Groundbreaking: Ireland set to open world’s
first “National Centre of Excellence for Surfing!”
By Chas Smith
Australia beware!
And maybe this whole
“surfing-getting-into-the-Olympics” thing isn’t a joke.
Maybe it is the single thing that will save the surf industry,
provide hundreds of thousands of jobs in cities around the globe,
carry the World Surf League to its long sought status as bigger
than the National Football Association and allow the 1989 World
Champion Martin Potter to retire swathed in fine linens.
Because who would have ever guessed, who could have ever
guessed, that Ireland, a country previously most famous for Stephen
in Braveheart is building a “National Centre of Excellence for
Surfing?”
Not I, that’s for certain, and what is a “National Centre of
Excellence for Surfing?” Let’s
learn!
A NEW NATIONAL surf centre is set to be developed in Sligo,
the Government has announced.
The centre, which will be located on Strandhill promenade,
will act as a modern fit-for-purpose facility for locals and
tourists eager to catch some waves along the west coast.
It will comprise of a facility that will serve as a National
Centre of Excellence for surfing in Ireland, and will be a key
focal point in for activities on the Wild Atlantic Way.
An interpretative element telling the history of surfing in
Strandhill and Sligo will also feature at the centre, where there
will also be an information hub and visitor focal point for the
area.
So it’s not a new wave tank is what I’m picking up here but more
like a museum fronting a strip of North Atlantic beach where folk
can paddle out and save the surf industry. Am I reading it right?
Also, I am very intrigued by the interpretive element telling the
history of surfing in Stranhill and Sligo. Are there dances and
things in the interpretive element? Free form jazz?
All I know, in the end, is Australia better damn well build its
own National Centre of Excellence for Surfing if the continent
hopes to keep Mick Fanning part of the team. Isn’t he Irish?
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Analysis is free, smiles cost a little
extra!
Former world #2 Shane Beschen Offers Free
Surf Coaching! (Via Instagram!)
By Derek Rielly
Free video analysis by the man who drove Kelly
Slater to the brink of madness!
Don’t tell me you don’t know that ol’ acrobatic
illusionist Shane Beschen. He is a former world number
two, was a long-time foil to Kelly Slater and is in the ledger as
having the best heat ever in pro surfing history (three tens at
Kirra).
Since I started using my @instagram account to bring value
to people, I have been really stoked on the response from the
tutorials.
I’ve been thinking of ways to bring more value and one of
the ideas is for you guys to send me your clips. Once a week I will
do a review on one of the clips that was sent in.
If you are interested in having your clip posted on my
@instagram account with constructive ideas to make your surfing
better, please send them in.
PS: We are all learning and everyone who is posted on my
account will be treated with respect and positive feedback ☝️🙌🙏
Also, please send in single maneuver clips so I can be more
specific on the information. This will help make it easier to
explain and understand. Please dm me your single maneuver clips I
can download.
The first brave soul to have his “check snap” analysed by Shane,
and potentially be mocked by Shane’s 28,000 followers, was
Christopher Brown, owner of Campsurf at Manhattan Beach in Los
Angeles.
He asked about his arm going back on the first snap. I just
did a tutorial on the check snap and this clip directly
relates.
On his first snap, you can see he goes slightly into the lip
when he does his turn, which makes his back arm fall back and
almost puts him out the back of the wave.
You want to do this snap before you get to the top so you
can use the power of the wave to push you down the line. You also
want to start pushing the back arm and shoulder forward right
before you start your turn. This will keep you centered and give
you that controlled down the line speed.
What’s really cool about this clip is that @cbcampsurf is aware of
what he’s doing and each turn gets better throughout the wave. 👌
This is the benefit of surfing point waves where you have the time
to do multiple turns on one wave 🙌
Ready to face your demons? DM Beschen now!
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The great Stephanie Gilmore loves her DHD!
Steve Sherman/@tsherms/WSL
From the get-rich-or-poor-quick dept: DHD
opens crowdfunding share offer! Buy a slice for $250!
