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5 days ago | 
beachgrit.com | Derek Rielly
"Had to get rushed to the ER and ended up in thehospital for 4 days hooked up to a machine to suck the air out ofmy chest."The former boogieboarder turned hipster-freesurfingnomad god, Dion Agius, a staple in Kai Neville’s films ofthe 2010s if you’ll remember, has written ofhis recent near-death experience from a hospital bed inSwitzerland. Collapsed lung, emergency surgery, four days in hozzy.
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6 days ago | 
beachgrit.com | Derek Rielly
"Mick Fanning's house balances elegance withexcess, often hinting at the underlying tragedy of unattainabledreams."If you ever lived on the southern end of the Gold Coastbefore the big developers moved in and prices went through the sky,two mill and up for a box at Rainbow Bay, you’d realise theabsurdity of a buyer throwing almost twenty mill at a house acrossthe road from noisy ol’ Coolangatta airport. But here we are, Australia, the lucky country.
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1 week ago | 
beachgrit.com | Derek Rielly
Want to own the best wave in Western Australia,maybe lock it up for your own pleasures? If you surf, you know Gnaraloo. If you’re alittle older you’ll remember Jack McCoy’s Billabong Challenges,held there in 95 and 96, the world’s best surfers at one of theworld’s best waves, Kelly Slater, Machado, Sunny, Occ. And, if you grew up in the relatively waveless city of Perth,1100 clicks south, it was the wave you dreamed about as the coldwinds of winter came.
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1 week ago | 
beachgrit.com | Derek Rielly
And Christ shall be slain for the sins of professional surfing!
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1 week ago | 
beachgrit.com | Derek Rielly
Next stop Pyongyang!From LGBTQ+ Pride flags being ripped off lesbianathletes in Abu Dhabi to the feting of a contest in El Salvadorwhere “less than one hour away is theTerrorism Confinement Center at the pointy end of the Trumpadministration’s mass deportation program”, the WSL don’t havea prob doin’ biz with dictators and totalitarianregimes.
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1 week ago | 
beachgrit.com | Derek Rielly
While it might appear, superficially, like aparadise, it don’t mean the Maldives ain’t hardline. Shortly after four thousand Hamas commandoes and two thousandhooting Gazan civilians began a day of butchery in Israel inOctober 7, 2023, calls began in the Maldives for an immediateban on Israelis in that strictly Sunni Muslim islandchain. Barely had the limbs of the slaughtered stopped twitching beforean open letter was posted by the Maldives BodyboardingAssociation.
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1 week ago | 
beachgrit.com | Derek Rielly
"As I walk my journey through the turmoil of peoplethat want to spread misinformation, I’ve found myself wondering whydo people hate me for existing!"It’s been several months since BeachGrit last reported on theinspirational trans surfer Sasha Jane Lowerson neé former men’slongboard champion Andrew Egan.
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1 week ago | 
beachgrit.com | Derek Rielly
“People were writing me off and giving megrief.”New Yorker Justin Justin is a master portraitist whoworks with a Nikon film camera, an ancient manual-focus 35mmprime affixed to the beak, and made his name shootingsuperstars like P.Diddy, pre-incarceration, Jay Z andOutkast. A few years back he released an epic hard-cover book of a decade shootingthe North Shore. My favourite photo in the lavish tome was thisimage of Dane Reynolds, excluded from a Bruce Irons make-outsession at a North Shore party.
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1 week ago | 
beachgrit.com | Derek Rielly
"World-class surfer, iconic filmmaker of Drive Thruseries and many other legendary films, 17 clothing founder, andepic father."The creator of the beloved Drive-Thru series and formerstar of Taylor Steele’s Momentumrock-and-cock films, Greg Browning, has died following aneighteen-month battle with the incurable neurodegenerativedisease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
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1 week ago | 
beachgrit.com | Derek Rielly
The film’s biggest surprise is none other thanHarry Bryant, who was once a pro surfer too, until he saw thewriting on the wall. The world’s greatest-ever female surferStephanie Gilmore and the Chinese-Hawaiian surfsuperstar Mason Ho, along with little sis Coco, have been filmedtogether in an all-star “sandbar party” at Rocky Point onOahu’s North Shore.
