, 1344653409
Do you mean 'surf culture' or 'pro surf culture'? Drugs are prevalent in many aspects of society, surfing included.
, 1344653890
Good question but I guess both because in Tracks and other old mags drugs were talked about both on and off the tour
, 1344686413
Sypkan, do you have a problem with drug use or other people using drugs ?
What Ben said.
Drugs are a societal phenomena, not surf cultural specific. You'd be better asking if surfing was part of society, or does it exist in some idealogical drug free bubble ?
Waddya you reckon ? and what's the big deal anyhoo ?
, 1344693980
It was I, you fools! The man you trusted wasn't Wavy Gravy at all! And all this time, I've been smoking harmless tobacco.
, 1344723878
a line of cola would do wonders before staring down a 30+ft wave!!
, 1344727508
Sid,
I dont have a problem with people using drugs, in fact quite often I smoke Zen's nameless tobacco. I also occasionally have taken mystery white powders, pills, crystals and mushrooms, and had a great time.
I was actually asking because in my experience lots of surfers are into this stuff, yet the modern surf media portrays this squeaky clean image. I think they are trying to present it as a clean sport to increase sponsors, participants and acceptance so it might one day be in the Olympics etc.(these things I am not for at all)
Having said that I have seen many of my friends lives fucked up by drugs, and I believe the only thing that has prevented this happening to me is surfing keeping the partying in some kind of balance.
Yes Ben and Sid are right it is a societal problem/phenomenon (depending on your perspective), but I think per capita surfers would take drugs at a much higher percentage than other 'sports' people, but the media no longer has those colourful stories they had in the past.
So I am a contradictory bastard who thinks drugs are generally bad because most people don't have the will power to control themselves, but I don't want some war on drugs because I like them. It is kind of funny for me that the 'druggy' lifestyle of surfing actually curbed my drug use and gave me some balance, I think they call that irony.
No ideological battle here, just wondering what the reality is out, because it seems the easier it becomes to put out and find information (internet) the harder it is to find the reality.
, 1344735585
I think per capita surfers would take drugs at a much higher percentage than other 'sports' people
By: "sypkan"
, 1344741899
I have two degrees and I'm also a part-time model.
However, I have not yet published a peer-reviewed journal article.
Perhaps I'm not qualified to comment in this context, but here goes
I think recreational surfers smoke less bongs than they used to, and do more things like ecstasy, coke and meth these days. PERS. OBS
I think pro-surfers probably consume drugs at a similar level to footballers of all codes, that is, some do, some don't, some do sometimes, some do often. PURE CONJECTURE
I don't think that the modern surf media portrays surfing as being squeaky clean. Instead it's the advertising campaigns for major surf companies that portray surfing in this way, albeit with enough tatts and scowls to appeal to the adolescent consumer.
My bong ate my references.
, 1344758075
drugs are definetly more common in the skate culture i reckon than surfing anyway
you could also argue that surfers in a way should or shouldnt need drugs more than the average person. Certain drugs may provide a feeling of euphoria, like riding a wave, so maybe surfers have more of a 'right' to do drugs, but then you could also argue why take drugs when you can just surf
, 1344761708
Are you kidding.Surfing in the 70-80-90's was promoted involving the drug culture..Hell that was what made it 'cool' wasn't it? Still nothing better than having aan awesome surf sesh then having a bong/beer.kicking back and replaying all your rides of the day..Tops it of?!As to thermal Ben putting his we donot confirm or deny line out, I think it is more of the deny catagory, have people forgot Andy Irons already? No mention of any of Andy's drug use in his obituary or use on swellnet..as well as any other corporate website..I think it is still a part of surfing it is just that to be able to surf is cool enough without the drugs tag now...just my 2cents
, 1344762612
The drug trade is a fully vertically integrated, multi billion dollar industry and has been for centuries. Always a defacto clandestine arm of world power governments.
The Indian British Raja opium, traded (cough) for gold to the Chinese, funded the British Navy which colonialised and conquered the modern world as we know it.
The British handed the USA the global opium trade baton in exchange for not invading Canada in early WW11 due to the fact that the Royal Family was penciled in to relocate to Canada, still a British colony, should the Germans win ze War and invade England.
From there, the US became the next super power, probably built on smack money, just like the almighty Royal British Navy before them.
