World’s best-ever female surfer Stephanie
Gilmore steps away from pro tour
By Derek Rielly
"I have goals and dreams that I am still chasing –
I’m excited for something fresh this year," says Stephanie
Gilmore.
It ain’t a surprise to anyone who breezes through
BeachGrit because, as predicted three days ago, eight-time world
champ Stephanie Gilmore has stepped away from the pro
tour, ostensibly for one year, likely forever.
Stephanie Gilmore made the
announcement on Instagram, telling her seven-hundred thousand
followers.
“I am planning to take this tour season off as a refresh for
myself physically, mentally, and to enjoy following swells and free
surfing in new places,” Gilmore writes.”I have some projects and
trips I want to do, which haven’t been possible while traveling for
the tour season. I am still passionate and dedicated to competing,
and I have goals and dreams that I am still chasing – I’m excited
for something fresh this year and I look forward to returning to
competition in 2025.”
The zenith for Stephanie Gilmore’s career came in 2022 when she
dominated Finals Day, starting in fifth place, mowing through
all-comers before beating Carissa Moore in the winner-take-all
surf-off.
A win for the ages, although Stephanie Gilmore was conflicted by
the result, even as it gave her the record for most female world
surf titles.
“I’d only ever won titles in the other fashion where you
accumulate points through the season and the winner at the end is
who has the most points,” Stephanie Gilmore said. “In this fashion
you just try and make the top five and on the very final day the
world’s best battle it out and that moment crowns a world champion.
You could have a bad day and Carissa just wasn’t on that day. A big
part of me still thinks the world champion should be crowned over
all the different conditions, surfing is about being able to
compete in all different kinds of waves and being successful all
through the year.”
Always nice to keep the door ajar, like, gonna come back in 2025
all fresh and hot and ooowee, but y’think Gilmore gonna return in
her thirty-eighth year? Or she done for good?
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Brazil’s Maya Gabeira shovels lukewarm crow
into surf great Kelly Slater’s mouth after second Nazaré big wave
victory!
By Chas Smith
"I think if you continue to do what you’re doing,
you’re gonna die. So I highly suggest you stop."
But were you, too, caught up in all the drama,
the storylines and sub-storylines of the just-wrapped Nazaré Big
Wave Challenge? You could/should have been following along with the
action, live, and chatting with online surf
friends but in case you slept in, Lucas Chianca won on
the men’s side with Maya Gabeira taking the Rolex-lite for the
women.
It was the striking Brazilian charger’s second in a row.
Afterward, Gabeira said of her strategy, “We realized that the
judges were rewarding turns because the size is not that big, so we
have to look for those smoother walls in our second session.” Then
added, “I’ve been injured for what seems like forever now so it was
great to compete again and to get the win is a great way to come
back. Teaming up with Tony (Laureano from Portugal), the youngest
one, was special. Even after getting injured he continued to drive
me and stayed focused and drove me into the waves I needed. Today
was a very difficult day to surf and especially to perform rail
surfing. And to do that under a time pressure is tough, normally in
the free surf when you’re tired you rest, here you have to go and
you tend to take more risk than you probably should. It’s very
difficult but so very rewarding in the end.”
Powerful and poignant. Surf great Kelly Slater, at home,
watching the action while shoveling forkfuls of medium-rare crow
into his mouth.
But you will recall when the 11x world champion felt Gabeira was
out of place at super-sized Teahupo’o and took to social media to
let her know, penning, “You are unprepared. You are endangering
people around you when they have to go in and rescue in such
scenarios. I think if you continue to do what you’re doing, you’re
gonna die. So I highly suggest you stop.”
Ouch.
Thankfully, though, Gabeira did not take heed and now Slater is
begging for a little hot sauce.
Justice served.
