Oct 28 2008
The first real swell of the season arrives at Ocean Beach, San Francisco. The buoys on Saturday were reading 15 ft. at 20 seconds (Somehow hardly any of this swell filtered down to Southern California). Ocean Beach was huge. A few local chargers managed a few giant waves dodging clean up sets. Link to the full size slideshow on Flickr.
Oct 28 2008
Cory Lopez and crew headed off to Africa and discover a once in a lifetime wave. The wave is Skeleton Bay in Africa and was also featured in this month surfing magazine under the Google Earth Challenge (read the winner, Brian Gable’s account of searching, finding, and surfing this wave).
[youtube UomjoLUieyk]
Oct 21 2008
In 1999, California instituted state wide water quality monitoring at beaches to help ensure that the water is safe for water activities. It’s a great feature of California environmental policy and model for other states.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has cut all funding (approximately $1 million per year) for beach water quality monitoring throughout the state. This sudden and unexpected action has gutted the country’s most extensive and progressive beach water quality monitoring and public health notification program. As a result,
Without regular beach monitoring, surfers, swimmers and other beach-goers will be completely in the dark about water quality at their beach. Essentially, a “swim or surf at your own risk” sign just went up all along the
Send a message today to tell Governor Schwarzenegger and your state legislators to restore funding for the state’s beach water quality monitoring program and keep our beaches safe.
TAKE ACTION via Surfrider.
Oct 20 2008
MySpaceTV has a good interview with Kelly Slater post 9th world title win. Nothing surprising in the video, but great footage. Don’t expect Kelly to be retiring anytime soon. The second clip is more footage of Kelly killing it on waves all over the world.
Oct 15 2008
It’s hard being an ASP pro surfer. I believe that. They travel an extraordinary amount, deal with difficult surf conditions and what can be at times a very frustrating scoring and judging format. It’s hard, but there’s 10 million surfers that would take their place in an instant. It’s hard, but there’s the general expectation as with all sports that the athlete show up.
Andy Irons, after losing in the first round of the Quicksilver Pro France, did not even show up for his second heat. No injury, no stomach bug, no good excuse at all. It’s a 30 minute two man heat in excellent beachbreak surf; just one other guy out. The whole beach to yourself. Just go out and have fun. You’re a three time World Champion, and you tell your fans, the tour, and your sponsors to screw off because you’re frustrated.
Surfline publishes an interview with Andy to talk about his frustrations on tour this year and why he gave up in France and why he’s taking a break and skipping Brazil. That’s the competitive spirit Andy. Just take a break because Kelly won the World Title and you rolled over before the WCT even started this year.
He compares himself to Kobe Bryant about how coaches would let other professional athletes take a break if they were about to have a “meltdown.” The truth of it that every athlete faces real challenges, the difference is that THEY SHOW UP! They show for the fans, they show up for their sponsors, and they show up to demonstrate that they don’t take how lucky they are for granted. Take a break at the end of the season or do what Kelly did and take a season off.
The interview is pretty pathetic, filled with expletives, it’s not worth reprinting. Andy if you’re the champion you claim to be, then get to work and start showing up. You’re not going to find a lot of sympathy here. You’re an incredible surfer. No one has asked that you win a world title every year. Your fans just want to see you out there competing. Take a break, I’d rather see guys like who’ve fought from the bottom like Bede Durbridge and Adriano De Souza to within two places of winning a world title. Or guys like Mick and Taj, who know the kind of work it takes to win a world title. Or the new guard of Dane Reynolds and Jordy Smith. Just stop comparing yourself to Kobe Bryant. And stop complaining.
UPDATE: Fuel.TV has a post about AI talking about how his flakiness on tour extended to commitments to sponsors and PR related commitments. There was speculation that he had developed some hard partying habits. If AI has a problem with drugs and/or alcohol then he should admit it and get he help he needs. Otherwise, he destroying his reputation and losing his fan base.
Oct 13 2008
Even Pipeline chargers get bored. So Jamie Sterling for reasons unclear starts off a road trip somewhere in Texas to drive to Puerto Escondido for the Mexican Pipeline. The first two videos of the series on RedBullSurfing.com show exactly why it’s a worthless idea to fly from Hawaii to Texas just so you can then backtrack 700 miles to Arizona to drive down to Mexico. The third video installation though shows what we all dream of at Puerto. Long glassy roping barrelling waves. In fact, the waves are so good and long they don’t even look like the beach break Puerto we’ve all heard of.
Oct 13 2008
Clips from the November swell at Teahupoo in 2007.
Oct 10 2008
Surfing Magazine announced the 2008 Follow the Light Finalists. Follow the Light Foundation, formed in the honor of the late photo legend Larry “Flame” Moore, is set to choose the third recipient of its $5,000 grant dedicated to the art of surf photography.
Here are the finalists:
Ryan Craig, Santa Cruz
Strengths: “Ryan Craig has a great usage of light. In particular, one of his photos from the Hook in Santa Cruz. He also probably has the strongest composition out of everyone.”
Todd Glaser, San Diego
Strengths: “Glaser’s strength is pure well-roundedness. He can do it all and thinks about it all on a particular trip. How am I going to capture the lifestyle, the lineups, the water shots, the mood?”
Zak Noyle, Hawaii
Strengths: “Zak had one of the strongest essays – what he would be doing with the grant money. He also has a shot of a Teahupo’o barrel – side angle and black and white – that really stood out. Intimate, up-close big-wave photography.”
Shawn Parkin, San Clemente
Strengths: “Shawn Parkin’s strengths were capturing heavily photographed waves in an all-new style. Some very unique angles of Trestles.”
Pat Ruddy, Florida
“Ruddy’s moody photography is really strong. They had the strongest ‘feel’ overall.”
And better still, here are the photos:
This gallery is brought to you by surfingthemag.com
Thanks to Ed Fladung and his blog Quality Peoples for pointing out the Follow the Light finalists. Ed is a great photographer, here’s Ed’s flickr photostream.
Oct 10 2008
I showed up at Huntington Beach on Saturday morning to gentle offshores and pumping lined-up swell. It was double overhead on sets. Unfortunately, I had read surfline’s forecast that predicted 2-4 ft. surf so I had my fish and was a bit undergunned. The swell ended up lasting from Thursday to Tuesday, lighting up SoCal with a mix of Northwest and Southwest Swells. Here’s what it looked like from above (from Surfline):
The Southern California Surf Forecast blog posted some great shots by Toby of an Orange County beach break, here’s one from their post. The second shot is of Malibu from Surfline’s photo feature on the same swell.
