Invest: Surf set to ride wave of growth!

Chas Smith

By

2017 is setting up to be our year!

Did you already sell all your Jimmy-Z t-shirts? Your Tufflite surfboards? Are you wetsuits molding in a dusty trash bin? Because surf has been so out of style for so so long?

Well guess what Johnny Fashion! Surf is BACK!

Canadian Television News is reporting…

After being announced as an official Olympic sport for Tokyo 2020, surfing looks set to enjoy a surge in popularity as one of the next biggest sports trends. If you’re looking for something new to try in 2017, here we round up some of the reasons why you should swop your workout gear for a wetsuit next year.

Olympic status

This past August it was announced that for the first time ever surfing would be classed as an Olympic sport after being added to the Tokyo 2020 sports program. The news was celebrated by many surfers around the world who were thrilled that their favorite sport had finally gained such recognition. With this new focus on surfing, set to grow in the next four years leading up to the Games, a whole new group and generation could be feeling inspired to go surfing.

Man-made waves

After surfing legend Kelly Slater released a short video on his Instragram page back in December 2015 of him riding a man-made wave, surfers spent 2016 trying to find out more about Slater’s mysterious — and impressive — wave machine. In development for ten years, the Kelly Slater Wave Company has finally created what seems to be the perfect wave, which could change surfing forever. Although purists argue that the ocean is the real place to surf, located 110 miles from the coast in California, USA, the wave pool technology could give those in landlocked or inner cities areas who dream of riding the waves the chance to learn. Although Slater’s Wave is not open to the public, with Slater and the team describing it as a “prototype” and “a research laboratory,” man-made waves are are taking off in some areas previously not associated with surfing. In Texas, Surf Austin at NLand opened to much fanfare in October this year to offer a variety of different waves to cater for all levels of surfer, while Surf Snowdonia, located in Wales, UK, just celebrated its one-year anniversary, producing around 195,000 waves since its opening.

More female surfers

As women are starting to receive more recognition in the sport of surfing, 2017 could see more girls encouraged to take up the sport. Huge surfing event Titans of Mavericks finally added a long-awaited women’s heat into the competition which started last month and ends in March next year — good news for female surfers who had long been fighting for inclusion. The World Surf League also added for the very first time a Women’s Championship event for 2016, with hopefully more inclusion to come in 2017.

And did you catch that last bit? The WSL finally added the very first women’s championship event! It only took CEO Paul Speaker and crew 100 years after women in the United States got the right to vote!

Great job everyone!

Breaking: Dos Santos killer gets 22 years!

Chas Smith

By

According to the jury's vote there was no self-defense on the part of the accused...

Ricardo dos Santos was a well-loved Brazilian surfer cut down in the prime of his life by an off-duty police officer’s, or maybe soldier’s, gun. The great Beren Hall just released a movie about and it was as wonderful as it was moving.

But would his killer be prosecuted for the crime? Just in, from Brazilian source Waves, it appears he has and to the tune of 22 years! Let’s read a translation!

After a two-day trial, the popular jury of former military police officer Luís Paulo Mota Brentano, accused of killing Ricardo dos Santos, in January, 2015, ended Friday night in Palhoça (SC).

Brentano was sentenced to 22 years in prison under an initially closed regime. The defense’s request was a maximum sentence of 34 years for triple-homicide homicide.

According to Diário Catarinense, Mota was already detained at the 8th MP Battalion in Joinville since the beginning of the process and, by decision of the judge, should now be transferred within five days to a joint prison.

The former PM was also sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment in a semi-open regime for a traffic crime (he drove under the influence of alcohol on the day of the events) and loss of the right to drive for five months.

Also according to the Diário Catarinense, because it is a decision in the first instance, there is a possibility of appeal by the defense. The defendant’s claim is that the shots were fired because the surfer had threatened him with a machete after disagreements.

According to the jury’s vote, however, there was no self-defense on the part of the accused.

The crime happened on the morning of January 19, 2015. At the time, Mota and his brother were in a car, parked in a place where the surfer and grandfather would do a drainage work, when there was discussion and the then police officer fired two shots Against the surfer, who died in hospital the next day.

After the shots, the soldier escaped, being later located in an inn of Guarda of the Embaú. On September 11, Mota was officially expelled from the Military Police and arrested in a battalion of Joinville, where he awaits the trial of justice.

Sabre Norris Ellen
Among today's revelations, Sabre vows to have her world title party in Vegas ("I did some research and every hotel has a buffet!", regards swimming as a particularly stupid sport even though her old boy was an Olympic bronze medallist ("I hate swimming! Swimming sucks!") and got into surfing because she saw a movie about surfing fairies. "I've always wanted to surf like the fairies," says Sabre. | Photo: EllenTV

Watch: Sabre Norris on “Ellen”!

Derek Rielly

By

My favourite surfer, your favourite surfer, on the insanely popular talk show… 

Six weeks ago, a TV interview with the kid surfer Sabre Norris went viral.

Sabre, of course, is the eleven-year-old from Newcastle, Australia, who rips hell on a surfboard (one of those rare gals who has air-revs and frontside 180s on tap) and a skateboard (watch her 540 when she was nine, here) and when she talks she blooms like an iris. I wasn’t exaggerating one jot when I wrote that she was my new favourite surfer (goodbye Dane, John John, Filipe etc.)

