To saddle up or straighten out? Only Balaram has the
answer. | Photo: Ben Gulliver
Watch: A Chilling Surf Trailer!
By Michael Ciaramella
Hold your nose, the sea is icicles!
It’s about time for another legit surf film, don’t ya think? The
last I can recall is Julian Wilson’s
Wayward and that arrived in March. Like a fetus
conceived in August 2016, we are long overdue.
Now, I can’t say I’ve never been fooled by a catchy trailer
(damn you, Faster and Furiouser 12), but doesn’t this
particular piece of cinema, captured and presented by Benjamin
Gulliver, engorge your furry chest bumps? If not with its beauty
then with its distinct chill? Please watch!
And… wow! Even the second time around I am enthralled. Maybe
it’s because, coming from New Jersey, I hold cold water
surfing close to my heart (Chas? Can you agree from Mexico?), or
maybe it’s the artistry with which Mr. Gulliver filmed and edited
this masterpiece.
Either way, it made me care — and not just in a wooooo
look a big air! kind of way. This is rare in surf
cinematography.
The film is called ‘The Seawolf’ and it will feature surfers
Pete DeVries, Balaram Stack, Chippa Wilson, Noah Waggy and more.
The entire movie, it appears, will take place in cold water and be
wolf-themed. I’m not sure how that’s gonna work but we’ll see come
July!
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Day 3, Fiji Pro: “I can’t wait to go
home!”
By Longtom
Kelly, John John, Mick, Adriano, Jordy, Kolohe, all
washed out of the Fiji Pro.
Welcome back to the Grit coverage of the Indo-Pacific
leg. It’s June so it must still be Fiji, right?
I know, it feels a lifetime ago we last watched a heat at
Cloudy. As we say in Australia, Lest we
forget.
If you have children, and are of a certain socio-economic
standing and reside in the coastal suburbs of Sydney or Byron or
Costa Mesa or Fair Oaks or Long Beach or Berkeley, believe the
White shark is gods favoured creature, you may send your kids to a
Steiner/Waldorf school.
I did, until White sharks started leaving my friends grey on the
beach with no legs and the fees damn near bankrupted me.
But fruitcake or genius, Rudolph Steiner had some functional
ideas, one of which was that to develop objective thinking you
should focus on something, and nothing else, for five minutes a
day.
So I spent the lay days spending five minutes a day thinking
about pro surfing, so you wouldn’t have to. You’re welcome.
Last article a knowledgeable commenter, Wayne Murphy, compared
pro surfing to cricket test matches that stretch over five days and
are a mostly a snooze-fest where the highlight can often be a
seagull shitting on someone’s head.
It’s a perfect analogy. A vestige of a bygone era when
people had nothing better to do, but even cricket with its
centuries old hidebound traditions managed to evolve the game into
more modern and exciting formats. One day formats, 20/20 games that
are over in six hours etc etc.
American sports mostly evolved in isolation but being more
modern are usually over in a day. But they take the luck factor out
by having a series. Like the NBA finals going on as we speak.
You get to see the best guys in the best teams continually
having to produce the best performances under pressure.
You see where I’m going with this right?
We get to see the best guys once or twice and if it’s a scrappy
heat where luck rules, like at Cloudbreak today, they’re gone.
Speaker wanted to emulate American sports but didn’t look at the
most crucial aspect: format.
This should have been run and done in two days. We could, we
should, be somewhere in Indo watching Slater/Florence take
advantage of a bombing Indian Ocean, not seeing QS surfers in QS
conditions disembowelling high seeds stuck in a loop of frustrated
expectations like the rest of us.
The problem: you need four days of high-quality surf in the
waiting period, and it just ain’t there most of the time. Square
peg, meet the round hole of pro surfing anti-climax.
Enough fantasy, let’s riff on reality. Bourez has an equipment
advantage with Firewires in small lefts. He brutalised Fanning in
the worst surf of the day.
John Florence took on Leo Fioravanti. Perfect opportunity in a
low-energy, confused lineup for the Italian rookie to knock out the
champ. Leo went full Brazilian with the opening hassle, paddling
right up the reef.
For fifteen long minutes, no wave was ridden and Barton was
forced into very hard yards as the “insight” guy to elevate this
into something resembling sport. John paddled away back down the
reef. A flying fish skittered out of the reef edge like shard of
broken glass and John flinched as it came towards him. Nerves.
