Founder of Hawaii’s Proud Boys chapter
arrested after touching down in Honolulu: “Hello from the Capital
lol.”
By Chas Smith
Topsy turvy.
Of all the places with a chapter of Proud Boys,
Hawaii is maybe the most surprising but it has been a surprising
week, all told. The group, described by Southern Poverty Law Center
as “western chauvinists” who spread an “anti-white guilt agenda,”
burst onto the national scene during the summer of unrest and made
international news when President Donald J. Trump ordered them to
“stand back and stand by” in his first debate with then candidate
Joseph R. Biden.
Hawaii, famous for Kill Haole Day, does not seem a chill place
for Proud Boys to prosper but everything is extremely topsy-turvy
and, days ago, the Hawaii Proud Boy chapter founder was arrested
for unlawfully entering the U.S. Capitol building in Washington
D.C. last week when he touched down at Honolulu International
Airport.
According to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Nicholas Ochs
appeared via telephone today before the judge and replied “I think
so, your honor” when asked if he understood the charge against
him.
He is not allowed to leave Oahu until he is flown back to D.C.
to stand trial.
A deep dive down Ochs’ Twitter account
(not suspended at time of writing) makes it seem like he does not
surf though there is a video of him urinating into an active lava
fissure.
Close enough.
In an earlier interview with CNN he said, “We didn’t have to
break in (to the Capitol), I just walked in and filmed. There were
thousands of people in there — they had no control of the
situation. I didn’t get stopped or questioned.”
The charge he faces is a misdemeanor.
I suppose what confuses me most is why, in Hawaii, the group is
not called Da Proud Boys.
It would make me more comfortable.
It would also make me more comfortable if they served Spam
Musubi at their meetings.
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Harrowing footage: Surfers save flotilla of
junior sailors in Santa Cruz after giant Mavericks swell “smashes
boats and throws children into water!”
By Derek Rielly
"It was a big set and it broke so wide it wiped
out, like, six of the boats, twelve kids in total."
A flotilla of twelve-year-old wanna be sailors is lucky
to be alive after almost being washed into rocks at Santa Cruz
harbour late yesterday. The group, part of a sail training
school, entered the harbour mouth just as a clean-up set swept
through the lineup, overturning the boats and throwing the kids
into the water.
“They came in at the very worst time,” Connor told
BeachGrit during a break from school. “It was a big set
and it broke so wide it wiped out, like, six of the boats, twelve
kids in total.”
On the beach, Connor says chuckles quickly turned to panic with
the alarm raised, 911 called etc.
Before help via jetskis arrived, surfers in the lineup had
scooped up the kids and got ’em to safety.
“We’ve had days like this where we end up with nine, ten people
on our boat that are being rescued simultaneously, so it’s not just
one person getting rescued because they got in over their heads.
It’s half the people in the water sometimes,” Assistant Santa Cruz
Harbor Master, Sean Rothwell, told KSBW.
Outerwear, wetsuit manufacturer Patagonia
roils fans with political turn: “We support leaders from around the
country who are calling for the president and his enablers to be
removed from office immediately.”
By Chas Smith
Not chill.
Last week, a mötley crüe of President Donald J. Trump
supporters gathered in Washington D.C. ahead of
congressional ratification of President-elect Joseph R. Biden’s
November 3rd victory. They were angry, believing that much fraud
had occurred, and whipped into a fine frenzy by impassioned
speakers, including Trump himself.
Afterward, they marched on the Capitol and were semi-invited in
to hold a wild n wooly bacchanal on the floor, in offices and
throughout the halls.
“Shock and dismay” percolated around the nation as images of the
Q Shaman etc. were released. Rage, disgust and hand-wringing.
Outerwear, wetsuit manufacturer Patagonia took to Instagram with
the following message from its CEO Ryan Gellert:
Patagonia condemns the assault on the US Capitol and all
recent attempts to disrupt a peaceful transition of presidential
power. We are also appalled by the double standard between the
response to last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests and
Wednesday’s insurrection. We support leaders from around the
country who are calling for the president and his enablers to be
removed from office immediately. We are committed, as ever, to
doing our part to support our democracy and to ensure that it is
equitable and accessible for everyone.
