Surf Rage: San Clemente cop pulls gun on
young skater, threatens to “shoot him in the fucking face” for
playing music too loud!
By Chas Smith
"Police gonna police..."
You might think that police officers in the
United States of America would be a little more circumspect in
light of recent police brutality business, see incidents in Dallas,
New York City, Cleveland, Everywhere, but negative publicity and/or
jail sentence (Dallas) don’t seem to be a strong deterrent.
Police gonna police, as they say, and when you toss loud music,
skateboards, sixteen-year-olds who for sure surf Lowers and a burly
off-duty cop who probably SUPs and/or rides a mid-length things can
go sideways very quickly.
But you can’t take my word for it. I’m an untrustworthy
narrator, blinded by bias, alcohol and Christian Dior’s Sauvage.
No, we must go to the Earthly Surf Paradise United Kingdom’s
Daily
Mail for details.
A sheriff’s investigator was placed on leave after allegedly
pulling a gun on a teenager who was watching a band play with
friends at a skate park.
Cellphone footage shows the off-duty Orange County deputy
approach the group in San Clemente, California, on Saturday night,
and order them to stop playing music.
The band did as instructed but the confrontation quickly
escalated and the officer, who has not been identified, appeared to
pull out a gun and aim it at a 16-year-old boy carrying a
skateboard.
One of the teens at the park, Koa McClung, told CBS Los
Angeles that the deputy had aggressively grabbed one of the boys,
and when a friend help up his board to intervene, the cop
threatened to shoot him.
‘The guy pulled a gun and said “I’l l shoot you in the
f*****g face if you don’t stop”‘, said McClung. ‘The kid dropped
the skate board and it just went downhill from there.’
“Downhill from there” included the officer stalking around like
a “boy-eating” Great White, wagging his gun around, dropping young
skaters/Lowers surfers to their knees and you may think it is
presumptuous to assume they surfed Lowers but one is named Koa and
another is named Sage.
How does the horror end? Thankfully not with a bang but not with
a whimper either. The kids are alright.
Watch here!
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Comment live, Rip Curl Pro, Portugal, Day
two!
By Derek Rielly
Hide behind moniker, unleash the hounds etc.
What’s your favourite moment in Portuguese
history?
Mine, and only because it’s the least remarked, is the
Guerra Colonial Portuguesa, that lovely thirteen-year
scrap (from 1961 to 1974) with its African colonies, Angola,
Guinea-Bassau and Mozambique along with a little side-action on the
Indian island of Goa.
In today’s battles, in waves Surfline again calls
“five-to-seven-feet”, although with a wind more favourable than
yesterday, we’re treated to a few sparklers amid the tour’s
detritus.
Examine.
MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal Men’s Elimination Round 2
Matchups:
HEAT 1: Owen Wright (AUS) vs. Ricardo Christie (NZL) vs. Miguel
Blanco (PRT)
HEAT 2: Seth Moniz (HAW) vs. Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA) vs. Crosby
Colapinto (USA)
HEAT 3: Ryan Callinan (AUS) vs. Jesse Mendes (BRA) vs. Frederico
Morais (PRT)
HEAT 4: Michel Bourez (FRA) vs. Ezekiel Lau (HAW) vs. Soli Bailey
(AUS)
Once that’s cleared away we can get down to the biz of mowing
through round three and then…then…to the sharp end of the
contest.
Kelly Slater continues to confound. To amaze
and repel us in equal measure. In the water, it's pure amaze.
WSL
Rip Curl Pro, Portugal, Day one: “Onshore
muck; Turpel declares ‘incredible day of surfing!'”
By Longtom
But one thing that will never bore is a Kelly
Slater heat…
France elevated itself over the fatigue with a
magnificent home town win but as day one rolls around in Peniche,
Portugal I’m sensing boredom in key markets. Onshore muck,
rain and miserable close-outs did not elevate the hype despite Joey
Turpel bald-facedly declaring we were in for an “incredible day of
competition”.
Putting aside all other considerations for a second it really
does beg the question, why WSL couldn’t have an extended waiting
period for Europe and run the contests interchangeably depending on
the storm track?
Make modern forecasting a handmaid instead of the bearer of bad
news.
I guess that might entail disentangling the men’s and women’s
Tours again, shoot, too-hard basket.
Ricardo Christie came last in his round one heat. I’ve waited
all year to find something to say about the second-time debutante,
and other than him fitting into my theory that pro surfing hates a
late blooming journeyman, haven’t been able to.
A heroic performance today.
A lot of people have chipped in their hard-earned for him to
pursue his dreams. His major sponsor dropped him and he’s out
watching his own dream die in grimy close-outs in front of thirty
people. You could forgive him for displaying some of what Slater’s
therapist might call “negative emotion”. He scrapped through the
entire heat, last from start to finish in total control of his body
language. What sighs of despair or wailing and gnashing of teeth in
frustration were all done internally. Total dignity.