By Derek Rielly
Company wants to raise two-and-a-half mill by
January…
Five months ago, the Australian crowdfunding site,
Equitise, announced it would soon open the door to everyday surfers
being able to buy a slice of DHD, a company whose boards
have underpinned ten world titles.
Well, today that door is wide open.
Crowdfunding, of course, is a roundabout sorta way to raise cash
for your biz without the expense and legalities of an IPO (initial
public offering, where companies jump into the stock market, pieces
of the company or stocks/shares offered etc).
For as little as $250 you can buy ten $25 shares of a biz that’s
been around for thirty-five years, ever since Darren Handley flew
the coop from Murray Bourton’s Pipedream Surfboards. In a
similar play, Darren’s ghost shaper Jason Stevenson split after
four years at DHD to start JS Surfboards.
If you’re into gambling your shekels on a biz that I think we
can all agree is a creator of fine work, you can read the
prospective here.
The company bought Jack Perry’s accessory company
Modom, giving it a piece of the leash, soft board, tailpad
market.
Handley owns 35 percent of the biz; Matt
Bailey, director and chief marketing officer, owns 38.
The company turned over six million bucks in
2017-2018 (almost double its earnings four years earlier)
for half a mill in profit.
Handley gets a $120,00 salary plus whatever
dividends the company delivers.
The offer closes January 18.
And the usual caveat on these things:
• Crowd-sourced funding is risky. Issuers using this facility
include new or rapidly growing ventures. Investment in these types
of ventures is speculative and carries high risks.
• You may lose your entire investment, and you should be in a
position to bear this risk without undue hardship.
• Even if the company is successful, the value of your investment
and any return on the investment could be reduced if the company
issues more shares.
• Your investment is unlikely to be liquid. This means you are
unlikely to be able to sell your shares quickly or at all if you
need the money or decide that this investment is not right for
you.
• Even though you have remedies for misleading statements in the
offer document or misconduct by the company, you may have
difficulty recovering your money.
• There are rules for handling your money. However, if your money
is handled inappropriately or the person operating this platform on
which this offer is published becomes insolvent, you may have
difficulty recovering your money.
Obviously, these things tend to go one of two ways.
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For Karim Braire, surfing Nazare is as easy as a child
sliding down a bannister.
From the real-life-miracle department: This
French surfer paddle-surfed forty-foot Nazare during WSL big-wave
contest!
By JT albert
Born in the ghetto, learned to swim and surf at 18,
six-figure contract with Quiksilver, best-selling author and, soon,
movie star?
Nazaré, Portugal, last Sunday. Biblical crowd
lining the cliffs, several dozen adoring online fans watching the
live FB broadcast. The WSL, responding to a boisterous forecast
that promised a very good chance of the very biggest waves ever
ridden in the world, ever, broadcast the tow-surfing sessions.
The commentary featured a variety of big wave legends in the
booth between go outs, most notably Makuakai Rothman and Garrett
McNamara, who were actually very good value, didn’t you think?
Alas, Huey had to go and fuck us all over.
“Biggest hoax in surfing history,” said one disgruntled
spectator.
He had a point. The swell was way too west to do the nuclear
teepee thing, and thus, about the half the size. Nevertheless, some
of the gnarliest shred-lords in the universe were on the rope and
giving it a good crack.
Dylan Longbottom took a 50-footer on the head and eventually got
picked up a mere few metres from the cliffs. Justine Dupont snagged
some bombs. Lucas Chianca, Kai Lenny, Sebastian Steudtner, Mikey
Brennan, Rodrigo Koxa, Carlos Burle, G-Mac, Makua, Pete Mel, Andrew
Cotton were all in the mix at various points. Ooohs and Aaaaahs
from cliff, with occasional fodasse caralhos (fucking
hell!)
About lunchtime, a lone, bald paddler appeared stroking his way
in towards the first peak from around the point.
“Who dat guy?” said G-Mac.
“Wooaah,” said Makua. “Paddling?”
“What he riding?” wondered G-Mac. “Look like a 9’6” or
something.”