During the GFC, the only funds that kept US banks afloat was their openess to launder massive surplus drug money deposits. The Sth American coke trade has always been CIA "managed". Cannibas was outlawed to create and protect Du Ponts chemical fibre alternates to hemp.
the modern drug trade ? same as it ever was ...
http://12160.info/profiles/blogs/opium-cultivation-and-heroin-production-in-pakistan-s-northern-tr
, 1344762797
When I said surf media I was talking about ALL surf media in general like mags, websites and videos not just Swellnet. What got me thinking was an ad for a "magic mushroom board" I just thought wow I havent seen anything like that for a long time.
Generally I agree with Turner about a clean image being presented by advertising but also some of the new surf TV shows, so much so that the TV shows are like watching Hillsong Goes Surfing. I also think Turner is right about the drugs changing to ecstasy and meth etc.
I have to agree also that musicians would do more drugs than surfers, but I dont think of music as a sport, though some would say surfing is not either, and music and drugs have gone together for a long time (as did surfing for a long time).
But about Swellnet, whilst reading an article about weird surfing and muso's in the NW WA desert, I could not help but think that if that article was in Tracks years ago there would have been some references to drugs through the article. Maybe the camp is not full of potheads anymore, maybe classic muso's dont take drugs, maybe surfers generally dont do as many drugs anymore but it all looked a bit wacky to me.
, 1344763590
so please don't be so naive and just plain stupid ignorant to think drugs are a part of surfing anymore than are a part of the rest of the world.
, 1344766416
@sidthefish drugs and the "extreme sport' industry go hand in hand..In South Oz over 90% of surfers I know have done/do drugs...are you saying in the rest of society it is that high..BS..you must live in a 4th dimension surfing bubble!
, 1344767820
---you must live in a 4th dimension surfing bubble!----
fuck yeah, where do I get me some of that ? !
, 1344769837
When I smoked mull it seemed that everyone smoked mull. Everywhere we went we'd have a bong close at hand and there was always people up for it.
Now that I've given it up it appears everyone else has too.
Amazing.
, 1344815390
ahh stu, you just got old, bong's are like asthma, more people grow out of them one day.
but as a collective, I reckon if you took a finals crowd at eg: the Quikky Pro, and compared % drug use to the crowds at say the Denny Ute Muster, the Summer Nats, Bathurst 1000, or similar gathering, then the surf event would be well down the list.
barley, you need to stop hangin with such hardcore druggos, and git yersef some of that "4th dimensional surfing bubble" shit,
hey man.
, 1344829061
Sid, unless i've mis-read your reply above, the Bathurst 1000 is piss related from my experience. Never saw much hooter or powder.
, 1344831637
Surfing definitely has a culture of drug use - no two ways about it... Not even up for debate. How do you change that culture should be the theme of this forum not if it exists.
Does anyone seriously think the media should portray it any differently?? I personally think that the less people doing drugs the better. I say we let people make their own decisions, but I don't think hypothetical footage of Taj racking up lines with Paris Hilton is going to help any junior grommet make good life decisions.
, 1344832771
Every time I buy a surf mag in the last few years there is always a full page add for some fertilizer called "Cannaboost".. Are there a whole heap of surfers growing hydroponic roses or something? I'm surprised the mags let adds like that through but I guess advertising $$ trump everything in the corporate world of surfing.
Maybe they could go a step further and sponser a WQS event called the Cannaboost Pro in somewhere like South Australia! It would complement the Drug Aware Pro at Margret River and target the diverse demographic of the surfing culture!!
, 1344839391
a lot of this sounds kinda... "no sex please, we're British."
...
yeah, "no drugs please, we're surfers." that's it.
, 1344854976
I think surfing has just become much more accessible to the mainstream, a place where drug use is frowned upon (except for pharmaceuticals - they are a necessary part of your cheerful day).
People from the mainstream water down the numbers, and also make up a large portion of the surfing market. Advertisers chase their dollars and portray an image tasteful to them.
In regards to the Cannaboost Ads, I have a sneaking suspicion that throwing them in the mags as well as the odd bit of PG rated drug allegory, makes the mainstream surfers feel that surfing is still kinda badass and alterna, which secretly makes them feel cool and 'down with it' while at the same time healthy and positive and better than the other drug using scum.
Of course, I have nothing to back any of this up, so feel free to shoot it down.
On a some what judgmental note, drug use is pretty fucked. Anyone who thinks chronic weed usage doesn't affect a person's personality over the long term is fucking bananas.
Moderation moderation my fellows.
, 1344867818
Not that any of this matters , but i think it just depends what end of the Surfing scale your looking at . Surfing these days has so many different levels of CORE . And in such ways it can almost be stereotypically pidgeon holed by surrounding postcodes and regions .
