Oct 30 … surf news, surfing industry news, surf talk radio

Audio from Oct 30 Down The Line Surf Talk Radio

Some questions for Joe Turpel:

Who exactly do you work for? The ASP or event sponsors?

Where did you learn to surf?

How did you get involved with ASP webcasting? Broadcasting school?

Is the tour a tight knit circle? Do you eat dinner with the pros? Are there some that are your buds?

Bobby Martinez, have we seen the last of Bobby competing at ASP events?

Dane Reynolds, has the asp fined him enough ? Can he just pay the fines and pick and choose which events he surfs? Does he need to prove himself at Pipe or can he, because of his obvious greatness, get around Hawaii as a proving ground?

Is he cheating his fans? Does he owe us?

San Fran … The Search. Your take… no jet ski assist? Unique situation for the pros? Gabe Medina, weighs about a buck thirty, will some pros not make it out?

Who is your immediate boss?

Production meetings, they tell you what you can and cannot say?

who is the smartest pro on tour?

_________________________

Australian charger Mark Mathews (above) and his cohorts Ryan Hipwood, Richie Vas and Laurie Towner are the world’s leading slab hunters, and according to Paul, “they’re among the craziest surfers alive, and talented too, which is a scary combination. Photographer Tim Bonython stays busy just trying to keep up with them. After a mind-boggling day in Tasmania earlier this year, the boys were walking tall having conquered the ferocious Shipstern’s Bluff with a handful of historic rides. But last week they met a new foe over in Western Australia, and it’s safe to say this one got the better of them. This following is what happened as they tried to take on a wave known only as: The Right.

TOP 5 Stories This Week Oct 30 2011
#1 A Monterey man suffered multiple injuries Saturday morning when he was attacked by a shark while surfing at Marina State Beach.

Eric Tarantino, 27, was bitten on the neck and right forearm by a shark that took a 19-inch chunk from his red surfboard. The attack occurred shortly after 7 a.m., about 10 minutes after he and a friend, Brandon McKibben of Salinas, had entered the water.

With help from McKibben, Tarantino managed to get out of the water, then climbed to the parking lot on his own power, where a half-dozen or more fellow surfers used beach towels to apply a tourniquet to his arm and staunch the bleeding from his neck.

Paramedics arrived just minutes later and treated Tarantino at the scene before transporting him to Marina Municipal Airport, from which he was airlifted to San Jose Regional Medical Center.

Dana M. Jones, Monterey Sector Superintendent for the California Department of Parks and Recreation, said his injuries did not appear to be life threatening.

Jones said signs will be posted along beaches from Fort Ord to Moss Landing advising of shark danger, recommending that beach-goers refrain from any water activities over the next seven days. The sand portion of the beaches will remain open, and the the waters will be observed in the coming days for additional shark activity, Jones said.

#2 Will Vans make Dane compete in the Triple Crown?
We know he doesn’t care … so why should Vans? Besides the contract and all that… And can Dane’s case of over-it-itis extend to Hawaii, where, according to all we believe in as consumers of Western surf culture, you must prove yourself… or has Dane trumped even the Holy Grail of surf culture, “to achieve greatness, you must prove it in Hawaii.”

C’mon, you know Dane doesn’t want to wallow around in the burdensome ego-filled front yards of the washed up, scrapping for ego-points (way worse than contest points) and having his Coors light spiked with urine flavored energy drink when he could be exploring Western Saharan right points and learning Berber via Rosetta Stone & MacBook! Pending HD space, of course.

#3 Kerr Ignites Waddell Creek at ASP PRIME O’Neill Cold Water Classic California
The ASP PRIME O’Neill Cold Water Classic California utilized both the primary venue of Steamer Lane and the backup location of Waddell Creek today to complete both the Round of 24 and the three-man non-elimination Round of 12.

Josh Kerr (AUS), 27, who posted the highest scores of yesterday’s competition, returned to form today at Waddell creek and took to the air on his backhand to net the day’s highest scores including a 16.77 (out of 20) heat total to advance through to the Quarterfinals.

#4 The 14-day holding period of the $85,000 HIC PRO, presented by Vans, opens today at Sunset Beach. Organizers have elected to call a lay day today in preparation for a solid new swell that is forecast for Monday and Tuesday.

The HIC PRO is a 4-Star ASP men’s event that will decide the 2011 ASP Hawaii regional champion and reward him with one highly coveted berth into the first two events of the Vans Triple Crown, presented by Rockstar Energy Drink, Nov.12-Dec.20. The HIC PRO requires three full days of competition to crown a champion.

