Garbage closeout turned into a beauty queen today!
Seal Beach, in Orange County, California, is a garbage closeout shore pound 364 days of the year. One of those spots that’s not even worth checking.Out of the way, always terrible.
But if you live nearby, you get lucky once in a while. Today everyone got very lucky indeed.
The clip’s a half-hour long, no soundtrack, from Mike Lucas Media, and there isn’t a dull moment.
Have a watch.
Peppermint-candy sweet documentary about Volcom's gentlemanly Pipe manors…
Of all the surf industries acquisitions, nothing comes close to Volcom’s snatching of two beachfront houses at Pipe for…credibility. There is nothing superfluous or gimmicky about owning two houses for your surfers that front the heaviest wave on the North Shore.
Ten years ago, the company, which was formed by the former Quiksilver marketing staffer Richard Wolcott in 1991, bought a single-storey beachfront bungalow at Pipe. It soon became a headquarters for unruly bronzed men and women ruddy with desire.
Two years later, the company dropped $4.2 million on the three-storey house built by Gerry Lopez and his Lightning Bolt partners in the seventies.
This documentary, produced by Red Bull, takes you through these gentlemanly manor houses. It will cost you roughly eighteen-and-a-half minutes, unlocking none of the secrets but revealing much of their mysterious charm.
Did you like that documentary? I did. But I like this Volcom short, Dawn of the Stone Age, more.
With dazzling Hawaiian commentary!
The 2016 Backdoor Shootout is running today. Kind of snuck up on me, wasn’t on my radar.
But the Shootout is a cool contest. Only one that caters to locals, has longboard, bodysurf, and SUP divisions, in addition to the shortboards.
Longboards are out right now, guys are kind of struggling to thread the needle, taking plenty beatings. Worth tuning in. Up next is SUP (which should deliver some carnage), then bodysurfing, more SUP, then shortboards, which is what we all really want to see.
All you guys with the ‘Eh, slow down, this ain’t the mainland’, guess what? You know why we’re hurrying up? Because all of us guys have to have two or three jobs to afford to live where we grew up now.
Will Mason win it again this year?
Yeah, the production quality is a little low, but not too bad.
Kaipo and Rocky are killing it from behind the mic, though, putting the WSL to shame.
Kaipo’s dropping some especially brilliant gems.
“That’s my public announcement number two for this morning. All you guys with the ‘Eh, slow down, this ain’t the mainland’, guess what? You know why we’re hurrying up? Because all of us guys have to have two or three jobs to afford to live where we grew up now. So, that’s why, if we’re in a rush, move over. Don’t act like that with your bumper sticker, ‘slow down,this ain’t the mainland.’ We gotta hurry up because we have two jobs, bruddah. Three jobs, bruddah.”
Watch here!
Kauai's favorite daughter describes the wave seen 'round the world!
It is difficult not to stand up and cheer for Bethany Hamilton. The facts surrounding her extraordinary life are impossible to dismiss for even the crustiest nihilist. Let us review. As a thirteen-year-old she was surfing Kauai’s Tunnels alongside very good friend Alana Blanchard and family. It was early morning. A tiger shark, happening by, bit her arm off at the shoulder.
Three weeks later she was surfing again.
And over the weekend, six months after giving birth to a blonde son, she towed Jaws. The clip, of course, went everywhere and why would it not? Such inspiration! It was not Bethany’s first time. She towed a few years back and it was nominated for best girl’s performance in 2010.
This time, though, the surf was even bigger. I asked her about it with rain darkening southern California’s skies because I promised, yesterday, that I would! Her voice is sunny and bright. It is always sunny and bright.
This is something I’ve wanted to do again for a long time but towing has been kind of taboo out there. Like, what the boys are doing with their paddling is just incredible so I haven’t been back but this year I asked the boys if I could tow and they were down so I was stoked.
Could you paddle out there?
I could, I think, but I’d really have to pick the right day and the right conditions. It is really wild out there. Lots of water moving so…yeah. I could and it’s something I’d love for the future.
Walk me though how it felt?
