Hawaiian surf star, sparring partner of
Sunny Garcia and former world #19, John Shimooka, dead at
fifty-one
By Derek Rielly
Tributes pour in for popular tour surfer,
manager…
The diminutive former world number nineteen and
jiujitsu black-belt, John Shimooka, whose motto was “life is too
short to be serious” has reportedly been found dead at his
Sydney home.
“When I looked at my baby boy I knew it was all over… I
finally found out what we’re really put on earth for, to reproduce
beautiful little human beings like Brandon. I have loved children
all my life, and to have one of my own is the ultimate. He’s my
jewel,” Shmoo told Hawaii’s Star
Bulletin.
Shmoo won a tour event in Japan and was runner-up to his best
pal Sunny Garcia
at Bells in 1995, riding an ultra-fast Greg Webber. He circled the
tour for a dozen seasons, finishing nineteenth in 1995.
From Hawaiian photographer Brian Bielmann:
“There’s a lotta broken hearts out there today, aloha John Shimooka
Your Beautiful soul touched so so many.”
A gaming card from 1992 said Shmoo “dances to the beat of a
different drummer. His reputation as a party animal may overshadow
his abilities in the water, whether tearing the tops off Ulu
barrels or going airborne at a California beach break, but does he
care? Of course not, as long as he has a chance to speak his mind.
In which case he would probably say life is too short to be
serious. Shmoo lives the classic surfer’s lifestyle: surf the best
you can and have fun while doing it.”
After leaving the tour, Shmoo got deep into
jiujitsu and became a manager for popular surfers
Craig Anderson and Jordy Smith.
Last year, Shmoo spoke at a surfing contest organised by another
former pro, Kurt Nyholm, to raise money for Head Space, an
Australian charity that provides mental health support for
12-25-year-olds.
“Shmoo spoke of his struggles and the dark places they’ve taken
him,” another tour surfer Toby Martin said. “Now we have
Sunny(Garcia). So it has to
stop, and we need to find ways to help. This event offered a
passive way for surfers to reach out. It was a platform so surfers
could let their guard down. That helps stop guys from becoming
isolated, which I know from my own personal experience is where the
problems start.”
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Man suffering a depressive syndrome, manifested when
forced to stop surfing.
Surfers claim “depressive syndrome” and
“emotional imbalance” to climb through loophole circumventing
France’s no-surfing edict!
By Derek Rielly
"Selfish. Creative. Rebellious."
An encouraging letter received this morning from
Hossegor, a surf-rich town in south-west France and a
favourite of BeachGrit, less so for shaper Matt “Mayhem”
Biolos who describes the joint in winter as “like the Blair Witch
Project.”
Worldly readers will have read of a spike in COVID-19 infections
in France, the Republic’s president Emmanuel Macron warning the
country risked being “overwhelmed by a second wave that no
doubt will be harder than the first”. Kinky Manny “My bodyguard is not my
lover”, who began dating his teacher, later his wife, when he
was sixteen, said that France must “brutally apply the
brakes” to avoid being “submerged by the acceleration of the
epidemic”.
Manny said that people need to fill in a form to justify leaving
their homes, you can’t cruise around at night and social gatherings
are banned.
“Like in the spring, you will be able to leave your house only
to work, for a medical appointment, to provide assistance to a
relative, to shop for essential goods or to go for a walk near your
house,” he said.
Importantly, for the safe of the Republic, no surfing.
Our reader, broadydaz, writes,
On the 28th of October, things started to get
shitstain-in-your-pants serious in France for surfers.
The President had just announced the country was locking
down for another month from Friday morning. Surfers started to lose
their mental biscuits as the thought of being forbidden from
surfing: It had already happened once this year earlier in March
and it lasted for two months.
Vichy gendarme proudly poses with busted parallel
fin riding VAL earlier this year.
Apart from a handful of crafty and courageously selfish
surfers who got an occasional fix the majority of the surfing
population went dry.
It was a heavy lockdown and even driving around was
risky.
This time however there were loopholes and the biggest one
was the beach was open. Albeit only for the privileged minority
that lived within one kilometre. Also for a sportsman who needed to
train.
Boom, loopholes.
The last day of the freedom was only accessible for the few
who would brave Belharra. The Friday (day one) of the lockdown was
primed to be all-time and after watching the forecast closely for
ten days it was maddening everyone to tears.
Day one dawned and the webcams proved the forecast
correct.
They also witnessed something else. Startingly or perhaps
not at all, surfers were surfing.
How could there be so many professionals! At every
spot.
Paddling out at Hossegor’s prime big wave location La Nord
punters were surprised that it was crowded! Even more surprising
was the atmosphere, surfers were happy to see other
surfers.
Safety in numbers. Solidarity. Rebellion.
Revolution.
Macron had said the forces of law and order would go easy on
everyone till they returned home from holidays Sunday
night.
Rumours were rife. The police were sending reinforcements
and they would arrive the following Tuesday.
Surfers were frenzied over the offshore conditions for days.
Fines were to be 135€ and surfers starting calculating how much a
three-hour session of six foot waves should cost.
Then dividing sessions into 135€ Tuesday came and no sign
reinforcements.
New loopholes surfaced.
Medical certificates could get you a surfing
pass.
Surf Instructors had the greenlight.
Then more rumours.
Everyone was abusing authorities and the beaches would be
closed from Wednesday to everyone till February. It freaked the
surfers out so they surfed more. Others that hadn’t been surfing
gave up and went surfing.