The Ventura, California-based company has long been known for
its environmental stance but the political statement seemed to roil
its many fans. Typical Patagonia posts garner 200 comments maximum.
The above has topped the 13k mark. While many are supportive, many
more seem to be frustrated. A sampling:
@alright_alright_alright_75: As always, showing
genuine leadership and compassion for people and planet.
@joeklahoma_state: Thank God Patagonia
condemned this. I was beginning to get worried.
@it_me_it_bruce: You’re right there is a double
standard… the fact you didn’t post similar messages when small
businesses were being set alight all over the country during
protests!
@brittan_kuhlman: Oh good the company selling
$600 jackets made in Vietnam is worries about accessibility and
equality.
@skripontoast: Ooooo corporate moralizing, so
2020
@ourlife.unfiltered: Lost us as a customer,
too. Ever read the Declaration of Independence? Believe it or not,
there are millions of patriots who believe this election was
fraudulent. Yet, who also have a heart for topics like racism-
these are two totally different topics. YOU are creating a divide.
This has nothing to do with black or white- It’s about the red,
white and blue.
@kimble_farmer: @patagonia just sale your
product and try out of politics. Just lost another customer for
life. I have a ton of Patagonia vest and jackets that are going to
make a great bonfire tonight.
@seapilot13: I follow Instagram accounts for
awesome content. If I wanted politics, I would watch TV. A
Patagonia consumer before it was “fratagonia.” Love your company
and products. Stick to your environmental pursuits and making
awesome gear. Unfollowed and will consider wearing Patagonia to be
a political statement now.
@casenichols: Lol @ everyone who is shocked by
Patagonia taking this stance. They’ve been one of the most
progressive and politically outspoken outdoor retailers since their
inception.
@dan_sandison: A lot of people, who only take
photographs of their car and or motorbike, are upset.
Etc.
More questions than answers, of course, but a few more. Do you
like your clothing to share your ethos? Do you really think
Patagonia vests and jackets make great bonfires? What, exactly, is
wrong with taking photographs of cars and motorbikes?
The World Surf League, per the norm, remains silent.
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Listen: Chas Smith and Steve “Longtom”
Shearer on why the slow death of the WSL doesn’t mean the end of
the great game, “Pro surfing is both an unflushable turd and a
dream too beautiful to die!”
By Derek Rielly
"It will always float to the top of the bowl."
In this episode of Dirty Water, number forty, we find
Steve “Longtom” Shearer in terrific form.
Shearer, who wears out his brain thinking, takes the listener
back onto the WSL tour, remembers an “epic” Pipe contest and the
absurdity of a world title contender, suddenly fat, who didn’t want
to be there.
As Shearer wrote at the time,
“It was hard to watch Filipe Toledo in the first heat of the
round of 32, for example, without feeling a real sense of
pity.
“Seven waves ridden in 40 minutes, nothing close to clean
make. Pip got boofed in the head by the lip, Pip out ran the toob-
once, twice, three times, Pip went straight to the beach. There was
talk in the booth all day about spiritual connections and the
mental health benefits of the ocean and here was a guy, clearly
unprepared on every level, melting down in front of our eyes. It
was actually a relief when it was done.
“Where too for Pip? Isn’t there some sort of God who can
help him?”
Today, Shearer describes Pip’s surfing as “performative
non-makes… he isn’t even making progress. He’s going
backwards.”
Chas Smith, who shares with Shearer his guts and flexibility of
thought, calls in briefly from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and casts a
wicked eye over Mikey Wright’s front-page heroics during a recent
Hawaiian rescue.
The episode concludes with a vivid account of goat castration
and Shearer’s subsequent epiphany regarding testosterone.
Listen, or not.
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Mel and one of surfing's great rides.
Powerline Productions
Interview: WSL commentator and Santa Cruz
legend Peter Mel on catching wave of the decade at Mavericks, “It’s
the greatest feeling in the world to have your mind erased!”