Somewhere you may have cronic smokers who seem to be average , then another spot/coast /region maybe a man made imbibing capital of which the lines of junky and cool but loose -unit get smeared/ blurred . And then you have your social eleitists that tend to think nothing of the Multiple $100's a month Cola habit ...... all but some of which washed down with Booze for either a Party or chilled vibe .
Personally i can't do ( stereotypical ) Drugs , unlike many others that still do it when they clearly shouldn't . I have found that I'm probably already too Loose , vibrant , self confident , arrogant , emotional , artistic , flippant , over analytical without heightening any of these with many of these days accepted forms of " rec ' drug outlets that many choose or get chosen by their subconscious for a coping mechanism . Unfortunately i found in the past that this sometimes excluded me from some circles , but most often if it wasn't the case then those people who did and didn't judge then they were the ones worth following/hangin out with .
Strangely because of some negative experiences , i often go out of my way to " fuck " with people sub consciously when i notice whatever state their in and play with their Paranoia ......
Not nice , but its my way of saying judge and you will be judged . Probably not healthy in some circles , but meh ' .
Anyway for once i don't agree with you Syd ,
i think ( reading between the lines , [pardon the pun] ) that Rouby , and maybe a few other SA lads have seen some pretty strong negatives to long term drug usage .
Again personally i have never seen anything positive come remotely close to the vast amount of negatives that surround this topic .
But i would say that the legalities of alot of this subject probably make the negative influences worse with the company many will keep to feed , produce and maintain any sort of habit or rec. usage . In this regards even opportunistic/clever surfing Mules have come unstuck , even though some have tried to maintain a distance from " work & pleasure " .......
Some topics shouldn't be raised in this instance .
, 1344889268
biggest meth/coke week of the year on the Goldie ...???
Indy/ V8SuperCars.
Fact.
, 1344893591
Like Sid and Ben I'm still not sold on the fact that surfing has a drug culture any worse than the rest of society. When I was in my late teens every person I knew was a surfer and my answer would've been different - it seemed then that everyone was getting toasted. As I got older and expanded my circle of friends I realised this simply wasn't anything exclusive to surfing.
The people who say surfing has a drug culture: How many non-surfers do you know? Have you travelled well away from the surfing scene? Still seen people taking drugs...?
Me, I reckon it's just another example of surfers thinking they're got some exclusive reign. That and the fact most surfers live sheltered lives.
, 1344897021
Ahh, yes, but the Goldie is a different kettle of fish.............
, 1344899820
Growing up in the middle of Canada "well away from the surfing scene" I would have to agree with Stu's comment as the majority of the adolescent population were into recreational drug use. I personally believe it has nothing to do with surfing at all, in fact surfing would almost deter people from drug usage... Have you ever surfed all hopped up on goofballs?? Surfing provides a sort of getaway for some people in that sense.
As for professional surfing and drugs, I would have to argue that most pros use these drugs as coping mechanisms more than for recreational purposes and keeping it on the down low is very important in maintaining there image in the corporate surfing world (i.e sponsors, events etc.)
, 1344901430
Personally speaking, I'd say the times of my life when I've been most into surfing, I've been least into drugs. Vice versa, the periods when I've drifted away from surfing, the drug usage has gone way up.
I sit here today, teetotal and fricken amping for tomorrow's dawny!
, 1344914392
arbus-lessker, it is not a good example but denying there existance may not help either, I work with a former heroin addict who believes she got only into it because no-one told her about drugs and the dangers, but it is a hard one.
Gotta agree Stunet, if you use drugs it seems everyone does then you give up and they are gone, but that does not mean they have gone away altogether, just your group of (older) friends have changed.
Nice summary and and self-charater appraisal there Southey, classic. I have got to agree, postcodes mean a lot, coke on the goldy and northern beaches are huge, and weed in SA is hard to get away from.
, 1344915030
Apparently, meth and coke are huge in Hawaii and the big wave scene in general. As some one who has surfed on meth I can see the attraction, I was way better than normal, but I can also see the danger if these guys are doing it all the time, you would be lost without it. I am sure those clean guys who do it without are streets ahead in terms of confidence, which is a big part, and just in life in general.
I still beleive though the modern media are choosing not to talk about it. Whether it is to appeal to advertisers or just because the subject was dealt with in 70s with the hippy stuff. I dont know, but as Barley pointed out about Andy Irons death, the silence on Swellnet was deafening!
, 1344916516
Fair call Sykpan - definitely not an area I've got any formal experience in.
