“Nathan Florence WAS the contest. Double duty streaming with epic commentary, and winning the event. Unbelievable.”
The slip-on shoe giant Vans’ own YouTube channel has been carpet bombed by furious surf fans after it was left to team rider Nathan Florence to rescue the Vans Pipe Masters, which wasn’t officially broadcast, with a pirate livestream.
Florence, the reigning waterman and surfer of the year who is better known for stuffing his burn-out rod into mysto cold-water waves, set up his filmer Zoard Janko inside a little tent on the beach, which also served as a commentary booth.
A cavalcade of Pipeline’s best surfers including Jamie O’Brien, Koa Rothman and Nathan’s brother, John John Florence, all took turns calling the event. Even mammy John John, Alex Florence, had a spell calling waves.
The highlight of the pirate stream was Zoard running down the beach with his laptop to film winner Nathan being carted up the beach.
Surf fans weren’t shy to let their feelings known on Vans’ YouTube channel.
A real small sample.
I hope this is the last time VANS sponsors this event. no live stream and late updates, we didn’t even know the finals was on! congrats to nathan florence for winning both in the water and online.
Double up the prizemoney for Nathan for doing the livestream. without that, the pipe masters would have not even happened for everybody who wasn‘t there!!! And honestly, this livestream was waaay better than any official livestream i‘ve ever seen. it was like listening to a 8 hour podcast while watching pipe going crazy. best guests on the stream and didn‘t feel like the guests on the official broadcasts who have to to their sponsor duties.
If not for Nate we never would have seen most of the action. Great surfer doing great things!
This was the nail in the coffin for big brand surfing.
“The greatest show on earth” and yet you had no broadcast and barely functioning live updates. Shame on you.
Talk is cheap. Their actions spoke VOLUMES!!! From trying to keep JOB out of the contest, to reducing the greatest show on earth to an 11 minute jumbled highlight reel. So much better coverage by locals that CARE!!!
Nate and the Florence family won this event. From the live stream to the surfing they absolutely killed it. Vans, not so much.
Nathan Florence WAS the contest. Double duty streaming with epic commentary, and winning the event. Unbelievable. The beach commentary was so much more engaging and entertaining than a regular WSL event. Just bros hanging out and holding back the heckles. Dead space was fine. It was just like every group of guys hanging out. And the camera angle was surprisingly perfect. WSL should take notes. Congratulations to Nathan for not only providing an all around great contest experience for us, but also a great fucking year of content. Aloha.
What kind of kooks get shown up by a vlogger when it comes to coverage? Why even own the rights if you can’t even provide coverage? I’ll take the Florence coverage honestly. It was a real peak in to the North Shore community as well as the event.
Am unsubscribing … Nathan Florence & team is the only channel worth following anymore.
Where does the below-the-line jockey stand? I was a late convert and felt Nathan and Blak Bear’s pirate streams added to the thrill of the event and were, overall, superior to the slicker offering of the WSL.
Anything that mutes Joe Turpel can’t be bad, yeah?
Dear Vans,
name your price. I ‘ll buy it.
you screwed it up…. we’ll make it legendary, again.
Turned out great that Vans didn’t do a live stream. Listening to everyone rolling through Nathan’s livestream call the event was an unexpected refreshing change. I personally have never been bothered by the WSL’s wall of positive noise, because it’s just that, background noise. Nathan’s livestream was fun to listen to. Felt like watching a contest with friends. No filters.
Only watched a little of the women’s final and all the men’s… and it was a billion times better than ANY, ANY, ANY WSL broadcast I’ve ever seen. Not in terms of technical chops and whiz-bang replays, but in terms of the basic fucking requirements: covering the event not the commercial interests and casual intimate current knowledge of WTF they were looking at.
An Eddie win must be next…
these guys are streaming waimea pretty well right now. multiple angles, drones, replays…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnCXyLBvdvQ
” team rider Nathan Florence”
Ummmm – FORMER team rider Nathan Florence – he left Vans for Florence months ago.
https://www.surfer.com/news/joining-forces-nate-florence-leaves-vans-for-his-namesake-brand
FORMER is Dane’s company bro guy dude.
Still got dem Vans shoes while riding head to knee Florence.
So why did he have a giant Vans logo on his board? And Florence doesn’t make shoes so why can’t he be sponsored by both?
Also to add to my previous frothed Eddie comment- there is a live stream of Waimea warm up on YouTube with the below linky. Not sure if Rip Curl will completely fuck up like Vans and not have a proper webcast set up – but if they do, we could all get on this and live comment our asses off tomorrow and speculate who is who. I’m putting $100 on Nate, 100 on Eli and 100 on a yet to be determined. Probably Kai Lenny or Billy Bob Kemper. Not cause I want Billy Bob Kempsey to win, mostly because he’ll be a cunt to everyone, ignore the spirit of Eddie and treat it like a QS thus being a decent wager.
