“Surfing’s fun brother. Stop spraying your
negativity.”
Former tours surfers Kolohe Andino And Julian Wilson,
two men who are popular, admired, celebrated and let’s face it,
erotic artifacts for any breathing homosexual man, have
squared off online in a wild blood feud.
Two days ago, on the Instagram account of Rivvia Projects,
Julian Wilson’s start-up clothing label famous for a style which suggests
the sex kitten look meets New Romantic, a clip of
Wilson surfing Lowers, Kolohe’s home wave, was
posted along with the caption:
“Straight from the cobblestones of Trestles to the social media
internet. A very recent clip of the boss himself, Julian Wilson,
giving the Lowers lineup a bit of an education in high performance
surfing.”
Lowers, of course, is the high-performance wave that gifted
Filipe Toledo two world titles and Kolohe has long been associated
with the wave.
Kolohe shot back, “Sick wave. Fucked caption.”
Since leaving the tour Kolohe has discovered a fine candour in
his work. When launching his own clothing label, 2 percent, he
stunned surf fans with a profanity laden screed on Instagram.
“Surfing culture, big time surf brands and the ‘surf lifestyle’
are FUCKING dead,” wrote the thirty-year-old Daddy of two. “You got
every FUCKING up and coming kid thinking they are one of the Paul
brothers. Trying to gain cloud in any way, shape or form, with no
gumption, no backbone, or no idea. These kids are not leaders, they
are followers.”
The short message on the Rivvia account launched a cavalcade of
stunned responses, some for, some against, the Californian.
“Surely this isn’t the real Kolohe? No way he could be this big
a wanker.”
“Fkn sook. Have a listen to yourself.”
Brother’s a bit neggo now he’s washed up.
Then, this exchange tween Kolohe and Wilson.
Wilson: “Surfing’s fun brother. Stop spraying your
negativity.”
Kolohe replies, “Tell your IG intern to get a grip. Trestles
don’t need no education on high performance surfing.”
Wilson retorts, “It’s called tongue and (sic) cheek. Lighten up
kid.”
And the intern himself,
“IG Intern here. Really sorry if I offended anyone. I was just
trying to keep the boss happy so I can hopefully get a full time
job. Julian Wilson told me if this post gets 1000 likes I’m
officially hired.”
BeachGrit has always held Kolohe Andino close to our hearts. I
knew his daddy Dino during his wild nineties epoch and first met
the boy prodigy, then sixteen, on a holiday to the Canary Islands
where he exhibited what were then exotic flavours of aerials.
Kolohe’s sense of humour is light and legendary.
My favourite Julian Wilson moment came some years back when I
was commissioned by Surfer to do a Hot Seat interview with the kid.
Without any responses to my questions that deserved ink, I made up
the interview using quotes from George Hamilton, Adolf Hitler and a
few other notables.
Crazy thing? No one noticed.