Steve Lockhart and his friend Aaron Hix were about a mile and a half off-shire from Newport Beach last night burning off some fuel after working on their the engine of their 1985 29-foot Carver when they thought they saw a seal bumping along beside them. But it wasn’t a seal, it was a what they are calling an 18-foot-long shark, according to a sory in the OC Register.
“The shark was a beast,” he said. “It was definitely curious.” He said the distance between the dorsal fin and the tail fin was about 10 to 12 feet. “The shark was somewhat inquisitive, but still focused on his direction. We originally thought it was a seal, then realized it was a fin … then we pulled right next to it and realized it was a shark,” he said.
As the OC Register reminded us: it was about this time last year when a San Diego County triathlete was killed by a great white. Anyone surfing San O this weekend?
For a nice overview on just how bad action sports fashion retail has gotten, tune in today (Thursday, March 12, 2009) to the Pacific Sunwear’s year-end and Q4 conference call at 1 PM PST and then the Zumiez year end call call at 2 PM PST.
Quiksilverreview their Q1 financials today, March 11, 2009 in a conference call that will be broadcast live over the Internet at 1:30 Pacific Time. The broadcast will be hosted at www.quiksilverinc.com and at www.viavid.net.
This maybe one of those calls we won’t want to miss.
We have to admit that when it comes to ASP WCT events we’re pretty bad fans. After Kelly Slater’sSlatercraft loss to Julian Wilson in round three of the Quiksilver Pro our interest in the entire event began to seriously wane. Sure, we pulled for the Hobgoods through the quarter finals, and cheered for Taj and Mick in the semis, but when it came down to the finals, honestly, we turned off the computer and just went surfing. And it was our loss.
When Joel Parkinson and Mick Fanning face off in the semi-finals of the Quiksilver Pro later today it will be a battle between to Coolangatta Kids, according to a story on Goldcoast.com.au.
Me and Joel have been great friends since we were little kids and it is going to be a tough heat,” said Fanning. “We always push each other. Sometimes it is pretty, sometimes it is ugly. “I am lucky that I have got my best friends on tour but it is unlucky that we are going for the same thing.”
But they’re not alone. Taj Burrow and Adriano de Souza are also battling for the finals. Either way, it’s going to be a great day to sit in front of the computer and watch surfers fight some pretty ugly waves on the Goldie.
Aaron Lieber, the talented, young filmmaker behind the film The Pursuit is working on a new series of videos on Brett Simpson titled Simply Simpo. This is episode one.
Surf legend Shaun Tomson and actress Tanna Frederick (interviewed here by Scott Bass) have launched a new fund raising organization “that campaigns globally to protect and restore the world’s oceans.” It’s called Project SOS, not to be confused with Project SOS (Strengthening Our Students) or Project SOS (Support our soldiers) or Project SOS (Support Open Source) or SOS (snowboard outreach society)
Project SOS is collaborating with a number of generous local and national sponsors including ZJ Boardinghouse, Quiksilver, Rocker Board Shop, Kreation Café, Charlie Palmer Restaurants and Natural Surf Technique. . . Surf participants will raise money by asking people to sponsor their commitment to surf non-stop during a five-hour shift. . . The event will be followed by a Gala with a live band, auction, cocktails, tapas, buffet dinner, a performance by Tom Curren and a celebrity “blue” carpet befitting Oceana. . . Celebrities Surfing the event include Michelle Rodriguez (”Lost”), David Chokachi (“Baywatch”) and World Champion of International Professional Surfing Peter “P.T.” Townend under Project SOS Surf Captain Frank Caronna.
The surf event is Sunday April 5, 2009 from 10 AM to 3 PM with a celebrity Gala event is Sunday night from 6 PM to 10 PM at Shuters on the Beach Ballroom in Santa Monica, California. Sounds like a great party for a good cause.
Last week the Volusia Couinty Council approved a surf contest for April at New Smyrna Beach, Florida’s shark infested waters. The sponsor? Jacksonville, Florida’s Landshark Lager.
We’re not sure if this is funny, or dumb. According to the Orlando Sentinel April is peak shark bit month with “26 bites during the past decade that month.” Nice marketing hook.
Apocalyspe Now screenwriter and Big Wednesday screenwriter and director John Milius narrates Scott Bass and Ty Ponder’s Vietnam/surf doco Between The Lines (which comes out on DVD on April 15, 2009) CNN spoke to Milius about movies, writing great lines, and most importantly surfing.
“One of the most poignant things of the film is how many California surfers went to Vietnam, and how many didn’t come back,” said Milius, 64, who learned to surf while growing up in Southern California. . . “One of the reasons I put surfing in ‘Apocalypse Now’ was because I always thought Vietnam was a California war.”
A group of surfers, backed by the Surfrider Foundation, has stopped plans by the Town of Palm Beach, Florida that would have dredged sand for “beach nourishment” and potentially ruined the surf break at Reach 8, according to a story in the New York Times.
Like other critics of beach nourishment, the surfers and their allies argued that unless replacement sand is well matched to the beach, which is hard to do, the sand causes problems, interfering with nesting sea turtles and small animals like sand fleas that form the bottom of beach and marine food webs.
Can you imagine Palm Beach with sand that doesn’t match? Us neither. Congrats on the win.
