A big to do

As I gather the last few things I will need for the 4th of July celebration

And descend into my massive underground bunker complex for the duration of the festivities

I think back on the summers of my past

All those waves ridden on the south side

The entire staff here at 23B wishes you a safe and happy 4th of July

RANT*RANT*RANT*RANT*RANT*RANT*RANT*RANT*RANT*RANT*

One more thing,

You see the bit of plastic crap I'm holding in my hand in the picture above?

It was painted in the national colors of the USA to help sell the product.

(while being manufactured in China BTW )

Oh and it didn't surf well which, for me is the most important thing partly because of a nasty twist in the blank, but that not really what I wanted to talk about.

It seems that just everyone in the surf community is upset about a certain surfwear company's new promotional video of one of their stable of women surfers.

The video shall we say "features" this young woman womanly charms to sell the product.

Everyone is aghast, there are petitions to sign, commentary is everywhere.

two things

ONE and probably the most important

Where have you ALL been the last fifty years?

Advertiser have been using sex to sell their products in an increasingly explicit ways for quite some time.

Surfing has been leading the way all along.

Have you never seen the Reef ads? If so can you explain to me how a bare butt is related to sandals?

For a professional surfer having "good" blond surfer hair, pleasant anglo features, and a chiseled physic is much more important to the sponsors than the quality of your cut back

(Colonel Kilgore cares about your cutback but no one else)

Here is an exercise for you. Pickup the lastest issue of Er-Ing-Trans surfer monthly.

First off the thing is just a batch of ads.  From cover to cover. Even the "content" is advertisement.

Now take a look at the young stylish people in the ads.  They are predominantly young white, blond, straight, good looking, fit, tan and quite possibly related. 

To summarize, because it's summer after all, Sex Sells, and while the action sport retailers didn't come up with the concept they are familiar with it and have been for quite a while.

SECOND, because I said there would be two points to this rant.

Do you want to know what the surf brand in question makes of all this hoopla?

Well I can't really speak for them but I think "Laughing all the way to the bank" covers it.  

"Surfing isn't a sport, it's a soft core porn lifestyle ...."