Sam McIntosh on modern biz and Beach Grit
Thats a great read .
I got into beach grit for quite a while but the last couple of months something has changed on it. I can't put my finger on what it is but I definitely don't enjoy it as much as I used to.
It's a much different vibe to here, freeride76 does the occasional good piece on the grit but even then it's got a different tone to it than what he says on here.
Stabs rather average and getting worse.
Interesting.
I liked Stab magazine for a few years but haven't even glanced at a print edition for years now either.
Stab website ? Shit basically.
A few zinging one liners in the comments section is the the only reason I'd go there beyond an affinity for anything surf related that'll see me shifting through all manner of dull sites in a similar fashion .
So it's surprising to hear the declaration regarding " Standing for something and being remarkable ".
Stab used to be that way . Now it's just an surf aggregating aggravating site isn't it ?
I've always liked Reilly 's writing and approach - maybe he'd take more financial risks if his old man owned a pub ?
Having said that - Mr Macintosh seems a very creative and driven person. Good surfer that charges .
Best of luck to them both and thanks for the good times over the years.
I really liked the hard copy format of Stab, paper quality, bizarre left field opinions and pisstakes but it got really tiresome with the same people in most editions. It appeared the talent pool was exhausted or very limited to say the least.
Beachgrit -- Chas Smith writes a piece - Shots Fired That Cant be Ignored.
Yep, some nasty stuff going down.
Probably, like every other outrage on the internet it'll last for 5 minutes or so before being forgotten.
I assume you two blokes know Chas Smith personally? Is he a fuckwit for real or just another post-post-post ironic arse-clown (get in the queue and the fuckin' sea)?
I mean all his Sarajevo, Taliban-smoking arse-hattery and shit? Eddie Rothman, Yemen blah blah urk etc
Pssst, you know I've just mentioned him by name so he'll react on here, maybe. I'm guessing he's a narcissist to boot...
Get your own traffic up and stuff. Win-win. Yew!
Know him? Only by what I've read. He has some comic moments that I enjoy but I'm not a fan of his brazen appropriation of famous styles: Wolfe, HST, John Kennedy Toole. I suppose the audience is largely unaware, and surf journalism can be pretty damn serious at times so it's fresh in that sense.
The insincerity also irks: '...we're fun as candy floss and can't stop emphasising it!!!!"
Yet when he gets on the podcast his agenda is laid bare, and it's more Molotov than Prozac.
I'm all for shooting straight, the surf industry is full of 'hooray for everything' cheerleaders that bend to every industry whim, but his schtick is running dry for me. Still keep reading his stuff but...and I guess that's all that matters in the online metric.
Wolfe. Sartorial schtick. And with Chas, never mind the quality, feel the width. Or summat.
Speaking of Wolfe - kinda - and apropos of fuck all, Sam Shepard (now there's a writer), who recently passed, was in the film of the book by Wolfe, 'The Right Stuff'. Read it? Seen it?
Podcast! But of course. Jeezus. I'll stick to 'The Dollop', I reckon.
Also I've caught and eaten long toms. True. At the Bluff. Mental.
Ah, fun factoids.
Yeah read it, seen it. He also appears, as himself, in 'Just Kids' by Patti Smith which I only read recently, and this morning I learned he co-wrote the screen play to Paris, Texas which has long been a fave.
A versatile bloke.
Has the Stab Article been edited in last few hours ?
I used to hate Chas's work at STAB for many years. Mainly because of the appropriation of other writer's styles.
The faux gay approach used to grate also.
I don't mind him now.
Wasnt into his treatment of Fanning - provoke then scuttle off to dish the dirt. Weak.
Reilly shot up in my opinion when he , along with many others , was asked to define exposure in an edition of surfing life ( ? ) . He was the only person to describe the negative correlation between the surf industry and surf spot exposure.
Rielly, really? The days when Kidman and Derek were the hot-shots at their respective mags are long-gone.