Turns out, in a sea of jet exhaust, one brave Frenchman decided
it was in fact more much more of a paddle day. He went for one,
kinda got sucked over, tried to duckdive(!) some whitewaters before
ending up on the sand. The camera duly zoomed in on our new hero on
the beach, blowing a bit but defiant, a five-year-old Paris St
Germain football jersey over the top of a Decathlon wetsuit.
“That’s so irresponsible,” said someone holding a walkie talkie
(which, btw in French, is talkie walkie).
“He’s jeopardising the safety protocol,” grumbled another.
“He doesn’t even have his own ski.”
“He’s not even on the right equipment.’. Etc, etc.
Someone else, who wasn’t part of the big wave safety scene,
perhaps summed it up better.
“If that cunt doesn’t get a root tonight….”
Turns out our man is Karim Braire, who appeared on TF1’s
(France’s national broadcaster) prime time 7 à 8 show last year
with an incredible backstory.
The v.o. went something like:
“He grew up in the ghettos of Orléans. At 18, unable to swim
and hundreds of km’s from the ocean, he chanced upon a surf
magazine and decided to become a surfer. He signed a six-figure
contract with Quiksilver, and now he’s one of the best surfers in
the world.”
But with the French pro surf scene writhing in condemnation, was
Karim put off?
Apparently not.
He stuck to surfing, training, waiting for the biggest tow day
forecast in surfing history to relaunch himself into the spotlight,
undergunned and underjetski’d.
Bold claim: Kelly Slater tells Esquire he
dunked phone at Surf Ranch, didn’t get another for weeks!
By Chas Smith
But is it true? Let's fact check the king!
It is Thanksgiving in America and I am Thankful
for Kelly Slater. Someday he will disappear, leaving us only with
memories of flat earth debates, OuterKnown, spotlight stealing head
fake retirement announcements, Surf Ranch, 11 x world championships
etc. but today is not that day and so let us gather around the
family table and enjoy another fable from the greatest to ever
slither into a rash guard.
Kelly chatted with Esquire magazine recently and
ostensibly about technology. It is not an interesting conversation
(he likes Candy Crush, he liked when Surfline was an 800 number
read here!) but
he does reveal something I find extremely doubtful. Let’s just get
right into it.
It’s a Sunday afternoon in November, and downtime seems to
be the order of the day. It has been for awhile now. A May 2018
incident on his personal wave machine left him phoneless for a
couple weeks (call it an occupational hazard), forcing Slater to
disconnect and appreciate the moments when acquaintances, brands,
and obnoxious journalists aren’t blowing up his cell to
chat.
“I was doing a live thing from a jet-ski and I dropped it in
the water,” he laughs. “They found it like three weeks ago. It was
kind of nice. You stop thinking about it, you know?”
Slater talked to Esquire.com (from a new phone) about how
technology has changed his industry, his guilty pleasure app, and
where the world’s best surfer goes for the world’s best
waves.
Ok. Do you believe that Kelly Slater went without a phone for a
couple weeks sometime in May and probably extending into June? Do
you really believe in your heart of hearts that he “unplugged” as
it were? Let’s go look at Instagram!
May 2 (a post of Kelly Slater in a pool from old issue of
Surfing)
May 13 (a loving post from Kelly to his mother for Mother’s
Day)
May 20 (a well composed post of Kelly saluting an airplane at
Surf Ranch)
May 22 (a video of Kelly giving away sessions at Surf Ranch)
May 27 (a post featuring Ramon Navarro on a bomb in Fiji)
May 30 (a repost of the AI movie trailer)
June 2 (a video of Italo Ferreira spinning)
June 9 (a post of Kelly’s x-rayed feet)
June 16 (Happy International Surfing day post)
June 17 (Kelly wishes himself a happy Father’s Day)
June 22 (a beautiful sunset post from the North Shore)
Etc.
I ain’t seeing a lot of 2 -3 week gaps here but maybe he was
referring to a metaphorical 2 -3 weeks? A gorgeous 2 -3 weeks of
the soul (that go for 24 hours or something)?
We could all learn from Kelly, anyhow, especially the Americans
here who will likely be amongst family and especially today. Tell
everyone you are taking a break from technology while getting much
praise then sneak into the bathroom lots to chat with your buddies
at BeachGrit.
