The once lightly-esteemed boogie board now king of all craft?
Heroes are made, they say, not born but the adage is under scrutiny, today, as new evidence suggests six preteens and preteen-adjacents just foiled a mass drowning in Australia. Max Laird, Braith Davidson, George Griffin, Harrison Smee, Alex Norris, and Zach Marsden were getting their boogie on at Kiama Beach, a beautiful cove south of Sydney, when they heard screaming.
“My first thought was this can’t be happening,” 12-year-old George Griffin told ABC News. “It was 20 minutes after the lifeguards had packed up and we were just boogie boarding, so all six of us went over.”
They realized that two teenaged girls plus a mother and her three children and become caught in a vicious rip current that was pulling them out to sea.
Without thought for personal safety, the gang jumped into action, kicking out to the distressed. “I got to an 8, 9-year-old kid called Matt, and by the time I got to him he was completely under water, just his hand above the surface of the water, so I was pretty worried,” George continued. “It was shocking, but we just had to do what we could.”
The boys had actually been taking lifesaving classes at the local club and quickly reverted to training, saving all souls, boogie-ing them to the warm safety of land.
And if this isn’t yet another example of how the once lightly esteemed boogie has quietly become a force. I was in a local pizza spot, the other day, and a boogie video was playing on the overhead televisions. Absolute mad men belly flopping into the angriest slab monsters I have ever seen.
Completely transfixing.
Enjoy some here.
I wonder if the moment the boogie began its rebirth was when Kenny Powers kicked into a Florida lineup on one and terrorized the local surfers?
Hmmmm.
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Makani Alexander (right) with dad. Photo: Instagram
Son of North Shore enforcer Kala Alexander shot dead on Oahu
Tragic news from Hawaii, this evening, as it has been reported that Makani Alexander, son of famed North Shore enforcer and WolfPak founder Kala Alexander, has been shot dead. The 25-year-old was in Waialua, near Haleiwa, late Sunday night when the shooting occurred.
Hawaii’s Daily News has shared that, “CPR was attempted on the 25-year-old victim in an attempt to revive him, but sadly, this attempt was unsuccessful. The sad announcement that the young man had passed away from his wounds was made this morning at 12:35 a.m.” though other information is scant.
An earlier version of the story used reporting that declared a shooter was at large. New information is that the tragedy was a result of an accident.
Messages from shocked and heartbroken friends are beginning to pepper social media.
Kala Alexander was a North Shore fixture throughout the 2000s as part of the Kauai crew including three-time World Champion Andy Irons. His name whispered in hushed tones by the visiting hordes hoping for a taste of glory. The New York Times profiled Kala and friends in 2009, writing, “They are known as the Wolfpak or simply “the boys.” They use fear and their fists to command respect in the surf along the North Shore of Oahu, a seven-mile stretch of some of the world’s most renowned waves. At the celebrated Banzai Pipeline, they determine which waves go to whom, and punish those who breach their code of respect for local residents and the waves.”
And, specifically about Kala:
The most notorious member is the group’s enforcer, Kala Alexander, a professional surfer with muscular tattooed arms and “Wolfpak” inked across his knuckles. In 2007, Alexander starred in “The 808,” a reality television series about the Wolfpak and the North Shore, and appeared in the films “Blue Crush” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”
More, certainly, as the story develops.
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Poopies, far right, with Jackass big dogs.
Paramedics use Naxolene to bring Jackass star Poopies back to life after fentanyl overdose
“I remember doing a couple of key bumps. Then I was dead”
Jackass’ breakout star Sean “Poopies” McInerney, whom you’ll remember made his show biz debut as JOB’s crazy sidekick, has revealed he died, and came back to life obvs, after an unscrupulous street dealer sold him what was supposed to be cocaine but was actually fentanyl.
Poopies, who is thirty-seven, old enough y’think to lay off the gear, tells the story on his Jackass co-star Steve-O’s podcast.
Poopies describes feeling an overwhelming desire to “party”, had gotten “hammered on wine” and was “trying to do a bit of sniffy snacks.”
Following a show by another co-star, the comedian Rachel Wolfson, Poopies went to a Cabo Grill. While waiting in line, Poopies asked a “random person on the street for some cocaine.”
Poopies purchased roughly half a gram, which cost him forty dollars. I know, I know, we pay five times that in Australia for crushed Panadols hosed in hairspray, but the US got Mex.
Anyway, Poopies takes two key bumps, a technique where the key’s shaft is used to dig a small amount of coke out of the little plastic bag and brought to the active nostril or nostrils.
