think differently than me. In fact, I've shared several of my most fun surfing conversations with people who think differently than me. And I'd have a beer or a mate, having a great time, talking about our differences. I'd find it boring to talk to a person who says everything I think. How fun to have interesting points of view that challenge me and encourage me to think new things!

What I do find deplorable is the violence, the insults and the mistreatment. They speak more badly of the person who gives them than of the person they want to send them to.

The pity is that it has to do with everything because our society is full of people like that: People who are capable of being violent over small arguments. And this is even dangerous. Nothing justifies violence, much less a position on something in surfing.

-Kauli Vaast did not go to the US Open to surf the Seine: https://dukesurf.com/kauli-vaast-did-not-go-to-the-us-open-to-surf-the-seine/

-Images like the one from Medina increase the number of surfers, according to specialists: https://dukesurf.com/imagenes-como-la-de-medina-aumentan-la-cantidad-de-surfistas-segun-especialistas/

-The situation of Alonso Correa and Gabriel Medina analyzed in detail: https://dukesurf.com/la-situacion-de-alonso-correa-y-gabriel-medina-analizada-en-detalle/

-Peruvian Surfing Federation will make a claim for Alonso Correa's priority situation: https://dukesurf.com/peruvian-surfing-federation-will-make-a-claim-for-priority-situation/

-Medina and Toledo are ridiculed with requests like the one for the pool: https://dukesurf.com/medina-y-toledo-se-ridiculizan-con- pedidos-como-el-de-la-piscina/

-Medina joined the defense of swimming pools in Olympic surfing: https://dukesurf.com/medina-se-sumo-a-la-defensa-de-las-piscinas-en-el-surfing-olimpico/

-These are the guests announced for the Padang Padang invitational: https://dukesurf.com/these-are-the-guests-announced-for-the-padang-padang-invitational/

-Natxo González: “The worst was when I stopped feeling like a surfer”: https://dukesurf.com/natxo-gonzalez-the-worst-was-when-i-stopped-feeling-like-a-surfer/

-Leash Bar proposes to eliminate the rope: https://dukesurf.com/leash-bar-proposes-to-eliminate-the-rope/

-Jensen won two out of two and guaranteed himself a spot in the Salvadoran finals: https://dukesurf.com/jensen-gano-dos-de-dos-y-se-garantizo-en-las-finales-salvadorenas/

-Kauli: “I'm going to get home and she's going to tell me: 'Now you have to clean up'”: https://dukesurf.com/what-kauli-said-i-am-going-to-get-home-and-she-is-going-to-tell-me-now-you-have-to-cleanup/

-Filipe asks for a swimming pool for the Olympic Games: “The best surfer really wins!”: https://dukesurf.com/filipe-asks-for-a-swimming-pool-for-the-olympic-games-the-best-surfer-really-wins/

-These are the US Open series: https://dukesurf.com/these-are-the-us-open-series-3/

-The best photos from the final day of Olympic surfing in Paris 2024: https://dukesurf.com/the-best-photos-from-the-final-day-of-olympic-surfing-in-paris-2024/

-The final edition of the DUKE Olympic newscast: https://dukesurf.com/brisa-and-alonso-finished-fourth-in-their-participation-in-olympic-surfing/

-Brisa and Alonso finished fourth in their participation in Olympic surfing: https://dukesurf.com/alonso-correa-i-tried-i-did-the-best-i-could-and-there-is-nothing-to-do-about-it/

-The Pure Breeze: https://dukesurf.com/la-pura-brisa/

-Alonso Correa represents the finest tradition of the good Peruvian surfer: https://dukesurf.com/alonso-correa-representa-la-mas-fina-tradicion-del-buen-surfista-peruano/

-The penultimate edition of the DUKE Olympic newscast in Paris 2024: https://dukesurf.com/la-penultima-edicion-del-informativo-olimpico-duke/

-Brisa's path to the final day of Olympic surfing, in photos: https://dukesurf.com/brisa-s-path-to-the-final-day-of-olympic-surfing-in-photos/

-Alonso's path to the final day of Olympic surfing, in photos: https://dukesurf.com/alonso-path-to-the-final-day-of-olympic-surfing-in-photos/

-Another Olympic effect: The viral photographer gained 200.000 followers in five days: https://dukesurf.com/another-olympic-effect-the-viral-photographer-gained-200-000-followers-in-five-days/

-Olympic effect: Alonso gained more than 70.000 followers in one week: https://dukesurf.com/olympic-effect-alonso-correa-gained-more-than-70-000-followers-in-one-week/

-The keys to the giant structure that Brazil has set up here in Teahupoo with Bezinho Otero: https://dukesurf.com/the-keys-to-the-giant-structure-that-brazil-has-set-up-here-in-teahupoo-with-benzinho-otero/

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