A poster surf report every day for 365 consecutive days! Creative! Industrious!

Artist makes surf report poster every day for one year!

By Giancarlo Guardascione

7 years ago

Passionate! Industrious!

We tear through our surf reports like prom dresses, loved with such acute devotion it could split the atom.

Then, when their point is served, they are never thought of again.

Some artists hold the things we take for granted and make us remember how lucky we are to have them. Enter Laura Toffolo, a graphic artist who made a poster for the surf report every day for a year in New Jersey.

The spots vary. When she traveled to LA she continued with the reports.

Born and raised in Jersey, Laura now lives in Brooklyn although she ditches the Beastie borough and heads to the Jerz when she wants to dip her seven-o in Asbury Park’s wedges.

How did she come up with the idea of making a piece of art for every surf?

“During the time of this project, I was still living at home and commuting in and out of the city from Scotch Plains by train on the dreadful NJ Tranist. The train would always be delayed or moving at a glacier pace, so I needed something to do to pass the time. I wanted to challenge myself to a poster a day for 100 days. I decided to use the daily surf report as my base so that I could get new and different information everyday. I restricted myself with only using typography, color and illustration. Except on the days where I traveled. During the time of this project, I drove the Pacific Coast Highway from SF to LA and captured some amazing photos. I decided to incorporate black-and-white photography and limit my color palette to black, white and red for these travel days. Creating these posters really allowed me to experiment with unique layouts, typography and color treatments.

“Once I got to day 100, I realized that I created a nice body of work and I wanted to see if I could push myself to do it for a whole year, creating 365 11”x17” posters.”

Was it stressful? Tedious?

“The worst part was forcing myself to open my laptop on those days when I had off of work, attended events or when I was on vacation. Some days I didn’t even want to look at the screen. This also forced me to carry my computer with me at all times to make sure that I completed a poster everyday. Sometimes I would open up my computer and the creativity would just flow out of my fingers and I could create a poster within 20 minutes. Other days I’d tinker with it for hours. There are posters that I love in this series and posters that are definitely not my favorite. But the whole practice was to create a poster everyday, no matter if the outcome was perfect in my eyes or not.”

Inspirations for the project include the book Let My People Go Surfing (Yvon Chouinard), Interaction of Colors (Joseph Albers), Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life (William Finnegan), and Still Moving (Danny Clinch) as well a playlist filled with Kendrick Lamar, Tribe Called Quest or Chance the Rapper.

“Sometimes all it takes to get my creative juices going is some Otis Redding, Sam Cooke or Leon Bridges. It really all depends on the mood that I am in that day.”

If your castle needs a little colour, click here to see, maybe buy, one of Laura’s surf report posters.

(Note: all surf reports provided by Surfline.)

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How to: Qualify for the 2020 Olympics!

By Chas Smith

7 years ago

The steps necessary to get you in the Games!

So you’ve got Olympic dreams. Don’t worry, it’s ok to admit. You’re amongst friends here. A judgement-free zone where you can confess all your closely held secrets. Like your Olympic dreams. Maybe carrying your nation’s flag, marching into an arena packed with throngs of jingoistic sport fans. The pop of flashbulbs. The scent of gunpowder lingering from a fantastic fireworks display.

Your parents used to deride your surfing. Mother called it a “nasty habit.” Father made not so subtle gay jokes any time you passed in front of him on your way to the beach. Well, they’re at home now watching these opening ceremonies live on television. Sitting there proud as punch of their Olympian.

The day the qualification process for Tokyo 2020 was released was the best of your life. You’ll forever remember passing you local surf shop and seeing it taped to its window, right below Billabong x Joel Parkinson’s new six-year contract. It spoke to you:

The key elements of the qualification system are as follows: 20 men, 20 women.Maximum of 2 surfers per gender per National Olympic Committee (NOC).Qualification spots will be earned on an individual basis, by name.

In accordance with IOC guidelines, the qualification events have been determined in hierarchical order of qualification, as further explained below.

If two surfers of a gender have qualified through the first hierarchical order, that NOC will not be able to qualify more surfers of that gender through qualifying events lower in hierarchical order.

All surfers selected by their respective National Federations for their national teams must participate in 2019 and 2020 ISA World Surfing Games in order to be eligible for Olympic qualification.

The final details of the eligibility requirements are still under review by the ISA and the IOC.

The hierarchical order of qualification will be as follows:

2019 World Surf League Championship Tour: First 10 eligible men and first 8 eligible women.

2020 ISA World Surfing Games: First 4 eligible men and first 6 eligible women.

2019 ISA World Surfing Games: 4 men and 4 women selected based on their continent. Top finishing eligible surfer of each gender from Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania.

2019 Pan American Games: First eligible man and first eligible woman in the surfing competitions.

Host nation slot: One man and one woman slot will be guaranteed for the host nation of Japan, unless already filled through the above hierarchies. Should athletes from Japan qualify regularly, their slots will be reallocated to the highest ranked eligible surfers from the 2020 World Surfing Games.

