You’ve seen Kelly Slater on the world’s most famous
podcast sitting there across from the equally bald Joe
Rogan. You’ve also likely seen Shane Dorian, also bald, discussing
big waves and hunting. Today you shall see Hawaiian mixed martial
artist Max Holloway, friend of Makuakai Rothman etc.
The conversation veers to surfing as Max was recently featured
in a program that showcased his ability. Joe talks about surfing
being a difficult thing mostly because the ocean is a difficult
place, albeit solved by Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch.
Max counters that he’s heard it feels different than surfing an
actual wave. Joe adds, without seeming to have experience, that it
is more predictable and a great “hack” as it were, like running on
a treadmill.
“Imagine all the practice you could get.” He says.
The two continue to chat about Surf Ranch when an offscreen
voice, the producer I believe, says he read on ESPN that it cost
$10,000 per hour to surf the inland facility.
The ensuing banter is absolutely priceless.
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"You MUST come to the country house this spring. We've
just renovated the guest quarters..."
Luxury lifestyle magazine declares: “Winter
surfing is the new skiing!”
Would you consider your lifestyle luxurious? I
mean, if you really took it apart, dissecting where you live, what
you drive, what sort of coffee you drink, the BeachGrit
shirt you are wearing right now (buy here) would it be
considered opulent by the vast majority of the world’s
population?
I think yes for all of us and especially because we are surfers,
the new skiers shushing, driving Audis with fancy Swedish rack
systems, vacationing in St. Moritz etc. and let us go straight to
the luxury lifestyle magazine Condé Nast
Traveller for a look at the hot new trend sweeping the
upper-middle-to-upper classes.
Well this isn’t so bad, I think as I step into the dark,
frigid water. New Hampshire in February is known for its heavy
snowfall, “Nor’Easter” storms, and ski resorts of the ice-clad,
teeth chattering variety. But somehow I’ve found myself surfboard
in hand, marching straight into the North Atlantic. As I wade
chest-deep into the water, I develop a mantra to reassure myself:
I’m still warm. Snow flurries float just above the water. I’m still
warm.
I pass a few waves with ease before I get caught off guard
by a much larger wave crashing down around me. That’s when it hits
me, literally and figuratively: This is New Hampshire in February.
The sea slaps me square in the face, my only exposed skin, and at
39°F it might as well be solid ice. A few rogue streams of cold
water sneak their way into my thick wetsuit through the hood,
trickling slowly down my neck. It’s back-bending agony, but my body
recovers and I’m able to keep paddling. I’m still warm, I tell
myself.
Out on the water that day, the remarkable thing wasn’t that
I found some of the most surfable, enjoyable waves I’ve found
anywhere. It was that I wasn’t alone.
Can you believe?
Winter surfing as new skiing?
Where shall we head to toast Hot Toddys and laugh about our
investment portfolios?
Lake Michigan?
Cornwall, England?
You choose.
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Bangladeshis no dig chick shredders.
Film about heroic girl surfer “hurts
religious sentiment”; ban sought in High Court!
"No Dorai tells the story of a poor girl named
Ayesha who falls in love with surfing and takes up the sport in
defiance of a conservative society that often pushes girls to marry
early."
It may be exceedingly difficult to believe, or picture,
but the patriarchal hellholes of Australia and the US, may
not be the worst places on earth to be a woman.
Now, a movie based on that country’s most high-profile female
surfer, No Dorai (“Not Afraid”), which was released on
November 29, is facing a high court action for it to be banned for
“hurtling religious sentiments” in the Muslim majority nation.
The film’s producer, Mahboob Rahman, said
the High Court has asked the filmmakers to justify by next month
why the censor certificate should not be withdrawn, adding they
would fight moves to shut the movie down.
Released on November 29, the much anticipated No Dorai tells
the story of a poor girl named Ayesha who falls in love with
surfing and takes up the sport in defiance of a conservative
society that often pushes girls to marry early.
No Dorai is the first film in Bangladesh to focus on female
surfers and deal with poverty as well as discrimination against
women in the country of 160 million.
Rahman said he was surprised by the reaction to the
film.
“There is a group that wants women to stay indoors,” Rahman
told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, adding that he had also
received threats online.
“Some people are saying that Ayesha wears a bikini in the
movie and that this is against our religion. There is no such scene
… these people haven’t watched the movie.”
The row over the film started when Islam sent a legal notice
to the filmmakers on December 4 calling for the movie to be banned
and said some scenes in the movie “hurt religious sentiments”. He
did not name specific scenes.
“We want the censor board to cancel the movie’s certificate.
We want the movie to be withdrawn and we also want the filmmakers
to apologise,” Islam told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Rahman said he came up with the idea of a movie about
surfing in Bangladesh when he met Nasima Akter, a female surfer
from the southern beach town of Cox’s Bazar who received global
media coverage after out-surfing her male peers.
