Ask Carroll

[Nick Carroll]

I don't really have any answers to any of that rmb, for one thing the Goldie is a funny sort of place regarding surfer sponsorship, for another I don't know Jay at all really and have no idea how he sees himself in relation to all that stuff. He's probably just a stoked kid.

There's another person involved here too, his Mum Mae, who strikes me as a tough cookie who is unlikely to let Jay do anything she considers to be potentially harmful.

I certainly hope that Billabong stay real cool about it and don't start waving Jay around in all their advertising etc. I think Sasha Stocker is still the team man and if so he will handle it well I'm sure.

[rmb]

I don't really have any answers to any of that rmb, for one thing the Goldie is a funny sort of place regarding surfer sponsorship, for another I don't know Jay at all really and have no idea how he sees himself in relation to all that stuff. He's probably just a stoked kid.

There's another person involved here too, his Mum Mae, who strikes me as a tough cookie who is unlikely to let Jay do anything she considers to be potentially harmful.

I certainly hope that Billabong stay real cool about it and don't start waving Jay around in all their advertising etc. I think Sasha Stocker is still the team man and if so he will handle it well I'm sure.

Reckon he will be fine Occy doesn't strike me as the strict push his kid's to make it or the crazy disciplinary type hopefully the media keep their distance and not turn him into some sort of gold coast freak show.

[Beanpole]

How about yourself any fight's since you used to punch up your younger brother? If you did?

The last fight I had was about a decade ago and wasn't as such, it involved a v heavy Hawaiian, he wanted to fight and I didn't, so I let him hit me. You can get away with that if you know how. The punch was amazingly heavy through, holy shit, it actually lifted me off my feet. We ended up hugging it out.

Um, no intended disrespect there, Nick, but that could sound a bit like I blocked all his punches with my head.

[Nick Carroll]

Oh I totally did. Just one punch.

I had no desire to fight this person, I had no grievance against him and he outweighed me by a lot, so I just sort of let it happen. You kinda can't go to Hawaii as much as I've been there and not get punched out at some point. It's been going on since the 1920s. Every haole from Tarzan Smith on down.

[scroopulis]

Any names Nick?
I understand if you can't talk of the violence of Carol Brady.

[rmb]

Any Aussies go over to Hawaii and held their own against the local's in the fighting department. Was it Kobe Abberton who went toe to toe with a well known local heavy? There must be a few good fighting stories and not just the ones of the Hawaiians ganging up on a single Aussie such as the reported Eddie Rothman and Crew Vs Rabbit.

[godsavetheking]

Nick,

There's quite a bit of talk (probably none of it emanating from the ASP) about the need/desire to widen the audience for pro surfing and take it to the mainstream, but don't you think they'd be better served by focussing on making it a bit more central to the conversation of actual surfers first and building from there? Surfers don't seem to give much of a shit about the tour these days and I think that's a shame.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. You disgust me, you pommy twat.

Nick,

Now that Swellnet has utterly vindicated my hypothesis, are you ready to publish a full and grovelling apology?

Yours in eager anticipation,

gs etc

[Nick Carroll]

well I dunno if they have.

The numbers don't look that unlike it anyway. From what I understand Bells had just over 35,000 separate addresses locked in to the final last year. So it seems like its gone up a bit.

Not so sure about the other two but then again Margaret River wasn't on last year.

It was a great idea of Stu's to track usage - I didn't even know you could do that, duhhh. But I was there and busy reporting on the surfing, you cant do everything.

What I did get from it was how important the US viewership - not just Kelly, but the people whose main interest is him - is to those numbers. The US accounts for by far the largest chunk of Internet use in the world, I bet its surf communities are the biggest chunk of surf webcast watchers too.

[crabmeat thompson]

I'm pretty sure the tour can't have Margs, Rio and sub 6-foot Bells in 3 of the first 4 events and have any hope of holding any momentum & interest in it for anyone.

I won't even get into the whole premise that mainstream folk will never take a passing interest in surfing, compared to say NFL, AFL or Soccer.

Even core surfing struggles to be interested in it. You can hear the collective sigh when the tour moves to Rio.

That's not good for growing the 'sport' ...

[Nick Carroll]

Oh the other thing is just what a colossal amount of mumbo jumbo is talked about surfer numbers around the world. I think the ISA used to say there were 17 million and now they are up to 23 million. Every rent seeking surf body on earth competes with each other to bid that number up. It's all utter bullshit. 23 MILLION??? That's the entire population of Australia for fcuks sake. There wouldn't be that many people going to the beach. I bet there isn't more than a million people worldwide who catch a wave on a regular basis; maybe five or six million who have had some experience of it in their lives.

[Nick Carroll]

Yeah actually it's a bit sketchy hey.

If only I had some shit for brains pseudonymous second or third account, I could go and rescue myself. But there is only one thing lamer than being the last poster in the Dungeon, and that is having more than one account on Realsurf.

[Davros]

Nick, do you think Surfing World cant make its mind up as a surf mag and has lost its punch. I picked up a couple of dog eared copies from a few years back waiting for lunch and it was meaty on info, great section on board designs, sensational spread on Sunset etc..., I have a couple of the latest and its lighter in weight than Foam Symmetry...well not that bad, but WTF? Do they have budget issues? Seems to be going through an identity crisis.

[Nick Carroll]

That's pretty cruel! comparing SW to Foam Symmetry.

Ah I kind of hesitate to pass judgement but maybe so, magazines do tend to drift up and down like any going concern. I always read Sean D's pieces in it but much of the rest feels a bit surfactant, like putting on the impression of being good but when you get 100 words in, nah. They've had a couple of nice covers recently.

[Morgan The Moon]

You kinda can't go to Hawaii as much as I've been there and not get punched out at some point.

How does this sit with the Aloha Spirit that the Duke used to try and greet people with?

Do the black shorts have more of an influence than the Dukes legacy?

[Nick Carroll]

To me they are kind of two sides of the same coin. The same Hawaiian who punches the shit out of you will be inviting complete strangers to his family luau the next day.

[rmb]

The Hawaiian localism seems fair enough but do they tend to hunt in pack's? Or is it a 1 on 1 fight like Sunny Garcia at Burleigh

[Davros]

Thanks Nick, yeah they do have nice covers in general. Hmm.

[el rancho]

dan malloy boxing chops in hawaii

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQpj5-5iJic