Stab (left) holds surf fan while jumping off Ziff ship. Photo: Titanic
Stab (left) holds surf fan while jumping off Ziff ship. Photo: Titanic

Bootlicking World Surf League “premium” propagandist organ furthers rumors of professional surfing’s demise in Judas-like betrayal!

Stab in the back.

They say that death and taxes are the only things certain in this wild world but I would also include surfing’s Stab spinelessly bending to whichever way the wind is blowing. The media house, which has bounced from one hip location just passed its prime to another, has long, and I truly hate to be crass, sucked World Surf League dick.

Always cheering, never jeering, the now Oceanside-based members-only surf blog has vigorously championed every move made by the World Surf League since billionaire Dirk Ziff’s purchase for free in 2015.

Clearly hoping to get some o dat.

Alas, some o dat did not come and now the propagandist organ is stabbing, no pun intended, the aforementioned Ziff, Chief Executive Erik Logan and the whole shooting match directly in the back.

Judas-like.

In a new bit of paywall journalism, Stab has declared the WSL is up for sale while being extremely rude to figures it once fellated.

Back in 2013, an American billionaire with a surf-enthralled wife decided to buy the Association of Surfing Professionals. He then gave it a shiny new name, restructured the operation from top to bottom, and developed an AI software called “Erik Logan” to help sell the dream, creating the World Surf League that we all know and love today.

Unfortunately, the WSL has recorded tens of millions in losses since its inception. And because the WSL is a private company with no outside investment, that means Dirk Ziff has recorded tens of millions in losses since its inception.

When you’re a billionaire, this isn’t the end of the world — a “tax write-off” as some would put it (people who make a lot of money need some losses to offset their gains). But when you’re a billionaire, you also know when the time is right to make a deal. And from the intel we’ve gathered, Ziff is in the market for a sale. Reportedly, he’s already had meetings with “very serious” suitors who are looking to take the League off his hands.

Furthering our suspicions is the fact that at the recent Surf Ranch Pro, despite very public protests from some of surfing’s biggest stars at this same event, the WSL remained incredibly calm and level-headed, and minus a tongue-lashing from Erik Logan decided not to punish Gabriel Medina, Filipe Toledo, and Italo Ferreira for their reprisals of the League

— at least not publicly.

Also: In recent weeks, we’ve heard whispers that WSL owner Dirk Ziff has been in talks to sell his entire enterprise — the league, broadcast channels, KS Wave Co, and everything in between.

The use of “whispers” and “intel we’ve gathered” is clearly disturbing, alongside Gabriel Medina, Filipe Toledo and Italo Ferreira’s “reprisals of the League” plus the lie of “no outside investment,” as Slater Wave Co. prospectors have been roped into the World Surf League, but I have been saying this World Surf League is cooked for months now.

Stab’s jumping off the ship like a rat further proof.

Extremely shoddy surf journalism to boot.

More as the story develops.

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Slater (pictured) being comforted. Photo: WSL
Slater (pictured) being comforted. Photo: WSL

Surf great Kelly Slater ravished by possible spinal meningitis complains of “fevers, sinus, chills, headaches, stomach flu etc.” hours ahead of Rio Pro!

"Glad I made it home amidst the onslaught."

Surf fans the world over are huddled over candles, eyes tightly shut, thinking healing thoughts as Kelly Slater moments ago revealed that he is suffering from a incapacitating illness that has laid him low just hours before the Rio Pro is set to get underway. The 11x World Champion took to Instagram and shared a cryptic body temperature image with his most ardent supporters, writing, “When my sickness started the other day. On day 5 of being sick now. Fevers, sinus, chills, headache, stomach flu, etc. Glad I made it home amidst the onslaught.”

The long list of debilitating symptoms might suggest the greatest athlete of all-time is suffering from spinal meningitis, pneumonia, malaria or a stroke.

The global surfing community, while devastated that Slater likely will be unable to travel to Brazil, is more concerned about him lasting another five days thus the candles and thoughts.

But do you think it will work?

Do you think the power of positivity will carry on the trades all the way to Slater’s home, whichever one he is currently inhabiting, and lift him off his death bed then plant him in the land of order and progress or will the man who was gifted a one-of-a-kind season-long wildcard be forced to sit this one out?

