Frederic Lecouturier, 55, a surfer riding waves at the Southern end of San Francisco’s Golden Gate on Thursday March 10, 2011 looked toward the bridge and saw someone fall into the water from above, according to a story in the San Francisco Chronicle.
“I thought, ‘Well, he’s going to die,’ and then it was a miracle when he popped up alive,” said Lecouturier, of San Rafael. “I paddled out there, and he told me he jumped ‘for kicks.’ . . “That’s when I lost it and told him what he did was wrong, that life is precious, and he should not take risks like that. I mean, he’s a kid, he’s got his whole life ahead of him.” . . Lecouturier said the boy was about 5 feet tall, “built like a wrestler” and had a brown ponytail. “There was a stiff wind coming out of the south, and I think that broke his fall and helped save him,” he said.
The 17-year-old boy, whose name has not been released, was on a field trip walking across the bridge with 45 of his classmates from Windsor, California when he apparently decided to jump from the bridge. According to the article he escaped with minor injuries. According to the Chronicle “99 percent of the estimated 1,500-plus people who have jumped from the bridge since it opened in 1937” have died. If Lecouturier hadn’t been there, there might have been one more death.
We’re not sure that anyone has captured the personal lives of surfers in photos the way that Steve Sherman has. Even his contest photos are loaded with an emotional intimacy that is difficult to put in worlds. Surfing Magazine has just posted a collection of Sherm’s most recent photos of Kelly Slater from the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast in a gallery titled Kelly Slater in Black And White Again.
In this case blank and white really does capture the moment.
An 8.9 earthquake that devastated Japan at 2:46 PM local time Friday (March 11, 2011) has triggered Tsunami warnings across the Pacific according to the the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. Already there have been more than 300 deaths reported in Japan.
Waves have begun hitting the Hawaiian Islands and beaches are closed. As of 4:30 AM (HST) there has been no real damage, however, no “all clear” sent yet in the Islands.
Reports from the action community are rolling in via Twitter and Facebook. Here are just a few:
Earlier in the night Surfer Clay Marzo said via Twitter: “So im SUPPOSE to be getting off this plane at 2am’ish hawaii time…. this gives me so much time…… Hope my house is high enough :(”
Les ettes owner Carmela Fleury, who lives in Japan with her husband Ivar, reported this morning via facebook: “All good. Thanks for the messages. Ivar is okay. His office and our home are not, but it’s nothing that can’t be fixed.”
Camp of Champions‘ Ken Achenbach reported via facebook that he left Japan only a couple hours before the quake hit: “Stoked that we left Tokyo a couple hours before the earthquake. Super stoked our friends in Japan are OK.”
Follow the jump for video footage of the Tsunami hitting Japan.
The pressure from the world surfing community appears to have paid off. Volcom has now announced that they have flip-flopped on their original ruling and will pay Santa Cruz’s Zoltan Torkos the $10,000 for his kickflip. Not only that, they are now upping the award on the first high performance, above-the-lip kickflip to $20,000.
After further review Volcom has decided to reward Zoltan the $10K for his groundbreaking maneuver, and at the same time redefine the rules and double the prize money on the elusive “above and off the lip kickflip” now worth $20,000. . . “We really want to celebrate Zoltan’s successful kickflip, and continue to push the concept of futuristic surfing. Zoltan was the first and we feel shouldn’t be the last,” said Volcom’s Director of Surfing, Mike Guarino.
Nice. We kind of figured they’d come around. Volcom will release a video later this week that outlines the new kickflip competition more clearly defined rules. Looks like Zoltan has the chance to double down as he’s obviously already the closest surfer to the next $20,000.
In their Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast final match up Kelly Slater and Taj Burrow surfed a total of 23 waves. Seven of those waves scored a 3.0 or above. Five of those that did were Kelly’s, and two were Taj’s. Kelly’s high score was a 5.93 and Taj’s was a 7.17. That’s the kind of heat it was. To look at all the scores more closely click here.
After the battles that went down in the Round 5 heats of the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast, the final between Kelly Slater and defending Champ Taj Burrow was a bit of a fizzler. It wasn’t the fault of either surfer, but more the junky, ripped up Snapper surf.
Slater jumped in first with optimism on a smaller wave, threw a little frontside air, and then stalled into a perfect, though tiny snapper barrel. It was a classic example of how Kelly seems to bend waves to his will. He didn’t have the same power over the judges, however, and they gave him a 5.0 in what could turn out to be one of the best 5 point waves in ASP finals history.
