Surf fans squeal with delight as The Eddie
called on for Sunday!
By Chas Smith
Green means go.
Lady and gentlemen surf fans, dig out your most
comfortable surf-watching pants, throw the roast in the oven and
otherwise clear Sunday’s schedule. For tomorrow The Eddie Aikau Big
Wave Invitational runs. Yes, the Bay has officially called the day
and our heroes and heroines will paddle into morning glory.
It all gets underway at 8:00 am, Hawaii time, wherein contest
organizers will peer over the horizon to make sure the promised
swell has arrived.
The aforementioned lady and gentlemen surf fans who happen to be
on Oahu and would like to watch from the cliffs can arrive at 4:00
am and park in Waimea Valley for the low, low cost of $50.
It will be The Eddie’s eleventh running.
I was on those cliffs watching myself during the eighth Eddie.
The year was 2009, the day December 8th, and I was on Oahu’s North
Shore malingering about. Word spread quickly that the contest was
going to go and a palpable thrill hung heavy on that tropical air.
I felt watching it would be silly and planned on spending the day
in Honolulu, nursing a fine Mai Tai at the Royal Hawaiian. Alas,
Stab’s Sam McIntosh was flying in and I picked him up from the
airport. I told him that we would not be heading north but rather
into town for Mai Tai’s as soon as his luggage had been secured. He
gave me an odd look and gently asked if we could maybe try to catch
the contest. I told him it was silly but wanted to be a good host
so relented.
In retrospect, Sam was right and I was very glad to have
witnessed the mayhem.
Live chat, here, tomorrow.
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Gabriel Medina. Icon.
Mirror Gabriel Medina Donald Trump snaps
top “most striking images of 2024” list!
By Chas Smith
Surfing has arrived.
It is not Christmas, yet, but as things go, the
mainstream media is already churning out “best of ’24” content like
New Year’s Day is but a few second hand jives away. Spotify wrapped
came out weeks ago, Time Magazine’s Person of the Year was dropped
right around that time and the august BBC just released its
highly-anticipated “12 of the most striking images of 2024”
list.
Can you believe our Gabriel Medina’s Olympic kickout made the
cut?
The now-iconic image, which mirrors Donald Trump’s “fight,
fight, fight” snap, which, as it happens, also made the bigs.
You know that one, too, and i
Now, I have heard some harsh opinions about the Medina image
from many in this our surf community. Surf folk entirely
unimpressed with an aerial wave ejection as it is one of the few
things any surfer can do. Heard rage, in fact, at “dumb people who
like dumb photos.”
It is an arresting image, though, mostly because Medina is in
his “model handsome” years, his control and command impeccable, his
panache clearly on display. If I am not mistaken, the Brazilian bad
boy is the most popular surfer on social media and rightly so. He
is not, however, a Pipe Master like Kelly Slater, Jamie O’Brien and
now Nathan Florence.
That aside, I’m projecting big things for Medina this year. John
John gonna be off tour, Pip’s li’l tail still between his legs and
Erin Brooks is on the other side of the draw.
World title number three in grasp?
David Lee Scales and I almost discussed surfing today but ran
smack dab into the middle of a conundrum tossed out by a
ten-year-old listener. Is the phone-wallet acceptable?
You know the sort, an iPhone or Samsung case which can also hold
credit cards. I said absolutely not and set the young man on the
right path of keys, wallet and, later, spectacles all being
essential elements for the xy set.
Prove me wrong.
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Gamechanging Canadian teen Erin Brooks, new
queen of Pipe. Courtesy Vans/Brent Bielmann
Nathan Florence hailed as saviour of
low-budget, no-livestream Vans Pipe Masters
By Derek Rielly
“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?
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Conner Lyons, surf coach and WSL surfer, charged with
29 counts of child sexual abuse.
WSL surfer Connor Lyons back behind bars
after allegedly deleting child exploitation material while on
bail
By Derek Rielly
"He has admitted to not only abusing these
children, but filming that abuse against these innocent and
vulnerable children.”
