The last time we saw Adam “Vaughan Dead” Blakey, director of hit surf film, one half of the long-running Ain’t That Swell podcast and frontman of the Goons of Doom, he was at last year’s Newcastle contest squawking ecstatically, as if he wanted to seize Ryan Callinan in his arms and pull him down between his thighs.
When his hind legs aren’t quivering and he’s easing his crimson dingus out, Vaughan is a man who straddles better than anybody the the fine line between positive noise and toxic slime.
He loves the BeachGrit commentariat, says “It’s the funniest place ever, the amount of energy and fucking brains going into so much tear down… it might be the number place in the world for that style of comedy.”
Loves it but he don’t engage.
“I don’t feel smart enough to properly articulate myself in that way… I’m terrified to try and defend myself. When you love everything you open yourself to be torn down by some really smart people.”
A startlingly original and hard-boiled lover of surfing.
Essential.