RealSurf Surfers' Forum

Would you or your younger sibling drop in..... on Tony Abbott?

rmb wrote:Would you or your younger sibling drop in..... on Tony Abbott?

Maybe more on this..is there anyone that wouldn't be dropped in on?

mentone mansions wrote:

swvic wrote: We're not the source of the cash. It's the kids -

Well, kind of…...until they're in their mid twenties, they get the cash from grumpy old know-it-alls and pass it on.

Easy to play to stereotypes. Yeah there's a lot of kids who wouldn't enjoy a broader pallet but there's plenty who do I reckon. The ones who don't remain consumers. The ones that don't set the scene as much as the companies.

rmb wrote:Would you or your younger sibling drop in..... on Tony Abbott?

I honestly find it difficult to imagine a situation in which Tony Abbott was on either mine or my brother's inside. At least on a wave I'd give a fuck about catching.

Oh yeah further to the Lewis thing, it appears that a number of surfers were really pissed off with it, some because of what was contained in this PR and some because they have long memories of being bagged by Lewis in the past. According to one of them, he sent ASP CEO guy Paul Speaker an angry email; Speaker was on a plane to Australia at the time. When he got off the plane, he had the piece immediately taken down.

all a bit tone deaf really.

Nick Carroll wrote: I honestly find it difficult to imagine a situation in which Tony Abbott was on either mine or my brother's inside. At least on a wave I'd give a **** about catching.

Does this mean you won't be spending any time with Tones at Telos anytime soon?

petulance wrote:

Nick Carroll wrote: I honestly find it difficult to imagine a situation in which Tony Abbott was on either mine or my brother's inside. At least on a wave I'd give a **** about catching.

Does this mean you won't be spending any time with Tones at Telos anytime soon?

It truly is impossible to imagine the circumstances in which I would do a surf trip with the current Prime Minister of Australia.

I'm thinking that Tony could go on taxpayer funded surf trip to Indo to mend fences with our Asian neighbour. And he will ask you to go along as his "hollow takeoff over coral reef at low tide" consultant.

Nick Carroll wrote: just so you know, the SL Board Guide is the most popular single feature of the year with readers and (generally) with the board makers too - even the ones who don't get involved see a benefit.

No-one is questioning the popularity of it or it's commercial success. It's the integrity of the process that is in question.

The blind spots and double standards of the surf media are priceless.......it's quite bizarre.

If you purchased a Choice Magazine Nick promising a review of this years cars and read it in good faith then found out later only the car makers who paid a fee and were promised a favourable review were in the mag and that only former race car drivers or aspiring drivers who might have commercial links were the reviewers ......you would call BS on it.

It's Pure Cash for Comment. Almost of no help to the Average Joe surfer.

But yet it's the gold standard in the surf media.

Anyway, no-one seems to give a fcuk and like you say, as long as the punters keep lapping it up there's no need to change a winning formula.

Nick Carroll wrote:Oh yeah further to the Lewis thing, it appears that a number of surfers were really pissed off with it, some because of what was contained in this PR and some because they have long memories of being bagged by Lewis in the past. According to one of them, he sent ASP CEO guy Paul Speaker an angry email; Speaker was on a plane to Australia at the time. When he got off the plane, he had the piece immediately taken down.

all a bit tone deaf really.

ASP wants to surfing to "appeal" to middle aged couch potatoes who have never surfed hence soft-cock decisions like above... christ what were they expecting!! Its fucking Lewis!!!
Seriously all this does is make them look like nancy-boys to real surfers worldwide. Surfing isnt golf or fucking tennis. It isn't really even a sport!
Lewis's power rankings just went up for auction I hope, to the highest bidder. talk about free advertising!! {I hope he didn't sign anything}

Nick would you give Lewis a job and post his Power Rankings on ASL...

steve shearer wrote:

Nick Carroll wrote: just so you know, the SL Board Guide is the most popular single feature of the year with readers and (generally) with the board makers too - even the ones who don't get involved see a benefit.

