Nov 15 2008
Two stand-up paddle surfers paddle down the coast from Malibu to Santa Monica on Saturday, November 15, 2008 during the Sayre wildfires in San Fernando Valley, coloring the sunset and sky.
Photo credit: Evan Asano (flickr)
Nov 14 2008
Very cool video of a kitesurfer riding between a pack of whales, filmed from a video camera mounted in his kite. It was filmed at Waddell Creek, CA, a popular kitesurfing spot north of Santa Cruz.
Nov 14 2008
Photo below of New Zealand Kitesurfer, David Sheridan, kiting over a whale. As he’s riding over the tail flips up and hits him in the head. The photo was taken by a camera mounted in his kite that takes a photo every 10 seconds.
Nov 08 2008
Photo: Andrew Buckley
25 year old Australian, Kerby Brown, rode the wave of his life on this 40 ft. monster in Western Australia (Times UK), followed shortly afterwards by the beating of his life. In spite of the fact that the wave was dry reefing, Kerby survived the wave with only a torn shoulder muscle.
The 25-year-old surfed the enormous break at an offshore reef in the Southern Ocean “somewhere between Margaret River and South Australia” on the southwest coast of Western Australia (WA) last August. Seems like there’s been a lot more big wave searching and a lot more discoveries out in Western Australia. Funny how they keep the location of this macker a secret, I can’t imagine that 20 tow teams are going to show up for this beast on the next swell.
Kerby on the wipe-out and hold down (Australia’s Surfing Life) “I was lucky to get to where I got, I went straight over in the lip and did about 10 backflips and then pulled a muscle in my shoulder. It felt like I ripped my arm out of it’s socket, my leggie snapped and then I felt like I was the deepest I’d ever been (underwater). I took about 10 huge big strokes to get up and I was seriously struggling. I finally got to the surface and I was ready to pass out, luckily my brother was there on the ski.”
Not surprisingly, the wave is being submitted to the Oakley Australia Surfing Life Big Wave Awards. It’s being touted as the largest wave surfed in Australia this year. Photo credit: Andrew Buckley (profile on Club of the Waves). Slideshow below, click here for full-frame slideshow.
Vimeo Slideshow
Kerby Brown Big Wave Awards Entry from Australia's Surfing Life on Vimeo.
Nov 04 2008
There was no doubt the recession was going to hit the surf industry and in predictable ways. Surfers would be traveling less and opting for less expensive destinations. I’d would expect surf charter bookings to be down significantly. The surf apparel companies like Quicksilver and Volcom have taken big hits, most notably in their stock prices which are down close to 90% from their highs.
Quicksilver owned the luxury surf charter Indies Trader IV. For the past few years, it’s been the stretch limo of choice for pro’s venturing to the Mentawais. Martin Daly and Indies Trader Marine Adventures launched a website for booking charters on the boat in 2005 along with the other three Indies Traders of the fleet.
Now the Indies Trader IV can be yours for a cool $5.5 million. Freedom Marine of Australia has the boat listed on their site. Doesn’t seem there’s as much an appetite for surf charters that book at $2000/night with this economy.
Nov 03 2008
Winter arrived last week in California with the first serious swell, which resulted in giant waves at Ocean Beach, San Francisco, and Mavericks rearing it ugly green head. The northwest swell linked up well with a southwest swell which put out some great waves in Southern California as well. Surfline has a good slideshow of the swell.
Mavericks 2010 Surf Contest Runs in 50 Ft. Waves (photos)
See Other Popular Posts:
Mavericks 2010 Surf Contest Runs in 50 Ft. Waves (photos)
Surfer Wipes Out in 60 Ft. Waves at Jaws
Clark Little’s Stunning Images of Waves
Diver Fights and Kills 12 ft. Tiger Shark (Photos)
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.