Hypocrisy: Joel Tudor flouts no-booze rule!

Chas Smith

By

World-famous longboarder doesn't like beer sponsors! Or does he?

The internet is a cruel place in that it refuses to forget anything at all. Having an honest opinion about this or that and posting it somewhere, anywhere, online is a sure-fire road to later hypocrisy. Oh of course our beliefs evolve, we’re presented with new heretofore unseen, facts and figures etc. but does anyone accept change?

No!

And soon the honest opinion giver, the thrower of rocks, finds himself living in a glass house with a mob of other, different rock throwers descending.

Just like Joel Tudor!

Do you remember one week ago, at the stunning conclusion of the J-Bay Open presented by Corona when Mr. Tudor posted the following to his Instagram account?

In honor of the alcohol backed j-bay open @wsl & @corona – a partnership catered to the youthful demographic of 14-25 ….huge providers of trash …zero health benefits and probably the biggest gateway drug on earth BOOZE!!

Four days later he gave an interview to Stab‘s almost like new BeachGrit-certified writer Michael Ciaramella in which he said…

Yup. The devil’s poison. Biggest gateway drug on the planet. Kills tons of people every year. This is what the WSL, and the surfing industry as a whole, have been promoting since forever. Every clip you watch on Stab or Surfer is brought to you by Corona AU. Every surf trip on a boat, guys are chugging beers, you know what I mean? And who do you think they’re marketing to? Kids! Are you fucking kidding me? You’re handing it to them! It’s about time that bullshit switches, and I’m glad I’m the one to say it.

Exceeeeeeeeept…. the Internet and its forever memory!

Just two years ago, when Joel Tudor’s own Duct Tape Invitational was allowed at Huntington Beach it was presented by………..

Pacifico beer!

Oh there were many advertisements, both print and online, many featuring frosty cold bottles of Pacifico inviting, begging, the viewer to sit back and enjoy a cold one possibly with a cartoon friend.

And how do you think Joel should defend his glass house?

Here, Kelly explains to an agog John John how he proved the earth to be curved. | Photo: @tsherms

Earth science: Kelly Slater goes to war!

Chas Smith

By

A no holds' barred, no cost spared, battle royale!

Two days ago it was revealed here that a flat earth proponent had upbraided the world’s most popular surfer on Instagram for believing the earth is round. It was my favorite story of the week because of its subtleties. Kelly is not shy to mix in a little conspiracy into his belief cake but apparently thinking that the earth is a giant flat disc with a 150 foot ice wall around the edges, guarded by NASA, to keep us in is not an ingredient.

And on Kelly’s social media accounts a flat earther swung in and quietly stated, “DUMB MOTHER FUCKER! IF THE EARTH IS A 25,000 MILE CIRCUMFERENCE BALL THEN THE FUCKING EARTH CURVES A SHIT LOAD AND VERIFYING THIS CURVE SHOULD BE NO PROBLEM, IT SHOULDN’T EVEN BE A CHALLENGE…”

then a little later…

“WHAT DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND ABOUT THIS YOU DUMB SHIT? WHAT AREN’T YOU GETTING? I KNOW YOU ARE STUPID, BUT I DIDN’T KNOW YOU WERE THIS FUCKING STUPID! NO VERIFIABLE CURVE MEANS NO CURVE DUMMY.”

then a little later…

“NOW GO FIND THAT CURVE WITH YOUR MILLIONS OR SHUT THE FUCK UP OR CHOOSE TO CONTINUE TO LOOK LIKE A BITCH! ALL YOUR DUMB ASS HAS TO DO IS SHOW US WHERE TO VERIFY THIS CURVE OF EARTH!”

Well, Kelly Slater quietly took his millions and…

…boom.

How many millions do you think that scaffolding cost to build?

Did Kelly win a battle or win the war?

Stay tuned!

A joy ride with a hiccup! | Photo: six12media

Pop Quiz: Are You A Kook?

James Booth

By

Take this quiz for a definitive answer.

Recently, the writer Nick Carroll made some very hurtful comments about our “ridiculous” website.

However, he also provided a checklist (for which I’m grateful) that tells you whether or not you’re an intelligent kook.

You already knew you were a kook, but intelligent?

Only this quiz will tell.

1. Do you live in a big city

2. Did you go to university?

3. Do you understand post-modernism?

4. Do you write sleek witty judgmental prose about surf culture? (Bleach’d Grit, Longtom, Negatron, That Dead Whale etc. I’m looking at you.)

5. Do you surf like a sack of shit (paraphrased)?

Congratulations! You’re either an intelligent kook, a stupid kook or a liar.

