Interview with the showrunner of universally lauded television program “Make or Break” with questions including, but not limited to, surfing finally eclipsing the august National Football League or smoldering F1 racing in popularity!

Fun, or at least funny.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, F1 racing is now, officially, the hottest ticket in the United States of America. This fact may not surprise but it absolutely should. Only a handful of years ago, the ultra-sexy and extremely exclusive auto sport was seen as a lost cause in the land of the free, home of the brave, entirely eclipsed by NASCAR and its moonshine runnin’ roots.

No longer.

An event in Austin, Texas last year drew the biggest crowd of the entire international season with attendance north of 400,000 over three days. This weekend’s race in Miami is officially the hottest ticket in the nation with prices soaring into the four digits for modest seats.

What changed?

A plucky British production company, Box to Box Films, created a series for Apple Television called “Drive to Survive” featuring in depth interviews with the drivers, teams, owners, fans that was watched and loved by many.

Coincidence?

No.

Every major media outlet credits the program with the wild spike in interest which leads us directly to professional surfing.

The selfsame Box to Box is behind our Make or Break, which you have certainly read about here, here, here, here, etc. and I was afforded the opportunity to chat with its showrunner (head producer) for a limited 20 minute window in order to see if one-time World Surf League CEO Paul Speaker’s bold declaration that surfing would soon eclipse the National Football League might come true.

Warren Smith (not that Warren Smith), showrunner, agreed to chat and chat we did, though after a light pause in communication. I had wondered if BeachGrit‘s reputation had preceded itself, World Surf League Guardians of the Wall™ wagging fingers and shutting down lines, but no, though he, and others on the crew, had read BeachGrit prior to and during filming.

You are seen.

In any case, Smith is handsome, as Smiths are wont to be, direct and transparent. Thus we begin.

Did that dang World Surf League try to limit your control or did you really and truly have full access?

We had access to all areas. With this show, they didn’t approach us. There was a chance meeting and we realized there was a world that was interesting here. They were open. We want to tell the human stories and, as a world, there’s not a whole lot of surf content out there. We saw it as a great opportunity. They opened doors for us, introduced us to the players, gave us access to the judging tower, anywhere we wanted to be. But no, there was nothing off limits.

So….?

The way that we like to work, we go in with a (can’t read my own writing) approach. We’re not surfers, we have no preconceived notions. We were there to capture what we found compelling. The world’s number ones have great stories but also surfers further down the rankings. We were just looking for the interesting bits. We learned early on that sometimes things happen in the judging tower, for example, so placed a camera up there but also run very lean. There are not a ton of cameramen everywhere. So much of the footage ends up on the floor, that doesn’t go into the final edit, but (can’t read again and full transparency, I was taking notes with my daughter’s sparkly green pen while sitting in the parking lot of a suspect San Clemente neighborhood using her equally suspect book “Crow Boy” as my desk).

And….?

It has been flattering to hear the positive response from the surf community. We get so immersed in it during production that we begin to question ourselves. But if we focus on the human story, with sport being the payoff, then it will all hopefully work. At the end of the day, we’re also trying to bring in a new audience. We want to, and need to, please the core surf fan but also explain it all to the new audience. There were times when even we, on the crew, were asking “why is that the way it is?” related to the rules, etc. so it is important to clarify.

But….?

We found out, going in, that there is a huge appetite (for surfing and surf culture). You have these incredibly fit, incredibly talented individuals competing at these gorgeous locations. We are trying to widen that appetite. It’s a fucking hard sport to conquer. Seeing it up close, these guys and girls are unbelievable. It’s one of the hardest things. The talent. The highs and lows. And yet, all of them (the surfers) felt “nobody knows who we are.” Gabriel Medina, even, thought nobody knew who he really was. It was a little difficult to capture, correctly, in Hawaii as we had all those Covid restrictions, but once we got to Australia we had far greater access and that’s where you see it really pick up. The surfers, themselves, really don’t care about our cameras. They are there to win world titles, not be television stars.

