A Moving Letter from Gerry Lopez

[Trilobite]

Gerry Lopez is one of the most talented surfers of all time, but he shared an amazing letter to surfers of Israel and Gaza on The Inertia that demonstrates what an amazing ambassador for surfing and a great person he is too.

Here's a link to his piece:

http://www.theinertia.com/surf/gerry-lo ... nd-israel/

Also, a story I wrote about surfing was published in the New York Times on Sunday. Thought you might be interested in checking it out:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/sport ... ng.html?hp

[chrisb]

"Lopez, he's as good as they say he is".

[chrisb]

Interesting article of your's also "trilobite". She's in quite a small minority group: pro surfer, female, longboarder and gay.

Regarding boycotts our PM Bob Hawke in praising Tom Carroll said that his "did not compete" statistics were more important than his wins and world title. The DNC's of course came from his anti-apartheid stance and boycott of South African events.

[happyripper]

In other words Dont worry be happy. Great thanks very much jerry.

[Skipper]

Aloha to you too happy.

[Beanpole]

Gerry cruises through as usual. The ultimate soul surfer plus astute businessman and actor. Oh well, back to work tomorrow.
On the other hand few longboarders make a living out of the sport and really bugger all pro shortboarders either.

I reckon its unrealistic to expect to be given a living for surfing. If you can create that somehow great but no one owes you a lifestyle like that. Its all about style, luck and canny timing.

[Little]

$50,000 is way too much prize money for a women's longboard event. If they had to sell tickets to raise the prizemoney it would come to more like $50. And that's only if the contestants had boyfriends ( or girlfriends in this case ) who would bother going to watch rather than cop the nagging.
Women's longboard events should be restricted to kiddies corner at Collaroy and have them out of the water before the nippers turn up. Then they can hurry off to their waitressing jobs to serve me eggs.

[happyripper]

I bet they can all surf better than you kook

[gibber]

but where is Gerry moving too?

[Trev]

but where is Gerry moving too?

Hey gibber. Are you back?

[gibber]

Yes trev i am back.
I tried to post from over there but the computer at the place i went to check mail didn't let me post on here so i had to scribble my meandering thoughts onto scraps of wrapping paper after eating nasi jampur contained within and stuffed them into empty bintang bottles and threw them out into the channel on an out going tide.
By my reckoning they should be floating off the eastern seaboard by the 14th of april so if anyone happens to find them, please be a pal and post them up for me.
I will post some stuff up soon in the wdys (where did you surf) thread for you to read...or not

[Trev]

Yes trev i am back.
I tried to post from over there but the computer at the place i went to check mail didn't let me post on here so i had to scribble my meandering thoughts onto scraps of wrapping paper after eating nasi jampur contained within and stuffed them into empty bintang bottles and threw them out into the channel on an out going tide.
By my reckoning they should be floating off the eastern seaboard by the 14th of april so if anyone happens to find them, please be a pal and post them up for me.
I will post some stuff up soon in the wdys (where did you surf) thread for you to read...or not

Looking forward to it.

[alakaboo]

$50,000 is way too much prize money for a women's longboard event. If they had to sell tickets to raise the prizemoney it would come to more like $50. And that's only if the contestants had boyfriends ( or girlfriends in this case ) who would bother going to watch rather than cop the nagging.
Women's longboard events should be restricted to kiddies corner at Collaroy and have them out of the water before the nippers turn up. Then they can hurry off to their waitressing jobs to serve me eggs.

I bet they can all surf better than you kook

Just put a mark on the calendar. This is the first (and probably only) time I've agreed with happyripper.

[bc]

The largest prize in women’s longboarding is $50,000
Trilobite - Out of interest- What's the biggest prize in men's longboarding?

[gibber]

One of Roy's masterpieces

[Beanpole]

Show me an Australian longboarding champ who doesn't have another job.
Most of them are shapers.
I reckon there are more elegant female longboarders than shortboarders.

[happyripper]

i had a go at little cause the blokes a f ing kook. But most longboard comps ive seen are full of gumby's. If they're really surfing a longboard no worries but from what ive seen that sort of real longboarding isn't real popular in contests.

[Beanpole]

Longboarding comps are for gumbies and are really there to allow people to get on megaphones, hooters and score cards and organise the hapless participants into humiliating rituals like manning the sausage sizzle while the elite drink beer and advise them on how to butter the rolls. They can send them out in monstrous closeouts or dead flat low tide mill ponds and give them 2 points for turning up.This is why it is so important to encourage them.