While nothing's certain, the details behind Kirra Point Incorporated's plan appear sound and they may just achieve their goal. What is certain, however, is that this is the last roll of the dice for KPI: They've finally wooed the government and scored $800,000 of taxpayer money, if this doesn't work the public purse will slam shut and with it the funding for further solutions.
Just as some people surf to escape from the reality of life, so to do they expect fantasy and escapism in surf media. Or at least that's what the powers that be provide. Debate, dangerous ideas, and rigorous discussions – hell, counter-cultural rebellion - are largely spurned for superficial celebrations of surfing. Unfortunately for surfers the absence of critical commentary and strategic reflection within our community only reinforces the well-worn stereotypes of surfers.
The Australian surfing commentariat, for all its squinty-eyed experience, is a deeply solipsistic group, as wedded to own its worldview as any number of elites worldwide.
Older generations disapproving of younger ones is such a common theme throughout human history and across all cultures that it must be deeply built into our psychology. If it was not, a few moments reflection by those inclined to criticise would lead them to the obvious conclusion that they cannot win. The old grow weaker and less influential, the young get stronger and more influential.
After three years of relentless sharemarket drama and hawkish interest from private equity groups Billabong appear to have been thrown a lifeline, albeit one with severe conditions attached. Overnight US private equity group, Altamont, arranged a $395 million financing deal for the once-mighty Australian company.
Call me skeptical but I'm always wary when people mix activism with leisure. It's a concept that surfers, who often travel to Less Developed Countries, have a special skill. How to allay First World Guilt while travelling to exotic yet poverty-stricken nations? Claim the surfing is good for the people or the environment, maybe even start a campaign about the plight of the locals, and then carry on unencumbered.
A new campaign is currently challenging the ethics of surf travel. Turning them on their head in fact.
If you were around in Sydney on Wednesday you will know there was a fair amount of swell. Not huge or intimidating, but enough size and power, you would think, to induce caution in those unfamiliar with the ocean. I knew there were better waves around, but the sight of some A-frames running into longish walls at my local was enough to get me straight into the water without even looking anywhere else.
The Roxy video is hardly a shock, it's simply another step in the path that surf companies and their sponsored riders have chosen to market women surfing. The video is, however, barefaced in its approach, making little pretense to surfing whilst lingering on the female form far longer than is necessary to promote a surfing contest.
In that sense it's a new low in the objectification of women, but to the surf companies it makes sound business sense.
Does Kelly Slater have a private jet?
How do you anchor an artificial reef?
Who are the Bells Beach steak holders?
What are those things that look like ropes that surfers wear on their arms or legs?
For surfers, the promises of social media are finally coming true; it's democratising the game and bypassing the old gatekeepers of information. It's also presenting a dramatic new challenge: never mind us crusty old surfing editors looking to increase our readerships, the responsibility to protect secret spots now rests with everybody.