Stunet.. I've got a fairly diverse group of friends - these days predominately outside the confines of Australian surf culture. My general view is that people with certain personality traits/types are more attracted to drugs than others. While there are many different types who try/use drugs my personal experience has been that often drug takers are people that have a higher stimulus threshold than the normal population, and who don't mind dabbling in some risk taking behaviour .
So does that mean surfing has a drug culture? Well... maybe it does. I would say, that generally surfers (at least the surfers I've met around the world) fit the bill of the personality type that is often a drug user. Thrill seeking, often well travelled and keen to try something new. High stimulus thresholds. This is something that many other groups would fit into, including contact sport players and motoring enthusiasts.
Stunet/Thermal - Challenge for you. Why don't you look up general drug usage statistics, I'm sure our friends at the ABS, or if not them another reputable source could provide these. Then run a survey on Swellnet for the internet savvy surfer group. Like any survey, will be riddled with caveats and limitations - but the results might share some insight on this topic.
Cheers, Arbus
, 1344919662
"But as Barley pointed out about Andy Irons death, the silence on Swellnet was deafening!"
I wonder what I would've written? Since I've never met Andy Irons, never done drugs with him and don't know anyone who did. Until the coroners report came out I had no idea what drugs he had in his system. As far as I knew it was all speculation and drug speculation is one small step away from greasy tabloid crap. I'm not gonna take part in it.
When Brad Melekian did his Outside article he interviewed 50 people. Where the fuck do you think Swellnet is gonna get the money to undertake such an operation??
, 1344919905
"I still beleive though the modern media are choosing not to talk about it."
Go read Rabbit's book about the birth of professionalism in the 70's and how they used to hide drug use to further corporate interest in the sport. This is not a 'modern media' issue.
, 1344922674
Interesting topic.
I see no difference between 'drugs and surfing' and 'beer and footy' or 'beer and cricket'. I think it's more a matter of a preferred vice than something that you do because you surf. I've got plenty of mates who love a choof before a paddle (especially if the surfs small and then we like a few 'wave enhancers' to get motivated) and I've also got plenty of mates who surf that don't touch the stuff at all.
Weed is the drug of choice for surfers from what i've seen because you can't surf pissed but you can surf stoned. That and the fact that you can grow it for free - especially in the desert.
Dunno about surfing and taking coke - never been a fan of it and haven't seen anyone snorting a line before heading out for a wave.
, 1344934018
I can promise y'all, forget the ABS arbus, if you talk to the asian syndicates who have grow houses all over Syd/Melb/BRis, or bikers running meth, or wogs running smack or any other supply chain, or mates in CIB, ask 'em if surfers are their biggest customers...
the answer will be definitively NO.
Nth Qld is full of drugs, no surf up there. Wagga Wagga ? Western Sydney? Canberra ? Cranbourne ?
do surfers, some, sometimes, often, occasionally, regularly do drugs?,? YES, and newsflash, they wipe their bums too, just like everyone else.
get a life bitches, this is womens gossip mag shit.
, 1344934239
"Youth is wasted on the young" George Bernard Shaw.
So true, so very true.
, 1344937970
Sid ya been getting ya knickers in a knot over this topic mate, better roll one up and calm down ay?
, 1344956316
Stu,
Ben Matson claimed in the long Billabong thread that Swellnet has more viewers than all surf mags combined. Tongue in cheek? Perhaps. Regardless, Melekian interviewing 50 people is NOTHING compared to any real journalism in the real world. Shit, most NY Times reporters work years on stories before they're published if they regard a high subject matter.
What higher subject matter, pun intended or not, is there in surfing than Andy Irons?
You can afford to send Shearer to Bells and Tahiti so he can write recaps of what we all saw online, but you can't shill a few shekels for AI?
And spare me this bullshit about speculation.
What the fuck is your job and the point of this website?
Speculate! About waves. How important!!
Everything you do is about speculating when storms, swell charts, flight patterns, etc might converge. You know, connecting the dots. All for the super hyper important point of guessing where all the surfers should go tomorrow or five days from now. Connecting fucking dots.
As for AI, you didn't write shit for the same reason no one else in surf media did. You were a gutless coward. Not even a post saying "Dengue Fever? Really?"
Then you somehow concoct this idea that since Rabbit Talked about drugs in the 70's this isn't a "modern media" issue? What planet are you Aussie's living on. Drugs are a modern media issue as long as people keep dying as a result of them - whether it's Andy Irons, the rebel in Columbia, the covert US Ops member sent by his foolish government, the inner city mother hooked on smack, to the kids born deformed due to parents fucking themselves up.
