Beloved Australian TV presenter Dave Hughes
suffers tragic shoulder dislocation while surfing the Gold Coast on
New Year’s Day
By Chas Smith
"9 out of 10 level nerve damage."
We, here at BeachGrit, have regular
conversations surrounding the abject danger of this surfing life
and I don’t image that will change now that its 2024. It is
important, a duty even, to inform adult learners of the various and
sundry ways they can damage both their bodies and psyches whilst
out for a playful dance upon the waves.
There are:
Surly locals, beginners on longboards, “experts” on longboards,
SUP pilots, cranky sea otters, side eye when the wave of the set is
blown, rock jumps, reef, sharp surfboard fins, three or more
Brazilians, rip tides, sneaker sets, willful under-called “swell
events,” flying fish, to
not even mention the obvious ones like shoulder dislocations.
Well, the beloved Australian television presenter Dave “Hughesy”
Hughes, suffered the aforementioned pop while enjoying Australia’s
glorious summer. Taking to Instagram, the 53-year-old penned,
“Happy New Year. Had my least sober NYE in 30+ years. Green whistle
came after two hours of worst pain of my life, plus morphine and
the rest of them. Shoulder dislocation while surfing. 9 out of 10
level nerve damage. Shout out to wife, Surfers Paradise SLSC, and
Gold Coast medical professionals for their much needed help! Will
be in a sling for a while, not sure when my next right-handed high
five will be.”
The “Green Whistle” is street jargon for the painkiller
Penthrox.
But in any case, I, like Hughesy, have had my arm violently
ripped from socket many times while surfing. Tens upon tens upon
tens. The latest, at Surf Ranch some many years ago. Unlike the
Australian funnyman, I never whined or whinged or demanded
morphine. I’d just tug on it until it slid back in and that was
that. I will say, though, after that Surf Ranch rip, wherein I hit
the bottom with shoulder, I became so furious that I went to the
doctor who x-rayed etc. and then performed the Latarjet
procedure which I preferred because it sounded
French.
Rehab took forever, my shoulder is still cranky and weird but it
has not popped out since.
Recommend 10 out of 10.
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Conservative firebrand Candace Owens dumped
over “surfer-like” anti-Israel stance
By Derek Rielly
Genocide for beginners!
The political pundit Candace Owens, a firebrand adored
by the right because…lookee here she black and
conservative…has been dumped over her comments on Israel
described as being “surfer-like” in their naivety and
ignorance.
“When I’m walking through Jerusalem, and you see, and they say
‘these are the Muslim quarters, this is where the Muslims are
allowed to live,’ that doesn’t feel like a bastion of freedom to
me,” Candace Owens said on her own podcast.
It took Candace Owens’ guest, Jewish comic Ami Kozak, to explain
that there were four-quarters in the Old City, Armenian, Christian,
Jewish and Muslim, and that the Muslim part of town wasn’t for
enslavement.
As your ol pal DR can attest, the Muslim quarter is abuzz with
mercantile pursuits with many opportunities for gift-giving
including toy machine guns adorned with photos of tween gal
jihadists and polyester outfits for women covering crown to ankle
bone and available in olive and black.
Happy tweens pose with machine guns in
Jerusalem’s buzzy Muslim quarter. Photo: DR
Anyway, you’ll remember when October 7 came around the surf
community, with the notable and obvious exception of Shaun Tomson,
was quick to hoist the Hamas standard, celebrating their brave
resistance.
These included a reel from Al Jazeera showing Hamas
terrorists landing in Israel in their paragliders and about to
murder hundreds with the caption, “Palestinians in Gaza made
history as they escaped the world’s largest prison”.
And there was a blizzard of support for the South African surfer
Ricky Basnett after he claimed Israel’s response to a medieval
slaughter of its civilians by the Iranian-backed forces of its
neighbour was genocide.
Basnett, who is a seven-time South African champion surfer and
was a Championship Tour surfer in 2007 and 2008, followed a
well-worn path of progressive surfers towing the line that every
damn Israeli citizen got what they deserved.
But back to Candace Owens, who is as dumb as a pack of Queers
for Palestine activists.
The Dave Horowitz group, which helped launch Candace Owens’
career, has officially cut ties in a statement titled, “Goodbye
Candace.”
Six years ago, the David Horowitz Freedom Center invited the
then little-known Candace Owens to its annual Restoration Weekend
gathering of conservative movers and shakers.
