The Outsider: When Worlds Collide
Honest criticism means nothing: what one wants is unrestrained passion, fire for fire - Henry Miller
Hot. It's been freakin' hot, with swarms of blood-sucking mozzies everywhere, buzzing in a humidity that feels like breathing pea soup.
Down here on the North Coast the smell is thick with the sickly sweet funk of rotting fruit. On the Goldy it's suncream, cocktails, wet bitumen and expensive cosmetics. And money. Plenty of it. Some kid named Meola walked off with a hundred large for a display of aerial surfing that C. Fletcher labeled as pretty average, "nothing mindblowing".
Yeah, he just told me that. I rang him up. He was in the Astrodeck office with his Mom at around 3pm on a sunny Californian afternoon, making an honest buck. The surf was shitty and he was enjoying the gig.
Old Fletch had been trying to help out the crew of SURFER mag on their Facebook page by explaining what a Judo air was. Apparently they had fucked it up and Fletch was, "being nice, just helping out" by putting up a pic and correcting the error. They didn't like what he had to tell them so they simply moderated him and removed the comments. "That made me mad, so I started trash-talking a bit, then they censored those comments and I got really mad."
Is this is where we're at? Surfing as a culture censoring it's heretics, free thinkers and pioneers in the name of...what? Online editors reading from the Goebells playbook; servants of mediocrity sheltering in the false security of commercial consensus? The Outsider stands shoulder to shoulder with Christopher Hitchens in deploring this heinous crime of censorship. To paraphrase Hitchens: Take a number, line up and kiss my fucking arse.
We'll come back to Fletch presently as we discuss the ASP and the discrepancy between the mix of aerial and power/rail surfing which they defend as the state of the art and the Innersection clip of Meola which featured exactly ZERO rail turns. Why this disparate evolution in ideals?
On the night after the Innersection party a very different gig was under way in Byron Bay, in a small wooden building that used to be a movie theatre. Rusty Miller had found a stash of slides from the 1970 World Titles in Victoria, as well as a stash from the North Coast at that time, depicting the Golden Age of what might be termed 'pre-commercial' surf culture.
They were all there: Nuuhiwa, Nat, Dora, McTavish, Brocky, Baddy, Aurness, Drouyn (as a man). Styling in and out of the water.
Greenough showed up, hunched over and barefeet. Rare to see him away from the pyramid he lives in after dark. He had one of Brocky's shirts on: Convert the Military to Earth Repair. We sat outside in the warm rain. I drank a beer, Greenough twitched and fidgeted while various people came to pay their respects. We spoke about fishing mostly. A Californian surf journalist named Steve Barilotti approached. "Hey Barlo, whats up?" I said. "How's the Goldy?"
"Hectic man. Some kid won a hundred grand last night...Hi George"
George looked at his feet. He loves surf journalists.
I shrugged. George said suddenly, "Fucking corporates...they own fucking everything." He said corporates slowly, with a long emphasis on the 'ates'.
I started to laugh. I knew where this was going. Now Barlo looked down at his feet.
To a certain taste, strong medicine, no matter how bitter, can be the most wonderful tonic. In this oversaturated commercial world Greenough's medicine is akin to the purest Himalayan air. Yes, it is low in oxygen and only suitable for the very fit in mind and spirit, and only for a short time. It is a wonderful antidote to Pro Surfing. Perhaps the best there is.
George looked over to me, "Who's this guy?" He pointed an elbow at Barlo.
"That's Barlo" I said. "He's a surf journalist."
"Yeah, I thought he was someone important...with all that talk about the contest...fucking contests."
George hates contests more than Hitchens hates the Pope. They are antithetical forces in the surfing world. It's nothing more than historical accident that the man named the second most influential person in Surfing (after the Duke) rose to prominence when he did. Would there be space in amongst the petty online censorship and overwhelming commercial imperatives for a Greenough to rise today?
Ponder that, sports fans, over your morning cup of coffee.
