Kauai mayor Bernard Carvalho
The incumbent mayor Bernard Carvalho beats former ASP surfer and MMA fighter Dustin Barca for the Kauai mayoralty. Celebrates with cake. No I kid! Thin people are beautiful but fat people are adorable! | Photo: Ed Morita

Just in: Carvalho beats Barca for Kauai Mayoralty

Incumbent mayor beats pro surfer and MMA fighter Dustin Barca for the Kauai county mayoralty. The earth weeps!

Bernard Carvalho, the former football star (Miami Dolphins!) incumbent mayor of Kauai, has rolled back into office after today’s electoral win over the pro surfer Dustin Barca.

Carvalho has received 10,835 votes or  66.2 percent of ballots counted so far. Barca has received 4,634 votes.

Close? No it ain’t.

As Mark Rose predicted on BeachGrit yesterday, “In the primary elections, Carvalho smoked Barca with a 2-1 vote advantage (over 10,000 vs 5,000) votes. They will go head-to-head in the general election and Carvalho will walk away easily with a second term. Why? All those Barca4Mayor signs and bumper stickers are not on the lawns or cars of most locals. The South Park temporary-locals of Hanalei give a false illusion of support but most of those haoles can’t even vote on in Hawaii. Move away from Haole-Hanalei and it’s clear that the working class core of the island on the east side, south, and (most most definitely) west side will never support someone with ‘haole’ support who appears to threaten their livelihood.”

(Full story here! Click)

Barca, y’see, pledged to tackle multinational chemical companies he says are using the island as “an open air experimental lab. The root issue we are fighting against is poison,” said Barca. “Poison in our air, Poison in our drinking water and water tables. Poison in our soil. Poison on our reefs. Poison around our homes, schools and hospitals. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that that much poison is not good for us.”

Barca ain’t giving up.

Again, as he said yesterday on BeachGrit (Yes! Click!), “Quitting is not a option when you are fighting for the health of your ‘ohana (family) and ‘aina (natural resources). On Kaua’i, we are born and raised to protect what we love and right now, with the world environmentally at a tipping point everybody needs to unite no matter what color or creed they are. Everyone needs to get their heads out and realize what’s going on.”

He’s right! It’ll only when the last tree has been chopped down to make a disposable IKEA Alvar Aalto ripoff and the last tuna has been squeezed between thin sheets of seaweed at that sushi bar down the street and the last bee has been shot for its fur, that man will realise that money can’t be eaten etc.

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Candid: Print is Dead! Long live What Youth!

How Travis Ferré and pals decapitated Surfing magazine to create a media hothouse. What Youth is #1!

“Don’t try.” –  Chuck Bukowski’s epitaph, Green Hills Memorial Park, LA.

Our story, which is the story of What Youth, begins on the balcony of Mr Travis Ferré’s Huntington Beach apartment four-ish years ago. Chicken fries on the Weber hot plate and Coors Light is served. The writer Stuart Cornuelle recites Bukowski poems in a corner while Travis rubs the cover of his Keraouc book Big Sur as if it is the holy koran.

Travis is the editor-in-chief of Surfing magazine, a high-volume title produced by Source Interlink, who are the also owners of Surfer. In a rare departure from the magazine’s usual style, Travis has given his latest issue over to Kai Neville’s newest film, Lost Atlas.

Travis is pleased with the result. And, so is Kai. In the wings, Surfing‘s gun writer Stuart Cornuelle and their New York-based designer Scott Chenoweth also feel an unusual fizz.

But, what is this fizz?

Very soon they will recognise it as the first electrical impulse of a great idea, one that will soon have them emptying their desks, seeking an investor, and moving out of the comfortable world of mass media and into independent publishing.

This impulse has been turned into What Youth, the online portal (featuring Kai’s latest clips) and the quarterly magazine, now up to issue nine.

Every couple of months when a new issue of What Youth appears I’m taken aback a little. Isn’t print dead?

Well, yeah. But here’s a secret about the publishing biz. It’s a house of cards, a Ponzi scam, built entirely upon the premise that all that expensive advertising actually works. That anyone even connects with print anymore. How do you consume your surf news? Online, yeah? Magazines are a curio, a novelty from a past when screens didn’t soak up our lives. There’ll come a day, and it’s a day coming real soon, when the backbone of print, advertisers prepared to piss away five or 10k for a few pages, say, no more.

