There’s been a lot going on in competitive surfing lately. And we haven’t written $hit about it lately. Part of the reason why is because we’ve been off the air (not counting shitty podcasts) for five months now (largely because the vast majority of radio management is either gutless pu$$ies, complete idiots, or a combination of the two), and I’m not going to lie: Morale has been better with the T.E.S. crew. Nonetheless, we’ve never heard of the word “Quit” before, so until every last available option is exhausted, we’ll continue to give you honest reporting mixed in with some edumacated opinions.
First off, the Cold Water Classic Series. They ran the last two contests of the series the past few weeks, and we have a couple of winners. The fourth stop, the O’Neill Cold Water Classic Tofino, was won by Pete Devries. Can you say, “We called that shit!”? Cyrus interviewed Devries over the summer. Part one here, part two here. Really cool guy and an amazing surfer. Interviews are definitely worth a listen.
Nate Yeomans won the fifth and final stop of the Cold Water Classic Series, the O’Neill Cold Water Classic California (they replaced “at Steamer’s Lane” with “
On to the Mavericks Surf Contest. Mavericks Dictator Keir Beidling, who had the audacity to boot The Godfather of Mavericks Jeff Clark from the very contest he created, claims that the new system, which involves having the 24 invited surfers vote on green-lighting the contest, is improved from having the Contest Director (which was Jeff Clark) giving the go-ahead (it’s worth noting that Clark used to select the 24 surfers; apparently Beidling’s handling this duty now and decided to make our boy Russell Smith, who is a regular in past contests, now just an alternate).
Conditions were ideal last weekend to run the contest. So why didn’t it happen? Two reasons. One, some of the invited Mavericks riders were also competing in the O’Neill Cold Water Classic California. So of course they’re going to vote no. Way too much going on in Santa Cruz to divide up the attention this way (and considering Beidling feeds every major media outlet in NorCal with fluffy press releases on a regular basis, there was no way he’d want some of the Mavericks hype to be sucked away in Santa Cruz).
The second reason, and this is a silly one, is that Beidling would much rather have the contest run on a weekday so he can avoid paying extra money for security. Plus less people follow the news on weekends. It’s always been his preference to have the contest run on a weekday. How do we know this? We used to be the webcast commentators for the Mavericks Surf Contest. Key phrase being “used to be”; until a guy named Scott Ogle, who runs the webcast, decided with Beidling that they’d rather have a skiing commentator handle the webcast duties. Oh, and Beidling decided to tell us that we’re fired from our webcasting duting not in-person, but via e-mail after we were getting ready for last year’s contest (which Clark decided not to green light last-minute due to lousy conditions, hence leading to his dismissal by the dictator Beidling).
Plus the later the contest is run, the more hype Beidling and his minions can create. Marketing 101. Most surfers and industry types don’t follow standard Marketing 101 policies because most industry types understand that you have to try to keep surfing in the sub-culture. Something an east coast lawyer like Beidling never has, and never will, understand.
And in closing, a note to the 24 Mavericks Surf Contest invitees: Do you guys know what loyalty means? We support you all, and consider a lot of you our friends. With that said, is the money worth that much to all of you? Do you not realize that if you boycotted the event, The Godfather of Mavericks Jeff Clark would still be the Contest Director, thus preserving the prestige that has left the Mavericks Surf Contest? Something to think about.
