Semi Pro Shakedown: Epilogue
By Julio Adler:
In the week after Jordy won the Brazilian event and Adriano took the ratings lead, not much fuss was made.
Maybe it was hard to make sense for an Australian audience. The last time I did contest coverage for an international website, the editor keep asking, "Where are the fucking quotes?" I had no quotes! I wasn't interested in hearing what the surfers had to say. I like to be invisible.
I grew up reading Derek Hynd writing about contest surfing and he made things sound interesting because he could relate surfing to Dostoyevsky, or to Cassius Clay. Nick Carroll made me think about the two sides of things, right and wrong, always concise and analytical. And when I read Shearer here at Swellnet, right after all the frenzy about Lewis Samuels and a guy named Charlie Smith, I thought with my wetsuit, 'here's a guy who is gonna make all of us irrelevant'. I love the passion in his writing.
Why am I telling you this?
I must pay respect to these people. You read the press releases and you watch the clips, so you know the kind of commercially-poisoned, piece-of-crap reporting you get from a contest in Rio. Nobody fucking cares.
So why should Swellnet give a fuck?
I had an advantage over the rest of the fuckers, 'cause I was here, and I'm not attached to ASP, Billabong, Quiksilver. A journalist named Matt Pruett wrote about the contest in Rio and got absolutely mobbed by the audience. I read the piece and didn't got offended by his words - it was just words from a Yankee.
People in Brasil bother too much with those things. We all want acceptance. Recognition.
Pruett guy gave us the truth - the All American Truth. That's how we are perceived. It's probably why they interfere in Latin America in the late-60's and 70's, to teach us how we must guide our nation, with the best intentions - the road to hell is paved by the best intentions.
Enough of mediocre writing...
The comments in the last article are very worth reading - the great deliberation of Australian surfing right now. Yet here in Brasil, it's not so different, we also have the longing for the Olympic games and the High Performance Centres with theoretical coaches and heads full of funny ideas.
At the same time, former pro surfers are coaching some young talent to everything they never dreamed. Take Leandro Dora, former pro surfer, completely ignored here in Brasil by national teams and shit like that. His son, Yago Dora, is one of the most talented surfers right now. Leandro also coaches Yan Dabercow, Lucas Silveira and Ricardo Santos.
Swellnet commenter, Brutus, has a good eye for new blood, he mentioned Victor Bernardo. Victor Bernardo is also coached by a former pro surfer, Paulo Kid. The same guy who groomed Alejo Muniz and one of the few coaches who doesn't want revenge with the kids they're coaching.
Brasil still is a big mystery for all of you.
We do care for surfing, but just a tiny bit. We do care for Soccer, MMA, and winning. A friend of mine, a British journalist whose been living in Brasil for the last 12 years, has a theory:
Brazilians don't like football as much as we think they do. What they really like, is winning.
Brazilian soccer is known around the world as the beautiful game. We learned with the Brits how to play and we turned into an art. It wasn't conscious, it just happened.
Surfing is nothing like that for a broader audience, it does not exist. And Brazilian surfers are not changing the sport, we're just winning more than ever because you are not as interested as you used to be.
And as soon as a Brazilian gets to the top, you're gonna find a way to discredit pro surfing, the ASP and everything related to it. It happened before with the ISA.
But that is still in the future and we must deal with the present, and to tell you the truth, I can't wait for Fiji and Teahupoo. What about you?
Julio Adler is a native of Rio de Janeiro. He travelled as a professional surfer during the late-80s and early-90s and got completely involved with the pro surfing hustle, questioning judges and journalists and wondering what the fuck they were all doing. Around this time Julio began writing for surfing magazines and is now a regular columnist for Surf Portugal and Hardcore in Brazil. He's never had an English lesson in his life and can thank surfing magazines and Neil Young songs for his grasp of the Queen's tongue.
Comments
Great writing, as usual!
I would just disagree maybe with:"(...)we're just winning more than ever because you are not as interested as you used to be". I think Aussies surfers are still doing huge damage, just look at Parko, Mick, Julian, Taj, Owen. The brazilian surfers are not changing the sport, but they really raised their level for the first time. I remember watching my favorite surfers, like Gouveia, Teco Padaratz, Jojó, Victor Ribas, Neco, and I never saw true world champ potential. I used to see some big gap between them and guys like D. Hardman, Matt Hoy, Shane Powell, Beschen, Machado,etc. The Brazilians would all have some flaws in their surf that never made it possible to surf continuously in the same level as the Aussies and Yankees. It would only happen from time to time. Specially on big and barreling waves (maybe Fabio was an exception). Only on small mushy waves they would equal the performance.