There was a great shot in the collection of a young Miki Dora (in Italian loafers) and Australia's own International Man of Mystery, Russell Hughes (barefoot), hanging in the streets of Byron Bay circa 1970. Hughes, whose life story would read as a kind of Gonzo counterpoint to the clean living Peter Troy, is currently on his deathbed in a hospital in Toronto. His son has carried on his father's template, spending most of his time shacked up on an island in Tahiti, surfing the kinds of waves the ASP could only dream about.
He wandered down to a local backbeach the other day, with a board and a little bag of green. "Well man," he said "what a fucking circus!"
"And you know what?" he went on, "I didn't mind 'em taking up the whole beach with their fucking photo shoot but you think I could find someone with some Tally-Ho papers to twist one up?"
"This whole thing's gone so safe Shep, I tell ya."
Back to Fletcher, who could never be accused of playing it safe. I asked Fletch if he ever watched the ASP contests.
"Yeah."
"And what are your thoughts?"
"As far as what?"
"Standard of surfing, judging, that kind of thing."
"Judging? I don't think they know what they're judging. They're not consistent in how they score airs. Nothing's changed. Actually, it has gotten better. When I was a kid and did airs in contests I got 3's."
"What about the surfing?"
"Oh, the surfing's improved. Trestles was pretty cool, but everyone does the same tricks. Airs are in fashion now. It's gay and conservative. Actually Jon Jon was doing airs on the outside section, not just an air reverse in the shorebreak. That takes balls. It's got way more risk."
"What about power surfing, rail surfing?"
"That's the difference between a good and great surfer. A good surfer can do airs and tricks or carving turns. A great surfer can do airs, power turns, ride Pipeline, everything. And he should be able to ride a skateboard (laughs)."
"So who do consider to be a great surfer then?"
"I've always been a huge Andy Irons fan and Fanning. And not just because of his anti-semitic comments (laughs). Both do fully-committed rail turns. There's no fucking holding back."
"What about Dane?"
"Who?"
"Dane Reynolds?"
"Oh, I haven't seen enough of him to make a valid opinion."
"You didn't see him at Trestles?"
"Nah, I was too busy out in the warehouse packing boxes."
"Hahhahah, you must be the only one in the surfing world without an opinion on Dane."
"Hahah brah, I'll say whatever the fuck I like."
"Good on you. Thanks for the chat. Have a good one."
"Hey, you too. Send us a link eh?"
If anyone in California reads this could you please go drop off a cold beer or six to the Fletcher family. I'll fix you up later.
As the great homogenous mass of surfing grows larger - perhaps exponentially if wavepools take off - the crackpots, individuals and mavericks get pushed further and further into the wilderness. Maybe that's a good thing? Is there anyone in this new crop of rookies who can light it up like Dane?
Based on the evidence presented so far the answer is an overwhelming no.
Is Innersection a portal into the future where surfing becomes like 'bad skateboarding' as one anonymous internet commenter called it? A series of unrelated technical manouevres with nothing to link them? Death from above as Charlie Sheen would call it.
Meanwhile the ASP defends power surfing even as it reduces the fundamental requirement for it: A decent fucking wave. What do they think we'll see in the beachbreaks of Rio and Long Island?
Watch Meola's winning clip for the answer.
You can't make this shit up, sports fans.
Comments
As much as I watch, read and follow 'pro' surfing, it also shits me to tears. As much as you awe and aahh at some of the shit going on, I can't stand the sterilization and clean image the surf companies try to mask us with. As you report freeride, where the fuck are the personalities and oddities of some of these guys (and girls).
Why is it that such talent such as Bede is shunned and dropped by the big guys because he may not be 'marketable'. The truth regarding AI is repressed because it may harm a legacy. The list is endless, but the answers are few.
