Chris Burkard spins on the joys of surfing in ice-cold
water. | Photo: TED
Powerful: Chris Burkard Just Spoke at
TED!
By Derek Rielly
The surf-adventure photographer on "the joys of
surfing ice-cold water!" Wait, there's joy?
You know what a TED conference is, yeah? Okay,
I’ll imagine y’don’t. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment,
Design). And it’s a series of conferences that take place around
the world. Real prestigious. Presidents, Nobel Prize winners, all
sorts of cats get on the mic.
With a max of 18 minutes talk time under their belt, some of the
most compelling human beings (and yeah, some spectacular bores,
too, but mostly it’s good) sound off in a sing-song story-telling
style on science and culture.
And, just released, is the speech the 29-year-old Californian
photographer Chris Burkard made on “the joy of surfing in ice-cold
water.”
There’s joy surfing when it’s cold? Who knew!
Let’s dip into the speech midway: “It wasn’t until I traveled to
Norway — (Laughter) — that I really learned to appreciate the cold.
So this is the place where some of the largest, the most violent
storms in the world send huge waves smashing into the coastline. We
were in this tiny, remote fjord, just inside the Arctic Circle. It
had a greater population of sheep than people, so help if we needed
it was nowhere to be found. I was in the water taking pictures of
surfers, and it started to snow. And then the temperature began to
drop. And I told myself, there’s not a chance you’re getting out of
the water. You traveled all this way, and this is exactly what
you’ve been waiting for: freezing cold conditions with perfect
waves. And although I couldn’t even feel my finger to push the
trigger, I knew I wasn’t getting out. So I just did whatever I
could. I shook it off, whatever. But that was the point that I felt
this wind gush through the valley and hit me, and what started as
this light snowfall quickly became a full-on blizzard, and I
started to lose perception of where I was. I didn’t know if I was
drifting out to sea or towards shore, and all I could really make
out was the faint sound of seagulls and crashing waves.
“Now, I knew this place had a reputation for sinking ships and
grounding planes, and while I was out there floating, I started to
get a little bit nervous. Actually, I was totally freaking out —
(Laughter) — and I was borderline hypothermic, and my friends
eventually had to help me out of the water. And I don’t know if it
was delirium setting in or what, but they told me later I had a
smile on my face the entire time.
Watch Chris belt out his speech here.
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It ain't Indo, but what is? Get it where you
can…
Ian Crane Surfs the Great Lakes!
By Derek Rielly
San Clemente's Ian Crane tears to little pieces the
mercury ridden water of the Great Lakes. With zing!
The Great Lakes are a series of interconnected
freshwater lakes on the border of the US and Canada. Think
Chicago (Lake Michigan), Toronto (Lake Ontario). Think Detroit.
Think industrial. Think mercury in the water. Birth defects.
Unhappy fish. It ain’t Indonesia.
But if the wind blows enough, waves will discharge themselves.
And they’re interesting enough. Fresh water means less buoyancy but
less drag. And no sharks!
Here we see San Clemente’s Ian Crane squeeze out a shuv-it in
between laborious turns in the cold water and even a bonus sequence
of a kook being bounced on some rocks.
Anne Hathaway experiences the treacherous waters of the
Pacific while vacationing in Hawaii! She survived!
Ordinary Kooks and their Extraordinary
Wipeouts 2
By Rory Parker
Leave your serious at home! This is strictly for
laughs!
In the comments of last week’s installment of
Ordinary Kooks and their Extraordinary
Wipeouts, I was lucky enough to be given a
free psychiatric diagnosis by an online mental health expert.
“I know you’re trying to be funny and you may be a proud,
skilled waterman,” the doctor wrote, “but the way you describe the
joy, satisfaction and self validation that you get from watching
ordinary men (and women) fear for their lives and become injured…
it’s scary man. Your article wreaks [sic] of a true blue
psychopath, waterman or not.”
