Dorian (left) with Dozer Dave. Photo: Instagram
Dorian (left) with Dozer Dave. Photo: Instagram

Tragedy strikes in Mexico as Shane Dorian’s traveling companion for “life-altering” stem-cell therapy dies

Chas Smith

By

"Crying watching this video of you my brother. Love you."

Very sad news has trickled up from south of the border that “Dozer” Dave Barnett has died in Tijuana after traveling down with Shane Dorian for stem-cell therapy. Dorian thrilled his legion fans, days ago, when sharing that he was at the Cellular Performance Institute and ready to undergo injections of life-giving stem-cells.

Barnett, a much-loved figure in the surf industry, podcast host etc. was very excited, taking to Instagram, like Dorian, and sharing, “I’m about to get some stuff that’s life-changing. You guys haven’t seen me lately because… everything is going to shit. Getting old sucks.”

He shares all of his ailments, blown out knees, blown out ankles, bulging disks in neck and more.

“It kind of sucks,” he continues, pivoting to how he’s been given such a wonderful opportunity to undergo the stem-cell treatment. He shares about the vitamin preparation, saying one in particular “messed with him.”

Shane Dorian, always effusive, responded, “We got this bro! This post is so damn funny. Do the start about how you’re falling apart is amazing. This is going to be good for you. I’m excited for you. Don’t fall asleep in those MRIs ha ha.”

Dorian, taking to his own channel hours later, shared, he and Barnett spent the previous evening together after treatments, watched the Hangover then went to sleep. At some point, Barnett went into cardiac arrest and was unable to be revived even though many doctors were right there.

Tributes are pouring in.

Vintage surfboard collector Buggs penned, “Doze lost w words, lived life to the fullest . Had a big heart . Classic , funny , Witty, . Will truly be missed by many. I was looking forward to connect in MT . Will miss the frequent calls . RIP Brother and will catch one for you today in your honor.”

The musician Mike Love added, “Crying watching this video of you my brother. Love you.”

Surf industry legend Bob Hurley left crying eye emojis.

Tragic.

World Surf League thrown into turmoil as predicted “massive viewership” fails to materialize for exclusive Filipe Toledo sit down!

Chas Smith

By

"Friends, surf fans, countrymen, lend me your eyeballs..."

The 2023 World Surf League Championship Tour is long in the rearview, now. Only the faintest memories of Caroline Marks and Filipe Toledo being chaired up the Lower Trestles’ cobbled stone remain. The sound of Chris Cote’s voice announcing various top five surfers’ names like a dissipating cloud. Was Ethan Ewing’s back broken or something? Was he even there at all?

Yes, it is all a blur save the wildly impressive ratings’ spike Finals Day saw.

Chief of Sport Jessi Miley-Dyer was quick to the tools after that last bell of the season, sharing there had been a near 30% increase in live digital views for the aforementioned hoedown.

Impressive by any measure and, no doubt, the World Surf League brain trust was tasked with capturing that momentum and making it real.

Alas, trouble. Inn a seemingly surefire way to capture and convert, the League sat its men’s champ, Filipe Toledo, in front of “the voice of surfing” Joe Turpel for an exclusive one-on-one interview and released, for free, on YouTube.

Boom town?

Not exactly as the nine-minute interview has failed to surpass 5k views in three days and counting.

Toledo, wearing a t-shirt that reads “Peace Power: The World Surf Champ” looks comfortable receiving softballs from Turpel, who is wearing missionary button-down from 1982.

The King of Saquarema even cries at the end, which made me sad for all the heckling and prodding you have done about his brave cowardice at Teahupoo. It was really over the top. Too much. Can we, then, do the world’s best small wave surfer and “champion of a human being,” as Turpel calls him, a favor and kick this video over 5k?

I think it will make you feel good inside.

Property prices at surf enclave Lennox Head “recalibrated” after record-breaking $18 million sale of “seaside masterpiece”

Derek Rielly

By

New owner drawn to Lennox Heads’ “low-key appeal”.

If any further proof was needed of the wildest property bubble in Australia’s history, the 18 mill sale of a joint in Lennox Head, once a hardscrabble town of surfers and blue-collar workers, is probably it. 

The “seaside masterpiece” at 44-52 Blue Seas Parade, Lennox Head, which looks right into the guts of the famous righthander, is “the best property on the east coast, in terms of what it offers in terms of 8.5 acres sitting on one of the most easterly points of Australia with panoramic ocean and coastal views,” selling agent Nick Bordin told the Australian Financial Review.

The vendor, retired software developer George Farley, bought the land in 2012 for a little under three-mill and built the five-bed pavilion style home.

He was chasing twenty-mill, but settled for an undisclosed amount between seventeen and eighteen mill. 

But the value wasn’t so much about the house, pretty as it is, but about the…land. 

Software developers ain’t dumb.

Farley got council approval to create a sub-division of eight luxury homes alongside the main house so, likely, the new owner will bring in the dozer and the cranes ala Owen Wright’s $30 million Byron Bay development.

Two years ago, the director-headliner of retro-surf movie Breath, Simon Baker, shucked his seventeen-mill mansion in Sydney for a cement block and timber beach shack a few hundred metres from Lennox Point. 

