"Darth Vader eating raw dinosaur leg during a 9.2 magnitude earthquake is not quite as powerful as JBG at Backdoor," writes Matt Warshaw. | Photo: @_johnnyboy_gomes

BIPOC power surfer Johnny Boy Gomes, once compared to “Darth Vader eating raw dinosaur leg during a 9.2 magnitude earthquake”, slams World Surf League for ignoring his pivotal ’97 Pipe Masters win in best-of list!

“Now I’m speaking my mind and the truth WSL… I think Kelly (Slater) and WSL burned the tape!”

The Hawaiian surfer Johnny Boy Gomes, often cited as the best power surfer on the eighties and nineties, has slammed the WSL for ignoring his wild 1997 Pipeline Masters win in a recent best-of list.

“I’ve been keeping this in for a long time,” writes Gomes, “bcus I wanted to be cool and humble for my O’hana but now, I’m speaking my mind and the truth WSL. I can’t believe I’m the first guy in surfing history to make it from the trials to win it and still WSL didn’t even pick it as their top past Pipeline Masters winners list. We know the truth. I think Kelly (Slater) and WSL burned the ’97 Pipeline Masters tape… I’ve Neva Ask For Anything From Anyone but Let’s Do This wsl! Pipeline Heritage Heat Against Anyone or Maybe Even A Wildcard, Next Year.”

Gomes, who is fifty-seven and a grandfather, is described by Matt Warshaw as a man of “near-superhuman strength” and riding “in a tightly clenched weightlifter’s squat, with a ramrod straight back, leveraging his board into one massive turn after the other, and often riding deep inside the tube.”

In 1999, Gomes won fifty gees in the Backdoor Shootout, the biggest winner’s cheque in surfing at that point, and placed third in the Eddie that same year.

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"I have a screenplay."
"I have a screenplay."

Glamorous Norwegian luggage company partners with influential European podcast in order to discover best new voices in surf, skate, snow and shower with riches!

Money, money, money, money.

You know oh so well that Jonah Hill, heir to Miki Dora’s Malibu throne, and Shakira, currently wrapped up with a mysterious Spanish surf instructor, are such wonderfully compelling sagas. Stories that must be examined from each and every angle. That require diligence and attention, daily recountings, but have you ever wondered if there are other fascinating tales out there only hidden because the teller is either unknown or underfunded?

Might you, yourself, be sitting on one?

Well, as luck would have it, glamorous Norwegian luggage company Db has partnered with the compelling podcast Looking Sideways in order to uncover and toss money upon.

Per the press release:

We love storytelling. Uncovering truths. Discovering the world. We live for print galleries, documentaries and books. So does our friend Matt from the Looking Sideways Podcast, the show in which he uncovers the most interesting stories in surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding.

That’s why we’ve joined forces to launch the Db x LS Fund.

Together, we want to find the next generation of creatives, and help them tell the tales the world needs to know.

If you’re a photographer, a writer, a podcaster, a journalist, an artist or a film-maker with a story to tell, we want to hear from you. And we want to help you get your project out there,

Db x LS Fund – What we’ll offer you
This year, we will choose two winners and help them tell their stories. These winners will receive:

– A budget of up to €5000 to make your project a reality.

– Mentorship from our unrivalled team of creatives. Together, we’ve made books, films, podcasts, events, exhibitions and everything else. Whatever your idea, we’ll match you up with people who can help guide you every step of the way.

– A full Db Ramverk collection

– The chance to be featured in our Pack Heavy, Chase Light documentary series directed by Sam Moody.

– The chance to be interviewed about your project on Matt’s Looking Sideways Podcast.

– Help getting your finished project out into the world.

Db x LS Fund – What we ask
The chance to tell your story, mentor you through the process and permission to feature your work and process on our sites and social channels.

5000 Euro is currently $5132.97 USD and $7554.79 AUD.

Want to get rich? What you got?

Apply here.

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"You see Fishos?"
"You see Fishos?"

After promising “transmission will resume shortly,” Australia’s troublingly voyeuristic surf forecaster Swellnet dealt heavy blow, told naughty cameras must be kept turned off!

No peeping.

One month ago, almost to the day, Australia’s answer to Surfline, called Swellnet, received an ultra-embarrassing slap from officials and told to remove “naughty” surf cameras that it had illegally erected in order to gaze upon formerly nude stretches of coast along proud Victoria including, but not limited to, Fisherman’s Beach.

