Some Good Internet Drama

Currently the hottest surf blog on the world wide internets is Post Surf which is run by the sarcastic and controversial Lewis Samuels. A freelance surf writer, Samuels recently attempted the 'ol surf industry mock the hand that feeds trick by simultaneously writing for the mainstream website Surfline and then sniping at Surfline's content on his own snarky blog. Many have tried and failed at this sort of thing.

Read the infamous post Corporate Rage

Samuels observed that maybe Surfline and Billabong shouldn't have hyped a recent high end surf trip to Tavarua in this current economic climate. It was an interesting PR move by Billabong, I wonder if they expected any kind of backlash. I actually like Billabong CEO Paul Naude, he surfs good and has a sincere love for surfboards. I'm sure that Naude works hard and earned himself a nice surf trip, but in a climate when your customers are worried about their jobs, stressed about losing their health insurance and struggling to make their mortgage and surf shop owners are watching their retail sales plummet, do you really want to broadcast your luxury surf trip to the world?

Billabong USA CEO Paul Naude not feeling our burning jealously on a nice one. Photo by Scott Soens (hey I know him! Cool guy).

Or, are we entering another era of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous kind of voyeurism?

hmmm, this group photo doesn't exactly inspire rage or anger. They look like nice normal people having a nice time. There is even like three babies with them, awwwww.

Either way, Lewis Samuels is no longer with Surfline. There is a fairly passionate discussion about Samuels firing on the Surfer mag discussion board, read Lewis Samuels FIRED from Surfline. And, Samuels has sent out a press release also spotted on the Surfer magazine website, click here to read. He plans to continue publishing his Power Rankings of the pro surf tour. (His first installment really freaked people out by ranking Kelly Slater at #17. Fans of Slater were furious and distraught but did not consider that Slater's Round 3 loss in the first contest of the year meant he finished equal 17th in the contest).

By the way, here is a photo of D-Surf owner Aaron Smith at Tavarua a few years back,