And you ran home, screaming “I’m going to surf in the Olympics!” the entire way. Now look at you. Look at you marching in your nation’s sequined polyester pantsuit and glittering cowboy hat. Nasty habit? Gay? No need to apologize mother and father. No need at all.

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"What the actual efff?" Kelia Moniz reacts to Laura Enever's twelve-foot Shipsterns bomb. | Photo: @stugibson

Fresh: Laura Enever Tows twelve-foot Shipsterns!

By Derek Rielly

7 years ago

Taj Burrow says, "You did not!!! You little weapon, yes!!"

Yesterday, Narrabeen’s Laura Enever towed ten-to-twelve-foot Shipsterns in Tasmania as part of an upcoming documentary that follows her transition from tour surfer to freesurfer.

Ms Enever, who is twenty six years old, wasn’t exactly planning on grabbing the rope on what was, by all accounts, a serious day, but what are you doing to do when you’ve got a filmer, a photographer, a fuelled-up ski and driver and the skills to negotiate the infamous ledges there?

Steve Wall, the Manly-based photographer famous for his sublime images of Craig Anderson on the NSW South Coast and who is making the documentary, says it will focus on Laura “pushing into the bigger and crazier stuff.”

Wall, who was at Hobart airport when BeachGrit called, describes the film, which is called Undone, as something out of the box, and one that will capture an athlete at a pivotal point in her life – as she moves from competition to squeezing a living out of making surprising, spur-of-the-moment decisions in bigger than usual waves.

“We’ve been chipping away for a couple of months,” says Wall. “That was the first day we shot. Obviously, we came down here not expecting fifteen-foot sets. But Laura ended up getting on the rope and was thrown into the deep end really fast. As you can imagine, it was quite a sight.”

The reaction to a still from the session, that was shot by Stu Gibson, and posted on Laura’s Instagram was instant, surfing’s best lining up to pump her hand.

From the noted Shipsterns surfer Marty Paradisis who towed Laura into this wave: “She wanted it bad… was epic!”

Carissa Moore: “You are crazy! Incredible babe!”

Brad Gerlach: “Wow!”

Kelia Moniz: “What the actual effff?”

Sabre Norris: No way! This is crazy, you are crazy!! ❤❤❤

And Taj Burrow, “You did not!!! You little weapon, yes!!!”

Just in: $115k for two-day Surf Ranch getaway!

By Chas Smith

7 years ago

A corporate closeness that you won't believe!

Do you work for a company that has corporate retreats? Like, team building activities? Where you maybe travel to a ropes’ course somewhere or go on a cruise? Does your company even offer Surf Ranch as an option? Well maybe get another job because the Jewel of Lemoore is on the market for a neat two day, ten person $115,000 (minus lodging and airfare) getaway.

A very private invitation forwarded anonymously promised a capped crowd of ten, breaking into two groups of 5, and costing $11,500 per surfer including video, coaching, food and transportation from the casino to the Ranch.

50% deposit up front, of course.

And ooooee! Does that sound… rich? Well it’s a once in a lifetime experience so maybe don’t be judgmental.

But using this corporate rate we can really break down what Surf Ranch is valued at per wave. When it was Surf Journalist Day at the Ranch, four men were in the water per hour with six waves being the average. Add another man and I would say four waves so that means eight waves a day x 2 which equals sixteen waves divided by 11,500 and…

…we come to $718.75 per wave.

And ooooee! Does that sound… decadent? Well it’s a once in a lifetime experience so maybe don’t be sanctimonious.

But what else can you buy for $718.75?

A classic horsebit leather loafer from Gucci.

A sac de jour long wallet from Yves St. Laurent.

A soft square optical frame with magnetic clip from Tom Ford.

Etc.

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Ms Lakey Peterson, twenty three, world number one, who left her competitors gasping like beached fish at the Roxy Pro. | Photo: Steve Sherman/@tsherms

Full-length: When Lakey Peterson learned to Fly!

By Derek Rielly

7 years ago

A 15-minute documentary where Filipe Toledo teaches the new world number one Lakey Peterson the glory of flight…

Last February, BeachGrit flew Lakey Peterson and Filipe Toledo to Mexico with the goal of he teaching she the glory of flight. The four-part video series, which was called Girl Goes Into Orbit, was created out of the belief that the only thing holding women back from nailing big airs was the perception they couldn’t do it.

Ten-year-old boys can soar. Why can’t girls?

And Lakey Peterson, who is twenty three, had been known to…jump.

She’d won the American national title years before with an awkward air, but an air nonetheless, and we figured, give us four days, Filipe Toledo (whom the world champion John John Florence studies) as coach and empty beachbreak wedges and Lakey will be rotating.

After Lakey’s win at the Roxy Pro two days ago, and the relative ease with which she achieved it, as well as Filipe’s fervency we figured it’d an appropriate time to release the four-part series but as a single feature.

Watch!

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Eat beach grit spam!