Once again, a great read.
wtf
Jeez, this Steve Shearer is full of hot air and ego. Name-dropping, 'oh I know Greenough'. Bully for you. Steve Shearer continues to crow that he is 'the outsider' to pro surfing and commercialism even though he follows the circus like a groupie and goes on endlessly blathering about it, especially how the lads should surf like some old fucks in the 1970s (so the kook can keep up). He's obviously an old man who can't keep up and can't do airs so has to go to Christian Fletcher to get comment because he lacks any skills himself. How about just going surfing and leaving the circus behind? Nah, then he couldn't garner any attention for himself off the reflected glow.
Then, he even whines about internet censorship yet all over the online surf media he abuses anyone who isn't like him. Check out his bigoted opinions as 'matt bransons cock ring' in the forums at www.blasphemyrottmouth.com
Hypocrite.
In the interests of general education (and speaking of corporates) -
Through a process known as Fractional Reserve Banking, private banks get the right to create our money out of nothing in the form of debt. This debt-money they lend out to the public as loans and the cost of which is born through-out our society.
When banks create this money they loan it out at interest, meaning that while they created it out of nothing we trade our labour and time for other peoples 'loan-tickets/debt money' to repay them. And as it is loaned at interest, it requires more debt money to be created to make the additional interest portion. As such we are locked into an ever increasing debt trap- beholden to the banks for the money we need to pay them back. All the while the banks profit from the fruits of our labour in the repayment of interest on make-believe money. For everyone who saves a dollar, another person must be a dollar further in debt.
More information is available through:
Money as debt:
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2550156453790090544#
positivemoney.co.uk
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional-reserve_banking
zerohedge.com
If all bank loans were paid...there would not be a dollar of coin or currency in circulation. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation. We are absolutely without a permanent money system.
Robert A. Hemphill Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank
Banks lend by creating credit. They create the means of payment out of nothing
Ralph M Hawtrey, Secretary of the Treasury, UK
Christian Fletcher is a pioneer in functional airs, the perfect person to reflect upon Meola's win. He's also not scared to speak his mind in an industry that insulates itself like teflon. A trampoline act should never replace consummate surfing, a distinction Outsider paints vividly.
The ASP tour should be of interest to all surfers. It showcases our cutting edge collectively. But the tour and broadcast is homogenized to the point of intellectual immasculation. An independent art has become a manipulated dog and pony show. Alert minds sense that the tour has lost what should be it's biggest supporters, core surfers. Outsider's allusion to a purer time through classic photo's or an icon's distain for modern journalism/ists reads like a template for redemption. Someone has to write the music that so many ears beg to hear.
Outsider is no groupie Tournier. No one else is discussing the flaws in Meola's section, but I've read a hundred times what his prize is. Keep the sheep blind to everything but the dessert and fleece them while they graze.
Great read SS, something only an Outsider would dare to even notice.
PS... free speach includes opinions you don't share share Tournier.
Online editors reading from the Goebells playbook; servants of mediocrity sheltering in the false security of commercial consensus?
Now that's a good read.
Russell's son thinks the scene has gone safe...and yet there was Andy Irons.
Great surfers did, do, and will continue to take incredible risks with themselves. Christian is an awesome example. He's happy now, but that wasn't always the case.
Nice choice for a phone call shearer.
And SURFER, good god, you should be completely ashamed of yourselves.
Jeezus Tournier, at least get my blog address correct. It's the only form of advertising I get.
Chosen One "Free speech includes opinions you don't share share Tournier"
But that doesn't include mindless abuse and flaming meaning others cease to speak.
Why would anyone expect the circus to be anything but homogenized? That is how commercialism works. The early days were precisely that, early. That means the commercialism and those pushing that cart were simply finding its feet so some chaos ensued (bronzed Aussies?). You can never go back to that state of affairs so why moan about it? People are in lala land if they think the ASP circus can be the cutting edge, it is a competition and judged, meaning it relies on conformism to function. If you want the old state of affairs it means dropping the whole basket case in the bin, not trying to reform it. Individualism and the cutting edge lie outside competition and commercialism, and that means it is more often than not in dissonance with the industry and circus. The best and most cutting edge surfing, including that by the pros, takes place when they are freesurfing and working on minimizing body movement, not amplifying it so that the judges think 'wow, that looks difficult'. Cutting edge surfing makes it look EASY.
