Is WSL CEO Paul Speaker crying into his casual
Friday loafers?
Surfing magazine, sister magazine of
now quarterly Surfer and affectionately
called “The Bhagavad Gita of the Sport” has reported that Mick
Fanning may have injured his ankle during a surf and might be out
of the J-Bay Pro.
The World Surf League and Rip Curl have spent their
energies capitalizing on the shark attack seen ’round the world.
Who could forget the WSL’s moody “We were always coming back…” spot
with Mick exiting triumphantly from a real but also metaphorical
cave. And Rip Curl’s moody “First surf” with Mick standing in the morning
fog, bravely and gamely paddling out like a true warrior.
If true, if Mick is indeed out, how much does that hurt the
bottom line?
Does it hurt as much as a shark attack?
Maybe!
The non-surf masses will not busily YouTube video highlights of
heat 1 round 8’s Ace vs. Kolohe vs. Jadson. Unless one of them gets
eaten by a shark.
Which makes me wonder. What is the biggest dry hump in sporting
history?
Dave Dravecky throwing his arm off?
Pete Rose’s 4256 Hall of Fame-less hits?
Sam Bowie?
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Movie: Filipe Toledo’s Night Thoughts!
By Derek Rielly
A frank exploration of a Brazilian favourite!
Filipe Toledo, as if you needed me to tell you,
is the twenty-one-year-old Brazilian who famously took a woodcutter
to Julian Wilson at last year’s Quiksilver Pro.
Filipe is also famous as the surfer who scored zero points in a
heat at Teahupoo, the lowest-ever heat total in professional
surfing. Was it a brave act of cowardice, as suggested on
this website, or were his nerves simply shattered by a
wipeout in an earlier heat?
I think it’s fair to say that Filipe owns the skies and
waves under four foot.
I think you this wanting suck my dick! sorry but will not
give, I am well settled sexually, and besides, my wife will kill
you!!! Fuck yourself…(winky smiley face sticking out
tongue).
Earlier today, a seven-minute short (the internet’s
equivalent of a four-hour epic) documenting Filipe’s return from
injury was released.
Presiding over it all is Filipe, thoughtful, mournful, as he
stares just past the camera, perhaps wondering if what the critics
allege (big waves are a handicap) is true, and therefore a source
of shame, or does he silently long for the day when he can
again wield his woodchopper against his thunderingly boring
peers?
Watch here.
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What, me bored?
Dear Rory: “Do you get bored on
Kauai?”
By Rory Parker
No matter how far you run you can never escape
yourself…
Dear Rory,
Do you get bored on Kauai?
Short and Sweet Pete
Dear Rory says: Right to the point, I like
that!
Do I get bored? That’s a great question. I mean, I’m
living the dream, right? Got no boss riding my ass. Totally my own
man. Surrounded by adventure and amusement and able to run off to
play at the drop of a hat. My every day satisfies me creatively.
I’ve lucked into a career path which may never be financially
rewarding, but means I most likely won’t look back at the end and
think, “Well shit, I wasted that life.”
How could I be bored?
What sort of cynical asshole would I need to be in order to
totally forget how awesome my life is?
Why would I fail to appreciate all the opportunities at my
fingertips?
Hawaii seems to get a few weeks straight of solid rain each
year. Makes sense, that’s why shit’s so green. But you’re pretty
much trapped in doors and everything turns into an ankle deep mud
pit. That can feel boring.
Sure, we live in the 21st century and there’s a
kajillion forms of amusement ready for instant consumption at all
times and not all of it is pornographic. But you get a touch of
cabin fever and want out bad. The dog’s whining to go piss but
won’t actually step into the rain. You and the wife are trying to
think of something, anything to do that doesn’t involve getting
soaking wet and covered in red muck. But options are limited. The
price of living in the middle of the Pacific.
The other 340-ish days… what do you want to do?
Spearfish? Surf? Hike? Drugs? Hump?
They’re there, a short drive away at most. The ocean is a never
ending source of adventure. When the water is always warm and the
sun is usually shining you’ve always got something to do. Even if
it’s just drinking a beer clifftop and watching how the water moves
over the reef.
But the thing about getting what you want, once you’ve got it,
what next?