While this is hardly the first time someone has expressed that
sentiment in regards to my supposed lack of empathy I was, perhaps
understandably, hesitant to accept the initial diagnosis. After
all, it wasn’t long ago that I was nearly killed by a misdiagnosed
skull infection, from which I took away the conviction that you
should always seek a second opinion.
I’ve always been slightly concerned that setting foot in a
shrink’s office will find me temporarily confined for a 72-hour
observation and so I decided to seek out some top-notch testing
online. Using the power of the internet would ensure I got a
trustworthy diagnosis, as well as provide enough anonymity to quell
my fear of straight jackets and court-ordered medication.
Since I’ve always tried to live by the rule, “If you can’t
change it, revel in it,” here’s a second helping of delicious
schadenfreude. Because the only thing better than having something
good happen to you is seeing something bad happen to someone
else.
This goes from bad to worse astonishingly quickly. Good thing
she thought to wear a helmet.
Sometimes you get caught, and some times are worse than
others.
This baby’s got it all! A little kid in Speedos, a pair of big
ol’ milk floppers bouncing about and a drunk woman nearly drowning
in six inches of water.
There’s just something enthralling about watching a person panic
and turn a minor mishap into a near death experience.
I’ve always enjoyed watching people get hammered by surges they
aren’t expecting. Waimea on a decent swell is a great spot for it.
Wedge is too. Post up well away from the berm, crack a cold beer,
and watch a bunch of fools get periodically smoked by a churning
melange of sand and salt water.
There are a lot of failed rock jump videos on the web and a
common thread among them is that half second of hesitation that
ends in an ass beating.
But, if you commit, you can occasionally salvage a dire
situation. Boogie bro here came pretty close to snuffing it, maybe
next time he’ll learn to time sets a tad better.
I hope you enjoyed watching the videos as much I enjoyed
compiling them.
Until next time, here’s a little kid eating shit…
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"Another way to describe Tour Notes," says its creator
Peter King, "is it's a video version of a selfie. Nothing is
sneaking up on them. They know what I'm doing with my camera,
they're conscious that it's there. And they're willing to share it
with everyone." | Photo: PK
Interview: Peter King on the Making of Tour
Notes
By Derek Rielly
Find out why Kelly wants to "destroy John John!" So
candid, Mr King!
Some people got it, some people don’t. It’s how
life works. And Peter King, the former pro surfer from La Jolla in
California, the music video maker, the skateboarder, the musician,
the photographer, and the creator of #Tour Notes for
Hurley, is one of ’em.
Likeable? Yeah, he is. Will he make you laugh? Yeah, he
will.
Tour Notes is the perfect antidote to the
high-production values of the WSL. I love the sing-song voice of
Joe and the cavorting of the gazelle-like Rosie, the desk and the
tropical shirts and the on-screen graphics and I even like the
Samsung ads, but it’s Tour Notes, that really gets me.
Who can miss an episode? It’s a disposable pop art that’s
perfect for Generation Selfie. It’s a yowling discharge of all
those down days, all that… nothing but
everything… that surrounds those two-week waiting periods
at contests. It’s peculiar, it’s memorable, it’s a surface with
slips but no adjustments.
I wanted to talk to PK about the machinations of making Tour
Notes and found he, en route to dinner, very late, in Rio,
with his boy-pal John John Florence, whose commentary will be seen
later in the interview.
BeachGrit: Tell me about making
documentaries.
PK: It works because it’s me. I’ve been around the tour, I know it.
I was on tour for three-and-a-half years, back when girls wanted to
hang with Shaun Tomson and Rabbit Bartholomew and were 35 years old
and wore high-waisted bikinis, do cocaine and all those things I
didn’t know about. And what do I remember about my time on the
tour? It isn’t the heats. I wanna show the fun. I want to show the
silly little conversations.
BeachGrit: How did you make Tour Notes happen? Even
low-budget takes money.
PK: I’m persistent. And overweight. It’s a deadly combination. Oh,
but seriously, Evan Slater (from Hurley, the sponsor of Tour
Notes) is a real journalist. He appreciated my ability to
deliver something. I just have my iPhone running. Most of Tour
Notes is shot on an iPhone. I have a RED camera but I just
look at it.