What Youth will survive the carnage. It’s online, it’s film, it’s paper, it’s whatever you want it to be. Print is dead. Long live What Youth. Now let’s talk to one of its founders and print editor, Travis Ferré, on its birth and adolescence…

How about you tell me how it all metastasised, you slick bastard.

That’s the most loaded question! Well, Kai and I had such a good time working together and it started out as that casual barbecue conversation. We just thought it’d be cool if we could put a lot more energy into Kai’s films and into print pieces and into a daily online approach to how it all comes together. I was pretty happy being editor at Surfing. But, at the same time, I was up for a challenge. I was 29, with no mortgage, no kids, nothing to hold me back. We were all in the same position. Leaving good opportunities to try something wild is easy when you ain’t shackled.

What limitations did you have at Surfing?

I liked what we did, like, I didn’t feel like an idea wasn’t doable, but it’s a brand that’s been around since 1964 and it’s surrounded by a lot of infrastructure to make it what it is, and you lose a little flexibility in connecting. Starting fresh, for us, was what we felt needed to be done. Surfing’s a big ship that’s not going anywhere, but it was time for someone to jump and start a title that was a little more manoeuvrable.

Did the decapitation of your masters at Surfing (the editor-in-chief, the designer and their best writer all leaving) cause poor vibrations? 

Oh, it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It was the only place I’d worked since I finished school. There were so many good people who’d given me everything. When I told them, there were no freak-outs, only a kinda sadness.

Oh, you paper over the cracks! Breaking up ain’t never easy!

Well, I respectfully made my transition. I didn’t want to make it hard on anyone. I stayed and smoothed the transition as much as I could. I wanted to make sure the final issue I was involved in was finished. I did what was needed. I was there for two more weeks.

Investors or y’stump the cash y’selves? 

We had a little bit of both. We had a private individual put in some of the initial costs of the building, but, it was really, like, we had a lot of support from industry out of the gates. They put faith in the product they knew we could create.

Who came up with the name? 

Coming up with the name was one of the funnest processes. We had a few names early on, names we worked art direction around. None of it worked. And, then, Stuart said, “What Youth” one night when we were talking names. And, after weeks and weeks, it sounded exactly like what wee doing and it epitomised what the current generation is about and it worked graphically.

What is the current generation, and by extension What Youth about? 

It’s top-notch surfing interacting with the world around it and doing it with good photography and design and doing it thoughtfully. We have this saying, Radical Class, that represents that. Being radical, but doing it with class, doing it well, thoughtfully, paying attention to the world around you and participating in it. This generation is full of really interesting thinkers, who think about the big picture, and about what surfing means.

What does surfing mean? 

I guess, surfing is, like, this thing we all do no matter what and we’ll always do it. What Youth leads with that, with some of the best sequences, some of the best high-performance surfing to always lead with that, some of the best sequences, some of the best high performance surfing in it. A magazine that shows what our culture means, what guys are into, like photography.

As a percentage, what was your pay cut when you left Surfing? 

Forty per cent, maybe more. I didn’t get paid for the first eight months. I was living off my savings, spending maybe $1500 a month. But, that kinda sacrifice comes with the territory. And, I didn’t have any obligations that beyond being a surfer in California. And, I just knew I had family and friends so if shit hit the fan, I’d land somewhere kinda soft.

Now, the first issue is back, what did you like about it? 

Obviously, it’s really exciting to see modern surf imagery that big on really nice, thick paper. I really liked the feature and interview with fashion photographer Dan Martensen. Felt unique and a departure for a surf magazine. And, we all liked keeping the interviews candid and casual and authentic. We want to give an accurate portrayal of what these guys are like when they’re on the road, what they’re talking about.

What didn’t work as well? 

Nudity doesn’t work in America. We found that out. Magazine shops in America aren’t quite ready for that.  I think we underestimated that a touch.

What is the single most important, pivotal issue, in surfing? 

We focus on, like, less like an issue, being critical of things and trying to…  uh…  install the zest for travelling with your friends and surfing. We want What Youth to be aspirational, about the pairings of guys having more to do with style and personality than what brand they ride for. Hitting the road for other reason that just to do it. Documenting that in an authentic way.