Though….?

The stakes? I think the stakes in surfing can be much higher for the individual than F1. The surfers are only one cut away from not being able to focus, solely, on professional sport. There are six tiers of pro soccer leagues in European soccer, for example, so a player has many opportunities available to support his or herself. But in surfing, if you don’t make the cut, you won’t be able to support yourself. All these surfers are self-employed. I think there are incredible stakes in that way. 

At the end, it feels like surfing is in good hands, or at least honest ones, with the Box to Box crew. There is a self-awareness about what surfing is, what it can be, how it can be, that feels realistic. It is not trying to craft a narrative out of the ether for some nefarious gain. Furthermore, there is a steady eye directed toward the core conversation. To BeachGrit and Ain’t That Swell etc. A much steadier eye than our very own World Surf League.

Surfing will never be more popular that the National Football League (suck it, Speaker) because of the aforementioned “why is that the way it is?” There is much “why is that the way it is?” but that makes it fun, I suppose, or at least funny.

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Slater (pictured) on Day One of Boost Mobile Gold Coast Pro.
Slater (pictured) on Day One of Boost Mobile Gold Coast Pro.

Living legend Kelly Slater stuns fans, follows “best female surfer on earth” out the door at Boost Mobile Gold Coast Pro after eye-popping defeat by children half his age-less!

The bigger they are...

The great “Challenger Series” experiment is officially well underway and what are your thoughts thus far? Completely tuning it out, only enough care in heart for very top level Championship Tour surfing? Lightly “Challenger Series” bi-curious, dipping a toe into BeachGrit‘s Hot Live Chat? Thrilled to the moon like Dave Prodan, the World Surf League’s Chief Strategy and Brand Officer, who took to Instagram in celebration, posting various memes from the beloved film Despicable Me?

Well, I was bi-curious enough yesterday to tune in for an hourish while my young daughter suffered stomach flu upstairs. I caught Snapper looking totally uninspired, real doggy, and Jadson Andre etc. Still, it was enjoyable enough. The rifling four person heat format, with two of those persons going directly home, provides for more surfing as well as small drama.

Morgan Ciblic, for example, is staying.

Owen Wright going home.

Again.

And if Wright can’t crack the Challengers, is his career officially over? He fell below the recent “merciless” “depressing” cut line and will not be allowed to participate at the very top level until he fixes up, looks sharp.

Julian Wilson may be plotting his return, doing just enough to squeak into the round of 24 wherein he will face the Ultimate Surfer Zeke Lau.

Surf legend Kelly Slater did not fare as well, following contemporary and “best female surfer on earth” Keala Kennelly out the door by falling to Leonardo Fioravanti and Cam Richards in heat 11. Two young men less than half his age which creates extra drama.

Slater, of course, doesn’t need the Challenger Series result as he survived the guillotine but does it amaze that he is still surfing professionally? Over a decade ago, surfing’s preeminent, and only historian, Watt Warshaw, wrote an op-ed for The New York Times or maybe Washington Post about how the 11x World Champion should do the age appropriate thing and hang it up. Slater, of course, went on to win two more titles as well as becoming a Pipeline Pro late last year.

Much gas in the tank, apparently, but wow. Florida’s living fountain of youth.

Here’s to G-Land.

Thymus G-Land

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Cheap but happy wetsuits!

British magazine accused of “surfer snobbery” following “explosive rant” after Irish fast-fashion retailer releases range of cheap wetsuits, “It’s so sad and is considered as high treason on the seas! Just say NO!”

"These awful cheap throwaway wetsuits are being massed produced and will be thrown away in no time."

A war of words has erupted in Britain following the Irish multi-billion dollar fast fashion retailer Primark’s decision to move into the wetsuit game.

The “explosive rant” appeared on the Newquay based Real Surfing Magazine’s Facebook page and was written in response to Primark’s range of keenly priced wetsuits, fifty US or thereabouts for a three mm steamer with flatlock stitching and a back zip.

