Lumberyard Logs:

“Japan changed something” in the world of surfing sponsorships, he says. Rumors began to circulate that activist surfers were being black-balled by corporate sponsors.

Adding fuel to this fire were accusations that Japanese mafia, or Yakuza, had strong-armed surf shop employees as they hunted for the killing bay activists. Scary stuff.

Now the other shoe would drop.

Fired by sponsor

After Japan, James didn’t receive his monthly salary from Ocean Minded, one of his sponsors. After a few months, James contacted the firm’s owner, who finally confirmed what James had already surmised: he had been fired. The reason? “You’re too controversial.”

The Japanese trip and comments made on his radio show — that “thuggery has no place in surfing,” after a report about a surfer having broken another’s jaw in a brawl — were the reasons cited.

There’s an irony here. Photos of James from the first killing bay protest began circulating. In an article on the incident in Men’s Journal, he noted, he’s wearing an Ocean Minded wetsuit and carrying an Ocean Minded surfboard.

The company certainly got its brand name and products out there, but apparently not with the message they wanted to be conveyed.

Ocean Minded’s Gary Ward didn’t respond to my request to talk about the sponsorship issue.

Now, though, James is riding another wave, and this one is on its way up.

He’s in negotiations for a TV show based on footage from his Eco-Warrior exploits.

He’s got an agent and a publicist, but he’s still the laid-back Laguna surfer he always was.

“I have no regrets,” he said in his typical low-key way. “If the company feels I’m too controversial, they’re entitled to their opinion. I stand up for what I believe in.”

You could say that James and his former sponsor are now riding different waves.

CINDY FRAZIER is city editor of the Coastline Pilot. She can be reached at cindy.frazier@latimes.com