“It looks like we’ve got great swell on tap for Monday and Tuesday – somewhere in the range of 8-12 feet,” said Event Director Marty Thomas. “We will continue to assess the surf each morning from today, but at this stage Monday looks like the most probable start.

#5 With thirty-six of the word’s best surfers descending on the north stretch of Ocean Beach for the Rip Curl Pro Search surf contest—the first major San Francisco surf contest—the City becomes the unlikely focal point of the professional surfing industry Nov. 1-12.

October 16, 2011 Surfing News; Surf News Quiksilver Dane Reynolds Top 10 moments

Dane Reynolds’ virulent strain

By: Chris Mauro, GrindTV.com

Given all the Dane Reynolds hype of late it’s easy to understand how Daneofilia (DANE-oh-FEEL -yah) is now infecting a wide swath of today’s young surfing prodigies. Some doctors describe the disease as a virulent strain of languorous behavior, others refer to it as syndrome more commonly known as the fuck-its.

Notable young talents (especially those residing along the surf-industry-laden California coast) run the highest risks of contracting this virus, but the symptoms typically flair up once they’ve left their comfy little pond for the bigger, badder world of global talent, where they soon discover winning isn’t nearly as easy as they, their publicist, biographers, videographers, agents, managers, coaches, bloggers and astrologers, thought it would be.

Consumed by self doubt, they begin to question not just the nipple they’ve been sucking on since they got their first pair of free trunks, but the very body producing all the nourishment. And the fleeting nature of their most flavored surfer status hits hard. If things don’t work out…they soon discover…they’re replaceable. At the end of the day they’re just tools. Marketing tools. Being exploited to sell wares. Oh the horror.

The lucky ones, like Dane Reynolds, seemingly have a choice in this matter. They can make a career out of being anti-pros, choosing to go down a “soul surfing” route filled with cameras and cameos. The vast majority of pros don’t really have that luxury.

Take Adriano de Souza, who by most measuring sticks is the anti-Dane. They both love surfing, no doubt, but Adriano actually thrives in competition. That makes him incredibly uncool in hipster circles. After all, he always gives 100% (what a jock!) He loves to claim (kook!), and what’s with that (fugly) wide stance? All that annoying hard work and touchdown dance behavior makes Adriano the tour’s perfect villain.

But look deeper into his story and you might begin to see things differently. While growing up in a poor corner Sau Paulo Brazil there were years when his next meal wasn’t guaranteed. He and his family fought hard for everything they had, and when the remote possibility of a surfing career first became possible he had to leave home for good to chase it.

Thanks to hard work and dedication he’s succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. Today both his mother and brother are living in houses that Adriano provided with his winnings. Knowing all that, you might understand the passion behind the claims, and you may even start respecting some of his surfing strengths, like how he manages to put his board in all the right places with healthy dose of speed and power.

Adriano’s path was undoubtedly a tough one. And it remains so in the court of public opinion. Meanwhile, as we learn in the new Surfer Magazine interview issue, Dane Reynolds road has been obstacle free, and he’s essentially flying blind out there.

After all, he prefers to travel with six packs over exercise balls. He doesn’t want to waste energy chasing a 5.5 to get through heats just to please sponsors. He finds his friends in Oxnard a lot more interesting than all the exotic people he ignores while traveling. And, oh yeah, Kelly Slater really hasn’t done all that much for surfing. (Apparently Dane doesn’t count the zeroes in his checks before depositing them.)

All this listlessness makes him a huge surfing hero.

Now he’s searching for even less stress. He wants to ride ugly boards in mushy point waves and hang out with his friends scribbling on T-shirts, posting on his blog and making webisodes.

And not surprisingly a handful of younger “highly touted” Californians think the same path will work just as well for them. Incidental stardom is apparently just a cool little blog away.

Of course they’d kinda like to skip that part that Dane had to endure…y’know, the part where he actually earned all his value, the part where he made the tour and validated his hype with brilliant victories on a big stage.

Wait – victories?

Well yes and no. As Slater so aptly noted during his Surfer Poll speech last year, Dane Reynold’s has never won anything. Not even the NSSA Nationals. But we needn’t weep for him.

Fact is Dane’s simply not cut from the same heat-winning cloth as most tour stars. Nevertheless the tour is filled with Daneophiles (DANE-oh-FILEs) for good reason: once he made the tour, he subsequently made more than a few dents with his freakish flying and carnivorous carves. Dane’s biggest victories haven’t been mathematical ones, they come in statement form – by how he wins heats, and sometimes by the way he loses them. Either way he’s made more than a few boundary pushing proclamations in his contest jersey, and that’s what’s made him the A-lister he is. He’s won hearts.

