RealSurf Surfers' Forum

I know it’s a tough pill to swallow that you wasted a whole ‘season’ dodging turds in appalling shin high windslop when the hated pom, a scant few miles away, would have been enjoying perfectly respectable Atlantic groundswell but you’re just gonna have to trust me on this

what?

Have you lost track of the timeline old sport?

That was years ago (and I did spend my time in Cornwall and Devon), we are talking about the here and now.

How about, for the sake of the others on this forum, we both agree that the other one is right and swear never to have this conversation again?

its just a bit of civil discourse using your favourite forecasting site.

steve shearer wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 01, 2019 1:58 pm

I know this is a slight digression but on a similar theme: what happened to the whole professional clubby thing, you know the Nutrigrain Ironman, Coolangatta Gold etc etc.

those guys used to be household names, broadcast at prime times etc etc.

its fallen completely off the radar .

Does the Molokai race get coverage in Hawaii, USA etc etc?

It would almost seem a gimme for a broadcast spectacle.

Oh the pro clubby thing is still ticking, its problem resides within the organisation, the SLSA is deeply conflicted over surf sports, it has a cultural uncertainty about it. Its funding model is mostly designed around extracting large amounts of Govt money based on its volunteer rescue numbers, that and taxing the clubs themselves out of membership fees (a thing called “capitation” where they take a piece for every member), and it’s developed a bureaucracy around that whose main objective, as with most bureaucracies, is self-sustainability. Lots of good jobs etc. This isn’t an environment in which a pro sport flourishes. When the superclubby thing was really on fire, it was driven more by pro sport entrepreneurs than anything, that and the hilarious “cereal wars” between Kellogg’s and Uncle Toby’s. Plus it was a time when TV was still trying to figure out the exact place of pro sport in its broadcast lineup, so stations like 9, 7, 10 etc were trying all kinds of sports to see what fit. Broadcast free to air TV is no longer a holy grail of pro sport broadcasting but the SLSA is too frozen to grasp the opportunities and really make the superclubby thing sing the way it could. But you’ll see a bit of it on FTA this summer, starting with the Gold and I think another five rounds of ironperson and specialist racing (swim, board, ski etc)

Molokai to Oahu is broadcast live stream style and it’s a thing in Hawaiian media, I think it is perhaps suffering a bit from Australian dominance, if there were more Hawaiians and US mainlanders in the mix you’d see way more coverage of it. Kai is really the big water sports star in Hawaii right now, he is all over the place, First Hawaiian Bank ads etc etc, and he drew a fair bit of coverage to the race. He’s not really a Charisma Guy like Kelly though, he’s too cruisy for that, if you ever have a chat with him it will be hard to reconcile that chat with the shit you’ve seen him do in giant surf etc, he’s basically just a cruisy happy kid with a major affinity for water.

Nick Carroll wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 01, 2019 1:05 pm

No word whatsoever. I think all their money and energy is being burned on trying to finish the one at Tullamarine.

Meetings are happening. Drawings are done. Architects are being interviewed.

Wooooooo!!

Cool. I’m looking forward to being one of the only westies with actual ocean wave experience. Ruling over bogans and immigrants that can barely swim. Might end up with a Homebush stink eye that’ll rival the notorious Newport stinkeye

Pretty fun super clean 2-3ft peaks all up and down the beach this morning. Fast racy sucky waves and plenty to go around.

Sounds good.,I’ll be hitting in an hour

Hatchnam wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 02, 2019 1:15 pm

Sounds good.,I’ll be hitting in an hour

That southerly was really fcccking it up when I left, kinda waves that really needed it to be clean. Still, it changes down there by the minute so you never know.

Swells meant to spike a bit and the wind mess keeps the crowds down. Im happy.

Plenty of parking spaces too #winning

Tried out the new Outer Islands board today at wonky low tide Point. Hard to get a handle on it, but it felt very lively and responsive. I haven't surfed a round tail for ages and it is quite slippy, I almost felt like I might need large fins in it? Dunno. Need to get used to it.

I tried my booties for the first time today. Fcuk booties. Fcuk circulation issues. I hate not feeling the water.

...

I’ll keep that in mind.

ajohnsen wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 02, 2019 5:20 pm

I tried my booties for the first time today. Fcuk booties. Fcuk circulation issues. I hate not feeling the water.

metoo