COVID Spoiled Olympic Beach Party, Plans Revealed

Stu Nettle picture
Stu Nettle (stunet)
Swellnet Dispatch

It's been revealed that Surfing's inaugural Olympic event was also supposed to feature an eight day beach party that would "revolutionise" the Olympic experience.

“It was a view of the lifestyle and the culture of surfing,” said Fernando Aguerre, famous for displaying female bottoms in G-strings, and running the International Surfing Association. “So there was yoga, there was environmentalism, classes on how to be environmentally sound as a person. It was a surf initiation.”

Other activities at the cancelled festival were live music, organic food and green juices, a booth showing the technical mechanics of surfing — how a surfboard is pushed by waves — as well as a historical exhibit focused on Olympian Duke Kahanamoku, the godfather of modern surfing.

Read the whole article here.

Comments

nolocal's picture
nolocal's picture
nolocal Monday, 9 Aug 2021 at 9:08am

anyone else driven here by the thumbnail clickbait?

orangefield's picture
orangefield's picture
orangefield Monday, 9 Aug 2021 at 9:19am

guilty

Blowin's picture
Blowin's picture
Blowin Monday, 9 Aug 2021 at 9:31am

Both presented and presenting by Reef.

Fernando may crow about his commitment to environmentalism, but the advertising he instigated is probably responsible for the deforestation of a South American country just to supply all the happy tissues they inspired.

damo-b's picture
damo-b's picture
damo-b Tuesday, 10 Aug 2021 at 8:07am

#metoo

Dylan Gilford's picture
Dylan Gilford's picture
Dylan Gilford Wednesday, 11 Aug 2021 at 12:37pm

as charged lol

A Cripple's picture
A Cripple's picture
A Cripple Monday, 9 Aug 2021 at 9:26am

Yep.......

I bet Fernando still got paid!

NDC's picture
NDC's picture
NDC Monday, 9 Aug 2021 at 9:27am

+1

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Monday, 9 Aug 2021 at 9:33am

Clickbait? It's contextual for the Argentine svengali.

scroty's picture
scroty's picture
scroty Monday, 9 Aug 2021 at 9:34am

Promised g-strings, delivered balding-middle-aged guy in a pink bowtie...

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Monday, 9 Aug 2021 at 9:41am

What if you found out he had a G-banger on too..?

memlasurf's picture
memlasurf's picture
memlasurf Monday, 9 Aug 2021 at 4:26pm

That image is really not pleasant.

slowman's picture
slowman's picture
slowman Friday, 27 Aug 2021 at 5:31am

It would probably take longer to forget seeing it than you'd want. Not to mention, turning mere disappointment after taking the bait, to a feeling something akin to stepping on dog turd.

sunhil's picture
sunhil's picture
sunhil Monday, 9 Aug 2021 at 9:22am

Another 'look at me' promoter trying to tap into the wellness/enviro conscious movement. Maybe some self awareness on 'why' he needs the attention would better serve the world!!

Simon Hayward's picture
Simon Hayward's picture
Simon Hayward Monday, 9 Aug 2021 at 9:56am

guilty

tyzee63's picture
tyzee63's picture
tyzee63 Monday, 9 Aug 2021 at 10:51am

Cos surfing and Green juices go together like Slater and retirement!

Current Affair's picture
Current Affair's picture
Current Affair Monday, 9 Aug 2021 at 11:16am

Do these 'spread the lifestyle' types still surf or does it just become a used car salesman chase for cash and their name in surf media? I can understand the teeth guy never surfed but I'm assuming this guy did somewhere along the way.

Captainsurf's picture
Captainsurf's picture
Captainsurf Monday, 9 Aug 2021 at 11:24am

where is the thumbnail?!! I demand the thumbnail! haha

winston.white's picture
winston.white's picture
winston.white Monday, 9 Aug 2021 at 11:46am

C'mon Stu not cool bra ... where's the babes in G's

philosurphizingkerching's picture
philosurphizingkerching's picture
philosurphizing... Monday, 9 Aug 2021 at 12:03pm

Shit Splitter
Word of the year
Thanks for sharing it with us Seaslug.