John took a lead with surfing elevated beyond meat and potatoes
by flared final manouevres on the coral. He looked the goods. I
found the Italian Stallion irritating. Too much of an overpowering
odour of a manufactured surf star for my liking, but then he nabbed
a set and spiked it repeatedly. It was a superior ride and he
repeated the dose to, in the end, dispatch Florence comfortably. I
had to upgrade my opinion of Fioravanti big time. He’s legit.
Cloudbreak remains problematic for Florence, somehow.
Are you a surf gambler? I’m not but I want to be.
I wanted to bet against Slater, which in effect is betting
against the the house. I would have bet my house against Slater, if
I owned one. Connor started with a series of errors but didn’t look
rattled. Rosie and Ronnie riffed on J-Bay. Rosie in the most
wistful voice imaginable, so soft as to be almost inaudible said, “
I can’t wait to go home, Ronnie.” It was the most honest thing to
come out of the booth all year.
Carnivorous judges wanted the red meat of fully marbled turns
and Slater gave them a mixed bag of lollies. It was sweet and
quirky surfing but it failed to broach a seven, a number that has
become a barrier for the goat.
With four minutes remaining Kelly needed a four. Rosie had
sweaty palms, I had sweaty palms.
A wide set loomed and went unridden. The cruel clocked ticked
down. This is how the champ goes out, with a whimper, needing a
four. Famed Brazilian surf writer Julio Adler described Kelly loss
as “melancholic.” Even more melancholy was the presser on the
mothership where a disoriented Kelly couldn’t comprehend the loss,
thought there was nothing else he could do. It was like watching an
old man wandering the streets who has forgotten the way home.
Everyone expected De Souza to capitalise. The push was on in the
commentary booth. I desperately wanted a Stu Kennedy victory. That
to me, in backlit lefts that looked tantalising, would be a
beautiful achievement to cap a mostly forgettable day.
Stu threw red meat to the judges straight away and they ate it
up. I’d seen Stu surfing at one of Ballinas sharkiest spots and I
knew his backhand was sharper than the perceived wisdom.
With a minute remaining De Souza sold him on a small runner and
then snagged a set. It fell short and I, like Stu, said “Thank
God.”
See, belief in a higher power can pay dividends.
This thing has to finish strong, surely.
I say Matt Wilkinson v Stu Kennedy Final. What say you?
Round 3 Results:
Heat 5: Michel Bourez (PYF) 13.53 def. Mick Fanning (AUS) 11.20
Heat 6: Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA) 16.83 def. John John Florence
(HAW) 13.33
Heat 7: Joan Duru (FRA) 17.60 def. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 11.73
Heat 8: Connor O’Leary (AUS) 10.74 def. Kelly Slater (USA)
10.34
Heat 9: Joel Parkinson (AUS) 15.30 def. Jeremy Flores (FRA)
13.84
Heat 10: Bede Durbidge (AUS) 16.10 def. Kolohe Andino (USA)
11.90
Heat 11: Sebastian Zietz (HAW) 12.93 def. Wiggolly Dantas (BRA)
12.80
Heat 12: Stuart Kennedy (AUS) 14.83 def. Adriano de Souza (BRA)
14.33
Round 4 Match-Ups:
Heat 1: Ian Gouveia (BRA), Julian Wilson (AUS), Matt Wilkinson
(AUS)
Heat 2: Italo Ferreira (BRA), Michel Bourez (PYF), Leonardo
Fioravanti (ITA)
Heat 3: Joan Duru (FRA), Connor O’Leary (AUS), Joel Parkinson
(AUS)
Heat 4: Bede Durbidge (AUS), Sebastian Zietz (HAW), Stuart Kennedy
(AUS)
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Take a slice. I don't hear anyone barking. | Photo:
Morgan Maassen
Dilemma: to go or no go!
By Chas Smith
Surfer on the inside either yells Go! or No! What
do you do?
Excuse my silence and not to rub it in but I am on a
surf trip to deep southern Mexico with a busted computer.
Yesterday I surfed one of the best right points of my life and
ooooo-ee!
Pure ecstasy.
I can’t say, with any real certainty, how big it was.
Head-and-a-half on the sets? I can say that when paddling,
catching, looking down the line I felt like I was in some grand
surf movie and did my best mid-face cutbacks that would have
garnered at least a 2.7 on the World Championship Tour.
At the very least.
There were maybe 15 other expat surfers in the water, most
American, and since the waves were so good, and so plentiful, the
mood was light. Much banter. Many laughs.
On one wave in particular a talented blonde carrying a few extra
beers in his midsection came flying down the line. He had caught
the wave at the tip of the point and it was lining up almost
perfectly with a mid section rising up to form its own peak. My
good friend was giving this slight variation a good natured paddle,
just in case, when the blonde shouted what sounded like “oh!”
