Where will it end?

Hopefully it ends very soon...

I've been avoiding watching this clip all day but it got sent to me in an email* and, after watching it, I can honestly say I have seen few things more pointless and lame and irritating than that clip. The money, the time, the image of a Red Bull sponsored guy gunning past a woman on a SUP and Tahitian men in a waka is mortifying.

It is everything I hate about Red Bull sponsored everything, in one tidy clip.



When I watched this clip, I didn't see the new horizons of human endeavour. Instead all I saw was a waste of money, time and human capacity and ingenuity. And this is coming from someone who believes in art, music and sport.

Near the end I was actively cheering on the heaving wall of whitewash, wishing it would engulf that fool and smash his stupid contraption, but then I realised that if it did, petrol would flood into the crystal waters in that lagoon. How was this even a thing that happened in this place? How did they even get permission?

I don't consider myself old or particularly conservative, and I'm certainly a champion of creativity, problem solving and new ideas. However, this is none of that. To me - and, look, maybe I can be convinced otherwise - this is a company with too much money, spending it on something that doesn't matter that has no greater good. I mean, think what these people could achieve towards chancing the world for good if they set their minds to it. Instead, they rode Teahupoo on an adapted motor bike.

This clip doesn't inspire awe in me. This clip makes me despair.


*An email whose subject line inspired the title of this post.


Comments

  1. Like something from Jackass

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  3. In total agreement with ya - the commodification of virtually everything is really irritating me these days. (And I still haven't watched the clip - for the same reasons..)

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  4. I watched, I wondered (if it was CGI), I walked away. as the old timers would say fuckedbeyondredemption

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  5. Mortifying. Perfect verb. And great essay, as usual.

    Hey Rebecca, are you still in Raglan? I'll be coming out in November. It'd be great to meet you!

    -Jonathan

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  6. I sure am! I'm in and out of the country in November, but will be around the traps much of the month. Get in touch via my email (link on my blog) and let me know when you'll be about :)

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    Replies
    1. Is this Rebecca Lewis from Louisville by chance? It's Matt Hagan

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    2. Sadly no, sorry! I'm Rebecca Olive from Byron Bay :)

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