Watch: Flap your wings inside pretty and blue and user-friendly Desert Point pipes!

Five-ish minutes of easy backside tubes… 

The Bali-based surfer Dylan Hayllar took a puddle jumper (plane, not board) across the Lombok Strait recently to ride a wave that puts everyone in a good mood.

Desert Point.

Is it ok to say its name now that it’s populated by surfers of all race and nationalities, stand-ups, lay-downs etc?

In this five-and-a-half-minute short, Hayllar whittles easy-looking four-foot Desert Point tubes down to toothpicks. His face, I imagine, is frozen in a tube steak shine after so much shade.

It ain’t John John’s Space but, in some ways, its accessibility and how makable the waves are, even for everyday mutts, gives it something you might love even more.


Helicopter-boy Matt Meola in “Wave your hands up in the air Johnny!”

It might slo-mo you to death but wait until Matt spins like a top! Seriously primped!

Here’s a four-minute short that ain’t what you’d call feisty. It cups an ass-cheek real slow, gets you ready for harvesting time, in this case, a hit of Matt Meola spins that gonna make you spit a gob of your tobacco.

Slow motion, slow motion, slow motion. It kills me

But then Matt, who is twenty nine years old (oh don’t the time fly) and from Maui, awakens what I thought was dead from the waist down.

There is a flint and steel in Meola’s surfing that is impossible to ignore. He opens his housecoat and we can only stare.

The music of Hawaiian multi-instrumentalist Tavana gives it a pleasing fuzziness, like the cool air in your face from a just-opened window.

I would suggest, watch.


Watch: John John Florence’s new (short) film “You Could’ve Escaped This Years Ago!”

Missed the Hurley Facebook stream a couple of hours back? Watch John John's hypnotic new short film here!

A couple of hours back, Hurley streamed the new short of John John Florence, officially called Space but perhaps more aptly titled You Could’ve Escaped This Years Ago, on their Facebook page.

Didn’t work in Australia. But you can watch via video channel Vimeo. Hit the big play button above.

Back in June, I wondered: was John John’s knee injury part of the theatre of his transition from the tour? Was he wrapped in an intolerable existential crisis?

Last at Snapper to Mikey Wright. Second-last to the fanatically intense Zeke Lau at Bells. A long dick in the guts at Lemoore. Second-last to Jesse Mendes, Bali. His withdrawal from the Margaret River Reboot had the undercurrent of a drowning man who’d do anything to find a little air, to breathe.

Of course, pro surfing needs John John more than he needs it.

The two-time world champion, who is twenty five, radiates a calm and dignity unseen in any sport. No regularly updated social accounts, no interviews, nothing.

John John lives to surf.

It’s evident in this film.

 


Dane “Danger” Reynolds stars in, “When I surf, I surf for God!”

A best of compilation from Cluster, Chapter 11, Premium Violence, Controller Crux and Copacetic…

The best friend of Dane “Danger” Reynolds is the bodyboarding expert and noted surf-filmmaker Jason “Mini” Blanchard. Mini has his name tattooed on his knuckles, wins boogie contests at a whim and has singlehandedly, and with great proficiency, documented the rise and now plateau of his slightly younger master.

This four-minute short hits the floor with a thud and it’s if something has been knocked loose. It is a compilation of highlights from the films Cluster, Chapter 11, Premium Violence, Controller Crux and Copacetic.

It really does slam the barn door, as they say.

And when you’ve washed your hands of “When I surf I surf for God” watch this old classic from almost a decade ago!


Reward: $1000 for revealing location of Mick Fanning’s secret wave!

We offer money for your soul!

Late last night, the Torquay-based wetsuit company Rip Curl released a short video where Mick Fanning introduces the apparently gravely ill Tyler Wright to his secret wave called The Snake.

You remember the wave’s initial debut, yes?

It set the world alight but was quickly forgotten as well all moved into the chlorine sphere. What would’ve, five years previously, been in the headlines for a month evaporated with a week.

As Rip Curl posted at the time:

What if I told you there was an unknown sand-bottom right that is five kilometres long, breaks 20 metres off the beach, holds six foot of swell and has only been surfed by four people on the entire planet? Would you believe me? What if good-ol’-having-a-year-off-Mick Fanning was one of those surfers, and he told you that this wave had him haulin’ arse like an F1 driver down a strip of sand that never seemed to end. Would you believe him? – This ain’t no fucking wave pool! This is the real world. This is The Snake.

Refresh your memory here.

In this latest reveal, the film begins with an awkward phone call between Tyler and Mick where Mick promises the defending world champ the perfect training camp for Surf Ranch (Tyler has since withdrawn due to an “ongoing illness”) and soon turns into a session in little chest-high peelers.

It ain’t like the first film, or anything close to ol Naxto’s clip that also dropped today, but it’s enough to elevates my blood pressure.

Now. Question.

Do you know where this wave is and what conditions it needs to press its buttons? (I’m guessing north-west swell, Atlantic Ocean.)

Yes? 

How much, therefore, for your soul?

For the first person to give BeachGrit, which includes the emaciated semi-invalid Chas and, me, the promiscuous humper, the keys to this kingdom I offer one thousand dollars.

We won’t tell (another) soul but we do wish to satisfy our curiosity and to provide an occasional getaway.

You can email, anonymously, derek@beachgrit or [email protected].

We’ll investigate your directions and, if correct, will credit the reader with one thousand dollars.