Hamilton (pictured) in a place she is no longer allowed. Photo: WSL
Hamilton (pictured) in a place she is no longer allowed. Photo: WSL

Surfline breaks with partner World Surf League over Bethany Hamilton ban, speaks glowingly of inspirational surfer-activist during live Teahupo’o broadcast!

"What Bethany does even today is incredible, riding waves with just one hand!"

It has been nearly three months since the World Surf League declared war on the inspirational one-armed surfer Bethany Hamilton. The shocking row began after the Santa Monica-based “home of professional surfing” adopted liberal new rules allowing transgender surfers with low testosterone, revealed through self-testing, to compete against women. While many cheered the progressive stance others were not so happy. Surf great Kelly Slater called for the creation of a trans division while Kauai’s Hamilton discussed issues of fairness.

Retribution was swift.

Surfers were not allowed to choose “Hamilton” for their jerseys celebrating International Women’s Day and commentators were not allowed to mention her name.

A brutal erasure.

Well, the World Surf League’s forecasting partner Surfline has decided to break ranks with WSL chiefs Erik Logan, Jessi Miley-Dyer etc. and spoke glowingly about the thirty-three-year-old mother of three during yesterday’s live broadcast of the XL Teahupo’o swell. Her unique ability to paddle, spin and pop up all with only one arm, her tenacity, highlighted.

There is no word, as of yet, how the World Surf League will respond to such provocation. Will Surfline be scrubbed entirely? Told to apologize and beg for forgiveness?

Sent to the gulag (Challenger Series)?

Currently more questions than answers.


North Shore strongman Eddie Rothman and world champion surfer Barton Lynch rail against drag shows for kids at surf mecca, “The end game is to normalise ‘minor attracted people’ which we have always called paedophilia”

"I will never accept the abuse and indoctrination of the youth with these ideas.”

Patrons of the much-loved Keiki Community Fair enjoyed a treat on Saturday in the form of noted performers, the drag mother and daughter duo Candi Shell and Tara Way.

Along with food, books, services, fun actives and lunch and all sorts of prizes, the happy little keikis, which is the Hawaiian word for children, were gifted a Drag Story Time, a now-common treat for kids in the United States and which has become a battle ground ‘tween left and right. 

The Right sees it as the unnecessary sexualisation of kids, the left feels it establishes a beachhead against intolerance etc.

Your ol pal DR, who ain’t adverse to a little dress-up, agrees with Az Hakeem’s take that “Drag makes a parody of what society believes to be the domain of either gender, in order to make us realise how tenuous and ridiculous such constructs are.”

Now, North Shore strongman and co-founder of Da Hui Eddie Rothman has hit back at the show, posting on Instagram, 

 

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“I would hate to think that This is what our government is promoting., anyone who would bring any child to these so called events definitely has a lose screw and is a total SICKO !!!!!!! What has this nation come to!!”

His post invited an eruption of commentary including from the 1988 world champion Barton Lynch, who cinched his title at perfect eight-to-twelve-foot Pipeline but is now more famous for his oratorical gymkhanas on his podcast The Stoked Bloke Show.

You’ll certainly remember when BeachGrit outed Barton as a filthy communist bastard, which you can read here, and which was swiftly refuted, here. 

Lynch writes,

The endgame for them with all this is to normalise what they call, minor attracted people which we have always called paedophilia, and I will never accept the abuse and indoctrination of the youth with these ideas.”

Other comments followed in a similar vein, which invites the question, should there be a Drag Story Time at the Billabong Pipeline Pro cum January and would you invite Candi and Tara or should the WSL go with a more diverse choice, LatinX Bianca Del Rio or BIPOC Shangela Laquifa Wadley maybe?

Watch the sizzle reel below!


Open Thread: Comment Live as Teahupo’o goes extra large on Surfline!

Who needs the WSL?


The yin and yang of Kelly Slater. Photo: @sensitiveseashellcollector
The yin and yang of Kelly Slater. Photo: @sensitiveseashellcollector

Controversy explodes online as world’s most thin-skinned surfer Kelly Slater excoriates others for being “triggered,” vows vengeance after told to “eat a bag of dicks!”

"For that comment I'm gonna drop in on you again."

Surf nobility has descended upon Coolangatta, Australia and its famed Snapper Rocks. The Gold Coast hamlet was once a crown jewel in professional surfing’s crown. For many years it hosted the championship tour season opener and a gilded soiree celebrating the past year’s winners. Now, it has been relegated to the minor leagues, hosting a challenger series event but at least it is the first one after the dreaded mid-season cut thereby guaranteeing A-list attendance.

The Boost Mobile Pro, which opens its window on May 6th, has not announced the draw, yet, but Snapper has been firing and the aforementioned who’s who has been in the lineup, sampling.

Well, just yesterday videographer Simon “Shagga” Saffigna captured a wonderful clip not of a surfing prince or princess but rather a hefty gent on a longboard experiencing the monster ride of his young life.

While he missed the barrel, praise for his panache was near universal.

Notable surf journalist Tim Baker declared, “World champ if the best surfer really is the one having the most fun.”

Gold Coast legend Dean Morrison added, “The feel and real effect.”

Captain America Taylor Knox listed many laughing until crying emojis.

Of course there was light ribbing and then a backlash to that light ribbing, people angry that fun making was happening at the expense of a good-natured fellow, which brings us to Kelly Slater.

The world’s greatest surfer, never shy in sharing his opinion, penning, “Some people getting real triggered over a joke here. I’m happy the guy is stoked but it is pretty funny.”

Now, students of the game know that the 11x world champion is also the world’s most sensitive surfer, blocking anyone on social media who dare giggle his way. Slater’s delicateness is renowned. His thin skin legendary. But do you think he sniffs that whiff of hypocrisy, his pot calling other kettles’ black, or do you think he fancies himself an unflappable tough guy?

Very funny if the latter.

In any case, Slater was told to “eat a bag of dicks” for dropping in on someone. He then vowed vengeance.

“For that comment I’m gonna drop in on you again. Deal with it.”

Meow.


Lowe at a fav cold-water reef.

Breaking: British big-wave surfer Tom Lowe rushed to hospital with punctured lung, broken ribs and internal bleeding following catastrophic wipeout at big Teahupoo!

“My whole life is dictated around nature and what gets thrown at me, I love that."

Reports are filtering in from the Pacific island of Tahiti that the British surfer Tom Lowe has been rushed to hospital following a catastrophic wipeout in a building swell at Teahupoo.

The wildly talented Lowe, twenty-nine and from the Cornish beachside town of St Ives, has long been a stand-out at Irish big waves Aileens and Mullaghmore, as well as at Jaws on Maui, Mavs in California and at Mexico’s Puerto Escondido.

BeachGrit’s source says Lowe is, “seriously injured with six broken ribs and internal bleeding and a punctured lung.”

“My whole life is dictated around nature and what gets thrown at me, I love that,” Lowe says. “I always have to have faith it will all work out and just believe in myself. The physical aspect is not all that matters, it’s more your mental game and you have to believe in yourself and be ready to go at any time.”

More as it comes.