Gabriel Medina (left) and Griffin Colapinto (right) heartbroken and irrelevant. Photo: Instagram
Gabriel Medina (left) and Griffin Colapinto (right) heartbroken and irrelevant. Photo: Instagram

Surf world in mourning after Griffin Colapinto and Gabriel Medina fail to make betting odds as Jennifer Lopez’s next beau

Two most eligible bachelors left out in the cold.

We surfers, we dancers upon the ocean, used to be considered the sexy ideal. Skin bronzed by sun, brined by salt, shoulder and pectoralis major toned from stroking through the seas, devil-may-care attitudes honed from years of throwing caution to the wind. Desirable specimens.

But not anymore.

Though you have certainly followed the rise, fall, re-rise and re-fall the romance between the multi-hyphenate superstar Jennifer Lopez and the actor-director Ben Affleck. Their first engagement coming in 2002, ending in 2004. Their subsequent re-kindling, a few years back was followed by two extravagant weddings and much pledges of eternality.

Alas, it is officially over with Lopez applying for divorce days ago. Ben Affleck seen out and about glum, per the usual. But hope over the horizon? Fresh amour bubbling from a heretofore unknown font or maybe even a known one like Alex Rodgriguez?

BetOnline just opened odds on who would win the Grammy-award winner’s hand next. Eminem has the best odds at +800 followed by The Weeknd (+1000), Matt McConaughey (+1600), Drake (+3300), JD Vance (+10000) with Donald J. Trump and P. Diddy bringing up the rear (+25000).

Missing entirely, any surfer.

While John John Florence, Jack Robinson and Filipe Toledo are all attached, world number 2 Griffin Colapinto and the current most interesting surfer in teh world Gabriel Medina are not. In times past, both would have made the list with decent odds too, seeing as surfer meat used to be irresistible.

These days, though, it doesn’t even make the joke section.

Sigh.

Should we open our own bookmaking operation, here, and set odds on surfers, and their various proclivities, in the wild?

Something to think about.

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Jensen Kirby (pictured) looking 49. Photo: Jensen Kirby
Jensen Kirby (pictured) looking 49. Photo: Jensen Kirby

Dream Indo surf trip devolves into nightmare after boat explodes

"I was in the middle of this fire. I just remember hearing the big whooshing sound going past me."

The Indonesian surf trip is a coming-of-age adventure for any surfer worth her salt. Flying to the world’s largest archipelago, charting a boat to some far flung coast and living a tube-enhanced dream. No phone, no boss, no responsibility other than getting drained and draining Bintang.

A good life, maybe perfect, until the dang mechanic proceeds to hook up the battery wrong thus engulfing the entire business, including surfers, in an inferno.

But let us 19-year-old Jensen Kirby on his very first solo trip overseas. The young Perthian is lucky to be alive after a harrowing accident left him well done. Here he is, without further ado, with the play-by-play.

“The mechanic was putting the battery on and plugging it up. He plugged the negative to the positive, so it was wrong, and as soon as it clicked it just sparked and ignited the petrol fumes in the boat,” the dishwater blonde told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “All I saw was the spark and the next moment I just saw the flames around me and I was like ‘Oh my god, what the hell do I do?’ I was in the middle of this fire. I just remember hearing the big whooshing sound going past me. It was crazy, like out of a movie. I just turned around and jumped straight into the water because I was so scared and got away as far as I could in case there was another explosion.”

Young Kirby survived, body very burned, and had multiple stages to get to a proper care facility. He was worried about looking at his face, scared the damage would be lots. When he finally mustered the courage, he felt he looked “thirty years older” which would make him 49. Exactly six years younger than surf great Kelly Slater.

If you looked in the mirror, after a scary accident, and saw Kelly Slater staring back how would that make you feel?

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Brittany Penaroza and the world's worst drop-in
Filmer Rory Pringle Pringle dubbed it the Britt Flip and said it was “the most controversial manoeuvre of the summer.” | Photo: @brittroza/Facebook

Surfer girl defiant after being attacked online for “world’s worst drop-in”

"Most dudes I know would love to be dropped in on by her"

A short clip of the Hawaiian-raised surfer Brittany Hokulani Penaroza dropping in and then wiping out atop a surfer at Desert Point has split the internet, a few celebrating the manoeuvre as female empowerment at work, the majority calling it dumb and dangerous.

Posted by the master filmer Riordan Pringle, the talented boy who shoots and cuts all of those Mason Ho clips, we see Britt Penaroza joining a fellow surfer on a wave before taking too high a line and being flipped off her surfboard, which almost decapitates the man already on the wave.

Pringle named it”The Britt Flip” and called it “the most controversial manoeuvre of the summer.”

 

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Comments were split, roughly, ten-to-one against Penaroza.

For:

Since when did surfers become so fragile. Hahaha. Brit is fucking amazing for charging deserts, can take a joke and a backflip. People need to party wave more, take themselves less seriously and be less critical.

