It's in the fine print. It always is. The ASP sent out media accreditation to the Quiksilver Pro, and there it was, in 8 point font buried within the terms and conditions, cold manifestation of the ASP's new media deal. Peter' Joli' Wilson gives his thoughts.
It was inevitable. The Western Australia shark debate has arrived at a point of stasis. The public discussion degraded to the point of protest, each side bunkered in their beliefs with little forward progress being made.
So where to from here?
On Saturday the new and improved ASP played their best card yet. Featured on the revamped ASP website was a Power Rankings update from proto-blogger, Lewis Samuels.
On Friday Greg Webber signed a Memorandum of Understanding to build the first of his Webber Wave Pools. The agreement comes two years after Webber's first public proposal. Since then a number of potential developers have been mooted but this is the first time the dotted line has been signed.
The ASP will announce its new-look commentary team for 2014 this week, keeping people guessing right up to show time. But fans of the good old Aussie accent better brace themselves for disappointment.
Turn your fins into an electromagnetic field. A Western Australian company is currently developing a product that promises to ward off sharks and protect surfers. Will it work? Will surfers buy it?
"Either the protesters value the lives of West Australian sharks more highly than eastern states sharks, or they value the lives of West Australian beachgoers less than swimmers on the east coast."
In big waves the current trend is away from towsurfing and toward catching waves unassisted on ten foot+ boards. The individual challenge of paddle surfing may be greater but collective progress is almost non-existent. In this article, blindboy argues that towsurfing is the only means forward if surfers are to keep pushing the outside of the envelope.
The most striking footage of Pipeline this year came from Eric Sterman, a young videographer from Hawaii who perched cross-legged on the sand with a remote control in his hands as Kelly Slater paddled into a set during the Pipe Masters.
The winter storm dubbed by The Weather Channel 'Hercules' is currently impacting the European continent. After causing record low temperatues on America's East Coast it's fast becoming a storm of international significance. However, not everyone is happy about the naming convention. "The Weather Channel is doing a disservice to the field of meteorology," says one opponent.
In all the drama and emotion of the last day of the Pipe Masters, it was easy to overlook the fact that Robert Kelly Slater once again demonstrated, with an absolutely stupendous three-heat master class, that the day he leaves the tour will be sadder than anyone can imagine.
Judith Wright ended the 1996 edition of her book Coral Battleground with a chapter entitled “Finale Without Ending”, warning that popular memories were short and fresh onslaughts on the Great Barrier Reef's mineral resources likely to resume at any time.
