But a silver lining for Filipe Toledo?

There was a time, in extreme sport history, that the Olympic Games were seen as our natural sworn enemy. Buttoned up, rule following, corpo and soulless. When snowboarding was first introduced back in 1998, for example, the Norwegian legend Terje Haakonsen famously boycotted, tarring the once-every-four-years bacchanal, saying later, “There’s just no respect for the history and culture of snowboarding at all. We don’t need FIS (skiing’s governing body) or the IOC (International Olympic Committee). We can handle snowboarding ourselves.”

Now, echoing those punk sentiments, pole vaulter Sam Kendricks, a two-time world champion, is threatening to boycott the Games, himself, if he makes the team. His reason, stated plainly, is that he was kicked off the Tokyo squad after testing positive for Covid even though he showed no symptoms and swears the reading was false.

“Why should I go? They left me behind and never even said, ‘I was sorry.’” the ectomorph told The Washington Post, adding, “Maybe I’m bitter, but I compete against the best guys all the time,” Kendricks said. “Everybody doesn’t understand: The Olympics is for the mamas. It’s for the mamas and for Facebook and everybody back home who wants to have something to watch and a dog in the fight. But the sport is done every day for four years in advance.”

The sort of snarl long missing in surfing, which will make its second Olympic appearance at Teahupo’o in exactly one month’s time.

Surf fans are, of course, mixed. Getting an extra helping of Head Place certainly not to be looked in the mouth but being attached to the lamestream games a bitter pill.

But here, maybe a way forward for our Filipe Toledo? The brave coward is notably terrified of Teahupo’o and the aforementioned surf fans will be on the edge settees wondering if he will paddle. History shows he will very likely not and another gift horse trotted right out.

Toledo can follow Kendricks lead, Haakonsen’s before him, and boldly boycott citing some form of anarchy.

As the voice of surfing Joe Turpel would say, “You’ve gotta love it.”

No?

“I started (surfing) when I was 20 something..."

I checked this morning to see if the Rio Pro is running only to discover it is not and also, a deeper more troubling discovery. That I don’t care about it. Now, in a normal year shaping up to deliver an exciting final Finals Day at Lower Trestles, I might. This, as you know, is not a normal year.

The Olympics Games, you see, will be declared “open” in basically one month and with it, surfing’s glorious five-ringed return. While I will be in Paris, for the ballet, our brave surfers will be halfway across the world at Teahupo’o ready to face fear itself.

Head Place, as it is known to those who speak the local dialect fluently, is certainly one of the scariest, if not the scariest, wave on earth. Appearing from the deep with little to no warning and folding onto a freshly invigorated reef, we will, without doubt, witness stunning acts of courage and brave acts of cowardice. And, today, the Olympics celebrated the “late bloomers” who will be looking chaos in its almond eye.

The piece opens by declaring that surfers usually learn the pastime of kings as younger women and men. Carlos Munoz, for example, took his charges surfing when they were two months old. Filipe Toledo’s daddy Ricardo took him at 10 months old.

Well, we know how that turned out for Toledo. The small wave wizard won two back to back titles at baby Lowers but refuses to paddle Head Place. So terrified that he scored an historic 0.00 heat total there once and was recently beaten to a pulp by two geriatrics.

Might Santa Vevere be next to rub his tiny features into the dirt.

“I started when I was 20 something,” she told Olympics.com. “That was the first try.”

“We didn’t want to take any lessons because we thought, ‘Ah, it’s going to be easy, like snowboarding. You just buy a pro board and go like a pro, but no, everything was a bit different,” she continued, describing how she was on and off for a few years before really committing. “I just love surfing. It’s always been for me, that if I like something, I just love it. And I know that I really want to improve, and I want to do it from all my heart, I jump in or I don’t jump,” Vevere said. “That’s why I think it’s a big passion for me and I love what I do and I try to be better and better and better.”

Finland’s Lukas McMahon also makes an appearance. Though not a VAL, or Vulnerable Adult Learner, he began his journey at 12-years of age, and Erin Brooks is also profiled, learning at 12 too.

Back to Vevere, though, and the others like her. Do you think they will put heads down and pitch over the ledge or do you think they will take inspiration from the Li’l Lion and… not?

Should we open a betting pool?

More as the story develops.

"Unexpected, to say the least."

As you now, I’m currently in New York City, enjoying the heat dome and reading august local papers in the morning whilst drinking hot coffee on a beautiful hot deck, gazing over a melting Central Park South. Important broadsheets like New York Post but you can imagine my shock when, flipping through, I saw Mick Fanning right there in the middle of a pack of the “female boss surf club.”

Whoa!

The feature, titled, Female bosses have surfing club at Rockaway Beach: ‘Everyone wants to catch that wave’ showcased Tracy Obolsky, chef and owner of the local Rockaway Beach Bakery, Anya Ferring, owner of online clothing company ARTbutt who also runs Manhattan-based design-consulting business The Factory 8, Claire Canfield, co-owner of Bloom Beauty Lounge in Chelsea and Event planner Stacy Snyder.

The three meet at Rockaway whenever it’s pumping, or even not, to shred.

Obolsky declared, “You can’t really plan to go surfing whenever you want. The conditions have to be right and the stars need to align and you just have to go when the opportunity arises.”

Ferring added, “Everyone wants to catch that wave. You have to have a spirit of community and communication.”

Canfield simply said, “When you’re surfing you can’t think about anything else because there are finite waves.”

Synder called surfing, “A spiritual exercise.”

The three discuss the general vagaries of this surfing life, things we all know and feel, but back to Fanning. It being morning, and hot, my eyes were blurry, but as I brought the paper closer, there it the Australian champion was. His stylized MF very clearly on Stacy Snyder’s 8ft or 9ft yellow soft-topped surfboard.

The MF line of soft-topped surfboards get very much less attention than sisters Wavestorm, Gerry Lopez, Ben Gravy’s Wave Bandit or Jamie O’Brien’s Odyssea. I don’t often see them in lineups but if forced to pick a soft-topped surfboard, think I might go with the MF.

You?

David Lee Scales did not, anyhow, discuss during our weekly chat but did chat about important things like flossing teeth in front of significant others and influencer surfers.

Enjoy.