A little behind the scene’s product and design discussion from Damien Hobgood on The Goods via our new friends at Super Spectacular Adventures.
[Link: Super Spectacular Adventures and The Goods]
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Surfing
In a country where a vacationing woman was thrown in jail for two months for drugs after being given an injection by a doctor at a Dubai hospital and another couple spent three months in prison for allegedly having sex on the beach it’s amazing that anyone would show up for a protest. But surfers in Dubai did just that on March 29, 2009 after a swimmer died Friday on Sunset Beach near the world famous Burj Al Arab hotel, according to a story in The National.
The municipality argues that surfers are a hazard to swimmers, but defenders of the sport claim they actually save lives, and that Friday’s tragedy illustrates their point. . . “There would have been surfers to pull out the person who drowned as we often do, but we were just too afraid to turn up, not knowing what to expect from the police and municipality,” said Danny Van Doreen, of Surf Dubai.
Surfers have been ticketed not just for surfing, but also for having surfboards on the beach or in their cars. The surfers say the beaches that have been closed to surfers are the only beaches which “benefit from swells generated by winds blowing down the Gulf,” and they have no place else to go.
We wish them luck.
[Link: The National]
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And we have to admit, watching Brian Conley step off a moving ski onto a board (no straps) while holding a camera in his right hand, and then get barreled on a Boco Grande monster is just plain crazy. Check it out.
[Link: Billabong XXL 2009]
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The Surfing Heritage Foundation is apparently running into a little opposition in Dana Point, California as organizers push for the proposed $30 million project to be built in what the OC Register describes as a “sprawling, passive park along Pacific Coast Highway and Niguel Road.”
It is the proposed park location that has locals a little upset. At the Surfing Heritage Museum Town Hall Meeting on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 many were not interested in seeing their open space replaced by a 30,000 square foot building no matter how cool its contents.
“For you surfers who didn’t want a freeway ruining your park in San Clemente, we don’t want a building ruining our park in Dana Point. We will support your surf museum, and you need to support open space,” McCabe said. . . Though the current plan met with much opposition at the meeting, some people supported the planned location. San Clemente resident Tom Morey, creator of the iconic Boogie Board, said Dana Point residents should trust their elected leaders, who should do all they can to put the museum in Dana Point.
According to the Dana Point Times:
The location had previously been approved by the City Council as the home of a new library in 2002, but plans to build it fell apart after the proposed $18 million project was denied a state grant. When the Surfing Heritage Foundation approached the city in 2007 with the idea of building a museum they inherited the conceptual plans for the formerly approved 33,300 square foot library. “Instead of books being there it’s going to be surfboards,” said foundation executive director Tom Pezman.”
We love the idea of the museum, and Dana Point is undoubtedly a perfect place for it, it’s just a tad ironic to see surfers fighting on the side of ripping out a park to put in a building.
[Link: OC Register and Dana Point Times]
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Shocker: It was announced today that Andy Irons is joining Billabong’s Kustom Footwear program. A “delighted” Kustom GM Harry Truscott has released this seemingly un-ironic statement:
‘Kustom and Andy Irons are a natural fit,’ says Harry Truscott, General Manager at Kustom Footwear. “Andy will be a huge addition to our team.”
Huge addition? Absolutely. Natural fit? Okay, if by “natural” Truscott means that AI is pretty much strapped to the Billabong wagon right now (not a bad wagon to be strapped to, but strapped is strapped) then his quote makes perfect sense.
[Link: Global Surf News]
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Calvin Galbraith, 17, of Halls Head Australia got a lucky break while surfing last Friday, according to a story in the Mandurah Mail.
At 6.45pm, Calvin, along with three friends and his brother Scott, were 30m offshore just north of Blue Bay trying to catch one last wave into shore. . . The TAFE student felt something grab hold of his leg. . . .Gradually the grip got tighter and pulled Calvin down off his board. . . .“It felt like my leg was being clamped in a vice,” the teenager said. . .“I looked down and my whole foot was in its mouth then I saw a tail thrashing in front of me; that was when I realised it was a shark.”