JUST SAY NO!!

PRIMARK WETSUITS..

I tried to ignore this but I can’t.

These awful cheap throwaway wetsuits are being massed produced and will be thrown away in no time.

It’s very sad that companies such as this are tapping into surf culture.

It’s basically the same as the cheap crappy snappy bodyboards all over again isnt itThey look ill fitting and poorly made so wont keep you warm.

The problem is that you can see why people buy them because they are not willing to go out and buy a decent long lasting suit if they go in the sea once a year or get the kids them because they will grow out of them by the following summer.

A decent wetsuit can at least be passed on or handed into charities such as wave project to sell on and can last for years.

Same with surfboards, a decent well made board can last decades, cheap Chinese imports do not.

It’s so sad and is considered as high treason on the seas and the planet by the surfing community

Ikea selling handplanes and teaming up with w.s.l is bad enough but bloody primark!!

Decathlon, all these lot dont give a shit about surfing. An environmental disaster.

Primark, which is called Penneys in the Republic of Ireland and there it stays because of JC Penneys’ stranglehold on the US market, is built around the Zara and H&M model, fashion knocked straight off the catwalks, or beaches, and sold via their own chain of retail stores thereby doubling, effectively, the value of their produce.

Disposable furniture giant Ikea is the queen of dipping into surf, of course. Its most recent initiative, a collaboration with the WSL for a range of surf-themed furniture, announced only three weeks ago.

“IKEA’s sustainability initiatives align closely with those of the WSL and our fans,” said the WSL’s Chief Revenue Office, Cherie Cohen, in the press release.

Buying a Primark wetsuit might be problematic (as they say) than you think, at least online.

Visit the “Surf & Swim Staples” page, click on “range of wetsuits, and you go to a page of bikinis and one-piece swimsuits.

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Hot live chat, comment in real time on Boost Mobile Gold Coast Pro, Day Three, from Snapper Rocks as relegated professional surfers enjoy fruit of labor!

Mother approved!

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KK on vacation! | Photo: @msnowhite

“Best female surfer on earth” and LGBTQ+ icon Keala Kennelly returns to competition, suffers shock loss in opening round of Boost Mobile Gold Coast Pro!

Unexpected.

But you can imagine my sheer delight, this Mother’s Day morning, after I rubbed the sleep out of eyes, gathered iPhone, began my ritual of scrolling through the surf news and stumbled upon a feel-good story about Keala Kennelly, described in the piece as “The Best Female Surfer on Earth,” and her current journey. Oh I am not suggesting that Kennelly is a mother, or that mothers are female, only that I was pleased to see the big wave world tour champion back in the water after a recent hip surgery.

The incident requiring medical intervention occurred on a giant day at Jaws wherein a gust of wind bothered her surfboard causing it to “hit me in my shin, then it flipped up and hit me in my ribs, then flipped up again and hit me in my chin, then I cartwheeled down a 50-foot wave.”

Adding injury to insult, the tug of her leash on leg pulled her leg out of socket and tore the labrum in her hip.

Ouch.

Kennelly, though, tough continued to surf until it became too much to bear and eventually went under the knife then spent eight months rehabilitating out of the water.

But now she is back, so back that she headed to Australia to toss her cap into the Challenger Series ring. “I’ve done all this work for equality, and never really gotten to benefit from [it],” she told the website Well+Good. “So it’ll be cool to kind of like, take the temperature of where the tour is at and see those positive changes. I’m going to do an audit.”

Well, I raced over to the World Surf League’s eponymous website just as quick as I could only to discover Kennelly was delivered a shock loss in heat 1 of the round of 64, falling to fellow Hawaiians Gabriela Bryan and Zoe McDougall and Brazilian Summer Macedo. Sally Fitzgibbons, who surfed in the next heat, advanced by holding second place.

Silver linings, I suppose.

Is there sudden elimination on the Challenger Series?

Here’s hoping not.

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