Lifeguards at Southern California surf spot La Jolla Shores are warning the public of a 15-20 foot long Great White shark that was spotted in the area on Sunday August 15. 2010, according to a story on NBC San Diego.
Lifeguards at La Jolla Shores said they saw a large dorsal fin coming straight to shore, just off the surf line at La Jolla Shores. . . “We put lifeguards out on our Jet Ski skis and we warned people,” Lerum said. “We brought a rescue boat from Mission Bay and we warned people all the way from La Jolla Cove to Scripps Pier, about two miles of area.” . . Lerum says there is no closure in effect, since there was no aggressive behavior by the shark. He says there isn’t an eminent threat of danger, however, most people made the decision to get out of the water.
This, coupled with the San Onofre Great White footage shot by Chuck Patterson last week, just might be keeping surfers out of the water for a while.
Great Britain’s The Independenttalks to Britain’s top pro surfer Gwen Spurlock about brain injuries that nearly left her dead after slamming numerous times during the 2008 launch of a “standing wave boardrider” machine at Swansea’s The LC, her hometown’s waterpark. After weeks of headache Spurlock went in for a CT scan.
The scan revealed a major bleed on the brain that doctors believed had been caused by something akin to shaken- baby syndrome from all her falls. Within days she was being operated on and having two holes the size of 10p pieces drilled into her skull to drain off the fluid. Despite the seriousness of the operation, Gwen seemed to be recovering well, but this turned out to be only the beginning of her worries. . . The headaches had not gone and fluid was seeping from the original cyst and building up on the edge of her brain. It needed an urgent and highly risky operation to redirect it. When the operation was over, Gwen awoke from the anaesthetic only for a moment before falling unconscious.
Thankfully, Gwen survived, but we all came much closer to losing her than we ever imagined. Click the link for the rest of the story. . .
With his business partner Eric Goode, surfer Sean MacPherson, 45, has built some of New York’s hippest hotels including The Jane, The Bowery, and The Maritme.
The New York Times gets a few answers from MacPherson on all the surfy details on what he rides and how he got started, including the story about his mother being a New Zealand surf champion and his father being one of the first surf filmmakers in New Zealand. The guy has some roots.
While we sort out our thoughts on the fall ASR/ Class/ Crossroads/ Sacred Craft aggregation of trade showshere are some photos from Friday, August 13, 2010.
Every year Volcom chooses a theme and sticks to it for the entire trade show season. They’ve done hippies, hillbillies, and this year they raved it up with Volcom Techno Beach.
This clip is only one minute long. By the time the 2010 Fall Action Sports Retailer Show closes on Sunday, August 15, 2010 Volcom employees will have relived this minute 1,380 times. And then they will get to do it all again at Surf Expo next month, and at SIA in Janaury 2011. How’s that for dedication to the brand?
Chuck Patterson was apparently out SUPing with the Great Whites and got them on video. . .He says:
The day before I shot this video, i was SUP surfing with a couple friends and 2 sharks circled us for about 15 minutes. the next day, i decided to go back out at around the same time and take my GO PRO HD camera mounted on a 10 ft pole and do some exploring. . . Sure enough within 5 minutes a 9 ft shark came out of no where and circled twice and slapped his tail on my board before disappearing. then a minute later a 7 ft young juvenile Great White swam circles around me for 12 minutes.
Not so sure we’re itching to surf Trails anytime soon. . .
We’ve always admired the work of San Clemente, California based shaper Cole Simlar, but have never spoken with him. Kind of bummed on that after watching this video. Some of his work will be on display at the Billabong Art of Shaping: Orange County Edition August 13-14, 2010 at the ASR Trade Show.
If the entire ASP World Tour were held in Huntington Beach, California there is a very good chance that Brett Simpson could be the number one surfer in the world rather than down at 26 on the world rankings. Over the past two years he’s beaten nearly every one of the ASP’s top five surfers at the US Open. This year he downed a nine-time world champion and the current ASP number 1 in consecutive heats to take his second US Open of Surfing victory and a check for $100,000.
“It’s amazing to beat those guys,” Simpson said. “I guess this is my best chance to compete against those guys and I know the wave really well and I just go out there and stay confident. I know which waves score the best and that’s all you can do against those guys. . .“Jordy (Smith) has been getting quick starts, so I tried to go out there and get a decent start,” Simpson said. “I got a five, and it was a low scoring heat, but all the waves I caught I maximized. Jordy had that one wave, where if he pulled that air it could have been a different ballgame. That’s the risk you take to be rewarded and with the level these days, that’s where it’s at. I kind of stayed conservative and built my scores, but either way, a win is a win.”
After 2009’s epic surf it was sad to see the Huntington Pier return to it’s normal wave size for the finals. Jordy and Brett spent much of the heat just sitting on a flat sea hoping for a wave that would save them. Brett scored a 13.97, and all Jordy could muster was 8.33. But the crowd did not appear to care as they changed into the water to mob each surfer as they tried to get back up the beach. The final was not even close to spectacular, but it did put a cap on an amazing week of surfing at the 2010 US Open of Surfing.
Josh Clement, 25, of Wilmington, North Carolina reportedly kicked a shark before getting what can only be described as the smallest shark bite in the history of shark attacks, according to a story on WWAYTV3.com.
“I honestly thought that I lost my foot,” Clement said. “I mean it happened, and it hit so hard, I thought I lost my foot, and I couldn’t look back to see if my foot was there and finally I got to see if my foot was still around my leg. Of course it scared me to death, but it all comes with the territory. You’re out there in the ocean and they’re out there as well.”
Sadly, his six stitches look like nothing more than a scratch. This is reportedly “the fourth shark attack between Topsail Island and Myrtle Beach in the last six weeks.”
Today, mixed somewhere into a Southern California day filled with all manner of flying boards, Hawaii’s Carissa Moore confidently paddled out at the Huntington Beach Pier and put the vice to current ASP World Tour number two Sally Fitzgibbons. With several paddle battles to start the heat, Moore didn’t let up until the US Open of Surfing’s Woman’s Final horn blew and she had won the largest women’s prize purse in the history of surfing.
“I was pretty nervous because I only had two 4 point scores,” Moore said. “Sally (Fitzgibbons) is gnarly and is a great competitor and I knew when that last set came, if I didn’t get on it Sally would have gotten the score easily. I’m just so on top of the world right now, I’m so psyched. . . . “It is really amazing to win this event,” Moore said. “I just can’t even believe it right now. It just seems really surreal. That Final went by so fast and I wish I could have done some more surfing, but I’m just really stoked.”
For Sally’s side of the story and all the official details, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
Lifeguards at Southern California surf spot La Jolla Shores are warning the public of a 15-20 foot long Great White shark that was spotted in the area on Sunday August 15. 2010, according to a story on NBC San Diego.
