An unplanned popularity contest yields startling results!
Last night, semi-drunk and bored, I posted Official: Dane Reynolds Leaves Quik! onto our little website and it almost broke due to a flood of traffic. It surprised me because I posted it as “rumor” three weeks ago and thought, “Get it? Rumor?” And also “Who even fucking cares anyway?”
Apparently everyone.
And I had an even juicier rumor in my pocket. Craig Anderson, the Craig Anderson, wanted to follow him out the door and maybe hustle his own line somewhere. Oh we would hit Kim Kardashian levels of online fame! Oh we would proverbially break the proverbial Internet!
But do you want to know what happened? A virtual shrug. And this surprised me even more. I thought, in my perpetually semi-drunk and also semi-retired from surf reporting (thanks Welcome to Paradise, Now Go to Hell! Purchase here!) state, that Craig Anderson was the boy that everyone wanted. The Rob Machado that would live forever. The style emulated across seven seas. The man who put the hypto in krypto. The Craig Anderson.
Apparently I was wrong.
Does this surprise you? Dane Reynolds ain’t exactly in his prime. Craig Anderson, it could be argued, is. And so why the extra love on something completely unsurprising? Is Dane a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon? Is Craig not?
Help me! Help me, help you!
Could it be because Dane is a better surfer? …yep that might be it.
i think Ando’s legion of copycat fans might have something to say about that. there’s longhairs terribly attempting to mimic his style (in and out of the water) as far as the eye can see in Newcastle
Even though Marine Layer is pretty much retired we are still looking look back at it like drunken revelers in the morning after hazily looking back at the previous night’s antics knowing that something truly epic happened even if they can’t fully remember it or describe it.
Dane just has more dimensions than Ando. You get to the end of Ando’s book too early, close it, and lose interest….. Dane just seems to keep unfolding into infinity, an onion always incubating the next layer to be revealed…..
Ando’s post modern dickless style is appropriately and correctly evaluated by the discriminating surf fan as a temporary fashion trend, whereas Dane stands for something much more profound, a kind of lost Imperium Romanum.
Can you really compare them on an ability level? I think thats the answer right there. Plus I think we all could see that Dane looked a bit awkward in Quiks merchandise. Like you knew he would definitely not be seen in it if those 3 million dollar checks didn’t keep tumbling in. But now he’s a free man, with cash in the bank one would imagine, whats he going to do now? Now thats a story!
*lets hope its not anything to do with summer teeth or pamwear. I once received a summer teeth tee (for free) from someone involved in that ill conceived mess. It was boxy with a thick neck band and the fabric resembled a hessian bag used to store potatoes. I was not game to use it to buff my car as it would likely have scratched it, and it found its way into the trash not long after that……….
Here’s the thing – nobody really gives a shit about either of them. Nobody NEEDS pro surfers. That you thought otherwise indicates you’re more part of the system than any “writers” should be.
Of course nobody NEEDS them but wanting them is fun, no?
It’s really no different than rooting for some guy you don’t know graduating from USC to land a gig at Goldman. Dane will surf whether he’s sponsored or not and he’ll post clips for the world to see. “Hey, did you see that CBRE just picked up Stevie Jones? Yeah, that guy’s got sick excel skills and can work the phones like nobody’s business.”
I have grown tired of Ando’s style, and choice of craft. Dane never gets old in that way
I reckon Ando is only popular with teenagers. Most adult surfers can admire his surfing but the look he is trying to sell is for kids.
Dane rips, is a little over weight and loves a beer. Just like most blokes apart from the ripping.
easy , Dane is a cross dresser , in that he gets wild cards for CT comps , where he bares his summer teeth , and then retires to the life of a tripster,thereby he crosses many different demographic lines , whereas Ando just trips ,rips and to more popular ,try a contest or 2 …or not and just be a tripster…..another reason that Danes #’s are so far ahead , might be more Seppos on here than you think …..and there is deeply buried sense of Dane is/ was the last great surfer from the USA who…could’ve been????
It’s because Dane teases us in the occasional contest and that creates interest. We also hoped he’d be the Slater heir apparent which didn’t work out for the ASP/WSL but sure worked out for him.
craig is more unique and marketable at this point in time no doubt, but dane has a legacy that will live on because he completely changed progressive surfing
and I’m stoked you wrote you that book, ballsy as fuck and needed to be said
Are you The Michael Ciaramella?? The man who put the Big in the Mike? The one with enormous stem and cap?
Don’t forget 2003 ESA Northeast menehune regional champion