Everyone is a star!

If we have learned but one thing in the World Surf League CEO Erik Logan era it is that vulnerable adult learners love to have their photographs taken whilst surfing. Love to have their photographs taken pre-surf, post-surf but especially mid-surf.

ELo’s Instagram feed is a veritable garden of watery delights. Head dips, mid-wave bottom turns, squeals of joy.

The shame that used to be associated with surfing poorly vanished as the VAL utopia dawns.

A luxury surf resort in the Maldives, finger to wind, just hired a professional surf photographer to snap each guest at their lineup finest.

According to Travel + Leisure, Niyama Private Islands just welcomed Erick Proost for a three-month residency. Proost, the magazine writes, “is a seasoned cinematographer and photographer specializing in surfing and water shots. His previous clients included world champions and professional surfers Adriana De Souza and Gabriel Medina. He’s also shot and produced several surf movies, though his passion lies with photography, bringing together man and nature in one epic surf shot.”

He will accompany the boat out in the morning, shoot from the water all day, then make himself available for surf chit-chat at the resort’s rum bar featuring “snacks and a reggae soundtrack softly playing from the speakers.”

Very 1.5%.

But if you had your own surf photographer, a la John John Florence, which wave would you surf if looking your absolute finest was the end goal?

Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch?

A safe, if uninspired, choice.

Not the B.O.A.T.

The world’s greatest surfer Kelly Slater is, without any shade of doubt, a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon. Handsome, well-spoken, ridiculously talented, driven. He holds 11 World Titles, the most in history and by far, winning his first in 1992 and his last in 2011.

This year, ranked 3rd after an eye-opening performance at Pipeline, he was in position to defy all odds and take home his 12th crown, cementing his place as the best of all time, or B.O.A.T. but alas, a four-year-old injury and maybe the prospect of spending two weeks locked in an Australian Ibis has halted his campaign.

What does this mean?

He will not be the B.O.A.T. but rather the seventh or eighth best of his generation.

Let’s count Kelly’s contemporaries who are now forever above him.

1) Wayne Gretzky

2) Serena Williams

3) Roger Federer

4) Tom Brady

5) Lebron James

6) Bo Jackson

7) Kelly Slater?

I know you think Wayne Gretzky is too old to belong but with a face like that oooooooee. How can he not be included amongst his youngers?

Anyhow, do you agree or should we nitpick?

Wonder and amazement!

We, each of us, know that this surfing life, while very fun, is otherwise worthless. Getting up, paddling out, bogging a cutback, paddling in, rinsing, washing, repeating, though I rarely rinse or wash. The salty crust that builds up is one of the great, albeit worthless, surfing life pleasures.

Magic, on the other sleight of hand, is not worthless as it brings great joy to many. Groups of children, Las Vegas convention goers, people waltzing down Santa Monica’s 3rd Street Promenade etc. Smiling faces alongside general amazement and let us learn the completely inspiring story of Hawaii’s Mycah Muranaka,

The young man lived a very active life in paradise, hiking, camping and surfing. One day in January, 2016 he was out at a well-known spot when his back started hurting and his knees became weak. He quickly paddled to shore but by the time he got there he could no longer stand up.

After being transported to the hospital and examined, the doctors declared he had suffered surfer’s myelopathy, a very rare sort of paralysis when blood vessels leading to the nerves in the back become restricted.

Paralyzed from the waist down, he was told he would never walk again and became very sad but he did not give up and focused his attention on what he could do, including mastering the art of magic.

He is now president of Hawaii’s Society of American Magicians and works for the Honolulu Magic Company, inspiring many and bringing joy to many more. He says he hopes others facing difficulties can learn from him by finding something that absorbs them too.

Completely anti-depressive.