Americans, long used to international sporting dominance, greedily lick lips as Kolohe Andino, Nat Young, Griff Colapinto remain in hunt for World Surfing Games gold!

Chas Smith

By Chas Smith

Redeem Team!

America is, without doubt, an Olympic powerhouse tallying 1755 more medals, since the Games’ rebirth in 1896, than its nearest competitor that just so happens to be defunct (RIP USSR). Absolute and utter dominance and the country’s general public, residing from sea to shining sea, may well have expected absolute and utter domination over surfing as it made its grand debut two summers ago.

Carissa Moore did her part, taking gold for the red, white, blue on the women’s side but the men were put to shame by Brazil, Japan and Australia in that order.

Unchill.

But might redemption be nigh? The World Surfing Games is currently underway in sunny Huntington Beach and, I think*, three Americans are still in the draw.

Kolohe Andino, Nat Young, Griffin Colapinto.

Each surfs on World Surf League’s Champion Tour with the exception, possibly, of Nat Young. Each Californian. And get this, the country that wins the World Surfing Games gets an extra slot for an Olympic surfer (three instead of two). Let’s say either Andino, Young or Colapinto win this thing. Let’s say they, each, head to the 2024 Teahupo’o Olympics.

Sweep?

Watch here!

*I really don’t know how to read this.

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Inspirational.

Multi-disciplinary waterman Mark Zuckerberg under siege following claim he stiffed builder of $133,000 following build of a “Jungle House & Cabin” and “Tree Houses” on his 133 acre Kauai property!

Derek Rielly

By Derek Rielly

Trouble in paradise!

The former BFF of big-wave honeypot Kai Lenny has come under fire following a series of suits related to his 300-acre property on Kauai or, to quote Chas, “the cocoon wherein the Harvard honorary degree holder entered a worm and exited a butterfly.”

The thirty-eight-year-old Zuckerberg’s transformation from “pale silicon drone” to foil and fight king is the stuff of legend. 

Foiling down the Ne Pali coastline with Lenny, choking the hell out of his sparring partners.

However, not all is cool, as the kids say, in Zuckerberg’s bucolic paradise. 

After dumping BFF Kai Lenny for MMA expert and UFC debutante Kha “The Shadow” Wu, Zuck has had to fend off claims from the builder of his $2.9 million “Jungle House and Cabin” and “Tree Houses” that he stiffed him of 133k. 

Williams Construtions claims it “has not been paid for all of its labor, materials, and equipment as agreed” and “(Zuck’s company) has failed and/or refused to make payment in accordance with Williams’s requests.”

A spokesperson for the Zucks told Kauai Now, “To our knowledge, we have paid all invoices submitted by Williams Construction in full.”

Whether the claim is right or no, why the billionaire don’t just cut a check to get the damn thing off his back remains a mystery. 

Meanwhile, the family of a former security guard has filed a wrongful death suit against the Zucks after the seventy-year-old guard, Rodney Medeiros, died of a heart attack shortly after walking up a steep and muddy hill on the property.

Zuckerberg, who is worth sixty-billion dollars, give or take a few bill, offered the fam seven-and-a-half gees to bury ol Rodney.

Either he tight or a believer in fighting for the truth, no matter how minuscule the amount.

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The queen, king?, of shred, Stephanie Gilmore. | Photo: ASP

Push to integrate men’s and women’s surfing grows as left-leaning journal reveals,”Separating sports by sex doesn’t make sense” and “Genz Zers reject a strict gender binary!”

Derek Rielly

By Derek Rielly

A brave and beautiful new world.

One thing I learned having a daughter that surfed was, until a certain age, there wasn’t much that separated the sexes.

Girls, although wildly outnumbered, regularly won contests and demonstrated the same stratospheric improvement in skills groms get from long days spent in the ocean, free of the need to work or tend to kids etc. 

Then, around twelve, the girls split into their div and the boys into theirs. And, what happened when the genders were divided was the boys continue to improve, due, largely, to the volume of boys surfing. 

Meaning if there’s fifty boys in the boardriders club, a few of ‘em are going to be preternaturally talent, whereas if there’s six or eight girls, it’s way less likely.

Ergo, competition brings out the skill, not a little extra muscle and  weight. 

If Stephanie Gilmore had gone through the men’s system, boys junior events, the men’s qualifying series, you think she wouldn’t be a level above even what she is now? 

Anyway, I ain’t sure about other sports, MMA, boxing, swimming, football and so on, muscle and power count for everything there, but The Atlantic’s Maggie Mertens argues we gotta smash the gender binary in her (guessing the pronoun here) story, “Separating Sports by Sex Doesn’t Make Sense”. 

