Kelly Slater calls Mike Stewart "the greatest" after Shark Island Challenge win.
Mike Stewart is "the greatest" says Kelly Slater.

Kelly Slater joins chorus of praise as 62-year-old Mike Stewart wins Shark Island Challenge

Derek Rielly

By Derek Rielly

"Mythical stuff."

Two years ago, jaws were dropped after the Oahu-based bodyboarding and bodysurfing legend Mike Stewart posted a bodysurfing clip from a B Brazilian wave pool. 

Stewart, who was sixty and who has won the Pipeline Bodysurfing Classic fourteen times and the bodyboarding world crown nine times, was filmed at Boa Vista Village, a planned community one-and-a-half hours from São Paulo, where a developer has built an American Wave Machines tank in the middle of three residential towers named Malibu, Laguna and Pebble.

Some of the best tuberiders in the world including Jamie O’Brien, Shane Dorian, Mark Healey and Kai Lenny, were too quick to praise Stewart although the best response was one fan who wrote, “Protect Mike at all costs. We should be making statues of this man”.

Now, Mike Stewart has been labelled “the greatest of all time, the undeniable godfather and pioneer of the sport” after being a star-studded field to win the prestigious Shark Island Challenge a little earlier today.

In good four-foot waves Mike Stewart, now sixty-two although age has not wearied, was a popular winner. 

 

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One of the most iconic moments in bodyboarding history.

What an absolute legend You made me cry Mike

This wasn’t just a win but a win overall for the sport of bodyboarding. Mikes pure grit, courage, determination, style. And how can I not forget passion. You did it for all of us who bodyboard. You the godfather of the sport. And the flame for bodyboarding has been well and truly lit. Coming from my younger 15 year old grom self. We all admire you

What a legend! Like so many others, I grew up watching this guy; had his posters on my bedroom wall and stuck under a layers of contact of my school books. Now I’m in my 40s and have in recent years reconnected with the ocean, with body boarding but it’s like some things never change: Mike Stewart, Shark Island. Mythical stuff. Doing the sport and all its participants proud.

Importantly, the last word was left to Kelly Slater who posted simply,

“Mike Stewart is the greatest.”

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Italo Ferreira slaps Kelly Slater.

Olympic gold medallist Italo Ferreira delivers ultimate slap to greatest-ever Kelly Slater

Derek Rielly

By Derek Rielly

Mick Fanning and Andy Irons better than Kelly Slater says Olympic champ.

You don’t have to search too deep into the BeachGrit files to discover our enduring and unshakeable love for the Brazilian world champion and surfing’s first Olympic gold medallist Italo Ferreira.

Ferreira, thirty-one, and who counts Nike as a sponsor, was feted by Chas Smith, on this site, six years ago.

Nobody can agree on nothing except that Italo Ferriera is a lovable professional surfer with a mean rail game, extraordinary air prowess, bravery, humility, nice post-heat interviews and an enviable head of hair. I was lounging on the beach yesterday afternoon and one of the most knowledgable professional surf observers that I know said, “Right now Italo Ferriera is the best surfer on the planet.” And he said this without trying to be hyperbolic or amusing.

And in our time has one single surfer ever had universal support? After I was finished lounging on the beach yesterday I conducted an informal poll on the general likability of Italo Ferreira and found he scored 100% amongst professional surf fans with equal votes coming from men, women, whites who were having a little trouble staying unsunburnt and whites able to tan easily.

Italo Ferreira’s recent appearance on a Brazilian channel might shift a few opinions, howevs. The man dubbed “the leopard” in a stunning 2017 profile was asked to list the top five surfers in history. 

Italo Ferreira lists top five surfers in history.
Kelly Slater relegated to fifth best surfer ever in list by Italo Ferreira.

Most surfers would uniformly rank Kelly Slater number one, followed by whatever hits your tastes. I think Kelly Slater, Laird Hamilton, John John Florence, Andy Irons and Tom Curren.

Italo Ferreira lists Mick Fanning, Andy Irons, then Kelly, Gabriel Medina and John John Florence, delivering the sort of slap in the face, the oil check, that destroys friendships forever.

“Perfect,” says Italo.

Your list?

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Jack McCoy at his last public appearance.
"What a beautiful way to go out watching two of the best trading perfect waves in front of a packed house."

Watch livestream of surf film giant Jack McCoy’s Palm Beach funeral

Derek Rielly

By Derek Rielly

"He was a force of nature."

The pretty Sydney costal hamlet Palm Beach is going to light up in  little over an hour as thousands of surfers come together to celebrate the life of surf filmmaking giant and Tom Selleck-lookalike Jack McCoy. 

And if you can’t be there on this gorgeous mid-winter day currently punctuated with a six-foot offshore groomed swell, join in the tributes, the laughter, joy and a lot of floral-patterned short-sleeved shirts by clicking on the livestream. 

It kicks off at twelve thirty Sydney time, which makes it, by my not entirely infallible calculations about seven-thirts in California and three-thirds in the morning in London.

Surf filmmaking great Jack McCoy died aged seventy-six one month ago and  only three days after concluding a tour of his seminal documentary Blue Horizon around Australia. 

