Micah has become famous the world over for his super-stoked post surf interview. He’s even been auto-tuned into a song that you will never get out of your head. Now, he’s gotten the Tosh.0 treatment and yes, it’s funny.
[Link: Tosh.0 via Board As Fuck]
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Each time Santa Monica, California high-school teacher Benjamin Kay goes surfing he picks up all the trash he finds brings it back to throw away, according to a story in the Santa Monica Mirror. The photo above is just one Sunday’s catch. Now he’s trying to get more people involved with a Paddle Clean-up.
“I’d like to engage the surfing, boogie board, paddle board, kayak, and diving communities in an aquatic cleanup to help us all get on the same page about the reasons for and sources of plastic pollution and build a greater activist coalition,” he said. “I heard a guy in the water yesterday blame beach-going litter bugs for the problem, but the reasons for plastics into our oceans is much more complex than that.”
If everyone does a little. . .
[Link: Santa Monica Mirror]
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When a baby Great White shark washed up on Venice Beach, California with a hook in its mouth, it didn’t take long for a crowd to arrive. Luckily, the crowd included one man who was not afraid to remove the hook with his bare hands.
Viewer Elvia sent in this video of the rescue, saying the shark became stranded on the sand near the Venice Pier after it latched on to a fishing hook. . . “The rescuers were heroes,” she said, as her camera captured surfers and other good samaritans trying to lead the Great White back to the water.
While it appears that the surfers in the video did very little in the rescue, it was a nice contrast to that horrifying shark fishing video that was going around earlier this month.
[Link: KTLA TV]
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For the past three weeks we’ve had these two photos sitting on our desktop, but we couldn’t seem to post them. When Keala Kennelly first uploaded the left photo to her facebook page we, like the rest of the world, gasped in horror.
We were amazed that Keala was still able to throw that famous twinkling glare in the face of a terrible injury. Badass, right? At the time we didn’t really care how it happened, we were just glad she was still able to keep those piercing peepers pointed in the proper direction and that there appeared to be no permanent damage.
Today, in an interview with Billabong Girls Team Manager Megan Villa, Keala tells the whole story.
It happened 2 days after the tow day during the AI memorial heat right before the final. It was a pretty regular looking wave. I took off and it kind of had a bit of bump that kept me from pulling into the barrel straight away. I had to make some adjustments and then saw that the next section was going to throw so I bottom-turned and parked it in the barrel. I traveled for a bit, had to negotiate the foam-ball and that may have thrown me off and made me have to draw a higher line than I would have liked. I thought I was coming out but the lip just clipped me in the head and threw me straight into the reef before I even realized what happened.
Strangely, each time we see these photos we can’t get that old Poi Dog Pondering lyric out of our heads: “. . . wear with pride the scars on your skin, they’re a map of the adventures and the places you’ve been.” Click the link for the rest of Keala’s interivew.
[Link: Billabong Girls via @kealakennelly]
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Last night (Wednesday, September 21, 2011) the San Mateo County Harbor Commission reportedly awarded the Mavericks event permit to Jeff Clark, Cassandra Clark, and Kenny “Skindog” Collins’ Mavericks Invitational Inc, according to a story in the San Jose Mercury News.
If conditions are right, the contest will occur sometime between Dec. 1 and March 30, which gives the group some time to corral sponsors and deliver on its promise to stage an epic surf event that draws thousands of spectators to the coast — but keeps them away from the beach and dangerous bluffs. . . “It’s been a long time coming to get back in as contest director,” Clark said. “We’re looking forward to putting on an amazing event.”
Hopefully, when the sponsors get involved we won’t see a historical repeat. Seems like once down that over-blown road is enough.
[Link: San Jose Mercury News]
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Former European bodyboarding champion and surf camp manager Matthieu Schiller, 32, died after being attacked by a shark near Réunion Island’s Boucan Canot beach on Monday, September 19, 2011, according to a story in the Daily Mail.
One of the surfers, Kamel said: ‘I was waiting for a wave with my feet in the water. We saw the shark and the next thing I knew was that he screamed and raised his arm. . . ‘We then saw a cloud of red blood in the water where he had been,’ he said.
Fellow surfers were at first able to get to Schiller and began moving him to shore when he ended up in the water again. Schiller’s body disappeared beneath the waves and has not yet been recovered. This is reportedly the fourth attack and second death on Réunion Island this year. Our thoughts are with Schillers family and the 1,000 people who gathered at the beach yesterday to celebrate his life.