By Derek Rielly
"I’ve been visualising a line like that for thirty
years but I’ve never really truly had the balls to do it."
By now, you would’ve seen Mel’s chip-shot into a
thirty-footer monster tube at Mavericks, just north of
Half Moon Bay there in Northern California.
Wave of the decade it’s being called.
“Everyone on earth should see this ride,” Kelly Slater said.
Mel, who is fifty-one, is the sort of man who loves his children
with a passion, his parents with respect, his wife with generosity
and his friends with loyalty.
He wears slightly too big flannel shirts and pants with stone
washing applied at the factory.
A conservative, in the true sense of the word.
Yesterday’s ride was anything but safe.
When I call Mel at home in Santa Cruz, the sun has set on the
day after his beautiful and brave ride.
He talks about the terrific comedown from such a powerful
injection of adrenaline.
“I wish I could sleep for a month,” he says.
Is it really that draining?
“Emotionally, yeah. That was thirty years in the making. I’ve
been visualising a line like that but I’ve never really truly had
the balls to do it. Somehow, yesterday, it all came
together.”
Mel, who was riding a 70-litre nine-foot-ten CI with tiny tow
fins in a quad setup, says the thrill of seeing his kid Jon out
there on the channel, alongside old pals filmer Curt Myers from
Powerline productions and fellow big-waver Jamie Mitchell, gave the
ten-second ride an added gloss.
“They were all fearing for my life one second and then, the
next, it was the elation of me hugging my kid.”
It’s around midday. Mel and his kid Jon, who is twenty-one, have
been out since around eight-thirts.
Jon gets the biggest left he’s ever had out there.
Then a quick work meet and the pair are back out there. The buoy
system is so good in this part of the world they know the swell is
about to pulse.
“A twelve-footer, then there’s a fifteen-footer, there’s a
fucking eighteen-footer…”
And,
Mel says there’s a shallow part of the reef out and over towards
the left. If you want to get inside the biggest waves it’s the only
avenue in. You can’t take off in the bowl, it’s too vertical and
too thick, and shoulder-hopping ain’t an option.
“It was always something you dream of but never get to execute,”
says Mel. “We’ve towed a few and had that idea of coming in from
behind but you usually outrun the tube or you’re not brave enough
to kick-stall. With a nine-ten, you’re committed.”
The takeoff, says Mel, ain’t the hard part.
“You get a really nice entry over there. You can chase it, get
into it and it backs off a little bit. It let me in. I did know
that it’s risky, it’s forty yards deeper than the main bowl and if
you see an elbow towards the bowl you know it’s going to be tough
to make. This wave had that look to it but,
well… fuck… you’re not going to get that many
chances out there. I overcommitted to it and went for it.
Magically, all those elements came together. A little bit of a
spiritual thing happened for me. I feel like it was a gift from the
Mavericks gods to stay open. It’s really hard to fathom what’s
happening in that moment,. You’re racing and adjusting. It’s the
greatest feeling in the world to have your mind erased. It’s why
we’re so tied to surfing. I got to a point where I was thinking,
this is really heavy, then all of a sudden I realised I was making
it no matter what and raised my hands. That’s a great, great
feeling.”
And then the other side of the adrenaline shot.
“I was thinking, ah, okay, what now? What do I do now? I felt a
little let down. I felt, truly, I can’t do that again.”
That afternoon, Mel went to see his wife Tara in the fam’s
surfshop, Freeline, at Pleasure
Point. Mel could see how worried his wife was by how
clean the joint was, his and her desks cleaned, boxes neatly
stowed, the shop spotless.
“A distraction,” he says. “She tapped into my mood and was
solemn and quiet with me. Today was a lot more chatty and fun but
it wasn’t like we were throwing a party and a kegger yesterday,
dude. Just a silent cuddle, unsaid words, connection. I wanted to
crawl into a hole and shut everything out. I’ve come around now.”
Mel laughs, sighs, then laughs again.
The buoys are up to forty feet. The biggest it’s been all
season.
Tomoz, out there.
“What an escape surfing is,” he says. “We’re so
blessed.”