WSL President of Content, Media and Studios
wines and dines young surfers!
By Chas Smith
Smiles as wide as shakas!
The World Surf League President of Content,
Media and WSL Studios, Mr. Erik Logan, is officially in the
building and ooooee! Santa Monica’s high castle has never seen such
hot surfer action.
Oh look, in that spacious office feat. floor to ceiling windows
and appropriately reclaimed shelving. Who’s lounging upon the
supple brown leather couches? Only professional surfing’s
sweetheart Coco Ho, America’s only hope Griffin Colapinto and the
boy who could turn Connor Coffin.
Now look courtside at the Los Angeles Clippers basketball game
(top). Squint those eyes and take in Connor and Griff again but
this time joined by Kanoa Igarashi in brand-new Gucci sneakers
(such a power move considering the current Gucci
ban), the Mother of Dragons and Courtney Conologue.
Each wearing smiles as wide and tight as Mr. President’s shaka.
“Pffft…” You dismissively exhale. “The Clippers. Such a WSL
move. If the League really wanted to show the world and surfers it
has arrived it would have plopped them down courtside at a Lakers
game.”
And while you’re right, that’s also just us being grumpy
locals.
I am beyond excited to meet Mr. President in person though don’t
expect the same treatment. Maybe we’ll get to chat in the High
Castle’s basement conference room. The one with authoritarian
slogans painted on the walls.
Or maybe across the street at Dogtown coffee.
But is it wrong for me to dream of a day when surf journalists
cuddle on that supple brown leather couch? Nick Carroll’s legs
kicked up on the soft arm, his head cradled in my own lap?
Is it wrong for me to hope that Mr. President might just might
fill the WSL-sized hole in all our hearts?
Stay tuned!
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Concierge: Come find “delicious glimmering
triangles” at Noah Surf House, Portugal!
By Paul Evans
Want to paint yourself into overhead barrels on
Portugal's surf rich coast but need a little sexy in your
accommodation?
Looking out across the western horizon, an atmospheric
haze atop a sea surface glaze heralds all the sunset you’ll ever
want or need. Witnessing this final farewell on the
terrace at Noah, you can’t help but feeling you’ve been invited to
the only party that matters.
For its relative dearth of freedom of expression in
nomenclature, notably in proper nouns for people and places,
Portugal more than makes amends via the pursuit and delivery of
earthly pleasures.
And nowhere along her fine shores do they manifest more than at
the excellent Noah, perched just so above the golden
stretch of sands at Santa Cruz, fifty clicks north of Lisbon.
The various Santa Cruz (holy cross) ‘s are many. Which begs the
question, would He really want reminding exactly how He met His
sticky end? Surely the actual method of offing is by the by
compared with all the fine work. Perhaps the Feeding of the five
thou’ would’ve been better commemorated in Iberian peninsula place
names had He only had the extra foresight to turn a handful of
Galilee seawater into Portuguese olive oil from Alentejo to dunk
those loaves in, especially the kind served at Noah.
More of that to follow.
Both Noah Surf House and Restaurant & Beach House are
smart, spacious, ambitious new builds where post-modern concrete,
high-performance glass and bleached wood all open toward the big
blue Atlantic.
A well-placed succulent here, a cross-processed surf print
there, from the juice in a jam jar meets artisanal loft meets
up-cycled fisherman’s hut aesthetic, mature surf chic abounds. At a
glance you could be in the surf haunts of Malibu or Avalon,
only with added old-world charm and vertical history.
Welcome to modern Portugal’s pleasant shred-tinged confluence of
gastronomy, design and internationalism.
The eight bedrooms and thirteen bungalows of Noah Surf
House are cosy, comfy and well-appointed, and suit a range of
budgets. Go all in on your own Mar & Cook Bungalow boasting
seaview, kitchen, fireplace, outdoor shower and surf racks. Or
merely toss your pack on a bunk in communal lot and get your Euro
backpacker on in the finest of style.
Surf House’s cocktail bar, surf shop, wooden skatepark,
organic veg garden, communal kitchen, gym, outdoor pool and jacuzzi
all promise to nourish and stoke your rig to varying degrees.
Noah Restaurant & Beach House has nailed that rarest of
vibe, refinement without fussy and wanky, cool without judgey.
Whether you savour the Atlantic’s legendary local delicacies, or
have virtue signalling hashtag plant-based requirements, a
recurring theme of excellence and modernity runs through the
menu.
And yet for all the culinary craft and cleverness, it’s the
basics that steal your heart.
