“Imagine putting six years of passion into something you loved and pioneered just to be told you have no value to it.”
The Hawaiian Cheyne Magnusson, who singlehandedly altered the course of aerial surfing at BSR cable park in Waco and who then took his considerable expertise to the Palm Springs Surf Club, has exited that building in a hailstorm of recriminations.
It was Magnusson’s pulling and manipulation of the levers who turned Waco, which would’ve been another crummy pool, into the best wedge anyone had seen anywhere.
“You know, the hard part that we’re facing at this juncture is that the people who develop these technologies, they’re brilliant, unbelievable engineers, hydrodynamics, aerospace, whatever, they’re really smart,” Magnusson, who is forty-two, told me a few years back. “They read a lot of books and so on. But then you have those guys colliding with us, people who’ve dedicated their lives to surfing. You can be the smartest person in the world and you can develop these machines but you need surfers, people who’ve looked at the ocean their whole lives, to know how to… move… the water.”
In another interview with BeachGrit he explained, I come in and play the piano. Give me a bunch of knobs to move water and I can make it sing.”
Earlier today, a bombshell from Magnusson when he announced that he’d been cut from the Palm Springs Surf Club team.
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Goodbye Palm Springs Surf Club. The ride has ended for me, kinda ended back in the fall when I think about it. Imagine putting 6 years of passion and dedication into something you loved and pioneered just to be told you have no value to it. One day, the real story of what went down here will be told, not today though. Despite that, I am still very proud of what we built. The real people who worked the day to day will always be the best thing I take from this experience.
The relationships are what matter. Seeing the stoke on people’s faces when they made their first slab was one of my favorite things, you could feel their energy in the tower! Proud of the **loyal** surf patrol guys and happy to pass on knowledge to them, those guys are hammers!
Proud of my wife, @_courtneymagnusson for everything she did to set her side up for success. Her dedication to her team and leadership is truly what made that place tick day in and day out. A big part of being so dedicated to this was so I could share the love of surfing with my daughters, sad about that not being there anymore. Word to the wise, be careful who you partner with. What’s next? Stay tuned the possibilities are endless…
A who’s who of surfing, including Jamie O’Brien, Mark Healey, Matt Biolos, Freddy Pattachia and BBC-cuckolding pioneer Pete Taras all joined in the comments to praise the Hawaiian for his skills etc.
The Palm Springs Surf Club has been mostly well-received, its wild take-off into barrel the sorta wave that’ll test anyone, but has been subject to multiple breakdowns.
BeachGrit’s Com Turren, no relation etc, visited twice. Hither and yon.
First visit: “After a 1.5 hour drive, I arrive to check in early and take inventory of the place. I am informed at check in that the wave machine is having issues and the pool can only run the intermediate A-Frame wave. No barrels for Com today, but that’s what I get for going into any surf session, pool or ocean, even so much as thinking about getting barreled. Such are the consequences of surf hubris.”
Second visit: “When I inquire about the wave setting applicable to the earlier sessions we are observing, YET AGAIN, barrel hubris strikes—there are no barreling waves at PSSC on offer today in any of the public sessions. This time, it is not a technical issue with the pumps like it was back in January. Instead, PSSC has presumably moved the goalposts in terms of what constitutes the “Advanced A-Frame,” a setting that was formerly described as follows:
“These slabby cylinders give surfers the option to pull in on the takeoff and come out in time to do one or two more turns if you are quick enough.”
“Now, it basically looks like the intermediate wave I surfed back in January with perhaps a touch more height and a touch more juice, but it is certainly not barreling.”
Vale Cheyne Magusson.
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No idea? I had simply heard his name a couple times as they were having some difficulties in getting it opened. His value was probably to rip and make it look way overhead.
i also am known as a bbc-cuckoĺding pioneer but i suspect for vastly different reasons than pete taras
Everyone should always surf wave pools. No need to visit the ocean
Especially round here where it’s way too crowded.
I’m not part of the problem of course. That’s everyone else.
Hawaiian?
If ‘surfers’ are so valuable and want a long term piece of the pie – why not have a contract?
I knew Cheyne from way back when growing up in Lahaina. While he’s not a bad dude, I can pretty confidently say from the Maui circle and how he framed this situation, he most likely has more fault then he’s letting on. He’s a nice guy to his friends but he’s always been a fucking dingus. No real education, no business acumen, just surf and party bro lifestyle paid for by his rich dad (who just so happened to be a founder of Osiris, remember when skate shoes were the size of a small pillow?)
Leveraging your dad’s industry connections along with a middling pro surf career is seemingly fine for a Poke restaurant in SD, but a wave pool that probably cost tens of millions of dollars to startup, has giant operating costs, and involves specialists with backgrounds in mathematics, hydrodynamics, finance, etc. should probably be at the captained by someone with an actual education or legit business background.
As an aside, $250 for one hour in a pool is a fucking ripoff. I’m going back to the ocean.
The real grit in the story. BTL always a better read.