The eternal dilemma!
Did he shout “go!” or “no!”
My good friend pulled back and the blonde came popping over the
back of the wave too holding his hands in the air like “why didn’t
you go?”
My good friend answered, “I didn’t know if you were yelling “go”
or “no.”
The blonde said, “Go! Totally snake me out here. Who gives a
fuck?”
Such a fine attitude but also it is time to put the “no” “go”
dilemma to bed forever. Let’s never yell “no” again. Let’s yell
“fuck” or “shit” or something one syllable but guttural for “no”
and keep “go” as the invitation to share.
Don’t you think this is a good plan?
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While the boys squabble in the sand, Brett Barley makes
a case for pacifism. Bocas del Toro, Panama | Photo: Nicola
Lugo
Turf War: Red Frog vs. Surfrider Exec!
By Michael Ciaramella
Who knew a little pier could lead to all of
this?
Just short of a Bloodfeud is something I like
to call a Turf War.
What it lacks in blatant ferocity, the Turf War makes up for
with its politics and tactical maneuvering. This is not an
ear-biting, crotch-kicking, eye-gouging brawl but rather a display
of will and aptitude. If a Bloodfeud is won with an iron
fist, a Turf War is won with shrewdness of mind.
And right now, right in the this very instant, we are in the
midst of an epic Turf War between Red Frog Bungalows and a pair of
Argentine investors. The two sides are in a fight for control over
a popular surf break in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Let’s look at the
details:
Four days ago, we posted
about a pier being built at Playa Paunch. I came to learn about it
by way of Kelly Slater, a regular BDS visitor, who reposted
one of Red Frog Bungalows’ (the main (only?) surf camp in
the archipelago) Instagram pleas. It reads:
Happy World Ocean Day! Unfortunately this is how the
residents of Bocas Del Toro spent their day! Protecting one of the
best surf spots in the Caribbean. They started to illegally build a
40 meter pier over the reef. The community knows exactly who is up
to the stunt and it is a shame that these people think their big
money can destroy something that is for all of the world to enjoy.
The surfing community in Bocas Del Toro showed up in force to stop
this illegal activity. This I s horrible for our coastline,
horrible for tourism and extremey dangerous when the waves are on!
This benefits one or a few people and not the country of
Panama.
Jake Tellkamp, a past BeachGrit contributor who
wasn’t killed by police fire, jumped on the news for
Stab Magazine. His initial
story was about Kelly’s take on the
situation, but the real meat came in part two,
when Jake broke the news that it was Ernesto Gutierrez, a former
leader of the Surfrider Foundation’s Argentinian branch, and his
nephew Juan Medo, who had tried to illegally build the pier.
I spoke with a local friend, who conveniently has PhD in
Surf/Eco Tourism and teaches college classes half a mile from
Paunch, about the Argentinian pier venture. He said:
For the Argentines (it’s the same people building the big
hotel and restaurants behind the wave), I think the pier
is for boats to pull up so people can go on land without
swimming to it, can theoretically walk out to the surf without
urchin dancing, also can have boats there to transfer guests
around. I don’t think they wanna kill the break but I think their
plan is shit and people underestimate all the factors that make
waves great.
Now, back to the Stab piece. Jake went on to speak
with Red Frog owner, Scott Balogh, who had this to say:
Surfing is the number one draw to Bocas del Toro, and its
waves are of tremendous economic value bringing in tens of millions
of dollars every year. This development would benefit very few, and
none of those being locals.
A seemingly altruistic statement, but what ulterior motives
could lurk beneath Scott’s impassioned plea?
Below the post was an interesting comment (originally posted in
Español but Google Translated to English for the sake of our
audience), highlighting some of Gutierrez’s finer moments before
tossing a jab at Scott from Red Frog:
Dear Stab Magazine:
We know the trajectory of Ernesto Gutierrez, pioneer of Argentine
surfing, former President of Surfrider Argentina, of his love and
respect for the coastal environment, who made many efforts and
campaigns, which were reflected in the preservation of La Paloma,
one of the scenarios Emblematic of the surf in our country,
avoiding the construction of two stones of 90 meters that were
going to destroy two pocket beaches associated with the cliffs and
the world class waves that break in that location. The same at the
mouth of the Arroyo Las Brusquias of the site of the final disposal
site of the Municipality of Gral. Pueyrredón and the construction
of a breakwater in T both in Mar Chiquita and SunRider Beach in Mar
del Plata
Also his commitment and achievements in the Rise Above Plastic
Campaign where we obtained ordinances in localities of our country
for the prohibition of the plastic bags of a single use.
