Dylan Graves hurling buckets at Bend a few
years back. Vans
Teenage surfer killed in horror river-wave
accident after being trapped under water for six minutes, “Other
surfers flung themselves into the water in an attempt to free him
from the underwater panels that make the wave”
By Derek Rielly
“There was nothing we could do and it was a
helpless situation. It was terrifying.”
In the Deschute River in Bend, Oregon, is a pretty wild
construct, twenty-six air bladders stuck on the river bed
that can be manipulated in real-time to create a rideable wave.
Idea was real simple: Add a little tech to nature and you get a
cheap wavepool for landlocked shredders, paddlers, kids on rafts
and so on.
Gerry Lopez, who lives nearby, digs it.
Now, the joint is closed following the death of
seventeen-year-old local surfer Ben Murphy on Saturday.
Murphy was held underwater for six minutes, trapped by the
underwater panels that make the wave, and only removed from the
water when he was washed downstream after the wave was shut
off.
Despite CPR on the scene and cardiac shock treatment at the
hozzy, Murphy was pronounced dead. Howevs, a faint heartbeat was
detected shortly after and the kid was moved to the ICU for
treatment.
“The St. Charles staff was more than amazing and worked to keep
Ben comfortable and his vitals slowly improved for the first eight
hours,” Ben’s dad Patrick Murphy wrote on Facebook. “He was on
oxygen, tons of medication and was sedated to keep him
comfortable.”
A TV news report told viewers the teen had survived, although
Ben’s organs gradually began to fail and he was pronounced dead,
hours later, by hospital staff.
Surfers jumped into the river in attempt to pull Murphy out.
Another local surfer, Stetson Talley, who’d previously worked as
a lifeguard and who was one of a group of surfers who tried to free
Murphy said, “There was nothing we could do and it was a helpless
situation,” he said. “It was terrifying.”
Talley, who’s been surfing the wave or the past three years,
said it wasn’t unheard of for surfers to get their feet caught in
the cracks between the grates and that all of ‘em had been able to
get their feet out before being sucked under.
Three years ago, Dylan Graves surfed the place with Gerry Lopez
as part of his Weird Waves project with Vans, the short explaining
the mechanics behind the wave.
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Jackie Robinson hauls up ten spots in the ratings, from
thirteen to three. | Photo: WSL
“Tantric discipline” by WSL at Margaret
River Pro ensures epic finals day, “If the top five surfers today
were those heading to Trestles to contend for the title, would you
argue with it?
By JP Currie
Toledo, Florence, Robinson, Ewing, Ferreira. Tell
me that a match-up between any two of these men, at any wave on
Tour, would not be a spectacle worth watching?
I’ve got a loose approach to gardening. I keep
the grass short, tend to some modest veg, and leave the rest be.
There are young trees I’m protective of. Some are of uncertain
origin and species, and my mind was to let them grow and see where
we ended up.
Leave them alone, they’ll figure it out.
My dear mum has a very different approach. She relentlessly
prunes and burns and weeds. She cuts to encourage growth.
Where my garden is charmingly unkempt and wild, hers is
manicured within an inch of its life. She removes the weaker plants
so that others might thrive and shine.
Lately, she turned her hand to my garden, nicking and snipping
with her pruning shears. She pulled out some of my young trees by
the roots. I complained. I argued. I told her not to cut that one,
and just to leave that other. But she didn’t listen.
In the end she was right. It’s better for being cut back.
It was a lesson in growth.
You must consider diversity as well as beauty. Space used as
well as space created. Nourish but don’t smother. Prune but don’t
hack. Get rid of some things to stimulate others.
Watch them flourish.
If the top five surfers in the world today were those heading to
Trestles to contend for the title, would you argue with it?
Filipe Toledo, John Florence, Jack Robinson, Ethan Ewing, Italo
Ferreira.
Tell me that a match-up between any two of these men, at any
wave on Tour, would not be a spectacle worth watching?
