Just feel it in your guts.
The great Peter Taras posted this shot yesterday on his Instagram and just look at it and then feel your guts. We all know this feeling, each and every one of us and Pete captured it perfectly. That is Balaram Stack there, New York surfer who has been giving it hell this winter on the North Shore. That is Off the Wall, there, a wave that can be deceptively freaky. And that is such a moment.
Some say Gab Medina just made history. Well, they don't know Shea Lopez.
The surf community has been very giddy about Gab Medina’s exceptionally nice floater during the Vans World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach. The event was, of course, later won by Mick Fanning, his first ever win in Hawaii, but that floater seems like it stole a touch of the thunder. Watch again here:
Now. Some have gone so far to call it the best floater in competitive surfing’s history but they are wrong because Gab’s leg did not dislocate and then hit him in the back of the head while a big wave drilled down upon his back. That, my friends, happened to Shea Lopez in 2005 and that is the greatest floater in competitive surfing’s history.
Am I wrong? Matt Warshaw, am I wrong? Oh. I think I’m wrong. I forgot about Adriano de Souza’s 8.2. It was, to quote Dave Stanfield, “Watery ballet.”
What's a few mil for a piece of surf history?
Would you like to own a piece of surf history that also has an infinity pool, 3,935 square feet of unobstructed ocean view and the perfect place to host sunset Mai Tai parties? Well then come on over to Honolulu’s Kahala neighborhood and take hold of Duke Kahanamoku’s lovely home!
Currently owned by Gordon Thompson III, a Nike exec, the home is ready for fun in the sun! Duke bought the property in 1927 and built his home ten years later. Gordon Thompson III added the pizzazz!
Let’s read about it:
Soon after purchasing the property, Thompson worked with a local architect to renovate the home using designs that he had drawn up.
Although he kept the original foundation intact and restored the fir staircase and handrail in the home, Thompson lifted the structure to create a higher first floor and added makai-facing glass windows and doors. The home’s front yard was also extended with a retaining wall that were made with lava stones on the property that were moved to make room for an infinity pool.
“About 20 percent of the original house is still there,” realtor Beth Chang said. “He (Thompson) changed some things, but his understanding was that Duke and his wife loved to entertain — they liked to have people over — so he wanted to continue that. He also knew that the view is what trumped everything.”
Sound perfect? A mere $8.875 mil and it’s yours!
Has a more progressive surfer ever been?
Three-ish days ago two very fine gentlemen paddled out to Seaside Reef in bucolic Cardiff-by-the-Sea. Their names were Steve Sherman and Derek Rielly. Well-respected, each. They surfed together and had fun. I was not with them because my baby had the stomach flu and I had to clean up. It was not very fun but kind of satisfying.
Derek came home early and said it was the grandest surf he’d had in months and then we got to work on your beloved BeachGrit.
We saw Sherm later, for dinner, and he said, “Guess who showed up at Seaside after you left, Dekor?”
Derek said, “who?”
Sherm said, “Tom Curren. And he was surfing on a skimboard! He paddled out on a bigger board and was doing organic step-offs.”
I wouldn’t have believed it had Sherm not taken a picture. Look at Tom standing with his skim, fins wedged on, weirdly smirking. It is an amazing thing that he continues to be so wildly progressive. Sometimes I like to think I’m progressive, like Tom Curren, but then Maurice Cole corrects me and tells me I’m not.
Do you remember when Tom Curren rode a boogie board in Mexico? You can re-read HERE. Do you remember Ashton Goggans who wrote the story? He works for Surfer now and is sad every day but still very handsome.
Carissa Moore's champion run gets all surfers to embrace in harmony!
Yesterday right around noon Derek Rielly and I stumbled into the Lost surfboard factory just in time to see Coco Ho take down Courtney Conlogue and hand the world title to a very excited Carissa Moore. Matt Biolos, the world’s best surfboard shaper/Republican presidential candidate was as proud as a parent and the rest of the factory too. Mike Reola was smiling.
And why not? Her surfing is so spectacular, so fully formed that it would be a gift to watch her compete, regularly, against the men. She is smooth, powerful, imaginative and graceful. I have never heard one bad thing, in fact, about her abilities. Surfing magazine’s famed Jimmy “Jimmicane” Wilson wrote, later in the day, “Carissa Moore is my favorite surfer.”
Which got me to thinking. Over on the men’s side it is a minefield of potential frustrations for the fan. I’ve heard grumbles that if Adriano de Souza wins then professional competitive surfing, as we know it, will be forced to destroy itself. Bull roar, I say. I love the little man and his tireless work ethic and his blue collar approach but many many don’t. If Mick wins, some say, it will only be proof of the World Surf League’s ridiculously conservative approach to judging. If Filipe wins without getting very barreled in very big Pipe then many will put an asterisk behind his name reading *is afraid of big waves.
Etc. The only non-polarizing champs could be, maybe, late runs by Julian Wilson or Owen Wright but even then Brazil would, probably, be rightly angered. Such a mess!
But Carissa, oh Carissa. She is a champ, a pure champ, embraced by all. Hawaii, the United States, Australia and Brazil can each appreciate her mastery. So can Lost co-founder Mike Reola who was in the surfboard factory too. He has a beatific smile and it shown when Ms. Moore ran down Honolua’s path to hug her parents.
