Cluster movie and Kai Neville what's the go?
I haven't seen Cluster yet.
But as a side note, it's worth pointing out that the WSL is copping a lot of criticism for its vanilla, middle-of-the-road marketing strategy, which is seemingly a turn-off to long time ASP webcast viewers.
This'd be somewhat of the opposite of your description of the Cluster trailer.
So, where should a surf company position its brand? Does branding matter? How influential are today's sponsored freesurfers on grommets? Does shit-hot surfing overshadow every other aspect of a surf film?
And, as an aside, assuming Creed's and Noa's smoking, swearing and drinking wasn't just a put-on for the camera, should a surf video remove these aspects of their personality, just so that they leave a positive impression on the kids? I mean, they are who they are.
Should a contract with a clothing company require a surfer to change his or her habits, in order to promote a certain ideology?
Not knowing Creed or Noa, and having not seen the film, I don't have an opinion on what you've posted about. But it's an interesting discussion point I reckon.
I reckon that these young guys are just broadcasting a bit of anxiety.
What could a young, free , well paid 1st world surfer have to be anxious about ?
Fancy being Creed Mctaggart and thinking that your entire status and short term future hangs on being at the cutting edge of progressive surfing and then watching Fillipe Toledo pull an entire video section of moves that you can't match in a live final at Snapper Rocks. It would certainly place a question mark next to your value.
I'm sure these fellas aren't socially dis functional due to this anxiety , apparently Dane Reynolds gets hit pretty hard , in fact they would barely acknowledge those feelings any where outside of the few melancholy dark hours before sunrise or in the come down from a binge . But the constant fuck you and single finger salute sure are revealing an anger AKA a fear about something.
Noa Deanes " Fuck the WSL" says more about his fear of its power than it does his rejection of the commercialisation of surfing.
thermalben wrote:Should a contract with a clothing company require a surfer to change his or her habits, in order to promote a certain ideology?
IMO if any professional sportsman is getting paid, they should be required to change his or her habits ie smoking, drinking, drug taking even doing the bird, to conform within their contract. I would not know these young surfers or who they are sponsored by, if it were Mambo surf clothing company, then hey thats what they promote........? F--k Knows Why!
IMO you should have respect when getting paid by your employer and do your best to represent them any way you possibly can, cause this is your lively hood, which pays your bills as well as progression in life.
Everytime I go to work I get drug tested, I can't smoke, I can't drink and I'm sure is hell can't flip the bird to the OIM, instant dismissal and never to return on any facility ever.
In this case I think there's a difference between 'professional sportsman' and 'paid freesurfer', Welly. The former is more akin to the WSL (so yeah, I can see merit in those rules applying) however a paid freesurfer is more like a bizarre cross between an actor, stuntsman and artist.
Would a musician stop drinking, smoking and swearing whilst on the job?
In any case I can't see those three particular points being itemised on a freesurfing contract. Sure, any employee would need to represent the brand in a positive light, but that's open to interpretation, isn't it?
I mean, wouldn't it be discriminatory if a freesurfer employed by Surf Label X couldn't drink, smoke and swear, yet the warehouse manager was exempt from such restrictions.
I understand your thoughts there Ben;)
Maybe these 3 particular points during an edited video could be/or not be of some help to the sponsors and for the younger public surfing community. The three points are......... Smoking, Drinking, Giving the bird.......?
They're apparently on video to the sponsors démettre...! Maybe not Mambo as a T Shirt states .
The warehouse manager is never in videos to portray a label as such.
Nor is my warehouse manager.!
I do understand what you are saying but IMO the big picture comes down to respect, especially when someone is paying you dollars for something you love;)
had a fight with chris ward at knights inn margaret river
..cock sucker james catto steped in and smashed a glassed overy
head cops came and charged me.
