Surf legend Maurice Cole blasts the World Surf League over performative environmental posturing at just-wrapped Bells Beach event: “Simply put… green washing seems to be the WSL’s Modus Operandum!”

Also stealing the whole kitty.

Legendary surf figure, and Torquay’s first son, Maurice Cole, days ago, pulled a hammer from the re-enforced loop of his handsome cargo shorts and hammered the World Surf League over its performative environmental whatnot, plus taking the entire door, at the just-wrapped Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach.

Robber barrons.

My friends at Surfers Appreciating Natural Environment (SANE) were invited to a Bells tree planting session with the Surf Coast Shire (SCS) and the World Surf League at the start of this years event….where SANE did all the work …set up photo/film opportunities…which was used on the @wsl website……where the claim is that the WSL has been revegetating Bells for 50 years….check out the WSL webpage

…the longtime shaper and pioneer began before really laying in.

We all know that since they started in 1988 SANE has led the charge and done most of the work to revegetate the Bells reserve, doing working bees every month in the Bells Reserve for 34 years!

The WSL have continually ripped off the local Surf Coast Shire surfing community groups here who actually have had to continually fight the WSL and the Surf Coast Shire from inappropriate commercial development. The WSL still take all the gate money from the local community, which is the only contest in the World that charges an entry fee for spectators.

The latest 3 year fight was to stop the WSL building a viewing platform at Winki-Pop as the WSL might want to use the platform at Easter for a few days. The cost/angst and years of fighting the inappropriate development proposed by the WSL, created disharmony and distrust between the recreational surfing community and the Govt organizations such as the SCS and Surfing Vic. Local and international surfers cannot trust the WSL greenwash machine and now the WSL are giving the impression they are leading reveg efforts at Bells and caring about the local community.

I know how upset the guys from SANE are about being used by the WSL with the planting of a few plants, and there is a meeting on Weds morning to discuss how they were abused by the WSL, and simply put….green washing seems to be the WSL’s Modus Operandum…….. we all want an Easter Pro, but not at the continuing expense of recreational surfers who have to fight the ongoing presence of Green Washers!

 

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This is not the first time the WSL has been accused of posturing for the sake of social approval in areas of equality, care about longboarders and, of course, environmentalism.

A partnership was recently announced with a manufacturer of cheap Chinese SUVs.

Etc.

Etc.

Etc.

Make or Break.


Swellian Lord Vaughan Dead on the wild success of Ain’t That Swell, why BeachGrit commentary is “the number place in the world for comedy” and reveals new project “that might be the most fucked-up thing ever in surfing!”

"I’m terrified to try and defend myself. When you love everything you open yourself to be torn down by some really smart people.”

The last time we saw Adam “Vaughan Dead” Blakey, director of zeitgeist smashing surf films, one half of the long-running Ain’t That Swell podcast and frontman of the Goons of Doom, he was at the Rip Curl Newcastle Cup squawking ecstatically, as if he wanted to seize local boy Ryan Callinan in his arms and pull him down between his thighs.

When his hind legs aren’t quivering and he isn’t easing his crimson dingus out, Vaughan is a man who straddles better than anybody the fine line between positive noise and toxic slime.

The surf films he makes with pal Nick Pollet are more fun than candy striped short shorts.

The band he fronts, The Goons of Doom, with all its happy beer-drinking anthems.

He loves the BeachGrit commentariat, says “It’s the funniest place ever, the amount of energy and fucking brains going into so much tear down… it might be the number place in the world for that style of comedy.”

Loves it but he don’t engage.

“I don’t feel smart enough to properly articulate myself in that way… I’m terrified to try and defend myself. When you love everything you open yourself to be torn down by some really smart people.”

His latest project, with Nick, is a stop-motion film voiced by the superstars of surfing, three years in the making. It reveals in six months.

Vaughan, it hardly needs to be said, is a startlingly original and hard-boiled lover of surfing.

Essential.


Lilly (pictured) not afforded the opportunity to get back on the sled and resetting.
Lilly (pictured) not afforded the opportunity to get back on the sled and resetting.

Sharks menace waters off East Coast Dog Surfing Championships causing delay as they flash teeth and threaten to eat man’s best friend in front of stoic owners: “To be honest, driving I-4 is more dangerous!”

Bells what?

Now, of course you know that the iconic Bells Beach has hosted the most consecutive (save Covid blackhole) surf competitions in the history of our beloved sport but did you know that Florida’s Cocoa Beach is second or, more correctly, was second? Birthplace of Kelly Slater and home to his very famous statue, the town of nearly 12,000 used to stage a multi-day surf festival but people stopped coming, or caring, so Cocoa Beach is now the site of the most famous dog surfing championships on the planet.

Many bravos and the most recent wrapped over Easter weekend, featuring an almost 7-year-old yellow Labrador Retriever besting the field but Lily, as her people call her, was almost eaten by sharks before hoisting the trophy.