You can go up on a hill in Darlinghurst or Burleigh and look East, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.*
Or summat.
Rielly (how do you pronounce that!?) is now the creepy ol' uncle. Kidman abides.
(* this one's for you, Chas. Yew!)
Storm, teacup?
I'd actually never even heard of beach grit until now and long since passed on any STAB product other than their stab in the dark board test. Internet tabloid surf "journalism". Fabulous.
I've never met Chas, and didn't really appreciate his writing for a long time but I find him now the funniest writer in surfing, and really for all the talk about appropriating styles he has the only true recognisable style in surfing writing today.
I see him in the tradition of mags like the Onion and Private Eye which are just vehicles for a relentless satirizing and piss-taking of things, in this case surfing. And you'd go a long way to find a subject more deserving.
He's also the bravest writer in surfing......faced up to his subjects time and time again, figuratively and literally got in the ring (with Richie Vas.......) and will continue to do so. I'd bet he will be the last man standing.
So he's the George Plimpton of surf-journalese rather than Tom Wolfe?
Got it. The take-home?
Read more Plimpton, people.
Yew!
BTW if it ain't rude, does this surf-writin' jiggery-pokery pay much? At all? Or is it an anarchist-barter town-goods exchange kinda program thing? Turnbull internship rort?
Sam Mcintosh looked like he got liquid out of it?
Maybe money doesn't buy happiness though.......he sounded pretty chapped.
Derek Rieley often says "my mate" or "my pal" when he writes about Sam, and that interview was someone setting the record straight.
BTW Freeride, for someone of steadfast moral conviction you sure found some queer bunk partners.
Sometimes queer bunk partners are the best payers.
Makes no sense for Sam to go for the jugular on Derek when it's quite clearly Chas who delights in poking the bear.....and what a wonderful irony that STAB, which used to be the edgy out there option got bought out by suits and became so defensive, sensitive and reactionary. No wonder Chas keeps poking.....what a wonderful bloated target to aim at.
Sale price of Stab upwards of 6 Mill...is that right ??
"Sometimes queer bunk partners are the best payers."
And Hemingway-like, to assuage, I will go forth and kill stuff. Fish!
Interesting stuff!
Anyway, enough bucks per piece to buy a board at least? Webster, say? 7'0?
It adds up over time if you keep overheads low Dale.
How did you know I was eyeing off a new Webby?
I am! How'd ya get on-board this queer gravy train?
Jeez! Fred Van Dyke's ghost would be having gay conniptions!
Beach-Grit.
I like the writer who went too HST and got shot by the cops in a siege.
Core!
Stu? Really ugly? What nancy-industry do you work in? Are you secretly going for a cadetship at OK magazine?
Reilly gets knock-kneed and grabs the Stab cash early, McInto$h goe$ the di$tance and make$ more money $elling later. McInto$h al$o come$ acro$$ as Stab's creative and $trategic in$piration. Big deal, "cometh the hour, cometh the man". Well done, McIntosh, he was the bigger man in the partnership. That's life, that's business.
Reilly, a basic grunt writer at best at Stab in later years, pissed off at the success of McInto$h after $elling for good coin (pissing of Reilly who got out way too early), sets up a rival site that looks like Stab and gets a little mate (new partner) to write a few negative stories. Big deal. Who cares...
Funny how McInto$h said that Stab never bagged out rivals, didn't they have a go at Reilly's former boss (Baker) due to the failure of his surf writing class at a writers (try-hard) conference? Then again Baker wasn't to keen on exposing the former pro tour photograher/journo for his sexual assault on an industry colleague like Stab did.
Sad industry, surf (ahem) journalism.
For someone who bags the 'industry' you sure follow it closely.
Don't know about McIntosh being the creative brains behind STAB.....it was clearly at it's zenith under Rielly's tenure.....been a pretty slow, steady slide downhill since he left, and thats despite the massive "liquidity event" of the surfstitch buy-out.