Most dude I know would love to be dropped in on by her

Most of the male friends around me are chivalrous and confident enough to not be threatened by a chick testing herself on a challenging wave. I think they are also just men who don’t take themselves too seriously and enjoy surfing for surfings sake without the need to fight out in the water or the comment section… especially with women.

Brit is a courteous surfer. I heard this swell was packed and agro. She ended up with stitches and a funny clip. No need to get their knickers in a twist

Against:

Seen her drop in like that on the shoulder at bowls and rocky too many times. Hopefully now she’ll be more mindful. Also, funny to see the blatant double standard from some in the comments.

I don’t give a fuck if I dropped in on that guy and wasn’t supposed to if he did that to me I’d be waiting for them on the beach or the parking lot and he pay a fucking price

And from Penaroza?

“My best move yet.”

Her response to the “haters”, as they’re called in the online community, was simple:

 To all the grumpy people saying ID deserved it, I got 5 stitches in my foot because of this and couldn’t walk for a week

Which garnered a frenzy of replies:

play stupid games you win stupid prizes

Maybe you shouldn’t be dropping in on people…

you did deserve it. Glad you finally got some consequences for your actions. Don’t drop in on people. You aren’t special, and the rules *do* apply to you.

the consequences dont make your actions correct. I hope those stiches help you remember not to do it again. Its easy, just look for other people and pull back if someone is already on the wave. It was YOU who fabricated a dangerous situation, it could have been the other surfer who got injured. And theres no need for that, there are more waves to catch. Even if the guy was snaking and being a dickhead, its better not to create these dangerous situations. It was your foot, but couldve been someones neck

imagine trying to defend a blatant no look drop in and then btching about the outcome

Thoughts?

I come on the side of female empowerment, pro-Britt if you like, and if the surfer being dropped in on was a white male, well, all the better.

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Master filmmaker delivers Surf Ranch edit that shatters claim Slater wavepool is “puffy and grotesque”

Shuck and jive surfing that will leave your mouth flapping mutely.

Recently, the master filmmaker Robbie Crawford was tasked with the job of photographing a marvellous cast of Mason Ho, Clay Marzo and Parker Coffin at the Kelly Slater-designed Surf Ranch in Lemoore, California, for the movie Snapt. 

Mason, thirty-six, sweet, affectionate, Clay, thirty-five, electric and super sexy and little Parker Coffin, twenty-nine, brutally ugly – no one wants to kiss freckled Parker’s eyelashes, all deliver their interpretations of the surfing act.

Their assorted idiosyncrasies, Clay’s elastic curves, Mason’s hybrid of style and charm and Parker’s exhilarating dash make for great entertainment in waves that arrive in almost identical batches.

But it’s the use of an intrusive pole hovering off the back of Crawford’s jetski that delivers the full score. In some circles the approach might be labelled an elaborate gimmick, but in filmmaking actually coalesces the experience into something very close to genius. 

And, with Surf Ranch Abu Dhabi playing a pivotal role in determining next year’s contenders for the world title showdown at Cloudbreak, a clue, perhaps, to how this particular harp should be played.

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Kelly Slater (right) + professional surfing 4 eva.
Kelly Slater (right) + professional surfing 4 eva.

Question: Has anyone ever loved anything as much as Kelly Slater loves pro surfing?

His precioussssss.

Yesterday morning, just before the Fiji Pro finals got underway, David Lee Scales and I sat down for our weekly chat. The conversation, as it often does, shifted over to Kelly Slater, as he had just lost in unchill fashion to Brazil’s Yago Dora. He looked off the entire heat, balance difficulties, timing issues, general poor decision making. At the end, he slapped the water in disgust.

But do you remember when the surf great fell off tour after Margaret River? In David Lee Scales’ summation, the whole surfing world tried to stage a retirement intervention, posting “Congratulations on such a stellar career.”

Kelly Slater didn’t retire.

And after his Fiji loss, the World Surf League tried to send him off, again, with what JP Currie described as a “cultish highlight reel where surfing’s luminaries gushed over a montage of Kelly’s career that genuinely made me wonder if he’d passed away during a Bonsoy Brew Break?”

Kelly Slater still didn’t retire. Instead of doing a victory lap then bowing out, he went and sat hisself an awkward distance from World Surf League roving reporter Stace Galbraith, knowing he would be called upon to contribute to professional surfing in some capacity.

Which brings me to my point. Has anyone ever loved anything as much as Kelly Slater loves professional surfing? Romeo, I feel, doesn’t come close with his Juliet, ending it quickly instead of dragging his adoration out for eternity. Don Quixote, neither, with his Dulcinea. Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams in The Notebook? A cheap simulacrum of Kelly Slater and his professional surfing.

But wow. He has given it his everything and will continue giving it his everything, any thinking to the contrary be damned. Currie is convinced he will attache his legrope to up-and-comer Erin Brooks. That stands to reason. So does becoming part of an Emirati led ownership group and becoming professional surfing.

His preciousssss.

David Lee Scales and I, anyhow, also talked about Yago Dora and I wondered if Yago Dora today beats Kelly Slater in his prime. What do you think about that?

Listen and enjoy.

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