Thirteen-year-old surf-skate virtuoso Sabre
Norris Wins X Games silver!
By Derek Rielly
Multi-discipline teen shredder takes on and beats
(most of) world!
A year-and-a-half ago now, I spent a day with surf-skate
prodigy Sabre Norris. It was two days before Christmas and
Sabre gifted me the true nature of family.
While my own house of cards was collapsing in a welter of
sorrow, the foundations made rotten by poor husbandry, hers was
exalting in each others’ complexities.
Sabre, whose surfing is expressive and features a grab bag of
tricks, is also a fantastic skateboarder. When she was nine, and
before she’d mastered riding a bike without training wheels, Sabre
launched a thousand worldwide headlines by riding out of a 540 on
the monster ramp in her backyard.
Yesterday, Sabre won a silver medal in the Women’s Skateboard
Street at X Games Minneapolis, home to a fabulous diaspora of
Somalis as it happens (diverse!). I know, I know, it’s skate,
and we don’t touch skate usually, but this is so beautiful and her
happiness is contagious.
Watch Sabre at the X Games,
here, and perhaps watch her in Flying
Doughnuts, BeachGrit’s profile movie of her and her family
below. Scroll a little further and watch Sabre as tiny tot TV
superstar on the insanely popular talkshow Ellen.
Do you recall the hit surf documentary
Bustin’ Down the Door from over a decade ago? Ooooee how
time flies! In case your memory escapes, the film told the story of
how Rabbit Bartholomew, Ian Cairns, Mark Richards, Shaun Tomson,
Michael Tomson etc. went to the North Shore in the early to mid
1970s. How they pieced together a professional surf tour but also
took maybe some liberties both in the water and on land angering
locals and spurring the creation of Da Hui.
Much hiding in the bushes and fearing for lives ensued which
more or less marks life on the North Shore for the traveling surfer
to this day (read
here!)
I very much enjoyed the film but Eddie Rothman, co-founder of Da
Hui (happy birthday!) did not, once telling me, “Bustin down the
door…. there was no fucken door to bust down…” which is certainly a
valid point. White, blonde men of northern European decent
attempting to conquer a small Pacific island and coming out as
heroes in the end is not the most self-aware narrative direction,
though I am working on a concept right now titled Breakin’
Through the Glass Ceiling about surf journalists (me, Derek
Rielly, Matt Warshaw, Nick Carroll and Scott Hulet) striving for
respect amongst our war journalist and political journalist
peers.
Anyhow, Bustin’ Down the Door was wonderfully fine and
now, over a decade later, we have a scripted sequel. The teaser was
dropped yesterday, inexplicably at San Diego’s Comic-Con and
features a very strong proto-typical Hawaiian man handing out
cracks, slaps and knocks on da head to all manner of interloping
villain. From what I can gather, Rabbit Bartholomew has somehow
taken over, blonde slicked hair etc. and is holding the locals
captive with some dubious claim of ownership. Maybe he secured all
the permits for Pipeline contests or something. It is unclear in
the teaser but anyhow the very strong proto-typical Hawaiian man an
he square off for control of the surfing world.
I would have called the film Busin’ Down the Door II: Da Hui’s
Revenge but the director and producers decided to call it Aquaman.
In any case, I am excited though also very scared.
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Blood Feud: The Coffey Sisters vs. the
Coffey Brothers!
By Chas Smith
Nothing is more precious than a name.
I was just, right now, minding my own business
and rolling around the Internet while drinking a beer that claims
to be the original pilsner when I stumbled upon mention of the
Coffey brothers.
“Coffey brothers?” I thought while staring at my beer and
pondering what pilsner means “…what the hell is that? Did
the Coffey sisters… transition?”
Three clicks later and there I was at the Santa Cruz
Sentinel which informed me:
Santa Cruz’s Ben and Sam Coffey each rolled into the fourth
round following the first day of the Hurley Surf Open Acapulco – a
World Surf League Men’s Qualifying Series 1,000 event — at Playa
Revolcadero in Mexico on Friday.
In fact, Sam Coffey delivered the highest single-wave score
of the day – an 8.60 — in the waning seconds to leap from third to
first in his Round 3 heat. Competing in two- to four-foot
conditions, Sam finished with a two-wave score of 13.77 and beat
American Skip McCullough (12.24), Brazil’s Tales Araujo (11.10) and
Mexico’s Tehuen Petroni (5.10).
With performance like that the Coffey name, long held by four
Australian sisters, feels like it is up for grabs.
It feels like a blood feud.
Are you Team Boy Coffey or Team Girl Coffey?
