Rankings from TasteTV’s World Dog Surfing Championships BEST WAVES TV Special on ESPN

The 2024 World Dog Surfing Championships BEST WAVES television special returned to ESPN the Ocho on August 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th!

Presenting Sponsor of the World Dog Surfing Championships BEST WAVES television special is CHEF’S PURE PET.

Hosted by Kylie Speer and A.K. Crump, the television special reaches millions of viewers not just in the United States, but also in many other countries where ESPN airs. See the promo trailer from ESPN.

The BEST WAVES competition — a spin-off of the live event — spotlights the year’s best dog surfing videos in a judged head-to-head contest of viewers favorites. The World Dog Surfing Championships BEST WAVES television special is presented by title sponsor, Chef’s Pure Pets.

Official Rankings from the 2024 World Dog Surfing Championships BEST WAVES TV Special on ESPN

Presented by Chef’s Pure Pet

The Duty Mitt SMALL DOG DIVISION

  1. Petey
  2. Annabelle
  3. Charley

Nestment MEDIUM DOG DIVISION

  1. Coda
  2. Baby

 

The San Francisco Peninsula LARGE DOG / EXTRA LARGE DOG CATEGORY

  1. Faith the Surfing Pitbull
  2. Rippin’ Rosie
  3. Charlie Surfs

DOG/DOG TANDEM CATEGORY

  1. Team CODA
  2. Team Albee & Charlie
  3. Team Albee & Koa

Chef’s Pure Pet HUMAN/DOG TANDEM CATEGORY

    1. Team CODA (Japan)
    2. Team Koa (Spain)
    3. Team Milo (US)

Nestment.com TOP DOG FINAL OVERALL CHAMPS

  1. Faith
  2. Petey
  3. Coda

 

 

 

 

THE ESPN PROMO TRAILER

 

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French band L’Impératrice releases new Music Video for “Love from the Other Side”

L’Impératrice has released a new single, “Love from the Other Side,” along with an accompanying music video. The Parisian band also just wrapped their international sold out “Double Trouble Tour,” and riveting performances at Outside Lands and Coachella, which saw them hailed as an “artist to watch” by the likes of Entertainment Weekly, Los Angeles Times and Grammy.com. They were also praised for their live show from the likes of Billboard, Paper Magazine and more. .

“Love from the Other Side” is the first English-language single from their upcoming album, Pulsar, via Microqlima. “The first time I heard the instrumental, I thought, ‘That’s the vibe,’ even though it’s really different than what we do,” says the band’s founder Charles de Boisseguin of encountering a piece that began with Achille Trocellier and Tom Daveau, the most rock-oriented members of L’Impératrice. “There is a British side to it, like Gorillaz with a bit of MGMT.” Frontwoman Flore Benguigui and Nicky Green wrote the melody and lyrics together, building off the idea of “the good ghosts that are around you” and the sense of slight spookiness she heard in the bassline.

“Love from the Other Side” follows the album’s early singles “Danza Marilú (feat. Fabiana Martone),” an electrifying homage to Italo-disco and is an anthem for women of all ages for freely moving on the dancefloor; and “Me Da Igual,” three words in Spanish that roll off the tongue, a perfect title for a track of heightened sensuality. These early singles from Pulsar give listeners a look at what to expect throughout the the focused but far-reaching new record, influenced by the band’s travels around the globe in support of 2021 album Tako Tsubo, including shows across the U.S., Mexico and Europe.

Pulsar sees L’Impératrice move freely among the sounds they love, bridging hip-hop, kosmische, and modern pop with their most unabashed embraces of French Touch and international house ever. It is their first album to feature guest vocalists including folk / pop singer Maggie Rogers and rapper / producer Erick the Architect, among others.

The new album is also a record where L’Impératrice made every decision, a set of songs that truly captured the band’s spirit both onstage and off. The self-produced album radiates the energy and wisdom of a band that has helmed so many dance parties around the world on the way to finding itself and its sound. Throughout, vocalist Benguigui boldly sings of self-empowerment, or of shirking beauty standards, ageism, and drab normalcy. These are apt messages for these incandescent anthems of experience, of being yourself instead of anyone else’s version of it.