But whether Dane knows it or not, he won the majority of hearts up on the big stage, and his message resonates more from that platform than anywhere else. There’s a simple reason for that. Performing on demand in front of hundreds of thousands without the safety net of Final Cut Pro is simply more difficult than posting on a blog, drawing up T-shirts, and shooting videos.

Nothing cheap and easy has value, which is why all that other stuff is considered just surf porn. It’s great for a few seconds of fleeting pleasure. Given the choice, the majority of Dane’s fans would rather see him keep pushing.

Of course, after years of grueling travel and that hefty work schedule they have on the ASP he’s certainly earned the right to pursue what makes him truly happy, be it fashion and film or beer bongs and surf smut. If we’ve learned nothing else from the dearly departed Steve Jobs it’s that loving what you do is the only way to do great work. And we love Dane’s great work.

But history tells us that once surfers leave the tour behind a clock starts ticking on their allure, because flash fades a bit faster in this new media age. A few short years from now when Dane’s added 15 pounds to his boiler, his neckbeard is grown out, and he’s home watching a new generation of stars pick up where he left off, it’s possible he could feel more exploited than ever being a video floozy seeking Facebook followers…By then a few 5.5s might just pale in comparison.

GREAT EMAIL #1:Baldy n Bassy:
Been a listener for a while now, all through the podcasts. It’s a
great show but I have a some suggestions (in no particular order):
- Don’t plug Sacred Craft so much. We get it. It’s coming. We’ll seek out the info and details online.
- Don’t talk over the guests. There’s a tendency to interject personal
thoughts/opinions/experiences too much. Let the guests talk.
- No need for Top 5 stories when you do have guests. It just wastes time and leaves a lot less time for the interview(s).
- Bring to light the lesser known stories from the surf world. Be unique. Anyone can log onto the ASP site and get competition-related news.

Anyway, thanks for listening/reading. Obviously these are just my opinions and how you do your show is your prerogative. Keep up the great work. Respectfully,
Clarence

SURF NEWS: This week — Jodie Nelson attacks Breast Cancer, Tsunami warning sends Hawaiians scrambling to stock up on Shave Ice; and Todos Santos big waves lures the big hunters to big event; Swamis landslides endears city council to allow for special permits underneath landslides; Eco warrior James Pribram joins Down The Line in-studio!

Seth Pettersen “Baby Buddah” – This is the song we play a bit during the show.

Slater maintains secondary tour plan is no pipe dream

But nine-time world champion has no plans to take on the ASP, writes Josh Rakic in surf news.

“I don’t think that the ESPN Tour is completely a dead idea. I think there’s some kind of possibility that it could still happen in the future.”

Kelly Slater surf news

And with those words from nine-time world champion Kelly Slater, it seems clear the rumours of the ”rebel” tour’s death are greatly exaggerated. But the iconic figure insists it’s no rebel tour and that if he had his way, the stalled ESPN-sanctioned tour would run as a best-of-the-best format to co-exist with the current ASP tour.

”It doesn’t have to be a rival or alternative tour to the ASP, it might be a supplementary thing,” Slater revealed to The Sun-Herald. ”The last thing I want to see is the companies or the ASP be screwed over. But I also don’t want to see the surfers screwed over. A supplementary series could work out great. It doesn’t need to decide the world champion. I think people were confused about whether that needed to be like boxing with different belts. No.”

Slater came under intense scrutiny last year after he and ESPN mooted the idea of a secondary tour, one which would feature just 16 athletes and unprecedented prizemoney, plus mainstream media coverage of a sport with a business model that has gone largely unchanged for two decades.

Unlike other international sports such as tennis and golf, surfing’s major companies not only sponsor the bulk of the tour’s athletes but are also the principle sponsors of the events – granting them almost total control of the sport.
READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE FROM SMH HERE

Massive Waves and Chaos at Mavericks Surf Contest:

This week we interview Drew Kampion who authored the World Surfing Reserves Manifesto (see below):

“If surfers won’t save the world, who will? Obama? The G20? The United Nations?

Is there some other global network of alert, persistent, environmentally-aware individuals who are similarly trained in the art of navigating variables, overcoming adversity, and appreciating the rarities of perfection? Who else will do the work? Who else will hold up the vision?

It’s pretty ironic. Surfing is all about getting away from the constraints of society – escaping the usual manmade rules, breaking free and committing to the rule of natural law – the physics of wave form and the glide.

Surfers are a nomadic sort of tribe, conversant with the wild, in touch with the natural world at a time when the natural world is increasingly remote from most people on the planet.