[Link: Daily Mail and ImazPress]
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(Click here for the entire Hurley Pro Trestles photo gallery)
The 2011 Hurley Pro Trestles final between ten time world champion Kelly Slater and Quik Pro New York champ Owen Wright was a stunning reminder of just how perfect, tactical, competition surfing can be mind-numbingly dull. Neither surfer would want to hear it, but watching Slater and Wright surf in a lull-filled final on Wednesday (after seeing them duel at Teahupoo and Long Beach) was a lot like watching grand masters play chess.
The Hurley Pro final was calm, calculated, and free of any major mistakes. Neither Slater nor Wright seemed to want to risk losing, so they played it cool. Consequently, both surfed a nearly perfect heat and we almost fell asleep. As the clock wound down Slater took a wave in and came up the beach under his own power as the entire crowd waited for the judges final word. After a contest hold it was announced that Slater had won by .76 of a point.
Slater complemented Wright’s surfing on the podium:
“Owen (Wright) is tough and he’s been surfing great,” Slater said. “There really are no weak points to his surfing and he’s going to be a standout in every spot. A lot of the guys tried to get him this week and I got lucky in that last exchange. I was taking the first wave of the set under his priority and once I got priority I wanted to wait. It almost looked like there wasn’t a wave after Owen’s. It’s been fun surfing against Owen and surfing Lowers. It’s been a great week and thanks everyone for the crazy support, it’s been wonderful.”
The two best heats of finals day were Slater’s quarterfinal match-up against Josh Kerr in which Kelly surfed like a hungry grom with superhero skills, and Owen Wright and Julian Wilson‘s interference showdown in the semifinal 2. We’ve watched that wave several times and we’re still not sure that the judges made the right call.
Click here to watch both heats on Hurley On Demand, here for our photo gallery, or follow the jump for the official word from the ASP. [click to continue…]
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It would appear that everyone wants to get this Hurley Pro Trestles event over and done with as quickly as possible. After blowing through Round 3 and 4 today (September 20, 2011), it looks like the entire contest will wrap up tomorrow (midweek) under San Diego County’s nearly constant grey skies. If Trestles had lights they probably would have tried to end it today.
All that aside, Joel Parkinson kicked all kind of youngster ass today in the three footers, laying waste to Brett Simpson in Round 3, and Julian Wilson in Round 4.
“I was hoping for just a couple waves and we got a couple of set waves each,” Parkinson said. “I watched the first two of Brett’s (Simpson) waves after I got my scores and wanted to stay involved, but I just couldn’t worry or watch. He’s an amazing surfer and beat me in Tahiti so it was kind of good to get one back. We’ve surfed the last three events together and there are those little rivalries that pop up.”
The heat we were most interested in today was Owen Wright vs. John Florence. And it did not disappoint (click here to watch it), or follow the jump for the official word from the ASP including tomorrow’s heat Round 5 match ups. [click to continue…]
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Looks like the ASP Elite Tour isn’t the only thing John John Florence has snuck onto lately.
We got word from Nixon today that John has been jumped on to the Nixon surf team thanks to a “unanimous” green light from Bruce Irons, Dusty Payne, Josh Kerr, Lisa Andersen, Dean Morrison, Rob Machado, Claire Bevilacqua, Keith Malloy, Nathan Fletcher and Mark Cunningham.
“John John’s a throwback in the surfing world,” states Nixon Marketing Manager, Mike Murciano. “He has dynamic abilities and deep roots in surf. He has the respect and drive to take him to the top. He brings strong, new elements to the team and we are beyond proud to welcome him.”
Follow the jump for all the details. [click to continue…]
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When the Sacred Craft Consumer Surfboard Expo slides into the Del Mar Fairgrounds in Del Mar, California on October 8 – 9, 2011, Billabong will be sponsoring the fourth annual Art of Shaping Event with a nod to Los Angeles County shapers.
The list of confirmed participating shapers includes Scott Anderson, Joe Bark, Jose Barahona, Clyde Beatty, Matt Calvani, Lance Carson, Bing Copeland, Robbie Dick, Bruce Grant, Tyler Hatzikian, Brian Hilbers, Jeff Ho, Hap Jacobs, Dennis Jarvis, Don Kadowaki, Glen Kennedy, Greg Liddle, Casey McCrystal, Jed Noll, Pat Ryan, Mike Stavros, Jeff Stoner, Jerry O’Keefe and Michael Zippi.
Follow the jump for the rest of the details. [click to continue…]
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