Australians were shocked by this invasion of their privacy (pronounced with a short i) but Swellnet remained undeterred with the company’s editor, Stu Nettle, telling BeachGrit, exclusively, “For the record: The Fishos camera has consent. A contract was signed in 2020. Almost every social media post about it has been incorrect, most particularly the administrator of the Respect Bells Beach FB page who’s been citing clauses in legislation that simply don’t exist. We’re currently going through correct channels to clarify our position. Normal transmission will resume shortly. Embarrassment? Nah, but not realising your Australian biz partner wanted BeachGrit to partner up with Swellnet might cut it. For the record, we said no.”

The revenge porn about a possible ménage à trois nipped before it could beautifully blossom aside, the Surf Coast Times is just now reporting that “normal transmission” is not, in fact, resuming soon and may not resume for some time.

The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) recently confirmed it has not given consent for any of the dozens of surf cameras in Victoria, despite it being a requirement under the Marine and Coastal Act.

The act only applies to cameras installed on Crown land, including at surf lifesaving clubs, and falls to local land managers such as GORCAPA to oversee.“We are continuing to work with lease holders to raise awareness of our CCTV policy and leaseholder obligations,” GORCAPA operations director Daniel Aitken said. “Where we identify cameras that have not received our approval, they will be decommissioned. If leaseholders wish to continue operating cameras, we will assess them against our policy.”

If Swellnet hopes to keep the peeping eyes functioning, Nettle and co. will have to go and seek approval under the Marine and Coastal Act, though the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority (GORCAPA) frowns upon “commercial use in which the footage is sold or given to a third party and indiscriminate live broadcasting without a specific time-limited permit” which seems to counter the very idea of wave-based voyeurism.

How will Swellnet react?

More vigorous defense of its kink or quietly shuffling off to the darker corners?

Exciting days.

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Slater, an eleven-time champion, with Gabriel Medina, twenty-two years his junior. | Photo: Steve Sherman/@tsherms

The New York Times makes historic blunder snubbing greatest athlete of all time Kelly Slater in story about stars who refuse to retire, “When Will Federer and the Williams Sisters Call It Quits? Maybe Never”

Anti-semite, anti-Indian, anti-white, anti-Slater?

Despite its recent shift to narrative over facts, from old grey lady to wounded millennial, it was still a surprise this morning to discover the New York Times had left fifty-year-old Kelly Slater out of a story on sports stars who refuse to quit. 

We find Venus Williams, who is forty, “grinding against a competitor a little more than half her age for more than three hours at Wimbledon” and big sis Venus, with “not so much spring in her step at age 42.”

There is Roger Federer, forty-one, Rafael Nadal, thirty-six, Tom Brady, forty-four and Tiger Woods, forty-six. 

“Why is it so hard, with their best years behind them, to leave the stage and kick back with their millions? And it’s not just tennis. Tiger Woods, with an estimated net worth of $1 billion, is struggling to come back from devastating leg injuries at 46. Tom Brady can’t stay away from football. Regular working people go through life believing that retirement is the endgame. Not so with professional athletes.” 

One week before his fiftieth birthday, and thirty years after his first win at Pipeline, Slater waltzed through the pack to win this year’s Billabong Pro Pipeline, and take the number one slot in the world tour rankings. 

Between sobs Slater said, “I committed my life to this.”

It isn’t the first time the Times has made an historic blunder. 

Over the course of World War II the Times shunted stories about Nazi death camps into the back pages, its Jewish owner, the anti-Zionist Arty Sulzberger believing European Jews were “responsible for their own demise in the Holocaust.”

Lately, editorialising around the Duke University lacrosse case and the furore over historical inaccuracies in the 1619 Project has dulled the titan’s once untarnishable rep to the dullest sheen. 

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Filipe Toledo as art (pictured).
Filipe Toledo as art (pictured).

“King of Saquarema” Filipe Toledo permanently etches professional surf dominance into skin after stunning third Oi Rio Pro victory!

Living art.

Tattoos are as fine a way as any to mark moments in time. I, myself, have many including, but not limited to, an Elvis Presley “TCB in a flash” logo replete with stars representing the important personalities in the Memphis Mafia, the flag of Yemen, a surfing snowman and a black panther climbing a rather tricky cliff during an apparent lightning storm but none come close to Filipe Toledo’s latest.

The current world number one just went under the needle in order to document his utter dominance over the Oi Rio Pro which, for the past handful of years, is contested at a picturesque municipality some two hours from the aforementioned Rio de Janeiro.

The artwork, featuring the town, some palm trees, a gaping barrel and the years 2018, 2019 and 2022, was applied to Toledo’s lower calf by a competent artist and has room to add more years below in the almost certain case that he wins more.

The Kelly Slater of Saquarema.

Inspirational but back to you.

What tattoos do you have that make you very proud?

Sharing time.

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