Surfers are like the canaries in the coal mine … reporting back from the shores and coastal edges, where so many of the changes and impacts of unsustainable growth and pollution and climate change are focused. Surfers are in a position to sense and experience the urgency, and to thereby stake a claim on the possible in the face of the so-called inevitable.

Since it’s a universe of waves – waves of all scales and materials – surfers are uniquely positioned to understand how they work and to know how to ride them … because the principles inherent in all waves are the same.

The World Surfing Reserves (WSR) movement is just another wave. Each WSR is a Trojan horse, conceived in cooperation and with appropriate enthusiasm, but harboring powerful, unseen, and unanticipated effects. The WSR that is fully embraced and actualized at the local, national, and global levels – where it becomes an asset not merely for surfers and beach-lovers, but for the bioregional community of which it is a part – will bring value and better quality of life to the whole.

In enshrining these surf spots the program will be enhancing and, in a sense, enshrining their surf-oriented communities, too – affirming what has great value in that place. A WSR is a celebration of place.

The bubble provided by the WSR designation should act like a semi-permeable membrane, enabling certain kinds of activities and sustainable developments while resisting the intrusion of others (like landfills, mining operations, trawlers, and the grosser monoliths of unchecked development). The simple existence of the WSR acts as a tactical wedge that inserts itself into every future discussion concerning the fate and destiny of the reserve area.

A WSR models a kind of environmental synergy, integrating the principles of preservation with sustainable use … with stewardship and cultural celebration. A WSR provides a nexus for rallying and focusing energy and assets on ensuring that a particular coastal area will be permanently vested with intrinsic importance – an importance that local surfers and others already understand but may not be able to communicate.

The WSR designation is this communication. This plaque, this installation, this monument that dedicates the WSR communicates a cohesive valuation forward through time – says that these people, representing a broad local, regional, national, and global community of like-minded individuals hereby value this place – right here – and declare the intention of holding this place sacred for as long as the waves break and the tides cycle. In other words, each small monument is a symbol for the greater monument that is each surf spot and its enshrined environment, dedicated forward for the common benefit and for the enjoyment and appreciation of present and future generations.

Each WSR is a microcosm – a meeting of land and sea selected for the unique and salutary nature of its waves and natural setting. The dedication of each WSR seeks the protection of this microcosm, this coastal zone of waves and habitat, from wanton destruction and exploitation through the positive force of appreciation and valuation. As a force of inception, it’s worth mentioning that the WSR enterprise is in keeping with the initial impulse of John Kelly, who created SAVE OUR SURF (the ancestor of all surf-related environmental organizations) in the early 1960s, and the result is over a hundred Hawaiian beaches and surf breaks saved that would have been lost but aren’t. That’s the power of an idea.

The Save The Waves crew picked up where John Kelly left off. Founded on work with International Surf Spot Protection and modeled on the vision of Brad Farmer and the National Surfing Reserve program in Australia, the concept of World Surfing Reserves draws inspiration from Patagonia’s Yvon Chouinard, who asked: “Why not have surf breaks – famous, great breaks like Jeffrey’s Bay, Rincon and Malibu – as [UNESCO] World Heritage Sites, so that the whole world sees their value and wants to protect them?”

Creating World Surfing Reserves may not in itself save the world, but it’s a step in that direction. A World Surfing Reserve is like a world park, but with more dynamic local interaction. A WSR is a sort of coastal appreciation zone, and it’s an opportunity zone … and a possibility zone, which happens to be on the coast, in a place where surf culture has taken root.

Undertaking the creation of a WSR – to enshrine a wave and its environs – is to set in motion a medium of communication for disparate parties that might not otherwise become engaged. And once communication begins, who knows where it will lead?

This enshrinement is a kind of protection, but it is not a sure one. Over time threats will come, one by one, to all of the world’s great surf spots, and over time, again and again, they will be compromised. And in the end, the enshrinements we make now and in future years may be the deciding factor that saves a beach or a surf spot or a park … or just a jewel of the natural world.

World Surfing Reserves is about surfers saving the world, one wave at a time, and while it may not guarantee that a beach or a wave will be saved, it does enshrine the global community’s demand that it must be.” – Drew Kampion, WSR Vision Council, January 2010

BLOG NOTE: THIS IS FROM PHIL JARRATT’S NOOSA BLOG. READ IT ALL HERE

NOOSA: While Kelly Slater was rising from the ashes of three consecutive losses to win in Brazil last week, his manager, Terry Hardy, was apparently in Los Angeles nailing the lid (ashes, coffin lids,what’s going on here!) on a megabucks breakaway world surfing tour.

