La Jolla surf troll Jacob “Zeke” Szekely backs away from wild blood feud with veteran surf photographer

"We put our lives on the line, risk it all…then when I go home to edit my video, there’s already 10 raw session videos out there."

You’ll certainly remember December 29 if you lived on the US west coast for a swell of almost-unheard of intensity turned the engine lights on at reefs and beaches from San Diego in the south to Crescent City way up north.

And, at a bejewelled reef in San Diego, the veteran surf photographer Jimmy Wilson, a man with a body as white as cream, like an old school actress whose skin has been softened by massage, captured waves putting on a show as if it was Hawaii’s Pipeline.

“I’m pretty dang happy right now,” Jimmy Wilson aka Jimmicane wrote. “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.”

The twenty-minutes of raw footage went viral-ish, almost half-a-million views and over three thousand likes.

Not everyone was thrilled, however.

The La Jolla surfer and noted troll Jacob “Zeke” Szekely broadcast his powerful feelings on Instagram, a move designed to humiliate and to belittle his antagonist.

I’m sick and tired of all these random filmers that come out of nowhere on the day of the year, film spot, go home, and upload it to YouTube that night. [They’re] blowing out the spot, blowing out the swell with landmarks of the spot.

Even if pros are out there saving clips for a movie. I always ask them. I have tons of friends who are doing the same thing. Then, I don’t wanna name any names, but we all know who it is, a guy that should know better took it way too far by uploading a raw session video the same day with landmarks. All of the pros best clips that they might be saving for a fucking movie…just straight to YouTube that night, and then have Stab [Magazine] promote it.

(Editor’s note: Stab deleted the video after Zeke was made sad.)

You took it way too far, man, and everyone in my hometown is pissed off at you about it. I just gotta come on here to say something about it, because nobody else is going to speak out. I don’t give a fuck about what people think. I’m sick and tired of these lame ass filmers stealing our credit.

We go out there and put our lives on the line, risk it all, pay filmers to film us…then when I go home to edit my video, there’s already 10 raw session videos out there with the same clips.

Respect the surfers. Respect the lineups. Respect the locals.

 

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A post shared by Jacob Szekely “Zeke” (@zeke_)

All very funny, silly, especially the “put our lives on the line, risk it all” thing, and clearly aimed at Jimmy’s popular cut.

Jimmy responded,

You know me pretty well Zeke. If there was a problem, I would’ve been easy to contact directly. The main goal in my career has always been to uplift other surfers, photographers, and videographers. There’s a long track record. If anything, this is deflecting from the real story, which should be how hard @holy.skip ruled it, and has always deserved more support and recognition in the surf world. Bummed to see it get handled this way for all the people who don’t know my true character, but I don’t take it personally

Howevs, when push came to shove, as they say, and a roll call of surfing luminaries jumped into Zeke’s comments to support Wilson, Zeke backed away writing,

“Yeah Jimmicane is Chill bro, there’s multiple other accounts who ain’t chill tho…”

What do you make of the dramatic reversal?

Lame or the work of a man of uncommon wisdom?