"Paternalism mixed with dismissiveness ladled with passive-aggression and served warm with the emotional seasoning of a college campus safe space genre."
The online publishing giant AllGear Digital has swooped on scandal-prone website The Inertia, gobbling it up for a deal reportedly worth millions as part of its play to become the biggest online collective in the “outdoors and active-lifestyle space.”
“Building The Inertia has been one of the most rewarding journeys I can imagine,” said The Inertia’s founder Zach Weisberg, a Virginia Beach surfer who was inspired to launch what would become the template for the vulnerable adult learner tsunami following a talk by the Huff Post’s Arianna Huffington in 2010. “Since day one, we’ve committed to forging great relationships, sharing valuable stories from unique perspectives in a culture we love, and challenging ourselves to embrace new opportunities.”
Weisberg said the AllGear sale was “an intuitive next step… I’m so excited for this new chapter in our evolution.”
It’s been a wild and not always happy climb to the number six slot on the surf website ladder for the tabloid whose audacity often shocked hardened BeachGrit readers, with its use of racist tropes, “foul bait and switch”, “singling out women surfers as perpetrators of lineup violence”, as well as its now famous blood feud with former world number four Dane Reynolds who responded to a poor review with “In my opinion your review sucked, your site sux, and i’m relieved to never respond to your silly emails again.”
Weisberg’s reply to the charge from Reynolds, wrote Chas Smith, “will go down in history as the pièce de résistance of the paternalism mixed with dismissiveness ladled with passive-aggression and served warm with the emotional seasoning of a college campus safe space genre!
(Read here.)
No jobs will be lost in the sale, says AllDigital.
Weisberg remains at the helm as General Manager, Joe Carberry and Alex Haro are still gonna wear their Senior Managing Editor and Senior Editor badges and Mark Sawyer-Chu is still SVP of Partnerships.
So you can put a price on mediocrity.
Looks like this happened seven months ago per this https://www.linkedin.com/in….
No where in his bio does it say he is a surfer from my neck of the woods. We got this https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…, this https://eos.surf/video/entr… and him Matt Walker..
Finally
It does say he went Duke.
I’m still hanging on for ‘Make or Break BG Commentariat’. The fly on the wall documentary that peels back the onion layers of The People™️ who hold mirrors up to a soulless surf industry and diminishing culture in order to cling to the ideal that surfing actually means something. The last bastion of hope in a hopeless surf world. Do they succeed? You’ll have to tune in.
Proudly presented by Hurluley, Oak Tree Capital, FireWire Surfboards and the WSL.
That’s hilarious. The Inertia is the weak caramel latte of the surf media world.
I’d like to think if BG was bought out it would be by Gazprom or the NRA.
Only a matter of time ’til All Gear pirates come knocking at your door Derek and Chas… please don’t… but if you do, we expect video of Zach applying the Ashton-slap to Chas’s face, beard-grab or not, when you guys all have to be together at the corporate boardroom meeting…
Going by the amount of times that the Inertia has been mentioned (promoted ?) in BG over the years, you could possibly draw the conclusion that Chas n Dezz have always had secret shares in it, and just got a payday.
At least I hope they did, so they can afford to hire out Kelly’s pool for the much promised BG comment crew party week.
Or maybe they’re aiming to sell BG to the Daily Mail (that would explain the trash celebrity gossip angle that’s been thrashed here lately) to pay for the party.
Either way, as long as the party goes ahead all is well.
Disclaimer.
I only looked at Inertia a few times a few years ago and was promptly banned for life for making a mildly innocent comment about something I forget, likewise Stab, and Swellnet too (though maybe that was voluntary).
Hence my presence here…
Or they are just so bitter as DR lost out on the money that Sam Mac made from Stab .
I didn’t know you could make comments over there. Is it an exciting community? Might have to have a squizz.
It’s the complete opposite of here
Hahaha
Sweet. I’m gonna go over there, post no pictures, and be really nice.
Please what did you say
happy new years, mates. just got back from liquor store shopping…and bought some spam. I’m a great fan of BG but this post might get clipped. Sent the same via DM to Inertia and they responded: “Where can you still buy this!”
https://i0.wp.com/eatingtoa…
Personally, I didn’t take an oath or x-change blood or money for anything that appears on BG (either in comments or contents)…THE GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN!
We believe surfing cannot right the world’s wrongs and any attempt to do is the worst sort of paternal imperialism.
We believe the White Pointer shark is a spectacular animal that looks best preserved in Formaldehyde and exhibited at schools.
We believe surfing can be as exciting on TV as the Super Bowl.
We believe advertising can be more than product shot/action/tag/logo.
We believe a surfer is only a spin away from marketing success
We believe, above all, that surfing is anti-depressive!
And remember your safe word is “inertia”…
Ouch… Don’t worry Dez you’ll find a buyer one day.
Well, they better pull the trigger soon. This isn’t going to last much longer. I honestly was thinking a good New Years resolution would be to stop wasting my time with this worthless, drivel laden site. While I can’t handle the crap they write anymore, I also can’t keep myself away from this goddamn comment board. You fuckers are too funny to stay away.
Damn, you already have the crytime badge.
When can we get a flaring hemorrhoid asshole badge for you?
clap, clap, half-clap…https://youtu.be/kP9IE5B-Nxk
When are they buying BG?
We need them to buy it and send Chas back to Oregon to finally charge the bay then write an article about it.
Zack, Haro, Cranberry, et al, are some of the biggest soul-less, sell-outs in the history of surf, me thinks—twist their stories to meet their own needs— all have ridden Sups I think—“these few Website ‘sell-outs’ seek to unify surfing—only to extract the wealth”. Think that sums up the Inertia perfectly.
