Piracy or Philanthropy? BeachGrit to digitise history’s entire catalogue of surf film!

Examine Hot Cinema, a thrilling new feature that welcomes all video!

A common criticism about BeachGrit is we don’t aggregate every video that’s loosed. We’ve always pushed the line that if it ain’t worth a story it ain’t worthy of flooding your eyeballs.

And, therefore, readers are forced to populate darkener neighbourhoods where they can see such things. Sorta like having to visit the cheap corner store to buy milk ’cause your fav eatery refuses to pollute ’emselves with basics.

One afternoon, recently, our Los Angeles-based developer (you can see the back of the Hollywood sign from his gorgeous house) gifted us the ability to include a video, no matter how ordinary, pointless or, conversely, dazzling, without having it appear on the main page.

If you look down the bottom right column, you’ll see an aggregator panel like the ones you might’ve stumbled on at various adult-interest websites.

Click on Newest and, yeah, you get everything we’ve loaded.

24 Hours will get you the most popular over the past day, All Time gets ya the best in the biz.

Wave your mouse over Hot Cinema in the top menu bar and you’ll get what’s called a Mega Menu.

And you know what makes this thing a miracle? We’ll run…everything.

Just as Google plans to digitise history’s entire catalogue of words (ten million books digitised so far), we wanna do the same with surf film.

You got something and it’s on Vimeo or YouTube?

Want to feed it to the wolves?

Send to: [email protected]


Watch: The WSL’s fabulous new meme show!

Stoke-inducing! Action-packed!

And you doubted the World Surf League’s new relationship with Facebook. Be honest. You thought when the WSL went exclusive with Facebook for the just wrapped J-Bay event and it was all glitchy and weird and broken that it was a bad deal.

Well, looks like the joke’s on you, pal, because hello Get Sent!, the latest creation from the team that brought you other hits like The Ambassador of Stoke and Leisure and No Pipeline.

What is Get Sent!? It appears to be a Facebook/Instagram meme show described on the World Surf League’s feed as:

What up people… This is @getsent! The show where @chadgoesdeep and @jtparr14 break into World Surf League’s vault of footage to bring you the most stoke-inducing, action-packed, inspiring and funny moments from the surf world and beyond! Stay tuned for the first episode tomorrow at 8am PT on the Get Sent Facebook page!

Much like Forrest Gump, that is all I have to say about that.


Rumor: Kelly Slater to join Senior PGA tour!

The competitive fire can still burn!

Kelly Slater’s announced retirement plans, just weeks ago, sent shockwaves though the entire world. Oh sure avid “Kelly Watchers” realized that, likely, the 11x world champ heard Parko’s announcement then his tongue just started moving all by itself. Before he knew it the spotlight was back his though the price for fixated attention was the specter of retirement after the 2019 season.

Now, avid “Kelly Watchers” know that retirement is something the champ likes to mention from time to time but doesn’t take very seriously. He has been surfing, professionally, for three whole generations and at least seems to need the competition.

But might he get his competitive fix from somewhere else? Florida Today hinted possibly yes in a long piece titled Can Pro Surfing, Brevard Stand to Lose Kelly Slater?

“Brevard” refers to the county Cocoa Beach calls home and Cocoa Beach is only famous for Kelly Slater so it is a very good question. I would imagine that Brevard county will disappear entirely, swallowed up by the swamp, the last remaining residents eaten by crocodiles. Pro surfing will also disappear entirely but for reasons that have to do more with Facebook than Kelly’s disappearance.

Anyhow, Kelly’s new competitive fix. Florida Today reports:

What would his retirement mean for the world tour, and what’s in store for Slater’s future?

After all, he’s modeled on catwalks, been linked to Hollywood celebrities, appeared on a TV series (“Baywatch”), recorded a CD (with “The Surfers”), and even appears in a current popular beer commercial.

His “retirement” portfolio is certainly diversified.

He has produced an eco-friendly fashion label (“Outerknown”), launched a new drink brand (“Purps”), and the Kelly Slater Wave Company has created an artificial wave pool in Lemoore, Calif., (and another one coming next year at the Palm Beach Park of Commerce along the Beeline Highway in northwestern Palm Beach County) that could be the sport’s future.

And there’s always golf, where his 2-handicap and countless rounds from Pebble Beach to St. Andrews could help him qualify for the Senior PGA Tour when he turns 50.

Did you catch that? In four short years Kelly Slater can be playing senior golf professionally. Traveling the world like he once did. Spotlight still flickering. Still fluttering.

And do you like golf? Are you good? I’ve only ever played for laughs but do enjoy that there is much discussion of handicap in the game.


Nathan Florence to Kelly Slater: “I can hold your hand through some barrels old timer.”

Middle Flo bro shows kindness to surfing elder…

There’s never been much notice paid to Nathan, the middle Florence brother. There was the paddle-in at Teahupoo that lifted eyebrows, of course, but, for most, the spotlight remains fixed on his theatrical older brother John John. 

Over the course of a couple of interviews, I have found Nathan to be pleasingly off-centre, whimsical and cheesy, like synth-laden music.

Sample exchange:

Describe your older brother’s personality.

He can be super mature, just ’cause he has to deal with so many interviews and business-like stuff, but then at the same time he’s more immature than me and Ivan… especially when he gets drunk.

What does he do when he’s boozed? 

He looks like a little kid. He looks like a five year old.

And

“I can tell you the cruellest thing (John John) has ever done to me. When I was 10, he threw a rock at my face and knocked out all my front teeth. He had perfect aim.

And

“I was actually thinking it would be sick if they chose the president by a Gladiator’s tournament. The guys have to be super smart but super good at warfare fighting stuff, too. Like they have to fight their way to the top. They put ’em through a maze kinda thing straight into a battle thing so that our president would be, like, the gnarliest fighter and the smartest. Then there’s not some guy just giving orders. He could go and destroy if he wanted to.”

Read that interview here. 

Yesterday, Nathan posted a breezy little POV clip surfing behind pal Billy Kemper.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Blg834IhHNJ/?taken-by=nathan_florence

Before long, and as his his wont, Kelly Slater soon got into it.

“I totally trust you to get to barrelled behind me at backdoor this winter a lot,” wrote Kelly.

Nathan replied:

I can hold your hand through some barrels old timer, like walking a grandpa across the road, I got you.”

Oh he’s good. 

And it made me think: well, it’s time I lifted the telephone and called Nathan again.

But what should be asked?

Gimme a dozen questions and I’ll call him tomoz.

 

 


Thirteen-year-old surf-skate virtuoso Sabre Norris Wins X Games silver!

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.

Read and watch that here. 

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.

FLYING DOUGHNUTS – Sabre Norris from Luke Farquhar on Vimeo.