Dirty Water: The Ultimate Surfer’s breakout
star Malia Ward on her decade-long feud with Tia Blanco, getting
rich on crypto and the seven-year anniversary of putting Gabriel
Medina to the sword at Lowers!
By Derek Rielly
Whispered conversations, impish bursts of laughter
and mysteriously indignant 'Oh's'!
Today’s guest on Dirty Water is Malia Ward, the breakout
star of ABC’s The Ultimate Surfer, a serious investor in
cryptocurrency and the daughter of the courageous, yet deeply
flawed, pro surfer Chris Ward.
In this episode, and amid the crackle and pop of the flawed
audio, you’ll hear from a smart gal straight outta university,
degree in comms, who once appeared in a high-voltage
swimsuit shoot with her mammy and lived in a
five-storey house at Del Mar with its own private beach and who
travels, still, in limousines and private jets.
She is someone whom you’d agree to have dinner with even if you
weren’t hungry and whose angelic face is framed with silky yellow
curls caught in a spot of moon glow.
Surf school, party disc jockey company,
first to sue oil giant deemed responsible for Huntington Beach
spill: “Tens of thousands of dollars lost in early October alone as
potential VALs turn to other lifestyle hobbies instead of
surfing!”
By Chas Smith
Many balls in air.
The fallout from the devastating Huntington
Beach oil spill, which was revealed last week, is yet to be fully
grasped. 144,000 gallons leaked from an underwater pipeline coating
sea life in black crud and shuttering the coastal strip from
Huntington on down past Newport through Laguna.
A disaster both ecological and economic but local businesses are
wasting no time in filing suit against Amplify Energy Corp., the
owner of the leaky tube.
Amongst the first is Jaz Kaner, owner of Banzai Surf School, who
told The Orange County
Register that his business stands to lose tens of
thousands of dollars in early October alone due to the fact that
surf classes cannot be conducted.
I would imagine the damage is far greater, though, as future
Vulnerable Adult Learner surfers, or VALs, having never touched
softtop will turn to other lifestyle hobbies in droves.
Maybe toy voyaging or amateur quidditch.
Learning magic tricks.
Performative volleyball (see above).
The Banzai Surf School is not alone. Other Orange County
businesses are filing their own suits, including Peter Moses
Gutierrez Jr., who operates an Orange County party DJ company and
alleges loss of income and possible damage to his health.
The Laguna Beach waterfront property owners are piling on
too.
Much sleeplessness in Houston, Texas, where Amplify Energy is
headquartered.
No party vibes.
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Fanning and Warbrick tower, Rainbow Bay.
World’s most-loved surfer Mick Fanning
pools fortune with Rip Curl founder Doug Warbrick to bankroll $130
million, 93-apartment “wellness” tower at Snapper Rocks!
By Derek Rielly
Half of the apartments sold in the first weekend, a
wild seventy-one mill in sales.
The three-time world surfing champion Mick Fanning and
Rip Curl founder Doug Warbrick have pooled their considerable
fortunes to bankroll along with a few others, a wild looking tower
with yoga and steam rooms, gymnasiums, a rooftop slide and hanging
gardens in Rainbow Bay, where you’ll find Snapper,
Greenmount etc.
Mick and Doug, who both own hunks of dirt in Rainbow, although
not on the beachfront side, combined their landholdings into one
monster block.
Doug, y’might recall, came into his cash after selling his slice
of Rip Curl to Kathmandu after fifty years of continuous ownership
in a total sale worth $350 mill; Mick, who won world titles in
2007, 2009 and 2013 before retiring in 2018 after seventeen years
on tour, has long been into real estate as well as various business
plays, including Balter Beer which sold one year ago for a rumoured two-hundred
mill.
The approval for the tower, which is called Esprit,
wasn’t a fait accompli despite Fanning’s god-like status around
Coolangatta, with the Gold Coast Council stinging ‘em for a $2.084
million infrastructure charge.
Council also wanted to green up the joint, getting the
“celebrity moguls” to increase the size of planter boxes on the
apartments.
