Donors to Save-the-Encyclopedia-of-surfing drive revealed here!
Almost two weeks ago now, the surf historian Matt Warshaw threatened to pull his entire archive offline (The Encyclopedia of Surfing , History of Surfing, Above the Roar) unless thirty thousand dollars was donated immediately.
As it transpired, Warshaw’s wife Jodi, who is gainfully employed at Amazon, had given him a deadline to either make thirty k this year, a five-year extension on an earlier ultimatum, or face the capitalist reality – that he’d failed.
“It’s just kind of humiliating, to be 57 and making what I make,” Warshaw told BeachGrit. “It feels like a judgement. EOS, I think, does a such a good job at showing the world of surf in full. Look at us, maybe the most fucked-up wonderful interesting thing on the planet, it’s all here on the three sites I’ve made, in photos, video, and words — and for building that I get less than I did as a SURFER intern in 1985. It’s humbling. When I step away from the computer a few hours and think about it, I can get depressed.”
Now, if you go to The Encylopedia of Surfing, you can see who’s donated.
Or pointedly, who hasn’t.
Come for a stroll down the donor list here.
Know what’s missing? (Apart from BeachGrit. We gave at the office.)
Surf industry money.
A few publishers, writers, editors, photographers and so on chipped in to keep Warshaw in the sort of dingy woollen outfits he wears to ward off the Seattle cold, but…
…where are the millionaires in this game?
Warshaw sent emails to everybody, the EOS drive was announced to the near and far ends of the surf world. And not one big player, not one big brand threw Warshaw so much as a bone.
Is their silence an explosive fuck off to Warshaw and his sites?
Or just further evidence, as if it was necessary, that surf co’s see their role merely to schlep crummy Bangladeshi-made t-shirts to the fashion illiterate?
Update: Warshaw is closing in on the thirty gees! Two days to go!
they cool
The surf industry is a collection of hypocritical cunts (not the good kind), of course they don’t want that shit documented and categorized for $3 !
This isn’t about the surf industry, I see absolutely no connection at all. Our society has developed a GoFundMe attitude: “I want and I’m deserving therefore you should help pay for it”. Sorry but no. The EOS is already a book, and the surfing world does not need an online EOS. We don’t owe Matt Warshaw a salary to do this for us. How about get a job? That’s what we all have to do. I have no need to use the EOS, I was raised on an almost lifetime supply of the real encyclopedias, Surfer and Surfing magazines. They may be gone but they’re not forgotten. Matt Warshaw’s interpretation of surfing is not the same as mine.
I saved all mine. Got a few boxes of most of the Surfer mags from 1969-1992 and all in great shape. And yes, the people need more than one perspective on the past.
I got the EOS for xmas the year it came out. I’ve never opened it once. Back in the day I would annihilate every mag scrutinizing every word front to back over and over and over…
Dearest Matt Warshaw,
Your Encyclopedia of Surfing is utterly comprehensive and a singular resource. Have you considered that perhaps the correct market for it is not browse-happy individuals but rather institutions? Let me tell you, it is utterly appalling the number of obscure and fundamentally useless journals that university libraries subscribe to, and jaw dropping what they pay to do so. Is there a Journal of Alternative Incest Narratives in 19th Century Welsh Tapestry? If so then most university systems in the known universe are puking out cash for it like slot machines I just walked away from.
Generally speaking, these library systems are solicited through their liasons to various faculties to subscribe to journals and databases necessary to said faculties’ academic and classroom work. Since “Surf Studies” is now apparently a thing to do with your PhD, it might be to your benefit to contact some of the leaders of that field and see if they will put in a request with the librarian assigned to their department. Charge them annually at a rate MUCH higher than what you would an individual. See if the helpful surf studies Prof can direct some traffic – U libraries decide what stays and what goes partially based on traffic. And then move on to someone in another system, and again, and so on, noting which systems are blessing their faculty with the world’s ONLY comprehensive database of surfing CULTURE and HISTORY. I’d start with the U Hawaii system then branch out from there..
I agree with PacificNorthPest. The contributors to the surf studies reader that came out earlier this year are mostly at universities and might be able to offer suggestions in this regard: http://criticalsurfstudiesr….
It seems to hang when it calls the ad server for me. Hey! Ad People feed your damn hamsters and speed that thing up! Ahem. I doubt that will work.
ha love those Kardashians , but surfers normally have more talent , unless of course you like the fat arse wombat look ….haha….
thought I would cheer your day up with a link to an ex surfer/shaper/designer and his contribution to , ah , the world….but he is not fashionable as , say GW…..
http://asbmag.com/nevhouse-…
good points , but when you see Quik/BBG failed public Co.s ,Volcom/Hurley bought by non surfing mega brand Co.s , then Rip Curl up for sale , is this our surf industry , where a handful of families made fortunes , got out and have left used and abused empty marketing vehicles , next please!
on a more relevant note , the industry is fighting for survival , the bubble has burst and we have a few more years of the downward spiral , so don’t expect more but a lot less !