Am I the only cunt round here fully froth dogg’n this? It’s the Eddie goddamit!
BG should have me on staff for all this breaking news and resources. DR, Chas? I’m cheap as a strung out hooker btw.
Edit** for all y’all who think I jus t comment and don’t surf, I had an unbelievable dawny today with me and two groms id never seen before busting massive airs. Not me, the groms.
https://www.youtube.com/live/fiTulMS_r5c?si=a7YR0Lcph3BtTbMO
You have to download Rogue t.v. app to watch it. No charge at least
Word! Wonder if it’ll be needing vpn.. geo blocked here I think? will give it a spin either way.
While I can’t say I watch his clips or anything associated with him, Nathan’s handling of this opportunity was done with aplomb. He saw the opening and took it, crazy shit to think this contest has been bastardized so badly that they didn’t even broadcast it…and there was nary a fucking hint on their site about it. Hate seeing surfing in this state, but good for Nathan for sharing the comp with us all. Winning it was just hilarious on top of it all. Shockwaves surely felt in the new WSL offices. Cote realizing he’s been exposed, Turpel rattling off positivity to no one.
Better than turdpail no doubt but that’s a very low bar .
Nates webcast definitely has massive appeal to the fan boy sect that can pretend they are hanging in the corner chair of the Florence’s north shore loungeroom listening to their idiotic banter
love nates surfing (on silent)
So Vans put up $300K in prize money , but don’t see much of a return on their investment as they didn’t need to do a full coverage?
Vans has lost 27% of turnover in the 4th 1/4 of fiscal year 2024,,,with already 2023 having a 12% decrease in sales….the death spiral in sales is probably contributing to their lack of funding , what chance is there next year for a Vans Pipeline Masters ?
the whole sponsorship of surf Comps anywhere , has now been shown to be a bad investment as surfing has become just another boutique sport…..where the surfboard and Soft goods market is till in a downward spiral…..more surfers than ever and the surf business’s are suffering and hoping it comes back,,
the real question is …..” is there any value in a surf Co sponsoring competitions and for that matter surfers?
Relevance, perhaps, is the only reason to sponsor a comp. Surfing isn’t for the masses and with so many brands under even fewer umbrellas, no reason to differentiate and support the sport. The irony of more people in the water and the industry faltering a sad state of affairs. Surfing isn’t even that fun, don’t do it.
Well it’s hard to judge that one because times are not the same, things change people have different motivations, companies go public others then control the cash , you can’t use unmarked bills to sponsor events or athetes , accountabilities change.
So it’s hard for me to gauge was there really ever any value other than splashing arround I’ll gotten gains and dick posturing by the owners of the big 3.
Relevance……..once was something you had to prove by actions and foresight…….now it’s social media, and the perceptions you can market to make you relevant….sorta sad until someone see opportunity…the Florence’s and the people associated with the brand couldn’t be in a better place in the market….more please!!!
Hey Brutus I hope you are doing good and get better soon.
I guess the value lies in credibility with surfers. If that is even a question that comes up in board meetings of the bigger surf companies. I reckon a batch of smaller crews ie Julian’s company, Florence, that Tenore fella, Dane’s company etc etc should form a Co-Op, get organized and buy the name rights, then produce some comps that are worth being in for the surfers, and worth watching for the fans, aka surfers cause let’s face it, the whole middle America arm chair non surfer isn’t watching.
Ps hope you feeling better soon cuz. Hope you’re on the mend and get back out there.
The problem is the surf co’s that have been bought by the VC world , have been gutted and are cutting back on teams/events as the accountants run the business’s. we have just been through a couple of decades of overvalued sponsorship etc as the people who were in control actually gave back some of their profits to the Surfing world…..the old trickle down effect of capitalism….problem was we all got addicted to lots of Marketing 4’s until the Co’s started making mistakes and losing money hand over foot…..and here we are with a couple of surviving surf co’s who are just marketing shells of once strong business’s…..
yeah goin thru some major life speed bumps…
Well put man. Guess you seen it all up close eh. It’s a obvious indication that when shareholder profits assumed top priority the VC mobs in charge only care about what was needed to sell more of the now more products. The top bidder buying of companies who were born selling products needed from within a subculture, instantly did not reflect the culture at all. That was the mistake. Selling them. Making them publicly traded. Too much focus away from surf and what is cool about it. The Curren OTW (or Backdoor?) cuty board.. dude, that and all the others used down the local without pro on em or a lens pointed. Iconic masterwork parts of the DNA of all this coolness. And because it’s something that can’t be ripped off and whored about – it and they – are timeless and only build, not destroy the cool.
