Oliver Kurtz in Miami
The 23-year-old professional surfer and aficionado of Miami and LA club scenes, Mr Oliver Kurtz. | Photo: worldredeye.com

ollie kurtz talks (not) drugs and (not) famous gal pals!

Derek Rielly

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Dance parties in Los Angeles and Miami mixed with a little surf fever? Who doesn't like?

Oliver Kurtz is a professional surfer of much talent with the best dance party connections. When he is caught in an elevator of a baroque hotel during Miami Music Week he tells of experiences that would tease the reader in the most satisfying way. But everything of note is rendered off the record when Kurtz has a pang of regret at interview’s end. He says, “I have to be super cautious ’cause I don’t wanna say too much but obviously I don’t wanna say too little. I’m super worried about this stuff revolving all around partying and that kinda scene. It’s a big part of my life but I don’t wanna be known as the guy who surfs and parties and no one can take serious.” We take you serious! All drug-club-party references gone, mostly. Let’s get real!

BEACHGRIT: Have you seen drug use during Miami Music Week?

OLIVER: Oh! yeah, of course! Are you kidding me? I mean, the classic ones like coke and molly. But, you know, for the record, we don’t do those…

BEACHGRIT: I heard you were the cleanest of livers. Me too! Tell me, how did you get entwined in the club scene?

OLIVER: My brother got me introduced into this whole crazy lifestyle. And I love it. The lavish parties, all day and all night, like here in Miami right now. My brother DJ’d a party that started at eight in the morning.

BEACHGRIT: Where do you live?

OLIVER: As stupid and cliched as it sounds, I don’t live anywhere at the moment. My brother puts me up in LA where I have my car and where all the surf companies are. I’m sleeping on the floor of his bedroom. I have a sleeping bag and a pillow. I don’t have a cot. I don’t have anything. Him and his roommates are rad. They runniest the biggest music blog in the world (gottadance30.com) and run all these massive events.

BEACHGRIT: Tell me about this super dance-y DJ apartment…

OLIVER: It’s right at LA airport, a  four-bedroom, two-bath penthouse. with two living rooms. They got it for a steal  because of the airplane noise all day. All the time there’s one of those fucking airbuses flying to Oz or New Zealand or Europe. There’s a recording studio in the apartment too. It’s a fucking sick zone. It’s such a cool world and so different to what most surfers are accustomed to.

BEACHGRIT: What’s your favourite club in LA?

OLIVER: It comes down to what you want to accomplish. You can go to a progressive club or you can go to a big like Emerson that plays songs that girls know, those places where the models get to party with celebrities and they get their little Instagrams and their free bottles and their free drugs. I like good music in down and city clubs like Sound. But LA compared to Miami? It’s not even close.

BEACHGRIT: What’s been your most enjoyable club experience?

OLIVER: When I was 16 my brother took me out for the first time in Miami. I come from a tiny town in Florida where the guys pulling the chicks are rednecks and so I don’t pull chicks there, and I was rolling in this club with, and still to this day, four of the most beautiful girls I’d seen in my life. We were treated like royalty everywhere we went. Another time, me and my friend were with TSO all night in LA. And when TSO is in a club, the owner clears out the VIP section. So it was me, my friend, TSO and three girls in our own VIP area. We’d stay 20 minutes and then beat it. But last night was a wild night, too. There’s always something.

BEACHGRIT: What’s been your longest bender?

OLIVER: Oh god! These questions are tearing me to pieces! Yeah, like any other20 year old I’ve had my benders but I don’t think I’ll tell the truth on that one.

BEACHGRIT:  How about the Nazi, World War II chic you were into a few years back?

OLIVER: The World War II uniforms? My grandparents fought in World War II and there was stuff lying around the house and I tried wearing it and blew it out. I love the colour black and I have an offset fashion sense. I’m sure not about the Nazi life. I’m signed to a clothing company (the fabulous Brixton) but I put my own twist on things.

BEACHGRIT: What’s the biggest lie you’ve said to steal a gal…

OLIVER: I’m not that kinda guy. It more, pisses me of more than anything to say something you’re not to try and bang a chick. It’s the most pathetic thing in the world. if a girl doesn’t like your personality and how you look and what comes out of your damn mouth, saying something you’re not is the biggest fucking lie in the world.

BEACHGRIT: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen in Florida?

OLIVER: Dude, I’m from the south where they still fly confederate flags on their trucks. It depends on what you think is fucked up because I have a lot of friends who do a lot of weird things.

