"On your various platforms, you acknowledge this era as the “turbulent dying days.” This suggests that you are actively trying to monetise a pain and struggle to which you have no personal connection."

Mami Wata Surf embroiled in controversy over clothing range inspired by apartheid-era Cape Town, “You are actively trying to monetise a pain and struggle to which you have no personal connection”

“VW Golfs, Ford Escorts, neon fashion, sportswear and fast food. It’s a vibe!”

The African surf brand Mami Wata has come under fire for the supposed insensitivity of its latest clothing range which is inspired by eighties surf culture in Cape Town, back when the damn Afrikaners called the shots and before international and internal pressure crushed the wretched Apartheid regime.

Per Mami Wata,

“The combination of the turbulent dying days of the apartheid regime in South Africa, Africa’s increasing exposure to global culture and brands, 80’s surf culture and a surf break in False Bay enjoyed by a predominantly Black surf crew, influenced amongst other things by VW Golfs, Ford Escorts, neon fashion, sportswear and fast food. It’s a vibe!”

 

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Artwork is by the absurdly talented Peet Pienaar, also a co-founder alongside Nick Dutton and Andy Davis. All men are of a white-ish hue, which is neither here nor there I think, but it’ll become important later.

It’s a nine-piece collection of t-shirts, sweatshirts, a short-sleeve button up, a couple of hoodies and a pair of trunks, although it ain’t cheap – tees seventy bucks, hoodies one-forty and trunks one twenty.

Again, I’ll spend four hundred on a pair of trunks if I think’ll serve my aesthetics for a couple of summers so the price don’t matter to me but, again, important in a second.

The Instagram account @surftherberg published an open letter to Mami Wata on October 5, giving ‘em hell for the range which dances, they say, on the trauma of apartheid-era surfers.

Dear Mami Wata,

Mami Wata presents itself as an African-centric surf and culture brand. Through this platform, you aim to convey African stories, utilise African iconography, and incorporate African nuances into your apparel, all while claiming to “deliver considerable economic, social and environmental value to local communities.”

However, in your most recent campaign titled “9 Miles” you have exploited a community of people who never sought representation by Mami Wata. They were neither consulted on your uninformed portrayal of them nor did they grand you permission to misrepresent their struggles and trauma for the benefit of a select few individuals with no real connection to the people you are profiting from.

The story of 9 Miles and the individuals who view this space as a refuge, a safe haven, and a place for healing have not given Mami Wata permission to misrepresent them,. They have not authorised the appropriation and profitization (sic) of their culture, their people, and their waves by Mami Wata.

To highlight a few discrepancies:

On your various platforms, you specifically reference the 1980s, a time when South Africa was under the rule of the Apartheid Government. During this period, people of color were forcibly removed from beaches, often with deadly consequences. They were denied the ability to swim, surf, and express themselves. Is it appropriate to turn this painful history into a t-shirt?

On your various platforms, you acknowledge this era as the “turbulent dying days.” This suggests that you are actively trying to monetise a pain and struggle to which you have no personal connection.

On your various platforms, you mentioned that a “predominantly black surf crew enjoyed this surf break.” Where did this perception come from? Who informed you that this “crew” consisted of a particular ethnic group? Who told you they enjoyed surfing there? Did this “crew” have a choice in where and how they enjoyed themselves? Furthermore, you reference their dietary choices of fast food as inspiration for your apparel range.

The story of 9 Miles and its surroundings should not be exploited by individuals who lack the right to do so. The residents of this place strongly oppose the use of its imagery, storytelling, and cultural references.

For those unaware, it’s important to note that Mami Wata is owned and operated by three South Africans, whose brand is built upon a culture that was nearly eradicated on the African continent. Visit the Mami Wata website and see for yourself if these three men should be representing Africa.
Lastly, the apparel ad merchandise are marketed as African yet they are priced at a level that many true Africans cannot afford. Go figure.

A comprehensive letter of complaint, no?

 

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Comments were divided on the matter.

Against Mami Wata:

“I value your realness and well articulated points. As a Nine Miles local for most of my life, we have hopes and dreams to make Nine Miles accessible for all people to enjoy the break and the beach, and also turning it into a self sustainable area. It would’ve been cool if this brand came and sat down with locals, created a synergy where both parties win, but in this story, only one party wins! I feel yet again we as a people and our story, which these guys have no clue of what Nine Miles is about, are just out there to financially capitalize. Why Nine Miles? The place we were allowed to use as our place to swim and surf during the apartheid era. Our story is definitely not for these guys to be told!!!”

For Mami Wata:

“You’re opinion matter. I’m really sad you guys feel this way and sorry if you feel exploited and would like to understand that better, seriously.

“I think what mama watu does is above and beyond most brands. Do you know they donate 100% of there book proceeds to surfers not street children? They operate more like a charity then an actual brand, it’s actually insane in my opinion, sorry if that is opposing of yours. I can name 100’s of non profits where there founders get paid more then all of mama watus founders and employees combined! I’ve looked at the numbers and asked. Have you ever asked them if they are actually profitable?! How would you make them affordable? What brands do you support then?

