“Imagine putting six years of passion into
something you loved and pioneered just to be told you have no value
to it.”
The Hawaiian Cheyne Magnusson, who singlehandedly
altered the course of aerial surfing at BSR cable park in Waco and
who then took his considerable expertise to the Palm Springs Surf
Club, has exited that building in a hailstorm of
recriminations.
It was Magnusson’s pulling and manipulation of the levers who
turned Waco, which would’ve been another crummy pool, into the best
wedge anyone had seen anywhere.
“You know, the hard part that we’re facing at this juncture is
that the people who develop these technologies, they’re brilliant,
unbelievable engineers, hydrodynamics, aerospace, whatever, they’re
really smart,” Magnusson, who is forty-two, told me a few years
back. “They read a lot of books and so on. But then you have those
guys colliding with us, people who’ve dedicated their lives to
surfing. You can be the smartest person in the world and you can
develop these machines but you need surfers, people who’ve looked
at the ocean their whole lives, to know how to… move… the
water.”
In another interview with BeachGrit he explained, I come in and
play the piano. Give me a bunch of knobs to move water and I can
make it sing.”
Earlier today, a bombshell from Magnusson when he announced that
he’d been cut from the Palm Springs Surf Club team.
Goodbye Palm Springs Surf Club. The ride has ended for me,
kinda ended back in the fall when I think about it. Imagine putting
6 years of passion and dedication into something you loved and
pioneered just to be told you have no value to it. One day, the
real story of what went down here will be told, not today though.
Despite that, I am still very proud of what we built. The real
people who worked the day to day will always be the best thing I
take from this experience.
The relationships are what matter. Seeing the stoke on
people’s faces when they made their first slab was one of my
favorite things, you could feel their energy in the tower! Proud of
the **loyal** surf patrol guys and happy to pass on knowledge to
them, those guys are hammers!
Proud of my wife, @_courtneymagnusson for everything she did
to set her side up for success. Her dedication to her team and
leadership is truly what made that place tick day in and day out. A
big part of being so dedicated to this was so I could share the
love of surfing with my daughters, sad about that not being there
anymore. Word to the wise, be careful who you partner with. What’s
next? Stay tuned the possibilities are endless…
A who’s who of surfing, including Jamie O’Brien, Mark Healey,
Matt Biolos, Freddy Pattachia and BBC-cuckolding pioneer Pete Taras
all joined in the comments to praise the Hawaiian for his skills
etc.
The Palm Springs Surf Club has been mostly well-received, its
wild take-off into barrel the sorta wave that’ll test anyone, but
has been subject to multiple breakdowns.
BeachGrit’s Com Turren, no relation etc, visited twice. Hither and yon.
First visit: “After a 1.5 hour drive, I arrive to check in early
and take inventory of the place. I am informed at check in that the
wave machine is having issues and the pool can only run the
intermediate A-Frame wave. No barrels for Com today, but that’s
what I get for going into any surf session, pool or ocean, even so
much as thinking about getting barreled. Such are the consequences
of surf hubris.”
Second visit: “When I inquire about the wave setting applicable
to the earlier sessions we are observing, YET AGAIN, barrel hubris
strikes—there are no barreling waves at PSSC on offer today in any
of the public sessions. This time, it is not a technical issue with
the pumps like it was back in January. Instead, PSSC has presumably
moved the goalposts in terms of what constitutes the “Advanced
A-Frame,” a setting that was formerly described as follows:
“These slabby cylinders give surfers the option to pull in on
the takeoff and come out in time to do one or two more turns if you
are quick enough.”
“Now, it basically looks like the intermediate wave I surfed
back in January with perhaps a touch more height and a touch more
juice, but it is certainly not barreling.”
Vale Cheyne Magusson.
