The ghost of Zoltan Torkos is haunting.

The surf world has entered a new phase of unrest after many years of relative calm. Two days ago, Shane’s boy Noah Beschen, I think Mason Ho and likely others traveled deep to the heart of Texas in order to participate in what I hear was a Swatch Nines event. All seemed fine and well until, that is, a large piece of plywood with coping was lowered just above the surface of the waters allowing the aforementioned to slide it as if they were at a skate park.

 

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Wild polarization immediately taking hold and nearing dreaded Zoltan Torkos levels.

But you certainly recall almost fifteen years ago when the Santa Cruz magician decided to answer Volcom’s siren call and kickflip a surfboard?

Yikes.

There were those who claimed it the very peak of progression and then those who claimed it was a heretical. Surf and skate so close yet so far. Those, like Chris Cote who loves the marriage, and those, like probably Maurice Cole, who don’t.

Major infighting.

David Lee Scales and I discussed today, anyhow, but found enough time to consider the musical importance of Die Antwoord and how ice in urinals might just be peak fancy. You would be doing yourself a disservice in not listening.

Don’t be a little whiny baby.

"He chose to become a major drug trafficker, and he chose to become a killer."

There was once a time when surfing, and its surfers, were outlaws. Living on the fringes of society, man. Rejecting buttoned-up culture and “jobs” and “making a decent living” or an “honest one.” Surfers did whatever they could to keep living the derelict dream which often included trafficking cocaine and sometimes abusing it or haven’t you seen the surf masterpiece Sea of Darkness?

In any case, time moved on, surfing itself became “monetized” and Erik Logan. Still, sometimes after the sun sets, surfers gather in dusky beach-adjacent parking lots, drink beer straight out of the can and reminisce about the naughty noughties and being bad boys.

Well, all that is officially lost with the revelation that a Canadian Olympic snowboarder has been running a murderous cocaine trafficking ring that stretched all through the Americas. The FBI declared it is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of one Ryan James Wedding who, they say, is living in Mexico.

Wedding, 43, popped on the extreme scene by competing for the maple leaf at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympiad where he finished 24th in parallel giant slalom. From there, it was straight on to the delinquent life. Authorities say he organized long-haul semi-trucks to ferry the product from Colombia up to the Great White North. As things happen with cartels and whatnots, Wedding is also being charged with murder.

In speaking about the case, Martin Estrada, U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, stated, “He chose to become a major drug trafficker, and he chose to become a killer.”

Erik Logan, in the meantime, chose to become a #Lifeforcepartner.

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"I can’t wait to go into Pipe wearing my name on my back."

It’s all set, ladies and gents. The 2025 World Surf League Championship Tour draw officially official with the final day of Saquarema squarely in the bag and can you feel the buzz? That growing hysteria? The excitement palpable in each corner of this earth except the Wright house where consternation reigns. Everywhere else, though, the thrill is real.

Of course you already know that the Pride of Canada, one Erin Brooks, has joined the big time on the women’s side of the draw. The men’s sees the first Maui-bred surfer to take a swing since Dustin Payne.

Not counting Imaikalani DeVault.

Jackson Bunch, who hails from Pāʻia on the Valley Isle’s north shore, scooted in at the buzzer after Frenchman Marco Mignot beat America’s Levi Slawson who I’m assuming would have been “him” had he won. Bunch had fallen out in the round of 64 citing two painful eye infections.

He and his friends celebrated in the warm Brazilian waters, at the end, the bright lights of Abu Dhabi no longer glittering dream but reality.

“I can’t believe it. I’m at a loss for words. It’s just incredible to be here with all of my friends […] I can’t wait to go into pipe wearing my name on my back,” the handsome fella declared.

Now the draw is set, how excited are you for the end of January to roll around? Our newly minted class of ’25 will take on the Banzai Pipeline, first, before being whisked more than halfway across the world to the aforementioned United Arab Emirates capital. After that, plentiful fossil fuels are burned to ferry the best surfers in the world to Europe then Central America then Australia then America then Brazil, South Africa, French Polynesia and finally Fiji. No telling if Bunch will be on tour, at the finish, but, for now, hope springs eternal.

Mabruk.