Raoni, I guess, was the first well rounded brazilian surfer, powerful, innovative, good backhand. The problem is he used to(and still does) commit a lot of mistakes or lose focus easily in the heats.
But now Adriano (mostly for his guts and focus), Medina, Toledo, Alejo, Pupo and Jesse Mendes. these guys and the kids you mentioned above are charging like never before and becoming good tuberiders, radical, innovative and good competitors - something kind of new for us possibly because of the newly available experienced coaches we have now.
In my eyes, that's why things are now that way.Not because of lack of interest of the australians. Just remember Parko's, Taj's and Mick's reactions after losing at Bells. They seemed pretty pissed.
BTW, good theory about brazilians beeing all about winning. Just now, remembering of Ayrton Senna (F1), Gustavo Kuerten(Tennis) and now Anderson Silva (MMA), and the popularity of their sports in their time, that theory makes a lot of sense.
"And as soon as a Brazilian gets to the top, you're gonna find a way to discredit pro surfing, the ASP and everything related to it. It happened before with the ISA."
That is classic, I think they should get rid of Bells now as well...... it's just never going to be the same.
Has anyone got a link to the deleted article? I know it's deleted on surfline but did anyone save it to fuel their fires..
Hey, disregard. I found one. It's page 2 of the article here:
http://www.theinertia.com/business-media/a-deleted-article-and-the-harmf...
The article itself is a good read, exploring both the inconsistencies in the original article, and the underlying themes which the author attributes the 'brazo-hatred' to. For what it's worth.... enjoy
second place is the first loser. noting changes but the names.
"Without winners, there wouldn't even be any god damn civilization"
- Wayne Woodrow Hayes
Great text by Tetsuhiko Endo. Excelent argumentation.
I would quote Mr.Ian Cairns's (on 'Busting Down The Door'),it goes pretty much like this:
"They didn't take the time to ask us, what we were about. And just because we are different, it doesn't make us bad. Do I have to be a sheep like you, and follow you with what you think? Fuck you! I've got my own opinion. And I'll stand up to it".
"Where I come from, you're allowed to say that you are good".
I think this could be transposed to the Brazilians right now.
Where we come from, we are allowed to claim and cheer with things we're stoked about. We are allowed to be upset and cry when we lose, or something bad happens. And Adriano and Medina are clearly no sheeps.
Some etiquette needs to be improved, I admit, and that bothers me too.
But that's not exclusive from brazilians. After all, "we are all people" (again Ian Cairns):
http://www.thefreeridevoice.com/2013/03/23/beyond-reason-with-jed-smith/
This bullshite of an argument by Endo is suspect as all get out.
Political garbage in... Pol garbage out.
http://www.jimgoad.net/
Which goes about double for Shearzie. And his Re-Fried Voice.
What's so suspect about it?
My guess is: it's suspect because Endo is probably a Japanese-american whose grand-parents were persecuted in USA and imprisoned for being japanese during the war. Thus he might have an agenda:fighting intolerance/prejudice. That's what I got from him.But I sure liked it.
It seemed eloquent and reasonable to me.
Worth reading too:
http://www.theinertia.com/business-media/smashing-the-brazilian-surfer-s...
Stu, did you read Jim Goad's glossary? 'cause old endo sure hit on a heap of terms used by just as bigoted "progressives"....
He admits it right there in his shaticle....
it's all about his FEELINGS....
ANTI-RACIST—A person who makes everything about race.
CORPORATIONS—Malevolent yet generally non-coercive superorganisms that must be combated with a malevolent and entirely coercive superorganism known as government.
CULTURAL IMPERIALISM—An antiquated system that must be destroyed in order to pave the way for the newer, more global form of cultural imperialism.
DIVERSITY—A magical incantation used to divert your attention from the fact that it is strikingly similar to the words “divide†and “division.â€
HONEST CONVERSATION ABOUT RACE—Condescending lecture about race.
OFFENSIVE—Things that hurt our FEELINGS... and thus make us go on the offensive, whether through litigation or mob action, in order to counter them.
RACIST—A word used by anyone, white or not, who hates white people.
RACISM—A derogatory scare word to describe a natural tribal instinct that is currently forbidden to only one tribe.
http://takimag.com/article/the_progressive_glossary_jim_goad/print#axzz2...