It’s gonna be a tough Christmas for WSL surfer and surf
coach Connor Lyons after he was arrested for the second time in a
week and imprisoned, again, on child sex abuse
charges.
Lyons, twenty-six, was first arrested on Sunday and charged with
12 counts of indecent treatment of two kids over a fourteen-month
period on both the Sunny and Gold Coasts. Despite police citing
Lyons as posing an unacceptable risk to the community, he was
granted bail with strict conditions
The cops scooped Lyons up on Wednesday and charged him with
another fourteen offences including making child exploitation
material, grooming, and damaging evidence with intent.
Cops claim that after Lyons got bail, he accessed and deleted
child exploitation material from a device at his Mum’s house on the
Sunshine Coast.
They also say he admitted deleting the material and that he was
involved in other crimes.
Lyons now carries 29 charges linked to four alleged child
victims, with the heaviest charge carrying a possible 20-year
sentence.
Lyons’ lawyer Bradford Hill argued for bail for a second time
and said that tough conditions could keep the risk he poses to the
community at a manageable level.
Hill emphasised that his client needed “treatment” which would
be tougher to get while in jail.
“It would benefit him to start some kind of treatment before
sentencing … while on bail,” Hill said.
Police prosecutor Tegan Smith told the court Lyons confessed to
looking at child pornography online for over ten years and that he
first messed with kids back in 2018.
Smith said Lyons posed a “major risk to children. It doesn’t
matter where he lives … he admits he can’t stop this behavior. The
bail conditions to stay away from kids don’t do anything to lessen
the risks of his sexual misconduct and predatory actions. He’s
admitted not just to abusing these kids, but to filming that abuse
of these innocent, vulnerable children…
“He’s confessed to watching that footage again and again,
getting off on it … and then, after being given bail, he went and
destroyed that evidence of the videos.”
Magistrate Rodney Madsen told Lyons, “there’s absolutely no way
you’re getting bail. There’s probably nothing any magistrate could
do to make you less of a risk to kids.The only way to keep the
community safe from you is to keep you locked up.”
The case was postponed until March next year.
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The Eddie a possible go this Sunday as
“extremely dangerous and life-threatening” surf expected
By Chas Smith
Yellow alert!
Christmas might come early for surf fans with
reports of “extremely dangerous and life-threatening” surf arriving
to Oahu’s fabled North Shore over the next several days. Of course
that guarantees some amusing social media footage of tourists
getting swept rocks but also, and more importantly, might just
might lead to a Surfing Super Bowl Sunday
Yes, organizers of the famed Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational
have issued a yellow alert with the seventh day of the week, or
first if one abides by the traditional
order, being circled on calendars as possible go
time.
Kohl Christensen, Koa Rothman, Kai Lenny and Kelly Slater each
pulling rhino chasers from atop under-house beams and waxing with
steely gazes toward the horizon.
While the brave invitees prepare, officials are warning
unexperienced surf fans to exercise caution. Lt. John Hoogsteden of
Honolulu Ocean Safety told Hawaii News
Now, “The waves are life-threatening. This is serious
surf that we are having. It looks like we are going to have the
largest series of swells. I’m just asking people to stay away from
the water. Stay away from the ocean and don’t go onto the
sand.”
Amy Purdy, a visitor from Colorado, went to the famed Waimea Bay
to see the arena herself but told the outlet, “You do have to be
careful. We are standing out there and you don’t realize it’s (the
wave) going to come over the berm where you are standing and then
suddenly it does. I’m a scaredy cat so I ran off.”
“It’s kind of a bummer because we came all the way out from
Waikiki to snorkel,” Alex Tao coming from San Francisco added. “I
know nature is nature. I was hoping the waves would be way, way out
over there and we could be over here where it’s a lot calmer.”
Well, sorry about it, Alex Tao.
The Bay Calls the Day.
Back to Slater, though. Do you think he has named his son yet or
is elephant gun waxing getting in the way?