Baker, who is fifty-four, bought the two-bedder at 23 Dress Circle Drive, Lennox Head, for almost three-mill following the breakup of his marriage and the subsequent sale of couple’s Bronte house for seventeen-mill; a place they bought in 2015 for six-and-a-half mill. 

His Lennox joint, a sleepy eyed derelict, is one of the last remaining original houses in Dress Circle Drive, the modest holiday homes having long given way to man’s urgent need for compounds and monoliths. 

“This is the ideal site to make a terrific new statement,” advised the selling agent. “It stands on an elevated 505sqm medium density allotment within strolling distance to the beach, cafes and all of Lennox’s amenities. This is a rare real estate offering that will bring fantastic rewards to those wishing to upgrade, knockdown/rebuild or develop the site and capitalise on such a tightly held setting.”

Surprisingly deft on a surfboard, Baker grew up in Lennox before treading the boards in Sydney, Los Angeles etc.

“You can’t deny the power of this landscape,” Baker told 60 Minutes while standing with reporter at Lennox Point. “It’s got this intensity and whether you like it or not it will have an impact on you.”

A cursory jog through Lennox’s recent property sales reveals it ain’t Byron Bay’s poor sister any more. 

Mill and a half for a townhouse, two mill to be near the beach. If you don’t have generational wealth or are at least four rungs up the property ladder, you ain’t buying. 

Rent forever kids, although one thing money can’t buy is a deft rock jump.

 

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World Surf League delights most ardent fans by releasing wackiest slogan yet!

Chas Smith

By

"All action, no lulls."

The wait is finally over. Surf fans have, since the invention of the World Surf League in 2015 circa 1976, have circled these rough dates on the calendar and wait with bated breath each and every year. For it is generally around this time, here, that the “global home of surfing” releases its tagline which will be used for the season.

The World Surf League, dedicated to changing the world through the inspirational power of surfing by creating authentic events, experiences, and storytelling to inspire a growing, global community to live with purpose, originality, and stoke, has produced some memorable ones in the past.

But who, here, could forget the classic “You can’t script this” which directly highlighted the fact that professional surfing can, in fact, be easily scripted.

Or the gem “It takes a tour to make a title” that was rolled out right as the brain trust was sorting out how to make a title happen in one finals day.

All very good but 2024’s has to be the best.

“All action, no lulls.”

Now, the aforementioned surf fans know, well, that professional surf watching is around 80% lull, even when the waves are firing. We also know that this past 2023 Championship Tour season reached a whopping 97% lull. It is an accepted part of the game, moments when Joe Turpel dribbles words, Strider Wasilewski ups amp, Pete Mel considers orthopedic shoes. “Lulls” are essential but I’m certain the conversation around flat seas reached all the way to the offices of the twin CEOs, whom took over after Erik Logan’s belittling, and started the wheels turning.

How to fix?

Like anyone who has ever been taught “how to master a job interview” in high school, the WSL brass decided to turn weakness into strength, though.

Seriously.

The new slogan is “All action, no lulls.”

David Lee Scales and I discussed, anyhow, during our weekly chat along with a dive into professional baseball being way, way edgier than surfing.

In the parlance of our time, it was “all action, no lulls.”

Hollywood heartthrob Rob Lowe clowned by NFL broadcasters for wearing Kelly Slater Surf Ranch hat to football game!

Chas Smith

By

"What hat are you wearing, Rob? Where's the NFL one?"

Of Kelly Slater’s legion fans, the second most famous, after Joe Rogan, must certainly be Rob Lowe. The 59-year-old actor/director, still heartthrob handsome, has been nothing but effusive in his praise of the greatest surfer to ever wear the singlet. Who could ever forget when he went on his podcast “Literally! With Rob Lowe” and openly declared, “I’m geeking out, man. Everybody talks about people being the GOAT. Tom Brady’s the GOAT, Tiger Woods is the GOAT. They’re…GOATS… they’re…GOOOOOOATS…but they’re not The GOAT. Today, we have The GOAT Kelly Slater. The greatest surfer who ever lived. Eleven-time world champ. Youngest world champ and then oldest world champ. No one has dominated a sport, any sport, individually, ever, in history than Kelly Slater and surfing.”

One GOAT to rule them all.

It would be understood, and appreciated, then by surf fans that Lowe appeared at a recent football game wearing a Surf Ranch hat.

The broadcasters in the booth, though, used the moment to make fun of the former Brat Packer. The segment began during a break in the action when one of them, maybe Kirk Herbsreit, says “There are stars in the building. I’ll show you one right now. There’s Rob Lowe and… what hat are you wearing, Rob? Where’s the NFL one?”

The California bear brand of Surf Ranch clearly visible (photo above).

But you will recall when Rob Lowe became very famous for wearing an NFL hat to a football game. He was clowned mercilessly for his choice.

Back to our present time, though. Do you think Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch will see a wild boom in merch sales?

Here’s to hoping, I suppose.

Go Surf Ranch!

Photo: Justin Jay/@justinjayphoto
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