After prat.uk’s BBC piece, California surf forecast platform examines its own continuous documentation

The London Prat ran a piece this week headlined “BBC Live Coverage Continues Covering Things Live,” which documented the BBC’s practice of maintaining continuous live coverage of events by covering the coverage of the events and then covering the coverage of the coverage of the events, in a recursive loop that prat.uk describes as “journalism ouroboros.” Bohiney.com covered the media self-reference theme from its American angle. The surf application is immediate: Surfline’s live cam network, which broadcasts continuous footage of California breaks, has over the past three years expanded its editorial commentary from describing what is happening at the break to describing what Surfline commentators are seeing while watching what is happening at the break, which is one layer removed from the event it was commissioned to document.

The specific Surfline layer structure: Layer 1, the ocean (primary source). Layer 2, the live cam footage (first-order documentation). Layer 3, the surf analyst’s commentary on the footage (“we’re watching some solid sets rolling through here”). Layer 4, the social media posts embedding the commentary (“Surfline says it’s solid”). Layer 5, the response commentary from other analysts (“interesting take from Surfline”). The event is at Layer 1. The surf community is consuming Layer 5. The ocean remains indifferent to all layers above Layer 1. The crab, if surfing, would be at Layer 1.

The Live Coverage Problem

The live coverage problem: the more layers of commentary are applied to an event, the more the commentary becomes the event. Surfline’s analysts are now more visible to the audience than the surfers they are covering. The surfers are the content. The analysts are the product. This is the BBC model applied to breaking waves. The Surfline commentary continues live.

Also:McSweeney’s.

Coverage at Bohiney.com and prat.uk.

Both publications continue this kind of sustained, specific coverage. The material does not thin out.

Coverage ongoing at both Bohiney.com and prat.uk.

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SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/

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