“This really is the conference where everything started for
me,” Candace later said. “I started my career, my political career
on YouTube making just funny, satirical videos, and I got an email
from David Horowitz inviting me to this conference, and let me just
tell you what a big deal it was for me. I had no connections
whatsoever.”
At this conference she met Charlie Kirk, and connected with
his nationwide student organization Turning Point USA, and became a
national figure.
The David Horowitz Freedom Center went on promoting Candace,
honored her with an Annie Taylor Award for Courage in 2018, and
hosted her at multiple events.
That’s why we are so disappointed in what she has
become.
Back then
she laid out an ambitious plan to “move the black vote 20
points by 2020”. It’s not clear what happened to that. Instead of
liberating the black community, Candace began giving platforms to
anti-Israel voices like Andrew Tate, a Muslim convert who said that
“ISIS are the real Muslims because ISIS do exactly what the book
says.”
The David Horowitz Freedom Center has previously
criticized Candace’s promotion of Tate. But because of our
history with Candace and our hope that she would pull out of this
spiral, we did not make an issue of it.
The atrocities of October 7, the appearance of ignorant mobs
in the U.S. chanting “Hitler was right” and supporting the Hamas
terrorists, and Candace’s moral equivalence about these neo-Nazis
have changed the stakes. We have decided to issue the present
statement because of her recent promotion of Hamas’ genocidal
lies.
For example, she has falsely
compared Israel to the “segregated South.” This is the sort of
ignorant ‘Apartheid State” slander that we expect from Black Lives
Matter – and the Jew-killers of the Middle East.
When Candace implied
that Israel was engaged in “genocide” for defending itself
against the atrocities committed by Hamas, that’s the kind of
genocidal lie we expect to hear from Hamas.
And when she
suggested that to remove the Hamas auxiliary — Students for
Justice in Palestine — from campuses would increase antisemitism,
that’s what we expect to hear from the New York Times.
It’s not what we at the Freedom Center stand for and it’s
not what the patriotic movement we have been helping to build over
the last 35 years represents.
Instead of focusing on the meaningful activism and defense
of American values that brought her to our attention, Candace Owens
has become obsessed with her own fame, stirring up drama to
compensate for a lack of real achievement. Her comments about
Israel and her promotion of people like Andrew Tate are part of a
pattern. Candace tackles a subject she knows nothing about, never
bothers to learn anything about it, and then rides the backlash by
playing the victim to generate more fame and money.
What a tragic misuse of talents.
In 2018, Candace tweeted that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was
clueless. She’s “programmed to hate Israel and she has no idea
why.” Now she has become AOC. Candace hates Israel for the same
reason that AOC does. Fame. She proved that she knows as little
about Israel as AOC does when she
falsely claimed that the Muslim Quarter in Jerusalem is the only
place that Muslims are allowed to live, thus “proving” the
Hamas canard that Israel practices apartheid. It does not.
But this is not just about Israel. It’s about the survival
of western civilization which the Islamic jihadis have been working
to destroy. And it’s about the sad caricature that Candace has
become, and the end of the promise we saw in her.
The David Horowitz Freedom Center wishes to express its deep
disappointment with Candace’s ignorant, hateful and morally obtuse
remarks about Israel and the Jews. But, of course, it’s not just
about the Jews. The Jews are the canaries in the mine. The West is
next and America above all.
It’s one thing to have been alive in the Thirties and not
realize where the Nazis were heading. It is quite another to be
alive during a 75-year campaign by Islamic jihadis to “finish the
job that Hitler started,” and fail to stand against their open
campaign to create a second Holocaust.
Here is the irony that the so-called pro-Palestinian left
and Candace fail to grasp. For nearly two decades Israel and the
West sent millions in humanitarian aid to Gaza, which was used
instead by the Hamas government to build 300 miles of terrorist
tunnels and turn Gaza into a military base, sending thousands of
rockets into civilian areas in Israel – war crimes. Where were the
protests in Gaza and on college campuses then? They were
demonstrating in behalf of the war criminals.
We are in a civilizational war and Candace is either on the
sidelines or actively supporting the crusade against the
West.
We at the Freedom Center remain committed to finding and
supporting the activists who will do the work, rather than chase
the clicks, who will stand up for freedom and the sanctity of human
life, who will refuse to compromise with evil and retreat into a
delusional isolationism that says if the evil doesn’t affect me
immediately, I don’t really care about its victims or the future
that it intends.
