Rage: Matt Warshaw HATES wave pool!

By Chas Smith

9 years ago

Surfing's honored historian goes on a wild rant!

It’s been 48 hours-ish now since Dirk Ziff brought both of his surfing mutants (the World Surf League and Kelly Slater Wave Co.) under one roof and how do you feel about it? How has it settled in your heart?

If you are Matt Warshaw you feel the same sort of bald rage usually reserved for barely prepubescent teens! Here is surfing’s revered historian now!

Waves are the whole show. Waves are the only interesting thing about surfing. You’re a poetry-hating anti-New Age atheist with a penchant for hardcore rationalism? Same here. But at some level we know, we feel, that we are riding ocean-transported sunbeams, and it is magical. It is what makes surfing the very best of all sports. It is what separates us from parkour.

Surfers, furthermore, are only interesting because of waves. The things we do over the course of a life in pursuit of, and on behalf of, waves—the 10,000 bad decisions, the fiery burn rate of time and cash, the rivers of espoused bullshit, the volumes of arcane and otherwise totally worthless knowledge painstakingly gathered, catalogued, and deployed—are what makes us different, and, giving ourselves the benefit of the doubt, cool.

For 40-something years now, I have experienced variations on the same anxiety dream in which the surf is excellent, but I can’t get to it. The board is is locked in the car. Contact lenses are missing. Endless duckdives in the shorebreak while the sun drops into the horizon (thank you Ocean Beach, you wounding bitch). The number of times I’ve truly and completely had my fill of waves can be counted on one hand, and in each instance the craving was never further away than a meal and a nap. In terms of a life partner, that type of perpetual desire—a taste here and there, but never enough—is a greased playground slide to insanity. But in terms of a pastime being able to hold your attention, desire is the gift that lasts forever. Big-wave legend and humanist Fred Van Dyke, even when he was no longer able to surf, would pull off to the side of the road during a big swell, look out to a raging ocean, paddle out in his mind, choose a spot in the lineup, and wait for the right wave. In the end, surfing, for Fred, wasn’t even about standing on a board. It was just waves.

I have not seen more white passion since Howard Dean took the state in DeMoines in 2004!

And it is totally worth your day to go read the rest of his screed. God bless Matt Warshaw! God bless him every one!

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One shaka for me one shaka for Red Bull! | Photo: Nick Woodman!!!!!

Just in: Red Bull buys GoPro!

By Chas Smith

9 years ago

I think just a pile of stock, not the whole company, but who knows!

I’m no financial whiz, though I just finished reading Michael Lewis’s stellar Flash Boys. It is very good, about the markets and high frequency trading and things. I don’t recall any specific mention in the book, but I think if a company sheds 90% of its value it was not doing very well.

GoPro has shed 45% of its value this year and 90% since going public. And, again, I’m no financial whiz so I bought stock right before its crash but things are looking up! CNN Money has just reported that Austrian juggernaut Red Bull has just entered into a partnership with them! Let’s read:

GoPro’s stock got a much needed caffeine boost, surging 7% following the announcement.

And it may be because Red Bull seems to be calling a bottom in GoPro’s stock, which has plunged 45% this year and is still 90% below the all-time high it hit shortly after it went public in 2014.

That’s because Red Bull is getting GoPro (GPRO, Tech30) stock as part of the deal. The companies did not disclose how much or at what price.

GoPro CEO Nick Woodman touted the partnership as “very strategic” for the company, and said that “we share the same vision … to inspire the world to live a bigger life.”

Do you remember when GoPro CEO Nick Woodman inspired himself by Going Pro on a downtown LA billboard?

Dietrich Mateschitz, founder and CEO of Red Bull, added that the two companies “will amplify our collective international reach, the power of our content and ability to fascinate.”

Of course, both CEOs are using marketing mumbo jumbo to justify the deal. But it could pay off for GoPro.

Red Bull is no slouch. Forbes ranks it as the 74th most valuable brand name in the world — ahead of multinational giants Sony, Netflix, Heineken and LEGO to name a few.

Red Bull also operates its own popular online video networks focusing on action sports. GoPro has a media partnership with the National Hockey League. It makes sense. Sports videos lend themselves well to GoPro cameras.

Hockey?

But GoPro still has a lot to prove to Wall Street. GoPro lost more money than expected in its last quarter. And analysts are forecasting more red ink for GoPro this year and in 2017.

More alarming is the fact that GoPro’s sales are in a downward spiral. Revenues plunged nearly 50% in its most recent quarter.

Is that good or bad? I assume from context bad.

There are increased concerns that GoPro’s popularity may have peaked thanks to cheaper action camera alternatives from Polaroid, Xiaomi and others.

GoPro is hoping that its new Karma drone might be enough to convince Wall Street that it’s not just a one-trick pony reliant on its Hero cameras.