No-one is questioning the popularity of it or it's commercial success. It's the integrity of the process that is in question.

The blind spots and double standards of the surf media are priceless.......it's quite bizarre.

If you purchased a Choice Magazine Nick promising a review of this years cars and read it in good faith then found out later only the car makers who paid a fee and were promised a favourable review were in the mag and that only former race car drivers or aspiring drivers who might have commercial links were the reviewers ......you would call BS on it.

It's Pure Cash for Comment. Almost of no help to the Average Joe surfer.

But yet it's the gold standard in the surf media.

Anyway, no-one seems to give a fcuk and like you say, as long as the punters keep lapping it up there's no need to change a winning formula.

You know steve I don't have a blind spot or double standard here at all. I don't mind if everyone knows that the board makers in the Board Test are given the chance to put a board in the Test because they buy a page of advertising in the mag.

With stuff like this I really try to light a candle. If this is how we can spend a fair bit of magazine space helping to show and tell a heap of readers about boards today, it's fine with me. There's a lot of great exchanges between the surfers and the board makers in the process, and there's a lot of good info that does come with the package every year. I relish the chance to check out all the boards and it informs a lot of other stuff I write in a typical year as well.

The world is not about to melt down nor the surf culture be damaged beyond repair by it, indeed it feels to me and obviously to a lot of readers and board makers that the whole thing is valuable and enhances the surf mag year a bit.

I am pretty good at working with disparate groups of people and somehow smuggling through a fair bit of value for everyone in the process so that's what I do here, it's just a professional task but with a considerable longevity and passion underpinning it.

Just let it go mate or do something else yourself that suits your own judgement.

Battery wrote:Nick would you give Lewis a job and post his Power Rankings on ASL...

It's not my deal. SL's editor Wade Davis is the one making that sorta call.

But if I were editor of a site or mag in charge of deep dish coverage of the pro tour I'd definitely give Lewis a gig. It might not be one he was keen to take on though.

yeah don't think any surf media ever interested in acquiring advertising dollars from the big corpos will be employing lewis samuels anytime soon.

even though that original post-surf/surfline/billabong thing was years ago now

Nick Carroll wrote:

Battery wrote:Nick would you give Lewis a job and post his Power Rankings on ASL...

It's not my deal. SL's editor Wade Davis is the one making that sorta call.

But if I were editor of a site or mag in charge of deep dish coverage of the pro tour I'd definitely give Lewis a gig. It might not be one he was keen to take on though.

Wade doesn't like Lewis's Power Rankings... "to negative"
Sorry, I haven't brought a surf mag in years but somehow thought you had worked your way up the ladder to editor...

I like the board reviews and accompanying videos. They're interesting. I think having them reviewed by good surfers is the only way to go. I also don't see any problem with the board makers buying a page of advertising - the reader would have to be pretty thick to not realise there's a commercial association.

The key question is whether the readers get value out of the feature, and from what NC says, it seems to be true. In the eyes of the editor and publisher, that is delivering a good product.

Journalism untainted by commercial imperative is a lofty and laudable goal, and one obviously valued by Steve. But, unless you're working for Fairfax or the ABC, a goal often impractical and generally unachievable.

And even Fairfax - the travel writers and motoring writers, along with the tech guys, are all supping at the corporate trough. How do you think those motoring writers get to drive all those expensive cars in glamorous locations? I tell ya, Fairfax ain't stumping up. Nor is it stumping for when the tech guys visit CES ... and on it goes.

yeah sure, it's small beer. Not worth getting worked up over.

It's just I hear a very different narrative from some very experienced shaper/designers around here.

alot actually.

I thought the board reviews were more just about what's out there. I haven't read on in years, but doesn't it generally involve well-known & experienced shapers who know their craft? And the 'board reviews' simply talk about the current models? I can't imagine any of the shapers would be capable of sending dogs to ASL. They'd want to get that much right.

Feel free to correct me if I've missed the point.