Kevin Moraga, 15, was surfing with friends at Playa Grande in the North Pacific side of Costa Rica at a little after noon on Sunday, June 19, 2011 when he was hit by a shark in the left thigh. The bite resulted in massive blood loss, according to a story in the Tico Times.
Moraga was transferred on Wednesday in a coma to the Hospital Mexico in San José, where doctors are better equipped to handle trauma patients. He died Thursday afternoon of a cerebral edema. An edema is caused by a large build-up of fluids in the brain.
This was reportedly the first shark attach at Playa Grande in recent memory. Our thoughts are with Moraga’s family and friends.
The 2011 Nike US Open of Surfing just released the line up for the music portion of the enormous summer bash in Huntington Beach August 4-6, 2011 and it looks damn good.
This year’s musical line-up is a representation of today’s youth culture featuring headlining sets by psych-pop rockers MGMT, platinum-selling rockers Jimmy Eat World and Swedish electro/rock sensations The Sounds. The series will also include sets by the most buzzed about names emerging on the music scene this year: Surfer Blood and Dead Country.
Sure, Jimmy Eat World and MGMT are great and all, but we’re looking most forward to seeing Surfer Blood on Saturday, August 6, 2011. Follow the jump for more details. [click to continue…]
We can’t imagine a more perfect guest for lascivious vodka slut Chelsea Handler than Kelly Slater; especially when he comes baring gifts. She questions him on David Hasselhoff, bikinis, Laird Hamilton, Gabi Reece and more. She was remarkably polite and lady like. And Kelly was smooth as butter as usual, “I could probably kick your ass,” Slater said.
Last Friday (June 17, 2011) Lastnamefirst.tv staged a softboard take-over of Trestles saying the following:
June 17th 2011, a day that will be remembered in history. Our leader, Captain Riley Metcalf, called upon the pirates of San Clemente and beyond to take over the peak at Lower Trestles. Pirates and other characters gathered for this glorious stand-off, where after hours of vicious warfare… we captured and dominated the peak at Lowers!
On Fathers Day Sunday (June 19, 2011) at St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church in Montauk, New York the Rev. Michael Rieder held his first ever surfboard blessing ceremony, according to a story on a Wall Street Journal Blog.
Rieder, better known as Father Mike, led a group of about 30 town residents, some fresh from the beach in wetsuits, in prayer over boards of all kinds, from regular longboards to boogie boards, snowboards and skateboards. One man even brought over a two-by-four, saying that he planned to use it to build a new home. . . “Dear God, your son walked on water but we know it would have been a lot more fun if he had a surf board or boogie board,” Rieder said as he splashed holy water onto the boards and their owners. “Let’s ask his blessing as we play in the waves.”
If we would have said something like that as kids we would’ve hauled out of church by our ears. Nice to see the Catholics loosening up a little. Praise the board!
The July issue of Playboy Magazine (which mistakenly introduces the world to Mrs. Crystal Hefner) reportedly features something much more interesting: a short profile on surfer Anastasia Ashley. No, she’s not naked, but she is striking a familiar pose in this Daniel Russo photo. The blurb is exactly what you’d expect from Playboy.
With her bronze, taut exterior and her compulsive need for adrenalin, the surf Betty is the modern sea goddess. (The Greeks can have their sirens.) Lately, however, cynics have complained that todays’ female surfers are better known for their looks than their athletic abilities–they’re more Anna Kournakova than Annika Sorenstam. But Anastasia Ashley, the 2010 Women’s Pipeline Pro champion couldn’t care less; at competitions she unapologetically prefers bikinis to the traditional wet suit. “By its nature surfing is sexy,” she says, “because you do it in your swimsuit. I love the sport because it’s both physically demanding and physically appearling. Plus, spending most of my day in a bikini isn’t a bad thing.”
It’s not often that we get to hang out with Alana Blanchard while photographer Chris Straley shoots her. In fact, we never have. But in some kind of sad way this sort of makes up for it.
Everyone has known for weeks that surfing’s $23 million man Dane Reynolds was on the Vans surf program, but today Vans finally admits it to the rest of the world.
We are extremely excited to announce the addition of Dane Reynolds to the Vans Surf Team. Dane is one of the most exciting and unique surfers to date and brings a quiet sort of revolution with him. His approach is completely different to what’s been done and his reach touches every facet of surfing. For decades Vans has been home for people choosing their own path and it’s a pleasure to be able to uphold that principle to this day and have Dane become a part of it.
Must be nice for him to not to have to wear DC Shoes any longer, right? Now let’s just hope he keeps surfing. . . Follow the jump for all the details. [click to continue…]
The Chasing Monsters crew gets some late May/early June charging in some of the biggest Puerto Escondido ever caught on camera.
We couldn’t resist going back down for a rebate session since Puerto was firing bigger than our previous trip. This time we added a few heavies to the mix in the form of Big Wave World Tour Champion Jamie Sterling, Rusty Long, Anthony Tashnick, Shawn Dollar , Maya Gabiera and more. Everyone charged super hard and some historic waves were paddled into.
The Interscholastics were blessed with a building southwest swell which pumped in excellent 4-5 foot surf at Salt Creek. 17 college teams, 12 high schools and 9 middle schools combined for nearly 370 competitors in the Interscholastic Championships. Team spirit was at an all-time high as hungry surfers competed passionately for the gold for their nationally ranked schools.
