Pals of Reynolds switch hit in little waves.

Go-for-broke surfer Dane Reynolds combines with seminal 1970s Zambian band Amanaz in stunning paean to the misery of everyday surf!

Derek Rielly

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Come see the multi-millionaire father of three at his tongue-in-cheek best… 

Here, in volume two of the Dane Reynolds’ series Shit Surf, we find the multi-millionaire father of three at his tongue-in-cheek best, quietly whispering with the purity of his simple, well-fed soul.

Although Reynolds’ version of shit waves differs from mine, he, and pals, display a gay, careless air that is impossible to ignore or not be moved by.

The featured song, Green Apple, from seminal Zambian rock gods Amanaz (“Ask Me About Nice Artistes In Zambia”), reminds us what a creative force and what fine taste in music Reynolds holds, Zam Rock rarely in the playlists of Californian surfers.

Billy Kemper at the paddle-out for his mama, Lisa Diaz.

Watch tear-jerking penultimate episode of big-wave world champ Billy Kemper docu-series: “I’m in so much pain, I’m just trying to get through each second…”

Derek Rielly

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Episode five of ‘Billy’… 

I’m not, by nature, a man given to tears or foolhardy flights of sentimentality.

I’m tolerably happy because I’m grateful for the absence of pain, and for life’s little pleasures, for my children, sunsets and for my daily mating ritual.

The six-part series, ‘Billy‘, which documents travails of big-wave world champion Billy Kemper who was seized by a Moroccan wave and dashed against rocks, breaking pelvis and knee, well, don’t it just poke a thumb into the eye.

Tears galore.

The episode grows chilly with the death of a dearly loved matriarch, the dreadful pain of rehabilitation and the separation of a man from his family.

Mason Ho, all hot lead and cold steel.

Hair-raising: Watch brave little Mason Ho, all hot lead and cold steel, in a “a love of manly independence!”

Derek Rielly

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You keep rubbing that stick, as they say, and you’re gonna get a lot more than a spark.

Little introduction is needed, now, for Sunset Beach’s Mason Ho, who is thirty-three this year.

In today’s weekly instalment of Mason’s winter and spring sessions around the North Shore of Oahu, we find the comparatively short (though a giant in bravery terms) Chinese-Hawaiian asserting his manly independence at a non-wave, really, an outcrop of reef in front of the Foodland near Waimea Bay.

Mason, as always, in all hot lead and cold steel.

You keep rubbing that stick, as they say, and you’re gonna get a lot more than a spark.

Essential viewing.

John and can of cooked pig, which he rightly refuses to eat despite losing bet to teen surfer Luke Swanson.

Two-time world surfing champion John John Florence peels back curtain on new ultra-fast Pyzel surfboards!

Derek Rielly

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Confident. Well-informed. Deadly.

The two-time world surfing champion John John Florence, with his frank, mobile face, clear and white complexion, blue-grey eyes and soft yellow hair, is the picture of health in this revealing four-and-a-half minute edit.

Florence, riding Dark Arts-constructed Pyzels, appears level-headed and deadly in earnest, his surfing arousing the online viewer from his lethargy in a stirring session at a spring North Shore sandbar.

The edit is anchored by a mock-heat with teenage surfer Luke Swanson, which John loses, although this seems to please and not embarrass the twenty-eight-year-old Champ.

Billy, with mom, united in grief.

Revealed: The tragedy that shaped big-wave world champ Billy Kemper, “I still have nightmares about it; I can still hear my mother screaming…”

Derek Rielly

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Episode four of the wonderful, if padded out, documentary series ‘Billy’… 

You know the story: little Billy Kemper, a four-times Jaws winner and 2017 big-wave world champ, is belted to within an inch of his life at a Moroccan ledge.

The six-part series, called ‘Billy‘, follows this trip to Morocco, the injury, his long rehabilitation and his triumphant return to contests.

Episode four is a real tear jerker, one that will have the viewer crouching in his armchair like an animal that is cold.

It follows his triumphant return to America (thanks to executive producer and WSL CEO Erik Logan who, last episode, tearfully whispered to his wounded comrade, “Gonna bring you home, Billy”), a visit from Laird Hamilton who offers Billy his home, with its gymnasium and pool and ice baths, to rebuilt his busted body and the revelation that the death of shredder older bro, Eric Diaz, of a drug overdose has driven everything.

Billy’s words come helter-skelter, his thoughts coming from the pit of his stomach.

“I just did everything I could to do what he taught me, to live up to what he had set for me,” says Billy.

Photo: Steve Sherman/@tsherms
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