 

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Each show included lengthy post-show question-and-answer sessions with Jack McCoy and the film’s star Dave Rastovich, McCoy delivering surf culture artefacts one after the other, a legacy of him being the creator of what would become folklore.

“Jack McCoy looked like a leaner meaner version of Tom Selleck, spoke well, amazing voice, and above all had unlimited confidence and ambition. Whatever Jack was doing, whatever the project, whatever he was focused on—he’d just tractor-beam you. He’d just pull you in. He was a force of nature. Jack stayed in the game longer than anybody, and literally and figuratively covered the most ground. And looked like Magnum PI while doing it,” wrote Matt Warshaw in a BeachGrit obituary.

Perhaps his greatest feat was in 1995 when he wrestled baby whale Mark Occhilupo off the couch, his weight had ballooned to three hundred pounds, got him back in training and, four years later, became the oldest world champ in history, aged thirty-three. 

The whole concept of the Billabong Challenge was developed by Jack McCoy as a way of testing Occ against seven of the world’s best. 

Last time I saw Jack he wrapped up half an hour of post-Blue Horizon questions with a plea for a little chill in the lineup. “Share waves, love your brothers and sisters.”

His exit from this mortal coil was classic Jack McCoy, touring his best movie and putting his final touch on a culture he shaped in no small way.

From Tubular Swells to Storm Riders to Bunyip Dreaming, Sons of Fun, the Challenges, to Blue Horizon and the Occumentary, Jack McCoy was the king.

Hit the livestream here. 

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America's sweetheart Griffin Colapinto.
America's sweetheart Griffin Colapinto.

Surf stud Griffin Colapinto fetes America with freestyle rap for Independence Day!

Chas Smith

By Chas Smith

"We're in Brazil what a thrill..."

But where do you stand, currently, on the magic of San Clemente’s Griffin Colapinto? The 26-year-old forever young surf title hopeful thrills both on, and off, the clock, these days, what with wild anecdotes of pre-competition surf rituals, a dating life that mirrors David Wooderson’s iconic ideals, a real shot at bringing the $30,000 World Surf League cup home to San Clemente for the first time since Filipe Toledo in 2023.

Colapinto is a philosopher, a mystic and, now, a freestyle rapper.

The current world number six stunned World Surf League commenters Mitchell Saladbar and Chris Cote when he began spitting homemade rhymes from the proverbial glass.

Dropping into a delicate beatbox first, Colapinto let the heat flow.

We’re in Brazil what a thrill.

Who’s gonna make a killing on these waves.

Italo’s out there flipping around Kobe’s (?) going to town what are you going to say?

Saquarema-town.

Hey.

Don’t turn that frown…

Or no.

Turn that frown upside down because we’re in Saq-town.

Boom.

Mic drop.

“That was amazing,” on glass interviewer exploded.

Eminem very likely busting out his pencil and paper to come up with response even as you read.

David Lee Scales and I discussed briefly during our weekly chat alongside a deeper dive into the pure joy of slip n’ slides. Are you slip n’ sliding right now on this day celebrating America’s independence from cruel Great Britain? A fine way to celebrate.

Listen here whilst breaking a hip.

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Mick Fanning, hero.
Mick Fanning, hero, again.

Surf Hero Mick Fanning “quietly saves” surfboard brand from $1M tax crash!

Derek Rielly

By Derek Rielly

As far as post-surf careers go, is Mick Fanning's the sport's brightest light? Or, at very least, its noblest?

The great Mick Fanning, the whitest of lightning, three world titles afterall, and a businessman whose freckled tentacles extend to yoga studios, beach houses, a burger chain and ethical dog food, has been hailed a hero after stepping in to help save the creator of his eponymous surfboard brand.

MF Surfboards you’ll know if you’ve been with thirty miles of an Australian beaches. These are performance-ish soft boards that’ve proven wildly popular with all who seek surf thrills, from kid to shredder to ol daddies with frozen hips and withered prongs who ain’t gonna be on this planet much longer.

Mick Fanning also used the foam surfboard biz to launch the first-ever softboard to be certified as a level 1 eco-board by @sustainsurf” putting his eco bona-fides alongside earth-friendly Kelly Slater.

“As surfers we have a unique connection to the ocean. We’re the first to see the changes in the ocean and it’s our duty to protect the waters etc,” Mick explained.

Now, and as was revealed by the Murdoch Press in Australia, Mick Fanning, forty-four, has stepped in to help his buddies at The Surfboard Agency, the Tweed Heads-based company that developed Mick Fanning Softboards.

The company recently underwent a financial restructuring, with Fanning joining as a director in a deal involving the Australian Taxation Office.

The company had run aground, to use a vaguely surfing metaphor, and hit financial difficulties including owing the ATO over $835,000. A restructuring deal was arranged, with Mick Fanning becoming a director in December of the previous year.

As far as post-surf careers go, is Mick Fanning the sport’s brightest light? A white lightning of success?

Where do you rate Mick Fanning in this pantheon, which necessarily includes Luke Egan, Josh Kerr and Bede Durbidge?

Further, what do you regard as success? Money, fam, access to pussy?

I say pussy with regular visits from children.

You?

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Photo: Jack English
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