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Lil Rick, at right, says Mauritius' White
Shorts don't beat down kids. "I never see them hit children!"
Tamarin Bay Father-son beat down: “South
African surfer threw first punch at the local!”
By Derek Rielly
And, "I haven't seen them beat up any kids They'll
never punch children."
Last week, you might’ve tuned into the story of a
father-and-son being gang-banged at Tamarin Bay in
Mauritius.
We all know about the White Shorts in Mauritius, and there
is so much terrible examples of their uncivilised behavior all over
the internet. Kyle Kahn, a Cape
Town surfer now living in Mauritius, saw his 13-year-old son get a
smack from the crew and went in to intervene.
Watch that here.
Now, there emerges a conflicting version of the event from a
twelve-year-old South African surfer, “Rick”, also living in
Mauritius.
“What I saw on that day was a South African surfer approach a
local and he accused him of slapping his son. I never saw him slap
his son and he threw the first punch at the local and then they
started fighting,” says Rick. “If the locals were beating up kids I
wouldn’t be surfing here and I would know about it and they haven’t
beaten up anyone…well… I haven’t seen them beat up any kids…
They’ll never punch children.”
Watch that here.
The comments below the clip are instructive.
From what you presume to be Kyle Kahn: “Rick and my son surf
together. It’s a great vibe and I’m always happy when there are
other young kids in the line-up. R says he didn’t see my son being
slapped, this neither confirms or denies what happened. The aerial
footage shows who was close to me when I was assaulted by the Old
WhiteShorts guy. OWSG showed no evidence of being punched, only a
cut toe from when he kicked me in the jaw and mouth while I was
under the water. I think R will get a lot more waves now and
hopefully physical attacks will end. THIS IS PRECISELY why I put my
video out there. The locals are now being friendlier. A CHANGE HAS
BEGUN! (Note not all locals are aggressive and violent.)”
And then, as if to unravel the clumsy piece of propaganda,
“Stop with all your crap you liar…we better not see you in the
water again! A good beating now will be justified!! Thanks to the
boy who gave a testimony of the real story…”
Tamarin Bay is a pretty, and not especially difficult or heavy,
lefthander that was described by Surfer magazine in 1973
as “Probably the most perfect wave in the world.”
Clay Marzo opens his jets, Gnaraloo. Frame grab
@superbrand
Tourism: Marg River Pro to move 1000 km
away!
By Chas Smith
Blame Gabe!
Margaret River, a few hours south of Perth on
Australia’s rugged western shore, is truly God’s country. Gorgeous
hills dotted with vineyards, kangaroo farms and macrobiotic
restaurants tumble into a sapphire ocean teeming with life. The
towns are a postcard dream, impossibly cute with broad accent’d
locals ready to serve you in any manner of ways.
It is truly perfection, a public relations department dream.
Margaret River sells itself but what happens when Brazilian surfer
Gabriel Medina hijacks the marketing? Margaret River turns into
Uluwatu (in Indonesia some 3000 km away) or Gnaraloo station (in
West Oz but 1300 km north) is what.
What an unmitigated disaster! But true. You recall this year’s
Margaret River Pro, paid for by Tourism Australia, completed in
Uluwatu. Well, there is discussion next year to move it equally far
away (basically). And let us turn to the grand West
Australian for more.
The Weekend West understands Margaret River Pro organisers
met Shire of Northampton chief executive Garry Keefe and
representatives from the Kalbarri board riders club to discuss
moving the competition north. Kalbarri’s Jake’s Point (500km north
of Perth) and Gnaraloo station (1000km north of Perth) are believed
to be possible locations.
A State Government spokeswoman said Tourism WA had an
agreement with Surfing WA to hold the Margaret River Pro next
year.
“We are in early talks with Surfing WA and WSL about future
years,” she said.
Then later…
The attacks (during this year’s event) prompted backlash
from international surfing champions including Brazilian surfing
heavyweight Gabriel Medina, who aired concerns about returning to
the water.
Medina told his six million Instagram followers at the time
that he did not feel safe training or competing in Margaret River
after the attacks.
“They had two shark attacks on a beach close to where we’re
competing,” he said. “I do not feel safe training and competing in
this kind of place — anytime, anything can happen.”
So.
Have you ever surfed in either Kalbarri or Gnaraloo station?
Good? Fun?
And more importantly don’t you love how Australia kicks Gabriel
Medina under the bus every single time there is a conversation
about the cancelled Margaret River Pro? It is a well-executed
campaign, no doubt, and I think that Gabriel Medina should move to
Australia and become a villain.
Like, star in all the movies as the bad guy etc. Always shaking
a fist at the camera and warning locals that he is one bad mama
jamma.