We think that it is difficult to take action against the
environment in the place where you live in Bocas del Toro Panama
and if we think that there are interests on the part of Mr. Scott
Balogh to promote his business venture at the expense of the good
name of our former President.
Best regards
Gustavo Huici
Executive Director Surfrider Argentina
And do you see what is happening here? Red Frog has held a
monopoly over the surf scene in Bocas for quite some time, and they
have no interest in new competition. By discovering a weak point in
the competition’s scheme (an illegal pier), they were able to
kindle the flame of environmental responsibility and local economic
strife to start a social media shitstorm. It’s bloody
brilliant!
[The Argentines] claimed to have paperwork approving their
pier and lied to everyone about the size and scale of it. The
protestors blocked construction and the correador (the local gov
office that handles property titles and building permits from the
municipality) came and reviewed the permits and said they did not
have proper concession to build over the reef. They are going to
keep pushing for it though. It ain’t over…
And what a wonderful time to be alive. Scott from Red Frog has
played his hand beautifully, but I wait with great anticipation for
Gutierrez from Surfrider’s next move.
Before I go, just a couple questions for the audience:
If the allegations are true, would you be surprised that an
ex-Surfrdier executive would pull such a move at a known surf
break?
Whose side are you on? My heart says Red Frog is in the right,
but those motherfuckers charge like $250 a night. Maybe a little
competition will do the region some good…
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“That was a fucking Great White, man!”
By Derek Rielly
Bodyboarder tossed like salad in Western
Australia!
Does a non-fatal hit by a Great White count
anymore?
When a middle-aged bodyboarder was tossed like salad by a
twelve-foot White yesterday and swam to the beach without
his little board, oh I hardly swatted a eyelid.
What would’ve been front-page news a dozen years ago is missed
by even by the vast aggregators of surf news.
But this footage of the bodyboarder touching land immediately
afterwards makes the skin crawl. Huddled between the feet of a
half-a-dozen other surfers, lungs inflated by the rapture of
safety, the bodyboarder Paul Goff says,
“Oh my god. That was the biggest thing I’ve ever fucking
seen.”
Another surfer says, “That was a fucking Great White, man.”
The 48-year-old was relatively matter-of-fact yesterday as
he recounted the terrifying incident just hours after he safely
reached shore.
But he admitted that during the unknown minutes it took to
swim the 80-odd metres to the beach he had no idea whether he would
make it alive and counts himself lucky.
“I didn’t know how far the shark was behind me, whether it
was coming up behind me or had stayed out,” Mr Goff said.
“To be honest I wasn’t entirely sure what was going to
happen.”
He did not look back at all, just concentrated on swimming
as fast as he could. As he reached within 30m of the shore, two of
the other bodyboarders who had been in the water with him walked
back into the shallows and their yells to “swim, swim, swim” had
him fearing the worst.
Wearing fins, he could not stand and they dragged him the
final metres out of the water. He said when he finally composed
himself a few minutes later to look out to sea, he realised the
predator had not chased him but was toying with his board.
The black and white bodyboard was now more than 100m out and
Mr Goff sat watching for several minutes as the shark circled and
nudged it.
Mr Goff is unsure just how big the predator was. But
witnesses believe it was a 3.5m to 4m great white and Fisheries
officers have now taken the board, which was later recovered by
volunteer marine rescuers, to see if the bite marks in it will
reveal exactly what attacked him.
When Mr Goff and two others had arrived at Casuarina Point –
the spot known locally as BP – just before 8am, there was just one
surfer in the water.
One of his mates commented that the lone surfer would be
dismayed at having company. But Mr Goff replied that he should be
pleased, saying if there was a shark attack the man’s chances of
being the victim had reduced from 100 to 25 per cent.
That joke would come back to haunt him less than an hour
later. A man in a look-out tower reportedly saw swirling and
thrashing in the water just before the shark struck.
But Mr Goff said neither he nor the other six surfers in the
water with him saw anything in the clear 2m-deep water in the
moments beforehand.
“I had no warning at all that it was there,” he said. “The
camouflage colour of the shark – that’s what it’s there for, it
protects them. I didn’t see it coming.”
Mr Goff admits to being surprised – and very lucky – that
the predator chose to attack the board rather than the noisy,
moving target he was.
He said he did not think the incident would keep him out of
the water and did not think the shark should be killed since it had
not hurt him.
“I probably got the best result I could have,” he said.
“People say I should have bought a lotto ticket, maybe, maybe
not.”