Just fucking admit that surf blogs, like Swellnet, do nothing more than speculate on waves and do everything in their interest to promote the corporations that make your jobs possible.
Leaches.
, 1344956485
And SidFish has ZERO credibility.
“I haven't been aligned with Billabong since I used to sweep out the original factory at Hibiscus Ave on a Friday arvo after school for a pair of boardies or a singlet. My allegiances ended up elsewhere... 'nother story. [really?]
But what I will say, is that Gordon Merchant is a sincere, passionate and creative person, as is Rena.
Over the years I've seen his loyalty and caring applied from Joe Engel to Occ to AI. Sometimes the right thing to do would have been to let them go. But he didn't, he stuck by them.†~ SidFish
Bye Sid, you Corporate fucking cocksucking bullshit artist. You are a trivial band of Industry Insiders just trying to keep your little piece of the pie.
Hope you like it burnt to a crisp, mutherfuckers.
, 1344957438
Whew! I don't think anyone saw that coming.
Where you been mate? Hisashiburi as they say.
A Shekel for AI you ask?
Why?
You seem to be very cut and dried in your views. Can I narrow it down a bit further?
AI- Consumer or Contributer?
What say you Caesar?
, 1344972902
Hey it's Bunnyman! It surely won't be long till Echo shows up and you guys get the band back together. Good ol' V for Vanguard, the best sidekick a man can get - you say Andy Irons, he says how high.
, 1344976001
ahhhh, hoooray, the industrial sized fuckwit vermin gets lured out of it's hypocritical hole.
knew it was coming, just gotta change the color of the flickbait.
same old bogus claptrap.
AI died doing what he loved, taking drugs. Billabong shoulda ditched him years ago. end of.
All that other insider tripe is just that, tripe. I know a few people from way back, and a few in between, doesn't make me an insider.
And for the record, I've had some ding dong doozy heavy confrontations with some of them "industry" big wigs, and also the surfing Admin. Always up front face to face, mano 2 mano.
Unlike you - the gutless faceless hollywood handbag.
Baa haa, go fuck yourself, you dunno shit. You're no more than a fart in your own cyber bubble.
good to have you back, kook.
, 1344976408
goofy, its a loaded topic and was always gunna go - see above - .
but yeah, I do get bored with the subject, and staunchly support ones right to self determination and personal liberty, whilst recognising the 'war on drugs' is as big a pile of bullshit as the'war on terror'.
, 1344977469
hey BR ya fuckwit, give us a 'fuck you and all you love' ... its been awhile.
now you've fallen for the same bait, again, and well hooked, get on twatter so we can hear the drag scream. zzzzzzzzzzzz...zzz...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
I can tell you're a carp, cos you're too dumb for a trout.
, 1344984093
I'm surprised to hear you defending the mainstream media and journalists BR given your well documented paranoia and conspiracy theories! This same mainstream media that overlooked WMD's in Iraq, a 911 report with more holes in it then Swiss cheese, the GFC that none of them saw coming? Oh. That was in your country. Of course you expect much higher standards from an Australian website built primarily to forcast surf conditions?
, 1344985078
"Drugs are bad, mkay" but drugs are fun. To each their own... choice, responsibility, acceptance of consequences. Freedom for all.
, 1344990888
It's as simple as that. There's no need for an intricately fabricated latticework of argument as forwarded by some commenters in this thread.
, 1345002201
I did not mean to start peddling paranoia when I started this thread, I just wanted to settle my own paranoia that I am not the only one smoking 'wave enhancer' before a session because that was the impression I get from modern media.
Now we have poor old sidfish so paranoid he doesnt know whether to have a joint to relax, or have a line to stay one step ahead of them, whoever they are? And the swellnet guys are being so paranoid about the whole topic in general, so much that they are contradicting themselves, as Blasphamy so eloquently pointed out.
Arbus has nailed it concerning who uses drugs and his risk taking theory. If you like to take risks on a board, a bike, a wave, or a car bonnet, you are more likely to take risks with a law. Yes drugs are all through society, but they are also concentrated in certain groups like skaters, bikeriders, surfers and jackasses.
I have to confess I dont read this site all the time, because it seems that this topic has opened some old wounds I am unaware of. And everyone is bagging this Blasphamy fellow, yet I beleive he raises some good points, maybe a little intensely but good points nonetheless.
