Mastermind behind multi-billion dollar sheepskin boot empire to sell iconic Sydney beach house and build multi-generational compound near Chris Hemsworth in Byron Bay!

Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to buy one of the world's great beach houses… 

The eighty-year-old inventor of the sheepskin Ugg boot, Shane Stedman, has listed his iconic Mona Vale beach house with a sale price north of four-and-a-half mill.

Readers, I ain’t never been in a house with such a benevolent ambience, a lovingly rebuilt wooden house from the thirties, squatting at the end of a cul-de-sac with elevated views of the surf that will never disappear.

Five beds, three bathrooms, almost seven thousand square feet of dirt. 

His son, Luke, a former world number eleven whom we visited a few days ago, occupied a studio at the bottom of the house, a private dwelling where the lanky Lothario was able to exercise his formidable swordsmanship.

And all under an hour’s drive from the guts of Australia’s biggest city.

Examine the house here.

Stedman, whose real first name is Anthony but who changed it after watching the 1953 western Shane, plans to use the cash to build a multi-generational compound at Tintenbar, just behind Lennox Head and only a short drive to the thirty-million dollar home of Chris Hemsworth.

“Buying some land, throwing a couple of shacks on it and moving dad up the coast so he can watch the grandkids and we can keep an eye on the old grommet,” Luke told BeachGrit.

A house at Crescent Head, near Vaughan Blakey’s Medellín-style spread, which Shane has spent years and gallons of sweat building, will be available for holiday rentals.

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Comment live: Rip Curl Newcastle Easter Cup, Merewether, Australia! “Five-to-six-foot, maybe eight-foot sets,” says Surfline

Come and rejoin Ronnie Blakey and Joe Turpel and co… 

After all the drama, the tinsel dreams, the highest-rung of pro surfing returns today to Merewether, a pretty suburb of Newcastle and home to four-time world champion Mark Richards, as well as Craig Anderson, Ryan Callinan and Matt Hoy.

The waves?

Surfline’s interpretation of wave size is very different to mine, five-to-eight, to me, would be roiling lines of swell, but there’s a little something for the pro surfer’s great skills to be exercised upon.

Merewether’s Mark Richards, world champion from 1979 through 1982, restarts the season.

John John, the world number one, appears in heat three.

Watch here 

And,

Discuss below the line, with Longtom’s analysis to follow at the close of play.

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Breaking: Working class beach town known for grit, Bruce Springsteen, unites to ban world’s greatest surfer Kelly Slater from its waves!

What a place...

I fell in love with Asbury Park, New Jersey the moment my Louis Vuitton moccasins touched its slightly grimy sidewalk. There to work on a BeachGrit wetsuit fairytale alongside the great Jack Boston, I didn’t expect to become so instantly smitten but there I was, breathing that air, smelling those pork rolls, feeling my heart beat, beat, beat.

Asbury Park.

Asbury Park.

It is famous from many things including Bruce Springsteen and an unbeatable working class ethic but these days it shall also be known as the first beach seeing to ban world’s greatest surfer Kelly Slater from its waves.

Stickers, you see, have mysteriously been popping up over town as winter turns to spring. Stickers of the 11x World Champion’s face crossed out with the words “Long Hairs Only” printed underneath.

It is unknown who is responsible but nothing goes on without Springsteen’s knowledge so it may well be him or organized by him.

The Boss, always and forever.

Asbury Park.

What a place.

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Literature: Notable podcaster/journalist and artist friend travel to California on extreme sport pilgrimage, release gorgeous book documenting the journey!

Wisdom and beauty.

I first met Matt Barr and Owen Tozer in my backyard on a sun dappled Cardiff-by-the-Sea morning. The two stately British men were in my home to interview my exquisite wife Circe Wallace for Barr’s celebrated podcast Looking Sideways and I was, at once, impressed with their poise, their professionalism, knowledge, handsomeness and tact.

Very much unlike my own slap dash, un-manicured chaos.

They were on a pilgrimage, of sorts, to the state which has, for all intents and purposes*, birthed the very idea of “extreme sport” as a lifestyle.

Barr had served as editor of Whitelines Snowboard magazine before launching Sliding Sideways, which has quietly become a cult classic. Tozer’s work, instantly recognizable and extremely personal.

They chatted with my wife, interviewed her, photographed her, then moved up and down the coast chatting with, Jamie Brisick, Herbie Fletcher, Taylor Knox, Greg Long and a host of other notables. People worth hearing from.

Their conversations, insights, are out now surrounded by Tozer’s rich photography.

Per the press release:

Beautifully brought to life throughout by Tozer’s unique photography and embellished by the wisdom of the interviewees and friends they encountered along the way, Looking Sideways Vol. 1 is a record of this journey, a homage to an influential culture in flux, and a lovingly- compiled tribute to the state that continues to define the global board-riding conversation.

Truly worth a purchase.

Buy here.

*Did you ever think it was intensive purposes? Be honest.

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Listen: Former world #11 and martial artist Luke Stedman on the stunning simpatico between surfing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, “You have some dude sit on your face and rip your arm off, it’s so much fun! Getting beat up is a privilege right now! ”

A joyful excursion.

In this episode of Dirty Water, episode number forty-one, Charlie and I wander into Zoom’s virtual chat room with the former world number eleven, although he’ll claim that it was number ten, Luke Stedman.

Luke, whom I’ve known for two decade and who has so far avoided any sort of obvious age-related decay, is one of those rare surfers who, although never highly monied, flourished post tour.

He is the son of the man who created the billion-dollar ugg boot empire; is a part-time model; the proprietor of a clothing label (See the “Mohammad” shirt here); a surf coach to LA VALS as well as shredder kids; is a teacher of the western world’s next yoga-esque craze, ginastica natural; carries a purple belt in Brazilian jiujitsu (two rungs off black) and is a swordsman par excellence.

So good, in fact, even your ol pal DR was forced to bow to his superiority during a three-day long battle for a French television show host in Tahiti in the very early two thousands.

Much of the conversation contained in the interview centres around jiu-jitsu and why it has stolen the hearts of so many surfers.

As always, apologies for the production values, of which there is none.

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