Michael Kocher
The writer and ex-US marine Michael Kocher, who was shot dead by police, photographed back when he was under the vibrant desert sky.

DA Report: How BeachGrit Writer Was Killed!

The last hours of Michael Kocher as per the official DA report… 

Two months ago, Michael Kocher, the BeachGrit writer and lover of Facebook, coke and booze, roughly in that order, was shot dead by police after holding an ex-gal and her studs hostage.

On BeachGrit, Mike wrote eloquently about being a soldier in Iraq, cleaning up the detritus of suicide bombers and so forth, how he quit surfing to take up a job a a heroin salesman, and, shortly before he died, about getting into Denver’s EDM scene. 

A couple of year before soaring to heaven, Michael scammed readers out of $8600 when he said he had inoperable cancer. 

That particular story featured the lovely passage:

I have big plans for the time I have left. I’ve done more in 31 years than most people will do their entire lives. I’ve been to 37 countries, 44 states, most of the Canadian provinces and Mexican States. I’ve had dolphins play with my feet while the sun sets huge over beautiful Pacific lines. I’ve watched the sun rise over 14,000 foot peaks with people I wouldn’t replace with anyone in the world and I’ve done it all by refusing to give in.

There’s more left to be done though, more to change, more to live, more to love, more to fuck, and more to ride.

So I’ll fuck, I’ll ride, and I’ll change and I’ll do all these things while caring for the needs of everyone around me because I’m a big fucking puppy and you gotta take care of your pack.

But while I’m doing that I’ll be looking forward to that last day that we’ll call the end of pain.

The end of pain is a good thing and will be a great day.

Anyway, earlier today, Vikki Migoya, who is the director of communications at the DA’s office in the Colorado counties where Michael was shot, emailed me a link to the report on the shooting.

Her message was cold. Understandable, I guess, when drug freaks start waving guns.

Your writer

https://beachgrit.com/2015/06/candid-i-have-eighteen-months-to-live/

attached is how his story ended

Review of March 2, 2017, shooting death of Michael Kocher by Englewood Police SWAT officer is attached,  or view online:

http://www.da18.org/Portals/0/CrossArticle/6/General%20Communications/OIS/Kocher.pdf

 


Filipe Toledo

Filipe Toledo Suspended from Tour!

No Fiji for Filipe after attempted storming of judging tower!

Oh the fatal rigidity or WSL rules. I awoke this morning not to the smell of blooms through an open window or the fullness of a plump ass in my face but the hollow news that Filipe Toledo had been fined and suspended from the tour’s next event after an “incident” in Brazil.

You can guess why, right? You saw it? His paddling interference on Kanoa Igarashi in a round three heat? Where Filipe, who is a perfect salad of athletic genes, was the unbackable favourite?

A recap.

Four minute into the heat, a peak comes, more of a left that a right. Filipe paddles for the right; Kanoa for the left. Neither gives an inch. Filipe pulls off the wave as Kanoa forces the issue. The judges call a paddling interference on Filipe which means his second highest scoring wave is cut in half.

Son of a bitch. Filipe eventually loses and, shortly after, attempts to storm the judging tower.

Now, Filipe ain’t no marble mountain like Sunny or Zeke.  He’s lovely and passionate and gives off a fuzzy warmth. As non-threatening as a baby animal in distress.

An easy mark. Fined. Suspended.

Here’s the press release.

“I’m a passionate guy and surfing is my life,” said Toledo. “After getting an interference in the third round in Saquarema, I was very upset and my actions after the heat were unacceptable. After cooling down, I realized that I was not myself. I’m very sorry for my behavior. I want to apologize to the fans, my sponsors, the media and WSL. I take full responsibility for my actions and accept my suspension. I am disappointed to miss the next event, but looking forward to returning stronger for Jeffreys Bay. Good luck to everyone in Fiji and thank you all for the continued support.”

The suspension will conclude following the OK Fiji Pro:

“Filipe (Toledo) is a really good kid and an incredible surfer,” Renato Hickel, WSL Deputy Commissioner, said. “The WSL is very fortunate to have someone of his caliber on tour and he is constantly progressing the level of surfing in the live arena. It’s disappointing when we have to pass disciplinary action for any of our surfers, but that behavior is not acceptable for the sport. Filipe knows this and we look forward to seeing his talent back on tour very soon.”

See what drove Filipe nuts here.

 


Can you feel the anger? | Photo: WSL

WSL: Filipe Toledo Banned from Fiji!

"No tube for you!" - WSL

The aforementioned ‘upset’ of Filipe Toledo in the Oi Rio Pro has recently gained new meaning.

Angered by the interference call in his round three clash with Kanoa Igarashi, Filipe proceeded to storm the judges’ tower once the heat concluded — a major no-no if your name isn’t Zeke Lau.

As a result, the WSL has followed protocol by fining and banning Toledo from the Tour’s next event, the Outerknown Fiji Pro. WSL Deputy Commissioner Renato Hickel explained:

Filipe is a really good kid and an incredible surfer. The WSL is very fortunate to have someone of his caliber on Tour and he is constantly progressing the level of surfing in the live arena. It’s disappointing when we have to pass disciplinary action for any of our surfers, but that behavior is not acceptable for the sport. Filipe knows this and we look forward to seeing his talent back on Tour very soon.