Points like, one minute Ben is saying we never push or deny the drug issue, and that he has more readers than the all the magazines combined. If you have so many readers then surely Stu and co. could enjoy more funds for better 'journalism', and also you do spend a lot of cash cruising the country for stories. Stu did seem to play down drugs and talking about them, then come out with a big admission about Rabbit and the 70s. Now credit for coming clean, but really the Andy Irons excuse was a little lame.
When I read the initial article I thought, well, that was a respectful article free of inuendo etc. despite other media indulging, but I also thought there is a lot of information missing that will need to be cleared up with a follow up article, when the circumstances become clearer, we waited and waited and waited...
I am not going into this to bag Swellnet, just to ask the question, How did we go from Rabbit and co. in the 70s cleansing surfing for the advertisers, while mags like Tracks and others were still able run stories about drugs, and some pros would openly talk about them, to 40 years later having a situation where websites are too paranoid to report newsworthy stuff (yes newsworthy in any context you like) like Andy Irons death?
Surfing is supposedly a progressive and radical sport, yet we are too paranoid to talk the reality. Even sports like motorsports (I think conservative by nature)would talk about what killed one of its participants if the evidence became clear as to what happened.
Is surfing that desperate to be accepted by the masses? Now acceptance is much more complex in a psychological sense, and apparently that is all that we all wish for.
Or are the companies and markerters that powerful or desperate to sell it to the masses that they will 'suggest' self imposed censorship?
Either way surfing has been fucked by the corporate dog, and while this thread has settled my paranoia, it has been a dissapointing realisation that surfing, a sport that once prided itself on having soul and integrity has sold itself out more than other over commercialised sports like motorsports, a sad day.
, 1345003969
"And the swellnet guys are being so paranoid about the whole topic in general, so much that they are contradicting themselves, as Blasphamy so eloquently pointed out."
Blasphemy equated swell forecasting - which is a science - with drug speculation. There is no parallel.
"Points like, one minute Ben is saying he has more readers than the all the magazines combined."
No he didn't, Blasphemy said that.
"I have to confess I dont read this site all the time"
Then you would've missed all the times we did run stories on the Andy Irons death. What I didn't run was an opinion piece on it. There were 1000 other sites who did, either moralising or demonising AI's death and I found them all trite and boring. I'm not scared of it, hell I've written way worse things, but since nothing has been added to the story I didn't feel like adding to that big pile of nothing.
, 1345004337
dont worry skypan, it's all part of the big-brother project and its depressing moral rectitude pervading society at the mo' combined with capitalism and its aim to contain, control and *profit*. Surfing, like bikers, was once an "outside" (anti-establishment) activity and "vibe", and there are those of us still around who don't give a fuk about commercialism, contests, fashion etc etc. The bikers are being outlawed officially which is kinda cool as they always were out-laws, and surfing is, in the media at least, being incorporated and coopted as to be fashionable and "cool"... but some of those big wavers are happily snorting while heaps of us still enjoy that "outside" feel - surf+drugs+freedom+whateva. Everyone just needs to chill and realise we're all gonna die. Enjoy it while u can, however and whichever way u like, as long as respect/responsibility continues in and out of the water. So sayeth...
, 1345006501
Stunet, oh yes he did say that, hmm, time to ask for a payrise?
Swellnet would be classed as "modern surf media" (seeing that we reach more surfers than all of the surf mags combined),
, 1345006849
OK, you got one point out of three. Now for the other two.
, 1345007813
Well that kind of makes the first point valid ie. You and Ben contradicting eachother
And the third one, I did read swellnet day after day when it became clear drugs were involved, I don't think they were mentioned, I may be wrong, please correct me if this is the case
either way it is not a point scoring exercise (for me anyway) I believe I've made my point
, 1345009128
I've never mentioned our reader numbers so how could Ben have contradicted me? As for comparing daily web stats to monthly mag circulations, well, it's a fraught old business. Apples against oranges and all that.
And yes you are wrong, we ran many articles and forum posts regarding the AI topic. It's a very tired old issue on Swellnet and that's why I resent you thinking there is some sort of censorship going on. If that were the case nothing would've appeared on Swellnet and nor would the 1000's of comments (yes, 1000's). I feel like I should've jumped on the bandwagon, banged out a boring old opinion piece just so people like you think we have some integrity. But then again if that's what it takes what does it matter?
Finally, after all this feigned point scoring ("about Andy Irons death, the silence on Swellnet was deafening!") I still don't understand your point.
, 1345010865
Well I'm glad u can see the uselessness to bens rating system, but you both stated denying any issue or swellnet policy then you came out and basically admitted you need to keep sponsors happy with your Rabbit statement
There may be 1000s of comments but was there an article that went into the coroners report? I don't care about an opinion piece despite what you think of me, maybe there was I did not see one. As I said I may be wrong. I wanted info from a reputable source and in my lazy world of avoiding reading like the plague, that source is you Stunet.
