Surf videos, beer, and burgers

Ok, so today the weather finally hit like 70 farenheit. I'm still recuperating from that cracked rib. I think 2 more weeks and I'll be in the water. I'm friggen dying of this waiting period. So, it's LENT, and I swore off alcohol. My wife said that some technicality with regard to Lent implies that for each Sunday during Lent, you can partake in the thing you gave up. It's now Sunday, we had a nice walk in San Juan Capistrano, it's sunny, and I want to drink beer, surf, and eat some meat. Since I can't surf (due to cracked rib), we whipped up a batch of Harris Ranch blue-cheese burgers on the bbq and some margaritas, in the sun. And, since I can't actually surf, due to the rib situation,we watched surf flicks. We dropped in on 3 flicks, with margaritas, Tecate, and Pacifico. We watched Bustin' Down The Door, Momentum II (or Momentum 2), and A Broke Down Melody. I love all these movies for different reasons. We had a great lineup of surfing flicks, mixed with a sweet electro channel on Pandora, and the best Mexican beer - Tecate in a can (and when that ran out, Pacifico). I have such a forgiving wife, thank you! We turned up the subwoofer and watched surf movies for 3-4 hours. For music, I always like Uberzone (OC, hell yeah!) and Klute. But, this time, I also really liked Stanton Warriors, Pump DJs, Hyper, and The Rogue Element. Anyway, my niece and her mom were hanging out, and my niece, who is a surfer, also dug the flicks, though she drank hot chocolate and not beer. So, Bustin Down The Door is special to me, as it replays soooo much of what I watched in my teen years. The OP Pro and all that tight-shorted craziness... warren miller and storm riders. I LOVE the 70s - all about hanging loose, short cord shorts, and the REAL huntington beach with real shapers and glassers actually existed on main street (none of which exist now...a thought for another day). Momentum II, the 10-year anniversary collectors edition, is sick. This movie (but not specifically the anniversary version), a Taylor Steele prod, truly highlights a CHANGE in surfing technique and approach. Back in college in PB (San diego), we'd watch the original every night almost, drinking beer, and gearing up for the next day of surfing (and class). This movie was a fav of mine back in the day, seeing unknowns (back then, at least to me), like Rob Machado, Kelly Slater, Kalani Robb, and others. Momentum, IMO, documents the transformation of surfing as we know it now, from the 80s to the 90s. From the classic potter, curran, and occi, to the slater, machado, robb. It went from artistic and powerful to artistic, powerful, and gravity defying. That's in no way intended to diminish Curran, Potter, Occy, and others from the 80's. Those guys, and many others, laid a foundation, on top of the foundation laid in the 70s and 60s. A Broke Down Melody is all about the good things that come from surfing, and a lot of KICK ASS barrel rides ( really!). The Malloy Brothers hit it right on with this one. Hey guys, is there a foundation we can donate to or volunteer our time to? I like how the Malloy Bros brought North and South Ireland together for surfing in Step into liquid. Well, this Sunday was special, cracked rib and all...Tecate and surfing (on video), and good electro on Pandora. Sharing it with my niece. See an example here, good waves (a broke down melody) and electro from pandora (pump djs i think). Go surf and have fun, and keep it about that and nothing more. I love that surfing, the sport, gives no matter what. Oddly, I don't feel that way about any other sport.

Cracked 6th Rib While Surfing

Ok, this seems really stupid. A bit of swell finally started to hit on Sat, Feb 7, 2009. It had been raining for a few days and it finally tapered off. The conditions were nice: semi overcast, glassy at 3PM, and some chunky NW coming in, making for some nice rights. So, into the post-rain, feces and hepatitis-laden sewage. I don't care, I'm sick of waiting for something to surf on. I think it was mid-tide and flooding. It was a bit walled. Super warm water for some odd reason.

wave 1: take off right and it held up pretty well. nice size wall.
wave 2: take off left, nice size wall, but kind of open. My better sense said to pull out, but I figured a good whomping will be good for me. So, it caved on me, no issue. Done that 1001 times in our typically closed-out beach break. Went underwater for a bit with the wave suction. Then 2-3 seconds go by and my board smacks me like a friggen torpedo in my lower left back, right near my kidney. I have no idea what part of my board hit me. I got very dizzy and nauseous. I just kind of curled up under water, figuring my entrails (guts) were pouring into my wet suit. After some thought, I figured I should doggie paddle in and peel off my suit to have a look. I figured it would be a blood bath and that my suit is serving to hold me together. Got on the sand, rolled my suit down, and YES!, no blood. Anyway, 5 hours later I went to the ER for an Xray since the pain was only getting worse. Sure enough, my 6th rib is cracked, but not compound, so no risk of any punctures.

