At 1:30 PM local time Rip Curl Pro Search Portugal officials called another lay day for Wednesday, October 21, 2009. But no one is blaming them. Especially after seeing video on Surfling LIfe of what the contest site looks like after getting slammed with one of the biggest storms to ever hit an ASP WCT tour event.
Locals are saying the overnight swell at Supertubes was the biggest to hit Portugal in 30 years. . . . Event organisers will need at least a day to repair the Supertubes venue.
It’s Halloween and you know what that means: time to suit up in a nice Where The Wild Things Are costume and head on over to the Volcom compound in Costa Mesa for the Damn Am October 22-25, 2009. This is just a little reminder. . .
We know at least a few people (some competitors) who will be happy to hear that Ricky Irons is leaving the publishing world and moving over to the fashion industry as global brand manager of Dragon Alliance. With the state of action media in general it seems like a pretty smart move on Iron’s part.
Irons is leaving Surfer Magazine after 15 years as publisher. The only person to hold that job longer was Steve Pezman (1970-1991). His last issue as publisher will be the 50th Anniversary Issue. Not a bad way to exit, really.
“Dragon is a great fit for me because they are the real deal,” said Irons. “They have always been true to their roots and have supported the core athletes, retailers, and customers since day one. Their team of athletes is unmatched, the product is better than ever, and they have a great vision for the future of the brand. They are also an independently owned brand, which in this day and age is a beautiful thing. It helps them be creative, innovative, and agile in this ever changing market.”
What does this mean for Surfer and ASG? We’re guessing it means one less mouth to feed.
Apparently, kids are so busy today sexting, facebooking, or gaming that they just don’t have any hands free to carry their favorite fashion accessory. Thank God, the people at Slingz noticed this. With their new Slingz strap it’s easy to carry a skateboard while talking on the phone, reading a magazine or sending a text.
Whether you’re a professional skateboarder, a college student, or a casual skater, we all face the same problem. Nobody likes to lug around their board under their arm or worry about where to leave it so it doesn’t grow legs. With the new SLINGZ skateboard strap, your problem is solved.
Oddly, we seemed to have solved this problem long ago. We actually ride our skateboards. Weird, huh?
Ross Rebagliati won snowboarding’s first gold medal in Nagano ’98. Though the IOC tried and failed, no one can take that away from him. Sadly, it was a medal in giant slalom and not in the crazy, off the hook halfpipe. This hasn’t stopped Ross from telling the story of snowboarding history himself in the book Off The Chain.
Off the Chain takes readers on a wild ride through the rise of snowboarding, from its hippie origins in the backwoods of Vermont and California to its present incarnation as a $150 billion global industry. Illustrated with 100 color photographs, Off the Chain begins with the sport’s early days, when the pioneers built their own boards and snuck onto the slopes. Author Rebagliati profiles snowboarding’s most notorious figures, explores the nature of snowboarding culture, and tells what touring as a young World Cup snowboarder is like. . . . He’s unsparing in revealing the sport’s more controversial aspects, from groupies to drugs, including his own experience having his gold medal revoked — and then restored — after failing a drug test. Rebagliati pulls no punches in this lively mix of personal memoir and sports history.
Seems like a bit of a strange title coming from Ross, but regardless, we’re looking forward to checking it out. Click here to pre-order the book.
While we’ve never, ever heard anyone say, “Portland could use a few more good coffee roasters” we’re still hyped for Wille Yli Luoma on today’s official grand opening of Heart Roasters on 2211 E. Burnside St, in Portland, Oregon.
All the hipsters were out for the opening party on Saturday, October 17, 2009, but today, at 6 AM the doors opened for the rest of us.
Check it out next you’re in the City of Roses Roasters.
Maui surfer Scott Henrich, 54 has 100 stitches in his knee after he got chomped by a 6 to 8 foot shark while surfing Maui’s Kalama Bowls just a little before sunrise, according to a story in the Honolulu Advertiser.
He had just paddled out about 300 yards around 6 a.m. and sat up on his board when the shark suddenly emerged from the water and clamped onto the surfer’s leg. Henrich said he punched the animal’s snout twice and it released its grip. . . “I thought, ‘I gotta get him off my leg,’ so I pounded him. I was just hoping he wasn’t going to chomp all the way through,” he said. . . “There was blood everywhere. I looked at the top gash and saw white meat and I knew it was bad. I was worried there might be other sharks around, and I knew I had to get it up and get out of the water quickly,” he said.
Henrich hobbled to his car “screaming the whole way” for someone to call 911. Finally a motorist stopped and called. Now Henrich is home recovering and apologizing for being the guy who caused the closure of the beaches “along the South Maui coast from Lípoa Street to Kamaole Beach Park I.” This is reportedly the third shark attack in Hawaii this year.
The Rip Curl Pro Search from Peniche, Portugal has kicked off with two straight lay days thanks to no swell and “stormy seas and heavy rain” according to the ASP press office.
“We’re obviously off this morning with victory-at-sea conditions and heavy winds,” Damien Hardman, Rip Curl Pro Search Contest Director, said. “The winds are heavy out of the Southwest at the moment that are projected to go heavy Northwest by 10am so it is onshore all day. This is the supposed to be the worst day for weather so we’ll be back in 8am tomorrow morning to reassess conditions.”
Surfline is predicting some surf tonight and tomorrow, so stay tuned. [click to continue…]
According to Kilwag, one of our favorite skate blogs Skate And Annoy has been hit by a denial of service attack and he’s been wrangling it for a couple days now. Here’s is explanation for the sites current retro WordPress graphics:
My service provider thinks the site has suddenly and instantly become mega popular, thus causing server overload due to the high amount of php in use on the site. I’m more inclined to believe we are experiencing a Denial of Service attack – some individual or parties trying to overload the server and make it unavailable for viewing.
What does this mean for fans of the site? “It means you should get back to work! I’m working on the problem in conjunction with the ISP,” Kilwag says. We wish him luck. . .
A 15-year-old North Carolina surfer died in the Outer Banks on Friday when his leash became tangled in the pilings of the Avon Fishing pier according to a story in the Star-News of Wilmington.
The teenage boy, Craig Marshall (pictured on the left), a student at Topsail High School in Hampstead, was surfing with a group of eight teenagers on Hatteras Island when the current dragged him into Avon Fishing Pier sometime around 11:30 a.m., said Bob Helle, the assistant chief with the Hatteras Island Rescue Squad.
Our thoughts are with Marshall’s family and friends.
