I was having a conversation yesterday with a
wonderful friend and filmmaker, Tate MacDowell when he says:
What’s up with these whiny, hypocritical surf mags. Every
time I pick one up I feel like isn’t even fun or they’re telling me
not to do shit. Seriously, I just got the latest Stab, Surfing and
Surfer and they were all bitching about Instagram and locations
being blown out. Don’t they understand I’m trying to get my stoke
on with this rag? It’s like picking up a porno and reading a bunch
of articles about how STD’s are hurting the industry. Fuck off! I’m
obviously not getting laid if I’m reading this!
And I think:
Wow totally.
Do you think surf media has gotten too grouchy? I think it has.
But the opposite of grouchy is cheese-faced Inertia.
What is the middle ground? Help me help you!
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The piece starts with a bunch of nerds holding up full
color computer printouts. One of them is wearing a super lame
little necklace. They take turns making statements. I don't know
who any of them are. Possibly their presence it's supposed to lend
weight to the following segment?
Can we start calling Mick's "attack" something
else?
Can we start calling Mick’s “attack” something
else? I’m sure it was scary as hell, rattled his cage good
and hard. Shed some adrenaline dump tears post heat.
But he wasn’t attacked. He was bumped.
If you stepped out into the road without looking and a truck
rolled by, missing by inches, you wouldn’t say you’ve been hit by a
car. Because you’d look like a huge pussy. Life’s full of near
misses, you’ve gotta sack up and move along.
Which is exactly what he did. Back in the water, back on with
his life. He talks about it, sure. Probably the first question
every lazy journalist asks.
If you stepped out into the road without looking and a truck
rolled by, missing by inches, you wouldn’t say you’ve been hit by a
car. Because you’d look like a huge pussy. Life’s full of near
misses, you’ve gotta sack up and move along.
It’s gotta be weird, to work so hard at something your entire
life then be catapulted to fame by a random encounter. If I were
Mick I’d say, “Enough of the shark talk, ya’ cunts.” Or something
similarly Australian.
At the same time, the real world doesn’t much about surfing.
That bump came with killer exposure. That’s really what Mick’s job
is, staying in the public eye. He does it well. One of the very
best.
The piece starts with a bunch of nerds holding up full color
computer printouts. One of them is wearing a super lame little
necklace. They take turns making statements. I don’t know who any
of them are. Possibly their presence it’s supposed to lend weight
to the following segment?
It plays as though the bump were one of the most traumatic
events in Fanning’s life. I don’t believe that. Mick’s made of
sterner stuff. Shaken, but not stirred.
Losing two brothers is heavy. I’ve got two baby bros of my own.
It’d be hard to lose them.
His mom’s a good presence. Delivers a very real line.
“I just could not believe that this was actually happening. I
thought, ‘Oh my god, the universe can’t be this cruel.’ And, uh, I
can’t lose another boy.”
Beyond that, there’s nothing new here. It’s justa glimpse of
Fanning’s early life, his tribulations set to swelling music,
overlayed with an insurance commercial voice over. Not a single
glimpse of what makes him a human.
Wiped from the tour. Barely able to surf. But, now,
a baby with pop star girlfriend!
What a wild old ride Owen Wright has been on this
year. After what was officially mandated as a surf-related
brain injury at Pipeline in December, Owen pulled out of the first
six events of 2016.
One month later, it was reported,
“Serious concerns surround the health of 2015 surfing world
title contender, Owen Wright. Fears that Wright is still
having trouble speaking and even standing have spread throughout
tight-lipped surfing community…revealed he was still
struggling with amnesia just last week.”
In February, Owen looked fragile as hell as he embraced his
sister Tyler after she won the gal’s event at Snapper.
And two weeks ago, the rest of Owen’s 2016 WSL season was
officially wiped.
So, now, after everything, ain’t it something to hear that his
pop star girlfriend Kita Alexander is laden with
child.
“I’ve gone through some really challenging life experiences this
year but the most amazingly beautiful thing has come out of it,”
says Owen, alongside his pregnant girl (on his IG account
@owright). “Enjoying every moment but the future couldn’t look any
better.”
Ms Alexander, in case you didn’t know, is the chanteuse whose
(hit) songs have the easy temper of a warm summer’s day.
She surfs too!
Watch her wonderful song My Own Way, here…
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Don't you love the… immediacy… of King's
work? "I just have my iPhone running. Most of Tour Notes is shot on
an iPhone. I have a RED camera but I just look at it." | Photo:
Peter King
Follow Filipe Toledo's effortless win at the US
Open!
I doubt I’m alone in suggesting that no other
filmer has such a clear window into the pro game as La Jolla’s
Peter King.
I’ve followed the former pro surfer-celebrity
chanteuse’s career through its highs and
its highs. As for TourNotes, which King makes for the surf clothing
company Hurley, he says: “I was on tour for
three-and-a-half years, back when girls wanted to hang with Shaun
Tomson and Rabbit Bartholomew and were 35 years old and wore
high-waisted bikinis, do cocaine and all those things I didn’t know
about. And what do I remember about my time on the tour? It isn’t
the heats. I wanna show the fun. I want to show the silly little
conversations.”
In this episode, King follows Filipe Toledo, “throughout his
obvious and effortless win. No one else would have been as fun to
watch won, that’s for sure. Most of it was filmed from the Sao
Paulo section of the bleachers. Only this group could make tiny
Huntington seem more exciting that the Olympics…”
As for the Toledos and Filipe’s upcoming role as a daddy, “They
are known as the SurfamilyToledo … so the more the
merrier!”
Filipe, meanwhile, split California to Kandui resort in the
Mentawais straight after his win. He’ll be there till Tahiti!
Kai Lenny, who is twenty three years old and lives on
Maui, is an expert in the disciplines of surfing, windsurfing, SUP
and kitesurfing. Yesterday Kai won the Molokai to Oahu paddle in a
world record time. "The hardest thing I've ever done," says Kai. |
Photo: Courtesy Kai Lenny
Maui hydrofoiler-surfer-kitesurfer-SUP stud wins
world's most tedious race!
Doesn’t Kai Lenny make your mouth water!
Yesterday, the surfer-hydrofoiler-kitesurfer-SUP from Maui won the
stand-up div of the famous-infamous thirty-two mile Molokai-to-Oahu
race in a world record time.
Lenny found his win with a record-time of 4:07:41, besting
rival and three-time M2O champ Connor Baxter’s 2014 record by 27
seconds. The victory is “a dream come true” for Lenny, who spent
the last four years hunting an M2O title with top-4 finishes each
year, including a runner-up victory behind 2015 champ, Travis
Grant, who finished second today. Connor Baxter rounded out the
top-3 with a time of 4:16:19, after the leading trio broke away
from a stacked pack of hungry elite racers, including in-form
Aussies James “Jimmy” Casey, Toby Cracknell and Matt Nottage, who
finished fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been that focused in a race
before,” Lenny said at the finish. “This is by far the hardest
event I’ve ever done.”