Wardo and catto sponnod by rusty both were told by
rusty to run amuk.. cattos a big poof that cant fight..rusty love these cunt..id love to have a few vbs with noa....then beat the shit out of him
Rusty wa were fucked..tjey should of spononed.. dave sheridan
(Not andew)he.s always surfed better
than fonzi
So the companies want you to think they're edgey cool cause their riders pull darbs, suck piss and give the finger. Nothing new there.
What would be new is if they sponsored a few cunts sleeping under newspapers around Hyde park if they want to look like they're rejecting the cozy suburban lifestyle.
Good topic . Whos seen stab mag comments on these poor sponnoed lads noa & creed ? Fame can be a curse ?
To an extent caml, the only ppl that think these guys
are cool are young cunts in a few years it will be over
for them what will they do then?
The same as the rest of their generation that spent their early years having fun. They'll enjoy the rest of their lives. Only they'll have amazing memories , connections and friends from having spent a few years traveling the world getting paid to rip good waves on someone else's purse.
They might even have set themselves up as I'd say the money wouldn't be too bad .
Caml is right about the fame. It would be a double edged sword for sure but I don't reckon you'd really call these guys famous. Take them a few kilometres inland from the high tide line and know one would know who they were.
Lucky they can surf well cause can only ever seeing them digging holes otherwise.Im surprised Noa Deanes still sponsored after his rather large gaffe at the WSL awards night.
when its over for them in a few years they will be sitting in front of a computer posting on swellnet...?
Trying to grasp at their fading surfing life ? Pretty famous still where it counts . Heard the groupiees are keen
Doesn't anyone remember "If you can't rock n' roll don't fucken come"?
Faux-rebellion painted as bohemian party animal has a long tradition in surfing helped in no small part by willing companies who dig the image....and are savvy enough to kow the kids dig it too.
troppo dichotomy wrote:when its over for them in a few years they will be sitting in front of a computer posting on swellnet...?
lol....... Exactly!!!!!!
thermalben wrote:So, where should a surf company position its brand? Does branding matter? How influential are today's sponsored freesurfers on grommets?
And, as an aside, assuming Creed's and Noa's smoking, swearing and drinking wasn't just a put-on for the camera, should a surf video remove these aspects of their personality, just so that they leave a positive impression on the kids? I mean, they are who they are.
Should a contract with a clothing company require a surfer to change his or her habits, in order to promote a certain ideology?
Obviously I posted this topic to create debate for both sides of the argument. I'm not just talking about Kai Neville and 'Cluster' but the who 'scene' associated with that highly influential crew and everything that surrounds them.
I definitely think kids are highly influenced by the 'poster boys' of free surfing and their respective surf brands. I'd argue nearly every one of us here had some kind of inkling to 'be like' someone we looked up to as kids whether it was a sports star or someone else in the public eye. So to suggest that we should encourage these spoilt brats to keep every aspect of their seemingly disrespectful attitude because 'that is who they are' to me is a large part of what is wrong with many aspect of our society today.
Who cares if someones, smokes, drinks or flicks the bird……not me……..so long as it does directly affect my life or those around me. But If you've been given the opportunity to do something you absolutely love and get paid handsomely for it (for most of us it is merely our 9-5) then I reckon there should definitely be an expectation of some kind of behavioural guidelines.
Ben you make a good point, 'they are you they are'……and I don't pretend to know these blokes on any kind of level other than what is portrayed in the media and videos by their OWN companies / industry. I just can't believe any kind of employer would value behaviours and attitudes such as these.
What stares at me in the face with alot of these videos and these boys behaviour is just flat out EGO. And bottom line IT'S JUST NOT COOL. I don't give a fuck how much you drink/smoke /swear/give fingers/claim waves etc.. why flaunt it ? Boring as batshit to me. Just reeks of massive insecurity and lack of identity. All these hipster/wanna be cool dudes need to man up and friggen get real. They need to lose the ego, its so damned uncomfortable to watch..stop being clones of each other and walking billboards and selfie posers.. ugh it's actually WEIRD when you really think about it. It's like the focus is all about how things look and how people are trying to be perceived rather than being comfortable in your own skin and not seeking this kind of weird attention seeking approval. It's inherently shallow, insensitive and completely devoid of soul. And flat out uninspiring to watch.
