in a time where surfing seems to be taking a different, commercialized path, Bruce Gold is a reminder of what it’s all about.
Bruce Gold has been holding the title of the ‘last surfing hippie’ for decades now. People have traveled from all corners of the world to hunt him down in South Africa and share his story. If you’re unfamiliar, Gold dropped everything in his 20s and came to Jeffrey’s Bay to surf and…that was it. For more than 50 years now he’s been getting by on a steady diet of waves, odd jobs, and endearing himself to the JBay community as a longtime local legend. He’s lived under cover of the dunes, he’s bartered for the random odds and ends needed here and there. He’s a real life version of something every surfer has considered at some point in their life.
“In surfing there is a common saying, ‘work less, surf more.’ It’s built on the idea that the ultimate life includes having no job and being able to surf all the time,” filmmaker Anders Melchior said back in 2016. “Bruce is one of the few people on this planet that has actually lived that life.”
Now, even if you had never heard of Jim Gold or his exploits, you wouldn’t be able to miss him in a crowd. That’s unquestionably part of his charm. The beard, the mismatched outfits, and even the energy in his voice are all unmistakeable. Ironically, that’s actually why Youtuber David Jones struck up a conversation with him. Gold was sitting in the small crowd of an event Jones was speaking at and he asked, “Who is this guy?”.
Once the two got to talking Gold shared that he’s now curating his own museum — a collection of surf memorabilia, Miki Dora mementos (the two were friends), and a wild amount of cartoons and art honoring Gold himself. As you can see, Bruce Gold is still thriving these days.