Because as fast as life passes when you’re looking backward, it
sure as hell seems to move forward at a snail’s pace. And you just
can’t always remember to appreciate what you’ve got while you’ve
got it. Real human failing right there. I know I’m not the
only one.
My life could not be better. I have everything I’ve always
wanted.
So, yeah, I get bored. I shouldn’t. But it would be the same no
matter where I lived.
Because I’m human and I’m flawed and because no matter how far
you run you can never escape yourself.
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Rumor: Surfer mag to become quarterly!
By Chas Smith
"The Bible of the Sport" to maybe take a step
toward leaving the print world entirely!
Surfer magazine, the
monthly lovingly hand-crafted in California, has been
published since 1960.
1960!
That’s 56 years of sun, tubs, personalities and heart. Some of
the world’s most well-loved surf journalists have had their names
emblazoned on its glossy pages and some of the world’s most
well-loved surf photographers have done their best work whilst in
the magazine’s employ.
Its monthly nature, in any case, means that I have at least
twelve different things to look at while standing in the checkout
line of Seaside Market over the course of one year not counting
Blake Shelton or Gwen Stefani or Miranda Lambert or Oprah or Selena
Gomez or Theon Greyjoy or Oliver Kurtz.
Rumor has it though, that soon I will only have four different
things to look at while standing in the checkout line of Seaside
Market not counting Kanye West or Prince or Blac Chyna or Gwen
Paltrow or Blair Marlin.
That is, unfortunately, (maybe) right. The “Bible of the Sport”
is transitioning from a monthly to a quarterly.
Print is, of course, dead-ish not counting the glorious
Surfer’s Journal which somehow continues to defy the laws
of human consumption. Still, it is sad to watch our proud
institutions brought low, begging for attention amidst an
increasingly crowded entertainment space.
Fucken surf websites n shit.
It is a shame, though Derek’s heartfelt story about staff buying Surfing
Life and White Horses is touching. Maybe there’s
still a place for print.
I meant to write “maybe there’s still a place for print?”
I meant to write “there’s probably not a place for print unless
the printing reads The Surfer’s Journal.”
Fucken surf websites n shit.
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Three men walk into the offices of a publicly listed
company and walk out as the new owners of two surf mags. Genius or
crazy?
Staff to buy Surfing Life/White
Horses!
By Derek Rielly
Surfers offer to buy iconic surf mags back from
corporate master!
Here’s what you might call a switcharoo.
Instead of an investment firm swinging their millions at a
publishing house, the surfers who run Surfing Life and
White Horses for Pacific Star Network, the company
that bought Morrison Media with its suite of titles
(Frankie, Surfing
Life, White Horses, Smith Journal) for ten million
dollars in November 2014, have made an offer to buy back the
two surf mags.
As I write, the board of Pacific Star are meeting to discuss an
offer that would put White Horses into the hands of its
creator and designer/editor Graeme Murdoch, Rob Bain (sales, former surf star) and
Morrison Media’s former general manager, Craig Sims, a South
African who once owned Zig Zag magazine before moving to
Australia. Craig would also become the sole owner of Surfing
Life magazine.
Would Sims’ next investment be a franchise of blacksmiths
or video stores?
Sims ain’t wearing rose coloured glasses.
“We’re passionate and we love what we do,” says Sims, “and we
know we’ll have our work cut out for us.”
Surfing Life‘s current editor Ryan Jones says the mag
might miss a deadline, if the changeover happens, but it’ll be biz
as usual in a month or so. Jones says it’s likely the mags
will be run by a gang of contributors working wherever, meeting
around deadline time, then dispersing back to their home offices.
This works on two levels. You lose the weight of full-time salaries
and all their associated costs and the workers can choose whether
they want to work or surf.
It’s all very share economy. People power etc.
There’ll be an announcement either today (offer accepted),
tomorrow (counter offer made) or Monday (counter offer
rejected).
Whatever happens, I think it’s the most wonderful thing ever to
see a bunch of workers having a swing in the real world,
escaping the yoke of their corporate masters etc.
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Jon Pyzel and Matt Biolos by
@theneedforshutterspeed/Step Bros