“Tune in to next week’s episode of ‘Cranberry and Haro’, when the dynamic crime busting misfit duo battle corporate espionage in the New England syrup industry , while also having an amusing side adventure learning to bowl!
Brought to you by Keebler cookies!!”
and blue bull!
You haven’t figured out yet that surfing has become one big sellout of an activity taken over by what we used to call kooks? Their world now.
Maybe, maybe not, but the Inertia’s soul-less zombies, under Weisberg’s leadership, have been leading the charge to ‘sell-out’ surfing since their conception.
Not so, maybe the marketing of surfing as an activity has been taken over, but it’s not their world.
“The cross promotional synergies are nearly limitless” said ELO in the midst of a fierce jealousy and rage induced boner
Good on ya, Danger. You got to confront them directly. And you were gentle. Methinks had any of us below the line BGers had a swing, general sentiments would have been similar but grace and class would’ve gone out the window. Top 10 eco-friendly SUP paddle handles for the new year was a great listicle tho…I’ll give them that.
also, “Stop Yelling at Kooks!” I visit the site rarely as a reminder that humor & sarcasm is a BG trademark. Me thinks Inertians are too serious and probably shy away from controversy. Best to my avator Danger!
https://www.theinertia.com/…
…their biggest crime is publishing like 48 pedantic pieces by Sam George surfsplaining on everything from why trestles is the right choice for finals day to mid-lengths …insufferable , patronizing drivel … I’ll take Chas and DR’s clickbait sludge anytime over another article about how we less enlightened tribe members really have no clue and need Sam to explain to us why puka shells really are legit
Sam “longread” George is a throwback to old mags/rags. He served his purpose in introducing that era’s masses to virginal surf spots. Hell, us old guys had to watch B & W super 8 films to find Zippers, Casas, Honoloa, Ho’okipa, Santosha, Topanga, Blacks, Leo Cabrillo, 3Ms…by which all travel plans & paths had to go directly thru Hussong’s Cantina and maps cribbled on napkins. In his defense, tho, I like long reads…BG could use more of that and maybe some of the excerpts from podcasts…you know..the funny bits w/o commercials.
w/ you on the long reads … relatedly, EOS is a great source for that, although the long reads aren’t current (historic mag profiles, for example). Recently read one that Warshaw did of Foo back in the 80s that talked about the Foo/Bradshaw battle for supremacy that was really good, although maybe just really good for those of us who remember the 80s
burp! excuse me. RL, this year had some great blogposts by some of the commenters…off the tip of my tongue…Chazz, FRV, Ads, HYnds fin, Astropyhsician, Warshaw, Jen, Phat…cough, cough…do a SEARCH. serious researchers only.
did you just tell me to go do some homework??? alright prof. salsa, challenge accepted … although having been a subscriber / consumer at one level or another of surf-centric lit since the early 80s, if any decent stuff has slipped by on BG it’s because I spent a very long time totally confused by the weird-ass headline / clickbait concept and only recently realized that was just a smokescreen for the comment section, the actual straw that stirs the BG drink, to borrow an 80s trope.
Inturdtia.
Ops!
Ops!… sorry for the last photo!
I’m always confusing Zach Zuckerborg with Mark Weisborg
https://uploads.disquscdn.c… https://uploads.disquscdn.c… https://uploads.disquscdn.c… https://uploads.disquscdn.c… https://uploads.disquscdn.c… https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Dane Reynold’s quote re. the Inertia is a gem. A BG commenter complained that Dane has a thin skin. I’m glad Dane spoke up.
Did you get paid for your articles on The Inertia?
No they were Surfline rejects — Surfline paid well for the one article by me they published — it’s no longer on their site since they re-designed the site. The one article the Inertia rejected I sold to the Mountain Times newspaper here in Vermont.
I wrote one and didn’t get paid. Maybe now they’ve banked, I’ll get my cheque?
Don’t hold your breath.
They were so nervous about my submission.it took weeks of cautious emails until i said don’t post it, its too late the next contest had started.
Then they posted it. Apologies rained, the evil hippy had been vetted
You had one published on the inertia?
Typed something that bothered folk about the death of a World Champ and the current blog at that time received a cease and desist. The gang was left hangin on to ether.
Was banned at Stab for the same, only comment form.
Steve and I were discussing a launch, we had two Kurungabaa editors on board and I typed a contest review. Steve suggested that I post it somewhere in the US market to gauge interest, good idea and we didn’t know much about the Inertia except that our format was already successful with experienced surfers. (Post Surf, Nugable, Brew)
The lame asses took something that required immediate posting and they volleyed it back and forth, too controversial. Blasphemy was much like Derek in that I would type something and it would be up the moment he received it. Pertinent in this case…. by the time the caution police warily approved my opinion, the next contest had begun and it was wasted. They were so scared. Alex especially.
I got super busy working, Steve launched Free Ride Voice and I just typed for him. Kept submitting to Pete’s blog and he was very generous with my stories. Cliff had bugged out to Taiwan at that point, but the original goal was to combine Blasphemy with Kurungabaa writing staffs.
It was a good idea.
Steve decided to go the subscription route…. it had not yet been attempted. I was into an alternative ad program that relied on local revenues, not the surf industry. Campfire Tales never left the ground, but I was making too much money in real life to commit and Steve had a young family to support.
Dumbth Chronicles invited me to play and unfortunately I became the driver of that for John. Steve wrote Code Red for Surfer’s Journal and that was that. I was so happy he had a career for his writing, best surf sport journalist by lengths in my opinion. Seems happy at Swellnet too, though the comment section remains way to serious for me.
I think you’d fit in much better at the new Inertia than you do here.
Danger has the skin and temperment of a reptile, E.