Shock as beloved Snapper Rocks event possibly removed from tour… 

Relatively hot off the wire from Queensland is the rumour that while Bells will return to its traditional Easter slot in 2022, and for at least two years after that, Snapper Rocks is finished as a tour event. 

The event, which ran from 2002 (won by Joel Parkinson) until 2019 (won by Italo Ferreira), and which was won by tour great Kelly Slater four times, was postponed in 2020, COVID, and swiped off the calendar in 2021 after the Queensland state government refused to cover the cost of quarantining surfers and the WSL’s considerable entourage.

Sensing blood, NSW and Western Australia created “war chests” of up to five million dollars to snatch the event away from Queensland, which offered half-a-mill toward the running of the event, believed to cost around four mill.

At the time, state’s tourism minister Stirls Hinchcliffe said he was “disappointed at the World Surf League’s decision to chase short-term dollars at the expense of surfing tradition…  The WSL made it clear holding the event at Snapper Rocks this year was conditional on the Queensland Government picking up the quarantine tab for the WSL’s international competitors.”

The teats of state governments in Australia have long been a source of nourishing funds for pro surfing, although as Longtom pointed out after the Lennox Head fiasco, “It looks like cheap rent-seeking for a product that few want in their backyards and a story that has never really made sense except for a few rare birds who live at an altitude the rest of us will never attain.”

And, “Without a functioning business model to wean itself off State Tourism bodies the WSL is locked in a prison of its own making.” ­

I think, deleting the Quiksilver Pro is no great loss for surfing. 

It gives Snapper Rocks room to breathe, maybe even eases the gross overcrowding a little. 

Timely, too, given the retirement of Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson and their ascent, or descent, however you regard ageing, into middle age.

Or maybe it’s a bummer not to see Filipe doin’ his high-speed dance across Snapper’s pretty blue walls or Kolohe Andino chase his third runner-up finish there.

Healthy stocks of beloved, and iconic, fish.

Two days after a Santa Barbara County Fire Captain posted footage of Great Whites frolicking among waves at Santa Claus Beach near Carpinteria, a headless seal has washed up at nearby Oxnard Shores. 

Put two and two together, Occam’s razor and so on. 

“The Santa Claus lane area near Carpinteria is particularly bad,” says the BeachGrit reader who photographed the decapitated mammal. “Sharks becoming an issue…”

A few weeks ago, local man Jon Shafter shared footage that his son, Erik, shot off Santa Claus. 

“Between there and Serena (Loon) Point we saw approximately five different animals, all in less than 15 feet of water,” said Shafer, adding the Whites were mostly juveniles although there were a couple of ten-foot adults. 

(Watch here.)

Shafer shared the footage NewsChannel 3-12 to remind swimmers and surfers that Whites are coming closer and that they’ve grown since last year. 

One year ago, almost exactly, a drone pilot shared footage of Great Whites eating a dolphin at Padaro Beach west of the City of Carpinteria, also excellent viewing.

Dirty, sexy, hot.

When Italo Ferreira goes to work he’s treated like the world champ he is. Staff will get him a glass of water or anything else he needs. The tech boys makes sure his headphones are clean, free of wax. 

In the water, crowds, privy to his reputation, part to watch his magic close up, examining his technique as a pervert studies nice seventies pussy hair on a retro video. 

Outside of the surf world?

Italo ain’t famous although that is set to change after his stunning transformation for the cover of the latest GQ Brazil magazine.

The metamorphosis is profound, from a man with a stubby handsome friendly face that looks like a surprised big-eyed animal to a slit-eyed sex god bathed in golden light, reminiscent of eighties television private eye Tom Selleck.

“When he steadies his body on one of the spectacular surfboards in his collection over the waves of Japan,” writes GQ, “the surfer Italo Ferreira will be celebrating a trajectory that began when the tide was not very favorable.”

“I had no idea what it would be like when I grew up. I could be a waiter, fisherman or fireman,” he says.

The just-turned twenty seven year old also recalls the time he invited a professional surfer, name not revealed, to stay at his house for one week after she posted on Instagram that she had dreamed about it.

Can you guess who?