News, dog. News. It’s that time of the week when we corral up all the headlines for the stories that got away into one big ol’ list and post them up. Take a look at what’s been going down over the past few weeks, follow the jump.
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Fox Sports today announced that they have signed a deal making them the exclusive U.S. television broadcaster for shows produced by a certain privately owned entertainment company specializing in event and online streamed content production (mostly surfing sport).
FOX Sports will telecast more than 500 hours of [surf event] programming, including live contests and highlight shows, across FOX, FS1, FS2 and the FOX Sports app in 2019.
This just might mean we’ll end up watching some of the surfing sport shows this season. Haven’t for quite some time. . . we’ll see. We were surprised to see no mention of the Oprah Winfrey Network? Maybe that deal isn’t done yet. For the official word from Fox (including all the details we’ve purposely ignored in light of our own sad, tired, anti-establishment proclivities), please click the link.
[Link: Fox Sports]
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As if this whole TEN sale couldn’t get any stranger, a deeper dive into the backstory reveals a The New York Times story from March 2018 that hints at where the money used by American Media to purchase the TEN action sports properties (among other things) may have come from. . . Saudi Arabia.
The intersection of the tabloid publisher [David Pecker, pictured right with The Donald] with the Saudis, enhanced by the White House visit, is a previously untold chapter in the long, symbiotic relationship between the president and Mr. Pecker, which was forged in the 1990s. At the time, Mr. Trump was celebrating a real estate comeback after his casino bankruptcies and was both the subject and the source of much gossip in New York.
One action sports executive wonders if this all might be part of a plan to use actions sports as a way to improve the public’s perceptions of a county that, in addition to various human rights violations, has allegedly murdered at least one journalist:
Sports have been an increasingly viable way for despots to soften their image and market a national brand (Russia/Sochi; Qatar/World Cup; Saudi Arabia/PGA events). . .Doesn’t seem a crazy reach that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, et al. would have interest in creating action/participant sports events, promoting tourism, etc. And these would be cheap and effective markets for this purpose. . . It all does line up: money gets laundered, Pecker gets ass saved, Saudi’s get backdoor to Trump administration, and a bunch of cheap sports/travel media properties run influence campaigns.
Is this really why American Media had interest in a few small circ. action sporting brands? Click the link to read the rest of the story.
[Link: The New York Times]
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In a story posted on Medium today (February 7, 2019), Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos claims that Surfer Magazine, Transworld Snowboarding, and Transworld Skateboarding’s new parent company American Media (through its tabloid The National Enquirer) has threatened to publish photos of Mr. Bezos’ penis “as well as nine other images” if Mr. Bezos didn’t call the Washington Post off its investigation of American Media CEO David Pecker’s relationship with Donald Trump, according to a story on the Huffington Post.
Here’s a little of what Mr. Bezos is claiming:
I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse. Or at least that’s what the top people at the National Enquirer thought. I’m glad they thought that, because it emboldened them to put it all in writing. Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I’ve decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten. . . They said they had more of my text messages and photos that they would publish if we didn’t stop our investigation.
Usually these stories that have nothing to do with skateboarding, snowboarding, or surfing would be well outside our “lane.” But last week’s sale brings it all home to our world. Think about it? This suggests that those left at what once was TEN are now in a not-so-roundabout way working for the Trump Administration, forcing action sports marketing people to ask themselves, “Do we really want to support Donald Trump by spending advertising and marketing dollars with American Media in light of all this?”
We can say this: if this is how American Media does business, then the people who had their jobs eliminated last week are the lucky ones.
February 8, 2019 Updates:
Jeff Bezos’ investigator suspects ‘a government agency’ intercepted Amazon CEO’s text messages
Could the National Enquirer—Bezos scandal end AMI’s federal plea deal?
[Link: The Huffington Post]
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Links? We got ’em. Not much more to say about it than that, right? Follow jump for a whole slew of links.
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Sal Masekela has come a long way since we first met him in the water at our home break. He was paddling out we were coming at him on a wave. And he started laughing his deep, infectious chuckle, “That’s the slowest I’ve ever seen anyone surf in my life.” We took it as a compliment. Then, he reappeared as receptionist at Transworld Media, then singing karaoke at an industry conference. Next thing we knew he was the voice of action sports. And he was exactly what mainstream action sports coverage needed — a surfer/snowboarder who could think, talk, and hold a mic all at the same time.
Outside Magazine just posted the official Selma story written by David Shultz. It’s titled Unlikely Preacher of Action Sports and it goes a little more like this:
Sal Masekela steps off a helicopter onto the white sands of Tavarua Island Resort, a tiny speck in the Fiji archipelago, and walks into a gorgeous open-air restaurant that overlooks a world-famous reef break appropriately dubbed Restaurants. He greets the Fijian staff by name, hugging them, asking them about their lives since his last visit.
Damn. Still a baller after all these years. For the rest of the celebrity profile/career reset piece please, by all means, click the link.
[Link: Outside Magazine]
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We’ve always loved the idea of lake surfing, but never have we seen it this big and this cold. Dylan Graves takes Vans Weird Waves on a trip to the heartland with guide Burton Hathaway and some of the most stoked surfers on the planet. Watch and be inspired.
[Link: Surfer Magazine]
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Cal Poly surfer Nick Wapner, 19, was surfing Tuesday morning (January 8, 2019) at Montaña de Oro State Park when a Great White Shark snuck up below him and gave him a chomp across his legs and surfboard, according to a story in the San Luis Obispo Tribune.
He didn’t even see a splash. . . “It all happened quickly, but I turned and saw that it had one of my legs in its mouth,” Wapner said. . . The shark bit down on the lower part of his legs around his ankles, and then up to his thighs. In a skirmish that he estimates lasted a few seconds — though his mind was racing and it’s hard to say exactly — Wapner kicked the shark hard in the head and wrangled himself free. . . The experienced surfer said he didn’t feel any pain initially as adrenaline shot through his body.
Wapner thinks the shark was in the 15 foot range. Luckily, Nick got away with only 50 stitches.
[Link: San Luis Obispo Tribune]
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You can’t say we’re not posting the latest surf news. Nope. We’re on this like Naegleria fowleri in a wave pool. Kelly Slater vs. Joel Tudor will never look this good. Even if they hold it at Nland.
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