Steve Barilotti did a profile on Chris for SURFER in the '90s, and Chris is so likable and sweet and honest, then all of a sudden here he comes with this End of Days stuff having to do with surgically implanted identity chips. It gives you the creeps to read it, but mostly just makes you feel bad for Chris, having to live with those kinds of thoughts. On the other hand, I remember reading interviews with Chris where he seemed like the happiest man in surfing, so who knows.

Report: Chris Brown fell off cliff, drowned, “while under the influence of a high level of methamphetamine,” says coroner.

Derek Rielly

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"He sustained blunt force injuries that were significant enough that he was unable to remove himself from the surf line and drowned as a result." 

Meth, hell of a drug ain’t she. The Santa Babs Police Department has reported that the former pro Chris Brown, who was forty eight, was “under the influence of a high level of methamphetamine” when he fell from a cliff and drowned two weeks ago.

“According to the investigation and toxicology reports, the decent was under the influence of a high level of methamphetamine when descended from a cliff to a rocky surf line below,” said police spokesman Anthony Wagner. “He sustained blunt force injuries that were significant enough that he was unable to remove himself from the surf line and drowned as a result.”

In an interview about his influence, and place in surfing, Matt Warshaw, surf historian, told me, “He had the talent to be a world-title contender but wasn’t interested. He had zero talent for big surf, at first, but that part of the sport really intrigued him, so he just pegged himself up year after year till he was really good at it… He paddled out at Mavs the first time that morning Jay Moriarity got his famous wipeout. On the cover of the magazines, you see Jay floating up there like Jesus hammered to the cross, and maybe the 10th time you look at the shot you notice a blond guy sitting on his board down at the bottom of the page. That’s Chris. The story was he paddled out, saw Jay’s wave, turned around and paddled to shore and drove back to Santa Barbara. But the great part is, the next swell, he drove back up to Mavs and did it.”

A service for Brown will be held at ten am, Feb 16, Calvary Chapel, 1 N. Calle Cesar Chavez, Santa Babs.

We are officially officially at the beginning of a VAL vision of surfing broadcast through the bullhorn of the World Surf League. Yes, Erik Logan, new President of Content, Media and WSL Studios is in the building.

Listen: “Can a Vulnerable Adult Learner actually show us all the way?”

Chas Smith

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A grand vision fresh, uncluttered by the detritus that clogs our own?

One of the greatest parts of surf culture is our slang and one of the greatest bits of surf slang is “valley” or “val.” As in, “Valley go home…” or “Beat it, Val.” It fell out of regular use a while back, being replaced with the more universal “kook,” and I have missed it.

Derek Rielly, though, last night in a fever’d inspiration, brought it right back, this time as an acronym VAL or “vulnerable adult learner.”

Genius.

And timely.

For we are officially officially at the beginning of a VAL vision of surfing broadcast through the bullhorn of the World Surf League.

Yes, Erik Logan, new President of Content, Media and WSL Studios is in the building.

David Lee Scales and I talked much about what his arrival may do, how surfing, or at least the general public perception of surfing will change, if that change will be good or bad. David Lee believes that it will be impossible for an adult learner, vulnerable or not, to properly speak our language, as it were. I disagreed. Erik Logan is not an African-American woman yet by all accounts presided over a very successful Oprah Winfrey Network.

Is being a surfer so different?

Maybe Mr. President’s vision will be grand, fresh, uncluttered by the detritus that clogs our own. Maybe Mr. President’s vision will be as troublesome as his Instagram account. I’ll have a chat with him very soon but am betting on the former.

No, not betting on Former, though I do hope the brand is doing well.

David Lee Scales and I also discuss the slow death of Surfer, Egg McMuffin sandwiches and you. It is probably our best show yet.

Photos: Hole dug for “safe, convenient, accessible, welcoming” Melbourne wavepool!

Derek Rielly

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The rise of the Sea Machines continues… 

Do you remember the promise made, four years ago, by the investment banker and self-described”hard-core surfer” Andrew Ross, that within a decade Australia would have ten Wavegardens?

And that he, or at least his company, formerly Wave Park Group now URBNSURF, would be at the helm of every single pool?

That bullish promise inched a little closer to fruition today when the company released photos of the Wavegarden it’s building at Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport; a wave the company promises to be “safe, convenient and accessible” and created in a “welcoming environment.”

