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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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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Your Risk of Dying of a Shark Attack

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