It’s kind of hard for us to get too wound up about watching to old guys surf, but when those two old guys are Mark Occhilupo and Tom Curren it does change things a bit.
In a major coup for surf fans world wide, this year at the Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay spectators can watch a LIVE webcast of these two superstars as they re-ignite their intense rivalry in the world’s best right hand point wave, going head to head for the first time in over two decades. . . Each has won eight of their 16 previous encounters and the Clash of the Icons will provide yet another chapter in their 26 year rivalry.
And that all starts tonight at 10:15 PM PST. If The Billabong Pro in perfect J-Bay surf isn’t enough to keep you up, maybe Occy and Tom Curren can make it happen.
New York Times writer and former pro snowboarder Jesse Huffman drops in with a group of surfers in Montreal Canada who have a great little surf spot the Lawrence River.
Nearing the wave, I turned the board upstream and released the rope when I was inside the wave. A dense, solid but fluidly dynamic water surface rushed beneath my board. It was a moment of mild vertigo, depth and perspective hard to pinpoint in such an alien environment. I lasted a few fleeting seconds before washing out the back, long enough to feel the potential.
According to the 2008 SIMA Retail Distribution Study released yesterday by the Boulder, Colorado based research firm Leisure Trends Group 2008 saw a slight decrease in skate/surf retail sales (down 3.5 percent to $7.22 billion) and the “softness was most apparent in the fourth quarter of 2008.”
Apparently, December 08 was a bad month in retail. Who knew? Or how about this insight. Did you know that: “Passion and youth largely drive the surf industry. Surfers and skaters view the industry as a lifestyle, not a passing trend.”
But don’t worry, according to SIMA President Doug Palladini the “powerful brands” will see us through:
“While the surf/skate retail industry is not immune to the downward pressure on retail sales nationwide caused by the global recession, the resiliency of the surf/skate industry is very positive and promising,” says Doug Palladini, SIMA President and Vice President of Marketing for Vans. “Powerful brands with close connections to their consumers will see us through these challenging times and put us in a strong position as the overall economy rebounds.”
Thank god for the titans of industry. For more of this kind of in-depth analysis into last year’s retail disaster, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
South African surfer Paul Buckley, 37, was surfing near South Africa’s Mossel Bayon, when he got hit by a shark, according to the Daily Mail.
‘No doubt I was scared. I feared for my life so I just grabbed it. I thought if I held it by the tail, its mouth could not reach me again.’ . . . Mr Buckley, 37, was released after a few seconds and then frantically swam the 100m back to shore near Stilbaai, which is near the tourist resort of MosselBayon which faces the Indian Ocean. . . Witnesses bundled him into a car and rushed him to a doctor so the bite – which was nearly 37cm wide and 3cm – could be closed. . . The businessman was then taken to hospital where he received 150 stitches.
South Africa has an average of six shark attacks a year.
Looks like The Surfer’s Journal is joining the digital age with a couple Tyler Manson video clips on Vimeo. Apparently, someone under 40 works at TSJ now. This clip features a little quiver swap between one of the Malloys and Dane Reynolds.
Ride shotgun with Dan Malloy and Dane Reynolds as they cruise from their Ventura homes to Emma Wood State Beach for a quiver swap. This insider look at their modes of surfing comes to a head as they trade—and ride—everything from homemade hunks to foiled Fryes.
Kelly Slater beats Brazil’s Adriano de Souza and wins the Hang Loose Santa Catarina Pro in Imbituba.
“There were much better waves in the Final than there were for my Semifinal,” Slater said. “Adriano (de Souza) found a pretty good rhythm early on and posted some pretty good scores, but I felt comfortable out there and felt that the waves would come to me if I were patient. Both of my scoring rides allowed me to a bunch of maneuvers and I felt that the scores were maybe a little high, but I haven’t had many good scores this year, so it was bound to go my way at some point.”
Can’t say we’re not stoked. Follow the jump for the entire ASP press release the is posted all over the net. [click to continue…]
Kelly Slater actually made it out of a round 3 heat against Ben Dunn on one of his own boards in the Hang Loose Santa Catarina Pro (stop number four on the 2009 ASP WCT). According to the ASP press release it was a “self-shaped, asymmetrical quad-fin.”.
“I seem to be riding a new board every time I go for a surf,” Slater said. “This one I just rode was an epoxy swallow-tail and seemed to go really well in these conditions. I’ve spent the lay days hanging with some friends here in Brazil and having a few fun surfs around town. I’ve pretty much just been cruising and testing out some equipment.”
Reminds us of the old “million monkeys typing” bit. Eventually, something has to work, right?
While the Mavericks CEO Keir J. Beadling may have made everything at Mavericks Surf Ventures sound all cool, a post on June 26, 2009 by former Mavericks contest director Jeff Clark paints a little different picture.
The press release issued by Mavericks Surf Ventures this week stating that I ‘stepped down’ and I am ‘passing the torch to the next generation’ is wrong. The reality is that I was ousted as Contest Director by the current CEO. . . .I must also note that, while the company’s news release states that this year’s contest will be held to celebrate ‘the 35th anniversary of Jeff Clark’s first session at the now world-famous break,’ the 35th anniversary is actually next season, in 2010-11. I will not allow the company to use my accomplishment as a marketing tactic. . . .Effective today, I have resigned from the Board of Directors of Mavericks Surf Ventures.
So that, apparently, is the other side of the story.
Florida surfers have to put up with a lot. No waves, hurricanes, and sharks, but this week they had even more weirdness lurking in the lineup.
A rare American crocodile was captured at the Cocoa Beach Pier last Friday and there have been at least two separate alligator sightings in the ocean this week. One of the reptiles left its tracks in the sands of Satellite Beach. . . On Saturday, Jeff Scabarozi, the Brevard lifeguard chief, went to the Third Street North beach in Cocoa Beach. Aboard a personal watercraft, he rode within two feet of a swimming gator.
According to a story on Surfermag.com one of the passengers of Air France Flight 477 which crashed into the Atlantic ocean on June 1, 2009 was a Brazilian orthodontist who was an avid surfer. His name was Jose “Rommel” Souza.
Souza was accomplished both in and out of the water, as he spoke four languages and had studied in both Brazil and Paris. But his surfing may be remembered most. “Perhaps one of his most memorable rides was at Uluwatu on a huge day,” said Gaunt. The wave quadruple overhead, he caught it right at the peak and rode it for a kilometer and a half. “He rode the wave so far he had to get a motorbike back from Padang beach,” said Gaunt.
It’s kind of hard for us to get too wound up about watching to old guys surf, but when those two old guys are Mark Occhilupo and Tom Curren it does change things a bit.
