Savor.

I am, currently, sitting in a gorgeously modern spa hotel on north-western corner of Germany’s Black Forest, sipping a double cappuccino and seeking respite from the thunderstorm outside. It is nice, pleasant, though I am feeling bad for all the morbidly depressed surf fans who have no shelter from the deluge of shattered expectations.

Months ago, when the World Surf League was including G-Land on its 2022 Championship Tour, the aforementioned surf fans rejoiced. That epic left had provided many memories, much thrill, and now those could be shared with children. Fate, though, had other ideas. The swell forecast became not good, weeks ago, and has since downgraded. One day of decent professional surfing has been followed by lay-day after lay-day while the professional surfers unwind in a jungle bacchanal.

Setting aside my newspaper, I am ready to shed a lonely tear when a news alert jolts my phone. Page Six is reporting that “Prince of Malibu” Brody Jenner and “Ultimate Surfer” Tia Blanco are officially Instagram official.

Brody Jenner and his new girlfriend, Tia Blanco, are Instagram-official.

The “Hills” alum, 38, posted a photo Tuesday of himself staring into the camera as the professional surfer, 25, smiled with her arm around his neck.

Jenner captioned the Instagram Story, which featured his beloved dog Shoey front and center, with a blue heart emoji and tagged Blanco’s account.

Other posts showed the couple spending quality time together as they surfed, rode electric bikes and enjoyed the outdoors.

Here, beleaguered surf fan. Take and enjoy. Find warmth and happiness once again even if only for a brief moment.

Savor.

"Ninety-eight LA lifeguards earned at least $200,000 and 20 made between $300,000 and $510,283."

Auditors at the OpenTheBook Substack have revealed the staggering amounts earned by Los Angeles lifeguards, one lifeguard captain earning a little over half-a-mill, a hundred gees more than the beloved and transformative US president Joe Biden.

Who knew that LA lifeguards—who work in the sun, ocean surf, and golden sands of California— could reap such unbelievable financial reward?

Daniel Douglas was the most highly paid and earned $510,283, an increase from $442,712 in 2020. As the “lifeguard captain,” he out-earned 1,000 of his peers: salary ($150,054), perks ($28,661), benefits ($85,508), and a whopping $246,060 in overtime pay.

The second highest paid, lifeguard chief Fernando Boiteux, pulled down $463,517 – up from $393,137 last year.Ninety-eight LA lifeguards earned at least $200,000 including benefits last year, and 20 made between $300,000 and $510,283.

Thirty-seven lifeguards made between $50,000 and $247,000 in overtime alone.

And it’s not only about the cash compensation. After 30 years of service, LA lifeguards can retire as young as 55 on 79-percent of their pay.

The OpenTheBooks Substack is a pretty wild project, existing because, “We believe transparency is transformational. Using forensic auditing and open records, we hold government accountable. In 2021, we filed 47,000 FOIA requests and successfully captured $12 trillion government expenditures: federal spending; 49 of 50 state checkbooks; and 25 million public employee salary and pension records from 50,000 public bodies across America.”

Bullish sale for down-and-out former world title contender.

The one-time world title contender and Olympic bronze medallist Owen Wright, who was dumped from the world tour one month ago following a series of shock results, has achieved redemption of sorts after selling one of his luxury Byron Bay villas for $6.5 million. 

(The Big O was made real sad by the mid-tour cull, telling the Lipped podcast “It failed the first time and it’s failing again. I’d love for it to never happen again in the future… I don’t know how it’s gone ahead. Every time it gets brought up it gets brushed under the carpet.”)

A little over three years ago, Owen paid a pretty wild $5.1 million for an unremarkable beach shack at 2 Daniels Street, a few hundred metres from The Pass in Australia’s Bryon Bay. 

It wasn’t Owen’s first property play; he’s been buying and selling up and down the coast for the last decade. 

You’ll remember the $1.6 million house at Lennox Head with its indoor swimming pool that meandered through the living room,  the Federation-style house in Byron Bay (a little under a million), the beachfront townhouse at Thirroul (675,000) and the gorgeous mountain-top hideaway (bought for 750k, sold for a million).

Owen, of course, didn’t see a charming wooden home he might squeeze his little family into post-tour, he saw…land, half-an-acre of prime Byron Bay dirt right in the middle of the joint’s biggest ever boom. 

Owen, along with developer Burke Urban, built four luxury villas, keeping one apiece, and put the other two on the market. 

A few days ago, the first of ‘em sold for six-and-a-half mill, a wild result given the brittle housing market in Byron, a shire ravaged by flood and teetering on the biggest property collapse Australia has ever seen.

Stroll through 2  Daniels St, here, buy the other one if you got the change.