Please keep your candle lit.

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What an honour it would be to be cucked by Laird Hamilton, not so much by Leo.

Lauren Sanchez, fiancé to Jeff Bezos, narrowly avoids Leo DiCaprio-esque imbroglio after coming face to face with world’s sexiest surfer Laird Hamilton!

“The former news anchor was clad in a black string bikini and a matching sarong as she palled around with (Hamilton) on the vessel."

I still remember the moment Laird Hamilton strolled into frame on a flat day at Sunset Beach. I was finishing an interview with the lifeguard Darrick Doerner, a fierce living desperado who had ridden thirty-foot Waimea Bay alone on Super Bowl Sunday in 1988, when a glossy man of great strength and beauty seized my attention. 

Although aloof through the mandatory introductions, I understood immediately his alpha status and admired the blonde waterfall that cascaded arrogantly over his forehead, its opulence beyond dispute.

Even now, as Hamilton edges towards sixty he is a man of epic proportions and as has been reported, “he has a beautiful heart, beautiful courage, a beautiful intelligence, everything about him is beautiful, his smile, his expression, his face.” 

Congratulations, obviously, are warranted for the magnificent robustness of his appearance.

Cut to a balmy November night two years ago and we find Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, his then new gal Lauren Sanchez and rubber-faced Hollywood star Leo DiCaprio involved in a friendly tete-a-tete at the 10th Annual Los Angeles County Museum of Art  Art and Film Gala.

Footage captured of the brief meet suggested Sanchez was prepared to cuck Bezos there and then for Leo and the internet, understandably, revelled in the tiny billionaire’s humiliation. 

“Find you someone who looks at you the way Jeff Bezos’ girlfriend looks at Leo DiCaprio,” was a popular meme. 

Fast forward to the European summer of 2023 and Sanchez was taking no chances when photographed alongside Laird Hamilton on Bezo’s half-a-billionaire dollar superyacht Koru, moored just off France’s St Tropez. 

Despite tabloids trying to drum up a little heat between the pair  (“The former news anchor, 53, was clad in a black string bikini and a matching sarong as she palled around with their guest on the vessel… Hamilton, 59, was shirtless and wearing swim trunks”) Sanchez kept her gaze seaward and far away from the forceful torso and the crotch where the nylon of his surf trunks, likely the Pro Performance short from Laird Apparel, bulged intriguingly.

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Security prepare to confiscate contraband sandwiches at the Surf Ranch Pro.

Surf fans rally around beloved journalist suffering PTSD after Surf Ranch Pro horror!

The whole absurd dance feels like a gift from a mischievous spirit. Oh yeah? You want to watch competitive surfing, well, have I got something for you!

When I think about Surf Ranch, which I try very hard not to do, I see the weirdest images. They could not possibly have been real. But still, somehow they’ve become lodged in my brain.

Was it all a dream? I look at my still-dusty shoes and realize regretfully that it was not.

Security seizing sandwiches. A writer from The Inertia hunched over his laptop in the near-empty media area. The overflowing Porta-Potties, that really, should never have come close to overflowing. The average construction site manages their poop better. The surreal version of judging now considered the norm in professional surfing. The inescapable heat.

What a wild, weird thing we’ve chosen to watch.

I’m not even sure why we’re still here, except it feels impossible to look away from pro surfing’s carnival. The whole absurd dance feels like a gift from a mischievous spirit. Oh yeah? You want to watch competitive surfing, well, have I got something for you!

Surely, something has cursed this year’s Championship Tour, at least when it comes to waves. If you’ve been here even a minute, you will know by now that I pretty much have no standards at all when it comes to surf. If I think a surfboard will float on it, I will try to surf it.

Let’s just say, I would not have been excited to rock up to the conditions at the recent El Salvador thing. Point breaks are pure magic until they’re not — and the not, was pretty dismal in this case, even by my very low standards. I do hope the tourism board is happy, at least.

After watching the women’s heats, I believe I have found the method to the judging madness. They’re counting turns. That’s it! They’re just sitting up there in the tower, counting turns. Oh hey, she did five! Good score. Only three? Meh.