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Matt Warshaw on surfing’s confused
relationship with “mythical Hawaiian superman” Eddie Aikau
By Matt Warshaw
By shaping and promoting the Eddie Aikau myth,
others—Quiksilver, mostly—stood to profit greatly…
Halfway through writing about Eddie Aikau last week, I
noted that his Waimea Bay memorial service, despite being announced
beforehand and held on a Saturday, drew less than 1,000 people,
which seems like an impossibly low turnout but the photos
don’t lie. Encyclopedia of Surfing contributor
John Callahan emailed back the next morning:
A memorial service held today for Eddie Aikau, if he
were to pass in the same circumstances, would draw tens of
thousands of people, not the small crowd that was there in
1978. I was in high school in Hawaii at the time and the
difference is, in ’78 Eddie Aikau was still a human being. It was
only later, thanks to Quiksilver and the Eddie big-wave contest and
the marketing around him in general, that Aikau became larger
than life, a mythical Hawaiian Superman, instead of a real person
with flaws and faults as well as strengths.
That sounds right. That, plus the sport in general, even in
Hawaii, hadn’t yet moved too deeply into the culture at large. Not
deep enough to draw tens of thousands to a 9:00 AM service,
anyway.
The marketing bit, as far as transforming Aikau from respected
and admired big-wave surfer to a globally recognized Hawaiian icon
nearly on equal footing with Duke Kahanamoku, is worth a
look.
I’m not at all saying Aikau doesn’t deserve to be so elevated.
He does.
But it’s also clear that by shaping and promoting the Eddie
myth, others—Quiksilver, mostly—stood to profit greatly, and that’s
just what happened.
(Read the back half of this
article, about how the spectacular 1974
Smirnoff has echoed down through the years, to get a sense of
how the Aikau of legend has played out. SURFER Magazine bit so hard
on the sell job that it credited Eddie himself, in 1974, for
not just inspiring but more or less inventing the famous
“Eddie Would Go” slogan
for the Quiksilver big-wave contest. Hogwash. I’m 98% sure the
slogan originated, fully formed and print-ready, at this exact momen in
1986.)
I’ve gone way off-topic here. Just trying to underline what
Callahan said, above, that at a certain point in a marketing
campaign’s growth index, the actual thing at the center of the
campaign becomes flatter, smaller, less detailed.
“The slogan outgrew the contest,” I wrote in 2005, “and
probably even Eddie himself. It’s definitely outgrown history.”
What I really wanted to get into here today is the last year or
so of Eddie’s life, when he was still very much a real person,
albeit a real person getting pulled, hard, in several directions at
once.
In 1973, Gerald Aikau, Eddie’s handsome and popular younger
brother, almost certainly suffering from PTSD following a difficult
but decorated two-year tour in Vietnam, died in a single-car
accident while driving home from a party at the Aikau
house.
As late as 1976, Eddie was still feeling undone from the
loss.
Meanwhile, and probably related to Gerald’s death, Eddie’s
marriage to Seattle-raised Linda Crosswhite was quietly falling
apart. Eddie drank more than he used to, sometimes didn’t come
home, and would on occasion spend the night at Gerald’s
grave.
As Clyde Aikau later put it, brother Eddie was going through
“some heavy personal trips.”
Jumping ahead a bit on the timeline, Eddie was also said to have
become convinced, right before setting out on the fateful
Hokule’a voyage, that he would die at sea. At one point he had
his sister-in-law cut his hair in the graveyard near the family
compound, where he told her he had a feeling he would not be coming
back.
Clyde later pushed back on the idea that Eddie had a death wish
or some kind of premonition.
The pre-journey nerves, he continued, were the result of Eddie’s
cautious nature—which sounds odd, considering we’re talking about a
man who was and is synonymous with extreme big-wave surfing, but
maybe not.
“My brother didn’t take chances,” said Clyde.
He studied conditions and absolutely knew what he was capable
of, and when to draw the line. But Eddie had no say in the timing
or execution of the Hokule’a trip, and the whole thing
was absolutely a chance-taking venture, and this may have been
what had him so on edge.
But let’s turn this around.
Start looking for evidence that Eddie was not fully embedded on
the dark side in the years after Gerald’s death, and things pop up
all over the place.
Aikau stepped in to smooth things out following the infamous
“Bustin’ Down the Door”
beat-downs on the North Shore in late 1976, for
starters.
Aikau noticeably upped his game on the North Shore in 1977—at
the time, an unheard-of thing for a surfer in his 30s to do—and at
the end of the year, in big premium-grade waves at Sunset Beach, he
won the Duke Classic, beating Mark Richards, Dane Kealoha, and
Wayne Bartholomew in the finals.
