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Alaias are ancient wooden surfboards used by Polynesians and Hawaiians when they first started surfing. A few shaper including Thomas Campbell and Tom Wegener have started shaping the boards again and re-introduced them to the surfing community. In the second video clip Tom Wegener talks about how he grows the materials used to shape the board sustainably. It’s incredible to see surfers like Dave Rastovich and Dan Malloy ripping on these boards.

Tom’s Creation Plantation Trailer from Cyrus Sutton on Vimeo.

Worth watching a the video of a talk Tom Wegener gave at Patagonia in Cardiff on shaping and riding Alaias. Video clips of Dave Rastovich absolutely ripping on a 5’5″ alaia.

No, not surf news. But two cool stories from National Geographic last week. A man caught the largest freshwater fish in the world, a freshwater stingray in the Mekong River in Thailand. The stingray weighed between 550 and 990 lbs (250 to 450 kilograms). The stingray’s body measured 6.6 feet (2 meters) wide by 6.9 feet (2.1) meters long. The tail was missing. If it had been there, the ray’s total length would have been between 14.8 and 16.4 feet (4.5 and 5 meters).

The Largest Freshwater Fish

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) photographed for the first time a surreal fish with a transparent head. With a head like a fighter-plane cockpit, a Pacific barreleye fish shows off its highly sensitive, barrel-like eyes–topped by green, orblike lenses–in a picture released today but taken in 2004. The fish is the first specimen of its kind to be found with its soft transparent dome intact. The 6-inch (15-centimeter) barreleye (Macropinna microstoma) had been known since 1939–but only from mangled specimens dragged to the surface by nets.

The Barreleye Fish Photographed Off the Coast of California

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Clark Little at work photographing the Waimea Shorebreak from the impact zone

Photo Credit: Eric Minugh (Flickr)

Clark Little (website), pictured above photographing the reknowned Waimea Shorebreak, started his career surfing the heaviest shorebreak in the world at Waimea. When he picked up photography, he naturally gravitated toward the impact zone and producing stunning images of the barrel from the shorebreak. Clark’s profile on Club of the Waves.

Clark puts himself in the critical point of the waves and gets rewarded with stunning images. His images are unlike any others. Taken from the heart of the barrel as the wave is balanced between motion and sculpture. Here are a few of his stunning images. (Daily Mail UK post on Clark Little) See Clark’s recent Interview on Good Morning America, Youtube Video of the interview at the end of the post.

Clark Little Putting Himself in the Line of Fire for the Shot

A View Only a Surfer Sees Clark Little Capturing the Wave Dance

Clark Little Capturing the Wave Dance

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Although the recent shark attacks in Sydney do not seem to be any indication of the trend, a reknowned shark researcher, George Burgess, has suggested that the recession is resulting in fewer shark attacks. (link) In spite of all the hype and string of attacks in Zihuatanejo, New Smyrna Beach, and San Diego last year, shark attacks have been the lowest in a decade.

Sharks attacked 59 people in 2008, the lowest number of attacks since 57 in 2003, according to George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File, part of the Florida Museum of Natural History on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville. There were 71 attacks in 2007.

Fewer people, especially outside of the United States, have the resources to go to the beach, he said.

“To have a shark attack, you have to have humans and sharks in the water at the same time,” Burgess said. “If you have a reduction in the number of people in the water, you’re going to have a reduction in the opportunities for people and sharks to get together.”

“We noticed similar declines during the recession that followed the events of 2001, despite the fact that human populations continued to rise,” the ichthyologist said.

Sharks killed four people in 2008, Burgess said: one in California, one in Australia and two in Mexico.

Forty-one of the 59 attacks worldwide came in the United States, and 32 of those occurred in Florida.

Surfers accounted for 57 percent of shark attacks, swimmers and waders were the targets in 36 percent of the attacks, and divers the rest, he said.

Check out all the latest shark news on Surftherenow.com here.
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They say bad things happen in groups of three. Seems like this has been the case with shark attacks in the last year. In April last year, Zihuatanejo was hit by a string of shark attacks over the course of three weeks including one fatal attack (link).

Now, sharks are striking fear in the surfers and swimmers at Sydney. A 15 year old boy has been mauled by a shark on Sydney’s northern beaches, in the third shark attack in Sydney in less than three weeks. (Times UK Article)

The boy was surfing off Avalon Beach early on Sunday morning when the shark attacked, inflicting severe lacerations to his upper left leg. He underwent four hours of surgery to repair the injury (link).

Nick Miller from the Avalon Surf Lifesaving Club said the surfer was in the water with his father when the shark attacked.

“The father and son were out surfing this morning,” Mr Miller told ABC Radio.

“It got him around the top of his leg and his calf muscle and the father came in and dragged him in. ”

Witness Dylan Cram told Sky News: “I saw the two of them paddling in and frantically screaming ‘shark’. It was a pretty bad thing to witness.”

Other beach-goers said the boy, who had bites to his calf and thigh, was able to walk out of the water. His father used his t-shirt as a tourniquet while an ambulance was called, and he was airlifted to Royal North Shore hospital.

A hospital spokesman said he had wounds to his upper left leg, and he was in a stable condition. His leg had not been severed.

It is believed the shark is around five to six feet, but it is not yet known what type of shark it is. Helicopter searches of Avalon and neighboring beaches, which are popular with Sydney surfers have failed to spot the shark.

Richard Andjelkovic of Sydney Surf Lifesaving told The Times the number of shark sightings on Sydney beaches had increased recently. “Last weekend we closed a large number of beaches after a shark was spotted,” he said. “The number of shark sightings have been up in the last while. We’re not sure why, it might be because the waters are cooler and there are a lot more fish around.”

Nearly three weeks ago, navy clearance diver Paul de Gelder was mauled by a 2.7-metre bullshark in Sydney Harbor, causing him to lose a hand and leg.

Just a day later, in the first attack off Bondi beach in nearly 80 years, 33-year-old surfer Glenn Orgias was attacked by a 2.5m great white that shook him and nearly severed his left hand.

Check out all the latest shark news on Surftherenow.com here.

Trailer for “God Went Surfing with the Devil,” a look at the Israel-Palestine conflict through the lens of surfing.
Directed by Alexander Klein.

Big wave season is coming to an end with the North Pacific in a funk sending more rain than waves at the big wave breaks of Hawaii and California. Check this years entries at the contest site. Here’s a video of last year’s bombs including the winning wave of Mike Parsons at Cortez Bank.

The First Shark Attack at Bondi Beach Since 1929

A surfer was attacked at Bondi Beach, Australia. It was the second shark attack in two days after navy clearance diver was mauled off Woolloomooloo, in Sydney Harbour. The surfer, known last night only as Glen, 33, of Dover Heights, suffered deep cuts to his arm when he was attacked by the shark while surfing the break off South Bondi about 8pm. The attacks are likely to cause shark hysteria down under. It was the first shark attack at Bondi since 1929.

Check out all the latest shark news on Surftherenow.com here.

When ocean temperatures rise as they have slowly over the past couple of decades, coral is affected and often dies (coral bleaching). However, a recently discovered consequence of global warming is the gradual acidification of the oceans, which has far greater and devastating effects. As CO2 levels rise in the atmosphere, the oceans absorb up to half of it. This causes a drop in the pH of the oceans or acidification. The organisms that make coral work in a very narrow range of pH. As the oceans acidify, not only does it cause coral to stop being made, it also destroys existing coral. BBC reports. More here.