This five-minute short intimately captures the lavish life of John John Florence as he “travels to Victoria to surf the second event of the year. Alpacas in the backyard, plenty of swell, and an appearance from Tom Curren highlight the story as John wins his first Bell, and his first WSL Championship Tour event since returning from injury.”
Highlights: a surf in two-foot waves where he demonstrates his mastery as a percussionist, what felt like his inevitable win at Bells and a moment with the preposterously upbeat Tom Curren, whose surfing is still as catchy as an Israeli pop song.
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Kanoa Igarashi, painting Bali various shades of red and pink after his Keramas win.
Profile featurette: Kanoa Igarashi in “It’s so good! Once it hits your lips, it’s so good!”
Cameras follow world number five through Bali and Western Australia. Layers slowly peeled off, personality revealed…
To know Kanoa Igarashi is to, necessarily, love him, it seems.
In this twelve-and-a-half minute hit from his masters at Red Bull, we become grafted to the Japanese-American as he, first, wipes his ass with the world’s best at Keramas, Bali, before being guillotined in round four at Margaret River.
Two nights ago at J-Bay, Kanoa, a man ever so easy to spot with his dyed yellow balaclava helmet, was like a movie pig broken out of its cage.
He had the speed, the flamboyance to loose the fins or carve the arc and a faux-aggro mojo so ostentatious that in spite of its tendency to alienate we are now learning to love. He freely admits this mojo is not his but a product of his coach Jake Patterson and after donning this cape so many times it’s starting to fit. Iggy in the yellow jersey.
Iggy winning Pipeline.
Iggy taking the World Title.
All these things could happen.
Is there a weakness in Kanoa’s game?
Apart from his roundhouse, he’s as perfect as a gorgeous pansexual carrying a sign that reads: Orgasms for Sale or Trade.
Plain delightful.
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Frankie O, a rare fish like Brendan Margieson, Craig Anderson and Dane Reynolds.
Rich history: Meet the South African kid who created the template for the (paid) freesurfer
The Search campaign may seem a little shopworn now, even if the message still rings relatively true, but when it was launched in the early nineties it felt truly revolutionary.
The concept came from the writer and former pro surfer Derek Hynd, who, in 1991, wanted to create a sort of filmic energy between the three-time world champ Tom Curren and an unknown talent as they searched for waves in the Indian Ocean: the Mentawais, Mozambique etc.
That kid who was given the role and a four-year deal with Rip Curl was Durban’s Frankie Oberholzer (born 1972), who had learned to surf on an ironing board.
He proved to be a surfer of rare talent, with only a passing interest — and virtually no skill — in organized competition.
As a condition of his Rip Curl agreement, Oberholzer was not permitted to enter surf contests. The handsome longhaired surfer traveled often with Curren, further developed a technique based on equal parts grace, power, and flash, and was featured in more than a dozen surf videos throughout the ’90s, including The Search (1992), Beyond the Boundaries (1994), and Tripping the Planet(1996).
Frankie’s got a kid now, another shredder although not quite in his ballpark, as they say, and is making surfboards.
Recommended.
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Candy Thoraxxx, like a released balloon!
Watch skier Candy Thovex tear hell out of Wavegarden in “Be a good boy and don’t cry for momma!”
The behind-the-scenes wavepool machinations from Candy's Ski the World Audi short…
I ain’t real sure what the attraction to ride skis and motorcycles on waves is, but there it is. A little bit of pointless silly to make us whoop and dribble the chocolate ice cream out of our fat mouths.
Last year, French freestyle skier Candy Thovex made a promotional video for Audi’s four-wheel-drives called Ski the Worldwhere he rides down iconic structures (Great Wall etc), sand dunes, through jungles and a wave pool.
Earlier today, the behind-the-scenes reel of the wavepool shoot was released and it shows Candy at the prototype Cove in the Basque Country (don’t you dare call it Spain! ETA Lives etc) and at Surf Snowdonia in that pretty Welsh valley.
Keys jangle in the ignition, the brake rips and off Candy rumbles.
Adventure ensues.
Like a sharp knife that’s been stuck in your eyes so they pop like grapes.
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Margaret River wildcard Jackie Robinson, swinging into one of his two nines during his heat at the Box with Filipe Toledo. WSL
Watch: the behind-the-scenes machinations of Jack Robinson and Pip Toledo’s heat at The Box!
Wander into the dramatic territory of what Kelly Slater described as a "world title heat"…
Sound Waves is a swinging new series from the WSL and clearly the work of Oprah Winfrey Network mastermind and newish hire Erik Logan, whose genius makes me shiver.
The premise is simple.
Attach a microphone to a surfer before and after (and one might presume during) an important heat and see what transpires.
In this episode, number three, we cling to 2019 Margaret River Pro wildcard Jack Robinson. Nobody in Australia, most of the world, if we’re to be frank, can throw on the brakes and ride an eight-foot tube at The Box like twenty-one-year-old Jackie.
And as it happened, Jack met Filipe Toledo, the perennial world title contender, in their round of 32 heat at The Box, which was eight foot.
Jack roamed around, he stood on his board and thrust his torso into the sky looking for set waves. When they came he simply took them at will off Pip. It was as brutally efficient as the annexation of Poland.
His second nine should have been a ten. Not many sporting products in this uber-hyped consumer capitalist world live up to or exceed the hype but Jack Robinson at the Box did so effortlessly.
This clip follows Jack before and after his heat, although there was no waterproof microphone affixed to his wetsuit during the heat, which feels to me like a lost opportunity.
Perennial troublemaker Kelly Slater tells the camera he doesn’t know how Filipe can possibly beat Jack and says that it’s a “world title heat”, meaning if Filipe loses then poof goes the title, although we all know that’s drawing far too long a bow.
As I said, bad man who will do things to your mind if you’re not careful.