Well, nearly 2 weeks later and this is still the most long-lasting painful injury I've experienced. I can't do any basic thing...cough, breath deep, sneeze, get up after sleep...without major pain. I take Codone before sleeping (though it seems to stimulate my mind and keeps me awake). The only similar pain I've experienced several times is shoulder dislocation.

Volcom Crustaceous Starfish River Jetties Video, Jan 31, 2009

I watched the Volcom Starfish Surf Series contest on Sun, Jan 31. As usual, the waves were still small. Nonetheless, the conditions were pretty nice (sunny, slight texture). So, since the waves were so small, I chose not to video. Rather, i just took bunches of high-speed continuous still images. It totaled around 4000 images in the few short hours I was there. Anyway, I strung them all together as a fast slideshow (like 4 images per second I think). Overall, kind of a different take on "surf video".

By the way, the contestants really did a great job in the small surf. Congrats to everyone who showed up and competed. RJs holds a special place in my heart as that's where I grew up surfing.



You can check out the bigger sizer (640x480) video at the builtforsurf youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/builtforsurf

Check out the Volcom page for the Jan 31, 2009 Starfish Surf Series at river jetties.

Results (borrowed form the Volcom page):
RESULTS

PRO-AM
1. Michel Flores $500
2. Macy Mullen
3. Matt King
4. Kyle Kennelly
5. Teddy Navarro
6. Brandon Tipton

Juniors
1. Jared Cassidy
2. Christian Saenz
3. Luke Davis
4. Ford Archbold
5. Doug Van Mierlo
6. Chase Wilson

roms
1. Kolohe Andino
2. Taylor Clark
3. John Elles
4. Brenden Taylor
5. Kevin Shulz
6. Ian Crane

Girls
1. Meah Collins
2. Charlotte Dellea
3. Shelby Detmers
4. Tammy Mowery
5. Keshia Eyre
6. Caroline Loose

Electric Volt Thrower
Macy Mullen $50

667 new Gadget Images and a Solid Swell

Just added 667 images to the surfing gadget. The gadget is those changing images to the right of this blog. These cover south side HB pier, San Onofre, San Clemnete Pier, and some Blackies beach. You can add this gadget to your iGoogle page. You can also add it to your web site. Read more about the BuiltForSurf gadget here.

Oh, and the swell this week has been killer, with SoCal wave periods (Tp) consistently between 17 and 20 seconds for 4 days.

History of Surfing in Orange County at John Wayne (Orange County) Airport (SNA)

The Surfing Heritage Foundation puts forth a lot of effort to keep surfing history alive. Often, they do it through live events with famous and/or key figures from surfing's history. Their historical board collection is insane. So, I was stoked when I was at the SNA airport today and found the exhibit that's all about the history of surfing in Orange County. A lot of sponsors (or donors) contributed some absolutely historical memorabilia. The exhibit occupies 5 or more glass presentation cases along the wall. The one drawback is that it's on the secure side of secuirty, meaning you can only see it if you have a ticket to fly. Seeing this history makes me super proud to have grown up in OC. Ends Oct 20.

Ocean Pacific OP...still pretty cool?

The late 70's is when my ocean life started. Op was huge and going to the Op Pro every year was just bitchen! I can still recall Tom Curren's boards with the big Op sponsor laminate on the nose. Back on 3/7/2008 in bfS Commentary, we asserted that Op has done almost nothing cool since the late 70s or early 80s. Mainly, Op stopped creating classic cord shorts and pants, and bitchen print tees. Only back then, it was really the style, not retro-is-the-in-thing garbage. Then the Op Pro was discontinued. Finally, some mega clothing company (likely based in the eastern U.S.) tries their hand at sustaining Op. This was certainly the end of an era.

Through the past few years, Op has been trickling stuff back into the retail stores. I honestly don't think, though, a single indepedent surf shop within a mile of a surfing beach actually carries Op clothes. So, in the past 4 years, I've seen Op at Costco, Wal-mart, and Nordstorm. The Op clothes at Nordstrom were excessivly overpriced, like everything at Nordstrom is. This was kind of like "re-introduce classic Op at nordstrom with exhorbitant prices so well-heeled metrosexuals can buy the stuff and pretend they surf". The Op clothes at Costco have generally just been very lame, except for a few shirts one time. Now the latest Op clothes have shown up at wal-mart. This effort is big, as evidenced by lots of web ads and relatively large floorspace in the stores dedicated to Op.