Also, how 'outside' is Shearer if he can hang out with Greenough one moment and pick up the phone to speak with Christian Fletcher the next?
for the Rottmouth character: www.blasphemyrottmouth.wordpress.com
...."But that doesn't include mindless abuse and flaming meaning others cease to speak."
Can't see your Problem Mr T.
Your on here throwing in your two cents worth, and welcome to do so.
The Old Days are gone....there's no going back but it might be worth throwing a historical glance into the current commentary, if nothing else then as a way of measuring what has been gained ...and lost.
I think the most cutting edge surfing happened in contests last year.
And I cold-called Fletch. Greenough is an old fishing buddy. Just an historical accident.
Looks like I'm taking an "international visitor" up to the circus tomorrow who will be driving me back home to Merkin Downs, so
Mr Freeride... where do I park, where do I sit and where do I send the wench to fetch my beers (that's not a xxxx)... maybe Mr Carroll could pass one through the fence to me?
merkin!! ? >, !! - somebody told me you went mad and the coppers shot you - and now you are hanging around pimp shows -
laz
"Nah, then he couldn't garner any attention for himself off the reflected glow." -Tournier
then you end with "hypocrite"
just pointing out the irony of this statement. the catch 22. the paradox. the fait accompli. hobsons choice?. yeah, thats without a thesaurus, help me out.
aren't we all doing this? isn't it fun?
"heaven is a place where nothing ever happens" talking heads (1976)
Hats off to Steve Shearer for bringing the shit to the table. I'm not buying it but its fun to watch. We're seeing a refracted glow of a different kind here.
by the way blasphemy, your pic reminds me of donny darko. intended? market yourself properly if this is advertising.
that aside - i surfed an over head point break today. my local rivermouth had the sand bar bust out in grand style with the floods. it last happened 4 years ago. a left-handed superbank in 30 degree chocolate milk coloured water. far from the madding crowd.
Yeah!! What he said!
Watched a couple of heats this morning, listened to the same banal commentary then went and surfed my go to polluted river mouth, small swell spot. Got a few sliders on my funboard. Had a hole in my glove, making my fingers numb. My $600 Billabong Solution Platinum 4/3 (which I've had repaired 3 times- but I bought it because that's what Andy and Parko recommended and ripped in) flushed freezing water in around the collar and the velcro around the neck kept popping open.
Point is, I had a blast with my Cali mate, only 2 out and making up names for our little possies on the river bar (south bowl, krusty corner etc etc). It was farkin fun and that's all that counts. Shearers reading is fun. Gospel? Who knows? Nay-sayers? Hidden agendas? Couldn't give a rats.
I want to know will J'flo be ok for Bells and will he be up against Julian 6.0?
Maybe I should have saved my rant for the 'what are you drinkin?' forum.
Well Mr Shearer, your writings have stirred the possums enough to even get a lost surf soul like myself once again interested in reading surf related articles.
Your approach of keeping it real in a world of political correctness is a breath of fresh air.
Go get em tiger!!!
pro surfing is entertaining to watch. I dont give a shit for the political bullshit and whats cool and whats not I just enjoy watching pro surfers surf good waves.
Farkin hell tournier, can't work out why someone would get so worked up about some writing. Read it, enjoy it or stop reading.
Steve just takes the anti-corporate stance to give a different perspective, which can only broaden your mind, unless your mind isn't open when you read it.
And Steve, no, Greenough wouldn't be Greenough if he were born today. One of those freaks that only exists at a particular point in history.
Nick, I thought the commentary was the best I have heard for a surf event. Generally, your efforts with Potts were informative and tended away from the epic phwoar cliches, which I appreciated. God knows I may have even learnt something.
Farken credit conspiracy theories on a surf site. Well, I do agree that when you take out a loan you are agreeing to work for a bank for a certain amount of time every day, every week. Some debts are necessary though.
Merkin, PeterB, dips me lid.