Whatever you think of towers, of development, of the rich
getting richer and so on, y’gotta admit, oowee, ain’t she a
peach.
Lap pool, ice bath, yoga and steam rooms, infrared sauna,
rooftop slide, outdoor cinema and so on.
Popular? Yeah, you could say that.
Half of the 93-apartments were bought in the first weekend, a
wild seventy-one mill in sales.
A little under two-mill gets a three-bedder, around a mill, and
all Australian shekels, gets two beds.
The developer of Esprit is Paul Gedoun who
is building the exclusive Flow residences
overlooking the Supa Bank at Rainbow Bay.
As I wrote at the time, “Flow’s got all the usual markers of
wealth, heated pool, daybeds, steam room, gymnasium, personal
surfboard locker rooms, fire pit, even a ‘surfboard preparation
room’ where, perhaps, locals might be employed to fix their
masters’ surfboards and where lucky children with whisky breath
will be free to roam and little dogs sourced from Mexico will be
trained to walk on their hind legs.”
Surfer gets surrounded by pack of ravenous
sharks in Florida while fiancée stands helplessly on beach bravely
capturing moment: “Only thing I could do was take pictures and ask
God not to let him get bit.”
By Chas Smith
A keeper.
There are, of course, many different levels of
fear. There is, for instance, being startled when a book
falls from a shelf and makes a loud bang on the ground. There is a
halloween corn maze. There is being in the middle of a bait ball
while a pack of vicious, ravenous sharks chomp, chomp, chomp. There
is losing a daughter and her friend in a halloween corn maze,
quickly realizing that they may never be found.
While the last of the examples is scariest, the second to last
just happened to a brave surfer at Sebastian Inlet, Florida though,
miraculously, he escaped unscathed.
According to Miami’s Channel 7
News, Eli McDonald had decided to go to Sebastian to
“do some surfing.” There he was, doing some, minding his own
business with his fiancée Laura Evans on the beach when horror
struck.
“Next thing I knew, I got stuck in the middle of a mullet bait
ball and they (sharks) were just jumping everywhere. One hit me in
the head and I seen a big tarpon go underneath my board,” he
said.
His fiancée stood helplessly on the beach, watching the madness
unfold and telling the television station, “Only thing I could do
was take pictures and ask God not to let him get bit. I was
terrified. I wanted to go scream and run up and down the beach but,
you know, I knew that he would know what to do in that situation,
and I also knew that he would want me to capture whatever I
could.”
A total keeper.
McDonald escaped unscathed, his future wife captured the moment
and now he knows he can trust her in a halloween corn maze.
Decisive.
See photos here.
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Photo: City and County of Honolulu.
Humble surf podcast sparks beautiful
movement culminating in October 6th officially and forever being
declared “Carissa Moore Day!”
By Chas Smith
An overwhelming sense of love.
David Lee Scales and I were chatting, as
surfing’s grand Olympic debut culminated some few months ago, when
I brought up the need for “Carissa Moore Day.” Or maybe David Lee
Scales brought it up. In either case, the Hawaiian surfer has done
it all, multiple Association of Surfing Professionals and World
Surf League titles, first-ever Olympic gold, forcing a premium surf magazine to
make an embarrassing apology, and deserves a day.
Well, the humble surf podcast
episode somehow made it all the way across the ocean
and somehow into the ears of Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi who
somehow recognized the error of his ways and, forthwith, declared
October 6 as “Carissa Moore
Day.”
Moore, gracious as ever, declared, “I’m so honored to be here.
I’ve felt this outpouring and overwhelming sense of love from my
community, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without all those
people, without all that love,” before adding, “It’s my hope that
anyone that is young and chasing their dreams that they know that
anything is possible if they work hard and they put their heart and
mind to it.”
She did not mention The Grit! nor did she need to for we toil
for the sake of toiling.
During yesterday’s toil with David Lee, anyhow, I also
disparaged Gerry Lopez’s great legacy.