Thegrowingtrend.com's picture
Thegrowingtrend.com's picture
Thegrowingtrend.com Monday, 9 Aug 2021 at 12:04pm

We want chicks in G bangers!

rogerdodger's picture
rogerdodger's picture
rogerdodger Monday, 9 Aug 2021 at 1:53pm

Oh well....back to my Bras and Things junk mail

Roker's picture
Roker's picture
Roker Monday, 9 Aug 2021 at 6:14pm

I watched and enjoyed a fair bit of track and field, as-well as some track cycling. I was saying to myself every five minutes that it was a damn shame there were no crowds. Now I take that sentiment back.

Kind've a pity that Fernando didn't get surfing up in the 80s and 90s when a 'beach party' full of Reef Girls rather than green juices was indeed the way these characters sought to turn the 'lifestyle and culture' of surfing into $$$.

Standingleft's picture
Standingleft's picture
Standingleft Monday, 9 Aug 2021 at 10:25pm

I just keep imagining the crowd scenes on the beach when Kanoa stomped that air and took down Gabby. Now there's G-strings too and green juice everywhere. Covid sucks

PCS PeterPan's picture
PCS PeterPan's picture
PCS PeterPan Monday, 9 Aug 2021 at 10:36pm

Surfing being presented as an "enviroment - loving " pursuit is quite comical . Anyone who has eyewitnessed the surfboard production industry know how toxic it is .
I know other lifestyle pursuits expel nasty atoms into our atmosphere , but the industry is undeniably
one of the worst .
Sell that to all the Hipster , woke newbies .

Maloney2's picture
Maloney2's picture
Maloney2 Tuesday, 10 Aug 2021 at 7:42am

Yep

DaWaveslave's picture
DaWaveslave's picture
DaWaveslave Tuesday, 10 Aug 2021 at 6:05pm

wheres the babes???? ripped off to da max

Hoodie's picture
Hoodie's picture
Hoodie Wednesday, 11 Aug 2021 at 8:58am

Me too

eeram's picture
eeram's picture
eeram Thursday, 12 Aug 2021 at 5:40pm

Young female surfer here, just popped onto swellnet.com to check the surf forecast. 2nd in the ´Fast News´ section is a row of female bums lined up with unrelated caption regarding COVID-19 causing a beach party cancellation. Clicked on the link thinking ´why the hell is this on a surfing community website homepage?´ and there is a pompous looking guy labelled as the godfather of modern surfing smiling (largely) back at me. Has that dude even surfed before? if so, he is definitely not an accurate representation of how majority of surfers (particularly young) experience the modern surfing world.... anyway. Scroll down to the comments and it´s just a bunch of men demanding the bums they came here for. Not ONE FUCKING comment unrelated to wishing to see the bums they clicked on. Came for a surf forecast, leaving nauseous and feeling like nothing. Click on the ´see here for whole article´ link below McSmileyFuck and it takes me to a major NY news website and guess what it first? Carissa Moore dominating comps and smashing records. What´s second? 2 men jailed for repeatedly raping teenage girls. What´s third? COVID related breakthrough. Swellnet; I´m really disappointed and disgusted. There is a place for people and attitudes like those you´ve featured on the internet, and that place should not be where females also go to just check the damn forecast. Commenters and everybody brought here by the bums: save it for PornHub. Swellnet: Disgusted in not only the transparent attitude of your editors, but your failure to protect a massive proportion of your community (females). I hope I am the first young female coming across this trash in search of a surf forecast, unfortunately odds say otherwise.

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Thursday, 12 Aug 2021 at 7:20pm

Appreciate the comment eeram, but it's worth pointing out a few things, for context.

1. Over the last 20 years since Swellnet started, this is the first photo of bums to appear on the homepage. Or indeed anywhere else on the site.
2. During that time we have published thousands of articles across a wide range of interest points across the surfing spectrum.
3. The use of bums in this case relates to the bloke behind the ISA (who also got surfing into the Olympics), who built his fame and fortune as the creator of the Reef surf brand, and the subsequent marketing strategy using girls in g-strings. As such, this article is a light hearted, ironic jab at the apparent double standards.

