Come read the piece that sinks your beloved BeachGrit!
Business Insider, a leading biz and tech journal, just published a story titled “For Tech Entrepreneurs in Silicon Beach, Surfing is the New Golf” which profiles a group that calls itself “Silicon Beach Surfers.” (read here)
In case you don’t know, Silicon Beach is what tech start up people have dubbed Venice/Santa Monica. Google has an office there and I walked by and saw tons of gross foam boards stacked outside the main door. Will Google thrash BeachGrit for writing that? Will searches for “Beach Grit” turn up pictures of cigarette butts in the sand?
Silicon Beach Surfers was started by a man named Robert Lambert who says, “In many cities and industries, the business sports are still golf, tennis, and racquetball. Here in L.A. the sport of choice is surfing, which is apparent when you realize how many of the more active and influential people in the L.A. tech and startup community surf.” Is surfing really a sport and do that many people in L.A. actually surf? Will Robert Lambert pick up on my overt sarcasm? Will he employ thousands of Indians to pepper BeachGrit with Eastern European Nike spam?
Ten people apply to join the group each week but only three get accepted. It costs $50 to apply and potential members get hazed for a month and then they can join and it costs $30 each month. Would I get accepted because I co-found successful online surf venture BeachGrit? Would Derek Rielly get accepted even more because he co-found both BeachGrit and Stab?
Silicon Beach Surfers paddle out in a large-ish group and surf everywhere from Point Dume to “The Trestles near San Diego.” They hold their meetings in a “surf shack” in Manhattan Beach. Will BeachGrit get totally destroyed, online, for posting this story? Will Derek and my applications rot in limbo forever? Will BeachGrit get, mysteriously, blamed for online espionage and other very bad things? Will Derek and I end up in Guantanamo Bay?
Should I not be snarky about the people who run the Internet? Will Graham Stapelberg be thrilled when BeachGrit is only pictures of cigarette butts in the sand and Derek and I are in Guantanamo? Will he be angry when the Silicon Beach Surfers sink the WSL because they are tech savvy and actually know how many people watch professional surfing and then tell Samsung “Ummmmm, yeah, 387 people watched. All day. And all 387 are super poor. What? No. We weren’t watching. We were busy surfing The Trestles.”
?
Surfing really is the new golf: Rob Machado partnering with putter maker Scotty Cameron http://www.surfermag.com/fe…
You want The New Golf: go mountain biking. Middle-aged men on machines that cost more than a reasonable car stressing about how to shave grams of their steeds when a few salads could shave kilos off themselves. The constant upgrades. Trail car parks full of Audis and other high-end German motors. A percentage of of All The Gear No Idea participants that puts a simple surf to shame.
Don’t forget the grams you can shave by taking a pre ride dump.
Could it be Golf is the new surfing, we have world number 1 rooting around with violent domestic disputes, car crashes and massive loss of form, you’ve got John Daly doing his thing and you’ve got Aussie pro golfers getting bashed during some sort of weird drunken Hawaiian bender. It’s Rock n Roll man.
So fine, Seaman Staines! I have been laughing for 15 minutes….
You’re wearing golf pants right now, I just know it, a bit of cheeky colour by way of sock thrown in for good measure.
Still waiting on those size 9 Nikes I ordered from you all this weekend…
I’ve work long and hard to gain my notoriety as a legitimate internet hero. If your wise arse stories pull me down with this site, I shall never forgive you Chas.
Can we share a cell in Guantanamo? Will it cushion the blow if I give you all of my pudding?
Do you feel the evil creep into you? Do you even try to fight it?
I’ve got a metal picture of you as an excessive talker and someone who may pace alot. So sorry its not gonna work as cell mates.
Anyway I have a romantic view of a being radicalized by a charismatic Muslim terrorist and he cant eat gelatin or non halal so I’d get all this puddings anyway and probably half his dinner…
I went to uni with someone in the NAB Negatron, may be able to save you from that fate. Probably won’t though. I’ll get accused of being a traitor and disappear.
Oh my, I shudder to imagine these nerds paddling out at “The Trestles near San Diego.”
Sidenote: is there a more cringe-worthy idea than “Startup Culture?” I mean, Freestyle Skiing and Nickleback are worse, but only barely!
I don’t know about that. Freestyle skiing is so bad it basically backs in to being good and Nickleback has Chad. Who is so bad that he backs in to being good.