Doctors recorded an increase in surfers needing
prescriptions to surf.
People were very sick, troubled, needed to surf. New rumours
that medical certificates didn’t work and instructors weren’t
allowed resurfaced.
Soon no-one would be able to surf.
The surf got better, the wind went more offshore.
More swell. All sorts of size. Big waves, small waves,
hollow and fast waves.
More rumours. Second fines would be 3000€. First fines would
be 3000€.
Surfers discussed their different certificates.
Surfboard builders were professionals too. They needed to
test the equipment.
Every surfing parent needed to train their
children.
Surfing became for those few weeks a revolution for
some.
It spoke of the passion they had inside their
hearts.
They were selfish. Creative. Rebellious.
The beaches would close. But still, they surfed.
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New evidence suggests spate of Killer
Whale-on-boat violence not tied to revenge but to fun: “They just
play, play and play. And the game is getting worse and worse!”
By Chas Smith
They love it. And don't know why.
It was first reported,here, two months ago,
that a pod of Killer Whales off the coasts of Spain and New Spain
(i.e. Portugal) was exhibiting never-before-seen behavior in
carrying out coordinated attacks on boats. Scientists and
researchers puzzled and puzzled over what it could all mean and,
a month
later, many concluded they were revenge assaults over
injuries sustained.
That the Killers “may have felt compelled to act when they saw a
sailboat in order to slow it down by going after its rudder.”
Well, another month on and the situation has grown much worse
with attacks increasing in both ferocity and damage. Some last for
hours with terrified passengers and sailors praying for a merciful
end.
Scientists and researchers reconvened to get to the bottom of
this wild business, identified the three culprits and named them
Gladis Black, Gladis White and Gladis Grey and have now abandoned
the revenge theory, settling on an assumption that the big boys are
just having some good ol’ fashioned fun.
Renaud de Stephanis, a biologist who is part of the team
investigating, told the BBC, “I’ve seen them hunting. When they
hunt, you don’t hear or see them. They are stealthy, they sneak up
on their prey. I’ve seen them attacking sperm whales. That’s
aggressive. But these guys, they are playing. It’s mainly two of
those guys…that are just going crazy. They just play, play and
play. And the game is getting worse and worse. They love it. And
don’t know why. It just seems to be something they really like and
that’s it.”
Well now I like them and like everything they are doing.
I get it and am going to swim out to the lineup at Cardiff Reef
and start ramming the fins of every SUP I see with my head for
fun.
By the way, did you know that Elvis Presley’s beloved mother was
named Gladis but she spelled it Gladys?
Very cool.
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Listen: Surfing superhero Mark Occhilupo on
quitting the booze, being a daddy to nine kids and his beginnings
as a “little cross-dressing Italian Scotsman from Kurnell!”
By Derek Rielly
And being slapped by Hawaiian lifeguard and having
rail bitten by famous big-wave surfer…
God bless the great Mark Occhilupo, and I mean that
sincerely. Surfers come and go, light up an epoch and then
disappear, usually without glory.
Occhilupo, however, turns sixty in five years time (“Sixty in
five years time? Don’t say that!”) and still lives a surfer’s
dream.
He has a “little nook” at Rainbow Bay and is up at three-thirty
every morning, and never with a hangover for he quit drinking three
years ago (“It was my nemesis”), chasing the four am Gold Coast
sunrise and those precious few uncrowded runners.
He has been largely ignored by the ravages of ageing and is a
finely balanced combination of enthusiasm and
confidence.
He is a world champion and a runner-up to the world title, is
still regarded by most as the best surfer ever at Bells, and
possibly Jeffreys Bay, and has a spirit that bristles with a
scorching flame.
In a wonderful profile by Sean Doherty five years ago, Occ
self-described as a “little cross-dressing Italian Scotsman from
Kurnell.”
World Surf League CEO Erik Logan pledges to
“help restart economic engine” severely damaged by Covid-19 by
“bringing world’s best surfers to the North Shore!”
By Chas Smith
Powerful.
But oh drat, here we go again. The world ready
to go back under lock and key as dreaded Covid-19 cases rage across
the United States of America, Europe, Australia. The global economy
losing the oxygen it so desperately needs to fire. Last lockdown,
everyone except face mask makers lost their job and many business
were forced to shutter.
People only fed, clothed, kept warm thanks to largess of
government.
This coming lockdown, though, there is surprising new player
ready to provide much needed stimulus.
Our World Surf League.
As you well know, the 2020/21 World Championship Tour sparks to
life on Maui (on the women’s side) and Oahu’s North Shore (for the
men). According to Hawaii News
Now, spectators will not be allowed on the beach and
the WSL will be broadcasting from private homes in order to have
“no active presence at Pipeline and Sunset.”
Even still, World Surf League CEO Erik Logan is bullish about
professional surfing’s impact, telling the CBS affiliate, “We feel
really, really confident of leaning and help restart the economic
engine by bringing the world’s best surfers to the North
Shore.”
I don’t know what the leaning business is about but am very
proud of our favorite pastime’s power.
Do you think that the world’s best surfers going to the North
Shore will help restart Hawaii’s economy or the global economy?
I think maybe global since, again, the WSL will have “no active
presence at Pipeline and Sunset” but also because I’m generally
anti-depressive.
In any case, very exciting and inspirational. I hope that CEO
Logan gets many calls from world leaders thanking him, and us by
proxy, for our service.
