The 4th Annual Vans Pier Classic presented by Jack’s Surfboards starts Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at the Huntington Beach Pier in California. The event is the second stop of the ASP North American Tour and first event of the ASP North America Pro Junior Series with a Men’s WQS 2-Star Vans Pro and a Men’s Grade 2 Ezekiel Pro Junior. Finals are Sunday, but we can all watch the of the best young surfers in the world on the live webcast at Vans.com.
[Link: Vans]
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When we read Lewis Samuels’ little post about Billabong CEO Paul Naude getting barreled while the surf industry collapses around us we chuckled to ourselves at how much fun biting the hand stories are to write. It always reminds us of that old 70s T-shirt with the mouse causually, defiantly flipping off the incoming hawk.
According to his blog, Post Surf, Lewis felt the talons on Friday March 20, 2009 when he was fired by Surfline.
So the word came down from the higher-ups at Surfline that my signed contract for 2009 was no longer being honored. They specifically cited two incidents that led to my termination.
1) My Transworld post, in which I mocked one of their competitors for catering to advertisers, but in fairness noted “I get paid to write for Surfline, a website that also licks advertisers’ balls, part of the machine.”
2) The “Corporate Rage” post, in which I mused that in light of recent incidents like the AIG scandal, “perhaps this is the wrong time for any CEO to publicize 100 Tavarua tubes.”
I also want to clear up one point: Many people will falsely surmise that Billabong and/or their CEO put pressure on Surfline, and this led to me being fired. Surfline made it clear to me that this is not the case. In fact, they claimed that no advertisers have contacted them with anything except positive feedback about PostSurf. . . So… As to any lingering questions concerning whether Surfline licks advertisers’ balls or not — I think we’ve pretty much cleared that one up.
Right. Thanks for clearing that up. We never would have surmised anything of the sort because we know that the action sports industry loves great, honest writing and they always have.
Surfline’s EVP Dave Gilovich doesn’t see it in exactly the same terms as Lewis. “I wouldn’t say we “fired” him,” Gilovich said. “He wrote stories for Surfline; from now on we’ll be looking for others to pen those articles for us.”
[Link: Post Surf]
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O’Neill just launched a new website that they are extremely proud of. It was created by Achtung! “the award-winning digital agency based in Amsterdam.”
We decided to take a quick, web-addled, ADD tour through the site to see if they have improved anything. Follow the jump for a rundown of our user experience with the site and why we probably won’t be visiting this site again:
[click to continue…]
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The Honolulu Symphony announced that they have added Laird Hamilton as one of two new “honorary board members.” The other was actress Marcia Gay Harden, according to a story in The Garden Island.
Both Hamilton and Harden are dedicated supporters of educational philanthropy, as well as many other civic organizations. They join a dedicated board of community leaders who are committed to keeping a world-class orchestra in Hawai‘i and offering high-quality music education programs in the state’s schools.
We’re going to have to explore the whole “honorary board member thing” sounds like a nice way to attach people’s name to projects they have nothing to do with.
[Link: The Garden Island]
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Surf writer Nick Carroll’s new two-part documentary on surfing in Australia Bombora hits Australia’s ABC1 next Thursday. Before it airs The Australian discussed surfing and what it means to Australia comparing Carroll’s doco to fiction writer Tim Winton’s must-read coming of age surfing novel Breathe.
Bombora, a documentary about the history of surfing in Australia, is no exception. It’s not just the history of a subculture but an ambitious argument that surfing is the ultimate embodiment of Australiana. “It’s impossible to imagine what Australia would be like without surfing,” surfer and author Tim Winton says in the introduction to the first of the two episodes. . . . That’s a big claim, but the documentary, driven by the encyclopedic and analytical mind of veteran surf journalist Nick Carroll, makes a convincing case: the original European settlers revelled in Australia’s warm water, which allowed them to do things they’d never imagined; as the country urbanised, it turned its back on the bush and made the beach its playground; surfers emerged to epitomise the young nation’s culture, especially after youthful rebellion became such a ubiquitous rite of passage, and their larrikin spirit was transformed into a multibillion-dollar fashion industry that “would one day outsell the high fashion houses of Europe”.
Being fans of Nick Carroll and Tim Winton we believe both are adding art to the world through surfing and we’re looking forward to seeing Bombora just as soon as it comes out on DVD (hint, hint, Nick).
[Link: The Australian]
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A guy surfing at a beach on the New South Wales far south coast didn’t get munched by a shark today, but his surfboard did.
Andrew Edmunds from the Far South Coast Surf Life Saving branch says the size or species of shark is not known. . . “The male surfer didn’t sustain any injuries in the incident, but his board was damaged by the attack, by the shark,” he said. . . “The type of shark is unknown.”
A little bite of foam seems to keep them from coming back.
[Link: ABC.net.au]
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A new surfboard created by a renewable products cooperative called Eden Projects in the UK is made with 50 percent renewable materials (including some wood from a fallen Balsa tree), according to a story in the Telegraph.co.uk.
Describing the creation as “revolutionary”, Eden’s retail director, Mark Beeley, said: “At last we are able to offer surfers the chance to own one of the most sustainable surfboards in the world, available right here in the UK.” . . . Mr Beeley said 15 per cent – 20 per cent of the foam core was made from plant-derived material and a resin was developed from linseed oil to coat the board.
[Link: Telegraph.co.uk]
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Thanks to Lewis Samuels and Surfline for perfectly capturing the jockification of surfing in a snide way. It may take for hell and a day to load each page, but for those who want to know what one surf writer thinks about each of the guys on the ASP WCT there’s no better place than The Surfline’s 2009 ASP World Tour Pow3r Rank1ngs Presented by Rip Curl. Here’s what he said about 17th place Kelly Slater:
It’s obvious to everyone that by losing to Julian, Slater has erased two decades of competitive dominance. We can now safely equate Kelly to Cheyne Horan, who finished runner-up four times riding unconventional equipment. Yes, Kelly won the Billabong Pipe Masters riding similarly unconventional equipment, and there were those nine titles… but that was then, this is now. The once infallible Slater, who has never lost a heat in his life, dug his rail twice in chest-high windchop and failed to catch an imaginary second scoring set wave that never came through. So clearly, he’s no longer the best surfer in the world.
Smell that? That’s sarcasm. . . though we can’t say we disagree with the “unconventional equipment” comments.
[Link: Surfline.com]
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A Del Mar, California surfer out for dawn patrol this morning noticed six bulging burlap sacks along the railroad tracks near the end of 11th street in Del Mar, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
As he continued to walk toward the water, he came across two men lugging a seventh sack and he asked what they were doing, Reynolds said. . . .The men said something in Spanish, dropped what they were carrying and ran. The surfer called deputies, who later found an eighth sack closer to the water, Reynolds said. The sacks were filled with 80 plastic-wrapped bundles of marijuana, Reynolds said.
This is the second time this year that a surfer has discovered weed in Del Mar and reported it. Wonder how many loads have gone unreported?
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]
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We’ve said it over and over: when content becomes free all content becomes advertising. That’s probably why Manulele Inc’s Mike Latronic is expanding their media business to include a PR arm.
Manulele Inc., producers of Freesurf Magazine, Billabong Surf TV, and Board Stories TV, is proud to announce the expansion of its media department to include a public-relations component geared to providing the action-sports industry with the freshest and most cohesive video, photo, and written content available.
Why write editorial that is indirectly sponsored by advertising when you can just write advertising copy directly. What a great way to explain what is already happening at most surf magazines anyway.
[Link: Hawaii Reporter]
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