Are you listening Vulnerable Adult Learners (aka Vals)?

The presser:

Major earthworks, civil construction and services installation are now largely complete, and the heart of our 2-hectare surfing lagoon, our next-generation wave generator, has been installed.

We’re now on the final countdown to filling the world’s first full-scale Wavegarden Cove, and for first waves to be breaking around Easter 2019.

Once first waves have been produced, over Winter we’ll be fine-tuning our wave generator, developing a range of new waves, trialling custom surf hardware, and testing and commissioning our lagoon, ahead of URBNSURF Melbourne’s public opening in Spring 2019.

Read more about it, and give ’em your details if you want to surf it, here. 
Andrew Ross has a 10-year-plan to fill the vast continent with man-made waves. Here's the hole for number one.
Andrew Ross has a 10-year-plan to fill Australia with man-made waves. Here’s the hole for number one

The wave generator. Foil free!
Did you watch? Did you witness the rebirth of Jack Robinson? All that promise, all that potential, back if only for one day. What about the actual birth of Brodi Sale? There fresh out of the womb, still covered in vernix caseosa. Coco Ho said he was in the lineup waiting for a “glory hole.” Yeah. He honestly just came out of the “glory hole.” | Photo: Photo by Heff/WSL

Pipeline Pro: Jack Robinson wins over all-comers at “The Proving Ground!”

Chas Smith

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A fantastic final day!

Gimme Pipeline. Gimme third reef, second reef, Backdoor, doggy door. Gimme broken legs and broken dreams. Gimme barrels so big you could drive a bus through ’em. Gimme cliche just gimme Pipeline and oooooeee if the just wrapped Pipeline Pro didn’t entertain.

Did you watch? Did you witness the rebirth of Jack Robinson? All that promise, all that potential, back if only for one day. What about the actual birth of Brodi Sale? There fresh out of the womb, still covered in vernix caseosa. Coco Ho said he was in the lineup waiting for a “glory hole.” Yeah. He honestly just came out of the “glory hole.”

What about Peru’s Miggy Tudela? There in Hawaii where his ancient ancestors first brought surfing, via wonderful boats, 4000 years ago.

Balaram Stack? Hinduism’s GOAT. Vaughn Blakey in the booth? Please, World Surf League, make him a permanent fixture. Do what it takes for he, and he alone, can fix it.

Jack Robinson.

Did you watch Jack Robinson? Can you tell me, please, why he is not on the World Surf League Championship Tour, taking the mantle that John John Florence doesn’t seem to want?

Chris Cote, who is in the booth, said, “Nice foamy exit there…” and can we talk about surfing and sexual metaphors for one moment? Does any sport have more sexual metaphors so baked in that they can be delivered with a straight face?

“He’s pumping.”

“Going backdoor.”

“Nice foamy exit.”

Etc.

Golf has “hole in one” which doesn’t make sense as a sexual metaphor. Baseball has first base, second base, third base and home run.

Those are solid.

Did you watch Barron Mamiya? He won a Yeti cooler and rode the wave of the contest in semifinal number 2 which Chris Cote could not stop talking about.

What do you feel about ending sentences with a preposition? Do you care? At all?

All is not a preposition.

Jack Robinson.

“The drone pilot has just gone next level on that thing.”

Tom Carroll, in the booth, just uttered that sexual metaphor with a straight face. Or I assume a straight face. He’s sober, no?

Nick?

Wait. Is it Tom Carroll in the booth?

Did you watch Balaram Stack pick his board for the final in the vaunted but not vaulted Volcom Pipeline House board room? Oh you missed it. It was the sort of behind the scenes business, replete with “fucks” and “yeahs” that are usually only found on the dark web.

Have you been on the dark web?

Oh shit. It’s not Tom Carroll. It’s some other Australian.

I almost just lost my index finger fingernail by trying to pry an old cube of ice out of an old ice-cube tray in the very back of the freezer in order to make another vodka…. lemonade.

It’s Derek Rielly’s fault. He’s making me write this.

Sal Masekela. Hell. I didn’t realize he was here too in the booth. Wearing an ironic Hawaiiana shower curtain. Ugh. When the future mocks the “extreme sport” era with its chummy awful embarrassing bullshit Sal Masekela will narrate and the whole thing will begin with, “Once upon a time my best friend Kelly Slater texted me…”

Did you watch the final? Reef Hazelwood which is spelled “Heazlewood,” Balaram Stack, Jack Robinson, Barron Mamiya. A stellar lineup by any measure. By any World Surf League measure.

