Happy as a trout.

Scandinavian Miracle: Swedish lake surfing, “I think it will be crowded today which will be super fun!”

Derek Rielly

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A surprisingly joyful short film.

The short film, below, came in an unsolicited email this morning. It features a group of Swedish surfers driving seven hours from the capital Stockholm to Lake Kallsjön in lovely Jämtland province, the Swedish highlands, to intercept a two-foot windswell.

What should be an exercise in hilarity soon becomes, I don’t know, a somewhat joyful exercise of a group of friends going to great lengths to feel a little movement under their under-utilised surfboards.

“I think it will be crowded today which will be super fun!” says one man.

The wave bears little resemblance to Skeleton Bay or Mundaka but the richness of their experience is very much the same

Dane Reynolds, always penetrating.

Watch: Go-for-broke surfer Dane Reynolds in “I am the happiness of this world!”

Derek Rielly

By

A too short but utterly lovely collection of one of the best surfers around.

If one were to give human semblance to the America of today, this hated and often misunderstood country, I would choose Dane Reynolds to be the model.

I would choose him as he is now, in the middle of his thirty-fifth year, in the midst of maturity full of pain.

This body is heavy, massive like the country that gave him birth. Short arms, dainty hands.

When he surfs he becomes like a  cowboy of the Westerns: ready to fire his guns at the drop of a hat, getting into a rage at the least provocation.

Essential viewing, as always.

Girl kissing. @cultgabe

Surfing’s thriller moment: Flashy son of former world number two stars in “Enough virginity, hypocrisy, censorship, restrictions. Pleasure is preferred to sorrow!”

Derek Rielly

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Also, includes brief lesbian kiss and a big spin… 

Noah Beschen, the Hawaiian-born son of former world number two Shane Beschen, is no boy. He’s a real man, a man who lives his life in reality, not waiting for kingdom come.

And flashy as all hell.

This five-minute edit which is called YRUYNN (Why are you whining), wraps Noah’s not inconsiderable talent in a phantasmagoric, and vaguely demonic, fantasy that calls to mind Hugh Hefner’s Gold Room where stereophonic music, drinks and erotic opportunities abound.

Come for the Big Spin at Waco, stay for a glimpse of girl-girl caress.

A rivalry revealed in one clumsy handshake. Kelly's pecan coloured face a portrait of sadness; John John's face stays imperturbable.

Kelly Slater on John John Florence: “Inevitably, between he and I, there’s a level of ‘uncomfortability’”

Derek Rielly

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Trailer for two-time world champ’s new film, Tokyo Rising, explores rivalry between the boy and the master.

To cut a long story short, Kelly Slater, who is almost forty-nine, and John John Florence, just turned twenty-eight, have the sort of rivalry that has, so far, dipped under the radar.

But as John John Florence’s new movie Tokyo Rising, a road-to-the-Olympics documentary reveals, there’s a level of level of antipatico between the two.

Simpatico is someone for whom you would jump into the river, in winter, to save from drowning; antipatico is someone you would calmly observe drowning in the river, someone you would refuse to help, even it is a very hot day in summer and you are dreaming of a nice swim.

Kelly wants, very much, to compete in the Tokyo Games; John John challenges Kelly to a duel and is quicker on the draw.

Compelling.

Tokyo Rising, out Thursday, on Amazon Prime Video.

Finger-banger Jacob "Zeke" Szekely in Seoul.

Watch: Finger-banging felon gives hell to Wavegarden’s new bolt-on air section at South Korean wavepool: “Stark-white hair, beaky nose, thin lips, piercing gaze!”

Derek Rielly

By

The jewel in a three-billion dollar crown.

Haven’t touched the newly opened Wavegarden in Siheung, South Korea, on BeachGrit, even if it is the biggest of its sort in the worLd, even if pools do transport me to the most elevated heights of ecstasy, even if it is, rather clearly, an excellent reproduction of an ocean wave.

Initial thoughts: The pool didn’t look that much bigger than Melbourne although its little bolt-on air section did make me want to caress its secret, flagrant places with an eager tongue.

The tank is the centrepiece of a real estate development.

Dunno, maybe ’cause travelling is difficult and expensive and there wasn’t a chance in hell I’d get there within the next twelve months.

Anyway, this short features La Jolla’s Jacob “Zeke” Szekely (a man with stark-white hair, beaky nose, thin lips and a piercing gaze), whom you might remember from an Instagram post where he stomped the world’s first-ever Jazzy Fizzle Finger Bang, and Wavegarden founder, the Basque engineer Josema Odriozola’s kids Hans and Kai.

Water blue, ramps real and part of a three-billion dollar real estate play.

A miracle.

Photo: Steve Sherman/@tsherms
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