SUNDAY JOINT, 11-25-2018: LARRY BLAIR, PINK ZINKA, SHAKESPEARE

Hey All,

Apologies for last week’s Joint going out two days late. Our email program auto-updated and went squiggly, and by the time we sorted it out the Sunday Joint was the Tuesday Joint, possibly even the Wednesday Joint, as we ended up sending emails out in batches of 100. If you get this one a day or two late . . . please read above. If we’re still stuck next week, I may be delivering by hand so keep so LaCroix in the fridge.

“Surf Boom Redux” is the latest from History of Surfing, and if you have a soft spot for moussed hair on top of Oakley Blades on top of hot-pink Zinka, then you’re in for a treat. The 1980s is when surfwear companies really began swinging for the fences. Quiksilver gave Tom Carroll a million-dollar contract, the industry as a whole hit the billion-dollar mark around 1985, and Op contractually forced its teamriders into a new line of trunks called Hydrolite, which as I recall were made of Spandex and nylon mesh and featured a plasma-lined carbon-fiber codpiece. In the ’80s, you could choose any color you wanted as long as it was really bright.

Larry Blair’s interview just posted in Above the Roar. Drew Kampion recorded it in late 1979, right after Larry won the Pipe Masters for the second time running. Not to spoil things for you, but here is my runner-up favorite part of the interview: Larry saying he’d “like to win the Pipeline Masters five times,” but that he’d “be happy just to win it three.” Not bragging, exactly, just incredibly full of confidence. My favorite part is when Blair, a working stage and TV actor, totally forgets what Shakespeare play he’d just been in. He says Othello, but Kampion figures out that it was actually Twelfth Night. The kid mixed up his tragedy and comedy, and you can’t help but laugh at him. On the other hand, he’s got a pair of Masters trophies in a box in the garage and we don’t, so there’s laughs enough to go around.

Thanks everybody and, email gods willing, I’ll be back next Sunday.

Matt

[Larry Blair surf pic by Lance Trout]