No one who doesn’t surf like a sack of shit really understands post-modernism.

We pretend we do, but every time someone mentions it, we use Google to “refresh” our memories.

Or is that just me?

Anyway, unless I’m very much mistaken, the only thing saving Nick from his own list is his surfing ability. So, Nick, let me ask you a few questions.

Nick: For how much longer do you think you’ll be able to surf half-decently?

When you stop being able to do so will you immediately retire from surf journalism?

And how badly do you want to throttle me for being such a pedantic graduate of Google’s school of postmodernity?

Not that bad? Not even an eyebrow? Read on.

Do you reckon you surf better than your brother at the moment? How long until his knee gets better and he overtakes you again?

I can’t imagine my younger brother being better than me at surfing, let alone a world champ.

How did you live with it for so long? And are you willing to give it up again?

But back to postmodernity, one last question:

Is the self-aware kook still a kook?

The Western Australian surfer Creed McTaggart, who is a a wild and natural talent. chooses to carry his board with a dramatic irony.

Faux/Real: Carrying surfboard like child!

Derek Rielly

By

Are you an ironic hauler of your craft?

I can’t remember the exact moment, but I do remember roughly the year when a certain substrata of surfers started carrying their surfboards like children, tail down, nose up and gripped in the upper third.

It was 2005 and a small company called Insight had created, with its fashion-y trunks and tees and a team of surfers who were B-ish grade but photogenic, the first hipster surfers. Short trunks, sleeveless tee-wearing boys carrying surfboards with dramatic irony.

Oh, yes, we know how you’re supposed to carry a surfboard, wax out, nose down, gripped ever so slightly behind the wide point, but… we don’t care! We’re so confident in ourselves, and so contemptuous of the mainstream surfer, that we’ll do anything to separate ourselves from the jocks.

Previously, any sort of divergence from the standard manner of carrying a surfboard would’ve had you immediately, and accurately, pegged as a kook.

The insouciance caught on very quickly among what we call the freesurfers, Dane Reynolds, Craig Anderson, Creed McTaggart, Dion Agius and so on.

And for a very long time it was only the very best, and most confident, of cool surfers who carried their boards like this and so if you saw a board carried in this awkward, child-like manner, and particularly if they wore a sleeveless black tee and short trunks, you would think, oh he good. 

But, then, quite recently, the last few years and so forth, even the novice has begun to carry their board like the child thereby nullifying the ability to rate a surfer by the way he lugs his surfboard.

So.

Carrying a board like a child.

Faux?

Or real?

Tudor: “Dear WSL you are retarded!”

Chas Smith

By

Master Joel Tudor claims WSL marginalizes 70% of California's surfers!

Anger at feeling marginalized is a many splendored thing and no one but no one wears it better than Joel Tudor. The wonderful jiu jitsu master and longerboard surfer from San Diego is almost always pushed to the corner by some event beyond his control. Six days ago it was alcoholic beverages sponsoring World Surf League events (watch Mikey soar!) and today it is the World Surf League allegedly removing his Duct Tape Invitational contest from the just around the corner U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach.

But let’s let him tell us about it! He posted the following on his Instagram:

No @vanssurf @vans DTI HB This year! Our KOOK buddies @wsl asked if they could run the event without us this year! Way to kill surf history in ca…logging has been a part of contests in hb since 1959 — zero respect for its foundation!

DTI we can safely assume stands for Duct Tape Invitational. 150-odd comments followed, most praising Joel and telling the WSL to fuck itself etc. Joel responds to many. Let’s read those context free!

it’s never something we even care about ….just upset that they personally removed my event for no reason ….no longboard at all on schedule— mind you … we pay or the event and they ask for no DTI === they can eat my shorts

never needed them to begin with ….just find it funny that that they removed a successful part of the event for personal reasons – fuck those clowns!!!

working on something there for this winter – no contest …a DTI festival..like the one that just happened in Canada

turning your back on the more successful part of the event and shunning a large majority or the surfing population is not the best look when you are going for a large crowd turnout – they are retarded and need to hear it

pee in their coffee machine

we didn’t ….they asked us to not be there!!!! ……mind you we are paying for it ….just a slight slap in the face

On Facebook he also wrote…

And do you think this statistic is true? Are 70% of California’s surfers riding longboards?

I am very dubious. Very very dubious.

But what do you think? Are you Team Joel or Team Not Joel?

Also, will you miss the Duct Tape Invitational this year?

Photo: Steve Sherman/@tsherms
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