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On April 21, Tyler Bradt kayaked over 186-foot-high Palouse Falls, breaking the waterfall world record of 127 feet. Tyler is a complete psycho.

Link to Video on SportsIllustrated.com

Great photo of the paddle out at Snapper Rocks. The photo is by Narelle Autio, who resides in Sydney. Here’s a link to gallery.

Transworld Surf reports on an Oregon State Study of wave heights that measures Pacific wave heights from buoy data and finds that waves are increasing by an average of 7 cm per year. Surfers are likely to the only people rejoicing over this information as larger wave also result in more coastal erosion among other problems.

“Unlike sea level, the current data suggests that wave heights are not increasing uniformly across the globe. However, many regions lack the right data to do proper analysis. Bigger wave heights off the coast of Oregon were first discovered just a few years ago by other OSU scientists. They had the advantage of working with the unique dataset created by the Pacific coast’s longest-floating buoy; it’s been gathering data on wave heights for over 30 years.

“This is high quality data and you didn’t have enough data to do this kind of analysis until very recently,” Ruggiero said.

Despite the clear wave-height increase in the data, particularly of the largest waves, Ruggiero and his colleagues still can’t explain it.”

Read this to your non-surfing friends and ask them if they have a clue what’s he’s talking about. From Cloud Broken by Derek Dunfee, Transworld Surf, February 2009. He writing an account of surfing Cloud Break on Tavarua, Fiji and breaking his leg.

“I had been out for about an hour before the bigger sets started rolling in. After catching a mushier outside wave that pushed me into the channel, I spotted a perfect inside west bowl. The inside waves that have more of a west-swell direction thend to barrel over a heavy ledge through the Shishkabobs section, and this one looked to be a drainer, so I paddled hard to make it to the takeoff zone. It stacked up to around eight to ten feet, and paddling into it I could tell I was going to be a little deep on the A-frame, but I went anyway. Off the drop it had a foamy chandelier-type section that I had to break through to make it into the heaving Shishkabob section up ahead where it would open up. I grabbed my rail with all my weight and tried to huck myself through the foamy part and into the clean section of the barrel. When I tried to punch through the foam, the lip of the wave struck me in the back of the head and top of my back. I was so determined that I was going to make it into the barrel that I didn’t even anticipate getting lipped in the head.”

Kelly Slater at Rifles. Rifles is hands down one of the best waves in the world. It’s sister wave Kandui’s (or Nokan as in “no-can”) as a reputation as one of the fastest, heaviest, longest left barrels in the world. Though often considered not makable. There are two land camps in the Ments (although I’ve read about construction of a third at Lance’s). Kandui Resort and WavePark Mentawai. Here are a couple of clips of what you wake up to at Kandui Resort from the Donkey Patrol surf blog. These guys will be waking up to these waves in a couple of weeks.

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Insane! At Ours, Sydney, Australia.

Destination: Florianopolis, Brazil
Time of Year: March – September
Breaks: Campeche, Praia Joaquina, Praia Mole, Barra da Logoa, Praia Riozinho
Level: All levels
Cost: Inexpensive – Moderate

Intro: Ah Brazil, a country with seemingly more similarities to the U.S than differences and home to surf culture second only to the United States. The beach is a way of life in Brazil, and they’re blessed with thousands of beautiful miles of it. They’re also blessed with thousands of other things.

Florianopolis is a peninsula in the Southern Brazil with excellent exposure to Southern Swell and dozens of beaconing beach breaks (42 beaches in all). The beaches of Florianopolis are some of most beautiful in Brazil. Brazilians have a reputation for being aggressive in the water but with miles and miles of beach breaks, you’ll see their welcoming and friendly side. And with dozens of clubs, you see the other side of Brazilian beach culture.

Through the summer months, you won’t need anything more than a shortie and trunks will be fine for most of the time. After March though the water and air cools off and you’ll want a 3/2 fullsuit. Surf is small for the summer months, but picks up after March. Though it rarely gets big, standard short board will suffice for most days.

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Shark Shield, the once touted solution to our shark fears, leaves us further in doubt about our shark-resistant future. I posted a while back about a test of theirs that went as wrong as it could go when a female white shark swallowed the device whole! (post) In principle the Shark Shield is simple. Sharks use a very sensitive organ in their snout to detect minute electrical fields generated by their prey’s muscle movements conducted through the water (or in our case, the surfer’s muscle movements). Shark Shield emits an electrical field (conducted through the salt water) that would in theory startle and repel sharks. Reasonable thinking. [more after jump and a video on the device]

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Bruce Grimes, a Florida surfer, who was recently injured in a shark attack in Zihuatanejo Mexico plans on paddling back on it the line-up after he recovers. Bruce had recently moved to Zihuatanejo and opened up a surf shop down there. He suffered injuries on his arm and received 100 stitches but did not lose his thumb as had been reported. Authorities in the area have responded by spotting at beaches by helicopter to watch for sharks.

“I’ll go right back. Yeah, I’m that stupid,” Grimes said, examining his bandaged arm outside the hospital where he just had his daily cleaning. “I’ll go right back out as soon as I’m able to.”

In spite of over 70 attacks in 2007, there was only one fatality worldwide. Already in 2008, there have three fatalities from shark attacks.

Two Australian’s got bored with a year round good surf of Australia, flew up to the U.S., bought an old ice cream truck, and decided to drive around to “surf” in each of the 50 states. Surfing consisted of getting up on a surfboard on some form of water. They’ve got a movie releasing sometime in September/October (don’t hold your breath for it releasing at the AMC megaplex near you). Admittedly, it’s not an idea I would ever conceive, but you’ve got to give them credit for originality and for braving places like Vermont in the winter in a wetsuit! Good on ya! [Surfing 50 States]

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