On any given day, you’ll find surfers of varying skill paddling out at Muizenberg (call it Muizies, if you don’t want to sound like a rookie) and other popular Cape spots.

Most of those in the water don’t mind, as long as they’re left to catch their waves without anybody muscling in and breaking etiquette.

Well, that’s where ‘kooks’ come in, because they’re sorta ruining the fun for everyone.

GQ defines a kook as “an individual with no understanding of the social and sartorial norms of surfing…on occasion, kooks can even be recognized solely by the faux pas they commit out of the ocean”.

Surfer Today offers this, focusing more on the amateurish nature of it all:

A kook is a pre-beginner surfer, an aspiring wave rider, a nerd, or someone who tries – and fails – to mimic the surfing lifestyle. Kooks are careless, odd, exotic, and ridiculous. They disrespect the nobility of surfing.

Not cool, bro.

Poking fun at kooks has become a social media staple in the surfing community, with accounts like @kookoftheday amassing close to 900 000 followers.

Rather than trawl through their videos, here’s a great compilation of folks not quite getting it right:

Respect the ocean and each other, innit?

If you want to see some fearless surfers who got things right, check out the nominees for this year’s Big Wave Awards.

[sources:gq&surfertoday]