“Is this feeling about all adversities ‘turned into profit’? Does Nike and hundreds of other companies putting #blacklivesmatter on their appearel bother you? Do books on apartheid not ‘make a profit’ off what happened? Hollywood Movies of wars and genocides!? Would you prefer if people ignored the past and never spoke of it? How would you like brands to operate, be reasonable cause entrepreneurship is so hard.

“Can you appreciate that someone stepped up and made a African surf brand period? So you don’t want them to exist and would rather support a billabong or ripcurl or anything else made in China?
If everyone had the time, money and resources to consult everyone agreed this world would be all peaches and cream, but I think everyone’s doing their best these guys especially ! Let’s celebrate the positives and spread that. Happy days and more waves!”

Both sides are terrifically persuasive, although I think the underlying issue here is the cost of the gear and the lack of an indigenous African among the founders, ie too many whites.

Selema Masekela joined the brand in 2018 as a “co-founder” along with various investors (two million bucks was raised by crowdfunding in 2020) but by 2022 had “stepped back from his roles and responsibilities as co-founder, but remains a shareholder and creative collaborator. “

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Tyler (left) and Owen Wright, dreaming of spice. Photo: WSL
Tyler (left) and Owen Wright, dreaming of spice. Photo: WSL

Surf Olympian Owen Wright details horror childhood hothouse from pre-dawn family kung-fu sessions to flavorless vegetable dinners!

Welcome to the second circle of hell.

Olympic bronze medalist Owen Wright is nothing if not prolific in retirement. The 33-year-old Australian has built a “staggering” real estate portfolio and become an author. His book, Against the Water, an instant classic detailing his heroic journey from duck dive-induced brain trauma at the Banzai Pipeline to the third highest step on Tokyo 2020’s stage.

Wright, described as “model-handsome with long blond hair,” sat down with The Guardian, recently, to add flavor to his story, something he was not allowed as a child.

Surprises?

For starters, the Pipeline incident was not the first bonk on the head for Wright. Far from it, in fact, as he shares that he probably had somewhere between twenty to thirty concussions while surfing.

And also more details of his hothouse upbringing.

Per the piece:

Rob Wright believed there was no shortage of great surfers, but very few great competitors. And he set about drilling his children: they had no TV and no toys; mornings would start with a family kung-fu session, sometimes at 4.30am. They ate plain vegetarian food, served with no sauce or seasoning, and travelled to surf competitions around Australia on a school minibus. That last detail reminded me of Richard Williams, the rambunctious father of Venus and Serena, whose eccentricities were showcased in the film King Richard, starring Will Smith. Wright laughs, “Watching that Williams sisters movie was kind of triggering.”

Wright says he was his father’s clear favorite, something that didn’t necessarily bother his siblings. “The attention was never that great,” he said. “I was also the one who got up at the crack of dawn and trained and all the rest of it. They were more than happy to pass on that!”

Unlike his sister Tyler, Wright doesn’t seem to wholly blame father Rob, crediting him, in fact, with the life he now lives. “My dad did so many things that clearly got great results,” he confesses. “That relationship was the reason I surfed, it was the reason I pushed, it was the reason I rebelled, it was the reason I pushed again. It’s part of the reason I’ve retired. And it’s part of the reason I made it back out of the head injury.”

Today, he is caring for his father while parenting his own two children, slightly worried that his eldest son might follow in his footsteps. The six-year-old surfed in his first competition. The waves were big though the child was brave. Later, though, he came and told Wright they were, in fact, too big.

“What have I done?” he wondered. While also recognizing “The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.”

Buy Against the Water here.

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Surfer-hero “Gordo the Great” reunites with Ukrainian nurse he saved from wild seas, “I just said ‘jump on’ and we paddled like gladiators!”

“She was in the most dangerous spot imaginable. I looked around and the only person who’s going to save her is me."

The larger-than-life surf cinematographer John “Gordo the Great” Gordon has been reunited with the Ukrainian nurse whose life he saved in a wild battle of “underwater jiujitsu” six months ago.

Gordo, sixty-one but presenting with excellent T levels and smelling like a locker room, filmed the world surfing tour for twenty years before being dumped by the World Surf League, inexplicably and without warning last year.

Gordo’s filmic career is marked by awards, acclaim etc. He worked for the Seven News network in Queensland for two decades, in between gigs with Jack McCoy and his series of iconic Billabong films, before shifting into surf full-time.

So when a Gold Coast-based Ukrainian nurse jumped into the water at Fingal up there on the NSW side of the border with the Gold Coast and Gordo saw her being washed around the headland, he wasn’t going to stand by and wait for Superman.

A day to blow or get blown!

“She was in the most dangerous spot imaginable. I looked around and the only person who’s going to save her is me,” said Gordo, who described trying to rescue the gal as like “underwater jiujitsu.”

