Better than nothing, though, yes?
Want to talk exquisite timing?
Do you remember, as October opened, when Rip Curl, the last of the big three to sell, cashed in its chips to New Zealand camping retailer Kathmandu for $350 million?
The deal ended fifty years of continuous private ownership for a company founded in Torquay in 1969 by Doug Warbrick and Brian Singer, two wild gunslingers whose surf DNA allowed Rip Curl to thrive while Billabong and Quiksilver went public, soared, then sunk.
Kathmandu’s bullish CEO Xavier Simonet said that, “Rip Curl transforms Kathmandu into a highly complementary, seasonally balanced, global outdoor and action sports business. The combination will support the acceleration of our brands’ global expansion into new channels and markets. Sharing a focus on quality, innovation and sustainability, Kathmandu and Rip Curl make for a great cultural fit.”
What’s that investment worth to Kathmandu now?
Rip Curl stores shuttered, consumer confidence kicked in the pussy, a world tour the company has dominated for the last decade (world champs in 2007, 2009, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018) suffering the effects of verdigris as it oxidises on a billionaire’s desk.
And what’s Kathmandu worth?
Four days ago, it closed all its Australian stores, its New Zealand online operation and iced four thousand jobs.
It’s share price a few weeks ago was three bucks forty.
(Update: Kathmandu shares have just been in a trading halt pending a “material announcement” by Kathmandu. These sorta things happen when shares are going through the floor and the company wants to get a little breathing space.)
All of which suggests today’s rumour, which comes from a source one might called impeccable, might actually be good news for pro surfers.
From Wednesday, April 1, all of Rip Curl’s pro surfer salaries will be slashed by half, with a wait-and-see attitude in place in case they have to bite off the other chunk.
The surfer affected include Mick Fanning, Gabriel Medina, Owen Wright, his sis Tyler, Mason Ho, Conner Coffin and the luckless Bethany Hamilton and tour rookie Morgan Cibillic.
If there’s any sense in that damn company, Mason Ho’s salary, a pittance of what he’s worth, will remain steady.
“You know where this is going,” the source wrote.
I can guess.
And you?
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The most ignorant analogies I have seen on the internet have been “Cancer kills more people yearly. So does diabetes, obesity, suicide, drug use and car accidents. Should we ban cars too?” The last I heard, cancer and suicide and all the other comparisons are not communicable conditions. Can you imagine if you could “catch cancer” from someone coughing within 6 feet of you? Who would leave their house even without a quarantine? Forget only AI, most of the pro surfing world would be dead too just by transmission from “drug use”. And yes… if riding in a car transmitted a condition that made you crash and die the next time you drive… Then you better fucking believe that cars use would become banned. So much ignorance online. Those idiotic analogies need to stop.
Man gets head-butted by White! Trending worldwide.
hopefully this bankrupts owen wright and his over leveraged ambitions to be a real estate developer.
Doesn’t mean to say that they are recording that the person dies from it, merely that they had it.
Not even a thigh to waist LB ripple somewhere? You can’t say “no waves in the forecast” unless you’re an East Coaster, where ankle high for 6 weeks on end is reality.
That 2k is statistically insignificant. Probably represents people who are dying because they can’t get treatment due to the panicked clogging the healthcare system. Or maybe the suicides of people who’ve lost business’. Hard to tell.
I’ll contribute to the salary of any pro who wears a Poohbear costume during competition.
How does a company cut contractual salaries that it wrote, negotiated and co signed?
By having a better lawyer than the 20 year old kid that never went to school and only learnt how to spell their own name so they can sign autographs.
Medina, Coffin, etc don’t have an attorney or agent?
Well, then they did it to themselves.
Probably a fine print clause about the surfers not being able to keep their end of the deal (contest surfing) that nobody ever thinks will actually happen.
But just happened…
Probably a big print clause about “we’ll cut you whenever we want”.
People just see the dollars and think it’ll never happen.
Even more satisfying for the casual observer in that case
There’s alway a clause. And his name ain’t Santa.
wilko is probably thinking he is pretty smart now, got out while things were good and invested in hospi……. oh wait. lets face it, it pretty much sucks for most people right now. (unless you run an online yoga course, sell sex toys or both)
woolies nightfill ftw.