Akter was made homeless at the age of seven and found hope
in surfing in Cox’s Bazar, which boasts the world’s longest
uninterrupted sandy beach.
Rahman said Akter is now married with two children and
rarely surfs.
No Dorai, however, ends on a different note, with Ayesha
fighting back to continue surfing.
“In Bangladesh and many places, women are oppressed and not
allowed to do what they like … we gave a different ending and made
the protagonist very strong so that she fights back and inspires
more women,” said Rahman.
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Question: Does the World Surf League’s
bald-faced false narrative regarding wave quality help foster a
toxic, corrosive Internet environment?
I’ve been sitting on this damned Pipe contest
all day long based on a completely bullish Surfline
forecast last night and equally bullish posts from the twin
surf-lite websites of greater Venice Beach. That’s what I get for
trusting people who ride extra volume twin fins/poorly conceived
“partners” when not lying in order to save… reputations.
I get pushing a morning surf by 20 minutes in order to ensure
our patented* Comment
Live: post actually goes comment live. Pushing the
traditional 11 am cocktail to near 12:20 pm. And what are they
doing to us? What are the Santa Monica lever pullers doing to
us?
I’ll tell you. Trapping us all in a non-stop loop of checking
every hour, on the hour, promising epic buoys for the epic boys,
Pipes for the Snipes.
And then nothing.
But has our World Surf League not read all the horrific studies
of delayed Internet gratification?
A city in Indonesia hopes nature can save kids from internet
addiction. But can chicks and trees really replace iPhones and
smart TVs?
The city of Bandung in West Java has launched a pilot
program to get students away from screens by giving them baby
chickens and chili seeds in the hopes that the children will spend
less time on electronic devices and more time caring for their pets
or plants.
The Bandung government said that 2,000 chicks and 1,500
chili seeds are being provided to 10 elementary schools and two
junior high schools in the city, which is about 150 kilometers (93
miles) southeast of the capital Jakarta.
Mayor Oded M. Danial held a symbolic hand-over ceremony
earlier this week to launch the program. He said he hopes the
project will help get children to use electronic gadgets less
frequently, but that local education authorities need time to
evaluate it.
World Surf League?
I know you are reading. I know you feel bad about this… this…
(earmuffs Indonesian children) cocktease. Can’t you but give us
baby chickens and chili seeds instead of all day waits with Pat O
Instagram posts feeding eternal hope?
Please?
Boooo.
Booooooooo.
See you tomorrow.
*Not patented.
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Exciting re-enactment of rescue.
Happy Ending: “Distressed surfer” from
Humboldt State University daringly rescued by Coast Guard
helicopter before he drifts out to sea!
And can we talk about the incredible Jaws event once
more before our attention swings to Pipeline and today’s crowning
of both its Master and the Championship Tour Champion? I almost
can’t wait but… Jaws. It was just so much fun. The amount of waves
ridden, the boldness of the competitors, the daring jet-ski
rescues, that iconic yellow helicopter swirling overhead.
But have you ever ridden in a helicopter? I have a small handful
of times in Papua New Guinea, backcountry Wyoming and Canada. The
way those whirly birds raise straight from the ground, the way they
dip, dodge, dive and duck is incredible.
Well, a very lucky young man, a university student from Humboldt
State University just north of San Francisco’s Bay Area, got to
play Jaws rescue and go for a ride and let’s read the thrilling
tale Kris Nagel from a very well-written Coast Guard press
release.
The Coast Guard and a California State Park Lifeguard
rescued a 20-year-old Humboldt State University student from being
swept into a rocky shoreline near Moonstone Beach, Sunday
afternoon.
At approximately 1:30 p.m., Coast Guard Sector Humboldt Bay
received a 911-dispatch call reporting a surfer being swept toward
a rocky shoreline due to a combination of rough seas and the
surfer’s exhaustion.
Sector Humboldt Bay dispatched an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter
crew and issued an urgent marine information broadcast via VHF-FM
channel 16.
The Dolphin crew arrived on-scene at approximately 2:00 p.m.
and found California State Park Lifeguard, Keven Harder, was in the
water and had established contact with the distressed
surfer.
After it was determined that the swimmer was too fatigued to
make it back to shore, Harder signaled the Dolphin crew to deploy
their rescue swimmer to hoist the surfer. Once the surfer was
hoisted, the Dolphin crew remained on scene until Harder was able
to swim back to the beach.
The fatigued surfer, Kris Nagel, was taken to the California
Redwood Coast – Humboldt County Airport and transferred to
emergency medical services personnel who evaluated and released
him.
Kris Nagel (left) with his hero.
I wish our World Surf League would also employ the Coast Guard
press release writer for its own. I can taste the salt. Feel the
wind.
And have you ever been rescued anywhere? Skiing? Snowboarding?
Mountain biking, hiking, street luge?