The nurse, Liv Titor said:“I couldn’t believe it. I stepped into nothing and it got me straight away. Johnny jumped in with his surfboard, told me to hang on and said we’ll get through it together. And that’s what we did.”

Six months on, both of ‘em still have flashbacks about the event, Gordo haunted by what might’ve happened if he wasn’t there and Liv, nightmares about being back in the water and having her legs pulled out from under her by a ferocious current.

“I only took two steps into the water and I just felt this pull in my legs and it just took me around the rocks and out,” she told Channel Nine.

Now, Gordo plans on getting Liv back in the water before she’s sunk by fear of the ocean.

“We’re going to get back out there ’cause the ocean has got so much to offer, it’s so great but you’ve got to respect her.”

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Ultra-positive New Jersey blogger Ben Gravy takes dark turn, signals intent to maim and disfigure his most ardent fans!

End further nigh.

Movie star handsome Ben Gravy is, without doubt, one of the most famous surfers on earth. Without need or use of the “global home of surfing,” also knows as the World Surf League, the 35-year-old New Jersey native has built a massive following based upon his positivity and an everyman vibe that translates from Burlington to Beaverton to Bakersfield.

Ardent fans have made his vlog the most popular surf channel of all, eclipsing the hard-charging likes of Nathan Florence and Koa Smith. His “pineapple wearing shades” logo is regularly seen out in the wild, adorning button-down shirts, soda coozies and beach towels, but to name a few products.

Safe at every speed.

Though it appears the lantern-jaw’d looker is taking a dark turn. For today, I attended the Boardroom Show in Del Mar. It is the only fun convention I’ve ever been to that didn’t feature Ashton Goggans, a feast of sights, sounds, conversations. Jamie Brisick ate a falafel hamburger. Devon Howard had me feel the rails of a 9-foot + longboard.

And Ben Gravy has begun selling hard boards.

Hard as in concussion-giving glass n foam, artery-slashing fins, poked-out eyeballs.

Sliding death.

Gravy had much success, maybe most success, in the soft-top market previously. Boards so fun and playful that they could only bring a smile to face while never busting out teeth.

Glass n foam though?

In his most ardent fans’ hands?

Body bags already being ordered and shipped to Upper Trestles.

David Lee Scales and I talked about the Boardroom Show, anyhow, during our weekly chat, and it really does live up to its billing. It runs again tomorrow and if you are anywhere near Del Mar, where the surf meets the turf, or maybe vice versa, swing by.

Get inspired and listen here.

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Vulnerable adult learner fingers forecasting giant Surfline as main force behind “surfers selling out to the man!”

"Should you be optimizing your job around your surfing or should you do the opposite way around?"

Any surfer who has wandered the radio dial, whilst stuck in traffic, and stumbled upon the National Public Radio program Marketplace has, certainly, been entranced. Its host, Kai Ryssdal, spent eight years in the Navy then more in the U.S. Foreign Service, became a reporter and finally host of the business-centric, beloved show.

Ryssdal’s broad knowledge, professionalism and keen understanding soothes nerves otherwise frayed by bad drivers, though, one of his recent guests left the aforementioned wave sliders distraught.

Caroline Mimbs Nyce, who covers technology for The Atlantic, has just begun to surf, a classic vulnerable adult learner, and fallen in disturbing love with the forecasting giant Surfline.

Ryssdal, who proudly states he does not surf nor cares to learn (smart), begins the conversation with “Anyway, so you’re a beginning surfer, and …”

Before Mimbs Nyce takes over and declares, “A beginner surfer and I had just been fascinated about how quickly my life started to revolve around this website called Surfline. And my weekends, and all of my schedule basically, is me planning to go out and surf based on when this website tells me that it’s ideal to.”

Ryssdal wants to know what this “Surfline” is, how it works.

Mimbs Nyce shares, “So Surfline is, at its core, a wave-forecasting website. They have a thousand cameras, millions of people use it to plan where and when to go out. So just before we started talking, I looked up Malibu. Looks like it’s a cruddy couple of days in Malibu. In addition to doing these forecasts, they partner with the World Surf League in order to decide when professional contests are held. They blog about upcoming swells and recent good waves that people have caught. So it’s sort of a full-scale media company and I found that surfers have a love-hate relationship with it.”

Ryssdal wants to get into the “love-hate thing” and Mimbs Nyce obliges, saying, “Pretty much since Surfline has existed, it’s been polarizing. I think that this really gets at a question of the spirit of the sport. Is surfing about everyone being able to get out in the water? Is this a cheat code to only go when it’s really ideal? A lot of surfing used to be related to counterculture, as well. Should you be optimizing your job around your surfing or should you do the opposite way around?”

Ryssdal, getting to the very heart of the matter, wonders, “Has surfing sold out to the man?”

Mimbs Nyce stalls but Ryssdal presses because she is a surfer. She decides she likes all the new people, like her, in the water and the commercialization and the colored bits of Surfline, yellow for ok, green for good etc. In the end, optimizing surfing around job.

There we have it.

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