Rip curl has been supporting junior/pro surfers and Local/pro events globally for 50 years so if you need a new wettie pull ya head out of ya cynical asses and go to their website and buy it online or ring ya local surf shop and he’ll probably deliver it for you.
*Kathmandu ain’t done shit for surfing
* pull ya head out of ya cynical asses
and give your money to some kiwis who don’t give a shit about surfing! yay!
And the wetsuits are very good, let’s make no bones about that.
Still overpaid. Some guy that rides waves well in order to sell underpants (or wetsuits or whatever). Kind of seems very irrelevant when doctors and very underpaid nurses are working overtime and risking their lives. Maybe Gaybe should throw some bucks at the Brazillian health system and show the world that hes really not just a total cunt?
Maybe you should fitzy
We are all going to go bankrupt, insolvent, broke, spent, ruined, wiped out
All those are bad, but at least you didn’t say that we are all all gonna die. We may end up with no money, but at least we will have our health, and each other. Right?
Thoughts and prayers for …..
19 dead in Australia from CV
Only 4 have died from it, the others died of something else but they are listed as CV victims cause they had it
All over 70.
Similar stats in italy
This is the biggest load of bullshit ever foisted upon us
I’m really getting tired of your negative comments.
We are all in this together, like a unmarked mass Serbian war grave
I hear ya!
That very much depends on whether you have today’s intel or next month’s… don’t be complacent. I, for one, have very personal reasons not to be, but it takes the whole fuckn village.
Well see
The stats say its not all that deadly
Certainly not deadly enough for this catastrophy to take place
Absolutely, but politics and reporting (which is a farce between countries) aside… Despite draconian measures, I’d so much rather be back in the motherland of NZ right now, but I am fortunate enough to have a job and am still contributing to the economy in Oz – for now at least. I work in a medical school and my clinician colleagues across the board have been predicting this for months, and they’re now under the fucking pump. Our near graduates will be joining the workforce ASAP, provided they decide to.
I also have plenty of family and friends in Europe and it’s certainly no joke there. Albeit only a mere few hundred thousand suffering in a big way, globally, it’s already way too close to home for me, so taking it very seriously. Wish could disclose other circumstances contributing to my stress around this.
To each their own, and look after yaself and fam. See you at the beach when we’re back to the new normal… meantime, be smart, this is not simply the flu given the facts.
All right mate
Its no joke either way
Good luck to us all!
Yep 11,500 dead in Italy.
Totally similar.
11,500 is very small number. A quick google returned the below link. 2018 for example, in just the Lombardy region of Italy, there were 100k deaths. The daily death rate has not increased since Corona virus was introduced to Italy (by China). Media fails to inform us of these facts.
https://www.statista.com/st…
12,428 dead in two months, amigo. And it’s just getting started.
No. Warm weather is the death knell for this virus and Spring is here. That’s why this thing is mostly only affecting countries along 40 degrees latitude.
indonesia…..almost like you’re trying to be wrong about everything.
You’re debating the science of a pandemic with anonymous people on BeachGrit disqus. Best to move on and stay safe and hope no one you love gets it.
your stat doesn’t prove anything….
Bingo. Same is happening in NYC. People with serious underlying conditions, one foot in the grave pass. Testing postmortem shows Covid 19. Did that kill them? Not really, but it will be marked as such.
Here’s the big one: daily and monthly death rates (all deaths) have not increased since Covid 19 came on the scene. Past pandemics like Spanish flu, this was not the case.
My take as well. With all due respect to people killed by it, which is happening, the numbers are being manipulated to create more fear and panic than it calls for.
least scientific person ever. all anecdotal shit, all the time.
Cheer up grumpy
It’s good news
And we’re all epidemiologists all of a sudden.
When mars attacks we’ll all suddenly be experts on Martian physiology and military tactics.
Also all of a sudden firm believers in mainstream media. Go figure?
april Fool fools
World champs in 2016, 17, and 18 with a Rip Curl sticker. All Brazilian I think? Does that help or hurt U.S. or Oz. sales?
Definitely devalued them as Brazilians pay a far lower price for the same product…
Why do they always get the discount?