Now I don't know how long you've been using Swellnet (as you only registered an account an hour and a half ago) but if you're new to the site, I'd encourage to read through our Surfpolitik, Talking Heads or Analysis sections for some more engaging content. Or, Ding Alley for a laff.

https://www.swellnet.com/news/surfpolitik
https://www.swellnet.com/news/talking-heads
https://www.swellnet.com/news/swellnet-analysis
https://www.swellnet.com/news/ding-alley

eeram's picture
eeram's picture
eeram Monday, 16 Aug 2021 at 11:55am

Hey Thermalben, I registered so I could comment, came over from coastalwatch a while back since it became surfline, found it isn't quite as user friendly as coastal watch was and swellnet is. Yes I'm aware that this community has advocated for equality and promoted minority surfers and I love that about surfing (like others have mentioned, the equal pay for men & women was massive). That doesn't excuse content like this which is potentially hurtful and harmful to a many of your female audience. Leaving your rubbish on the ground and saying 'nah it's fine, check out all this rubbish i've picked up!' doesn't make it okay. Your argument about bums can be directly translated to 'but we've been good so far, let us have this one free pass'. Sorry, but your 'free pass' is both demoralizing to women in surfing and attracting the kind of people I'm not sure you want on your site. My original post was feisty because I was livid and I hope this perhaps calmer response has made things a little clearer. I am aware and so appreciative of the fantastic surfing community and how progressive the majority are in promoting equality. That is why it is so disappointing to see something trashy like this on the front page, then to call it out and receive a response that reads as ' yeah but we're normally really good, if you'd been around for longer than 90 minutes you would've seen some of the good stuff we do. Go read that then you'll get the joke' .

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Monday, 16 Aug 2021 at 12:14pm

Hello Eeram,

I'm the Editor for Swellnet and I posted that thumbnail.

I've worked in the role for twelve years and in that time we've never run a single gratuitous photo, story, or advertisement. To date, I've not had a single complaint about sexism. Now, this lone photo gets run as a thumbnail, and it was very clearly tied to Fernando and his history of exploitation with Reef - I even explained the context above.

Your lengthy post shows you still don't appreciate the irony and instead are rushing to the outrage. It's extremely typical of the world we live in, where context means nothing and offence can be found anywhere.

Irony has a very long history in literature, comedy, art and I rue the day people such as yourself stamp it out completely. The shitty thing is that irony is an effective weapon against the very thing you're railing at...if only you took a second to understand that.

But of course you won't because the self-righteous never do...

truebluebasher's picture
truebluebasher's picture
truebluebasher Friday, 13 Aug 2021 at 12:35pm

eeram speaks for all crew here.
Can verify that swellnet is respectful of Olympic women's surfing by sharing a personal example.

#1 swellnet Olympic site is a respectful comprehensive celebration of our Female Surf Olympians.
This is not some token tribute...swellnet afforded an ongoing 2 year celebration of women's surfing.

swellnet affords surfers to step up & dedicate an equal or pro Women's Surf Forum & we did our best.
tbb personally thanks swellnet for allowing more than generous dedication to open freestyle surfing.
See what you think : https://www.swellnet.com/forums/wax/473911

tbb respectfully boycotted Olympics & once all competitors return home will tidy up results.

Can't say tbb recalls a woman being trolled on swellnet. If so then crew will apologize for such!
No! Not just saying that...thermalben has pulled tbb's comment/s if they misrepresent women.
Never meant any harm...but if it can be read as harmful...sure, tbb will accept that & Apologizes.

Crew welcome eeram & a baptism of fire is standard entry here or the line-up...( Sure! A blokes thing! )
No ones gonna lie about that & it gets a bit rough, but all here respect your comment & women.
Please feel free to equally celebrate Women's surfing, we'll lend a hand & we'd all be stoked.
Swellnet affords DIY or just ask! Guarantee friendly swellnet crew will be pleased to assist...Salute!

