ShakaLeaks

If you have yet to hear, Leroy Grannis passed away this last Friday February 4, 2011 at the salty age of 93.  Leroy was the legend of surf photography, perhaps the definition of revolutionary.  In his time it could be argued that he was the best photographer in the water, swimming on the inside at Pipe when no others, save Bud Brown, would.  The man could swim up the Amazon without loss of breath and thus took risks swimming for photography’s sake in the inside of the North Shore’s heaviest waves, somehow coming away alive and with the best photographs available.  We don’t have the rights to many of his photos, and wouldn’t claim to, so here are a few photos we found from some tribute galleries as well as some links to the galleries.

To the Grannis family, we send our respects and stoke, Aloha and Shaka.

-Shaka Leaks

Pipe from the water when no one else could.

Micky Dora by Leroy Grannis...two legends.

Surfer Mag Tribute

Surfline Article

Nike has done it again.  They just inked Julian Wilson to a 5 year deal so that he can match up with Kolohe in those awesome bright neon green Nike 6.0 wetsuits and basketball styled boardshorts.  Who is not stoked on this news?

For a little idea on what Nike is doing to the surf industry we quote this article from Surfline:

“In other Top 17 sponsorship news, Coco Ho has signed with Gatorade, Laura Enever is now head-to-toe Nike 6.0 (no more Roxy) and Jessi-Miley Dyer and Jacqueline Silva (who no longer ride for Rip Curl) and Rebecca Woods (who no longer surfs for Billabong) have joined Chelsea Hedges and Melanie Bartels as free agents. Translation: 29% of the athletes on the ASP Women’s World Tour don’t have a major sponsor.”

Rad huh?

Check it out…this is Nike’s way of saying “Julian knows surfing”

Just received word the Australian based investor for the rad surf apparel company Ando & Friends just gave word to the working crew here in the United States that the plug has officially been pulled.

At the time it is understood that Ando & Friends had no plans in place for such an event and are putting an immediate hault to production and work.  And thus, the possible complete ending of a truly artistic and loving surf brand.

Ando reinvented what simple brush strokes could do in the medium of surf art, and in doing so created a line of t-shirts that caught all eyes staring.  We only hope this to not be the end.  We will keep you posted as we find out more.

Nike bought Hurley almost a full decade ago.  When this happened I was in the 6th grade and my best friends and I were in a consistent and heated debate about which surf company was the most cool: Volcom or Hurley.  Both were relatively fresh to the market and both had the rebel vibe we all carried at the core of our adrenaline loving selves.

I am not going to lie, I was the biggest Volcom lover…the stone was on all my clothers, all my notebooks, my skateboards, my desk, computer…if I could find a place to show the world how cool Volcom was, I made certain to do so.  And thus, when it was discovered that the great Hurley had succumbed to the wretched sweat-shop loving and non-surfing Nike, I had won the battle.  Every true dude I knew abandoned the banana and fell in love with the Stone and the beginnings of RVCA, two companies that had art and surfing.

Now when I say we abandoned Hurley…I mean we really hated Hurley.  We put its clothes at the back of our closet, we prayed for holes in our wetsuits so we could get new ones made by someone else, we even scribbled over past doodles.  We all knew we would never be buying Nike, and thus Hurley was out of the question.  Must not have been more than 3 years later that Nike introduced Nike SB to the world…the cool way to say SkateBoarding apparently.  We all laughed at the idea.  How stupid were they? Didn’t they see everyone hated Hurley being bought by them?

Today, as I write this little intro post I can leave this webpage and visit the Nike 6.0 website where some of the most talented young surfers in the world are featured left and right.  Some of these aforementioned surfers even have deals that ink them exclusively with Nike, Target, and Red Bull…3 companies whose owners have never stepped on a beach.  Open up a surf mag nowadays and you see the Nike logo airbrushed into photos over the spray thrown by the incredible turn of the grom.  Watch a webclip and there is a chance it is sponsored by Nike or Hurley.

The point is this.  We are losing surfing to money hungry pigs who don’t shred and we once said we would never let those losers even get into the industry.  Our best shapers are having to start new careers to keep from going bankrupt and…TARGET SPONSORS SURFERS.

My friends, it is time we wake up.  The web can be used for good, we can advertise good true causes, we can post incredible surfing that is not edited or sponsor littered…we can be good people, good surfers.  Read this blog.

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