Dave Wassel just said, “I want to chair the mom up the beach.”

I’m serious. Which sport has more sexual metaphors just baked in?

Surfing isn’t a sport, FYI.

Also, sentences ending prepositions. Can you give me some direction here? Yes or no?

Sal is now deeply weighing in on Kelly’s weekend plans. Schooling all of his 235 co-hosts in the booth feat. Chris Cote, Dave Wassel, Kaipo Guerrero, Chris Cote, Tom Carroll, Vaughn Blakey, Big Daddy Trevor, Balarmom etc. on what Kelly is going to do this weekend, how he’s going to feel, what he’s going to eat, etc.

When the future mocks the “extreme sport” era it may simply be a documentary featuring Sal Masekela waiting by his phones for texts from Kelly Slater. Hollywood? Are you there? We’d crush this.

Did you watch Jack Robinson win?

He just did.

Vulnerable adult learners make familiar sign of solidarity.

Adult learners hit alt-right radar: “If substandard surfers are allowed unearned top-tier waves, civilization will collapse…”

Derek Rielly

By

"Socialism has finally reached the surfing world.....gnarly!"

Didn’t we have fun three weeks ago when it was revealed a PHD candidate at the Uni of New Zealand had written his thesis on the sorry lives of “vulnerable surfers.”

To paraphrase Shinya Uekusa, who may not be Polynesian which will become important shortly, if you’re white, male and a good surfer you have your jackboot on the head of all the “vulnerable surfers” and you’re also guilty of the crime of cultural appropriation.

“Surfers use multiple capital to exercise their power to increase the likelihood of catching high-quality waves, which appear to be scarce commodities,” Uekusa wrote. “Focusing on the experiences of vulnerable surfers, quality waves are not evenly distributed.”

Read it here. 

Today, the news website Breitbart, which is to the right-wing what the Huff Post is to the left, and which the WSL once banned from buying ads on its site, ran with the story, much to the joy of its famously anti-identity politics commentariat.

It’s worth a stroll through that particular garden of thorns.

TankMcNamara
so socialism has finally reached the surfing world…..gnarly!!

The Prisoner
There has always been a pecking order for waves. If you can’t run with the big dogs you have to find smaller prey, bide your time, grow, gain skill, then one day you may be the big kahuna yourself. Of course this takes work, but hey, why labor when you can force someone to give up the fruits of theirs?

Fuzzychickens 
Only the brightest, hardest working, and sometimes lucky surfers get top tier waves. No affirmative action surfing, thank you. If substandard surfers are allowed unearned top tier waves, civilization will collaps….I mean the wipeouts will be narly dude.

Steve Obeda 
He’s making the point that trying to redistribute waves to low-performing surfers is unlikely to result in any positive outcome, just as redistributing wealth away from those who are good at multiplying wealth to those who are good at diminishing wealth is also likely to not result in any long-term benefits.

old red 
Appropriation? OK. I believe white men invented indoor plumbing and basketball.

Bothsidesnow
No. No the surfers or the strong should not give way to the weak. That’s like saying the truly intelligent people should give up their seats to the mentally challenged. Everybody suffers.

sm 
And here I thought that only American Universities were sufficiently stupid to pay “professors” who can’t think straight. It’s refreshing in a way to see that NZ schools are equally idiotic. Incidentally, native cultures have expropriated white culture by using cell phones and fiberglass surfboards.

Geolo 
How exactly does one “steal” a hobby? Basketball was invented by a white guy. Did most NBA players steal basketball? Should we complain about redistributing court space to lesser players

DaveTheTrollTriggerer
Oh dear. The stupid is strong in this one.

RidUSA of demonrats 
Even the sea discriminates…

jonnyamerican 
“Surfing, which was an important activity for many Indigenous cultures in Oceania, Africa”

Um, no it was not an indigenous activity of Africa! Surfing was invented by Polynesians not Africans! It is indigenous of Hawaii and other Polynesians cultures not Africa. Go back to school you ignorant liar.

John Prescott jonnyamerican
Don’t forget, it was the haloes who first rode the big breaks on the North Shore, in modern times.

The Oatmeal Savage RidUSA of demonrats 
The oceans are racist!

Photo: Justin Jay/@justinjayphoto
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