There is multiple phases here at play – first up is the investment decision to find the money through the business case – need to convince them of the investment. Then there is the development part – ensuring it can be built. Then you need to actually build it. After that you move into the operational phase. Its not very often you find someone who can do all four of these. Completely different skill sets. That is generally why you have a team who each bring one or more of these skills to the party. And then it takes time. People are inpatient, circumstances change etc. It can become a real clusterfark. You do not need to have read lots of books to do these things. But with a fair amount of common sense and exposure to projects of a similar nature you can do it. He would have brought a few of these skills into this team despite his perceived lack of education. Recall he had more on-the-ground experience in a wave park than probably anyone else at the time. He would have been a good get at the time.
I think its more like when did Kalani get the boot.
There were rumors.
Guessing Cheyno was still asking top dollar to be involved there as an OG, but the investors need to make their $ back. Investors were probably skittish after the closers and problems? Once all the lesser paid kids from the beach learn the tricks to “make it sing” why keep paying you the kings ransom you require. Again, I’m just guessing.
Why pay humans when machines can do the job just as well (or better most likely) , AI is coming
The only acceptable course change after six years behind the dials at a pool is to buy a boat, pack the family onboard, and sail off into the South Pacific
Will Com Turren write an article about this?
who retired. who got thw autoban warning? no more drunk driving~
watching it again…his fur. Kooks~
Occy’s lunch…Legend;s Lunch https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
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sump the parental influence and the Kook shows~
You never get to finish your meal when you have 12 kids
The most radical thing i’ll remember of Cheyne’o was when Mason Ho came with skateboards…the two of them going down the old water slide at full speed…some committed sheet right there.
same thing with waco in 2018. which pool is brave enough to be next?
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I DON’T CARE
he don’t care
I DON’T CARE
he don’t care
I DON’T CARE ABOUT THIS POOL
I DON’T CARE ABOUT THIS FOOL
I DON’T CARE
he don’t care
Magnus Pyke
-She Blinded Me With Science-
(Thomas Dolby)
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“They read a lot of books and so on”
Obviously, a completely uneducated individual.
If you were the one who “read a lot of books”, you would not be the one getting fired.
Just saying.
Not “Hawaiian” at all, by the way – 100% haole, from Hawai’i
repeal fear&loathing ’cause it cause degenerates and whatever..push the like button~
Okay mate
Now I know I might talk some rubbish around here, but 99% of it is to be an idiot, as a joke, for a laugh.
And hey, a lot falls flat, but oh well, never mind.
Though criiiikey you seem to talk so much actual serious bollocks.
Just sayin’…
Since you enjoy my contributions to the discussions so much, you will be interested to know I have a book being published soon – 304 pages and 56 982 words of “so much actual serious bollocks”
Available now for preorder on Amazon UK! https://amzn.eu/d/eijixSf
bought 7 of em with some crypto and chucked em on the fire. Burnt … Not after reading
All that matters is you bought the book! Thanks!
Actually reading the 56 982 words is a choice – some are capable, other not so much.
Gotta ask why that shot was picked for the cover? Every surfer with half a brain would be thinking that’s a posed shot, with no waves at the end?
The cover image is an iconic visual representation of the Epic Adventure Quest to find, surf and document new surfing locations worldwide.
I gave the Publisher six potential cover images and they chose that one, so it must speak volumes to the book-buying public out there.
Maybe we should showcase all six cover choices and have a Beach Grit vote?
Sure! Post’em.
Is the cover not locked in?
I would assume the publisher is not a surfer and picked what they deemed to tick the epic adventure quest.
No offense, but as a Surfer that cover tells me that those surfers pulled the boards off the roof racks for a lifestyle shoot on a sand dune that leads to no waves {on that day} To a core surfer that’s totally disingenuous, It certainly wouldn’t grab my imagination and lead me to grabbing it from the shelf and definitely would make me think mmmm, that second could determine the fate of a someone and if their mouse goes anywhere near the buy now link.
Send it to Derek, I reckon that’s a fun idea.
At this point, the cover is pretty much fixed as it is on Amazon and dozens of other sites worldwide for preorder –
The point is – the cover image of a group of surfers walking to a point in the Sahara Desert symbolises the Epic Adventure Quest to find, surf and document new surfing locations worldwide in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.
Wether or not it is a literal representation is irrelevant – it’s the symbolic value of the image that counts, as symbols have power.
There’s been so much hype, controversy and expectation about this book, Beach Grit should do a review once physical copies are available at the end of September –
Symbolizes posing over purism to me. Hard to imagine out of the thousands of photos available there’s not a handful to choose from that actually tick all the boxes.
Bring on hype and controversy!
This was one of the images considered for the Cover – passed.
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Yeah man I like that one. Hell, even if the other one had a least swell lines and no waves it would add intrigue/mystery and a deeper level of adventure.
100% hawaiian education by the sounds of it
Yup – Hawai’i neighbour island public high school.
Private school is different –
why does nearly every body surfer hate BenMonday?
Who hates Mondy?
Six years of turning knobs on immutable waves has to run its course at some point.
We’re Not You’er Friends. Lorne Greene and others…
Gilliagan’s Island asshoels…here’s some snapper!
Presumably it runs its course after 6 years.
Fisher has been randomly turning knobs for more than 6 years, seems like it’s working for him.