The grumpy local reigns!
We’d been creeping closer for ages but this past August your friendly neighborhood BeachGrit finally blew right past longtime foils Stab and The Inertia to officially become the biggest little surf website in the world. Our social media presence is minimal, a dwarf in comparison, our social media spends are entirely non-existent. We can’t afford bots or other traffic juicing tools and don’t believe in them even if we could and yet here we are, all thanks to the greatest stable of surf journalists surf journalism has ever seen and, above all, you.
You and Negatron.
I’ll be real honest, it feels good to have it all built on a clunky analog* foundation. A website that folks have to punch into the “search” bar. A comment section like an old-school chat room. Yellow headlines that shout funny and a distinct lack of ugly pandering to advertisers, condescension to the reader or broadening the subject matter to include ocean kayaking/camping. It makes me believe that, even in this crossed up, noisy world, like-minded ne’er-do-wells can still find each other and that surfing’s like-minded ne’er-do-wells are more engaged than its consumers looking for the latest rugby shirt or its “everything is awesome” ocean kayaking/camping VAL.
I’m very biased but BeachGrit is how I want surfing to feel and I’m grinning ear to ear that, at least today, the blood feuds, less-than-completely-verifiable gossip, fun making and fun having are where people want to be too.
So thank you. Sincerely and honestly.
And you’re next World Surf League. May the grumpy local reign evermore!
*Analog as in obsolete technology not Burton’s one-time surf brand.
thank you! Interesting about the yulex being stiffer. I’ve always used a 4/3 Oneil as MT is a perfect fit.
Interesting. this is patagonia right?
edit: checked their site that Yulex looks interesting. Expensive tho I may have to visit a shop and see what they feel like. And or fit. Although I havnt tried a suit on in a shop since forever..haha..do they event let you anymore?
Yeah, it is pretty heavy and the aftermath emotional recovery aspect is interesting. On the one hand, all your possessions are incredibly vulnerable. And on the other, there is not a single thing you can do about it. You are totally dependent on the wind direction and strength, and the skill of the firefighters and their resources.
Most of the community watched the water bombing through the day. It started off with the wind blowing in a direction that was good for us, in that it was blowing the fire past our area, but then that means it is towards someone else, so there is a bit of guilt/shame there. And then it turned to blow the fire directly on path with our area. And we got kicked out of our watching zone, cos it was under threat as well.
The gel bomber made 2 drops that allowed the fire fighters to fight the edges of the fire rather than a wider front. Which in the end saved our communities. Had it not bombed, the fire could have burnt through bushland and houses all the way to Noosa.
Re: patagucci. Had a never ending suit from them for a couple of years. Amazing customer service. Great suit – still dry after 3-4 hours. Hooded 4/3 (R3?) in standard rubber was awesome. The seal got a few cracks, took it back at the end of winter and ended up with a full replacement. Same thing happened at the end of the next winter. No questions asked. Third time round, my never ending suit was the non hooded yulex R3. Much much stiffer around the shoulders and upper chest, and let in way more water with a separate hood. Switched to O’Neil 3/2 with a separate vested hood – way better all round suit.
Yes, but have you now jumped the shark?
Marvin, not “Marven.”
Shame on Quikky…
Post-partum depression reduced thanks to BeachGrit. Only a surfer knows the feeling
Good on BeachGrit. (‘Course, one data point that doesn’t fit with the rest is an anomaly, not a trend 🙂
We’ve already got ’em beat for next month!
Thanks for doing what you guys do!
-unofficial beach grit lid rider.
Jeez, you take a few moments away to survive a raging fucking bushfire that laps up a coupla hundred metres from Chez Limon, and the place goes fucken ballastic.
Funny story. The fire that went through and torched Peregian Beach on Monday night had apparently settled down by Tuesday morning, so I did what any reasonable BGritter would do and wiggled around the roadblocks to catch some waves at Coolum.* While sitting in the water and looking homewards, I first noticed noticed the wind puffing up a bit from the south east, and then about 20 minutes later, the smoke getting smokier from the plume that was smouldering. I thought I should head home, given that the wind was pushing the plume in the direction of our neck of the woods.