In fact that made STAB a pretty risible product, a fashion rag in thrall to some pretty unpleasant masters and lacking the wit and humour of the Rielly years......a pretty sweet target for some sharp witted sarcasm which an opportunist like Chas has exploited mercilessly. As he should.
McIntosh might have more of a business brain or he might have just been the exceedingly lucky recipient of a massive corporate brain fart from a couple of spivs who got themselves way in over their heads and may end up looking pretty shabby when class actions and other accounting washes through. Time will tell.
"We are happy with the size of our audience so we’re not looking for growth. It’s more about deepening the connection"
Errr... doesn't sound like the mind of a businessman to me.
You've certainly come around in the last few years Steve.
July 27th, 2009:
Please allow me the privilege of critquing the last issue of Stab magazine; though I'm fcuked if I'll give that cretin Reilly the dignity of a reply on his own site.
First up : Stab and Reilly are inseparable, like animals arses and maggots , though it's a circular argument to determine which is which.
The last issue of Stab was the biggest pile of steaming self-mastubatory doggshitt I've seen masquarading as a surf mag.....actually it was quite a bit smaller than that and that was the highlight. The fact that due to shrinking ad revenue the mag might actually be disappearing up it's own sphincter.
Was there any actual content in this mag? Reilly interviewed his own journalist for chrissakes.....and the rest was the usual pile of intense mastubatory interviews with Reilly's "favourite subjects".
I'd like the actual word count from the last issue....I'd say it would be a record low and whilst the fashion victim non surfing 20 year olds who the 40 Year old Reilly "speaks" to seem to lap up his "no logo" drivel whilst coveting the latest jeans fashion which takes up half the mag the question must be asked : is anyone really that braindead and herd-like?
Do Gen Y readers really suck up Reilly's free speech , edgey, "hey we're the new punk rock and we're so free and independent" editorial whilst he carefully massages Red Bull, fashion labels etc etc without once thinking this is a giant hoax perpetrated by a middle-aged man with a stoopid haircut ?
To call Reilly a stain on the soul of surfing is to dignify mould.
A parasite, a remora with a fringe.
His modus operandi : get the hippest grooviest cats( as long as they've got good sponsors who'll advertise) and sell them as some kind of free-thinking, independent moral heroes guiding the way through this commercially compromised world of surfing monotony.
He's right about the monotony.
I wish Stab would shrivel up and die but cockroaches like Reilly will pop up wherever there's a bit of fresh meat for 'em to colonise.
There'll always be another young boy wonder for the aging svengali Reilly to exploit.....the relationships give off an unhealthy odour from even a great distance.
At least the slimming down of Stab means we don't have to endure any more chopper heavy "features" from malaysian wavepools...guess that was the first casualty of budget cuts.
If Stab were to die then this recession would have been worth it's weight in gold.
Meat is murder.
Not spent yet:
As for Reilly : enough time spent chasing the tail of yoof culture whilst actually believing you are some kind of svengali or counter culture moral beacon whilst shamelessly selling out to the highest bidder and you eventually become a kind of weak caricature.
Reilly ain't got no home beach.
He's a homeless kook and you can't trust a homeless kook. Because a homeless kook is a bitter bitch.
Thats his saving grace: he's a first class bitch.
He's got no allegiances except to the next boy wonder who'll swallow his spiel....the man has no insides, he belongs in the world of fashion.
Jeezus..Phew !
Yeah, I freely admit I've loathed Rielly and STAB , and occassionally sneakily admired them over the years.
There's no doubt if there was some kind of socio-politico-cultural spectrum, we'd be at opposite ends of it.
Maybe I just get the joke now, maybe I've lightened up.
Maybe, it's just because they publish my writings and it's pure self interest.....that's probably the only horse in the race I'd put money on.
Meow!! That was gold.
