Cole Houshmand (pictured) out of the kitchen and where he belongs.
“San Clemente Squall” blasts Brazil as Cole Houshmand bests city-mate Griffin Colapinto in Rio Pro final!
By Chas Smith
Wild parties breaking out in Bucharest.
In a moment few saw coming, yesterday’s Rio Pro wrapped up in small and bad waves with no Brazilian to be found. On the men’s side of the draw, San Clemente’s Cole Houshmand bested city-mate Griffin Colapinto to hoist the green and gold vuvuzela over a crowd of absolutely stunned Brazucas. On the women’s side, Australia’s Molly Picklum took out Hawaii’s Luana Silva to raise the green and gold acai bowl.
Never, not in the past six years of the Brazilian Storm, has the home field been so… dominated by foreigners and especially foreigners from damned California.
Well, the gathering San Clemente Squall blew right in, Houshmand and Colapinto trading blows in the final frame, which just so happened to be the highest scoring heat of the day.
Houshmand outliving, outlasting, out-loving the more seasoned Colapinto set off wild celebrations of the streets of Bucharest where “Gs” Andrew and Tristan Tate surely toasting one of their own beating odds and making it to the very top.
What a day to be alive.
With two competitions left before the “Final Five” head to Cloudbreak, the leaderboard has been thoroughly shuffled. Jordy Smith in first still and still just a tooth’s skin from second place Yago Dora. Kanoa Igarashi firmly third, Italo fourth and Ethan Ewing jumping into fifth, replacing Barron Mamiya. Griff climbed to sixth, Filipe dropped to ninth and Houshmand all the way up to twelfth.
Who do you got going to Fiji?
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Jeffreys Bay, gets a little heated in the water.
Jeffreys Bay surfer cleared of slinging racial insult at black surfer, magistrate deems complainant “unreliable”
By Derek Rielly
“I will slaughter you and your entire family. I’ll come to your house in the middle of the night and slit your throats. You must sleep lightly; I know where you live.”
Maybe y’missed this story, maybe you didn’t, it was only lightly reported after all given its touchy touchy topic.
Rasool Hendricks, forty-nine, said him and his pal were about to hit Supertubes back in March when, they alleged, local guest house operator and J-Bay shredder Remi Petersen told ‘em to beat it and allegedly used the ol K-word.
“I struggled to understand why he wanted to keep me out of the waves,” Hendricks told the local press. “We are acquainted, he knows I surf in Jeffreys Bay all the time, and I was very surprised when he and some other surfers approached us and told us to leave. The matter escalated and an argument ensued. At one state, they tried to grab out surfboards. Then Remi (allegedly) called me a k**** and told me to fuck off and go back to the location. The whole thing was quite upsetting.”
Hendricks said he wrote a letter and thought about sending it to the Human Rights Commission. It then went up on a chat group where “other surfers of colour” were asked for their opinion.
Then, a lil twist.
“I thought the whole thing was behind us, but then I got a phone call that I needed to appear in court in Humansdorp,” says Hendricks. “When I arrived Remi was there with an attorney and an advocate and I heard he was applying for a protection order against me. He claims I threatened to slit the throats of white children and told him, ‘The night of the long knives is coming.’”
The whole thing went to court in February, Remi Petersen and Rasool Hendricks both seeking protection orders against each other under the Protection from Harassment Act.
Petersen accused Hendricks of harassment, alleging Hendricks intervened in an argument over surfing etiquette, hurling xenophobic insults and threatening to kill him and his family. Witnesses, including Matthew de Cruz and Trevor Hansen, corroborated Petersen’s claims, describing Hendricks’ threats as severe and unprovoked.
Matthew de Cruz testified, “He threatened to basically kill, cut the throats of Mr Peterson’s children. And then he said, when he is done with that he is going to kill him, he must walk lightly, he is going to cut his throat as well.”
Hendricks counter-claimed, alleging racial abuse by Petersen, but provided inconsistent accounts and no credible supporting evidence.
The magistrate, on February 21, 2025, granted Petersen’s application finding Hendricks’ threats oppressive and harmful, constituting harassment. A protection order was issued, prohibiting Hendricks from harassing Petersen or his family until 2030.
Hendricks’ counter-application was dismissed due to lack of evidence of racial abuse or intentional harassment by Petersen.
The court found Hendricks’ testimony unreliable, citing contradictions and uncorroborated claims. The ruling emphasized Hendricks’ unprovoked threats crossed into unacceptable conduct, while Petersen’s actions did not meet the harassment threshold.
One week ago surfers near and far thrilled at the release of David Litt’s new book It’s Only Drowning. In it, the former Obama speech writer who who describes himself as “a high-functioning, high-anxiety person who experienced situational depression during the coronavirus pandemic” had a feeling of overwhelming dread, difficulty getting out of bed and found himself endlessly doomscrolling in these modern fractious days of our lives.
His brother-in-law, on the other hand, “a guitar player, a motorcycle enthusiast and a daredevil surfer.”
Litt was impressed by brother-in-law’s handling of the post-pandemic world, moving through it all seemingly unbothered, but also not really paying attention to news etc., mostly listening to Joe Rogan.
“Joe Rogan-loving” brother-in-law quickly becoming shorthand, in reviews of the book and in the book itself, for non-progressives.
Do you, yourself, listen to Rogan’s very popular podcast The Joe Rogan Experience? Do you find it filled with backward-looking scientifically dubious nonsense?
In case you need memory jogged, here is the world’s greatest surfer Kelly Slater appearing on the program six years ago. The 11-time world surfing champion is very hungry for Rogan’s approval, even dressing like the former Fear Factor host.
And here’s Shane Dorian with Rogan from nine years ago. Rogan, in this episode, appears to be needing Dorian’s attention.
Back to the issue at hand, though. Which current surfers on tour would you describe as “Joe Rogan-loving?”
Discuss.
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Dang shark follows victim and rescuers to the beach after attack.
Video: Jaws-like scenes at Cabarita as shark chases bleeding victim and his rescuers to beach
By Derek Rielly
"Huge effort but the guys to not only save this kid but put their own lives on the line in the process."
A couple more details on today’s attack on a teenager at Cabarita Beach, site of the WSL’s Tweed Heads Pro a few years back and a place rapidly gaining infamy for the volume of shark swishing around in its warm water and B-grade point.
The sixteen year old was bitten on the right arm and right leg and was choppered to the relatively close Gold Coast Uni hozzy and remains in a stable, as they say, condition. In layman’s terms, kid seems ok, pulse normal, nothing real serious apart from the wound.
First, and unsurprisingly, the chaos following the attack was captured on iPhones, with the shark following the kid and his rescuers to the beach. The shark, estimated to be eight feet long or so, almost beaches itself as it prepares to take another hunk out of the kid.
Unbelievable footage shows the 2 metre plus shark chasing the victim and his rescuers all the way to the shoreline today at Cabarita Headland. Huge effort but the guys to not only save this kid but put their own lives on the line in the process.
