Time to start judging the journos!

[Shane Peel]

well, it's for personal reasons i'd choose Gra's stuff..
i'd rather read satire and humour about the common people..
something i can relate to, it's closer to home, and more relevant to me..
don't really follow the pro scene that much..
just peripherally aware of it..
but if i had to make the pick, then it'd be Nick Carroll..
Shearer's stuff, although interesting enough and well written, kinda looses me with all the bohemian nuances and undertones, it's just not my cup of tea..

Igg, it's out of two mate and you have to pick one. Shearer or NC.

[bytimbaker]

I still think Nick's the master if you want to know what actually went on and understand its implications. Anyone read his Eddie reports? As good as it gets. But in this instance I think I would have to give Shearer the nod for wit and originality and sustained fresh output throughout a long and gruelling event which offered precious little in terms of real drama. It was a relief to see this kinda thing done well because I just reckon there are a lot of phoneys out there using smoke and mirrors and tired contrived formulae to try and appear edgey. But I find the wider discussion more interesting. I think it's the header Peely, and maybe a lot of people feel like the media need to be held accountable, and held up to the type of scrutiny they love to apply to others. What'd they say? Judge not lest ye be judged.

[offshore1]

what's the chances of them booking a double room at your dive, peely? bunk beds of course.
it's kinda like the old apples and oranges conundrum ain't it: shearer's certainly got a unique, delicate, almost fragile point of view.....the reader gets the feeling that steve''s gonna to get hustled off the premises by some large men at any moment. or punched in the nose. probably both
Nick, on the other hand's, the pro. He's got connections. Well earned connections. Steady, well-founded.
he still might get punched in the nose.

ps. if neither of these cnuts wants to avail themselves of your largess, shane, let me be the first to offer to take their sorry places. I'll write a rip-snorter of a review back here to realsurf. fully sick account of your awesome digs.

and i'm not a picky eater like those two prima donna ponces probably are.

[Shane Peel]

I still think Nick's the master if you want to know what actually went on and understand its implications. Anyone read his Eddie reports? As good as it gets. But in this instance I think I would have to give Shearer the nod for wit and originality and sustained fresh output throughout a long and gruelling event which offered precious little in terms of real drama. It was a relief to see this kinda thing done well because I just reckon there are a lot of phoneys out there using smoke and mirrors and tired contrived formulae to try and appear edgey. But I find the wider discussion more interesting. I think it's the header Peely, and maybe a lot of people feel like the media need to be held accountable, and held up to the type of scrutiny they love to apply to others. What'd they say? Judge not lest ye be judged.

Hey Tim,
As much as I hate to divert the thread I reckon your right, people want accountability in all levels these days and to be honest there has been a few questionable/too edgy pieces written by all surf journos (remember that Hawaii report where you suggested there be an ASP sanctioned bong ) over time but my gut feel is that the best journos present a story and let the reader draw their own conclusions, as you know this gets derailed by a number of forces as wide ranging as advertising and political motivation.
How a story is presented will always be the problem and often as is the case with that Pawle monkey and your mate Charlie it's what gets left out that sets the tone. There is no easy answer and Pawle and Smith and the like ARE good writers but sometimes what they produce leaves a sour taste on established palates. I think the change in surfing that's happening is reflected in the change in surf journalism. The diversety in both surfing and the style in which it's being reported in ALL media is a lovely growing pain that is caused by its slow almost "Breech-birth" entry into the broader parts of society. While everyone is freaking out about things like Micks gaffe it's just a healthy sign that the baby is growing and with this growth will come many positives as well. Progress is a bulldozer you can't stop but you sure as hell can jump on and help steer it and this is where the moral task lies for guys like you and NC et al. Where are you gonna let the bulldozer go? What will be the legacy you leave for the new pensmen coming up?
If I get the chance to write surf stuff again I sure as hell will miss the old days where the talent and the media were a single family but I am sure as I will have just as much fun in what ever the new version is after all it's surfing so what's not to love?

[boardscape avalon]

Self important f>>>cken wankers .How much smoke can you fit up each others arses...Are you paying airfares peely or is it just the rice etc and the right to surf the waves at your camp...If you really think that all of a sudden the standard of surf journalism has revolutionised since Steve started blogging , even tongue in cheek , your tripping ..Ask him how keen he would be on doing it full time after another standard year at bells...

[Shane Peel]

Self important f>>>cken wankers .How much smoke can you fit up each others arses...Are you paying airfares peely or is it just the rice etc and the right to surf the waves at your camp...If you really think that all of a sudden the standard of surf journalism has revolutionised since Steve started blogging , even tongue in cheek , your tripping ..Ask him how keen he would be on doing it full time after another standard year at bells...

Hey Boardscape,
You seem chipper this fine evening, deal is the resort not the airfares but with Air Asia it's pretty cheap. The winner does not have to come unless they want too. No hidden motives sunshine just wanted to see who the RS readers/viewers put in the best effort at Bells mate. So … I missed it who do you think was the best of the two???

[boardscape avalon]

just bored Shane, i thought i would try and rattle a cage but to no avail..Funny though if i can cost you an airfare!

[2000man]

And your vote Mr Byrnes [/quote]

... Shearer.

[Kunji]

Im voting for Stu because he's taller than NC.... just.