Filipe has since apologized for his behavior, stating:

I’m a passionate guy and surfing is my life,” Toledo said. “After getting an interference in my Round Three heat in Saquarema, I became upset. I just lost my mind and I’m really embarrassed by my behavior. I want to apologize to the fans, my sponsors, the media and the WSL. I take full responsibility for my actions and accept my suspension. I am disappointed to miss the next event, but looking forward to coming back stronger for Jeffreys Bay. Good luck to everyone in Fiji and thanks to everyone for the continued support.

Who knew Brazil was providing such drama? Not me of course, but such an incident certainly makes a man think! Maybe I’ll tune in for finals day after all.

As for Filipe… poor guy is too small to properly intimidate. When Zeke did it he got a walk-through, when Filipe does it — fined and banned!

Ain’t that the way of the world though? The powerful take what they want while the little people pay damages.

Speaking of which, Derek, where does this leave our bet?


Black death: Killer whales eat sharks!

Have surfers found an ally in the fight against the evil great white?

Another day has passed and another great white sighting near Trestles. Oh the horror! Oh the absolute horror! There they lurk as big as ice-cream trucks waiting to eat thigh and glute and backbone. What has southern California done to deserve such terror? Who will save us?

Maybe the killer whales that live happy lives in Sea World just a short drive from San Clemente?

Oh yes!

Unlike humans, it appears that killer whales have no problem targeting the great white. Let’s read about their activity in South Africa!

Orcas have only been spotted attacking great white sharks a handful of times. But this past week, two mangled great white carcasses washed ashore in the town of Gansbaai on the South African coast. And the corpses definitely showed signs of being leftover orca lunch.

“This is the first confirmed account of an orca predation on a white shark from South Africa,” ‎Marine Biologist Alison Kock from ‎South African National Parks told Gizmodo in an email. “It’s mind blowing to think that a white shark of that size (almost 5m) was a target.”

“It seems likely that orcas are again the cause of death but we will confirm after the autopsy,” wrote Towner in the Marine Dynamics blog. “Obviously this is a very sad time for us all, nature can be so cruel and the dexterity these enormous animals are capable of is mind blowing, almost surgical precision as they remove the squalene rich liver of the white sharks and dump their carcass.”

And isn’t this just brilliant? Just wonderful? I know how much Sea World’s killer whales enjoy their all-inclusive resort lifestyle but do you think they would go out for a shark liver buffet real quick? Just real quick?

Also, do you think BeachGrit should design a killer whale looking wetsuit and sell it as shark deterrent? Black with big white sides? It would look very chic and certainly intimidating to the wussy shark.

Also, do you think killer whales argue online about the ethics of culling?


Scandal: Stab lying about socks?

Has a massive falsehood been foisted upon all trusting surf fans?

Today found me heartbroken. Utterly bereft of joy. Crying onto my keyboard. Sobbing even and, when I finally found breath, screaming toward Stab‘s new Venice-adjacent location II “Why SurfStitch? Oh why?”

Yesterday, you see, I wrote a piece on Stab‘s fantastic “How to wear socks” feature. Oh sure I had wished they included the most fantastic of all ways to wear socks but still I was very pleased that 18,025 fellow travelers had clicked on the story, through Facebook, and “liked” it.

What a wonderful truth!

Eighteen thousand and twenty-five surfers as thrilled by mostly proper sock etiquette as me!

This morning, though, I returned to Stab having expected the number of “likes” to have shot through the roof. To 30,000! 40,000 thousand even!

But there they sat at 18,025.

Still eighteen thousand and twenty-five souls.

Hmmmmmm.

I started poking around and seeing that the rest of the “likes” on Stab stories averaged maybe 250. Maybe. And doubt started to creep. Are there fewer surfers who appreciate correct sock etiquette than reported? Not 18,025?

But no way! And how would Stab perpetrate such a thing?

Then I read a story on ZeroHedge titled A Russian Went Inside a Chinese Click-Farm: This is What He Found. It read:

On the day when Snapchat erased billions of market cap from investors (and founders) accounts – as the MAUs-means-money model seems to break – we thought it worthwhile taking another glimpse into the hush-hush world of ‘click-farms’ and the fakeness of the latest social network fads.

In 2014, we first exposed the world to the ‘click-farm’ where nothing is what it seems, and where social networking participants spend millions of dollars to appear more important, followed, prestigious, cool, or generally “liked” than they really are. As we detailed at the time, social networking has been the “it” thing for a while: for the networks it makes perfect sense because they are merely the aggregators and distributors of terrabytes of free, third party created content affording them multi-billion dollar valuations without generating a cent in profits (just think of the upside potential in having 10 times the world’s population on any given publicly-traded network), while for users it provides the opportunity to be seen, to be evaluated or “liked” on one’s objective, impartial merits and to maybe go “viral”, potentially making money in the process. Of course, the biggest draws of social networks also quickly became their biggest weaknesses, and it didn’t take long to game the weakest link: that apparent popularity based on the size of one’s following or the number of likes, which usually translates into power and/or money, is artificial and can be purchased for a price.

As we concluded previously, the bottom line is simple: “The illusion of a massive following is often just that.”

Son of a motherfucking bitch.

Are the Chinese wearing their socks cooler than I am?

Stab? What did you know and when did you know it? I WANT THE TRUTH!