The Weekly Bugle
Into the weeds of the surfing week that was. More Ulu cliff madness, surf tropes that suck, a good book, tandem surfing and rip awareness.
Uluwatu Update
Two updates from the cliffs at Uluwatu. The first was from just after Christmas, showing the effect of heavy rain and the erosion that came with it. The second is a more comprehensive look at the construction, six months after it started. I'm aware this doesn’t achieve much; like most of Bali’s development, the done-dealness of it all is terrifying. We won’t know the effects until well after the project's completion, and while I'm no geologist, rocks falling into coral reefs isn't a good look.
Visual Surf Tropes That Suck
Fast forward montage at start of clip showing surfers travelling to airport, then on a plane, landing, the getting bemo through busy Indonesian streets.
Surfers getting “crazy” haircuts on a boat trip.
Surfers snowboarding badly
Surfers dressed as Santa Claus… and drum rol
Surfers wearing a suit in the water. Fair play then to UrbnSurf for doubling down on the concept in this shitshow and really embracing the boardroom gag.
Orbital
I was given the book Orbital, by Samantha Harvey as a birthday gift from my sister Charnelle. It’s fiction, but takes in the real detail of six astronauts on a spacecraft who orbit the Earth 16 times every 24 hours for six months. It’s a stunning book and reminds me of the beauty at stake as we play fast and loose with the fragility of our tiny blue marble. This description of our weather is an example of what 350 miles of altitude can do for human perspective.
Tandem Surfing
Unlike distressed denim, crop tops, bucket hats, Dr Martins, Sade, MDMA, grunge, bodyboarding, front foot decl grip, weed, and baggy jeans, tandem surfing was is one 90s trend that hasn’t made a comeback. Back then the undisputed GOATs were Bobby and Anna, and this clip showed them in peak mode. It's a only a matter of time before this madness comes back, right?
The South Africans Don’t Fuck About…
When it comes to dried strips of meat, righthand points, big wave slabs, income inequality and teaching kids on the dangers of rips. This example below from Hermanus on the Western Cape near Cape Town is one of the better, if chaotic, illustrations of how rips, or currents work, and how to get out of them.