Within this group there is diversity of culture, approach,
strength and character. There is no weakness.
There’s a long way to go, of course, and the return of one
Gabriel Medina to consider, but this is a top five to tickle any
tastes.
What began as a story about the losers became something very
different. Margaret River had its own tale to tell.
It would not be a story of people hanging on by their
fingernails, but instead of those showing their claws.
From dawn to dusk the entirety of the men’s competition was
completed. A tantric discipline assured the best conditions of the
window and we finished in the dying light of the final hours of the
waiting period.
It wasn’t a particularly tricky call, given the forecast, but
mark it down as a slippage of the hangman’s noose for Jessi
Miley-Dyer nonetheless.
Let’s just cut to the business end and the flowers that bloomed
amidst the West Australian dunescapes.
Filipe Toledo still holds a slender lead in the rankings despite
losing a tight heat to Nat Young in the round of 16. The latter has
buds burgeoning with as much promise as any point in the earlier
iterations of his career.
However, a production disaster meant much of their heat went
unseen in favour of a phone in with Medina. It was the best heat of
the comp so far, with the man in the yellow jersey, no less, and we
missed it.
Italo looked sparky at times, short of a little pizzazz at
others. He was more like his old self, muted and relaxed in post
heat pressers in a very deliberate way. He spoke about good energy
with Jadson, with whom he was staying. But he’ll need to find the
tipping point between vigour and rage going forward.
Barron Mamiya is a surfer I continue to admire. He has a
tigerish power and poise that makes you believe he might attack a
section with blinding ferocity at any given moment. He lost to Jack
Robinson in one of two heats the eventual victor might have lost
today. Robinson’s opening 8.93 was highly questionable, especially
in context of Barron’s waves.
Just 0.13 pts separated the two at the end, and in this you
might surmise that it was close enough to have gone either way, but
this in itself is a problem. Several heats at Bells Beach were
decided by fractions of a point. There were fewer at Margaret
River, but there were incidents where the scoring range between the
judges was an entire point or more.
This should be mitigated by dropping the high and low scores and
taking the average, but on several occasions there were two judges
with identical highest scores and two with identical lowest,
therefore in the three counting scores there was still a point
differential.
This isn’t just a major problem, it was decisive in the outcome
of the event.
Jack Robinson had a scoring wave in his quarter, semi and final
where there was a full point of difference between the judges.
In other words, for three of the six waves that won him the
event, the judges couldn’t agree if the surfing was in the good or
excellent range. In the case of his final with John where the
differential between their heat totals was only 0.64 points, this
judging discrepancy altered the outcome of the event.
See for yourself.
8.0 in the Quarter final vs Jordy – 8.5, 7.5, 8.0, 7.5, 8.5
8.10 in the semi against Ethan – 7.5, 7.5, 8.5, 8.5, 8.3
8.07 in the final against John – 7.3, 8.5, 8.5, 7.5, 8.2
To say this is simply not good enough would be a gross
understatement.
How can heats be justifiably decided by fractions of points with
this spread between judges?
It seems pedantic to constantly harp onto the judges, but this
is a failure in basic competence.
We won’t get transparency or explanation, and I find it odd that
surfers don’t demand it when careers and livelihoods are on the
line. The rise of sports betting in America has led to stat
corrections and in-depth referee reports. Could we see the same
here?
Perhaps that way madness lies.
I’m beginning to think we should just throw the baby out with
the bathwater and recalibrate how we think about professional
surfing entirely.
Perhaps embracing the concept of entertainment is the way to
make our peace with it. When we try to package it like sport it
wriggles and squirms. So why bother? Let’s take it for what it is:
a frivolous, watery dance predicated on rhythm, luck and mystical
energies that none of us understand.
And all said and done, the most entertaining surfers in the
world are more or less the ones we ended up with in the finals at
Margaret River.
A sagely nod to Matt McGillivray, the only surfer to step up to
the plate and forge a lonely redemption arc.
Florence and Ewing were the standout surfers of the event, and
it wasn’t particularly close.