BEACHGRIT: If we’re going to talk about pals, let’s talk about your pal-ship with Taj Burrow. What do you like about being his friend?

OLIVER:  It’s rad because we always joke about him being my babysitter. We met in Tahiti for the first time and I was psyched we were able to hit it off. Friendship and why people like each other is hard to explain. I have no idea why we’ve become such good friends. Obviously we have the same interests. And he surfs great, he’s super successful, interested in investments, such an inspiring person to hang with day to day.

BEACHGRIT: What’s the most fucked-up you’ve been on a flight?

OLIVER: I have my Xanax here and there but I’m not like Wardo who has to be tied down to his seat. I like to keep as private a profile as possible so I’m never super flamboyant.

BEACHGRIT: Tell me your best celebrity hookup?

OLIVER:  That’s another one that I haven’t been able to tell anyone, yeah… I’ve hooked up with a pretty famous model but it’s not one that… I’m sorry, I can’t… I’m sorry, I can’t it’s too personal. She has a boyfriend so I’m not even going close to it.

BEACHGRIT:  Is she American or European?

OLIVER: She’s American.

BEACHGRIT: Under or over 30?

OLIVER: Under 30.

BEACHGRIT: Yellow or brown hair?

OLIVER: I’m not telling! It’s a secret. You gotta have secrets!

BEACHGRIT: What are you serious about?

OLIVER: Surfing’s a respect thing and if you don’t have respect you don’t have anything. Sponsors might pay someone hundreds of thousands of dollars but if you don’t have respect you’re a joke.

BEACHGRIT: So how do you get that respect?

OLIVER: That’s why I’m working hard to surf waves that are out of my comfort zone and that provoke, case in point going to Hawaii or surfing Ours the other day. I don’t wanna be known as a joke. I want to be taken seriously.

BEACHGRIT: Tell me how you live, philosophically…

OLIVER:  It’s all about having an open outlook and being available and having fun. Keep your plans open, don’t expect anything and be ready for anything. And don’t be a little bitch.

(Editor’s note: this interview appears in issue 74 of Stab magazine, a surf title with much sophistication and graphic jazzmatazz…)

Damien Hobgood smells the fragrance of inside Greenbushes, Sumatra, in a session captured by Strange Rumblings In Shangri La. But wait! On the previous day, when it was 12-foot and there wasn't a camera within a hundred nautical clicks, Damo surfed by himself. And on the day filmed, Dion recounted the absurd site of Damo being dragged across the reef on his back by the set of the day only to surface hooting. "He's an animal!" says Dion. And it's true. Joe G

MOVIE REVIEW: STRANGE RUMBLINGS IN SHANGRI-LA

Derek Rielly

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The new Joe G/Globe movie brandishes its cockaded hat in Sydney… 

Last night, the Long Beach filmmaker Joe Guglielmino and the Australian surf/skate brand Globe premiered their movie Strange Rumblings in Shangri-La at the State Theatre in Sydney.

Not a world premiere, howevs, that was thrown into the world at Long Beach airport two weeks ago, but the first time SR was shown in the southern hemi. But the movie here differed more than slightly from the LB show.

Joe G, y’see, has been cuttin’ and fixin’ like hell to shape it just so, slicing away the fatter moments, keeping only the meat close to the bone. Little Dion Agius, one of the brave warriors in the film (oh you’ll laugh when he upturns an uppity bodyboarder in France! The crowd roared! It was like the nineties again!), worked alongside Joe as they slaughtered baby after baby after baby. It shows!

And like all Globe events, the southern-hemi premiere was overstuffed with enough free booze and fried food to give an adult an attack of dizziness. But here’s where the Globe ethos comes in, and it’s what makes the brand so pointed. Sure, there’s VIP, but out there on the outer rim you’re still being fed, you’re still encouraged to drink a gallon or so and then some. Enough to make you prematurely crack!

So what are you going to get when you watch Strange Rumblings? Let me give you five highlights.

1. The Team: Ever since Globe backed off a little on the clothes side of things it’s meant they’ve been able to assemble a rad team of co-sponsored riders. Brendon Gibbens, Creed McTaggart, Noa Deane surf alongside Taj Burrow, Dion Agius, the Hobgoods and Nate Tyler. Best surfer in the movie? Would you believe me if I told you it was Taj’s cameo at Yo-Yo’s in Sumbawa? That’s the thing with WT surfers. There’s no futility of effort only someone burying their surfboard to the hilt.

