"Yesterday an elderly lady came up to us at the beach and asked if we could help fulfill her husbands wish to ride a wave one last time. She said that he is suffering from dementia and most likely has a year to live." | Photo: Ryan Giacola

Thanks for the laughs: Dying Man with dementia rides one last wave

Derek Rielly

By

Sooner or later it's gonna come, your last wave. How do you want to sign off?

It’s hard to contemplate, but, sooner or later, it’s gonna come.

Your last wave.

Maybe one VAL lecture on equality in the lineup or collision too many vaporises the love.

Diminishing returns and a disgust in your atrophying skills convince you to turn out the light.

Or you get old and you switch, first, to a longboard, then a SUP, and then it just gets too hard.

Below, we see a terminally ill man, ruined by dementia, whose loving wife helps him ride one last wave into the sunset.

A beautiful coda, yes?

Mason Ho pulls the Padang cord tight. Rip Curl

Live from Bali: Watch the Rip Curl Cup Padang Padang!

Derek Rielly

By

Mason Ho, Matt Wilko, Nathan Florence and co climb into four-to-six-foot Bukit tubes.

Got a little down time at work, Australia, or it’s a lonely ol Sunday afternoon in the US?

If slowish four-to-six-foot barrels and a looseness you won’t find on a WSL broadcast thrill, click on the link below.

The scores are a little confusing, click on live scores on the sidebar tab and you might think Jackie Robinson had just ridden a near-perfect heat. He didn’t. At least, not yet. That was last year.

Heat two’s about to jump in the water, Mason Ho etc.

Heat three has Matt Wilko.

Heat four, Nathan Florence.

Pull the steel bar down on the Padang rollercoaster seat below.

Commentary from Matt George, Vaughan Blakey and co.

Celebrate: Kanoa Igarashi on track to become “the face of the 2020 Olympic Games!”

Chas Smith

By

"He's very talented..."

Ooooooee what would we have done the last few days if not for the Brothers’ George? Sam and Matt brought the heat, burning right through typical post-World Surf League event gloom. I’ve now read both of their fine works and all the comments and still have no idea what Matt is defending.

Do you?

Can you help me understand?

In other news, the Japanese have been surfing for over 100 years and Kanoa Igarashi, current world number five, is on track to become the face of the Olympic Games.

All true and I read about it this morning on Japan Today. Here, I’ll give you a taste.

A total of 26 sports applied for inclusion in the 2020 Games and in August of 2016, five new sports, including surfing , were added.

The IOC has also approved the inclusion of surfing on the program for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

Surfing in Japan dates back over 100 years.

As detailed by Legendary Surfers, most Japanese-style wooden boats at the time had removable floor boards that were called Itago. When the boats were beached after fishing, the children of the fishermen took the Itago out of the boats and used them as body boards. This practice was commonly known as Itago-nori, meaning “Floor board riding.”

Japan, meanwhile, is hoping to get a boost from Kanoa Igarashi. Born in Huntington Beach, California, the 21-year-old Igarashi recently received dual citizenship in order to compete for his ancestral homeland in 2020. He has become one of the top surfers in the World Surf League and will be a medal contender next year.

In May, Igarashi became the first Japanese surfer to win an elite Championship Tour event when he topped the men’s competition at the Corona Bali Protected.

As host, Japan will get one automatic berth in each of the 20-surfer draws and will have a chance to earn another.

“He’s very talented, I think he could become a face of the games,” Fasulo said.

So, first, I would like to officially change the word “surfing” here to also be “floor board riding.” I think it is more accurate and also more poetic. A rare win-win.

Second, does it surprise you that Kanoa Igarashi is current world number five and that Kolohe Andino is current world number one? When I was laying out my projected midway rankings ahead of the 2019 season I did not have it like this, to be very honest. Professional floor board riding never ceases to confound and delight.

Third, are you still not on the Kanoa Igarashi train? As sometime BeachGrit contributor Jamie Tierney eloquently puts, “to know Kanoa is necessarily to love him.” I think he will make a fine face of the Olympic Games and I will do my best to run all the very cute Japanese commercials he appears in here.

Lastly, one of Kanoa Igarashi’s very strongest events, The U.S. Open of Floor Board Riding, is set to begin in seven days. Do you have plans to go to Huntington Beach? Are you a registered sex offender?