[daryl]

I'm voting for Steve because I think he's getting hen-pecked, okay?

[steve shearer]

I want to see work that equals Mailers 'Fight' or Delillo's Underworld before I would even consider any scribblings by those two second-rate litterateurs.

You take the seventh Asahi brekkie beer again?
Second rate is way too kind.
Third or fourth rate is still laughable when put in the same sentence as Mailer. Though Tom Wolfe wrote the best portrait of Ali.

As for DeLillo's Underworld. I'd rather be hung upside down by the balls and fed tequila with a bunch of drunk mexicans playing bad mariachi music in my ear with a sweaty Russian woman who stunk of cabbage reading me Ulysses and kicked me in the figs every chapter.
That would make about as much sense as that dense impenetrable shitt.

I only wanted to erase the stain of Gonzo journalism from my name and that seems have come to pass....now, instead of ignoramuses telling me I should load up on mescaline before I go to Vic I'm described as "fragile and delicate", with "bohemian nuances"
Yeah, well that's what innumerable styrofoam cups of Nescafe Blend 43 will do to you.

While Carroll was sitting in his easy chair sipping chardonnay with the rest of the Newport Intelligentsia I was taking a ride out, scraping up another story out of Victorian slop.
Day after freaking day.

I read Carroll's closing piece before I'd even started writing.....it was demoralising reading such strong writing.
But I took hope when he took a cheap shot at Byron Bay Hippies.
Like Gra, aiming satire at soft, amorphous targets, who by and large are weak and powerless is kind of self-defeating.
Why not use the talent to make fun of the rich and powerful?

Taking aim at the everyman is shooting fish in a bowl.

[Nick Carroll]

Yeah give it to Shearer.

He took the wrong board down there and thus not only had to put up with 11 days of a classic Bells Gone Wrong year, but did it almost without getting wet. Forget writing a Don Delillo novel -- the poor bastard was living one.

He needs some time in Peel's company so as to cast off the TS Eliot hangover (where the fcuk was the line about "not with a bang but a whimper", by the way? or "like a patient etherized upon a table" ...that being the current state of the rest of the top 10 now Baldy's won a contest) and re-ignite the Flame of Sarcasm. Though the post above shows perhaps he's not that far off.

[Shane Peel]

The call will be made tomorrow evening, just need to get the postal votes and word from the outlying areas. What about Dino's pen put him in coach, Dino the Brasil event … do it!

[gra]

Like Gra, aiming satire at soft, amorphous targets, who by and large are weak and powerless is kind of self-defeating.
Why not use the talent to make fun of the rich and powerful?

Taking aim at the everyman is shooting fish in a bowl.

Hi Steve.

Not a fan of debating in public but you invoked my work as a specific example of something a bit rank so I'm obliged to respond in public. (Apologies to the majority for whom this is an irrelevance)

I get what you mean, and I know you were just dashing off the lines but I can't help but think you might be a smidge off-frequency on one of the points of satire.

For me, satire isn't to tear shreds off people (and perhaps make me feel better about myself in the process).

I find aspects of the ordinary, everyday surfing existence ('Man Stranded On Jump Rock til Tide Comes Back In', 'Complete Bitch Chooses to Read Magazine Instead of Watch Boyfriend Surf' etc) are good ways to poke fun at the human foibles – our vanities and our self importance etc – that are common to all of us.

My ideal of The Goldmine is to make surfers laugh at how seriously we take ourselves. You wrote that I aim satire at “soft, amorphous targets, who by and large are weak and powerless". This (particularly your use of the word 'powerless' which implies 'powerless to defend') is loaded with an emotive implication of some kind of nastiness or, dare I say it, bullying.

Of course the Goldmine (currently languishing in can't-be-arsed-land BTW) sometimes fell short of these ideals in concept and execution (nuclear annihilation of SUPs springs to mind), but I do ask you to recognise the distinction I'm making here. The real weaknesses the Goldmine aimed at were the weaknesses in all of us that might benefit from a glimmer of recognition every now and again.

Which is pretty different from picking on the defenceless.

Anyway, someone's taking themselves too seriously here. (That'd be me.)
But ya get that.

cheers

[steve shearer]

Yeah Fair enough Gra.

I'd just like to see you aim up , Swiftian-style, at something a bit higher up the food chain.

I'm getting a whiff that people are responding to the New Parameters of on-line "journalism" and trying to be edgy and current by taking pot-shots at easy targets.
Sorry if I included you in amongst that.

It was just Carroll's swipe at Hippies that got me riled.

[Lucky Al]

i must admit i was taken aback by nick's 'hippie scum' comment as well. it kind of felt like he was having a go at my mum, who moved from lismore to byron at the age of 16 to get away from a crazy catholic family and swim in the sea, hang out on the beach and lie in the fields. but then i thought maybe nick doesn't really mean it and he's saying something else, something about 'surf journos' rather than hippies, irish backpackers and fuckwit yuppie real estate investors.

[jimmy]

Maybe Nick doesn't like hippies cause most of 'em have long hair..
And BTW my vote goes to Fred Pawle.

[boardscape avalon]

Award it to Steve, spending that amount of time away from his young family in testing circumstances....10 days in Sumatra away again from them seems logical.