Slater (pictured) celebrating resurrection. Photo: WSL
Slater (pictured) celebrating resurrection. Photo: WSL

As Cameron Diaz officially retires for second time, surf fans lick lips in hope that former soon-to-be jobless “pal” Kelly Slater and acting great rekindle “friendship!”

Classic Notebook.

Ink on the Kelly Slater and Gisele Bündchen reunion obituary is not yet dry, lightly streaking down the paper like tears down surf fans’ cheeks, but that has not stopped the latter from re-dreaming big dreams. As you know, the Brazilian supermodel has been linked to a billionaire who earned money from his father’s real-estate cunning thus ending hope that she would reengage a man holding mere tens of millions even though that man happens to be an ex flame and also the best surfer in the world.

Hope springs, though, and, today, news is breaking that Cameron Diaz is set to retire from professional acting for the second time.

The Charlie’s Angels starlet, who came back from early retirement to act in a film with Jamie Foxx, reportedly had a “meltdown” on set and is finished with the whole business, sources citing her desire to be home with family instead of slaving for ten-hour days.

Well, surf fans are keenly aware that Diaz’s former… friend, Kelly Slater, will soon be on his way to Australia in order to face a retirement firing squad. The surf great, who retired in the mid-2000s and then again when Joel Parkinson did, will, like Diaz, be older and finished with work.

Diaz and Slater were photographed much after the blonde stunner split from then-boyfriend Justin Timberlake and the attraction was clear but harshly denied. “We’re just friends,” Slater told People Magazine, though the 11x World Champion is well-known for his head games.

Now, Diaz is currently married to musician Benji Madden, the two sharing a child, and Slater is claiming that, someday, he and longtime girlfriend Kalani Miller will become married but…

Might the two rekindle a healthy friendship that could grow into an even healthier friendship?

One of them caring for the other in a beautiful old folk’s home he or she has built by hand?

Have you never seen The Notebook?

Stop what you’re doing and watch now.


Wright (pictured) carrying a year's worth of rage. Photo: Olympics
Wright (pictured) carrying a year's worth of rage. Photo: Olympics

Surfers on the bubble of dreaded WSL mid-season cut break into panicked sweat with announcement of revenge-crazed Owen Wright wildcard for upcoming Bells Beach!

Cape Fear comes to Torquay.

Yesterday global surf fans rejoiced at the announcement that one of the precious wildcard slots for the upcoming Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach would be gifted to Owen Wright who declared he would use the moment to announce his retirement. The Olympic bronze medalist, and mainstay on the World Surf League Championship Tour, stated, “After my traumatic brain injury in 2015, my desire to prove to myself and the world that I could still be great and overcome this life-threatening incident inspired my recovery. Given my recent history with head injuries and concussions, competing at some of the heaviest waves on the planet is no longer in the best interest of my long-term health.I excelled in these conditions over my career, but the risks associated with this type of surfing are too significant for someone in my position, given my medical history.”

And while global surf fans were drying their eyes while fetching Owen Wright singlets from cedar-lined hope chests, the Championship Tour surfers, themselves, and especially those residing near the dreaded mid-year cut line, are quaking with fear.

Wright, himself, was one of the major names guillotined last year, given a proper head injury as it rolled from the blade and into the gutter. He was certainly having an off year but was not nearly incompetent, many good years appearing out ahead.

And you don’t imagine that revenge, a Cape Fear-style madness, has been percolating for an entire year?

Pictures tacked to the walls of one of his beautiful homes featuring World Surf League foes in crosshairs?

You certainly recall the 1962 thriller starring Robert Mitchum, remade in 1992 starring Robert Di Niro, wherein a very angry ex-con terrorizes the family of the public defender he believes responsible for his lengthy imprisonment.

Aye, aye, aye.

As a wildcard, he will come up against those in danger of The Widow including, possibly, Connor O’Leary, Matt McGillivray, Kanoa Igarashi, Kolohe Andino and one Kelly Slater.

How many skulls do you think Wright will carry with him into retirement?

The aforementioned greatest of all-time’s?


Tears for the Big O last year after being cut from the tour. | Photo: Make or Break, Apple +

Fairytale turns sour as surf Olympian swindled of fortune by crooked bookkeeper and controversially cut from world tour despite grave brain injury sensationally quits pro surfing!

Owen gets a wildcard from his sponno Rip Curl for Bells, then he’s out.

Do you believe in fairytales? We do! 

Our naivety, if you could call it that, was proved true six years ago when Owen Wright, who doctors said would never walk again, let alone surf, after a catastrophic brain injury following a wipeout at Pipeline in 2015, won the Snapper Pro two years after the devastating accident. 

But, yeah, fairytales also turn sour. 

The one-time world title contender who was dumped from the 2023 tour after missing the mid-year cut last year, has formally announced his retirement from competition citing a fear of lighting up the old brain injury. 