Calvin got away with six stitches and a puncture marks all over his lower legs. But what comforted us was that this was another shark attack stories that didn’t mention pain. It is somehow easier to deal with when the bites are described as a “pressure” or “tugging” sensation and not, as we would expect, as the excruciatingly painful nightmare. Don’t know why, but it does.
[Link: Mandurah Mail]
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The idea behind the Ultimate Boarder event is a cool one: a contest to decide who is the best boardsports tri-athlete. Problem is the sports have become so specialized that no one anyone cares about will be able well. The big name players event organizers list in their press announcements all either have one really weak sport, or are just not that great at everything.
Last year’s winner Aaron Astorga is undoubtedly a bad ass and we care about him immensely, but we all know what’s going to happen this year: some random 19-year-old shred dog from Ventura or HB is going to win the whole thing. And maybe that’s the way this thing should go. It can be just like a triathlon with 1,200 entries and a beer garden at the finish. Get some participants involved. The organizers have never been afraid of a little main stream sponsorship.
The 2009 Coast Body Wash Ultimate Boarder runs April 4-11, 2009 at Bear Mountain and the Ventura County Fair Grounds. click the link for more info.
[Link: Ultimate Boarder]
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Broslist.com mixes the classified ads of Craigslist with user generated content community functionality that seems to be loaded on every site these days. Post a profile, post a video, and then post a listing to sell your old skate deck. It’s all there on the broslist. We don’t know how popular the rest of the site will be, but if the classified section can hit critical mass it could be a great resource for snow, surf, skate gear trading.
Here’s what Mike Piscitelli posted on Club Mumble:
These challenging economic times inspired a few of us to build a classified website that would enable surfers to buy, sell and trade used surf gear, find cheap places to stay all over the world, get rides to the beach, and land work. Over the course of 12 months we worked with a talented group of web programmers to createBroslist.com, a simple but thorough classified website that addresses the needs of surfers on all levels. Unlike craigslist, we are your bros.
The site has only been up for a couple hours, so don’t expect to find much now, but if your garage looks anything like ours, broslist.com may offer some kind of salvation from surf, snow, skate overload.
[Link: Broslist.com via Club Mumble]
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Luyolo Mangele, 16, from the Mthumbane township in Port St Johns in South Africa was surfing Second Beach when he was attacked and died from injuries from what locals believe was a Tiger Shark, according to a story on Dispatch Online.
Vuyo Maza, a lifeguard for the Wild Coast Guards , was on duty at Second Beach when Mangele, a surfer, was attacked by the shark. “Everything happened so fast. We had people shouting ‘Shark! Shark!’ But when we got there the shark had already struck.”
Some say that local healers have been holding rituals at the beach that are attracting the sharks.
The healers allegedly throw raw meat and blood into the sea as part of their rituals. . . A lifeguard told the Daily Dispatch yesterday that on Friday – the day Mangele was killed – traditional healers were seen leaving the beach in the morning.
You think?
[Link: Dispatch Online]
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Mohammad Malek lost both his legs to a land mine in Afghanistan when he was 16. Thanks to Loma Linda Medical Center Malek got to come to California where he saw surfing for the first time.
Malek’s first glimpse of surfing came last year, during a beach outing in Los Angeles. He was on a pier, still in a wheelchair, and he pushed himself close to the rail to get a better look as the surfers below paddled into waves. . . . Timothy Hickman, a director at the hospital, noted Malek’s interest. Hickman also remembered watching a television news feature in which Michael Pless, owner of M & M Surfing School in Seal Beach, taught people with disabilities how to surf. . . .So, last April, a surf lesson was arranged for Malek. . . .That day, everyone on the sand was nervous — even Pless — who had never taught a double amputee how to surf. Communication wasn’t easy. . . Still, if there’s such a thing as a natural surfer, Malek was it. He learned how to paddle and how to read the ocean. He learned to get his board on the face of the wave and, even without legs, when to get up. . . . He shocked spectators that day by riding wave after wave – on his head.
Now that Malek’s treatment is completed he has to go back to Afghanistan. But before he left he wanted to surf one more time. . . on his head.
[Link: OC Register]
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