It’s not that I necessarily hold it against them. Quantity over quality is how we like it here at the Trash Palace. Apparently, we’re not the only ones. But I’m not sure this is a standard to emulate willy-nilly, whenever you feel like it.

Take for example an opening exchange between Carissa and Lakey. Carissa found one of the better waves on offer, which isn’t saying much. It was over waist high, I think! She strung together a series of floaters and foam climbs — and managed to place a couple of turns. I felt generous giving it a 7. The judges? 8.0. Oh hey.

Lakey took off on a smaller insider. She reached back to her skateboarding roots and ripped it. Three fast, fins out turns. I figured 6.5ish. The judges counted turns, found it wanting, and gave it a 5.33. In a less absurd world, the quality of Lakey’s turns would have added up to a better score. Instead, the judges counted turns and blew open the heat on the opening exchange. Lakey never found her way back into it.

No shade on Carissa for figuring out what’s wanted and surfing straight to it, but I’d love to know what’s going on in the tower. Did the WSL cut their pay? Is the lunch service down to PB&J? Maybe one of those fancy credentialed media people with their laptops could ask this question.

I’m just a girl with four cartons of box water still sitting in my refrigerator. I do think from now on, I’m going to use this more is better approach with editors. See? It’s so many words! What do you mean you actually wanted good words? I feel certain this tactic will work out for me.

Like Carissa, Caroline knows what the judges want. Turns, so many. When I saw her at the fabulous Tachi Palace, Caroline looked strong and healthy. The time she took away from competing seems to have served her well. Her Instagram now runs more toward surfing clips than bikini babe poses. She seems to have found balance. For her sake, I hope that’s true.

Freesurfing, Caroline looks like she’s having fun. Her surfing has variety. She’s ripping. Sure, that trailing arm still has a mind of its own, but her style has smoothed out over the past few years.

Who among us doesn’t occasionally wave our arms around uncontrollably? Oh. Right. Well just me, I guess. I have really long arms. It’s not my fault!

Thanks to the vagaries of the judging panel, I feel like we don’t necessarily see Caroline’s best surfing during heats. She can do more than one turn! But if the number is all that matters, well, just keep doin’ the same one. Ten’s for you! And you! And you!

I’m not about to hate on anyone for doing the surfing that scores points. If you want to win, that’s what you do. But I am going to look a little sideways at the whole circus. Here I am standing here, looking sideways, wondering if the judges need a sandwich.

Caity Simmers. Underscore or nah? Caity looks relentlessly determined to avoid conforming to the judges demands. This is extremely punk rock. But it does not look to be the most obvious route to winning a world title. We all have different goals, and no doubt she knows what she’s doing out there.

In their opening round heat, Caroline left the door open with a 3.17 and a 5.17. Sitting with a 0.83, Caity took a smaller inside zipper. After a couple nothing turns, she tossed an air reverse with a two-handed, toe-side grab. She used the grab to give it a little whip.

Was it style or necessity? On second watch, the whole thing looked forced to me. Caity didn’t really get high enough to complete the reverse and had to work to make it. The grab looked more awkward than stylish. Credit to Caity for trying to make a small wave into a score, but the judges got this one right with the 5.50.

In her quarterfinal, Carissa put up a clean air reverse on the end section after chaining together a series of turns. She looked strong with sharp turns all the way through the wave. The air was higher than Caity’s and needed no forcing. The judges gave her a 9.37, and rightly.

At risk of starting a riot, Chris Coté is right that surfing needs to sort out the whole situation with naming airs. We’re more than 30 years into the aerial era in surfing (Davey Smith says hello from the 1980’s), and I feel like we can do this. Calling everything an air reverse ain’t helping.

Give me back-5 and front-5 for a full rotation. If there’s a cute grab, call it a back-5 stalefish or front-5 indy. I’ll go ahead and admit that I just like to say Stalefish. It sounds cool. I don’t want to painfully write out, backside tail high full rotation. Tail high back-5. We all know what it is. We’re all happy.

I’m not saying that the judges would suddenly come to their senses and score airs correctly. I feel like that is far too much to expect. I do not have this kind of hope in my heart. But it might help! Please let me have this one nice thing.