I say apparently because at the time of writing I could find no media coverage of the matter, and neither Slater nor Hardy responded to my requests for information, which proves that it’s true, right? Anyway, my sources are reliable and highly-placed, so remember where you read it first.

The tour, with nine-times world champion Slater as its figurehead, will consist of eight events offering more than a million bucks prize money, as opposed to the current $US300,000 on the ASP Dream Tour, with first round losers walking away with $US40,000. With the worst performer guaranteed $US320,000 a year to show up, this would mean that surfing’s elite could at last feel relaxed about giving their all to the tour. When you consider the case of Straddie’s Bede Durbidge, who started his year without a sponsor and finished it at number 2 to Kelly, that means a lot.

FROM NEW ZEALAND’S STUFF.COM SPORTS SECTION:

“The governing body of world professional surfing is investigating a Surfing New Zealand promotion involving two leading international surfers.

The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) told Sunday News it regarded The Corona Surf Trips, held last month at Whangamata and Gisborne and featuring current world title leader Joel Parkinson and former world champ Mark Occhilupo, as an ”exhibition”.

ASP boss Brodie Carr said his organisation was ”investigating further”.

The ASP will want to know why Surfing New Zealand (SNZ) did not seek official approval for the promotion and whether it should have paid a sanction fee.

”The exhibition was not sanctioned by ASP. We are currently reviewing the event and deciding upon actions from there,” Carr told Sunday News in a written statement.

Sanction fees as high as $US50,000 are payable to the ASP when using its contracted athletes for exhibitions or non-World Championship Tour events.

SNZ has paid ASP $US50,000 sanction fees in the past to gain the services of other world-ranked surfing stars such as Hawaiians Andy Irons and Sunny Garcia to compete in exhibitions.

SNZ executive officer Greg Townsend contradicted Carr by saying he had kept the ASP in the loop and the organisation had no problem with the Corona promotion.

”Surfing New Zealand has a range of dealings with the ASP and right now we are planning one international ASP-sanctioned surfing event in New Zealand for 2010,” Townsend said.

”They have not bought this issue up with us in the various discussions we have had since this promotion.

”We enjoy a very positive relationship with the ASP.”

The ASP will only be worried about Parkinson’s participation in the SNZ promotion as Occhilupo is now retired from the pro tour. The ASP rulebook allows for surfers to be stripped of their world championship points if they appear in a non-sanctioned contest or exhibition.

That would be a calamity for Parkinson, who is heading towards the first world title of his already spectacular career. However, it is unlikely the ASP would take such drastic action against a headline star. Investigations are more likely to centre on whether SNZ should have paid a sanction fee.

A possible defence for SNZ will be the claim that Parkinson was merely ”free surfing” with Occhilupo in Whangamata and Gisborne and therefore approval wasn’t required or a sanction fee due.

Unlike the previous Vodafone Surf Sessions at Piha a few years ago, where SNZ did pay a sanction fee, there was no ”judging or competitive” element to the promotion.

However, the strong promotional element of the exhibition, the commercial attachment of Corona and the branding worn by the surfers while in the water, could undermine that argument.

ASP sponsors pay significant sponsorship fees to appear on the competition ”rash-singlets or vests” of its contracted male and female athletes during world tour events.

”If the ASP allows what Surfing New Zealand did to become the norm, the ASP’s top surfers will be doing them willy-nilly all around the world and getting direct payment,” an international surfing observer told Sunday News.

”Very soon, the ASP’s sponsors like LG and others will be quitting sponsorship of world tour events to do the same as the Kiwi promotion because it’s a lot cheaper.”

Strong crowds, driven by significant pre-publicity, attended both exhibitions in Whangamata and Gisborne. The promotion also resulted in ”internal discussions” within Billabong International – sponsor of the two Australians, and one of the ”Big Three” of world surfing along with Rip Curl and Quiksilver.

Billabong’s concern lay with the surfers wearing Corona-branded clothing and caps while in New Zealand. This conflicts with their master contract.
Billabong said it had dealt with the situation, did not wish to comment further and that there was no lingering issue with SNZ.

Meanwhile, the Auckland City Council’s recently formed Events Committee is set to gain a win shortly when it is announced the International Surfing Association’s amateur World Junior Games will be held at Piha in 2010.

The ACC identified the event as an opportunity, sought commercial backing from Sky City and then approached SNZ to commence talks with the ISA.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/2586851/NZ-surfing-promo-under-investigation

Tags: ASP, JOEL PARKINSON, PARKO