But GoPro shocked investors earlier this month when it said it would be delaying the Karma release until the end of this year. It was originally expected to hit shelves this summer.

Some experts have speculated that GoPro could one day be an appealing takeover target for Apple (AAPL, Tech30), Sony (SNE) or Google owner Alphabet (GOOGL, Tech30). But Woodman has given no indication that he’s willing to sell.

So the Red Bull deal may buy GoPro a little more time with impatient investors until the Karma comes out.

I think the financial writer of this story had too much fun with it but what does all of this mean? Maybe a new multichannel network? Or… I have no idea and the “marketing mumbo jumbo” really does not help. A can camera? I don’t know.

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Almost thirty years separates Kelly Slater's first wavepool cover (Surfing, 1988) and his latest (Surfer, 2016)…

Revealed: A History of Kelly Slater’s Pool!

By Derek Rielly

9 years ago

How about we meet the intellectual muscle behind the tank? A Jamaican! Adam Fincham!

Earlier today, it was revealed the WSL had bitten off a majority slice of Kelly Slater Wave Co, something Chas Smith wrote about four months previously.

Bloomberg Businessweek, who have an inside track with Slater and the WSL (which knifes me to write ’cause Kelly and I’ve been on a similar trajectory in surf for the past twenty something years, although his forward, mine backward, and you’d think there was a little residual love there) announced the reveal with a history of the pool.

Slater cover surfing 1988 — Did you know Kelly Slater’s first magazine cover was taken in a pool? Bloomberg says Surfer, but was it was slightly sexier sister mag Surfing.

Who’s the brains behind the joint? A Jamaican!

Adam Fincham was a research professor from the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, at the University of Southern California, when Kelly came knocking in 2006, swinging his idea of a barrelling man-made wave.

Fincham had worked mostly in Europe and didn’t know who Slater was. But Fincham “pulled together a team of colleagues and undertook a pilot study in 2007. They decided that, yes, it was possible.”

Two years later, Fincham was director for science at KSWC, working out of a lab in Culver City, just of out of LA, and using a 1/15th model scale for testing.

In 2014, KSWC bought a hunk of land in dusty old Lemoore, a hundred miles or so inland, to test the concept. Why Lemoore? It’s cheap. Half-a-mill for twenty acres.

And, then, the testing, the visiting pros, the visit by the WSL’s Kieren Perrow who said, “I think every surfer at some point has probably dreamt of having a wave like this… People have been trying to achieve this for a long time. I wasn’t sure I would ever see it.”

In the Bloomberg story, its writer Josh Dean describes the pool in a way that’s not obvious from the clips we’ve been drip-fed.

“If you watch any of the videos, shot exclusively by KSWC-sanctiond personnel, they’re carefully cropped so as not to reveal much of a hulking, whirring ram as it’s dragged along a rail under the water. (The hydrofoil is separated from surfers by netting.)… (Kelly) slips into the water and paddles out to the middle of the lake as a cable that runs the length of the hydrofoil housing goes taut, sounding as if someone is whizzing along zipline. Then, in the distance, it begins. A head-high swell rises up suddenly and grows in size as the hydrofoil gains speed. Slater glances back over his shoulder and paddles fast, matching his speed to the wave’s and, as the swell hits the point which the lake’s bottom – by depth and contour – forces it to break, Slater is up, tucking into a barrel that curls perfectly and never breaks…

“The wave is more powerful in person than on film, without question. Slater makes it look easy, but even he wasn’t prepared for the speed; back in December, he missed his first puddle. Another pro, he says, fell on his first three attempts.”

A quote buried in the story is instructive about the WSL’s intentions, now that it owns the majority slice.

“We will always have a majority of the surf contests take place in the ocean,” says WSL CEO Paul Speaker.

A majority…

Read the story here.

For another kick, watch as the Today show visits the pool! The shot of the reporter, Nat Morales, doing a piece to camera on a jetski while Kelly surfs in the background, gives the viewer a revealing view of the shape of the pool’s wave.

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Welcome: To our brave new world!

By Chas Smith

9 years ago

The man behind the biggest potential paradigm shift in surfing history is the man behind Kelly Slater.

And have you digested today’s news yet? Have you let it curdle in your heart, in your soul? Rick Kane, almost thirty years after winning his Arizona wave tank trophy, might be able to compete legitimately on the World Tour!

First let us clear up a little bit of business. As reported here exactly four months ago the same money behind the WSL also is rumored to have funded 100% of Kelly’s wave pool venture. If you know KS then you know he does not like to part with his millions even in the hope of making may millions more. Lend a name? Sure! Purps, OuterKnown, Mama Chia, etc. So what happened today was a rich man last named Ziff simply parking both of his surf toys in the same garage.