 “Gen Zers are more likely than members of previous generations to reject a strict gender binary altogether,” she writes. “Maintaining this binary in youth sports reinforces the idea that boys are inherently bigger, faster, and stronger than girls in a competitive setting—a notion that’s been challenged by scientists for years.”

And, 

“Though sex differences in sports show advantages for men, researchers today still don’t know how much of this to attribute to biological difference versus the lack of support provided to women athletes to reach their highest potential.” 

Where do you stand?

Binary, non-binary or do you,  like I, enjoy any kind of sugar in your bowl?

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Stop One, Rebel Tour (pictured)
Stop One, Rebel Tour (pictured)

Surfing’s core begins to clean vomit-stained shirts as nightmare of Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch Pro returning to tour settles in, turns eyes to Scotland and its just named “best in world” wave!

Chas Smith

By Chas Smith

They can take our G-Land but they can never take our Dream Tour.

Ugh. Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch Pro. The mechanical drone guaranteeing top turn, top turn, baby barrel, whack, air. Filipe Toledo for the win. Maybe Gabriel Medina if he can muster the interest. All leading to Lower Trestles where Filipe Toledo or possibly Gabriel Medina, if Rip Curl issues heavy heavy threats, wins it all and another year in the bag.

As it turns out, you actually can script this.

Anyhow, the core surf fan looking for something new, fresh can be inspired by Scotland, home to BeachGrit’s own World Surf League Championship Tour correspondent JP Currie.

Per the Daily Record:

Scotland is rightly considered one of the top countries in the world for outdoor sports, and now it seems even one of the more unlikely hobbies you’d expect to come to Scotland is proving massively popular here.

That’s right, a Scottish location has just been named as one of the best places to surf around the globe. The study by ParkSleepFly analysed various factors such as Google searches, Instagram tags, coastline length, and average sea temperatures to reveal the best surfing spots around the world.

And the coastline at Thurso, on the Caithness coast, has been named as one of the best places to catch a wave, joining locations in places such as Australia, Mexico and Bali.

With Currie already there, and you already sporting a vomit-stained shirt, should we consider Thurso stop one on a long longed for Rebel Tour?

They can take our G-Land but they can never take our Dream Tour?

Think about it.

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Miley-Dyer and Logan (pictured) in hell.
Miley-Dyer and Logan (pictured) in hell.

Wall of Positive Noise comes under heavy assault as professional surfers join surf fans in hurling hell at WSL!

Chas Smith

By Chas Smith

"GO F*CK YOURSELVES!!!"

Now, I don’t know what reaction the World Surf League was expecting with the announcement of its 2023 Championship Tour but if I had to guess, it would be a general vibe of uproarious praise and gratitude. CEO Erik Logan has not been shy about “growing the platform” in order to “bring financial comforts and profound senses of well-being” to all professional surfers while “providing surf fans with a best-in-class entertainment experience” etc.

And so it must have been quite a shock when Logan, Senior Vice-President Jessi Miley-Dyer, owner Dirk Ziff logged on to their very own Instagram account and were met with fire and fury from all sides.

Tatina Weston-Webb, 2022’s runner-up, demanded more lefts, maybe unaware that Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch goes both ways.

Shane Beschen, a usually calm voice, screeched, “From the beginning, the excitement, fun, culture of surfing has grown from the inside out, meaning the infectious spirit of surfing is slowly reaching the masses through the enthusiasm of the core market. Your core market has been speaking loud and clear about the mid year cut, ending at lowers and now this new schedule. As i am now simply observing as a fan, it seems like a good idea to listen to the people who have literally grown the sport to where it is now. The surfers and the fans. I am from San Clemente and love lowers but this years Finals strategy is now even giving one of the most high performance waves in the world a bad name. When the people are used to the consequences of Pipeline to claim the title, most surf spots fall short on delivering that same excitement. Wishing you guys the best as i will always be a fan of surfing and todays surfers are setting new standards that are incredible.”

Cleeds1973, and 1442 others wrote slightly different versions of, “This is what happens when you get kook marketers to run the world tour.”

Owen Wright, victim of the mid-season cut, seemed to be enjoying the assault, penning, “Just here for the comments.”

As a surf journalist, I dug through hundreds upon hundreds of opinions and not one, not even one, remotely kind or thankful.

Logan currently in his room, headphones on, Deepak Chopra and Oprah shoring up positive manifestations.

Miley-Dyer currently unaccounted for.

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Jon Pyzel and Matt Biolos by @theneedforshutterspeed/Step Bros
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