According to Florida Today, “It was the first time over the 10-year range of the contest that sharks had interrupted the crowd-pleasing event, and according to Theresa Clifton, event host and executive director of the Brevard Humane Society. She was told the creatures were within 10 feet of the shoreline. Lifeguards whistled for everyone to leave the ocean, but Lily’s owner and trainer, Michael Vogt of Port St. Lucie, did not overreact while standing about 20 yards out. ‘To be honest, driving I-4 is much more dangerous,’ he said, smiling.”

The I-4 is an expressway that runs from the Daytona area to Tampa right through Orlando, which is currently embroiled in a nasty mess with Disney. A1A Beachfront Avenue is more famous, I’d imagine, which runs along a causeway to the east as Vanilla Ice rapped about it on his hit single Ice, Ice, Baby.

Back to Lily, though, how chill is Mr. Micael Vogt? Makes Mick Fanning look like a real scaredy-cat, no?

Also, what do you think the Humane Society thinks about a blatant disregard for sharks?

What about PETA?

More questions than answers.


Door bustin’ big wave legend Ian Cairns becomes first to host surf movie watch party in Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse: “You will be able to mingle with all the guests and speakers, play games, ask questions, and view the movie on the big screen just like you were at an IRL party.”

Come play with us!

It should come as absolutely no surprise that yet another door in our world is being busted down by Australia’s Ian Cairns. The big wave legend and founder of professional surfing as we know it has never faced a challenge that he could not overwhelm by either brains or brawn or a combination of the two and now the Bronzed Aussie is set to host the very first surf film watch party in Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse.

That film, of course, the award-winning documentary Bustin’ Down the Door featuring Shaun Tomson, starring Eddie Rothman and the aforementioned Cairns plus Rabbit Bartholomew and many others.

Cairns says of the watch party, which is hosted by surfing.com in the Party.Space metaverse on Saturday, April 23 at 5:00 PM ET / 2:00 PM PT (9:00 PM UTC), “This is going to be historic for the surf industry. In the metaverse, you will be able to mingle with all the guests and speakers, play games, ask questions, and view the movie on the big screen just like you were at an IRL party.”

Alla Koretsky, CEO of HeyLayer, the NFT marketplace for Surfing.com’s Wave Riders Club NFT launch says, “Everyone at the watch party is approachable. They’ll all be there not only to watch this great film, but to take part in surfing history,” with Chris Almida, Surfing.com Cofounder adding, “What a great way to get people frothing for this NFT drop the following Tuesday by giving a sneak peek at some of the incredible artwork.”

My main question is, how will Ian Cairns look in the metaverse? Popping with muscles striking terror into hearts or an approachable huggy bear ready for love?

A sexy beast ready for anything (see above)?

Something a little more… provocative?

Let’s go find out! Click here!


Country Soul in 2022.

Iconic surfboard designer responsible for modern shortboard lists “opulent, lavish, extravagant” Palm Springs-themed Byron mansion for $3.5 million-plus!

"Embracing the essence of mid-century modernism."

With a leopard grin, green flare flaring from his slitted eyes and a tiny five-five in socks body that vibrates with excitement and joy, ain’t no mistaking the master shaper Bobby McTavish.

You heard of him?

McTavish, along with pals George Greenough and Nat Young, was instrumental in the shortboard revolution which washed ashore in 1967, slashing two feet off the boards thereby gifting surfers the ability to hit and hang around the lip.

McTavish’s story is a good one: he was a state-of-the-art shredder who quit competition despite giving hell to the heroes of the time, Midget Farrelly, Nat Young and so on, helped create the modern shortboard, turned Jehovah’s Witness, had five kids, invented, way ahead of their time, these epoxy moulded replicas of pro surfers’ boards (called Pro Circuit Boards), went back to longboards, sold the label, made a little cash and made, crucially, some fine real estate investments.

Like this joint at Suffolk Park he’s gonna unload for north of three-and-a-half mill.

Pool, butler’s pantry, views to Cape Byron, “opulent bedrooms, lavishly appointed bathrooms, extravagant master suite”, exclusive, enviable etc.

“Embracing the essence of mid-century modernism,” reads the sales pitch.

It don’t scream mid-century modern so much to me as builder flicked through a few Richard Neutra books, skipped the finer details, and figured he could just do something cubist around a pool and the dumb-asses would call it Bahaus and start referencing Palm Springs.

Prices for houses in Suffolk Park, once Byron’s poorer cuz, have shifted almost seventy percent in two years. To put that into perspective, in 2019, 2020, a million bucks would’ve got you a place like this.

Ironically, McTavish, who’s now seventy-eight, was of that early seventies Country Soul era, surfers splitting the cities and heading to Byron Bay for “full contact rural immersion.”

Cops weren’t into it, but that was half the fun.

From Warshaw’s Country Soul,

“The local police, more for sport than anything, liked to keep the surf-hippies on their toes. McTavish was once yanked from his campsite, thrown bodily into a squad car, and driven to the town barber for a forced military-style haircut—paid for with McTavish’s last ten-bob note. “No crime, no charge,” he later shrugged. “Just hair past the collar.”

Inspect the McTavish House, make an offer, here.