Leonardo DiCaprio (on phone) caught being rude.
Leonardo DiCaprio (on phone) caught being rude.

Leonardo DiCaprio to lose World Surf League Finals Day invite after blatantly ignoring Fijian ceremony

“Don’t waste your energy my fiji whānau (family), he’s so disrespectful.”

After two or three years of the World Surf League crowning its champions at “baby soft” Lower Trestles, surf fans around the globe rejoiced when it was announced that Cloudbreak would host Finals Day ’25. The powerful Fijian left-hander, pitching into glorious barrel, is truly a marvel an there shall be no asterisks placed behind the name of the winner like there is following Felipe Toledo.

The ticket will undoubtedly be a hot draw with surf-adjacent celebrities vying for limited space on Tavarua, Namotu and the various yachts bobbing in the blue though one mega-movie star is likely on the outside looking in.

Leonardo DiCaprio, 50, was recently in Fiji on vacation. As anyone who has had the pleasure of visiting the Pacific island paradise knows, ceremony is very important to the culture. Welcome songs, kava blessings, goodbye dances.

Here we can see Association of Surfing Professional surfers enjoying the opening rites of the Volcom Fiji Pro in 2012.

Look how cute li’l Julian Wilson was.

In any case, it would be absolutely unheard of to blatantly ignore the ritual which brings us back to DiCaprio. The climate activist was checking out of his hotel where the staff had gathered in the lobby to serenade him with blessings. Instead of clapping along, DiCaprio dipped his head, pulled out a phone and pretended to have a conversation whilst paying the locals no mind.

The move was, surprisingly, blasted on social media where Fijian culture experts weighed in.

“Being humble is the key to success,” one opined. “Don’t waste your energy my fiji whānau (family), he’s so disrespectful,” another added. A third, extra worked up, screamed, “SHOULD’VE ACKNOWLEDGED THE FIJI WELCOMING PARTY.”

With DiCaprio likely out of Finals Day, surf fans are petitioning the World Surf League offices for a Mini Driver invite.

A star worth loving.

More as the story develops.

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Shark attack survivor Kai Mckenzie releases song Your in my way
Kai Mckenzie burning on the guitar, left, and tearing up little Port Mac on his one stilt.

Surfer Kai Mckenzie who lost leg in Great White attack releases epic shoe-gaze single he wrote in hospital!

Come for the Great White porn, stay for the dreamy guitar textures and buried vocals!

The Rage teamdrider Kai Mckenzie, a surfer described by Noa Deane as “tough as nails” has made even more lemonade from his harvest of lemons with his latest gambit, an epic shoe-gaze single he wrote in hozzy called Your In My Way. 

“Then I got together with two of my good mates in a band called Roxferry (the brothers brothers Clay and Jake Teiffel) and had a couple of beers and got it down,” says Kai.

Kai, whose right stilt was bitten off by a fifteen-foot Great White, all of it captured on video (don’t watch), creates a wall of sound with layers of dreamy guitar textures and with his growling vocals buried low in the track. 

Aside from the unfortunate typo, but here we play loose with grammar and punctuation so who are we to hurl stones, Kai demonstrates he’s more than just a pretty face, a tough cunt and a spectacular headline. 

On the same day Your In My Way came out, Kai rode his first waves, stand up, minus what most of us would regard as the crucial rear stilt telling his fans,

“We back bitches.”

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Machine Gun Kelly Slater. Photo: Instagram
Machine Gun Kelly Slater. Photo: Instagram

Surf great Kelly Slater offers sage advice after undergoing special forces weapons training

"When your brain is in the way, it slows you down."

Kelly Slater’s surf bonafides need not one bit of burnishing. Seven-time Pipe Master, one-time Pro Pipeline, eleven world championships, one Eddie and this is not to mention multiple “Surfer of the Year” nominations plus magazine covers. His legion fans are also well aware that the almost 53-year-old is a golf whizz, guitar master and sings like an angel.

Not yet witnessed is Slater’s skill with a gun. Rootin’, tootin’, shootin’. Thankfully, the Special Forces Charitable Foundation put a pistol in his hand and let him rip the range.

Watch here.

Afterward, the father of two opened up about the experience, sharing “(Shooting) is not familial to me, shot when I was a kid but haven’t shot in decades. Have to make it your natural environment in order to compete at 100 percent. When I surf I don’t think, my brains not in the way. With anything else, your brain is in the way and it slows you down.”

Wise words.

But how would you rate your own skills with lock, stock and barrel? Would you beat Kelly Slater in a shoot-off?

Would you gloat?

Rude.

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Surfers (pictured) doing surfing tourism. Photo: Surf School
Surfers (pictured) doing surfing tourism. Photo: Surf School

Surfing tourism market forecasted to explode to $12 billion in five years!

Invest today!

Once upon a time (six years ago), a terrible cough/sore throat combination swept the globe and forced people to get healthy, isolated outdoor exercise. As playing horseshoes and hopscotch required partners, surfing quite naturally became the obvious activity and millions upon millions of enthusiasts were born.

These adult learners, many vulnerable, purchased boards and wetsuits, leashes and wax and sent the surf hard-good market booming. Ding repair operations did brisk business as well as no one knew the rules nor cared to learn. There they paddled out, en masse, near their homes, socially distanced but one in spirit.

It appears, though, that they might be wanting a touch more social distance as new economic analysis has forecasted the surfing tourism market to explode in girth through the decade.