Same reason as it’s always 80% off in Bali and other third world shitholes probably…
HURLULEY IS HIRING!!!
FUCK THESE NEGATIVE LOSER-LARRYS!
SAD
COME OVER TO THE BRIGHTER SIDE OF TOWN –
TAKE YOUR PERFORMANCE
TO ANOTHER
LEVEL
DREAM CATCHERS AND FIN-COZIES FOR EVERYONE!!!
Dear hurl,
I have a massive backside slash.
Send check
Yours truly,
R. Matic
Dear R,
Thank you so much for your letter.
I would advise that you should possibly see a qualified physician about your ailment, but when you recover you are more than welcome to join the fabulous all-inclusive Hurluley team, and follow-through with your dreams.
Sincerely,
Channel B.
(CEO)
my misses has a massive backside but giving her 30% off retail would only make her shop more.
Welcome to the team.
AS one of your team riders am yet to see any merch????
As the CEO, I’ve yet to see any either!!!!
The approaching demographic.
https://focusedcollection.c…
Oh fuck Kelly pinch me, it’s a dream come true. The tourists are gone. The surf is empty. No surf schools. No traffic. Humans keeping social distance. Free government money. Overpaid pro surfers getting shitcanned. Full moon on the rise. It’s poetic justice. How could I ask for anything more?
Dude, you’re a sponno !
Finally.
Disclaimer: I’m waiting to hear if I qualify for the relief package being dished up here in nz.
Gonna print me up a koru- stick it up front if I get it. It’ll make up, in part, for all the ACC I’ve never claimed because if you’re self employed …. Fucken nightmare so many don’t even bother.
Sharks?
I have never purchased a surf related item due to being influenced by who is on a team. Oh I did order a Voodoo Child though. I guess surfers move surfboards but not much else? Agreed or no?
The soulless fucks would sell their grandmother to the devil if it meant an extra $.
When a certain magazine pictured (it had been pictured before but not named) but this time they pictured it and gave the ‘name’, (thus giving the location also) of a certain ‘secret’ spot at the end of a forty mile dirt road way below the border–my eyes were ‘Hurt’ ‘Open’–to what the mags. and the ‘surf industry’ in general was really all about.
Don’t think I ever bought a thing from them after that. For me, that was the beginning of the end for all things surf industry related. May they reap what they have sowed………
Nothings really changed for you has it/will it Freerider?
So mate when you went to Taiwan and plastered your photos all over facebook, were you selling out all the Taiwanese surfers by publicising their spot?
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Taiwan is the true birthplace of surfing, as it’s where the people who sailed eastward across the Pacific to colonise the islands we now know as Polynesia left from.
Once they reached Tahiti they split up and some sailed NNW to become Hawaiian while some sailed SW via Rarotonga to become the Maori in what is now known as New Zealand…
That Sam Waters is not ‘me’. I’ll try and research that and see who ‘he’ is.
oh, i went there. scored it much better than this. class. and you do surf it alone. fickle af though
Due diligence! I just reversed my vote on his previous post. #barrell,#tube,#shacked…Sammy!
Never been to Taiwan……..
so would we. If we had a product.
Original, or slight return (live)?
Slight return, ghost shaped in Oz.
That’s Brazil nuts to Gmed.
He’s got those insta Reais
Can’t wait for the CT tour to start this year with the new sponsors:
Zoom Tahiti Pro, Purrell Margaret River Pro, 3M Pro France, Corona Open J-Bay, and of course, the Charmin Pipeline Masters! Gonna be fun.
Houseparty Rio Pro
(insert toilet paper manufacturer) Pro?
Edit: oops sorry I didn’t see ‘Charmin’ earlier.
It’ll al be TikTok
On the contrary.
As the noted journalist Irwin M. Fletcher once decried…”It’s all ball bearings nowadays.”
Don’t forget the CCP Asian Classic.
They’re going to own the whole fucking world when this is done.
Otherwise known as the “China is Asshole Classic In Memory of that Bat That Got Eaten and Started This Whole Fucking Thing.”
That too
Upvote for truth. Downvote for truth.
Charmin Pipeline in Loving Memory of Andy Irons Masters….