No country for young men.

Those, here, interested in financial markets, stocks, bonds, etc. Those who listen somewhat regularly to Kai Ryssdal have certainly tracked the extraordinary rise and current fall of cryptocurrencies. What were once seen as “fake nerd monies” soared to the highest of heights before experiencing a real bummer of late. Fortunes disappearing. Fortunes and now, also, mysteriously heavies in the game.

Russian magnate Vyacheslav Taran, a young 53, died days ago in a helicopter crash whilst flying from Lausanne, Switzerland to Monaco. The weather was perfectly fine, clear as a bell, with an experienced pilot at the levers. Taran had made billions from cryptocurrency and became the third such heavy to die unexpectedly in a matter of weeks. Hong Kong cryptocurrency trading platform founder Tiantian Kullander, 30, “died in his sleep” on November 23 and Nikolai Mushegian, 29, who also co-founded a cryptocurrency trading platform, drowned in Puerto Rico after tweeting, “CIA and Mossad and pedo elite are running some kind of sex-trafficking entrapment blackmail ring out of Puerto Rico and Caribbean islands. They are going to frame me with a laptop planted by my ex [girlfriend] who was a spy. They will torture me to death.”

Surf fans have, immediately, turned their attention toward Kelly Slater and his well-being. The world’s greatest surfer, an 11x world champion, is a noted cryptocurrency player, savaging Elon Musk two-ish years back for refusing to take Bitcoin as payment for Teslas, writing, “I think Elon’s board and backers hate crypto and what it’s doing for the average investor and pressured him to put out a statement which they knew would inevitably tank bitcoin. I hope the SEC is taking a good look at this (and all of them who might be buying the dip today and this week in their private accounts). Interesting times. But Elon is bad for crypto.”

Slater has let it be known that he is a “diamond handed” investor in various cryptocurrencies but especially bitcoin, meaning he will not be cowed by market downturns etc. That he believes in his strategies and will hold firm come what may.

Surf fans hope beyond hope, though, that he will be sensible and that if he notices someone following him, say, wearing a trench coat and fedora or maybe sporting a creepy bowl haircut that he will not be too proud to sell low even if he bought high.

The World Surf League’s 2023 Championship Tour is just about to get underway and Slater is currently ranked fifteenth.

We need at least one more run at the crown.

Ke12y.

Be the change!

All for one and one for all!

When it was first reported that Emily Ratajkowski was becoming divorced from then-husband Sebastian Bear-McClard, San Diego area surfers became instantly and keenly interested in the drama. Ratajkowski, you see, hails from the quaint North County town of Encinitas, previously most famous for its subcontinental-inspired Self Realization Fellowship overlooking the aptly named “Swamis.”

The model/actor had been moved into the town as an infant and spent her youth going to various botanical gardens, likely eating tacos, trick-or-treating on Sandcastle Lane, sunning at Stone Steps, attending San Dieguito Academy High School before pursuing fame and fortune in New York.

She reached a certain level of fame, of course, pre and during marriage but her star absolutely exploded post. Initially rumored to be romantically involved with Brad Pitt, Encinitas locals, and especially local surfers, went rabid attempting to spot the couple at Kaito Sushi, Seaside Market, Leucadia Pizzeria (which is named after the neighboring hamlet but is actually in Encinitas). After those whispers were proven less than true, the selfsame locals imagined they could woo Ratajkowski themselves and return her to the home she no doubt loves. Alas, the world’s most desirable man Pete Davidson swooped in and now he and the Blurred Lines temptress have been pictured here, there, most recently courtside at a New York Knicks basketball game.

Initially saddened, the locals have rebounded and are now toasting their rising stock. Never before has an Encinitan or Leucadian or even Cardiff-by-the-Seacer been pictured sitting courtside at a New York Knicks basketball game, much less photographed. Never before has one of us captivated so grandviewly. And as is the way, here, one local’s success is every local’s success. Rob Machado’s 2000s Pipeline Masters as much mine as his.

How much higher can Ratajkowski fly? Pete Davidson is only a stepping stone, certainly, but who do locals want to see her with at the very end if not one of us?

The world’s greatest surfer Kelly Slater?

Sorry, he’s taken.

More as the story develops.

Better than World Cup soccer!