2. Damien Hobgood at Greenbushes. You’ll watch Damo sleepwalk his way through eight-foot tubes and you’ll think, ‘oh ya, I like’ but it’s instructive to know that the previous day, when it was 12-foot and there wasn’t a camera within a hundred nautical clicks, Damo surfed by himself. And on the day filmed, Dion recounted to me the absurd site of Damo being dragged across the reef on his back by the set of the day only to surface hooting. “He’s an animal!” says Dion. And it’s true.

3. Mozambique. That righhtander you might’ve seen Jordy Smith rifling through in various clips is seized by the Globe team. Many tubes and much colour as children bronze on the beach (so brown!) while the Globes find crabs and starfish out at sea.

4. The music. It’s a Joe G trait to turn us onto music that just ain’t on the radar. Y’heard of Afro-punk band Death, from Detroit in the 70s? And the Stranglers? Listen carefully. it’s a soundtrack worth preserving.

5. Ass. Always the ass. Joe G hunts down the spectre of womanhood and so makes everything else seem unimportant.

Negs? Yeah, there’s a few, but then again too few to mention.

Dine on the trailer below until you can catch it y’self on September 25.

 

 

 

STRANGE RUMBLINGS IN SHANGRI LA from GLOBE on Vimeo.

Morgan Maassen

MOVIE: A PRELUDE TO A TAHITIAN DREAM BY MORGAN MAASSEN

Chas Smith

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Last year's Tahiti contest shot in the most bewitching manner imaginable! Let it put you in a mood of great optimism!

Tahiti Relived from Morgan Maassen on Vimeo.

Ask Pam
Tha original foxxxi be solving your woes! | Photo: Pam Reynolds

ASK PAM: now with audio!

Pam Reynolds

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French bulldog answers your metaphysical woes. Money can't buy you love but love can't buy you shit!

Pam Reynolds, four years old with a penchant for short leather skirts and make-up, has one ambition: to become the most famous ‘advice lizard’ in the biz! Prone to staying at the front window until mama comes home.

UNICORNS

Dear Pam, I keep hearing about “unicorns” in a hooking-up sense. What does “unicorns” mean and what’s your take on becoming a “unicorn”?

Unsure, SD.

dear unsure, SD,

whoa i havnt heard that b 4.is it some sort of like trophy? or magic ride?

ima google that now.

whoa. ut uh.

its like a girl or a boy that hangs out with you and kisses your boyfriend and does laundry. i dont think its a good idea.

Pam x

CELEB CRUSHES

Dear Pam,

Who do you crush harder? Jay-Z or Beyonce?

Little Rag, AI.

 

WHO IS PAM? Pam Reynolds is a four-year-old French bulldog born on a ranch in Oregon, but left at the age of 13 weeks for a more fast paced life in Southern California. She currently resides in Carpinteria where she enjoys modelling, hunting and fashion. Her motto? LIVE FAST DIE YOUNG BULLDOGS DO IT WELL. Send your questions to [email protected] If you want to see Pam answer ’em live, send an audio file. Get to know Pam on IG @pamlovesferrariboys. 

Jay Adams (left) and Matt Warshaw (right), vintage photo booth, 1970…
Jay Adams (left) and Matt Warshaw (right), vintage photo booth, 1970… | Photo: Kent Sherwood

MATT WARSHAW ON THE DEATH OF JAY ADAMS, THE REBEL ICON

Derek Rielly

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Historian Matt Warshaw on childhood pal and surf-skate icon Jay Adams, dead at 53…

The historian, magazine editor and former pro surfer Matt Warshaw grew up and learned to surf and skate alongside Jay Adams, the Z-Boy who died in Mexico today of a heart attack.

In those pivotal years between eight and 13, in the years 1968 until 1973, the pair were fast pals. Warshaw was the only kid who wanted to surf and skate as much as Jay. “Against all odds, me a timid bookworm and him doing all this crazy shit, we became tight,” says Warshaw. “We would surf for hours and we’d skate for hours. That first summer together in 1969 his mom (Philane Romero) took us to the beach every single day and we pushed our surfing and skating.”

And so, this morning, after hearing about Jay’s death, and over half-an-hour or so, Warshaw told me the stories that made Jay great (his impossibly large charisma blended with his preternatural skill on whatever board) as well as the beliefs that made him cruel and difficult to be around (a hatred of gays, including a gay bashing murder charge and his addictions).