As I wrote:

You’ve got to love a pro surfer kid born without a censor button. Sabre Norris, who is eleven years old and lives in the provincial Australian city of Newcastle, got on national television yesterday morning, called her former Olympian dad “fat and said he “has to suck his gut in for photos” and admitted that, even if she comes last in the Sally Fitz contest she’s a wildcard in, is going to drop the $250 prize money on doughnuts.

So punchy! So brilliant! 

In response, Sabre sent me the loveliest letter you could ever imagine.

Sabre Norris letter

I responded that we had to make an episode of BeachGrit TV with her as the principal.

She was thrilled. We were thrilled.

But then Ms DeGeneres, who is fabulous beyond anything too, flew her and her mother Brooke to LA to shoot live in the Burbank studio a couple of weeks back and if you’re going to be on an episode of Ellen, fronting her millions of viewers, then even BeachGrit goes on hold.

Did she perform? Did the world swoon? Watch below!

How to: Become a revered surf journo!

Chas Smith

By

...and influence people!

One of the most popular of the self-improvement classics is “How to Become a Revered Surf Journalist and Influence People” by Chas Smith. For those of you who have yet to read it, or for those of you who have read it and want a reminder, here is our collection of some of the best quotes from the book on the themes of relationships, advice, personal character, rapport-building, and influencing. It’s no surprise that this book is the best-selling self-improvement book of all time.

Describe your first surfboard

Oh it was love! I was maybe 10 and living in Coos Bay, Oregon but my cousins, the coolest people ever in my young mind, lived in Carlsbad. We would see them every summer and when I was ten cousin Dan, who later became a bank robber, gave me a chubby 6ft rainbow twin fin shaped, maybe, in Hawaii. I surfed every summer, after that in California but most of my learning and surfing happened on the Oregon coast God bless it.

What is going well/badly in surfing today and how can we best navigate it to have the greatest positive impact on our sport?

I think the progression is unbelievable, not only what people are doing but what the shapers are making, wetsuit tech, awesome fins, etc. Surfing has never been so fun but, on the media/WSL/brand side the fun often gets buried beneath a pile of hypocritical, fear-based, paranoia. Oh the thin skin! We are strangling what we love by refusing to laugh. Here’s looking at you, Paul Speaker! And Volcom!

What is your opinion of artificial waves and the place wave parks may hold in the future of surfing?

I think wonderful! A part of the progression that I find so joyous. For me, surfing is about the beach and, the sand, the rocks, the salt water, the sun, the smells, the entire experience more than simply about riding a wave. But I applaud those brave scientists playing God. Here’s looking at you Kelly Slater!

Can’t get enough? Read more, and advice from Derek Rielly and Matt Warshaw too at the fabulous SurfCareers.com!

SurfStitch CEO Mike Sonand and chairman Sam Weiss
This is the face of surf in 2016: SurfStitch CEO Mike Sonand and chairman Sam Weiss.

Just in: SurfStitch Turns on Founder!

Derek Rielly

By

Online retailer throws founder Justin Cameron under a bus in court.

Earlier today, online retailer SurfStitch sold Surf Hardware International (owners of FCS) for seventeen-million dollars. A lot of money, you’d say, except SurfStitch threw twenty-three million dollars at it one year go.

Not the dumbest biz decision in surf, of course. That award goes to Quicksilver and the $320 million they shovelled into ski biz Rossignol a decade ago. And sold three years later for $147 mill.

Of course, if you’re running the game at SurfStitch, a company that was valued at half-a-billion dollars one year ago and is sitting at fifty now, and you’re being sued by one of your shareholders who is simultaneously trying to buy you, and you’re convinced the founder of your company has brought it all on you, well, a six-million-dollar hit is nothing.

As revealed by The Australian, SurfStitch went into court today and threw its founder Justin Cameron straight under a bus.

Let’s examine.

“Surfwear retailer SurfStitch has levelled a series of allegations against co-founder and former chief executive Justin Cameron that include the claim he deliberately inflated the company’s profit in the first half of fiscal 2016.

The accusations form SurfStitch’s (SRF) defence to an increasingly bitter legal battle with now suitor Coastalwatch in relation to disputed licensing deals.

Coastalcoms is a company tied to surf website Coastalwatch, which launched a failed bid for SurfStitch in November, and Crown Financial, which owns 10 per cent of SurfStitch.

While the action in 2016 had been remarkable, today’s defence launched in the District Court of Queensland puts it all in the shade, with Mr Cameron accused of abusing of his duties.

“Mr Cameron caused the company to enter into a contractual scheme with Coastalcoms and TCI, allegedly for the purpose of inflating the revenue and profit of SurfStitch for the first half of the 2016 financial year in a manner that contravened the provisions of the Corporations Act 2001,” said a SurfStitch statement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

The purported contraventions of the Corporations Act were made without the board understanding the true nature of the actions by Mr Cameron, according to SurfStitch.

“It is also alleged that, as a consequence of the alleged contractual scheme, an amount of $20.3m was included as revenue in the company’s half year financial report for FY16,” the company added.

Coastalcoms directors Kim Sundell and David Wooldridge have also been drawn into the SurfStitch defence, with allegations they both “knowingly assisted” Mr Cameron with his alleged breaches of statutory and fiduciary duties.

SurfStitch noted its allegations had yet to be proven or considered by the court.

Would these revelations suggest to you that the company might not be the safest place to park your money? And that, if you had any residual cash left in the biz, that it might be prudent to get the hell out?

If you answered yes, you are wrong! Soon after the allegations, shares shot up by almost ten per cent!

Photo: Justin Jay/@justinjayphoto
EAT BEACHGRIT SPAM!
It's Daily!