BeachGrit: Aren’t they just the prettiest things! But
there’s a vulgarity about them too…
PK: It looks like jewellery. I just look at it and say, wow, I
have a RED. I always wanted to be in that club of rich kids
that have a RED. It seems like they’re having so much fun when
they’re setting up their tripods on the beach. I like to move
quick. I have ADD times five.
BeachGrit: It shows in your edits. Y’ain’t killing us
with slow-mo.
PK: If I can keep myself interested in an edit, I know I’ve done a
good job. I’m always thinking, am I forcing this? I want people to
scroll through, see the content, I want them to laugh, to be
excited, and move onto the next thing. It’s not for sitting around
watching. It’s not high-art, it’s not a movie. Watch it and move
on.
I don’t think anyone edits faster than me. The turnaround can be
instantaneous, if that’s the desired thing. But after the event, I
like to wait. The broadcast can have its 22 cameras, its feeds,
everything. I give it a day-and-a-half breather usually. You know,
I was staying with (Hurley’s) Pat O’Connell a couple of weeks ago
and he didn’t even know I was making it. He didn’t want to be in
Tour Notes, he’s the one paying me to make it. So that was
me doing a send-up of my boss. I’m taking as much a risk as you did
leaving Stab before it got sold for millions. You blew
that. Now you’ve got Chas Smith around your neck, burying you with
the advertisers. Everyone reads BeachGrit but no one
admits it. No one is allowed to admit it around the tour.
(John John walks past…)
Hey! Matt or Kelly? (John John yells)
He says Matt’s (Spindle Air 540) is better than Kelly’s (540 in
Portugal).
(to John) Matt didn’t quite land it and he claimed it! No, I
don’t think it’s better. Kelly’s was an accident? He was doing it
to bum you out. And it worked!
(back to the interview)
Kelly’s amazing. He’s better than all these guys. Hee hee
hee. Kelly has that power because Kelly is the best. He looks
completely uninterested unless he’s in a heat with John or knows
John is watching. He wants to destroy John. And that’s another
nuance in that Rio episode of Tour Notes. Nothing needs to
be said. It’s Kelly and John starting at a monitor with Filipe
doing a full-rotation air in front of them. Who cares what they
said? They’re watching and they’re stunned! Hello! Budda-bing,
budda-boom!
BeachGrit: What’s your professional opinion about Kelly
this year? I weep when he gets sent out in crummy waves, reducing
the game to a lottery…
PK: He’s completely uninterested and that’s my professional
analysis. If he rides that Tomo (Dan Thomson board) he’ll be
interested. The world tour needs to motivate him. He will be
motivated in Fiji. He’ll win Fiji, guaranteed, him or John. Fiji,
Teahupoo, Pipeline, that’s John John and Kelly territory.
BeachGrit: Tell me why you succeed where others
don’t.
PK: I’m 47 and that has a lot to do with it. I don’t drink, never
drank, I love sugar, but I’m not threatening anyone’s space. I’m
not some 26 year old shucking and jiving my way up the marketing
chain. I’m not trying to be anyone’s agent, I’m not trying to be a
host of the webcast, I’m not trying to make 15 dollars on a
Surfline photo. There’s no jealousy. It’s just me.
The first cutest is, of course, my daughter and
it is no exaggeration. Hair as white as snow. A smile that melts
the crustiest of hearts. The second cutest girl on earth, though,
is named Quincy and she is crazy cute but also shreds.
Just watch this gorgeous little video shot and directed by Sean
Slobodan-Milosevic and James Winegar. They weave a narrative
through stone-cold action. It is fun to wonder what this little
ripper will turn into. Maybe John John? Maybe John John
and the CEO of McDonalds?
It is, in any case, nice to see that the lines ‘tween “man’s”
surfing and “woman’s” surfing blurring all the more. Have you seen
Nikki Van Dijk rip the rip? Quincy surfs better than me. Does she
surf better than you? Be honest.