Caroline Marks won this thing and now sits third in the rankings behind Carissa and Tyler. Molly is still holding a spot in the top five, though she dropped to fourth. Caity fell to seventh, after going out in round 2 where she mostly sat and watched Bettylou surf. In a hilarious turn, Steph and Tati are tied for fifth. I can’t see that tie lasting too much longer, but it’s fun for now.

After spending a few hours dancing around in small waves, Caroline won $100,000. In all the absurdities of surfing that might top the list. No wonder every dad wants his kid to grow up to be a pro surfer. For a niche sport, that’s a pretty damn hefty pay-out.

Shall we compare? Sure, why not. After three weeks of racing around France in every kind of weather, the winner of the Tour de France wins €500,000 (roughly USD550,000). Then he splits that prize money with his eight teammates. Team staff typically also receive a cut. The Tour de France is broadcast on television in 190 countries. Winning a mountain bike world cup race, meanwhile, pays out €3750 (roughly USD4000).

If there’s a lesson here, it’s never become a writer. Honestly, it’s the fastest known route to insanity. You’ll get dust on your shoes and spend too much time contemplating porta-potties. You’ll actually care what airs are called in surfing. You’ll look around and wonder how in the world you ended up here.

Today the sun is out and I ordered a new surfboard. I think a lot about how I don’t have to go to Surf Ranch again. If I had a gratitude journal, I’d write that down on the very first page. I’ll take a carton of box water down to the beach and stare up at the boundless sky. I’ll look for waves, no matter how small and insignificent, and then, pretending no one is watching, I’ll dance in the wild blue with joyful abandon.

It’s enough.

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Abandoned baby seal turns to San Diego’s middle-aged straight white male surfers for motherly love and affection!

Adorbs.

After finishing my second cappuccino of the morning whilst sitting outside Manhattan’s iconic Lincoln Center, you can imagine my shock when learning that surfers are no longer young, nubile, teenaged boys and girls but rather grizzled straight, white men, by and large. Derek Rielly pulling the wool from our eyes, sharing the research from Australia’s Dr. Sims, writing:

Craig Sims, who is a former South African pro surfer turned magazine publisher and university academic (he has a PHD in Media Studies from Bond), says the peak participation age for men is 45-to-49 (I added the bit about CIS and white in the headline…clickbait etc… you understand) and 35-to-44 for gals.

“This clear and present aging trend forces us to accept an important and far-reaching statement: Surfing is no longer a youth sport inextricably tied to youth culture. Failing to accept this statement will result in surf brands missing out on forging a meaningful connection with a significant and growing segment of their market.”

Oh. I guess I added “straight white male” for the same reason, but that is mostly what I see around my home San Diego breaks. But have these elderly gents, public enemy number one, received a bum rap? For the New York Post is reporting that an abandoned baby seal is turning to them for motherly love.

Per the story:

A seal pup paid a surprise visit to a number of surfers at a California beach over the weekend as it jumped from board to board and floated on the waves with them.

The baby seal made its appearance in the waters off Tourmaline Beach just North of San Diego on Saturday to the delight of the surfers there.

Drone footage captured the pup clambering out of the water onto the ends of the surfers’ boards where it rested and sunned itself on its side.

The joy of the surfers was apparent on their shocked and smiling faces, but all appeared to keep their distance and give the seal its space.

Some of the bros called Sea World who came an investigated but concluded that the li’l fella was healthy and happy and doing ok on its own.

Calling Sea World on a baby seal seems extremely cruel, to be honest.

#LockHimUp

In any case, I think I’ve shared before, but was once working at a summer camp in Canada, manning the bottom of a zipline. It ran from a tree on a cliff into the sound and I stood at the bottom in a Zodiac, retrieving campers after splashdown. Once day, a baby seal all white fury and cute, hollered down to me from a rock wall. The tides were extreme and its mother had left it all alone and very high. I scaled up, grabbed it and jumped into the sea. The darling thing stuck around all day, swimming around my dinghy, hopping aboard, sleeping at my feet. I brought it back to the main camp at the end of the day and the director told me they couldn’t feed it and instructed to leave it in the water.

As I had nowhere to hide it, I took the baby to a nice send off spot and stayed until the sunset.

The next morning the sweet baby was dead.

I curse that camp director to this day.

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