Chas Smith

3 days ago | beachgrit.com | Chas Smith

Surfing's cardinal sin. Summer is almost here, in the northernhemisphere, once more and with it very expensive trips tothe beach for our surfing brothers and sisters who happen to liveon the eastern seaboard. But who could forget the story of LiamMahoney who was brutally tackled, cuffed and stuffedby an extremely aggressive policeman in Belmar, New Jersey after asurf, last summer, for not having a “beach badge.”The scene was caught and viraled and now, one year later, hasarrived in court.

4 days ago | beachgrit.com | Chas Smith

Off the Wall Street. Surfers, everywhere, became extremely nervous,as the sun rose on financial markets, after learning Vans had lostan eye-watering $400 million just this year. The iconicwaffle-soled shoe, crafted by Paul Van Doren and his brothers in1966 and sold from a neat little store front in Anaheim, instantlybecame a favorite with the region’s many skateboards andsurfboarders, as they were extremely cheap.

4 days ago | beachgrit.com | Chas Smith

Is this definitive proof we are living in asimulation? Surf fans already semi-convinced we are livingin a simulation received further confirmation, yesterday, when theWorld Surf League made the exciting announcement that two eventswould be added to the second-tier Challenger Series calendar. First, the iconic Banzai Pipeline, a wave so fierce that it sentlittle wave surf champion Filipe Toledo into a year of hiding.

6 days ago | beachgrit.com | Chas Smith

It's an old man's world. This epoch was supposed to feel different. Kelly Slater’s 40 year run of surfing domination coming to an end(save 5 – 7 wildcards per year) ushering in a youth bonanza at thehighest levels of professional surfing. A new crop of rippershomeschooled on the best rights and lefts in the world grabbing thereins and steering the old horse in fresh ways.

1 week ago | beachgrit.com | Chas Smith

"Well it hit me off the entirely off the board thenI was in the water, looking back and I remember seeing the blackeye and teeth..."There’s cool and then their is Jens Hellercool. But let us quickly make our way to greater SanFrancisco and its colder, sharkier waters. Specifically let us goto Montara State Beach where we find the German scientist (I think) there on the sandfresh after a shark attack. But imagine it was you having justescaped from the jaws of great white death. How would you behave?