Click or Miss: Can You Put A Price On Fun?

Whoever said money can’t buy you happiness hasn’t met Casey Neistat.

The Youtuber celebrated his 40th birthday this past week, renting out Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch and inviting a who’s-who of surf vloggers to come and enjoy the milestone. While we don’t know whether Casey paid full stop for the experience, he certainly shouldn’t have. His list of invitees had what was likely the largest average subscriber amount in surf birthday history. After listening to Wave Pool Mag’s Bryan Dickerson on this week’s episode of The Drop, we learned that Kelly’s pool is consistently getting anywhere from $50-70k per day … not an insignificant sum even for the platform’s most successful stars.

Seeing as this party is likely to generate a minimum of 3-5 highly engaged vlogs, with each video being supported by numerous IG posts calling for their audience to watch, it would be easy for the Surf Ranch to write the day off as a marketing expense… it’d actually be quite smart. Knock Kelly’s pool all you want, but a guaranteed day of waves on one’s birthday is hard to beat.

Click (or miss) below.

Click- A Pool With Some Punch
Channel Subs: 8.94k
Video Views:  6,768 (3,384 views/day)
Like/Dislike Ratio: 277/2 or 138.5 likes per 1 dislike

Last week we ran a standalone article highlighting Zeke’s experience at the new Wavegarden pool in Switzerland. Being the good vlogger that he is, Zeke would never let such a highlight trip be reduced to only one video, hence Part 2 above (as well as an impending Part 3). In this video, we see the wave’s tube setting snap the nose off Zeke’s girlfriend’s board, proving that the waves in the world’s most historically neutral country do have some bite.

Click- 20 Minutes Of Straight Miami Fye
Channel Subs: 147
Video Views: 968 (242 views/day)
Like/Dislike Ratio: 41/0

South Beach is known for many things. Strip clubs, lax COVID guidelines, and white sand beaches? Sure. Waves? Not so much. With that being said, every dog has its day, and South Beach put on its best face for what Evan Geiselman described as “20 minutes of straight fye followed by an hour and a half of straight sand in my ear.” In true Floridian form, no vlog would be complete without a run-in with law enforcement, which Evan masterfully navigates unlike the typical ‘Florida man’.

Click- A Winter Breakdown With The Cola Bros
Channel Subs: 13.1k
Video Views:  9,653 (4,826.5 views/day)
Like/Dislike Ratio: 307/0 

If you hate the word baffled, keep scrolling. If you like hearing play-by-play breakdowns of some of the best waves ridden from this year’s North Shore Winter, then maybe the above is for you. Griffin and Crosby go into ESPN mode, pulling the clips of their best waves and walking you through what they were thinking while they were inside the belly of numerous aquatic beasts.

Miss- Vloggers Unite
Channel Subs: 136k
Video Views:  11,045
Like/Dislike Ratio: 847/10 or 84.7 likes per 1 dislike

As mentioned in the intro, one of Youtube’s original creators and Stab Premium subscriber (thank you!) Casey Neistat celebrated his birthday in enviable fashion over the weekend, renting out Slater’s wave pool and inviting a gaggle of surfing’s biggest vloggers along for the ride. With Jacob Szekely, Ben Gravy, Kalani Robb, Anastasia Ashley, and Catfish’s Max Joseph all in attendance, this party was a 5G truther’s worst nightmare given the overwhelming ratio of devices:humans. While the above seems like an overly-expensive good time, we just can’t in good conscience tell you to watch a 40-minute video of predominantly soft tops at a wave pool. Look out for at least five more videos from this trip to land on your ‘Watch Next’ list in the coming week.

Click- “Cobalt, Electric, Better Than Desktop Background Blue Water”
Channel Subs: 10k
Video Views:  12,352 (2,058.6 views/day)
Like/Dislike Ratio: 181/2 or 90.5 likes per 1 dislike

This isn’t a traditional vlog, but given that we missed it earlier this week (along with the comedic V.O.), this is the perfect piece to round out this Click or Miss. Watch as former Quiksilver Young Guns Champion Levi Slawson and fellow Salty Crew-er CJ Hobgood visit one of those secret Bahamian corners the coordinates of which one takes to the grave.