But fantastic writing all the same.
Free, you use your tongue purtier than a $20 whore.
Well that was some incendiary criticism, until you realise he reneges on it all. He takes it back because now he's getting paid you see, and nothing means anything as long as you're on the payroll.
Freeride, the Machiavellian spin artist for Chas and Derek's PR machine.
Don't mess with a mercenary man!
Yeeha!
BLOOD FEUD!
Where's 'Bitchy Crab' at?
3-way!
Fnar fnar.
Hey fellas, I'm sure you won't mind me passing this on to Beach-Grit. Let's get this happening for real.
Ka-ching!
10% should do it for me.
Or a Webby 7'0.
Think big!
Is that for passing it on or not passing it on Coops?
I like your thinking, comrade.
Great Scott!
Sorry goofer, but your thread wasn't as meaningful, or successful as my creation of the 'swillstabbers'! I set the wheels in motion, and now, shock, horror, what will happen to surfing next, that union, the 'swillstabbers', is now formally recognised and accepted!
I'll borrow this ditty, the theme of the next WSL highlights vid.
Oh god you drama queens, pass it on, it's all grist for the mill.....and it's not like Rielly hasn't seen me post worse, much worse in the comments at sTAB.
Nice piece of cyber-sleuthing/stalking btw Stu.....what did you go back there: 8? 10 years?
Nothing back there you've got to be a little bit embarrassed about?
That preachy tone and moral seriousness you took in your article about Chas/Fanning......not just a tiny bit cringeworthy now...how did you end that one? "Evil prevails when good men do nothing, call me a good man" the self importance of the surf writer as young man...........hehehheehehe
You should have gone further back to the uni days.....god I bet there's a ton of stuff cluttering
in the closet there just begging for a second chance at life.
BLOOD FEUD! BLOOD FEUD!
Ha ha...give it a rest Steve. You're the first to point the finger at everyone else on their shortcomings, don't get narky when hit by your own buckshot.
hhha, no nark Stu, just gentlemen trading a few jabs.
I believe I've already been hoist by my own petard....I just wanted some company while I'm dangling here.
Mate, my name is on every post, the google button is below, and my skin is as thick as an elephants arse.
I know that 'cos it's been tested.
And because I've voiced some ludicrous shite in the past.
@zenagain.
That's Hedley, Hedley LaMarr
Oh dear, don't even want to think about some of the things I have committed to print 5 or 10 years ago.
Thank god for aliases, and anonymity.
yes, one needs a thick skin, and a long memory.
lol at the commenter who suggested being a mercenary as a motivation.......anyone doing surf writing with money as chief motive would have to have a diagnosable mental illness.
Anyhow, just for the record. I started commenting Beachgrit a couple years ago, ;left a few nasty ones probably then realised it was quite a fun place to hang out and shoot the shit.
Had a story idea, floated it past Rielly, who, knowing the unkind things I've said about him over the years, bit at it. Since then I've contributed a few pieces a quarter. He's paid me what he promised, never backed down or interfered as an editor and been encouraging.
Based on that, my opinion of him has changed dramatically.
Sounds like a good egg, apart from the hair and dentures, and general creepiness.
To those who follow such matters, the Stab/Beach Grit show has been a slow burning melodrama. The potted history of it goes like this: Sam and Derek start Stab - Derek leaves Stab - Stab gets bought by SurfStitch for top dollar - Derek starts Beach Grit - Beach Grit lobs a barrage of public grenades at Stab.
Conspicuously, Stab is yet to return fire, however it doesn't mean they aren't seething as this interview with Sam McIntosh shows. He's a switched on fella, old Sam, and it makes for good reading - not just the voyeurism of old biz partners squabbling but how he's guiding Stab through post-acquisition headaches and the shifting sands of social media.
From The Business of Surf:
http://www.thebusinessofsurf.com/behind-the-curtain-stab-magazine-sam-mcintosh/