Sending the healing and positive vibes for as much as they are worth mate.
Love that idea. Requires independent thinking by those outside the grey mainland corpo C-suites.
It’s borderline socialist approach would have to be overseen by some kind of executive I guess. Perhaps percentage voting weight given to investing companies based on their contribution or something. If all equal $’s end being kicked in, rotating CEO, CFO etc, rotates year by year and seek to promote the overall growth of grass roots based on submissions for funding from the core. Boardriders clubs, schools, etc.
No idea why a company would put up USD $300k to be the headline sponsor for the Pipeline Masters and then – NOT have a webcast with their name and logo in every frame of video for the entire event.
Unless they simply don’t have the money to put on a webcast.
$300K in prize $’s and probably another $200 K for infrastructure etc….so $500K spent minimum and not enough money or audience to merit full streaming?
Eli Olson stated the Florence brothers were the first siblings to win the Pipe Masters, only to be corrected falsely it was the Irons. Mike Ho 1982 and Derek ho 86/93. And this was the Pipe Masters in name only, so have an * Nathan.
Irons and Ho’s also “tour” surfers. Nate rips, but a Vans Pipe Master has a Asterix next to it.
Eli – sitting next to the reigning world champ – answering the one in every 300 chat questions that related to him during the final was a lowlight. Other than that bonzer.
Did you see how fast those comments were scrolling!!! There would have been 300 every couple minutes! What not answer the shit you know?
Can’t believe that commentator crew is getting heat here. I thought they all killed it, and made the WSL look like the corpo DEI nut suckers they are . I took it and was greatful for what it was.. the ultimate insider crew pirate stream, which made a corporation Nate, John and Ivan have made zillions for and from, look like techtards.. like.. what a line up. the host won fucking comp for fucks sake, current world champ, maybe best current shaper in the world, world champ Mumma, former flame of Eddie Rothman Koa’s mum was there too for a bit. I mean goddam.. and my boy Eli. Was as fine a treatment us plebs are ever going to see and yet y’all still whine. Contrarians!! Which I might add is usually necessary and is usually me. Not on this though.
Naa, I was into it, cunt. Chill out. Just that Eli talking about himself in the final was a bit off, is my pleb feedback. Probably aggravated by dumb shit I read him saying on the socials. I reckon there’s a dynamic with paid commentators that they feel the need to earn their keep by putting on the anchor voice and leaving no dead air. I once got to experience – along with a few other early birds to the stream – Turpel warming-up and he was brilliant. Similarly, that Presidents’ Day at Sunset, we got a wonderfully casual – and easy-on-the-narrowed-ear-canals – Turpel.
Sorry homie. Didn’t mean for you to feel attacked by my exuberant response.
I can tell by your comma and slightly off use of the word cunt you ain’t strayan. That’s cool, I can tell you don’t think I’m actually a cunty type.
Unless you wanted me to read it with a hard “t” in which case I’ve been called worse!
Can’t fathom a good version or Joey Turds. But your description does intrigue.
Definitely a soft ‘t’ you good carnn, carnn. Negs shared casual Joe with me. We were giddy.
I will say that Joe knows pro surf history better than pretty much any other announcer. And he married Sion Miloskys widow so he’s got some n shore street cred there.
Agree. What a refreshing webcast!
Pyzel and Alex F banter was a highlight for sure
I won’t hear a bad word about Eli. He comes across super humble and I reckon of the whole Florence, Rothman crew he is the best naturally gifted , best style, biggest charger – other than John. He is super chil in person and has shot me replies on Insta comments to my own dumb comments. Me, a kook non checkmark non surf insider type and whatnot. This realness buys a lifetime of backing from me. I’m cheap, I know. But all my points stand. Surf history error aside, which is forgivable considering his good mate just won the Masters, or was about to.
I back this 100%. Was at the Turtle Bay bar a few weeks back and went up to order a drink and he was waiting for the bartender as well and I didn’t notice him so totally dropped in on him. I realized too late and apologized and dude could not have been fucking cooler. I’m a fan. Go Eli.
Tuned in for the Pipe Masters*. Stayed for the experts calling spades, and Momma talking that sass.
And Mahina admitting she’s number 2 and surfing is number 1. And she’s good with it.
Pays the bills
Nathan’s pirate webcast was a notable counterpoint to the WSL’s saccharine non-fat tinsel. Winning the event was the cherry atop the cake. Bravo!
Dirk should donate the WSL to the Florence family.
BREAKING EDDIE GREEN
https://youtu.be/ikfCH-iUGDQ?si=w6RKUfu31-y_SCp8
Guys a legend for pulling all that off. Too bad he (and you) had to include mention of that worthless commie Zoard though.
It was that same wortless commie that let us watch the pipe masters live.
Talking about worthless
Yes I am, thank you!