By Marcelo Matos - Column presented by SurfCycled 

—Wasn't PU more flexible than EPOXY?
His question struck me as both absurd and intriguing. Especially coming from him: an excellent surfer with whom I've had long conversations about boards, waves, techniques, and just about everything related to surfing.

I looked towards the horizon, and since nothing was coming, I got up the courage and asked him:
—What are you saying? Are you feeling okay?
"Yes, yes," he told me, and launched into a story about an Instagram reel where one of those trendy surf influencers analyzes the differences between traditional injected polyurethane laminated with polyester and epoxy. The guy concludes, with complete certainty, that epoxy is more flexible than PU.

Any experienced surfer knows that the reality is exactly the opposite of this statement.

Whether it's because they didn't know how to convey the information, because they mistranslated another reel in English, or because they simply don't understand anything, the information is incorrect. Even so, their reel has thousands of views and interactions, and it's just one of hundreds of cases across all categories.

Information is not knowledge
With so much information at our fingertips, many people today confuse knowing with having seen, with just winging it. And everyone likes to lecture. But information is not knowledge, and even less so is experience.

Tons of reels promising to "improve your surfing in a minute," filling the screen with arrows and circles, talk about "hip rotation" or "eye alignment" without a single basis in the hard reality of riding waves. Usually, the information is presented by some guy with long blond hair, making ridiculous movements, as if that would help explain positions that, in the water, happen in milliseconds.

These are the famous "digital coaches," who, mind you, in many cases may even be excellent surfers, yes, but surfing well doesn't mean knowing how to transmit knowledge. Much less understanding what one is talking about.

And yet, on the other side, there are thousands of people believing they have understood something extremely complex… without even being able to prove it.

Those who truly know, don't shout
Taj Burrow himself once said that he didn't even know the measurements of his surfboards. He trusted his shaper, who would adjust small details to try new things. That's how they developed models, with varying degrees of success, based on trial and error.
Taj never even considered talking about "progressive rocker" or "spiral concave." For him, surfing was enough. He demonstrated the theory through practice. Pure barrel and slam. Besides, and this is key, the board that works for Taj won't necessarily work for you or me. On the contrary, in most cases, the boards of a surfer at that level aren't even good enough to eat sausage.

It is key not to confuse opinion with knowledge.

The sea has no shortcuts
I'm not saying everything circulating on social media is false, but it shouldn't be taken so literally. Everyone should draw their own conclusions based on their personal surfing experience.

Surfing is probably one of the most complex disciplines there is: not only because of the physical skill it demands, which is true of many sports, but also because the environment is constantly changing, something that happens in very few others. The waves are always different. No two are ever the same. And your foot being a centimeter further forward or backward can completely change how you feel on the board.

Perhaps an experienced surfer can grasp a concept quickly because they understand the context and the variables. But someone who thinks they're going to learn something by watching a sand dancer in a 30-second reel has no idea of ​​the enormous number of complex variables that combine beneath their feet.

True knowledge is found in the water, not on Wi-Fi. It's found in oral tradition, in the friend who took more than 30 seconds to explain why, and not in the guy who, with words, postures, and movements that elicit more laughter than information, comes and tells you, in exchange for a like: this is how it's done.