"You’re spiralling on it. You get so lost in it. I don’t know what I want to be. It’s crazy how it just stops you."
Can you believe it’s already been there years since BeachGrit outed the world champion surfer Barton Lynch as a filthy loot-the-rich Communist bastard, which you can read here, and which was swiftly refuted, here?
Barton Lynch, an energetic sixty one year old with one fake hip and another on its way, famously clinched the 1988 world title at perfect eight-to-twelve-foot Pipeline, denying silly Tom Carroll a third crown.
He was the sport’s most popular broadcaster before being dumped by the WSL for his role in the activist group Voices4Choices which, correctly as it turns out, questioned vaccine mandates and the role of government during the COVID pandemic.
Always in a good humour, Barton’s painstaking observation skills re: surfing are clear in his podcast series The Stoked Bloke. As an interviewer, he has the ability to shake loose his guests inhibitions without the need to swing a heavy hammer.
Barton allows his guests to settle into familiar foxholes while his questions circle overhead.
Today’s interview guest John John Florence reveals the paralysis he felt amid the tension of competition.
“You’re spiralling on it. You go to stand up on a wave in a heat and, I don’t even know what to do right now. You get so lost in it. The year before last year, I had a couple of heats where I was so tense and caught up in the storylines of what I was and the injuries, all these things mixed up. I couldn’t even move. I couldn’t even think about standing up on a wave and going, ‘I’m going to do a turn.’ What turn do I do? I don’t know what I want to be. It’s crazy how it just stops you.”
Essential.