I’ve fully fallen under Ethan Ewing’s spell. I’m almost
compelled to go back and watch his previous stints on Tour to try
and discern the differences between then and now. How did he
conceal such power and talent?
He slices under the lip so precisely that his board might be an
obsidian blade. His head, shoulders and arms are in perfect
synchronicity. They do everything yet nothing. Watching him from a
distance is like looking at clockwork. You can see that it works,
but to appreciate it you need to examine it very, very closely.
Even then you’ll still be baffled.
John Florence looked unbeatable even when he was eventually
beaten. He seemed a victim of his own success at Margaret River.
There was lots of chatter in the booth about his connection and his
winning percentage of 85%. The speed he carried through transitions
was unmatched. His carves buried the entire rail to within an inch
of the nose.
The problem, however, was that we’d seen it before. It was still
unique, but it felt familiar. Even the extraordinary can become
mundane.
Perhaps John was conscious of this when he threw a
hip-dislocatingly beautiful tail slide in the final. It was the
most radical turn of the competition and although he was rewarded
with the highest score of the match-up with an 8.5, really it
should’ve been higher. Any other surfer attempting this
successfully on their opening turn would surely have been given a
high nine. If only anyone else could do it.
Regardless of the loss, Florence is now second in the rankings
and that’s great for us and him.
But we’ll see Gabriel Medina in Indonesia.
“I see opportunity,” he said when asked how he felt about coming
back. “It’s makeable. They are waves I like, they suit my
surfing.”
I’d burn my whole garden to the ground just for him.
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Maui hotel sued after tourist asks employee
for beach recommendation, follows advice, breaks neck due being
slammed into sand by wave and is permanently paralyzed!
By Chas Smith
No good deed.
We live in litigious times. There is no slight
too benign, too non-existent for which to drag a friend, a foe, a
service industry worker to court and attempt a financial
bloodletting. A Maui hotel the latest in a long string, this
particular story beginning all the way back in 2012 when a visitor
to the Valley Isle approached an employee and asked for a pleasant
beach he could enjoy with his family.
Though not hotel-adjacent, the employee suggested Big Beach
south of Kihei and part of the Makena State Park and provided
driving instructions.
Following them to a tee, the man, and his family, soon parked
and found themselves gazing over the turquoise waters and natural
beauty. The family went for a swim, the man did not but later
changed his mind and joined them.
According to court
documents, he bobbed for ten or such minutes then “as
he began a half-walk, half-breaststroke towards the shore, a
breaking wave struck him from behind, causing his head to strike
the sandy bottom of the ocean.”
The incident led to permanent paralysis, a sad state of affairs
to be sure, and if anyone, here, has ever been to Big Beach, he or
she would know that it is favored by hell-seeking bodyboarders and
bodysurfers. I, myself, had had enjoyable swims there with the
gorgeousness of the water combining with its ferocity in creating a
very fine time.
Many signs are posted on the beach, in fact, warning of this
ferocity but the visitor does not remember seeing them and is
pinning his troubles on the hotel itself, via lawsuit, declaring
that the employee should have warned him of the dangers.
Is his case ironclad?
Windfall soon?
A golden wheelchair in the future?
More as the story develops.
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"Enjoy it! Soak it up! John John Florence is your
champ!" Winner Jackie Robinson and in-water interview KP laugh at
faux pas.
London fashion icon Jack Robinson presses
home-court advantage to slay “king of Margaret River” John John
Florence in wild see-sawing final at Margaret River Pro!
By Derek Rielly
A new king of Margaret River is crowned!
“If John John Florence is the king of Margaret River,
Jack Robinson is its prince,” said WSL commentator Rich Lovett as
John John and Jackie sat in the late afternoon Margaret River
lineup, man against man, king against prince.
Jackie, who is twenty-three, would account for the two-time
world champ and two-time winner of the Margaret River Pro, using
airs and a three-turn combo to cook John John like a hamburger on a
griddle in the dying light.