If you can't view this slideshow or want larger images, check out the Picasa album.

I've got to say, though, these Op clothes at wal-mart hold the closest promise to anything remotely similar to the Op clothes from the 70's and 80's. I think this is actually due to the latest trend that "the 80's are back in". Maybe Op actually hired someone who surfed back in 1976 for their expert opinion on design. While O'neill and Quiksilver are busy churning out retro plaid by the ton, Op seems to be getting back to their roots. Op has come up with some collar shirts that could be mistaken as leftovers (classic ones) from the 70s and early 80s. Op has also created some ladies tote bags that are way 70s looking (and they even look worn a bit). Still, though, no nut-huggin cord shorts and pants. Saldy, the Op bags are made in China. There are also some printed t-shirts with some old-school looking prints (hippy-ish surfers on, but no hot babes). Maybe this is kind of a sell-out, but the stuff looks kind of original (except for rather lame printed and sewn-on references to "1972", when Op was founded.).

I don't think we'll ever see anything as cool as The Op Pro again, Tom Curren's Op-sponsored boards, or Thomas Magnum-length cord shorts, but they are headed in the right direction. Finally. Ok, on to some photos of Op stuff...

As usual, no Surfing in the Olympics (2008)

Why are the following events in the 2008 Olympics, while surfing is not?

badminton

rifle shooting

ping pong

handball

synchronized diving (when was this introduced?)

trampoline

synchronized swimming

By the way, the IOC does "recognize" the sport of surfing, but just can't bring themselves to actually feature the sport in the Olympic games. The recognition is merely intended to appease folks like me who keep asking the question, "why is surfing not in the olympics?"

A Bitchen Summer for Swells (2008)

We've been blessed for the past couple months with some pretty consistent south swells, a few lasting for up to a week each. That's unusual for so cal, which generally isn't too good during summer. If this is due to global warming, bring on the heat!

Honda US Open of Surfing (2008)

Huntington Beach, CA. The south swell continued into the week of the Open. The final 3 days were pretty killer. It's so impressive to see close out set waves get ripped to pieces by these guys and girls, men and women. Not to come off as chauvanistic, but the women are ripping like the guys. The talent in women's surfing is insane now. The O'Neill junior pro semis and finals were basically an all out expression session. These kids go for broke quite a bit more than their older male counterparts. Maybe that's just typical of the next generation of pros, or the way kids, in all aspects of life, are a bit more expressive than adults.

The whole festival part I can pretty much do without as so many of the displays have nothing at all to do with surfing. However, it was good to see bands other than mickey avalon and ozomatli, for once. I did miss the never-ending free flow of Lost energy drinks that occurred in 2007. New were redbull vending machines everywhere, including in the sand, at the typical gouge rate of $2.50 a can. There were crap loads of free branded beach umbrellas (o'neill, con zipper, spy, skull candy, and others) for the dedicated folks who actually spent most of their time watching the surfing. G211.com had their stuff together, especially with their web site. The heat sheets, stats, and results were all online and up-to-date in record time (thanks, in great part, to the efforts and technology by the BeachByte.com) Last year, in 2007, the online presence of the US Open was a travesty. Walking through the festival part of the US Open makes me really appreciate that there are the big-ass bleachers between the festival mayhem and the surfing.

Overall, the surfing was great, and the good surf didn't hurt. I think my favorite heat, aside from the pro junior semis and final, was the Boost Mobile Pro Shootout final. If you saw the Boost Pro last year at lowers, this was just like it (sans Slater). Full of airs and air-360s. I've got to admit, my heart broke at the end of the Tim Boal/Brett Simpson men's semifinal heat. Brett had it locked and loaded, then Tim executed a sweet final ride that gave him a .07 lead. Tim did get a sweet ride, but it would have been nice to see local-fav Brett move on to compete with other near-local fav Nate Curran. Then, sadly, the men's final was a real dud. By then the wind was probably blowing 15 knots, the tide was high and the surf went flat. Tim Boal (FRA) and Nathaniel Curran (USA) didn't have much to battle it out on, making it the longest 25 minutes during the week. Only a few waves caught by each finalist, no spectacular moves, and the judges scoring computer took a dump mid heat. When all was said and done, Nathaniel took it, but I've never witnessed such a quiet, and honestly boring, final. That being said, I'm impressed by all the competitors every year, and I never take for granted that the largest surf contest in the world is in my backyard. See some video clips here.