TEDx

Are TED talks the death of Western Civilization?

Rory Parker

By

Yes! But watch surf journalist Chris Dixon give his here!

This morning, as I was trolling the internet for inspiration for my daily BG post, I came across Chris Dixon’s recent TEDx talk. It’s not bad, definitely worth 15 minutes of your day. (ed. note: Chris Dixon is a surf journalist.)

It got me thinking, how do I get in on this? I know that, supposedly, people more often fear public speaking than death, but I am not one of those people. I love being the center of attention, especially when it’s totally one-sided and I get to just talk and talk and talk, without having to listen.

Seriously, put a mic in my hand and I can blather on and on. What do you want to hear about? Dog training tips? I’m on it. Relationship advice? You got it!

I’ll probably swear a few times, and I’ll definitely say something inappropriate but, hell, that’s how you work an audience.

I got to play big shot writer once when I contributed an essay to a collection of stories about skateboarding. There was a release party and I got to read part of my piece to a group of total strangers, and I was damned stoked to do it. Since no one else wanted to go first I volunteered.

It was early in the evening and everyone was still more or less sober, so I thought I’d tell a joke to warm up the crowd. It went like this:

A priest and a rabbi are standing on a street corner when this ten year old boy walks by. The priest leans over and says, “Hey, what do you say we grab that kid, take him into an alley, and screw him?”

And the rabbi says, “Out of what?”

Utter silence.

Which, you know, really worked for me. Because it’s not like things could go any worse, and it’s not like I really care what a room full of strangers thinks of me anyway.

Chris Bryan

Trend: Slooooooooooooooow is the new fast!

Chas Smith

By

Kids these days just crawl!

It is the dreamiest when new technology coincides with phenomenal talent. Cameras have never been better, for surf, what with their crazy frame rates and gorgeous pixels (are they still called pixels?) and names. Phantom? Red? Scarlet? Yes, please!

Of course it takes a steady hand to maneuver these futuristic beasts in the surf, a polished eye to capture the subject wiggling amongst the masses and totally rich parents who live in Santa Barbara to buy one but there is always a cost to crafting high art.

In any case, cinematographer Chris Bryan has two of the three (no rich Santa Barbara parents I think!) and look look look what he has done for John John. 1000 frames per second of pure bliss. The picture moves so slow that you or I can study each one of John John’s muscle fibers firing. With enough practice we can get ours to fire the same way and with Chris Bryan we could have a slow-mo film of ourselves backflipping and landing clean minus the Hurley leg double-stripe. I will be sponsored by El Charro tequila and Mission Federal Credit Union instead.

Just in: WSL admits to hating Dane Reynolds!

Chas Smith

By

I am as shocked as you!

If you don’t go to www.worldsurfleague.com like, totally every day then you are missing out. The powers that be at BeachGrit do not believe in the zero-sum game (be damned John Forbes-Nash!). We love (or don’t love) other websites because there is room enough for everyone (except The Inertia) but we love love love www.worldsurfleague.com.

In any case, just yesterday www.worldsurfleague.com did a fab piece on Dane Reynolds receiving the coveted wildcard slot for the upcoming Fiji event. It was titled “Reynolds: Cloudbreak Is Intimidating.”
There were lots of hyperbolic adjectives used (as expected. MDMA flows like Dasani water, apparently, in the Santa Monica offices) but the best sentence read, “Few figures in modern surf history have been more popular, and subsequently more polarizing, than the 29-year-old.”

Polarizing? Dane? Do you know what “polarizing” means? The Webster’s Dictionary shall tell you. “To divide in sharply opposing factions.” That means some people LOVE Dane and some people HATE Dane. Do you know anybody on the street that HATES Dane? I can’t think of any. Do only people in the www.worldsurfleague.com offices HATE Dane? I think yes because he told them to take the tour and shove it. Did they tip their hand in writing this piece by saying they are the only people on earth that HATE Dane? For sure! Which is why I go every day.

Read the rest here!

You’ve heard about the new Texas surf park…

Ashton Goggans

By

...but did you know of its insidious connection to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre?

Nland Surf Park from NLand Surf Park on Vimeo.

Austin, Texas is getting a surf park. A big one.

Today Nland Surf Park’s CEO Doug Coors (same Coors as the brewery that’s raping the Rockies), announced that he would be opening a surf park nine-football-fields in size (football fields being the standard unit of measure in Texas, of course) with more than 10 individual waves to choose from.

To those poor Austin residents worried that opening a truly massive water park in the middle of one of the worst droughts in history may push the region towards a life not unlike Grapes of Wrath , Nland Surf Park says fear not!

Partnering with the Spanish engineers at Wavegarden, Coors claims that “even in the most challenging drought conditions, the lagoon will be self-sustaining with rainwater.”

The park will produce a bountiful 300 wave per hour. 300 waves that “never lose power or shape, ranging from one to six feet will be yours to hang ten!”

A wave every 60 seconds! Literally machine-like “one, four and perfectly tubing six foot waves.” Each wave offering a “lengthy surfing experience of 35 seconds per wave.”

The park is set to open in 2016. To celebrate the park’s official announcement, Nland released this remarkably clumsy promo, featuring kookiness like so much low hanging fruit.

P.S. Tobe Hooper, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s creator, came up with the film while working at the University of Texas at Austin. He was also born in Austin.

Confirmed: RIP Surfing Magazine

Chas Smith

By

We only wish Surfer was outsourced instead...


Your beloved BeachGrit broke the news yesterday that Surfing Magazine, a beacon of American journalism, was possibly being outsourced to Indonesia. Wages there cost Surfing’s parent company, The Enthusiast Network, a fraction of what they do in the United States, healthcare costs are minimal and not expected to be subsidized, 401ks do not exist. It is, theoretically, a sound business move but heartbreaking none the less.

Today, the rumor has proven true. Web editor B. Buckley wrote on the Surfing homepage, “We are not leaving.” (read complete missive here) The staff is holed up in a villa, apparently, watching pirated movies but the fun won’t last long. It is assumed Buckley and crew will train the monkeys who sit high above Uluwatu to punch out video edits and almost funny words before being sent into the night like those who worked at Cisco Systems or Dell Computers.

It may look the same but it won’t exactly be the same. Alas, progress marches forward but we will, nevertheless, remember.

RIP Surfing Magazine. You were loved.

Photo: Steve Sherman/@tsherms
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