Currently valued at $9.58 billion, surfing tourism will blast to $12.31 billion by 2028. That is a 6.5% compound annual growth rate for the junior economists out there.

Gains will be spread across “Surf Schools And Lessons, Surf Camps And Retreats, Surf Resorts And Accommodations, Surf Tours And Expeditions, Equipment Rentals And Sales” and include “LineUpEXplorers GmbH, The Perfect Wave Travel, Channel Islands Surfboards Inc., Body Glove International LLC, World Surfaris Pty Ltd, Firewire Surfboards LLC, Costa Rica Surf Travel Company, Wavehunters Surf Travel Pty Ltd, Waterways Surf Adventures, Nomad Surfers, Atoll Travel, The Ocean Spell Surf Travel, True Blue Travel, BruSurf Inc., Great Ocean Road Surf Tours, INTRO Travel Pty Ltd, Mojosurf Pty Ltd, Go Overseas Inc., Driftwood Mentawai Surf Travel, Surf and Sun.”

Champagne corks being popped in Kelly Slater’s Thai surfboard factory today.

With this entirely bullish outlook, are you considering quitting your current job and hopping into the surfing tourism industry? Remember when bitcoin was at $27,000 and you were tempted to buy in?

Go with your gut this time.

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Tulsi Gabbard on surfing podcast

Interview: Jed Smith on Tulsi Gabbard’s switcharoo to Donald Trump

"You’ve got Tulsi, ex-Democrat, Elon, ex-Democrat, Joe Rogan, ex-Democrat, Robert F Kennedy Jr, ex-Democrat, Donald Trump, ex-Democrat…the Republican Party is run by old school Democrats!"

In 2019, Ain’t That Swell podcasters, Jed Smith and Vaughan Blakey, spent forty-five minutes on a Skype call to the then wanna-be democratic nominee for the presidential race, Tulsi Gabbard

Vaughan woke up one morning to a DM from Tulsi, a surfer, saying.“Hey guys, love the show, love to come on sometime.”

Vaughan’s nostrils, you’ll remember, were almost fatally distended by the presidential perfume.

Tulsi Gabbard on surfing podcast

Tulsi performed well on the show, she referenced other episodes of Ain’t That Swell and patiently remained silent as the broadcast was diverted by Jed Smith on his many wonderful little rants.

But fast-forward five years and Tulsi is the new Director of National Intelligence under Republican President Donald Trump. It was a hell of a switcharoo and one I knew my ol pal Jed Smith would have an opinion on.

So I call up Jed, thirty-seven now and living a thousand clicks away from his Bondi neighbourhood. I figure he’ll hit me with some socialist and wildly anti-capitalist bullshit, which I’ll secretly enjoy and mostly agree with, and tell me Tulsi’s a turncoat, a sell-out etc.

He don’t.

“I’m loving her,” he says in the same recognisable Australian drawl that brings in tens of thousands of listeners to his and Vaughan’s podcast. “She’s exactly the same person. It’s so interesting, man. You’ve got Tulsi, ex-Democrat, Elon, ex-Democrat, Joe Rogan, ex-Democrat, Robert F Kennedy Jr, ex-Democrat, Donald Trump, ex-Democrat…the Republican Party is run by old school Democrats! A vote for change is a vote for the Republican Party which is run by old school left-wing people.”

Jed says Tulsi hits all the points you should care about, like the looming spectre of nuclear war.

“She’s anti that shit. She’s been calling out the threat of a nuclear war for years and years. That’s her main thing, stopping America’s imperialist interventions abroad. She wants to quell the fucking threat of nuclear war. What could be wrong with that? I don’t give a fuck if she’s wearing a red hat or a blue hat. I don’t want the world to go up in smoke. She’s a veteran and when you’re part of that military culture, a shit kicker, it’s a brutal truth-telling culture, same as the bottom end of the working class. You call a spade a spade and the fact she’s in the Republican Party, well, that’s fucking epic. The Democrats black-balled her. They weren’t going to give her shit and they shut out Bernie Sanders. The Democratic Party is a write off. You’re mad to have any faith in ‘em.

We talk a little about why Hillary Clinton claimed Tulsi was a Russian asset. Jed says it’s ‘cause Clinton’s a stooge of the fabled military industrial complex; I think it’s ‘cause Tulsi, hot as fuck, a little colour in her skin, smarter, a vet, a woman, was stealing nasty old cuckquean’s thunder.

I tell him, you should get Tulsi back on Ain’t That Swell. Director of National Intelligence v Jed and Vaughan. Tell me that won’t get the needle firing north.

“I should hit her up again but I don’t like my chances. She’s one of the biggest hitters in the world, one of the most famous people in the world. Mate, it was crazy when she was on the show. Forty minutes. She cut deep, straight to the bone. Didn’t shy away from anything. And we get blowback from people when they listen to that interview now. Messages saying, how can you support her? I’m, like, what do you mean? What is your problem with her? We get these die-hard Californian Democrats telling us we can’t support her. We hate you. You’re out of the club.”

Ol Jedaum sighs the sigh of a man, a good man, a surfer and not the new sort that has little crumblings of baby powder in his underarms from his anti-rash regimes.

“The culture wars are so nauseating. So spun. You know, it’s so simple. Most people want dignity for the poor and an end to poverty. Fundamental common sense shit. Decent housing. Good quality food not full of poison and plastic and fucking vaccines that aren’t going to fuck us all it. It’s all pretty fucking reasonable. Who fucking wouldn’t want that?”

Jed pauses.

“Fuck!”

 

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