“After my traumatic brain injury in 2015, my desire to prove to myself and the world that I could still be great and overcome this life-threatening incident inspired my recovery,” the thirty three year old said in a WSL statement. “Given my recent history with head injuries and concussions, competing at some of the heaviest waves on the planet is no longer in the best interest of my long-term health.I excelled in these conditions over my career, but the risks associated with this type of surfing are too significant for someone in my position, given my medical history.”

He ain’t totally shelving his boards, however.

“I hope to keep surfing for the rest of my life,” he said. “I love surfing and thank the sport for everything I have.”

Owen gets a wildcard from his sponno Rip Curl for Bells, then he’s out.

A couple of years back it was revealed a family friend turned bookkeeper to the Wright family had swindled ’em of $1.5 mill. Over the course of eight years, beginning in 2012, Owen was fleeced for $815,000 via 317 electronic transfers by the woman who was revealed to be a keen horse racing enthusiast. 

If you’re worried O ain’t got a pot to piss in, as they say here in the Antipodes, fear not. 

Despite the plume of golden hair, swooning eyes and bullfighter’s body that once whipped women into a froth, O is a real estate developer of considerable note.

You’ll remember the $1.6 million house at Lennox Head with its indoor swimming pool that meandered through the living room,  the Federation-style house in Byron Bay (a little under a million), the beachfront townhouse at Thirroul (675,000) and the gorgeous mountain-top hideaway (bought for 750k, sold for a million).

And, recently, the beach shack he bought for $5.1 million in Byron Bay before bulldozing it and building four luxury villas, keeping one for himself and another for his biz partner and selling the remaining two for $6.5 mill apiece. 

Hence, no GoFundMe etc.


RAGE. Photo: Instagram
RAGE. Photo: Instagram

Australian surf royalty Chris Hemsworth publicly executed for violent birthday attack on young son: “In my country this is done but very poorly looked upon because several accidents have already happened.”

Light your torch.

Are we there yet? Peak Nanny Culture? Nothing to do but just sit atop the humungous mound of worry, victimization, lost sense of humor, nitpick and warm ourselves in the hot beam of disapproval? To be honest, I’d thought we’d arrived at the tippy-top six months ago when a certain tasteless surf tabloid was slammed by the Committee for Equity in Women’s Surfing for posting an image of an old gal having the best of times.

We were not even close.

For hours ago, surf royalty Chris Hemsworth and his wife, Elsa Patasky, were sent to the stocks for putting their son’s face in a chocolate cake and posting it to social media.

Hemsworth, best known for being Greatest Surf Movie in the Universe star Luke Hemsworth’s brother, wrote:

Happy 9th birthday to my two little men! Only one way to eat cake in this house and that’s to have mum slam your head into it face first!! “Hey mum I don’t like chocolate cake I prefer vanilla” “oh really son, what about now”?

Rage was swift and unrelenting.

“Why people smash their kid’s face in the cake is above my understanding but whatever,” one concerned global citizen, who is clearly childless, wrote.

“Why do people think this is funny?” another lobbed, before a third added, “It’s so violent.”

“In my country this is done, but it’s very poorly looked upon because several accidents have already happened,” a fourth opined.

Please gather at the less famous Hemsworth’s house with torches already lit.

See you there.

(If you don’t know the address, DM Derek Rielly.)


Heartbreak. Photo: WSL
Heartbreak. Photo: WSL

Surf fans finally give up all hope for fairytale reunion as Kelly Slater’s one-time love Gisele Bündchen rumored to be dating trust fund billionaire famous for string of supermodel exes!

That's all, folks.

Kelly Slater is many things. An 11x champion, 4x ringer of Bells, 2x Oahu homeowner (that I know of) and I don’t doubt that he has done quite well for himself, financially. The old Association of Surfing Professionals used to list career earnings, though that tradition has been disappeared since the World Surf League has refused to raise pay, but a quick search declares he has won over $4 million, which does not count many millions more in endorsement deals.

Certainly a double-digit millionaire.

Paltry and sad compared to one Jeff Soffer.

Rumors are burning hot that the son of an important Florida property developer, who inherited billions, is currently in an amorous relationship with Slater’s one-time love Gisele Bündchen.

You will certainly recall, months ago, when the Brazilian supermodel and her then-husband Tom Brady announced their shock split after a decade-plus of marriage. While surf fans mourned the breakup, they also busily lit candles, hoping beyond hope that Bünchen would find her way back to Slater and the world would be right.

Alas, things have not gone as desired.

Bündchen was first linked to her dashing jiu-jitsu instructor and now to Soffer, who was once married to Elle Macpherson and has a reputation for dating supermodels.

And is this where the fairytale bubble pops?

Is this where they all pop?

Princess falls in love with woodcutter before ending up with loaded prince thanks to rich king daddy?

Shoot.