We learned, via announcement and interview, that Kanoa Igarashi
had “provisionally qualified” for the Olympics under the flag of
the rising sun. Kanoa was suitably thrilled, achieved my goals etc
etc.
Were you thinking, like me, provisional?
When I went to school provisional and its adverb provisionally
meant subject to change or further confirmation; for the time
being. I won’t even pretend to understand the qualification process
but where’s the provisional part of it come in?
Are there Japanese contenders waiting in the wings, total
unknowns wielding surfboards like sashimi knives who could knock
the might Igarashi off his Olympic pedestal before he even gets
there?
Is it provisional because he might get injured, because a
super-typhoon might wipe out the contest site?
Jen See? Chas, you’re a linguistics prof: wherefore this
“provisional” and what does it mean?
Soli Bailey was also pushed into the elimination round. Also
surfed good. Showed amazing control to survive a late under-the-lip
hit on his backhand that received no love from the judging panel.
Showed amazing control over his body language, too. Maybe that is
part of what coaches do nowadays, one of the few things a pro
surfers can control in the beachbreaks of Europe.
The Brazilians were a class above, you won’t be surprised to
hear. Yago, in the ascendancy after being acquitted of the
accusation of cowardice in Teahupoo debacle. So smooth, backside
and front. John Florence must dream of having the constitution
of Italo’s knees and ankles. So robust, flinging airs into the
flats, smashing heaving close-outs. With a finicky forecast and
sans injury, hard not to put the peroxided gymnast at the top of
the pile.
Caio stayed busy, looked tinny before connecting strongly with a
closeout section, which he belted with the loose authority of Matt
Hoy in his prime. He dominated a sleepy Jordy Smith and wildcard
Crosby Colapinto.
Filipe will make a great forty-year old, hopefully retired by
then with two world titles under his belt, the last delivered at
macking Pipeline which he surfed on painkillers before retiring
with a bad back. That back, susceptible to flaring up under
pressure and stress, which we know our Pip feels most dreadfully is
also having the paradoxical effect of freeing Pip from
expectation.
He surfed loose and nice. It calms him down.
In the presser later he made it clear he had let go.
But miracles do happen. A win here. A three-foot day at
Backdoor.
Gabe started his heat with two misses. One closeout the drone
shot showed him desperately paddling into had me worried for a
brief moment. Was he cracking after the French result, where he had
a shocker at La Nord?
No, no.
Just going back to the Medina template of hoovering up anything
that moved, chewing it up and spitting out the gristle. Surfing a
beachbreak with Gabe Medina is not an unpleasant experience. He
moves through the line-up so definitively, with so much variety and
geographical scope he may as well be surfing a different break.
He’s down the beach, he’s fifty yards away, he’s right next to
you paddling for a wave that didn’t even look like a wave. It’s a
continuously moving feeding frenzy on a bait ball. Fins and spray
everywhere.
Gabe landed a full rotation on his backhand and judges paid the
slightly messy completion. It was not a hard heat for him.
The Australians were mostly compressed into the middle heats of
the day. Am I the only one completely bored shitless by Australian
surfing at the moment? Trying to figure out why. We have – for the
first time ever?- no World Title contender. No genuine excitement
machine. The next gen contenders, J-dub and Owen, look distracted
and contented with family life. Callinan looks like a top ten
surfer who may have a good year or three in him. The rest, honest
journeymen.
Where is the future? Recycling Matt Banting and Ethan Ewing?
If, despite our previous testy exchange, High Performance
Director Kim Crane takes my call, I will find out what the top
brass have in mind. From this perspective the future looks, not
bleak, but bland.
Owen and Ryan end up in the losers round, the rest through.
One thing that will never bore is a Kelly heat. Anything Kelly,
realistically. The last Mic’d up episode, featuring Kelly at his
Tub was fascinating, in a slow-motion car crash kind of way. Kelly
in the hands of a self-serving, self-promoting “healer”, being
spiritually micro-managed despite an obvious resistance to the
process.
The tide had come in, the wind a little lighter, the waves
marginally improved for Kelly’s heat. He started strong, fresh and
crispy as a baby cos lettuce. So loose on the redirects. He failed
by a millimetre to lay down a lofted oop.
Rode the wave of the day just after the buzzer. Got through
easily.
He continues to confound. To amaze and repel us in equal
measure. In the water, it’s pure amaze. I know that makes no sense,
but if Wozzle can make no sense, me too.
Provisionally.
MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal Men’s Elimination Round 2
Matchups:
HEAT 1: Owen Wright (AUS) vs. Ricardo Christie (NZL) vs. Miguel
Blanco (PRT)
HEAT 2: Seth Moniz (HAW) vs. Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA) vs. Crosby
Colapinto (USA)
HEAT 3: Ryan Callinan (AUS) vs. Jesse Mendes (BRA) vs. Frederico
Morais (PRT)
HEAT 4: Michel Bourez (FRA) vs. Ezekiel Lau (HAW) vs. Soli Bailey
(AUS)
MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal Men’s Seeding Round 1
Results:
HEAT 1: Willian Cardoso (BRA) 10.60 DEF. Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) 8.83,
Ricardo Christie (NZL) 5.50
HEAT 2: Griffin Colapinto (USA) 10.96 DEF. Kolohe Andino (USA)
9.20, Soli Bailey (AUS) 7.74
HEAT 3: Yago Dora (BRA) 13.56 DEF. Italo Ferreira (BRA) 12.37,
Frederico Morais (PRT) 8.37
HEAT 4: Caio Ibelli (BRA) 10.84 DEF. Jordy Smith (ZAF) 8.30, Crosby
Colapinto (USA) 5.17
HEAT 5: Filipe Toledo (BRA) 11.70 DEF. Vasco Ribeiro (PRT) 9.56,
Ezekiel Lau (HAW) 9.33
HEAT 6: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 14.67 DEF. Joan Duru (FRA) 8.60,
Miguel Blanco (PRT) 6.80
HEAT 7: Jack Freestone (AUS) 10.30 DEF. Jadson Andre (BRA) 9.53,
Owen Wright (AUS) 8.73
HEAT 8: Deivid Silva (BRA) 11.34 DEF. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 9.16,
Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA) 6.43
HEAT 9: Julian Wilson (AUS) 12.66 DEF. Conner Coffin (USA) 10.97,
Jesse Mendes (BRA) 7.33
HEAT 10: Peterson Crisanto (BRA) 11.04 DEF. Adrian Buchan (AUS)
8.77, Seth Moniz (HAW) 5.47
HEAT 11: Sebastian Zietz (HAW) 11.50 DEF. Wade Carmichael (AUS)
10.13, Ryan Callinan (AUS) 6.76
HEAT 12: Michael Rodrigues (BRA) 12.27 DEF. Kelly Slater (USA)
11.00, Michel Bourez (FRA) 8.06
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Revealed: The United Kingdom is officially
the world’s greatest surf paradise!
Today we shall learn about the “branding agency” Cre8ion just
down the pendulum in Cardiff, Wales, UK that gives its employees
Fridays off and forces them to go surfing. Before we tuck in to the
BBC’s wonderful reportage let’s spend a brief moment discussing the
name “Cre8ion.”
I assume it’s pronounced “Creation” but feel the firm would
better fit my branding needs if it was pronounced “Cre-eight-ion”
and would likely sign up for their services if the employees
aggressively corrected anyone who dare call it “Creation.”
Allowing staff to take Friday off every two weeks to “do
sport, go surfing or read a book all day” has boosted employee
performance, according to a company boss.
Cardiff branding agency Cre8ion said the move improved its
creativity and staff retention.
The idea of a four-day week – or reducing average weekly
hours to 32 without a pay cut – has Labour backing. Business body CBI Wales said there was not enough evidence to
back the move.
For six months, the nine-strong team at Cre8ion, which has
offices in Cardiff and Bristol, has worked a two-week pattern where
staff take the first Friday off entirely, then on the second they
work on research and development and their own ideas, either in the
office or wherever they want.
Staff with young children, for example, cannot always do the
things they really enjoy on the weekend, he said. “Having that extra day back, allowing them to go and do sport,
go surfing or read a book all day, that gives them that time
back.
“And people can think ‘well it might not work in my
industry’, so I challenge people: ‘Well if you can’t give a Friday
off to all your workforce, why not have half the work force take
Friday off and the other half take Monday off?’
“If you’re looking to retain millennials, these sorts of
things are really important to them.”
Oh.
I thought the staff had to go surfing on Fridays. This
“do sport” or read a book all day sounds off. Still, between surf
therapy PhDs in the north and “surfing Fridays” in the south, the
United Kingdom is more surf-friendly than the United States,
Hawaii, Australia or Brazil.
Do you think Prime Minister Boris Johnson would open the coffers
and give BeachGrit (buy here) a substantial
incentive package, including money, to move its offices, currently
in Cardiff-by-the-Sea (America) and Bondi (Australia), to
Manchester (England)?
How much?
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Comment live, Rip Curl Pro, Portugal, Day
one!
By Derek Rielly
Show the horror and blackness that rots your soul!
Or go light!
Welcome to Portugal, a punch-above-its-weight
colonialist power that once held dominion over hunks of
Africa with the added kink of eating up Brazil.
Today, according to the Surfline forecast for the penultimate
event of the WSL’s WCT schedule, the surf is “jumbled
(‘five-to-seven-foot faces’), with mixed-up shape but improving
some over the afternoon behind the frontal passage.Moderate onshore
winds continue through around midday before winds ease and trend
more favorable in the afternoon. Rain showers likely through around
midday.”
Tomoz, better winds with a few bomb sets.
A world title is, how do you say, on the line, although
it’ll take two days of rough and tumble for the smog to clear and
the action to start.
Still, it ain’t the worst thing in the world to back and forth
with virtual pals.
So, light up, cool down, part your dressing gown and comment you
know where.