Mainstream shocked to discover tacit approval of “grom abuse” amongst surfers in wake of disturbing video featuring the great Kelly Slater and young boy getting drilled into reef due elder falling from sky!
David Lee Scales and I met today, remotely as unfortune (the Kung-Flu) would have it, as is our habit in order to record the much-loved podcast our own Party Pete is storing for a later binge listening. Nearly 200 episodes worth and he is certainly in for a treat. Top of discussion today, of course, is the video clip that has gone viral-adjacent featuring surfing great Kelly Slater calling a 14-year-old charger into a Kandui bomb only to have an elder, replete with trucker cap, drop out of the sky in front of him causing the boy to straighten out and get drilled into the reef.
I, along with the 11x world champion, imagined the usurper would get called out and deeply shamed but, as it turns out, the idea of “grom abuse” is alive and well amongst core surfers.
Sentiment, it seems, is that the kid deserved his whipping and is surfing the last remaining frontier of this sort of business?
I’d think much shock in the mainstream where any -ism, including grom-ism and/or child abuse, is exceedingly frowned upon.
Have you re-thought your position on the matter?
Well, no time for that now as David Lee and I pivoted quickly to World Surf League CEO Erik Logan’s explosive interview with the Lipped podcast wherein he claimed that women can’t surf Pipeline and the specific instances where wood paneling an automobile is acceptable.
Topsy-turvy times.
Listen here.
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"Here's to turns."
Luxury surf blog releases exclusive opportunity to join seven day, night, bespoke Mexico surf trip for ultra-low price of $125,000 (sans flights and champagne)!
The war between me and Stab has, unfortunately, cooled off in the last few years. With comedically chubby nemesis Ashton Goggans and his trusty sidekick the Li’l Haberdasher apparently pushing off and a whole new staff of former Surfing magazine stalwarts, whom I greatly respect, taking over, the fun is gone.
I blame Stab, of course.
The joy that could have been had, for all, in an ongoing yellow’d fight could have been legendary. One of my favorite eras in journalism was the battle between Hearst and Pulitzer publications in the late 1800s led to an actual, literal war providing kicks for hundreds of thousands of otherwise bored readers during an otherwise boring time.
But alas and what might have been.
In any case, the aforementioned luxury surf blog has recently advertised a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to partake in a southern Mexico surf trip for the low, low price of $125,000 USD (not including flights and booze).
It can be split seven ways and includes a ten-board quiver of alternative crafts, for one, and filming of the entire session as a stand-alone cinematic offering to be shared at family get togethers at the other Hamptons summer home. The whole thing described as “summiting your bucket list and staring down at you, teasing.”
As a man of the people, neck deep in the blue collar art of ballet, it won’t be me. I just made myself a hot dog smothered in Grey Poupon for lunch but am also not doubtful that someone will spring. Kelly Slater’s Lemoore wave tank rents out for $50,000 a day and is booked solid.
Should it be you?
Furthermore, do you have any thoughts on the wealth gap?
With J-Bay nearly underway, World Surf League breathes duplicitous sigh of relief as it is revealed site of Mick Fanning attack cleared of great whites by two “serial killer” orcas!
In stunning environmental news it was, days ago, revealed that many of South Africa’s picturesque, wave filled bays have been cleared of the most vicious great white sharks by even more vicious serial killer orcas. Great white bodies washed up on shore sans liver or heart. Great white orphans mourning their kin.
During the study, which was carried out over five-and-a-half years, 14 sharks have been tracked fleeing the areas when the orcas are present and visual sightings have dropped dramatically in certain Western Cape Bays.
“Initially, following an orca attack in Gansbaai, individual great white sharks did not appear for weeks or months,” Towner said.
“What we seem to be witnessing though is a large-scale avoidance (rather than a fine-scale) strategy, mirroring what we see used by wild dogs in the Serengeti in Tanzania, in response to increased lion presence.”
The removal of great white sharks will likely cause pressure on the food chain.
Now, of course I know that J-Bay is not a western Cape Bay and you may know that too but great white sharks are not as well-read as us, not really into the African Journal of Marine Science etc. so they might not and may be avoiding it altogether just to be extra safe.
You, of course, recall that J-Bay was site to the most famous single heat in competitive surfing history wherein a great white became tangled in Mick Fanning’s leash as he surfed against Julian Wilson circa 2015. Fanning was physically unscathed and the World Surf League, in its first season, breathed a public sigh of relief. Privately, though, there must have been many high fives and tight shakas for the incident is, by far and away, the most watched and talked about in professional surfing history.