Got a terse message from the wife upon reaching the wagon, but had heard that traffic was moving through the area, so wasn’t too worried. Turned out I was the second car denied entry to our zone after the immediate evacuation order had gone out. Had to park the car outside the zone and wait for wife, kids, dog and lizard to come out. Imagine my popularity?
Spent the day watching water bombing choppers flying around in circles desperately trying to get the fire out, getting interviewed on tv and wondering of there were any houses left to deliver mail to at the beach. Also wishing I hadn’t unpacked the guitar and amplifiers, as well as the horde of semi-collectible surfboards the night before. After looking like things were under control, the choppers disappeared, thinking the fire retardant gel bomber was about to turn up. But it turned out there was a glitch in the system and it had turned back to the Yamba fires. That was enough to let the fire kick off full party mode, and with the change in wind direction with 30kn winds, things got serious.
We got kicked out of where we were and hitched up at my sisters place hoping we would still have a house, (and guitar and amps and surfboards) to come back to. Due to the combined efforts of many Rural Fire Brigades and local firies, with the gel bomber, we got off fully intact. (Please support these guys!)
Hard to say whether my wife will get over the fact that she missed out on coffee in bed for her birthday while I went surfing and left everyone to burn at this point but I’m cautiously optimistic.
*Fun, little left handers 2′-3′. What are you going to do?
Yeah I heard the fireys kicked ass up there.
Grand gesture required there at a minimum for Mrs pie
Man, just come back from checking the waves and took a drive to the end of the road. 4 houses down there and a lot of bush. If the fire got across the road, it is National Park all the way to Ti-Tree, with no access points/roads to get in. The fire got into one of the yards and apart from the odd tree, was stopped. It was scary close. It’s actually gut-wrenching to see that they were maybe 10m away from losing that battle and thinking about the consequences. Firey’s are champions. And that gel bomber.
I heard they caught the little cunts who lit it
I hope they got a good phone book bashing
the puny phone books these days don’t bash with even a modicum of bastardry that the old ones used to. Fuck the internet.
Yeah I hadn’t thought of that
Maybe an old laptop upside the head.
Yeah, they apparently turned themselves in. To be fair, (and this might be the one case where social media reports were true), what I learnt from being inside the situation; was not to believe anything on social media and even the ‘real’ media reports were often wrong and/or pushing an angle they wanted. Not that it ever happens on BG.
Yep.
It’s a good reminder of the bullshit level on all and every media form
. It’s just not worth taking seriously.
There has been a lot of thank you bbqs the last couple of mornings. Every radio station is cashing in.
Mrs. Pie knew what she was getting in for. Isn’t a spectacular light show enough?
She’s a very lucky woman.
Inuit was the moment you said it.*
*Fuck me dead. That was a stretch, even for me.
Finally, the moment I’ve been waiting for!
I like your old stuff better than your new stuff.
I read one
Made a comment
Promptly got banned
classic!
Someone should introduce them to spell check and school.
Not to mention the tools over at Stab have made it a ‘safe place’ by banning all the good commenters. Happily most of them are here now.
Yeah Stab banned me (not puting myself in category as ‘good commenter’, which I hardly do and suck when I do) for the most trivial thing…snowflakey crew over there….in particular that gnome Cimarella.
Yeah I got banned from them too
Good…
Can we please get an article where Chas shows and explains his tattoos, (Asking for a friend.)
Oooooee that’s a view!
White zinc lips is a nod to the legend “Tyrone Biggums”
Holy shit. If you mean Phil Dreifuss attorney/ solicitor. Lives on Wairere next to Ivan Paterson. I did some work w/Phil a few years back. Small world. Those crab claw sailing canoes look sweet.