It feels amazing. The thrill of that wave, the energy and what is happening is like nothing else. I surfed Honolua the day after and took off on a wave and it felt like I was just going really really slow. I’ve always been passionate about bigger surf and love tackling bigger waves but the power of that one is just insane. I totally see how those guys get addicted to it.
Would you ever put aside the rest and only chase big surf?
No, you know, I’ve been working really hard on my progressive surfing lately too. I love it all and am trying to be as good, all around, as I can be. Both are fun.
From what I’m seeing, it seems you are at the top of your game. Have you ever felt better?
I definitely feel I’m surfing better, restrengthening after the baby. I feel driven. Having a child could maybe do something else for other people but, for me, I’m just inspired.
And if you ain’t, well, then you are the crustiest nihilist! Her film, Surf Like a Girl, is 1/4 done, she says, and set to be released later this year. I am looking more forward to it than any other.
Is Kelly and Adriano's ancient blood feud, thought to be long dead, alive and well?
Three weeks ago, the Brazilian Adriano De Souza mounted a wonderful and brave charge to win the Pipeline Masters and the world title. When you saw his trembling lips, didn’t it make you want to put a biscuit in his mouth and peck away the crumbs?
As Rory Parker, BeachGrit’s man in front of the webcast, wrote, “A decade of trying, constant shit talking from every direction. Head down, made it happen, never let the naysayers get him down. And that’s something. I catch a tiny amount of shit online compared to the guy, and you develop a thick skin, but sometimes shit makes it through. Easy to let the public ruin your brain, the fact that he didn’t is impressive in itself.”
Does sport get any better? The unfancied and unpretty Adriano De Souza, throbbing to his own pulse, galloping to victory?
But Adriano was gifted approximately 15 hours at the summit of the surfing world before the spotlight was turned off and aimed at Kelly Slater and his new wave pool.
“Worse still, though, is poor Adriano de Souza. Hours ago, literally hours, he was on top of it all. He was champion of the world, the first ever Brazilian Pipe Master too! He had etched his name into the record books and could sit back and be lauded for a hard-fought year. Except he couldn’t because when he woke up this morning the lauders were glued to computer screens not watching his year’s highlights but ogling Kelly Slater’s magnificent wave.
Chas Smith opined, “Kelly Slater is an absolute master of stealing the spotlight any time it drifts, slightly, from his handsome face. He was mad at me for having a cup of coffee and not talking about him and so he released a perfect video that is burning the Internet down.
“Worse still, though, is poor Adriano de Souza. Hours ago, literally hours, he was on top of it all. He was champion of the world, the first ever Brazilian Pipe Master too! He had etched his name into the record books and could sit back and be lauded for a hard-fought year. Except he couldn’t because when he woke up this morning the lauders were glued to computer screens not watching his year’s highlights but ogling Kelly Slater’s magnificent wave.
“I want to be frustrated but he is so good at it, so utterly masterful, that all I can do is stand, mouth agape, like everyone else. Oh, my mouth is not agape at the wave. It scares me in a way that I cannot explain. Like, really points to the end of the world somehow.”
Of course, it doesn’t matter what people call you unless they call you pigeon pie and eat you up. But do you think Adriano taking the world title determined the timing of the wave pool clip, and that it snatches a glimpse of the shadow in Kelly’s feelings towards Adriano?
Let’s examine the evidence. Do you remember, four years ago, at the Hurley Pro when Adriano was in the worst temper? Watch!
I’m certainly not a world expert at body language, an expert at nothing except online shopping if truth be told, but it does seem that Kelly fudges when the interviewer Mitchell Ross asks for the causes of the event. Do you like it when Kelly likens Adriano’s intemperance to a chemical imbalance due to his “passion”? I do!
Do you watch this old clip and think, is there something there, in light of recent events?
I do now, but only because shortly after Kelly dropped his wave pool clip a BeachGrit reader screenshot this exchange between a Kelly Slater and another surfer. The reader couldn’t verify the authenticity of the parties involved, but it makes for interesting reading.
Do you wonder, is Kelly and Adriano’s ancient blood feud, thought to be long dead, alive and well?
Did the kernel of civility between the two just break?