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…and why Dustin Barca won’t be mayor of Kauai…

Can environmental hero Dustin Barca beat the football hero incumbent Bernie Carvalho for the Kauai mayoralty? Maybe not…

Dustin Barca will never be the mayor of Kauai.  Carvalho is a football hero and favourite son of the powers that be. He toes the line, does what he is told, and in this small island of political corruption, is predictable.

Barca is not. He is a pro surfer, labelled as a hot head, and now cools his heels as an MMA fighter. This does not impress the vast “mauka” population that does not surf (nor cares who does) because they rely on their agricultural jobs, the paycheck, and the healthcare for their family that the ag-industry provides.

In this “small town” know as Kauai, it’s better to embrace the devil you know than the devil you don’t know when it comes to political “common sense”.

Sure there were what seemed like thousands of “Barca4Mayor” posters and bumper stickers circulating all over the island but that doesn’t mean squat if you break it down to the basics:

1. Not everyone on Kauai surfs

2. The agricultural industries (those people who provide jobs/wages/healthcare) have Carvalho’s undying attention

3. Not everyone with Barca4Mayor bumper stickers can even vote (because they are not permanent residents of the island).

In many ways, the illusion of support for Barca stems from the fact that the seasonal, part-time “residents” of Kauai are actually transients from the mainland — mostly from California, but plenty from the east coast. And Canada. Yeah, Canada —not even eligible to register to vote if they decided to become full-time Kauai residents.

They are haole: not “born and raised on Kauai and, unlike Oahu and other over-populated islands, that term is used correctly here. If you are not born and raised on the Garden Island, you are haole. Colour does not matter.

You cannot show up on Kauai, try to blend in with your Asian or Latino culture, pick up some pidgin, and be local. If they don’t know you, if they didn’t grow up with you, you are a haole. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just a fact.

I am a haole. I have lived on the island for a few years. I have a lot of “born and raised” local friends on Kauai. But I am only a “resident” of Kauai. And that’s fine with everyone, so long as you know and acknowledge your place in the island’s culture.

Which brings us back to Barca4Mayor:  In the primary elections, Carvalho smoked Barca with a 2-1 vote advantage (over 10,000 vs 5,000) votes. They will go head-to-head in the general election and Carvalho will walk away easily with a second term.

Why? All those Barca4Mayor signs and bumper stickers are not on the lawns or cars of most locals. The South Park temporary-locals of Hanalei give a false illusion of support but most of those haoles can’t even vote on in Hawaii. Move away from Haole-Hanalei and it’s clear that the working class core of the island on the east side, south, and (most most definitely) west side will never support someone with “haole” support who appears to threaten their livelihood.

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Dustin Barca at a mayoral rally on Kauai
Why should Barca be given the keys to Kauai? How about a platform that places the health of the island, and the people, and a pragmatic approach to the scourge of meth, above the whims of big biz? "I would die for this island," he says.

Why Dustin Barca Should Be the Next Mayor of Kauai

Tomoz, Kauai goes to the polls to elect a new mayor. Should it be pro surfer and MMA fighter Dustin Barca? We say yes!

These days, utter the phrase “save the environment” and there’s every chance you’ll draw yawns or be called a “stinking hippie,”.

But, you gonna call Dustin Barca a stinking hippie?

It’s not breaking news that the former pro-surfer-turned-cage-fighter has leapt to the defense of the environment of his beautiful, lush, tropical island home of Kauai.

But it does warrant a mention that a couple years in, Barca’s still in the fight and will be contesting for the title of Mayor of Kauai on November 4 (tomorrow!) with a pledge to tackle multinational chemical companies he says are using the island as “an open air experimental lab”.

“The root issue we are fighting against is poison,” says Barca. “Poison in our air, Poison in our drinking water and water tables. Poison in our soil. Poison on our reefs. Poison around our homes, schools and hospitals. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that that much poison is not good for us.”

Those “poisons’’, Barca says, are being developed to speed along the development of the new boogie man on the block, the genetically modified crop.

But the issue of genetically modified crops is also quite the divisive one as evidenced by a landmark case in the Supreme Court of Western Australia earlier this year.

Two neighbouring farmers, one organically certified, the other a proponent of genetically modified crops found themselves the center of world-wide attention after the organically certified farmer, Steve Marsh, contended his neighbor, Micheal Baxter’s crops had contaminated his.

Despite global support for Marsh, the judge ruled against his claim and Marsh lost both the case, and his organic certification.