#1 swellnet often webcasts more Women's Comps than other media...
(re: current Mexico Women's Comp )
Here's Carissa's (Highest Heat score/s) Catch the Semis > Go Steph / Go Sally
https://www.worldsurfleague.com/posts/481262/moore-drops-near-perfect-95...
https://www.worldsurfleague.com/posts/481473/carissa-moore-posts-980-wav...

#1 swellnet women's surf mag collection...with compliments.
https://www.swellnet.com/news/surfpolitik/2014/12/01/layne-beachley-and-...
https://www.swellnet.com/news/swellnet-dispatch/2017/09/18/pauline-mencz...
https://www.swellnet.com/news/swellnet-dispatch/2021/03/29/waverley-coun...
https://www.swellnet.com/news/swellnet-dispatch/2018/03/15/womens-pro-su...
https://www.swellnet.com/comment/642948
https://www.swellnet.com/news/the-depth-test/2021/03/12/review-girls-can...
https://www.swellnet.com/news/talking-heads/2021/03/11/chris-nelius-dire...

BlueySWWA's picture
BlueySWWA's picture
BlueySWWA Friday, 13 Aug 2021 at 3:09pm

Thanks eeram - great call. I'm a male Boomer and this sort of stuff was de rigueur (prescribed or required by fashion, etiquette, or custom) back in the day (ie. yesterday), but should no longer go unchallenged. Just like the need to change attitudes to racism we all need to stand up and call out iwhat really is "casual sexism". @thermalben you can defend the record of swellnet, but in this case just admit you got it wrong.

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Friday, 13 Aug 2021 at 3:13pm

Hold on...we got nothing wrong.

I posted that thumbnail with the express purpose of ironically pointing out Fernando Aguerre's hypocrisy.

If you don't appreciate irony, fine, but saying we got it wrong just shows you don't even understand it.

BlueySWWA's picture
BlueySWWA's picture
BlueySWWA Friday, 13 Aug 2021 at 6:17pm

Hmmm? Judging by the comments from your readers including this one by you -
"What if you found out he had a G-banger on too..?"
it seems the irony was lost on everyone.

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Friday, 13 Aug 2021 at 7:16pm

The irony was lost on me, the author?

OK.

"Held in Peru, and overseen by administrative zealot, noted arse man, and founder of Reef Surfwear, Fernando Aguerre, the ISA games is a snapshot of surfing's competitive future." - 2010

"For forty years, Fernando Aguerre has been relentless in singing the praises of equality, fraternity, and naked female arses." -2021

BlueySWWA's picture
BlueySWWA's picture
BlueySWWA Friday, 13 Aug 2021 at 10:52pm

You can keep running that defence, but read the comments. The reality is that once the comments started flowing any intended irony was overtaken by casual sexism. Thats certainly what @eeram saw and called it out. If your comment "G-banger" was a further attempt at irony then yes I missed that, maybe you did too and certainly so did your audience.

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Saturday, 14 Aug 2021 at 5:58am

Writing "g-banger" is tantamount to sexism now?

No offence, but you sound like a product of Victorian England, and your attempt to, not only police people's thoughts, but tell them what they should be thinking is damn creepy.

I'm sure you think you're providing a public service...

seaslug's picture
seaslug's picture
seaslug Sunday, 15 Aug 2021 at 2:56pm

I agree BlueySWWA, "G-banger" is so sexist, that's why I refer to them as "Shit Splitters" since it's gender neutral

BlueySWWA's picture
BlueySWWA's picture
BlueySWWA Saturday, 14 Aug 2021 at 9:46am

Oh dear @stunet, “Personal insults are the last refuge of the intellectual coward.”
What I'm trying to do is support the comments made by one of your female readers. That might make some people uncomfortable - others may see it as an attack on their rights to freedom of speech.

Time for a surf now.

stunet's picture
stunet's picture
stunet Saturday, 14 Aug 2021 at 12:27pm

Right, so it's OK for you to call me sexist, that's not considered an insult in your world, but questioning your over-the-top moralising is.

The picture just gets clearer and clearer.

