KAEL WALSH || IDIOT BOX

Western Australia is a great place to be for the end of the world. 

“When Covid started kicking off, it was one of the first places to go into lockdown,” Kael Walsh explains. “Then they never really lifted it. Nobody could get in without a proper exemption — and even if you had that, you had to quarantine for 14 days. But if you were in, there weren’t really any restrictions. We were fully isolated. While the rest of the world was dealing with it, we were just doing our thing.” 

Kael’s “thing” is surfing. More specifically, pulling into violent waves with a certain nonchalance and doing airs that would create a sense of uneasiness in the guts of those who fear heights. 

WA is also a great place for Kael to do his thing.

He went up the coast and down the coast, wrangling some memorable waves in the process. He surfed for hours and hours and hours and hours — it takes a borderline absurd amount of time in the water to string together this much A+ surfing. You’ve got to pour your heart into it and hope it pays off. 

“There’s so much stuff out there today, but I feel like a lot of it is made to only watch once — by the next week, there’s already a new episode or whatever. I still watch my favorite surf movies all the time, and I feel like that’s missing. I want to make things that people watch again and again.” 

Sounds good to us.

 

Quicksilver surf company CEO missing at sea, boat washed up on beach

Quiksilver CEO Pierre Agnes has gone missing.

Pierre Agnès, 54, was last seen setting out in rough seas at 7.30am on Tuesday. The French father of three is believed to have been alone on board the 11-metre ‘Mascaret III’ when it headed out in the Atlantic near the resort of Biarritz on the south-western coast of France.

He was planning to go fishing near Capbreton, at the mouth of the Boudigau and Bourret rivers. In a call to French maritime authorities soon after setting out, he said he was delaying his return because of thick fog.

The alarm was raised at 9.15 am after friends and family said they had been unable to reach him. Soon afterwards, the Mascaret III was found empty in Soorts-Hossegor, a well-known surfing beach about 15 miles north of Biarritz.

It appeared to have washed up. Two boats and three helicopters were scrambled to search for him and he was officially listed as “missing at sea”.

Authorities sent boats and helicopters off the coast of southwest France to search for Mr Agnes, after his empty boat was found washed ashore

“The search is becoming increasingly difficult in darkness as the temperatures drop,” a spokesman for the local préfecture said. Mr Agnès was described by friends as a “seasoned sailor, fisherman and sportsman”.

A former member of the French national surfing team, he has worked for Quiksilver for 30 years, mostly at the company’s European HQ in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in south-western France.

He has been chief executive officer of Quiksilver since March 2015. The brand was founded in Australia in 1969 before moving its headquarters to the United States.

Mr Agnès travels widely on business but spends as much time as possible in south-western France, where he first surfed.

Quiksilver Highline Airlift Vest

Quiksilver worked with scuba expert Aqua Lung to create an emergency life vest for surfers.
The Highline Airlift Vest has room for four CO2 cartridges, each linked to an easy access pull tab.
The vest also has a deflation tab and an oral inflation tube.

Every detail considered. Every aspect refined.
This is what a new generation of big wave safety looks like. The Highline Airlift vest features four CO2
inflation tabs and offers the capability to orally inflate before you paddle out.