As far as any profound glimpses of the beyond, Poopies describes his flirtation with death as going to “the darkest (place). Like, you know when you cover your eyes and then, like, and you keep layering it and it gets darker and darker. That’s what I saw. Like, the darkest colour. I was, like, what the? What’s going on, you know? And I was dead.”
Do you see a selling point compared to the dozens of other identical shapes on the market?
News shared by Chas today that Kelly Slater has released a new board under his Slater Design label. This time collaborating with shaper Mark Woo. A performance twin.
I find the performance twin-fish genre to be a lazy reach. Forgiving rails, wide point forward and carried through the middle. Refined, pulled in tail to allow responsiveness and tighter arcs in turns. Business at the front and party at the back, as they say. It’s about as ground-breaking as a Toyota saloon.
Every major shaping label offers its own iteration. You could argue Lost built its empire around it.
Lazy reach, maybe.
But, as with a Toyota, fuck it if they don’t work.
The thing hooks. I’ve surfed it in everything from weak one-foot point breaks to slabbing four-to-six-foot beachies. Speed, drive, hold, but with the right amount of release when you want it. Usual caveats on your backhand in the pocket. But all in all, worth every dollar I spent on it.
Fun fact: the fiberglass is breaking away around the tail, which cut my knees up everytime I surf it. Sort of like a self-flagellation for riding such a user-friendly shape. I don’t mind.
It’s shaped by Darren Symes, master of the holy SDV trinity. Single concave into double into vee through the tail. He’s responsible for one of the best boards I’ve ever owned, a mid noughties thruster that still holds pride of place in my mum’s back shed. One of those ones I can’t bring myself to throw away, even if I couldn’t ride the thing now.
Will this twinny end up in the same realm?
Probably not. But it’s fun as a fuck on an onshore day out the Point.
Man’s certainly not scared to put his name to a product. Fins. Tail pads. Sports drinks. Wave pools. Sandals. Though to be fair, when it comes to boards, he’s usually focusing on high-performance at all costs. Seeing him enter the fish market might be the subtlest of concessions to his legacy. Of course there’s a Slater twist: this one has more nose rocker than your standard twin/fish.
Does it tickle your fancy at all?
Do you see a selling point compared to the dozens of other identical shapes on the market?
For me, it highlights the vacuous model system that underpins the entire board industry. Constantly tweaked iterations of the same three or four designs pumped out year after year. There’s a reason some of the top pros ride the same shape over and over, just with different sticker covering it up. They’re all the same in the end. Especially for us plebs.
My take?
The board looks like it would be fun as fuck too. And a fresh stick off the rack every now and then is alright to see what’s out there, while supporting your local retailer.
But find a design you like then go work with a trusted shaper to dial it in. Think globally, surf locally.
Or just be a povvo and buy them third hand like me.
*yeah ok not really
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Minds blown. Photo: Instagram
Surf star Kelly Slater’s sublime relationship to animal kingdom praised after release of shark-inspired surfboard
Kelly Slater is the world’s greatest surfer. This we all know and formally agree upon. His eleven world titles will never be matched. His innovation and flair second to none. His indelible mark upon this, the surfing world, shall never be erased which is exactly why, by definition, it is indelible. And yet somehow, in someway, the man who once invented the carving 360 continues to surprise.
But let us examine his most recent turn as designer. The 56-year-old has long lent his name to various products like magic purple juice and easy listening folk rock though he has rarely been deeply involved in the creative process.
Until now.
For now Kelly Slater is letting his mind run free, conjuring and conceiving. Putting pen to paper or at least mouth to Apple Phone voice notes.
The main inspiration?
His sublime relationship to the animal kingdom, of course.
First came the sandal that celebrates the heretofore unknown connection between the majestic sea turtle and the moon. The KLLY press release revealing, “For the design of the sandal, Kelly was particularly moved by the mysterious and special relationship between the moon and sea turtle. Turtles have 13 large scales that represent the 13 lunar cycles in each year and 28 smaller scales that represent the days in each cycle. As a tribute to these coexisting forces, Kelly designed the top of the sandal to mirror the moon’s surface while the bottom sole represents the turtle’s scales.”
Brilliant.
But not a one off for now we have a surfboard based on the outline of a great white shark. Slater says that he had been collecting pictures of the man-eating beasts for years, keeping them in a folder. One day, whilst in Indonesia, he approached shaper Mike Woo and said, “Hey, I have this idea. I want to make this board that is the outline of a great white…”
Woo, in Slater’s retelling, was absolutely blown away, responding, “Are you serious?????”