For the record I actually like what u write, being a bit of a lefty socialist wanker myself, but you write critically which in my book invites criticism, even if I agree with you, but as I have tried to say this is not just about swellnet, but you guys get quite defensive
, 1345013315
sypkan, just use your old tyler handle.
, 1345015969
Excuse me powers that be... Not exactly on drugs in surfing topic, but as Blasphemys names been mentioned I'm sure Sid Stu.. indeed all of you, will be devastated to learn he has been suspended from Twitter...
, 1345016406
he musta farted one 2 many stinky times in his bubble.
hey BR, how's that media 2.0 workin for ya now ?
, 1345019366
Not at all surpising, he sure upset a lot of folk and the industry, last couple of weeks
, 1345060240
"I assume Swellnet would be classed as "modern surf media" (seeing that we reach more surfers than all of the surf mags combined)" ~ Ben Matson, Page one of this very forum thread.
The rest... is history.
, 1345060398
Predicting swells as science is right up there with weathermen. You are connecting dots and hoping they converge based on your knowledge and mankind's minuscule knowledge of weather.
Congratulations! Your next job will be picking onions out of my burger.
And yes Sid, Media 2.0 is working out fine. You should see what Slater wrote on Twitter in response to my supposed "suspension."
, 1345060615
And Stu,
Name a single article, other than the one's by Fred Pawle and Brad Melekian that have said anything beyond repeating a press release and licking balls? All those articles, yes, they are boring.
Articles telling the truth and filling in the holes in Melekian's article? Not boring.
That's what journalists do.
As stated before, you aren't journalists here. Just guys trying to predict where all the surfers should go on the weekend and recapping shit everyone else says on the internet.
, 1345060902
And Stu,
Where are these horrible and dangerous stories you've supposedly written here that would be more dangerous than asking Paul Naude what Michael Tomson and Kaiborg did for Billabong and how they handled Andy Irons near the end?
If that question bores you... then you have no interest in truth. Just keeping your job at Swellnet and hoping Bong (as Ben has stated) will advertise with you before they collapse.
, 1345061572
give it up BR, no one is listening, if your crusade had legs, it woulda run by now.
the man is gone. Now get off your own meds and confront your own demons instead of unloading your baggage on other people.
You & Rolls musta taken the same bad acid cos fair dinkum, you'd bore the fake titts off a BayWatch coke whore.
how is Yasmine Bleeth BTW ?
, 1345063385
Fair enough Sid, you think I'm a bore. But Lewis Samuel,s asked me to write for him as well as Steve Nug. I've declined every offer from the surf magazines because their mere acceptance of anything I've written means I've done something wrong.
Oh, And I wrote a blog that didn't shatter any records for OG IP hits, but everyone in the Surf Industry read it and some, including your fearless leaders here, even commented on it.
If you think it was all a bore, and my Tweets are a bore, that's fine. Plenty of good, safe, homogenized bullshit for you to swill. Starting with this website.
, 1345063524
So go ahead and put that in the Pipe made out of your "friends" at the Big 3 and smoke it. You were bought and sold long ago.
, 1345063963
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
, 1345064164
really don't care what you think, the world is better without your stink.
, 1345065186
Ah well, nothin' better than a few hooves on the bong after a sackfull of waves I reckon...One of my favorite things really.
, 1345072141
Well done BR I for one enjoy your no bullshit - all out in the open approach...at least you have the balls to put it out there! @Why doesn't swellnet have a cannaboost/cannagrow add? Surfing has always been a rebellious/against the norm artform..How many historic moments in surfing were obtained through drug use..Shane Beschens triple 10's at Kirra...Tom Carrols snap at pipe....Greenoughs trippy barrel footage..why can't these interesting funny stories be told openly and honestly? I think we all know the answers to that.
, 1345072820
hear hear turns... this is just another thread taken over by seriously immature industry "insiders" trying to outhate each other (go start your own haters thread!). i for one dont give a flying fuck about the industry.
Just surf... oh yeah, and take drugs!!
, 1345079545
you guys will be needing some enablers,
BR won't allow any of that, only Big Pharma drugs allowed, sorry boys.