Eeram missed the irony, you did too, what makes it worse is that despite having it explained you keep pressing the matter.

zenagain's picture
zenagain's picture
zenagain Saturday, 14 Aug 2021 at 1:41pm

A woman missing the irony?

I'm uncharacteristically speechless.

mikehunt207's picture
mikehunt207's picture
mikehunt207 Saturday, 14 Aug 2021 at 10:22am

Jeeze the continuing hunt for anything that can be labelled as sexist or mysogynistic finds its confused way to a swellnet forum, @eeram there is another surfing website called surfline.com , its all rainbows and high fives over there (total fake bullshit mostly but hey its woke as you need),it may suit you better? Nic carroll can fill you in on all the niceties over there along with some lovely old stories of being a famous surfers brother.Vanilla all the way. One pic of an old Reef Brazil event and the gloves are off, toughen up and or get your facts right, surfing has been around longer than since you started doing/following it (which is fairly recently I,d hazard a guess).

truebluebasher's picture
truebluebasher's picture
truebluebasher Sunday, 15 Aug 2021 at 11:36am

How long is a piece of G String...
Agree! Boomers are mean't to be level headed, see both sides to a story, tell it as it is & put things right.
We then apologize for making things worse...tbb does that up front...best to get that outta the way!

Honesty! Gromz would most likely spew at a Full Monty World Champ Tracks Redo...All say Aye!
Boomers were once Gromz & can see how intimidating such a photo is for all cultural reasons.

Putting things in perspective (vs) Blowing things outta proportion.
Google search shows "...." Bum cheeks images are mostly sold as Lad's Poster Size...
swellnet image > is postage stamp size...& in no way 4 sale or exhibition or open to exploitation
tbb's computer measures our postage stamp line-up cheeks at a tad over 1cm...(Is that a WMD Breach?)
Yes! tbb sanitised the ruler before & after...never once smudging the screen!
We Boomers have poor vision & sadly admit to squinting for a Perv...Hardly Page 3 BOTD.
Proud to argue that swellnet least exploited said image...
No-Not Pornhub + No-Not! 40ft tall G- Bangin' Surf Shop Billboard + No-Not even a local xxx line-up.

Truth is that any essential trip to a seaside town is a more confronting eyeful in every shape & form.

Computer says...people have always Surfed naked & always will.
Wiki: There are endless more Naked Surf Reserves than G-Banger Surf Reserves.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_nudity_places_in_Oceania

In our GC WSR - surfers went naked until 1920/30's + (1970's) > Cheeky bikinis to Now!
See-Thru Cheeky Bikinis > G-Bangers have long been acceptable attire in our WSR town...None blink!
Only because Law says we must slip on bathers to bathe in a Bathing Reserve...like that makes sense?

Olympic Sized G-Banger (vs) All things bright & beautiful, all VIP creatures great & small.
Globetrotting Olympic Princess Show Ponies fat shamed & evicted their essential G-Banger host.
Horses swore it was never about the G-Banger & it was everything else that spooked them...
But loser riders wouldn't have a bar of it > Fat Shamed the G-Banger Host...Time 2 Go!

Ironic that we're still in Phase 1 of this G-Banger Rollout...we're gonna need a lot more Surf stickers.
Sorry! tbb has already apologized for making things worse...did warn ya!

eeram's picture
eeram's picture
eeram Monday, 16 Aug 2021 at 11:58am

And a Massive thank you to every person who has commented & called these attitudes out thereafter, you guys are the type of people who make both the surfing community and world a nice place to be in :)

tubeshooter's picture
tubeshooter's picture
tubeshooter Monday, 16 Aug 2021 at 4:52pm

I remember tracks mag editors going through this when they ran full page Reef adds many many moons ago.
And a lot of defenders of the adds were actually female.
It's not the content of the article that bothers the offended in this case ,it's the thumbnail and some of the comments by some of the readers.. Every regular here would have clicked the link regardless of the image.
I wonder if the same outrage would be seen if it was some super fit guy in his Calvin Kleins.

seaslug's picture
seaslug's picture
seaslug Monday, 16 Aug 2021 at 6:19pm

or Borat in his mankini