"This is something I've had to deal with my whole
life. I've never been in the crew."
Just two hours ago, I wrote a post pointing to the
influence New Jersey vlogger Ben Gravy has had on Jamie O,
Koa Rothman, as well as Kalani Robb, Brett Barley etc.
Ben’s YouTube channel has 56,000 subscribers and so many little
films you could watch them back to back on a rocket ship and not
even be halfway through ’em as you touch down on Mars.
His themes are positivity and an everyman vibe. If I can do it,
you can sorta thing.
“Three years ago, I was twenty six years old, washed-up, barely
surfed, blown-out knee with a doctor telling me I might never surf
again,” Ben said in a forty-three minute vlog he made while
visiting Surf Ranch. “I changed my life, I changed my mindset and
today I came to the Kelly Slater wavepool and I surfed with Kelly
Slater. Anything is possible. If you chase your dreams, if you put
positivity and goodness into the universe, it’ll come back to you.
I’m living proof.”
Good enough to be nominated for Best Web series at the 2018
Surfer Poll, yes?
In a tearful post, which you can watch by hitting the play
button and scrolling through to twelve-ish minutes, Ben says,
“Three years ago, it wasn’t something I felt like I
deserved. (But) right now, the way that surfing stands, I deserve
to be nominated.”
“I’ve worked tirelessly for three years to accomplish the
goals I’ve put in front of me.”
“I put out an immense amount of positivity though my videos.
I bring laughter and joy and stoke to the world of
surfing.”
“I’ve never been in the crew. I’ve never been accepted by
Surfer magazine, Surfing magazine, never even by Eastern Surf
magazine.”
“I’ve never been given props.”
“That’s something I’ve had to deal with my whole
life.”
“(Rejection) formed me into the person I am today. I am a
self-made person. I started that way and I’ll probably end that
way.”
Oh I miss his vibrating little laugh.
Now, is this a heartbreaking story of rejection from the highest
office in the land or is Gravy a cry-baby who needs a damn good
seeing to with an NYPD flashlight?