Barca says he’s aware of the fluctuating support environmental issues can bring but has no plans of backing down long after the rallies are finished and the crowd’s gone home.

“Quitting is not a option when you are fighting for the health of your ‘ohana (family) and ‘aina (natural resources),” he says. “On Kaua’i, we are born and raised to protect what we love and right now, with the world environmentally at a tipping point everybody needs to unite no matter what color or creed they are. Everyone needs to get their heads out and realize what’s going on.”

Barca for mayor? Say yes!

 

 

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Cory Lopez
"You know how Andy was. Everything was full bore. We were best friends and I'd have him in a heat, and in some of those years I was top 10 or top eight and he was running for the title, and we'd be in the water screaming against each other. It'd take a good two hours or even the next day for us to be normal again. Andy was a real passionate human being but he had so much love for everyone."

“We were the radical kids!” Cory on Andy

The former world number eight Cory Lopez remembers his best friend Andy Irons… 

Cory Lopez is the 37-year-old surfer who can claim Andy Irons as his best pal. The pair met when they were both lighting up the boys division at the US amateurs at Diamond Head on Oahu. Cory was 13; Andy was 12.

Andy thought Cory, with his long dyed black hair, was “a punk.” But, still, they hung out, ’cause Cory, being Cory, and Andy being Andy, well, “we were the radical kids in our group. I came from a single dad and he was running loose and having fun. We weren’t bad kids but we were wild kids. My brother Shea was three years older than me and so when I was 13 I was doing the things 16 years old do. Andy saw me having fun and… you know how it is. We were ready to surf and have a good time…”

And so from amateurs to the qualifying series and to the world tour, the pair became as tight as friends get. Every January when the tour went into its yearly hiatus after Pipe, the pair would grab their girls and vay-cay somewhere not necessarily for the waves, but anywhere away from the heats and cameras and phones and whatever else, somewhere, and it was usually in the Caribbean, where they could surf a little, swim, scuba dive, inhale a cocktail here and there. Flash trips.

Andy Irons and Cory Lopez with wives at the Surfer Poll
Lyndie and Andy Irons and Cory and Jenn Lopez at the Surfer Poll awards. Check the time in the bottom right corner. Sweaty!

“No pressure, just me, him and our girlfriends,” says says Cory today, speaking on one of those wonderfully clear autumn nights at Indian Rocks on Florida’s Gulf Coast. A day that also marks the fourth anniversary of Andy’s death in room 324 at the Grant Hyatt, Forth-Worth International Airport.

Cory had just landed from a trip to maybe the Azores, or was it Donkey Bay, Cory can’t quite remember, but he was listening to voicemails from Andy, who was in Miami the night before, saying, “Cory! Where you at?” And this is where Cory laughs ’cause Andy couldn’t quite fathom that even though Cory lived in Florida, Miami was a four-hour drive, even with your foot to the floor.

And then he heard from the Venice Beach filmmaker Alek Parker that Andy had just been found dead in Texas. “Alek told me and I didn’t want to believe it. I got another phone call and you just don’t start a rumour like that. No one would fake a rumour like that. It instantly hit. There’s disbelief, all these emotions, you can’t believe it’s true but you know it…is… true. You want it to be a nightmares that you can wake from. I still have dreams that it’s not true.”

Let’s talk a little about Andy, the dynamic motherfucker. “You know how Andy was. Everything was full-bore. We were best friends and I’d have him in a heat, and in some of those years I was top eight and he was running for the title, and we’d be in the water screaming against each other. It’d take a good two hours or even the next day for us to be normal again. Andy was a real passionate human being but he had so much love for everyone.”

Cory says that Andy’s great social skill was his phenomenal memory. “He could go anywhere in the world and anyone he’d met at any time in the past, he’d remember their name and what they were talking about, even if it was five years before. He’d make them feel so special. Y’know, I was lucky to have been so close to him for so many years. I think about him all the time. (His death) is something I’ll never get over, no matter how much time goes by. I think about his every day. I’ve had dreams about him, crazy dream, dreams that would blow your mind, but I’m not going to share them.

“Life and death is such a fine edge we ride. Andy wouldn’t have been who he was if he didn’t do what he did. That’s why we loved him so much, because he was so extreme. We lived vicariously through his radical and wild life.”

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