A wee dish of liquid sunshine to dip morsels of rustic loaf
appetiser in (it’s still Europe, there’s gonna be carbs) became a
daily highlight during my stay. I still think about that olive oil
and its notes of artichokes, most days. It comes from the Alentejo
wine district south of Lisbon and is called Angelica – another Good
Book reference – and I thought it was the finest olive oil in
all the world. As did the New York International Olive Oil
Competition jury of 2015.
From your base at Noah you’ll love moseying down to
Ericeira, Europe’s finest surf town for variety of surf break, a
half-hour south. Or saunter up to thumping Supertubos, slightly
closer to the north. Perhaps boot an hour up to witness Nazaré’s
unique sinister threat.
The surf at Santa Cruz crashes with varying degrees of violence
out front of Noah’s. Some days it’s the best spot on the
entire coast, when slightly overhead groundswells render it
delicious glimmering triangles.
Other days, it’s monstrous and out of control, such is the
whimsical nature of Atlantic cyclogenesis.
Windfall: Maui government coffers swell to
overflowing thanks to big Jaws!
By Chas Smith
Kids who get free school lunches rejoice!
I am currently somewhere between Salt Lake
City, Utah on the way to Jackson Hole, Wyoming holed up with family
in a roadside hotel while a winter storm rages outside. All things
considered not a bad situation or not as bad as it could have
been.
A big storm hit Maui just a few days ago, for example. A huge
storm and created maybe the biggest Jaws ever. Unsurfable sure but
still a spectacle and people drove from near and far to see the
extra-large breakers.*
Maui police responded to reports this evening of multiple
parking violations at Hoʻokipa Beach Park with reports of hundreds
of vehicles at the location throughout the day.
High surf of up to 60 feet was being forecast for the north
shores of Maui, attracting spectators and “triggering a multitude
of illegal parking on the Hāna Highway” according to Nāpua Hūʻeu, a
Resident Volunteer Organizer with The Kua Hawaiʻi Project.
The organization website describes the group as a resident
volunteer program to enhance visitor safety and protect the sacred
sites of Hawaiʻi.
Group organizers say the motorists created delays and
hazards at various points along the scenic North Shore route. “High
winds and rains added to the fragility of the scene with visitors
traversing down the beach cliff side to, as one visitor noted,
‘photograph the surf up close,’” said Hūʻeu.
So see? My current situation could have been worse. I could have
gotten a parking ticket.
*How do you feel when folk refer to waves as “breakers?” Have
you ever used legitimately?
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Mark Richards, in the foreground, and Shaun
Tomson in Free Ride's most famous sequence. Bill Delaney
Warshaw on Bill Delaney (RIP): “It may be
shameful, but every time a famous surfer dies I get this initial
rush, almost like a fire alarm going off.”
By Derek Rielly
Creator of the iconic epoch-defining film Free Ride
dead at 72…
In these instances, when a pivotal figure in the culture slips
into the loving hands of god, one must create some sort of
obituary, yes?
This interview took place an hour or so ago, between Bondi
Beach, Sydney, and Seattle, Washington, where Warshaw lives.
BeachGrit: How’d y’hear?
Warshaw: An EOS viewer emailed me day before yesterday. Randy
Rarick and PT confirmed. Bill had been in pretty poor health the
last few years.
Describe for me your first thoughts?
It may be shameful and wrong, but every time a famous surfer
dies I get this initial rush, almost like a fire alarm going off.
Can I bang out a video? Do I have an interview? How fast can I
post? Then when I dive into the material, like I did all day
yesterday and this morning with Delaney, I feel the loss. I knew
Bill, going back to when I worked a bit on Surfers: the
Movie. We stayed in touch over the years. He was all-in with
EOS, basically gave me the keys to his film library, which in turn
helped me leverage a bunch of other people to let me use their
stuff. So my memories of Bill have to do both with his movies, and
how good he made us all look, and also with him personally. When I
started playing the interview reels with Bill yesterday, to make
the edit, it became real and sad that this smart, generous, very
classy, very creative person was gone. Same thing when Bruce Brown died last
year.
A sweet man, yes?
Yes, mostly. But he took no bullshit, and let you know quick if
you put a foot wrong. About 10 years ago he lit me up for something
I wrote about Free Ride; I think I said he’d poached the
music and that was why the film never came out on DVD, which was
totally wrong. Bill and his wife worked really hard to clear rights
for all the songs, but apparently he didn’t have permission to
re-release outside of the theaters. Something like that. Which is
why Free Ride to this day is a black-market-only treasure.
But again, he didn’t burn the bridge, he took my call right after,
we talked it over, I apologized, he accepted, and we were good.
Flyer for Free Ride from 1977.