Good call, salty..... Narcoclones... Product placement.... utube meets jackass meets surfing....
Cluster (trailer):
As mundane as it is boring. However, what it lacks in originality it more than makes up for in puerile pointlessness. Can't wait to miss the full length version.
I give it 2 out of 5 middle fingers.
Dont know creed, but know his dad was a well known fuckwit around margs. Thought he was a tough guy but kept getting bashed on land and in the water, had the personality of a dumb monkey, still does apparently
Tags is a tough bloke surfit .you are a typical troll shit talker . Who bashed him ? No one.
Anyone see that short vid of kolohe, Dane and noa Deane paying homage surfing Andy Irons' boards in indo not so long ago? I had never heard of Deane before that but thought his interviews made him look a special kind of stupid. Andinos backhand was looking the goods but!
Kolohe was freaken ripping in the clip! Even out surfing Dane I think. It was kind of embarrassing having to watch Noa surf alongside those other two. There is a very noticeable difference
I think it's good to have contrasts.
Me and mate were discussing how boring the WSL has become. There is no character, its mundane and repetitive. Sure the surfing is awesome, but everyone is so scared of losing sponsorship or their run on the tour that every single post heat interview is the same and the character is lost.
I miss the likes of Andy, Sunny, Occy, even Freddy or Bobby Martinez for this reason. They had such strong personalities, when tehy were pissed off, everyone knew they was pissed off! I personally think the WSL would draw a bigger audience, if there were more blow ups, more emotion & more fireworks.
These free surfing guys simply "don't give a fuck" because they don't really need too. They aren't doing plugs for Samsung or Razor blades (Medina), they're just cutting loose getting paid to be washed up surf bums. How good? Very.
I completely agree with Noa's Fuck the WSL because the WSL needs a good fucking.
Careful what you wish for ACB_, the WSL could morph into some kind of hybrid reality show with fake dramas and manufactured conflicts, like all the other crap on TV. I'd bet the idea has already been thrown around the boardroom.
Pro comp surfing's going to go the way of pro comp skating I reckon. It's always been following skating's arse culturally since Taylor Steele's skate rip-off plastic punk vids anyway. The WSL (if that name even sticks around) will be like the Dew tour/X games/Street League. No one who skates seriously gives a fuck about those league comp nerds really, and most definitely couldn't give two fucks about the overall comp results. There's some cross-over guys like Nyjah Houston that get a lot of respect but the real skate community dig the pure vid/mag/one-off bowl comp dudes. That's where the capital, both cultural as well as $, is at.
This will all come to pass for pro surfing super quick too if the Brazilians keep winning. Toledo getting to be world champ this year surfing Gums. WSL death knell. Bring it on!
One -off expression session type comps in quality and/or heaviness and maybe Hawaiian triple crown is the pro surfing future, mixed in with the vid/mag dude's antics. WSL and the Olympics? Martinez's tennis tour jibe's turning out to be spot on. L8er Sl8ers.
Is it just me or is anyone else sick of seeing the likes of that new Aussie 'free surfer' lot earning a living out of behaving appallingly and being disrespectful? Just watched the preview of 'Cluster' and just like a lot of other Kai Neville movies his gang of 20 something year olds in 13 year old heads. In the 40 odd bizarre seconds of the movies trailer it included:
- Creed McTaggart swear and in his next cameo give the finger
- 4 mini clips viewing alcohol
- 2 clips of Noah Deane smoking and 1 swearing
Now I'm no more prudish or reserved then the next bloke but how do surf companies employ these borderline morons to represent their brand? Is this just a very, very sad representation of youth today? I hope not.
I just read a recent Tracks that had a 10 page + spread of OLD Dane Reynolds photos, each page including a paragraph on his riveting thoughts on dogs, his girlfriend and many other mundane topics the surf media deem print worthy.
I may have lost touch but surely not this much???