How an 18-year-old Tongan is about to change Australian Rugby Union

His name is Taniela Toupo, he is 18 years old, weighs 135 kilograms and plays as a Prop. He has the ball skills of a Fly-Half and the pace of a Winger. At the moment, he is probably the most sought after player, under the age of 20. He has teams from England, France, Japan, New Zealand and Australia chasing his signature.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/G31DTga_3fI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

But Toupo has picked Australia. At the moment, no club has signed him and he is testing the waters so to speak. Read: seeing who will pay the most for him.

Toupo rose to fame in May this year after becoming an internet sensation.

This put Toupo on the radar of clubs all over the year and stirred internet debate over where Toupo would decide to play, and eventually which country he would represent in international competition.

Despite the 'Tongan Thor' rising to public fame in May, Reds coach Richard Graham claims that the Reds have had their sights set on him after the team's tour of New Zealand.

His reasoning behind picking Australia is admirable. Toupo believes his family will be best suited to Australia. This is despite Australia's struggling rugby union programs. However, this may all be about to change.

Toupo is going to bring the explosiveness to rugby union that it is currently lacking. Thousands more will dabble in the fifteen man code, just to watch a Prop  score a hundred metre try, squashing those who dare to stand in the way. Hopefully, Toupo will lead as an example and bring other bright stars who are willing to play rugby union at the highest standard to Australia, rather than the much more dominant New Zealand.

Taniela Tupo is about to breath life back into Australian rugby union.

Toupo's story is a great example of how online communities can create interest, brining them into mainstream media. It wasn't until May that he shot to fame, however Rugby clubs (and their media) have known about his potential since April. It wasn't until people started talking about him on Rugby forums that he stepped into the spotlight. This is just one instance of how an online crowd's intrests effect mainstream media.

Believe the hype

An East- South- Easterly 10 second period groundswell ranging from 2- 3 metres was predicted to hit the Gold Coast beaches on Monday the 25th of August and was expected to last till Friday of that week. For many this was hard to believe, not because these swells don't exist, but because they are extremely rare for August.

August is better known as a month filled with tiny windswell and crisp offshore winds. A month where not surfing for days on end is common. Up until last week, this August had been the same...

Every forecast was showing the swell. And it left a lot of people asking: Is it really going to happen?

It did.

This was the Sunday, the first signs of the swell began marching in. Maybe it isn't a practical joke. Maybe Huey has produced a miracle?!?

On Monday, everyone saw that this was real! Waves for days. The 13215729 people out in the water were frothing the winter swell.

I couldn't handle sitting in my class any longer... I had to get a piece of the action... Sorry Louise...

Even after being eliminated disappointingly early from the Tahiti Pro, it is safe to say that Mick Fanning has been having a good time

http://www.coastalwatch.com/videos/13407/video-mick-fanning-scores-ridiculous-kirra-tube-august-28-2014#ooid=RjcW93bzq7UuwcVMorWm6aVSYQ4qRZnn

Obviously I wasn't the only one who thought pulling a sickie was a good idea. The crowds were thick and everyone was charging. This unusually random August swell will definitely go down as one of the best of the year.

What I found most interesting about this random swell was the coverage it got by surfing media outlets. Every website got a piece of the pie. The swell was tracked from the get go and every outlet had their money on it to smash the coast (which it did). Autumn swells are something which is unusual and, for those who are interested, this is definitely 'news'. This 'news' was well reported over various channels of communication and has proved to me how effective surfing media outlets are at using these channels of online journalism to  broadcast news.

I have NO Idea what I am doing

I am a 20-year-old male who studies a Bachelor of business (majoring in Marketing) and Journalism. After 12 years of school and three arduous years of University, I have no idea of what I want to do with my life.

Spencer Howason gave a very entertaining lecture that has confirmed all of my doubts.

Spencer pointed out that the life of a journalist is changing. He told the QUT Online Journalism 1 lecture that their most valuable tool is social media. A journalist must constantly be tweeting and posting.

For me, this that is extremely intimidating. After all so far I have tweeted 13 times and am still very frightened and hesitant when it comes to posting… partially because I don’t have any clue what constitutes a worthy tweet.

This is what I thought a good tweet was. Witty and funny… but not really.

Maybe I am not the best tweeter in the world, but hopefully I will get better.

To be brutally honest, I hate the idea of tweeting.

I don’t think anyone would care about what I have got to say, and why would they? I really don’t want to be shoving my opinions down their throat, where they have nowhere to run or hide.

There is a solution to this though; write something interesting.

But what I find interesting is a lot different to what others find interesting.

I want to be successful and to be successful you need to please the crowd, which means tweeting regularly about interesting things. Which means a lot of pressure. But if it paid off there would be big rewards.

I blame Twitter for my confusion.

Finding originality is something that I think I may struggle with, as it seems most things have already been done. I love Spencer's 'thing', which is getting in touch with the people of Brisbane and becoming involved with their lives. Another great 'thing' is Brandon Stanton's, who runs a site called Humans of New York. Brandon's 'thing' is all about telling someone's story, accompanied by a portrait of the subject. Brandon has found great success with his 'thing' as he has published a number 1 best selling book.

At this stage to make my mark, I need to find my 'thing' which needs to be something fresh and new.

I literally have no idea what my 'thing' could be...

SURF RAGE

Surfing is all about chilling out and enjoying the ocean. However, it has become way to common for surf rage to be present in the line up.

If you are a surfer and are active on social media I am certain you would have seen this clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd5RYiN7WN4

What is most shocking about this clip? The fact the the general population of surfers are cheering on the Kiwi surfer who tackled the Brazilian guy.

This is an example of surf rage at an extreme form. It is not the only time it has ever happened, here are some more examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK4mid8Xavc

(This one involves pro surfer Sunny Garcia)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqTlJ5YELdA

You probably haven't seen an incident escalate this far at your local break but what may have been a witness (or victim) to a verbal spraying.

Over the past weekend I bore the brunt of two different surfers frustrations in one session. One of the feeds was warranted and one definitely was not. The abuse hurled at me was the usual "F*ck off!", "Get f*cked kook", "Get out of the water" etc etc

I fear that as crowds increase situations such as these will become more and more common, giving surfing a name that it does not deserve. This could in turn make surfing an "outlaw" sport once again and take the spotlight away from one of the funnest sports.

UPDATE: At the moment drastic action may be taken in an effort to calm surf rage

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/paywave-plan-as-gold-coast-tackles-surf-rage/story-fnihsrf2-1227065120224

It is a scary thought to make people pay to engage in something that began as a way to get in touch with nature.

Next time your frustrated in the surf because someone gets in the way or might even commit the fatal burn, take a hoo-sa and go snag another, rather than carrying on like a pork chop about a section that you probably weren't even going to make, or maybe you will have to start paying for everywave you take....