With 14 minutes to go the heat basically blew up in both surfer’s faces. Slater and Burrow fell on wave after wave. It almost became comical. Kelly railed out on a drop. Then Taj would get caught up in the white water or fall off on a simple bottom turn.
The quarterfinals and finals of the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast will go down today beginning at 1:30 PM PST (7:30 AM March 9, local time), but some of the most most savagely contested heats in ASP history went down in Round 5 as five of the ASP’s top ranked surfers fought to get back in the game after losing their morning Round 4 heats.
Kelly Slater, Jordy Smith, Taj Burrow, Adriano de Souza and Joel Parkinson all found themselves out of the winners slot on Tuesday morning. After four heats of Round 5, however, Kelly slipped past Ace Buchan, Taj Burrow pulled out the highest heat total of the event so far (19.06) to edge Adriano de Souza, and Jordy Smith snuck past Parko in the last minute of the final heat of the day.
Jordy Smith (ZAF), 23, 2010 ASP World Runner-Up and Runner-Up at the 2010 Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast, kept his dreams alive tonight with a sensational come-from-behind victory over local standout Joel Parkinson (AUS), 29, in Round 5. Needing a big score in the dying moments, Smith took a wave off of Parkinson’s priority and secured the 7.50 out of a possible 10 and the win. . . “I’m really stoked right now,” Smith said. “Finally something good came. I had a bummer of a morning and I was kind of down after losing my first heat. He (Parkinson) always beats me and I’ve looked up to him forever. I don’t know what to say, I’m rattled right now.”
The NSSA State Championships presented by Nike 6.0 will be held in surfing’s most famous stadium on the south side of Huntington Beach Pier. Competition will begin on March 11th with the College Championships. Competition will resume on March 12th with the High School Championships and continued on March 13th for the Middle School Championships, additional College preliminary rounds and all State Championship finals.
With 14 minutes to go in the final of The Roxy Pro Gold Coast and Hawaii’s Carissa Moore, 18, in the lead Australian Tyler Wright, 16, dropped in on a epic, heaving Snapper barrel. She stalled, pulled in, and was slotted for nearly 25 meters. Just as it appeared that Tyler was on her way to a perfect 10 and a shot at taking control of the heat, master competitor Carissa Moore, using her priority, dropped in directly in front of Tyler and shut her barrel down saving her win in what many are calling the best women’s surfing final in history.
Wright kicked off the 30 minute final with confidence. She made two turns before realizing it was the wrong wave. Directly behind her Hawaii’s Carissa Moore blasted down the line to a rocking 9.17 first wave score solidly putting her foot down on the heat. Wright spent the rest of the heat playing catch up. Without the competitive instincts driving Moore to use her priority so well, Wright could have won the heat. But Moore was there regulating with a wisdom well beyond her years.
From the podium Moore was happy, but apologetic about the priority stuffing she delivered to Wright. “I just had a really good time out there,” Moore said. “Tyler was surfing really well. I think if I hadn’t dropped in on her on that barrel I would not have won. Sorry I had to do that to you.”
Wright did not seem to mind. “That final was probably once of the best finals I’ve ever had,” she said. Carissa surfed amazing. It was really fun out there. To be in the final in my first event in my rookie year was pretty great.”
Suddenly women’s surfing is as exciting to watch as the mens. Thanks to all the women who charged.
Follow the jump for full results and the official ASP version of the day. [click to continue…]
Volcom has released their official judgement for Santa Cruz’s Zoltan Torkos’Friday kickflip and the word is “No.”
Sighting official Rule #3: “The kickflip must be a real air ‘above the lip’ – No backwash, No chop hops, or anything in the flats or below the lip of the wave,” the judges have said no cash for Zoltan.
Here’s their official word:
With that said, Zoltan’s kickflip is clearly below the lip and not a real air. Zoltan has pulled the first kickflip on a surfboard, but the $10,000 still remains up for grabs. We called Zoltan with our decision and he replied, “I’m not here to argue against your decision, but I am here to revolutionize surfing.” . . We are stoked on Zoltan and his reaction to our call. He wants to dedicate his kickflip to the memory of his lost friend Carl Reimer, and he says the money is his and he will keep trying for the $10K. Making a kickflip on a surfboard IS possible, Zoltan proved it. We anticipate seeing the winning kickflip in the near future.
We’re not going to argue with the VeeCo either, but if that video had been shot from the water we’re guessing Mr. Torkos would have had a much stronger case and most likely $10,000. Watch it again and let us know what you think.