Earlier in the day, Jackie mowed through the other two in-form
surfers of the event, Jordy Smith and Ethan Ewing, before twisting
John John’s nipples in the final.
Where John John used rail to
build an early lead, Jackie was an artist at his peak, kicking into
gear mid-final, licking his stank fingers after each near-perfect
ride, including a wild end section 540.
Final score, Jackie, 16.24, John John, 15.60.
“So many hours, so much time,” Jackie, now rated third in the
world, said to the water-based interview Kaipo Guerrero, the pair
bathed in golden west coast light.
“Enjoy it! Soak it up! John John Florence is your champ!” hooted
Kaipo before interviewer and winner exploded into laughter at faux
pas.
Good times.
Full report to come.
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One scene that is impossible not to love is Sage
Erickson lighting up on Tatiana Weston-Webb over a priority
interference. "Fucken cheap," says angry Sage. | Photo: Apple
TV
Non-surfing film critic for Mac fan-boy
site slams Apple TV’s “infuriating” and “compositionally erratic”
series Make or Break: “(It’s) not about surfing. It’s about modern
competitive surfing culture, and that’s just not that
interesting”
By Derek Rielly
“This is perfectly fine television, but it does
feel like an enormous missed opportunity.”
The film critic and director Scout Tafoya, author of the
first book-length critical study of Tobe Hooper, the director of
“The Texas Chain Saw Massacre”, has slammed Make or Break,
the Apple TV series the WSL hopes will be the key that unlocks the
hearts of non-surfing fans worldwide.
Describing the green-light of a second season as “baffling.”
There’s an unfortunate trend in the way this documentary
series treats its characters (which has bafflingly already been
given a second season, despite having appeared as a screener on
Monday of last week ahead of its premiere today). I like the idea
of surfing. And as spectacle, it’s quite hypnotic and beautiful.
But I don’t know anything about surfing or modern surfing culture,
relatively speaking.
Make or Break opens with a surfing journalist talking about
the Wright family surfing dynasty as if we all know this stuff
already. Which of course means that nobody involved in this project
thought for a second that anyone doesn’t already love
surfing.
The series allows about 6 inches of breathing room for the
uninitiated. But mostly, like the surfers here, you’re thrown under
the waves. When the announcers tell us we’ve seen something
extraordinary, and the judges give it a perfect 10, it would be
very cool to know why.
On what works, and what don’t.
The best moments in Make or Break happen when they stop
editing it like a sports competition and just show you the surfing
uninterrupted. The editing on this show proves infuriating, because
the creators don’t trust that the sight of surfing (you know … the
reason the show exists?) is interesting enough without cutting
through each few-seconds-long ride a dozen times just in case you
turned completely around for a few seconds and then looked
back.
On the WSL’s pivot to vanilla.
For years, the appeal (as far as I could understand, at any
rate) was that surfing was one of those things like skateboarding
or punk music, that people didn’t think should be taken seriously.
That’s why to this day, some of the best artifacts around the idea
of surfing (for my money, stuff like 1987 exploitation flick Surf
Nazis Must Die or the video for Interpol’s “All the Rage Back
Home“) embrace the sport’s connection to the disreputable.
Making a show about the corporate maneuvers required to make
the World Surf League happen in the face of, say, a shark attack,
is antithetical to the reason to watch surfing in the first place.
This is perfectly fine television, but it does feel like an
enormous missed opportunity.
Make or Break is not about surfing. It’s about modern
competitive surfing culture, and that’s just not that
interesting.
My favourite episode, currently, is episode six, Chasing the
Queen.
I enjoyed, very much, the insight into Stephanie Gilmore as she
navigates the autumn years of her career, and Sage Erickson
lighting up on Tatiana Weston-Webb over a priority
interference.
“Fucken cheap,” says Sage.
“Just playing the game,” says Tati.
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Jon Pyzel and Matt Biolos by
@theneedforshutterspeed/Step Bros