Six weeks later, Eddie was on the front page of the Honolulu
Advertiser, above the fold, dropping into a huge one, with a
headline reading “Waimea Roars Again.”
He would have been feeling great, too, about Kimo Hollinger’s
recent full-length SURFER Magazine feature titled, “Pop: the Family
Aikau,” which centered not on Eddie or Clyde—the
famous Aikaus—but the tough bandy-legged patriarch, Soloman, who
everybody called Pop. The Steve Wilkings shot that opened the
article is a Hawaiian family portrait for the ages.
Finally, there was Eddie’s interest, which bordered on
obsession, in being involved with with the Hokule’a, and crewing on
the ship’s upcoming 1978 voyage to Tahiti.
The boat was rebuilt on the cheap, and its first voyage to
Tahiti, in 1977, while successful, saw more infighting.
But even through all of that, you could see how important and
worthwhile and cherished the Hokule’a was to Hawaiians, and to
anybody with an interest in Polynesian history, or seafaring in
general.
Eddie certainly felt it.
Moreover, and I’m going out on a limb here a bit, the Hokule’a
likely offered him a way forward, something new, something apart
from and in addition to surfing, something that connected to ideas
and people and culture in a way that didn’t just keep him busy at
the dock and on training runs but also made his own life
bigger.
On March 14, 1978, two days before the Hokule’s departed from
Honolulu, Eddie did an early morning
drive-time AM radio interview. The whole
eight-minute segment is heartbreaking, knowing what we know. It is
uncomfortable as well—the first few minutes anyway—because Aikau is
so clearly nervous, almost frozen in places, as he talks about his
upbringing, his career as a lifeguard, and the upcoming
voyage.
Then after a break the DJ says, “We’re going to share with you
folks out there a special song written by Eddie, and it’s for the
Hokule’a,” and Eddie strums his guitar for the first time, does a
halting but heartfelt spoken intro, then slides into “Hawaii’s
Pride,” and for three minutes we’re in a different
world.
Eddie becomes another person altogether—his voice is fluid,
strong, relaxed; his guitar playing is flawless, delicate, with a
background mid-range drone that seems plugged into a wavelength not
of this world.
How Eddie performs this feat this, with no warm-up, at 7:50 in
the morning, is unfathomable to me. The song ends. “From the
crew of Hokule’a,” Eddie says, “we love you, Hawaii. Aloha.”
Some of my reaction here, maybe, is just me seeing what I want
or need to see in Eddie. The “heavy personal trips” that he went
through in the years after Gerald’s death—an experience like that
can hang off you like chains, can in fact drag you to a full stop.
But it can also temper you into a steadier, more fully-realized
version of yourself.
Not bulletproof. Not impervious. But better than before. This is
what I think happened to Eddie during the final year of his
life.
You don’t surf as well as Eddie did in the Duke, or come up with
a song like “Hawaii’s Pride” and sing it with the kind of feeling
he brought to the end of that radio interview, unless you’re
moving forward and up.
Stab Magazine co-founder Sam McIntosh
levels wild accusations at Jordy Smith, John John Florence, Andy
Irons in exclusive email!
By Chas Smith
Buckle up.
Now, those who subscribe to the premium web log
Stab are, of course, treated to much beloved exclusive
content behind the paywall. They are also, though, gifted periodic
emails from the desk of co-founder Sam McIntosh. This week, in peek
into the gilded remote office, patrons learned that Bethany
Hamilton thought that the title had been purchased by the World
Surf League. The reasoning behind her thinking? That Stab was so
milquetoast as to belong, squarely, behind the Wall of Positive
Noise.
McIntosh blushed with what he considered a compliment and
bequeathed Hamilton a special code into the site to “see what they
were all about.”
He then proceeded to explain:
Here however, after three years of Stab Premium, you guys
understand what we’re trying to do and why we hide these easter
eggs within.
Imagine the virality – and the ensuing meltdown – from any
of the following headlines on IG.
