Lines expected.

The mainstream media displayed much shock, over the weekend, when it was revealed that iconic blue-collar troubadour Bruce Springsteen’s surfboard was headed up to Cleveland, Ohio to be placed in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Surprise and consternation as highlighted by Microsoft News report:

Surf’s up at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

No, we’re not talking about a Beach Boys exhibit. It’s Bruce Springsteen’s surfboard that’s now on display at the Rock Hall, which reopened to the general public on Jan. 17 “with proven health and safety precautions in place to protect staff and guests,” according to a Hall press release.

The Springsteen surfboard is very bizarre and weird though part of other new artifacts, including a Cleveland Cavaliers rock-themed City Edition uniform; outfits worn by Harry Styles, Laura Jane Grace, and Jidenna, Maline Moye’s guitar, and more.

Etc.

What the lamestream media clearly does not know is that Springsteen and his E-Street Band grew up in the surfing paradise of Asbury Park, New Jersey, my favorite town east of the Mississippi, and let’s quickly revisit BeachGrit’s award-winning trip to the Home of the Pork Roll.

Brilliant, no?

And in any case, Springsteen who made his name at The Stone Pony, lived in a surfboard factory with many members of the E-Street Band and was even managed by Challenger Surfboard’s founder-in-chief Carl “Tinker” West.

“We were from Freehold and there wasn’t any surfing there, but it was the surfers who worked at the surfboard factory who got the band into surfing,” Springsteen said of those heady surf years.

Jeff Salmon, of nearby Ocean Township, is making a film of Springsteen’s surfing roots and added, “They’d go surfing pretty much every day of the week. Asbury Park, Long Branch – they’d be at the beach surfing and then go to clubs at night.”

Very cool and we, as a community, should be honored to count The Boss amongst our kind.

Do you have a favorite Springsteen song?

Hungry Heart?

I don’t know how you cannot like Hungry Heart.

Das vadanya.

A little over one month ago, a Russian influencer caused much consternation in the surfer’s paradise of Bali by driving a motorcycle into the sea as part of an Instagram stunt.

Balinese designer and politician Niluh Djelantik represented the general tone when writing, “You didn’t think of the outcome when you made this video […] Time for you to learn that Indonesian people will unite when a person like you come to our country and disrespect our culture.”

The Russian, for his part, responded, “I bought the bike, not rented. And we got it out of the ocean 30 minutes after it got there, nothing came out of there, it is not broken. We present it to the locals, they are already using it.”

It is unclear if the locals re-submerged the bike in salt water, the counterintuitive proper action, until they were ready to fix it.

In any case, Indonesian authorities immediately began an investigation which has just wrapped and resulted in the deportation of the influencer back to his home country.

Per the news organization baliprawara, “Immigration, finally deporting viral Russians because of dangerous action video by jumping into the sea while riding motorcycle. The deportation was carried out on Sunday afternoon through I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport.”

The viral Russian expressed his love for Bali, and her people, on the way out the door.

Now, do you think deportation is the right call? Too lenient?

Too severe?

I studied Russian for a year and enjoy the Cyrillic alphabet.

Very cool.