Free Ride, from 1977, defined a generation, a
time, as much as Morning of the Earth did a few years
earlier, yeah?
Absolutely. Where Earth was more impressionistic and
stoney, Free Ride was a bit more pointed. It had
narration. We got that great long loving look at Rabbit. Whereas
Alby made a choice not only to skip the narration, he didn’t even
bother to ID his surfers. I loved Earth as a kid, but when
Free Ride came out, we were so ready to move on from the
trippy stuff into something with harder edges, something we could
get a grip on. Which of course was MR’s top-turns, Rabbit’s
pinball-playing, and Shaun’s tuberiding. That said, the Free
Ride photography, especially Dan Merkel’s water shots, were as
mesmerizing and ethereal as anything in Morning of the
Earth.
Shaun Tomson owns Free Ride. MR and Rabbit were still
on the rise, but Shaun at Backdoor and OTW was life-changing,
beyond progressive. There’s a slow-mo shot of him at dusk, coming
out of a long tube, and his face just breaks into this huge grin as
he heads for the beach. What Shaun was doing right then, at that
very moment, inventing a better way to ride the tube, was new to
HIM, as well as us, and he just can’t help but smile at what’s
going on. MATT WARSHAW
Best moments: The pivotal scene of MR and Shaun weaving
an Off the Wall tube together, which was painted as a moment of
symphony when it was MR who had the shits with Shaun hence the drop
in, and Rabbit on the swing. Talk to me. Your best moments and
why.
Shaun Tomson owns Free Ride. MR and Rabbit were still
on the rise, but Shaun at Backdoor and OTW was life-changing,
beyond progressive. There’s a slow-mo shot of him at dusk, coming
out of a long tube, and his face just breaks into this huge grin as
he heads for the beach. What Shaun was doing right then, at that
very moment, inventing a better way to ride the tube, was new to
HIM, as well as us, and he just can’t help but smile at what’s
going on. Not in a claiming way. It’s just pure joy. He’s thought
about surfing a certain way, worked really hard at it, and here he
is making it happen, and it’s like waking up inside a dream. And
Bill Delaney caught it! Every time I see that shot it cheers me
up.
An undervalued film is Surfers: the Movie,
Bill’s film for Gotcha. The Miki Dora interview is still being used
in popular culture: on the Anderson Paak album Malibu, there’s a
couple of samples.
The Dora bit is for sure what Bill liked best about the movie.
He filmed it in his living room, just him and Miki, nobody else,
and I’m not sure that anybody but Bill could have pulled that rant
out of Dora. People trusted Bill, and felt comfortable around him.
But I don’t think he has totally happy overall with how
Surfers came out. He wasn’t specific, at least not on
record, but there may have been some creative differences during
the edit. I do know that he talked about making one last film, a
third film, before quitting altogether. But that never
happened.
Tell me how he’s going to be remembered.
Free Ride, obviously, is the signature work.
Surfers is great too, if for no other reason than the Dora
bit. I’m always so impressed by people who set and keep their
standards as high as Bill did. Which has nothing to do with output.
He made just the two features films, so you might think he left
something on the table. But I think just the opposite. I wouldn’t
be surprised if Bill, deep down, wished he hadn’t done
Surfers. Free Ride said everything he wanted to
say about surfing. For it’s time and place, it is perfect. Part of
being really good at something is knowing when to let it be.
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The haze of sour smoke clears and…Ron is
back!
Hot from the desk of WSL’s SVP of Global
Identity: “Ron still on team!”
By Derek Rielly
Horror at press release snub turns into joy…
Earlier today, a press release slip, Freudian or
otherwise, indicated that the world’s number one surf commentator,
Aaron “Ron” Blakey, had been cut from the WSL roster.
In a list of “current announcers”, the presser announced,
Longtime WSL play-by-play announcer Joe Turpel and former
World Champion Martin Potter call the action from some of the most
remote and exotic surfing locations in the world. Rosy Hodge
(former Championship Tour competitor) and Strider Wasliewski serve
as commentators reporting from the water. In addition, Ross
Williams and Big Wave Champion Peter Mel round out the commentary
team.
The response from fans was immediate.
The former pro Mike Lambresi, wrote: “I already spend half the
broadcast yelling at the computer. If the big dog is gone my
yelling time will probably go up as well. 🤯🤬😡”
From another fan of Blakey, “I’d rather clap my hands
in shit than listen to a full seppo team.”
Another, “How will I get the missus to let me watch more now ?
It was my trump card.”
Happily, a few moments ago, the WSL’s SVP of Global Brand
Identity, Mr David Prodan, released a three word text message.