On Jay’s rebellion: “The whole thing about Jay bothered me at times. He was such a legend for being really hardcore anti-authority and I always laugh at that because he had nothing to fight against, nothing to rebel against. He had the best childhood. He was poor but as he told me over lunch he was a happy kid growing up with two adults who loved him. His step-dad Kent Sherwood was making surfboards and skateboards for him and he lived in an environment that was encouraging of surfing and skateboard and being who he wanted to be. The whole notion of Jay as a rebel strikes me as ridiculous.”

On rebellious icons like Jay: “But that said, all the charisma that came off him, he became a symbol for people. They want to have this larger-than-life character that makes surfing or skating cool and charismatic. Miki Dora was the same. You can’t take your eyes off people like Jay or Miki. Why is that? Why are we attracted to people doing things that are so weird and so different. And I have to admit, I’m as susceptible to it as everyone else. I was looking at photos today of Jay and I couldn’t take my eyes off him. He just… glows, even in 40-year-old video clips.”

He was such a legend for being really hardcore anti-authority and I always laugh at that because he had nothing to fight against, nothing to rebel against. He had the best childhood. He grew up with two adults who loved him. His step-dad Kent Sherwood was making surfboards and skateboards for him and he lived in an environment that was encouraging of surfing and skateboard and being who he wanted to be. The whole notion of Jay as a rebel strikes me as ridiculous.”

The great Band-Aid commercial: “One of our friend’s parents worked in casting and he had us all answer this casting call for a Bandaid commercial. And we had to all get up in front of the camera and sing: ‘I am stuck on Band-Aids ’cause Band-Aids stuck on me.’ All us Venice kids trying to be cool and we all just sucked. We froze. And Jay got up and… nailed it. Boom. He gets the job. And then the day of the commercial he just blew it off. My parents asked me why Jay didn’t do the commercial and I didn’t have a clue but I knew it was just… cool. He just fucked it off. He didn’t care. There’s a really fine line between being incredibly stupid and incredibly cool and he walked it like a champion.”

On ADD: “He was out of his head, even as a kid. I’m 98 per cent sure he was ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). He was so charismatic at nine, 10, that you couldn’t believe it. We didn’t know what it meant, but we’d all gather around him like moths to a flame. We wanted to hang out with him but he was so…manic. You’d be waling along the sidewalk and, next thing, he’s picked up a rock and thrown it through a window for no reason.”

On Venice beach late sixties, early seventies: “We had total freedom. We were running our own show. From breakfast til dinner we were all on our own. It sounds great and I romanticise it but for a lot of kids it went really wrong. Some died, some didn’t get very far. It went bad for a lot of people and Jay’s one of ’em.”

When the friendship split: “He and I went separate ways when he hit it big as a skater. I was on the Zephyr surf team but not the skate team. He had this rocket ride to skate stardom. And that’s when the shit started to get weird. For years afterward, I’d get all this bad news… Jay’s doing drugs… Jay’s broke… it would all come to me from people who knew we’d been friends.”

Jay as a skinhead: “After the stardom went away he went really, really hardcore punk with shadings of white supremacy. Skinhead stuff. It was really, really ugly. There was a gay bashing, a gay murder charge, which was horrible. He did time for meth. I saw him on the North Shore in 1990, he was really wired, he came in, and then ran out of the side door. A couple of years later, I saw him at a trade show and he was so high he had no recognition of me.”

Jay reconnects of FB: “A could of years ago, he friended me on Facebook. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see him or talk to him again but I accepted his friend request and we started talking on Facebook. And then we had lunch together at Santa Monica. The weird part about that was he’d become a hard-core Born Again but he was on the rabid right side of Christianity and he was really, really bummed about all the gay rights stuff that was going through. That was really hard to hear. He’d go on all these rants about “gays killing America.” One of our best friends, Johanna Johnson, she was transgender and she actually had the operation (from she to he) and he’s one of the sweetest human beings – we all fought to get her time and attention. And Jay started ranting about Johanna going to hell. I didn’t want to hear about it or know about it. I unfriended him for a while after that. And then eight months ago we friended again on Facebook, for what that’s worth.”

But childhood memories last: “When we talked of our childhood, about what we had, that was nice and that’s forever. When someone’s with you when you’re doing something as profound as growing up and surfing, that gets you past all kinds of other shit. When I heard he’d died I was crushed. Part of my childhood dies off with that too…”

Photo: Justin Jay/@justinjayphoto
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