John Wolfson, a 27-year-old bodyboarder from Manly, Australia, (pictured above) got barred from the lineup at Bawley Point, New South Wales on Monday, March 16, 2014 when a bottle nose dolphin speared him in the left side as Wolfson was paddling out, according to a story in the Daily Telegraph.
Wolfson made it to shore but had to wait almost an hour in severe pain to be evacuated due to the spot’s remote location and the fact a 4WD ambulance got bogged in the sand. . . Witness and surf photographer Jason Corroto said the force of the collision shredded his mate’s wet tie. . . “He looked like he was wearing a rag,” he said. “He could not move at all. He thought he had broken his ribs.” . . While his ribs turned out not to be broken, he was expected to remain at St George Hospital overnight.
SeaVees, the recently resurrected California surf footwear brand, is remembering Colon Cancer Awareness Month and the 50th Anniversary of Renny Yater’s shaping career by offering up the ebay auction of a Yater Spoon surfboard. All proceeds raised will benefit colon cancer research. The auction begins March 16, 2014 and ends March 26, 2014. For more information, click the link.
Ellie-Jean Coffey is 19 and blonde and she’s a professional surfer for Billabong. She also posts lots and lots of bikini photos online because, you know, “‘[Bikinis are] just what I wear. Also being in the sun so much, your hair is really blonde and your skin goes very tanned so that’s definitely a positive as well,” according to the Daily Mail. And because of this she has 234,000 followers on Instagram.
Seems there’s nothing the world loves more than young blondes in bikinis who are constantly taking pictures of themselves. The Australian media needed their own Anastasia Ashley or Alana Blanchard. And now we know. It’s Ellie-Jean Coffey.
Brian Himlan, of Longshipdesign, sounds like a pretty centered, serious, thoughtful guy. He makes handplanes and other clever non-standard wooden wave sliding devices which we barely see him ride in this edit from Huck Magazine.
Okay, we’re a day late (and more than a dollar short) but Gabriel Medina and Stephanie Gilmore reigned supreme at Snapper Rocks and surfed away with event number 1 on the new ASP World Tour. It was the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro Gold Coast if you weren’t following along. Parko came in second after dispatching Kelly Slater’s angel of exit Adriano de Souza. Taj Burrow had a shot at it in semi final 1, but Medina edged him by three hundredths of a point. Close shaver.
Medina was (as they say in Australia) over the moon:
“It’s an honor to win this event,” said Medina. “This is the hardest event of the whole Tour and I feel like all the best surfers in the world, Mick (Fanning), Parko (Joel Parkinson) and Taj (Burrow), have won it. It’s been a dream to win since I was a grommet. I’ve been watching those guys on videos and reading about them in magazines. Today I had the opportunity to compete against them and I couldn’t let this chance go. It’s weird, it’s really weird, but it feels so good.”
For her part Gilmore couldn’t fight that feeling anymore:
“I haven’t felt this feeling in a while,” said Gilmore. “It’s the best feeling in the world to have all your friends and family around and hi-five everyone. I paddled up to Joel (Parkinson) before my heat to get some of his good vibes because he kept getting so many great barrels. From the beginning of the heat I had it in my head that it’s only 30 minutes and I only had to catch two good waves and just have fun. So that’s what I did. Winning the heat against Carissa was such a big confidence booster for me. It’s going to be a long hard year but I’ll do as much as I can to try and win the Title.”
Guess we’re not the only one who are over the Quiksilver mega corp. Dave Rosenberger, the former VP of sales for Quiksilver Young Men’s and Quiksilver and Roxy winter sports has joined the team at Lost as EVP of Sales, Marketing and Operations for domestic, Canadian and Central American.
“I see …LOST as probably the most authentic, complete, long standing, relevant surf brand in the current market. From the heritage, progressiveness and craftsmanship of the boards to the solid clothing collection, accessories and skateboards, …LOST is what most brands wish they could be,” said Rosenberger. “My intention is to keep the brand moving steadily forward and to help Joel, Matt, Mike and their team to navigate and build the business on the solid base it has.”
We agree. Congrats, Dave. For the official word from Lost, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
This week the March Logo Madness moves out of surf (last week’s winner was Thalia Surf Shop) and into skate with the face-offs shown above. Click the link, vote, and let your voice be heard above the logo raving masses. For the official word from Valhalla Design & Conquer, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
The largest great white shark caught on the Gold Coast in more than seven years was taken “on a drum line” 300 meters off Greenmount Beach” on Wednesday, March 5, 2014 several hours after the Roxy Pro Gold Coast had concluded, according to a story in the Courier Mail.
Eight female surfers including Stephanie Gilmore competed in the Roxy Pro at Snapper Point just hours before the shark was caught. . . Shark Control Program manager Jeff Krause said board riders were in a potentially dangerous situation on Wednesday being in the vicinity of a great white shark. . The competition finished at 9:15am and the shark was first reported about 2pm.“The successful removal of this dangerous shark from a popular swimming beach was particularly important given the Quiksilver Pro surfing competition currently underway at nearby Snapper Rocks.”
Nice of them to clear things out before the contest gets rolling again, huh? Then again, it is the ocean. (Sidenote: Love it that Australia’s Today Show comes in off the break to Queens of the Stone Age.
ActiveReplay, the action tracking company behind the Trace. Has reportedly landed $2.1 million in seed funding, according to a story on SoCalTech.com.
Details on the funding have not yet been announced. According to the filing, part of the funding came from Allegro Venture Partners, and also included a number of other investors. Active Replay’s CEO is Dr. Anatole Lokshin, a pioneer in developing GPS devices, who was the CTO of Magellan Navigation.
Sounds like perfect timing as they’ve been promising to release the Trace in March 2014. $2.1 million should get a few devices out into the wild, and it would be nice to see one of these “Strava for action sports” devices make it past the vaporware phase.