Just curious.

High-demand: Surf Ranch sells out “Ultimate VAL Experience!”

Chas Smith

By

But adds another day!

Admit it, when it was revealed that the World Surf League was opening Surf Ranch for the “Ultimate VAL Experience” at the low, low price of $3500 per person plus $500 more for one friend (capped at 36 surfers a day) plus $550 – $650 to stay in an Airstream near the lake with video coaching and croissants you thought, “Hmmmmm.”

Well, while you were thinking, “Hmmmmm” the advanced session sold right out and can you believe it? Can you believe there are 36 advanced surfers out there splitting $4500 – $4650 for…

3, 1-hour Surf Sessions
In water coaching and guidance
Video capture of all waves​
Personalized video review​ with our coaching staff
Equipment education and use of full Firewire demo quiver​
Access to wakesurfing sessions throughout the day on our adjacent 20-acre recreational lake.

To be honest, it’s difficult for me to process. At last check, flights to Tavarua (from Los Angeles) were running $1000 and flights to Tahiti the same. Neither Tavarua nor Tahiti have use of a full Firewire demo quiver included, I suppose.

And in any case, due the popularity, the World Surf League has decided to add another advanced day for 36 more lucky souls.

Yes…

Due to an overwhelming interest in the Intermediate – Advanced Progression Session at Surf Ranch, we’re converting July 31st to feature our CT wave profiles that are best suited for intermediate and advanced surfers.

That brings the current remaining availability to:
July 30th Progression Session: Sold Out
July 31st Progression Session: Now open to Intermediate – Advanced

Don’t “Hmmmmm” and miss out again!

Dear Surfers: “Do we really need to convince strangers that our sport is spectacular?”

Matt George

By

"Is the hopeful financial hysteria of the WSL and its breathless broadcast and its branding ambitions really us?"

(Editor’s note: Earlier today, the writer Matt George, younger brother of Sam who wrote yesterday’s opinion piece about surf commentary, sent me a story with a brief note. “Please post this in response to Sam’s opinion feature.” I like Matt, alway have. Worked with him at a surf mag for a year in the early twos. He’s inflated. He’s boyish. And very macho. The sort of man who’ll shake your hand so hard you can feel the wires. I think this story is a rebuttal to yesterday’s comments. I could be wrong etc.)

Surfers,

Read this editorial again carefully.

And slowly.

And twice.

And out loud to yourself.

There is a great deal of love in there.

And unquestioned credibility.

And heaven knows…we need this if it is ever going to work: The convincing of our credibility to the unbelievers. The one thing our sport has always fought for and never achieved. All the way back to the IPS.

Do we really need to convince strangers that our sport is spectacular? Is our goal a mediocre slot in the corrupt world of the modern Olympics? Broadcast at 9:45pm EST after the Curling?

Do we really need the money it provides Soccer players? Or NFL stars? Or Golfers? Money? Branding? Billboards on a freeway?

Beer and Cigarette companies have been doing that since the 60’s. Is that what we need?

The enemy is at the gates, Surfers.

Is the hopeful financial hysteria of the WSL and its breathless broadcast and its branding ambitions really us?

Are we really more interested in insulting each other with forgettable pithy remarks online instead of listening to informed opinions and meditating on our own?

Instead of controlling the destiny of our own unique and remarkable surfing passion? Is this our forum? Posting like trolls under the bridge with anonymous, impotent remarks online instead making the changes that we want as our forefathers did, handing it to us on a silver platter?

We, the surfers, still own the spirit of our sport.

We, the surfers, still own the vision.

With every wave we ride.

I say do not react, but re-instruct. Online. Instagram. Facebook. Twitter. Whatever. The brave new world. Ok…So be brave.

Let us form our own place in this world as we always have, but now with these new platforms of power to reach out. Tell them. Tell them all. That which we all want the people to really know.

From our doubting parents to the billionaire halls of global media. Our sport is a wild Mustang. In each of our hearts. You know it and I know it.

My name is Matt George, and I do not need some silly nickname online to hide behind.

My name is Matt George and I am right here.

Let’s hear it.

Photo: Steve Sherman/@tsherms
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