Not that the WSL would like another brush with great white death but… ratings are ratings and that taste of real non-endemic sporting news and news news, oh so sweet. So much better than being endlessly prattled about on surf blogs, even wildly popular ones.
Just one more hit, daddy, with everyone safe, of course.
Please?
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Surfing great Kelly Slater shouts 14-year-old boy into Indonesian dream wave only to have him burned and drilled to reef by unrepentant elder, proceeds to name and shame on social media: “Tag him!”
Imagine being a next level 14-year-old surfer out sharing an Indonesian lineup with the world’s greatest athlete Kelly Slater. Then, dream on, he shouts you into an absolute bomb. He having position, you getting the call. Paddle, paddle, paddle, drop barrel beginning to lay out before you when, suddenly, out from the sky, an elder man wearing what appears to be a baseball hat and/or trucker hat drops forcing you back into the lip in order to be pounded upon the reef.
Harsh!
This nightmare-cum-dream sequence, though, happens to be a reality and one commemorated to film for all the world to see.
Filmmaker Shane Kreutzer captured the moment that was thus reprised by snowflake publication The Inertia.
Being snowflake, the aforementioned refused to name and shame the elder man but Kelly Slater, brave and bold, had no such compunction, ordering the spineless SUP enthusiasts to “tag him” and providing the handle @captain_kook_berry_crunch which just so happens to belong to belong here.
Comments were very harsh toward the dropper inner with many declaring that would be the last wave he would catch in Indonesia, that he should fly home etc.
But what is your read?
Kelly obviously a saint, young charger going for it but elder a life endangering menace?
I stand with Slater, and rage, per the usual.
Please weigh in with your thoughts.
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Imagine the scene at Teahupoo...
Lost amidst explosive revelations of grueling 50-minute surf sessions, evidence-free claims of surf eclipsing golf in popularity, is leak sixth best surfer in America Kelly Slater intends to surf 2024 Olympics!
The recent interview conducted with the world’s greatest athlete, Kelly Slater, by Breitling continues to captive the surf reading public with revelation after revelation emerging from the, ostensibly, advertorial masterpiece. Drip after drop after drip holding sway while J-Bay ticks to commencement.
Slater sat down with the luxury Swiss watch manufacturer, recently, to speak about the re-worked Superocean Automatic 42 Kelly Slater. Limited to 1000 pieces, Breitling used its dive watch as foundation but swapped in a bright orange dial as nod to the 11x world surfing champion’s father and an army green band, inspiration un-noted, though the chat quickly pivoted to shocking revelations that he, Slater, surfs for a grueling 50-minutes at a timeas opposed to the typical 30 and once heard, evidence-free, that surfers have eclipsed golfers in number, noting there is much money in golf.
Lost, however, or at least under-acknowledged, is Slater’s intent to surf in the upcoming 2024 Olympiad which will be held in France and, thus, subjugated French Polynesia i.e. Teahupoo.
I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was on my mind. Because the location of the next Olympics is a spot I’ve probably had my first or second best results in my career — it’s in Teahupo’o in Tahiti. France is hosting the Olympics and they’ve chosen to take it down to Teahupo’o — I’ve won that contest like six or seven times. It would be really great to try to make that team. They only took two people from each country in the last Olympics, and they’re going to take three from a couple this time — including the U.S. I honestly think the qualification is potentially harder for me than winning the Olympics. If I can get in there I think I’d have a shot at winning the Olympics in 2024. And I’d be 52, so I’d be one of the oldest Olympians in that game.
Slater is correct in his assessment that qualification may be more difficult than winning gold. At time of writing, the most recent Pipeline Pro is sitting as the sixth best American in the world with only the top two, per country, allowed. If you recall, Hawaii does not get to surf under its own flag, per Olympic rules, so John John Florence and Baron Mamiya are directly in his way but let’s get into the numbers?
John John is hurt and may have a tough time getting his wobbly boot motivated. Baron should, or could, be a lock. Kolohe Andino, the American with a Hawaiian name, is above Slater too plus has Olympic experience and Nat Young, the American with an Australian name, is making moves. Griffin Colapinto, currently world no. 4, has shown flashes of brilliance, likely also locking, so where does that leave our man?
Does he have what it takes to rise above a solid but compromised field?
While the World Surf League insists they “don’t script this,” should they just once?
The feel-good story of the decade.
Or to quote the great Noa Deane, “America, fuck yeah.”
But quickly, Slater claims to have won at Teahupoo “six or seven times.” Do you not think he knows whether it is “six” or “seven” or is he just that good?