, 1345081735
Good comment barley. It all started to go downhill when Nat declared surfing a sport not a lifestyle. Then the money came into it. I think the hassles from cops etc. would have been worth it for the uncrowded waves of the time.I've smoked more than my fair share of the green but stopped when it started to affect my health. Many of my friends still take drugs and I don't have a problem with it. I'm all for people taking responsibility for their own actions. Andy irons included!
It's amazing how the mainstream media spin the drug issue. They had some chick on ACA who they claimed turned into a killer on weed. I thought how many people die as a result of booze and related misadventure.
, 1345081995
P.S. Except for your support of B.R barley. He bores the shit out of me with his endless rants!
, 1345110440
Poetic words from Sid
"really don't care what you think, the world is better without your stink."
Didnt go away for long did he? His surveillance knows no bounds...
Suspended briefly for a Bestiality photo posted I'm told...
Portayal of an unnatural act with a Fish possibly...
, 1345147502
whatever sJoe, he's much more relevant to your world than mine ie: not at all.
Big make or break game for you guys tonite, gltu, I'm still white knuckle riding with me cowboys. mooooooooooooooo
, 1345152269
"I reckon there’s a rising fury in the hearts of men, a grand, brimming fervor and madness that can never again be quelled by force, by equal action of fury, by the weapons and mechanisms created by men to suppress and oppress men. I reckon I see it rising evermore swiftly, see it beginning to overtake the once-calm fields and offices, those reaching chasms of darkness into which men flee desperate as the predators and vultures by which they are hunted and stalked. And that fury, when – not if – it finally achieves that peak of effervescence, bubbling beyond the surface constraints of boundaries, borders and all other useless lines of limitation, it will be a damned sight, indeed, a picturesque landscape of the fortitude and resolve of men so besmirched and hell-stricken that they decided they simply could not bear the tyranny of men another moment.
There will be a show for the ages, a rupturing in the stale wombs of life gone frigid from all the years of war – goddamn war – and devastation at the hands of those who seek it – need it even – because they know of no such things as patience, as virtue, as the connectivity that all men share to one another, to the world, and, above all, to the stars of their most laborious and destitute fortune.
There will be a memoir written of mankind as if it were a single creature, a story of a troubled childhood, a youth squandered by totalitarian parenting, the cursed and dreadful scourge of all ages: the wanton and woebegone, misplaced fear of god.
And when these balloons of rapture do tear to shreds all the woven threads of manic humanity, left strewn about the crumbling vestiges of civilization, a new something will be known, a new everything will be reaped from the sown seeds of peace planted deep in the soils of reason from which men fled so very, very long ago.
There will be vengeance of a sort, a cold-platter spattering pattern of blood on the walkways that line the streaming streets with great images of mirrored and indelible greed, so fashioned with twigs and sands as to never have possessed the potential to stand against any test of time, and time shall be remembered as a master of mirages itself, a billowing black cloud of disenchantment that was born of the cruelness and juvenility of consciousness unkempt and unruly, victim of perfidious intrusion, perpetrator of masked villainy behind doors of gruesome wayfaring and warmongering, and dirtiness crept beneath the fingernails of those wielding the scepters of god-lords and plunging daggers in distended bellies, wounds and scars of an unseen sort, a caption to the variety of evil cast upon goodliness as something less poetic and more mutinous even than the duplicity with which men strangle themselves to sleep."
, 1345152719
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
, 1345160088
BR, wha? For the love of god...
"God is dead" - Nietzsche
, 1345161501
Stop feeding the beast...............eeerrrrr, I mean rabbit.
, 1345161744
"This thread is dead" - dlt
, 1345163589
dlt, it was never alive, it was a loaded topic from tylerD under the disguise of sypkan.
, 1345170559
and in more current news,
I cant believe they ran the contest today at all, let alone started Round 2 as someone said elsewhere Bong doesnt do rest days..
Indeed Sid I fear the Dogs are Barking... Broncs last stand.. facing the Brewing Storm!
Speaking of Brew... I need subtitles and interpretation to understand that rant!
, 1345171404
Surferjoe,
With not much size above what we're seeing today on the cards for nearly the entire waiting period, they basically had to run today.
A stark contrast to last year.
, 1345174400
Yes Craig
I had a look at the forecast.. Its all doom and gloom, next spike next Tuesday and thats nothing special, theyve really got to do something about the rigid scheduling... not the right fit for such a fluid medium.
truebluebasher, 1555421013
1972 "Surfers Mike Cook,Mace Stanley & friends smuggling pot to US
tbb tip! Plot is more gripping if you skip the SBS rundown
SBS Locked up Abroad S9 E6 Mexican Prison Escape
https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/program/locked-up-abroad