While writing the album, L’Impératice also tried a novel approach – splitting into two teams of ever-interchanging members to explore new ideas, led by de Boisseguin. It was a way of incorporating every voice into writing like never before, pulling from idiosyncratic upbringings and enthusiasms. They then passed the tracks to Benguigui, a longtime jazz singer who would sometimes write two-dozen vocal melodies for a song just to see which one fit best. It was an arduous and exciting process and saw the band go from writing through to recording the album in about nine months. This was the sort of self-determination they’d wanted and now found.

WATCH HIT MUSIC VIDEO FOR “AGITATIONS TROPICALES”

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How to Pick Out a Good Australian Wine – What to Look For & Avoid



Sometimes we can’t be an expert in everything, especially wines from different regions, but if you’re confused about what makes a good Australian wine, wine experts Jane Lopes and Jonathan Ross have 3 great tips for you to try. They are authors of the book How to Drink Australian An Essential Modern Wine Book .

Jane Lopes and Jonathan Ross: There’s never been a more exciting time to drink Australian wine. The country most known for cheap critter wines and bold shiraz is actually the country to go to for quality wines in just about every style and price-point. Australia has reached an amazing confluence of generational knowledge, old-vine material, and a spirit of innovation that, combined, is creating some of the world’s greatest wines.

So how to you pick out a good bottle?

  1. Be willing to try something new. There are world-class wines made from the most popular and frequently consumed grapes: chardonnay, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, and merlot. But, when grown at scale to achieve easy prices, they fall short almost everywhere.  If you venture further afield to try, say, an Australian nero d’avola, grenache or riesling, there’s a better chance that you’ll find something made and selected with care, rather than something manufactured to meet the demand of the market.
  2. Look for a region on the bottle. There are plenty of great Australian wines that say ‘South Eastern Australia’ on the back (a catch-all appellation for the wine regions of South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania, and Queensland) – take, for example, Penfolds Grange: Australia’s most prized and expensive wine! But often you can find wines made at an estate vineyard when there is a more specific wine region on the label: something like Heathcote, Barossa Valley, Yarra Valley, Beechworth, Tasmania, Margaret River, etc. The list is long!
  3. Find a wine shop you trust. This is the best piece of advice in all matters wine! Wine shops that spend lots of energy and time selecting bottles for you are going to come up with the best bottles. And small, independently owned wine shops will often be able to work with the smaller production wines that grocery stores and national chains won’t. So find your local wine merchant, and get to know them. They’ll get to know you – your pallet, your budget, your tastes – and will help you find the best bottle. 

ABOUT Jane Lopes and Jonathan Ross

Jane Lopes is a sommelier, author, and importer, having worked at New York’s Eleven Madison Park, Nashville’s The Catbird Seat, Chicago’s The Violet Hour, and most recently as the wine director at Melbourne’s Attica, before passing the prestigious master sommelier exam in 2018. Lopes published her first book, Vignette: Stories of Life and Wine in 100 Bottles, in 2019. In 2020, Lopes co-founded Legend, an Australian wine imports company, with husband Jonathan Ross, to help bring the great wines they’d experienced in Australia to the US. She is now based in Nashville. She is the co-author of How To Drink Australian: An Essential Modern Wine Book (Murdoch Books / September 2023 / $60).

Jonathan Ross is a sommelier and wine importer whose career in restaurants has included posts at New York’s Eleven Madison Park, Oceana and Anthos, and as the beverage director for Australia’s Rockpool Dining Group. Ross passed the prestigious master sommelier exam in 2017, has curated wine offerings for Qantas Airlines, and founded the boutique wine label Micro Wines. In 2020, Ross returned to the US, eager to spread the word of the world-class wine he’d worked with in Australia, and co-founded Legend Imports in 2020 with his wife Jane Lopes. He is the co-author of How To Drink Australian: An Essential Modern Wine Book (Murdoch Books / September 2023 / $60).