by The Editors on April 29, 2009
According to a news release posted yesterday on the SIMA website the 12th Annual Surf Summit has been “post-poned” due to fears over Mexico’s latest export to the United States: Swine Flu.
As of yesterday afternoon, April 27, 2009, the Center for Disease Control has recommended that people avoid all non-essential travel to Mexico at this time. The health and safety of the SIMA Surf Summit attendees and staff are our first priority. . . . SIMA Surf Summit 12 is NOT cancelled, only postponed from the May 6-9 dates. SIMA is working now to determine new event dates for the near future when the situation is better contained and it is safe to travel. New event dates will most likely be announced later this week.
In other words don’t go asking for your money back just yet. Seems like members of the surf industry really could go anywhere to talk, drink, and spend a couple afternoons swimming in pools of their own urine. Couldn’t they?
[Link: SIMA]
by The Editors on April 28, 2009
Surfer John Stevens, 17, was reported missing near Florida’s Navarre Beach Pier on Saturday April 25, 2009 but it wasn’t until two days later that his body was found by a couple walking on a National Seashore beach five miles West of the pier, according to a story on PNJ.com
“They went out to give assistance and pulled him into the shore and observed that he was obviously deceased,” Jordan said.“It’s a body of a white male and the physical description matches that of John Stevens who disappeared Saturday.”
The incident is under investigation.
[Link: PNJ.com]
by The Editors on April 26, 2009
The waiting period for the 6 star Nike 6.0 Lowers Pro begins next Tuesday April 28, 2009.
Lowers is one of the few singular events on the ASP World Qualifying Series schedule that has played a critical role in defining the path that future greats would walk down. Jeff Booth, Kelly Slater, Andy Irons, Shane Beschen, CJ Hobgood and Benny Bourgeois all have hoisted the trophy.
True. But the big question: will this swell hold on until then?
[Link: Nike 6.0 Lowers Pro]
by The Editors on April 24, 2009
A surfer who was found floating face down yesterday in the surf off Laguna Beach, Calfornia’s Crystal Cove State Beach likely hit his head on the ocean floor, according to a story in the Daily Pilot.
Newport Beach Battalion Chief Steve Bunting said the man, whose name and age were not immediately available, was surfing with friends Thursday morning when he injured himself and couldn’t swim to shore on his own. . . The group was surfing on the southern tip of Crystal Cove, also known as El Morro, about 8 a.m. when one of them called 911 about their fellow surfer. One in the group, a trained Emergency Medical Technician and student at Saddleback College, swam to his friend and turned him face up, opening his airway, Bunting said. The surfer was breathing and talking as the men swam him to shore, he said.
The man was helicoptered to Mission Hospital’s trauma center and admitted with moderate injuries.
[Link: Daily Pilot]
by The Editors on April 22, 2009
The Newport Beach Film Festival begins on Friday April 24, 2009 and included in the festival is The Action Sports Film Series presented by etnies, Fuel TV, and Surfing Magazine.
Here are just a few of the 20 films and five world premieres: Echo Beach, The Lost Wave, P. Rod’s Street Dreams, Travis Rice’s That’s It, That’s All, and “The Malloys” in Waveriders.
We’d link directly to the show times for the Action Sports Series, but we can’t because the site is in Flash. You’ll have to find it yourself. Flash is rad.
[Link: Newport Beach Film Festival]
by The Editors on April 22, 2009
Photographer Chris Burkard and surfer Eric Soderquist took a surf journey down the California coast (the entire coast) and have created a book about their experience called The California Surf Project. Here’s what Surfer Magazine Editor Joel Patterson said about it:
“Surf exploration has become so focused on the far-flung and unpronounceably exotic, it’s reinvigorating to see some California natives rediscover their own backyard. Few coastal stretches offer the sheer variety of waves, colors, urban densities, and attitudes as the Golden State, and to see it all through the prism of Burkard and Soderquist made me want to put in my two-weeks notice, buy a VW bus, and hit the road. The California Surf Project will stand as a unique time capsule of California’s post-modern surf culture.”
The authors are currently on tour again with the book and tonight (April 22, 2009) they’ll be in Capitola at the Capitola Books Store. For more information on their trip, check out their blog.
[Link: California Surf Project via Surfline]
by The Editors on April 22, 2009
New York Times writer Michael Brick gets looks into boardsports triathlon Ultimate Boarder and finds the intersection of marketing, action sports, novelty and a founder who just wants make money doing what he loves.
The Ultimate Boarder organizer, Tim D. Hoover, a 38-year-old amateur surfer and onetime film industry worker, described the contest as his ticket to raising his family in this easygoing beach setting 60 miles north of Los Angeles. . . .“I really wanted to make this a grassroots, bootstrap, organic thing,” he said. “I wanted to do something to inspire and create a format for the next generation of kids that grow up in this lifestyle.”
Wonder how that’s working for him? How many people, aside from the competitors, really care about a competition that is won each year by aging skateboard team managers from surf clothing companies?
[Link: New York Times]
by The Editors on April 22, 2009
A surfer from Okeechobee, Florida has been the second shark attack victim in Volusia County this year.
The unidentified 20-year-old was surfing in front of the Minorca Condominium, 2600 block of North Peninsula Drive, late Monday afternoon when a shark grabbed his right ankle, Volusia County Beach Patrol Capt. Scott Petersohn said Tuesday. . . “It was very minor,” he said. “Two or three puncture wounds.” . . . Petersohn said it’s unclear whether the victim went to the hospital, but he was not taken by ambulance.
We think minor is the best kind of shark bite there is.
[Link: News-Journal Online]
by The Editors on April 21, 2009
Vans announced today that Billabong has signed on as the sponsor of the Pipeline Masters for three more years. As we all know the “$340,000 Billabong Pipeline Masters is the third and final jewel of the men’s Vans Triple Crown of Surfing and the longest running professional surfing event in the world”
At a time when even the stalwart surf industry is feeling the effects of global economic rumblings, this new three-year commitment from Billabong is encouraging news. “It goes without saying this iconic event is still the benchmark for professional surfing and we are proud to be associated with the Pipeline masters and all its history,” says Billabong’s VP of Marketing Graham Stapelberg.
If there was one event anyone in the world would want to sponsor, it would probably be this one. Even if the ASP title keeps getting wrapped up in Europe.
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by The Editors on April 21, 2009
According to a news release posted yesterday on the SIMA website the 12th Annual Surf Summit has been “post-poned” due to fears over Mexico’s latest export to the United States: Swine Flu.
