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.

"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.

6-2 x 18 1/2 x 2 1/2

How many win-wins are there in life? I count very few. Korean corn dogs, surfing in Mexico, sleeping with windows and doors wide open, internal combustion engines, Thursday night football, Joe Turpel’s someday retirement, Hugh Jackman back on the market, swatting a mosquito after it has feasted on your blood but before it can enjoy, Spam musubi and bidding on Kelly Slater’s surfboard in support of Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy Foundation.

Yes, the 11x world champion has gifted a Wade Tokoro-shaped Slater Designs, 6-2 x 18 1/2 x 2 1/2 5 fin option with a round pin tail, to a fine charity.

The Vitalogy Foundation supports environmentalism, homeless eradication and indigenous people.

Each vital.

The board, ridden by Slater during his World Surf League Championship Tour 2022/23 campaign, is also signed by him.

Bid here.

Save the world.

Win-win.

Current number $3550.