Jordy Smith Sued For $500k As A Teenager For Trying To
Change Sponsor
Why John Florence Didn’t Sign A $5m Rip Curl Deal And How He
Turned Down The Volcom Pipe House As A Signing Bonus
How Red Bull Dropped Andy Irons Because Of Cocaine
Use
We Convinced Surfboard Sadist Schroff To Shape A Board With
Arch-Nemesis Hayden Cox
The list goes on and on and on. Instead, as you know, we
release these stories with the most benign of headlines: How
Surfers Get Paid, episode one; Electric Acid Surfboard Test episode
two etc. Because of this, the people who give us their time are not
crucified on social media when their quotes are taken out of
context from an entire storyline.
By keeping the salacious headlines off social, our talent
can be transparent and unguarded with us. The past 8-10 weeks
proved that with us finishing about 30 more interviews for How
Surfers Get Paid, shot between California and Hawaii. We’ve landed
some hammers there, too — industry heavyweight Evan Slater is back,
Rosy Hodge talked about the formative years of her surf career,
Jamie O steps up again with some mind blowing deals, Ben Gravy said
“you won’t get me, dude” (spoiler: we got him), and Laura Enever
and Shane Dorian might be battling for this season’s MVP
title.
Sam McIntosh nearing sainthood by protecting the delicate
feelings of “his talent” and, thereby, “getting” Ben Gravy.
I suppose I will have to comfort myself in the embrace of “my
talent.” Namely, the Hobgood who didn’t win a world title.
Watch here!
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Cast finalized for new Fox television North
Shore surf drama!
By Chas Smith
A thrilling blend of local motion.
The World Surf League badly failed with its
foray into network television with its much ballyhooed reality
series The Ultimate Surfer, the stink so bad that observers
wondered if a surf project would ever get greenlit in Hollywood
again. Good news, then, for surf and surf-adjacent actors as the
Fox television network has finalized the cast for its upcoming
North Shore, Oahu surf drama titled “Rescue: Hi Surf.”
Following “the personal and professional lives of the
heavy-water lifeguards who patrol and protect the North Shore of
O’ahu—the most famous and dangerous stretch of coastline in the
world, each episode will feature these dedicated, heroic, and
adrenaline-seeking first-responders saving lives in the difficult
and often life-threatening conditions of Hawaii’s Seven Mile
Miracle.”
Boom.
But who will play this daring crew of Shepardsons?
Robbie Magasiva will play Harlon “Sonny” Jennings, a surfer,
waterman, and North Shore lifeguard captain with deep ties to his
community and an iron clad commitment to his team of heavy water
first responders. A charismatic leader who inspires courage and
loyalty, SONNY’S grief over his nephew’s death threatens to cost
him the job and team he loves.
Arielle Kebbel as Emily “Em” Wright is a gal in a lifeguard
force that is 90% male, yet still the best. A true maverick, EM is
the first female lieutenant in Ocean Safety history, an
accomplished surfer and record setting paddler who has her sights
set on the captain’s job, a position currently held by Sonny, her
struggling mentor and friend.
Adam Demos will play Mick “Micko” O’Brien, an Aussie surfer and
certified lifesaver since his nipper days at the local board riders
club, Mick came to the North Shore to challenge himself and stayed.
Good-natured and loyal, Mick’s blue-collar work ethic and
incomparable fitness means he’s game to tackle any situation the
ocean throws at him.
Kekoa Kekumano as Keoni “Cheeseburger” Nozaki is confident,
competent, and hilarious. Burger is an uber-fit Native Hawaiian
lifeguard from Honolulu who patrols the busy North Shore beaches
with a style all his own. Fearless in the ocean and never afraid of
a good time, Laka loves his job and the lifestyle that comes with
it.
Alex Aiono is Ezekiel “Zeke” Lau. Cocky and competitive, sweet
but stubborn, Zeke was born into privilege in an upscale
neighborhood just outside Honolulu. With a football coach father
who’s on the rise, Zeke is defying lots of expectations (like
appearing on, and winning, reality television programs) to be a
rookie North Shore lifeguard.
And there’s a couple more characters, too, including the flashy
Brazilian Philip “Pip” Toledo with oodles of talent yet a cowardly
heart, Kelly “Slade” Slater, a former surf champion who just
doesn’t know when to let go plus Kaipo “Kaips” Guerrero as
himself.
Exciting days ahead.
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Jon Pyzel and Matt Biolos by
@theneedforshutterspeed/Step Bros