Goodbye Candace, we will continue to support those who truly
strive to raise up the movement for liberty and life, not selfishly
tear it apart.
Where do you fall in this terrific battle of ideas?
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Dog nearly gets swept away by large surf
infuriating pet lovers!
By Chas Smith
"OMFG, this infuriates me...."
Now, at this point you would have to be living under a
literal rock not to know that California spent the past
week experiencing the “swell event” of the century. Big, serious,
meaty waves crashed the shore from San Diego’s south all the way up
to Oregon’s border. Single, double, triple overhead. An unrelenting
pound.
Mammoth stuff.
Santa Cruz, just south of earthly paradise San Francisco,
received plenty big though it was messier than down south. Not
exactly Pipeline East. Whatever the case, one particular incident
got people right mad. A pup, you see, wandered down to bomb spot
and almost became one with Davey Jones. The action was captured on
video and… watch.
DOG NEARLY SWEPT AWAY | A dog made a miraculous escape against
high surf in Santa Cruz on Thursday. After being nearly washed out
to sea, the dog was then thrown back onto the road by the surf.
“Do not take [dogs] near the ocean when it’s like this,” yet
another added.
Imagine when they learn of the current and various wars killing
children around the world.
Much more “infuriation” just over the horizon.
PETA.
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Maui surfer suffers fatal shark encounter
while chasing super swell
By Chas Smith
A dark day.
Tragedy struck the Valley Isle of Maui,
yesterday mid-morning, as a thirty-nine year old surfer died
following what was dubbed a “shark encounter.” The unnamed man was
out partaking in the glorious super swell event at Paia Bay, on the
north shore, when hit. Ocean Safety Officers, per the report,
picked him up in the water and transported him to shore where
“life-saving measures were performed by first responder personnel
until medic personnel arrived to transport the male to the Maui
Memorial Medical Center for further treatment.”
He succumbed to his injuries at the hospital, foul play being
ruled out.
The County of Maui closed Baldwin Beach and Lower Pa’ia Park
while it investigates, posting signs to let visitors know of shark
activity.
This is the eighth shark incident this year in Hawaii, the third
in Maui. Earlier, a shark bit a surfboard, biting its tail right
off and, another, bit an inflatable SUP.
Pa’ia Bay is a wonderfully scenic strip of white sand and
turquoise water named after the town which is known for quaint
restaurants and shops though a French tourist had her arm bitten
off by shark while swimming a year ago.
The Pipe comes to dreary ol border town San
Diego.
Pipeline comes to San Diego on best-day
ever!
By Derek Rielly
“It was historic!”
If you live in what is called the Golden State, nine
hundred miles of Pacific coast stretching from dirty border town
San Diego to pristine Oregon, you might’ve become aware of
a swell of extraordinary intensity overheating various reefs and
beaches.
Spectators washed away at Mavs, Ventura, others enjoying the
spectacle from the safety of bluffs, seated on picnic rugs eating
deliciously cool sandwiches garnished with cucumber and lettuce or
poking fingers into jars of gherkins as surfers pulled themselves
into round and flawless and gleaming tubes.
Yesterday, December 29 in the US, was a delight, no trace of
wind or heat, a divine day, and the veteran surf photographer Jimmy
Wilson, famous for a slightly flabby chin and a contralto voice,
captured San Diego’s waves looking like Hawaii’s famous
Pipeline.
Jimmy writes,
I’m pretty dang happy right now. Today was by far the best
session I’ve ever witnessed in San Diego. As you will see, it’s not
the most organized or easy wave to read, but the potential for a
session of this level has been in the making for a long time.
I want to send a huge thank you to Damien Hobgood who I’ve
been shooting photos of here for nearly a decade. He used to paddle
out in psycho conditions where no one thought it was possible, and
it was borderline most of those days. His wave from the last El
Niño in 2016 was seriously historic (Watch Surfing Magazine’s
video: Just Up The Coast) and the same angle I shot that photo, is
what I chose to film from today. He also helped babysit my daughter
Koura this morning so I could shoot, and then helped line up our
friend Kevin to continue babysitting all our kids when he paddled
out.
I also want to thank Skip McCullough. La Jolla local and a
core icon! You can tell he was waiting for the stars to align to
show what he can do out there. Amazing performance. Someone pay
this man!
What was originally supposed to be a short window of me
filming this morning turned into 7:15am-3pm on the sticks, zero
food or water.