The big boys of the dream tour had a rough go in round one at the Nike US Open of Surfing. For a while it seemed like none of the ASP’s top 16 would make it out alive: Mick Fanning, Taylor Knox, Ace Buchan, Owen Wright, Taj Burrow, CJ and Damien Hobgood, and Matt Wilkinson all fell sputtering in the Huntington Beach surf.
There were, however, some survivors in the four man heats in two foot (maybe) waves: Jordy Smith, Kelly Slater, Freddy P, Gabriel Medina, Adriano de Souza, Michel Bourez, Bede Durbidge, Josh Kerr, and Dane Reynolds (remember him?). Miguel Pupo, (pictured above) who had the highest heat score of the day with a 18.07, was worried after seeing some many great surfers get knocked out.
“There are some crazy heats in the first round and I saw Mick (Fanning) and Owen (Wright) go down, so I was kind of nervous,” Pupo said. “It’s such a difficult wave to surf and in these tough conditions, so I’m happy to make it through.”
Brett Simpson and John John Florence haven’t surfed yet (they surf tomorrow) and hopefully, they’ll survive their heats. For a complete results breakdown, and the official word from the ASP, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
Surfer Magazine gives the “for girls” publication genre another go with Salted, “a much-overdue homage to women’s surfing,” according to the release.
“There are so many amazing female surfers right now and so many interesting stories that aren’t being told,” says SURFER Magazine Managing Editor, Janna Irons. “It’s great to finally give them the attention they deserve—and to have a home for all the beautiful images we’ve collected. I’m so excited we were able to create something that celebrates all we’ve been missing out on.”
We’ll say this again: if advertisers want to keep spending money on magazines that their target market will never read, why should publishers get in the way. Take the money, make the profit, and move on. Salted will be on newsstands until October 16, 2012 and as an annual one-off we could see it working. For the official word from Surfer Magazine, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
The world’s largest surf festival kicked off this weekend in Huntington Beach, California as juniors shredded the waves in Nike US Open of Surfing.
Felipe Toledo (BRA), 17, (pictured above) defending Nike US Open of Surfing Pro Junior Champion, made a seamless return to competition today and put on two standout performances to advance to the Quarterfinals. Toledo was responsible for the day’s highest scores compliments of his aerial repertoire, netting a 9.40 single-wave score en route to the highest heat total of 17.90 out of 20.
Joel Parkinson and his trainer Wes Berg took third place in the two-man stock traditional category of the Molokai 2 Oahu Paddleboard World Championships on July 29, 2012. The paddled the 32 miles in 5:49:17.
“I think surfing a contest is a lot easier,” joked Parkinson. “I always wanted to do it, it was a great experience.”
Parko wasn’t the only pro surfer in the mix. Rob Machado competed on a SUP three-man team and Jamie Sterling competed on a two-man team. Is paddling the new new?
Natasha Noland, 25, the daughter of Santa Cruz, California’s Pacific Wave Surf Shop owners Todd and SueNoland died late Friday night, July 27, 2012, after falling out of a bus on her way back from a Brad Paisley concert, according to a story in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
Noland reportedly got into a fight with another woman inside the bus when a door opened and both women fell from the moving bus onto the highway’s southbound lanes between Lark Avenue and Highway 9 in Los Gatos at 11:50 p.m., CHP officials said. . . Noland was run over and killed by the bus, CHP officials said. . . The other woman, a 20-year-old Felton resident, was taken to a nearby hospital with moderate injuries, CHP spokesman DJ Sarabia said.
Noland was the women’s buyer at Pacific Wave. Our thoughts are with Natasha’s friends and especially with her parents.
Hollywood hits the NorCal surf in the Jay Moriarity bio-pic Chasing Mavericks staring an nearly drowned Gerard Butler and Jonny Weston as Jay. Sadly, we all know how the story ends. Still, seems Chasing Mavericks will be a prime addition to Hollywood vs. surfing discussions for years to come.
Riley Blakeway has directed a new surf film for Analog titled Chromatic. It features the surfing talents of Nathan Fletcher, Chippa Wilson, Fergal Smith and Benny Godwin.
Chroma by definition is the purity of color, or its freedom from monotony. Analog is characterized by our team and influenced by the chroma each individual emits. Color defines us in existence. Color is alive.
The film we premiere in September sometime. We’ll keep you posted.
Kai Neville is about to release his new What Youth full length feature film titled Dear Suburbia: And Excursion Into The Absurfa. The title kind of reminds us of those girls on Instagram who describe themselves as quirky or weird. Nonetheless, Dear Suburbia is destined to be the it, now, happening, thing because it features all the cool kids: Dane Reynolds, John John Florence, Yadin Nicol, Kolohe Andino, Conner Coffin, Craig Anderson, Mitch Coleborn, Dion Agius, Evan Geiselman, Chippa Wilson, Dillon Perillo, Jack Freestone, and Taj Burrow.
Anyone missing? Yeah, a couple. Oh well. If you’re in SoCal you can see the grand premiere live at The Strand in Huntington Beach, California on August 2, 2012. For all the details, click the link.
Sometimes ultra realism isn’t exactly what we’re all after with video games. And nothing in Party Wave is realistic, however, it is fun in a crazy, overly animated Japanese video game way. Party Wave was developed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the massively popular Final Fantasy series, according to a post on Kotaku.
The object is to ride waves, avoid sea life, and to get a bunch of surfers to pull off tricks without wiping out. The wave riding took some getting used so to get maximum points and pull off tricks.
