A country superstar and a surf legend walk into a bar…
Days ago, surfers became frustrated when it was revealed that country superstar Jason Aldean had opened a surf-themed burger bar. The cultural appropriation was bad, yes. Pure surfface. Aldean, who was born in Georgia and lives in Nashville, is not a surfer. He did not learn young nor did he become a VAL. He is not a surfer and yet, his burger bar is named “Papa Surf.” It features surf-esque items on the menu like the “Turkey Burger,” named after former World Surf League CEO Erik Logan.
Yes, the cultural appropriation was bad but, worse, surfing already has a Papa Surf.
Barton Lynch.
Now, while Jason Aldean and Lynch come from different political backgrounds, they do share certain opinions regarding, say, the Covid vaccination. Aldean recently sat down with the Los Angeles Times in a wide-ranging interview that covered “over-indexing on straight white dudes,” white privilege and the aforementioned jab.
Jason Aldean and Barton Lynch are Strange Bedfellows
When asked if he had received pharma magic, Aldean answered:
No. I felt like I’m a healthy guy, and this was a vaccine that Trump was pushing at the end of his office and Biden was saying, “Oh, don’t do it — it’s too soon.” Then as soon as Biden gets in: “Everybody get the shot.” [Note: In September 2020, Biden said, “I trust vaccines. I trust scientists. But I don’t trust Donald Trump. And at this point, the American people can’t, either.”] To me it was like, I don’t really know what’s going on here, so I’m just gonna stay away from it. That’s what I decided to do, and I’m very happy with my decision.
If I recall, Lynch was asked not to return to the World Surf League broadcast booth even though he was, by far, the best. At the time, Lynch said, “So a couple weeks ago, just to update you, I reached out to the WSL and offered my services, let them know that I was available for any upcoming events but was unfortunately told that I wasn’t needed this year so I won’t be back, I won’t be commentating this year and, uh, well that’s not altogether to be unexpected, I suppose.”
It was widely rumored that the reason was because Lynch, too, repfused the Pfizer.
And might this completely unforeseen coupling of twin Papa Surfs bring about some sort of utopia?
We’d be remiss to write off.
More as the story develops.