The true genius in all this, I must say, is Kelly’s long time manager Terry Hardy. He positioned the fifteen time world champion as the face of surfing’s biggest potential transition ever without theoretically moving a dime. Let us assume the wave can get bigger, that its cost is not prohibitive, that it is not an energy drain not seen since Hummer marketed a fleet of family vehicles. Kelly Slater will go down in history as the single greatest force in our game but also an innovator on the scale of Dr. James Naismith. Maybe.

They are talking about the “democratization of surfing.” I personally find that distasteful. I don’t want the unwashed masses to surf. Let them eat cake etc. But if it really does get democratized? Kelly will be put on a two-dollar American coin!

Do you think Laird is sad? He tried really hard to be surfing’s paradigm shift with his GolfBoard and hydrofoil and Step into Liquid and living forever. Do you think John John is sad? He parted ways with Terry last year. What glories might have been in store for Blonde (lack of) Ambition?

There are still many questions regarding KS Wave Co. and how it fits in with the WSL but this day belongs to Terry Hardy.

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Want two days of getting sprayed by Slater in his pool? Who doesn't!

Just in: WSL buys Kelly Slater Pools!

By Chas Smith

9 years ago

For eight dollars and a bar of wax!

Did you see this coming? Was it always in the works? (Of course it was! If you visit BeachGrit you’ll remember we broke this very story 4 months ago!) The WSL announced today that it is buying the Kelly Slater Pools biz! Here is the entire press release. Commentary and analysis up next!

– WSL Holdings, the parent company of the World Surf League (WSL), today announced an agreement in principle to acquire a majority stake in the Kelly Slater Wave Company (KSWC). The partnership between the WSL and KSWC will be dedicated to promoting the growth of high-performance surfing around the world. KSWC’s revolutionary technology creates a number of possibilities for the future of the sport. The WSL and the KSWC envision the build-out of a global network of WSL-branded high-performance training centers utilizing this wave technology.

For Kelly Slater, the 11-time world champion, the creation of this wave technology is the realization of a lifelong dream and a 10-year project, and today’s announcement brings his two worlds together. “While surfing for me will always be about adventure, travel and the ocean, this wave brings a new opportunity to the sport without taking away the soulfulness that attracted many of us to surfing in first place,” said Slater. “Surfing great waves in a controlled environment adds a new dimension, as there is no hassling for waves, no stress over who got the best wave – they are all good. Everyone can relax, have fun and focus on improving their surfing.”

“It’s beyond my dreams that this wave will be a canvas for the global advancement of this great sport in partnership with the WSL,” he added. “It will democratize surfing and provide incredible training opportunities for athletes as well as aspirational surfers in areas with no ocean waves.”

The WSL sanctions and organizes the highest-level professional surfing competitions for men, women, big wave, longboarders and juniors.

“The WSL proudly represents the best in men’s and women’s competitive surfing globally, and the amazing man-made wave technology developed by Kelly Slater and his team is a revolutionary innovation that has the power to dramatically enhance every aspect of our sport,” said Paul Speaker, CEO of the WSL. “We share the same vision and passion for growing high-performance surfing, and are beyond excited to work together under one roof to bring the sport to levels and places never before possible.”

KSWC technology creates an opportunity for surfers to practice and develop ever-higher levels of performance in a repeating environment, with unprecedented opportunities for surrounding camera and sensor arrays providing immediate and perfectly accurate feedback on their progress. This is the first repeatable man-made wave that convincingly delivers the power and shape of ocean waves most sought after by accomplished surfers, including a hollow barrel allowing for long tube rides. While high-performance surfing is the core mission of both the WSL and the KSWC, the wave technology is flexible and can also create variable waves for beginner and intermediate surfers.

WSL Commissioner Kieren Perrow recently visited the first KSWC site, and said the wave surpassed his expectations. “Up until a few weeks ago, I had never ridden Kelly’s Wave, and when I did, I was blown away by the experience,” Perrow said. “It is incredible to see this wave in action – it has more energy and power than I expected and this technology holds a lot of potential for the future development of surfers just starting out and those already competing on our Championship Tour.”

While competition in a man-made environment will offer previously impossible opportunities such as the creation of surrounding spectator environments, as well as certainty of scheduling, WSL CEO Speaker emphasized that nothing could ever replace the magic and mystery of world-class competition in the ocean. “We do believe that all stakeholders – athletes, fans, broadcast and corporate partners – will be super energized by the advent of Championship Tour-level competition with man-made waves,” he said, “but the ocean will always be our home, and the great waves on our tour will always remain the backbone of our competitive schedule.”

Speaker added: “No firm plans have been made for the inclusion of a man-made wave-based competition. We will be evaluating all the possibilities in the coming months with the Commissioners’ Office and the WSL athletes.” WSL Holdings is the parent company of the World Surf League (WSL). The transaction is subject to the negotiation of mutually agreeable definitive documentation, among other customary conditions. Both WSL and KSWC will continue to operate independently as separate entities following the closing of a transaction. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

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