No conspiracy batfink - just little known info. If the shit ever hits the fan i hope Aussies get a chance to know this stuff before the government bankrupts the nation to bail out the banks(ala Ireland).
“The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled.â€
John Kenneth Galbraith
"Because of 'fractional' reserve system, banks, as a whole, can expand our money supply several times, by making loans and investments.
US Federal Reserve Bank, The Story of Banks Publication
Commercial banks create checkbook money whenever they grant a loan, simply by adding new deposit dollars in accounts on their books in exchange for a borrower's IOU.
Federal reserve bank of New York – I bet you thought publication
Banks lend by creating credit. They create the means of payment out of nothing
Ralph M Hawtrey, Secretary of the Treasury, UK
If all bank loans were paid...there would not be a dollar of coin or currency in circulation. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation. We are absolutely without a permanent money system.
Robert A. Hemphill Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank
“The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is perhaps the most astounding piece of sleight-of-hand that was ever invented. Banking was conceived in inequity and born in sin... .â€
Josiah Stamp President of the Bank of England 1920
Speaking of sterile and further highlighting the lameness of the surf media (following the hush hush around AI's passing) was Quiksilver "ON DECK" program. Interview with J Flores - great oppurtunity to ask some questions about the Burleigh Incident. No chance. Potter & Doherty hang your heads in shame. Call your self a jhournalist. Lame. I'm sure the quiky cheque is in the mail by the time you get home.....
Mk1, I think you've completely misunderstood the credit process. They don't make it up out of nothing, and there are limits to how much the turnstile can go round.
Take this to the forums!
Loved watching the heats all day today and looking forward to Steve's take on it.
Fark me if the commentary, the whole set up in fact, hasn't been leagues better than anything else broadcast for a surf comp.
Welcome to the world of professional broadcasting oh surfing industry. Boy, that was a difficult labour.
Not misunderstood batfink, limits of capitalisation ratios and liquidity ratios are just anchors to how much that can be made up.
Anyway, i'll leave it at that. Plenty of info out there for anyone interested.
Hi Larry - yep made it to the pimp show - actually pimped the visitor up there and took her photo with Mr Slater - seemed like a nice enough chap - we asked politely and then I thanked him - I'm sure he'll remember me... as just another one of the million clowns who can't surf and he can.
How fucken embarrassing - made all the worse by the fact that I have no need/desire to pork the lady in question and I think she wet her pants in the process. Anyway she's happy - it's all over English facebook and I'm in the goodbook.
Saw Tom signing autos in the Quik tent which was nice because the last time I saw him was on a wave... from behind ;-)
Anyway the whole show was as I remember it from my last trip to the circus which would have been around the early nineties in Sydney - albeit more polished.
How the times have changed - had a mate of a mate staying who was competing - main event - best bloke you'd ever meet in a day's march - anyway you could hear the commentary from my joint which was rather handy as he could hear his call for the heat which gave him time for about three more hot ones before grabbing the nearest board and bolting down there :-)
By: "mk1"
By: "mk1"
Out of nothing!!!!!!! = Wrong.
Fark me. Where is that rolling your eyes emoticon?
Hey maybe you are right, and maybe all those quotes i posted above are wrong, either that or this one is more relevant in your case:
“The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled.â€
John Kenneth Galbraith
You want to argue the point at least check some links i posted, check the videos at www.positivemoney.org.uk these guys have just been approached by the UK banking commission to do a costing on moving to full reserve banking.
The surfing is way better, the commentary is way better too, well it would be if they could say a sentence without having to name drop some product. I know surfing is professional or commercial whatever you want to call it, but there is a level of product name dropping where it becomes untasteful, and the Quick pro broadcast found that place and stormed through it!
Quite dissapointing to see Potter doing a good job yet selling his soul for all to see, on public TV.
You dont have to romanticise about a golden age to criticise the current circus. Thankfully, some surf journalist do still question it, just because the advent of the internet has trashy-ised everything doesnt mean we have to accept it!