Matt has done a great thing with EOS , and it sounds like he is nearly approaching shapers wages of today , when you know that shapers were being paid $100 a shape , 40 years ago , and they get less today….maybe Matt is now qualified to be a surfer/shaper?
Is is three dollars a month or three dollars for lifetime access to the content?
The “industry” abandoned media long ago. Why would you want to hear an honest opinion when you can manufacture your own that fits the narrative? Kinda like Prez Pants on Fire just creating a parallel set of facts and running with it.
It’s really come down to what what one guy said in an earlier post: “why pay for content when it’s free everywhere else”? The consumer expectation for quality work left the building long ago in exchange for today’s free and fast.
Anybody have Idea of what board (white twin almost mid length outline…?)Chippa Wilson riding in Vonu clip that just came out?
It’s multiple deleted comments across multiple threads. The deleted comments are all listed on the MOD panel and you are responsible for about a 1/3rd of them over the last couple of weeks.
Not having a go at you… just that it kills the flow of the conversation and once deleted, the comments left standing make no sense.
get rid of the delete option if you don’t want people to be able to remove themselves from a conversation. Nothing here makes any sense anyway
Does he have PayPal set up to take donations ? People would feel way safer paying through that to be honest.
for PayPal and cheque payments email Matt…
[email protected]
Sounds like this guys wife is at fault. Just let him cruise, he can’t be that expensive!!!
Close friend of mine spent 25+ years building surfboards his x wife of 25+ hated hearing him telling people he built surfboards at social gatherings.
Matt shouldn’t walk away thinking such a decision reveals failure. Maybe the universe is trying to let Matt know there is yet one more door he need open. It is success. Failure dwells in the rear view mirror. The next move sits before him. He just has to see it for himself. He’s crowd funded the crumby surfer route. Bought himself a year cause he’s a nice guy. This saga. It deserves its own EOS post.
Its not a failure.
It already is a success as resource for surf history.
Nah, the universe only tells things to hot chicks. The rest of us are left guessing.
You have to be delusional to think that people are going to pay to read an encyclopedia of surfing. Do it for the love of surfing and make it free as your contribution to surf history and move on. People will respect you more and you will be remembered in better light when someone writes your part. There is already enough people failing at exploiting surfing. Stop wasting your time with this and start useing it to actually go surfing.
Keeping an accurate, descriptive history or our beloved sport is not exploitive! Expecting everything for free is ya crumb.
exploit does not mean what you think it does. it was not an insult
Agree
Ck, if you want it free, if anybody who cant afford 3 bucks a month wants it for free, that’s fine. Send an email, I’ll send an access code. Done.
I respect your altruism and the work you have done. And I would buy it as a gift for people if it was in book form. I like books. Is it not profitable that way?
Thanks Matt. I actually hate Brad Gerlach the most in the surf industry because he’s trying to flog his second hand boards on Facebook for $400 plus. Can you add that he is a fuckhead to your encyclopaedia?
Brad is a legend! I like him the most because he is an affable and intelligent gentleman who I had the pleasure of meeting in the Bells carpark on a recent roady through Vicco. He can flog what he wants!
Don’t come back to Vicco scum.
Gerrs a Torquay local now , and only $400 , i’m in!
Brad Gerlach stole my lunch on my first day of 9th grade. My best friend – two years younger than Brad but a big kid – made him give it back. Then a huge senior named Tim something –star-licker to Brad’s balls — got in my friend’s face and sent us packing out of the surfers’ area for two weeks.
On the plus side, I got to eat my lunch. And we spent a couple of weeks in the smoking area with the punk rock kids, whom we already knew but bonded up tighter and had a lot of fun.
Gerlach ripped back then; definitely not a man of the people type though. I’m sure whatever he did to piss off Wig’s he did.
There we go, Gerr even precipitates tighter social bonding. The Man is clearly a Saint
Didn’t I just tell you two days ago that if you were more mindful before you hit post you wouldn’t have to delete so many of your own posts?!?
Type, pause & reflect… then post.
That’s all I’ve ever wanted from the Comment brigade here!
http://asbmag.com/nevhouse-…
try reading this….
is that an example of success? Or was i supposed to read something in particular? I think people are more likely to pay a monthly fee for new information than old information. In my mind an encyclopedia is something you keep as reference not something you rent when you want to find out about something. A larger one time fee seems more likely to make money because surfers are cheap and unlikely to keep paying a monthly fee.