The first day for many back to work and school. The swell was a disappointment over the last few weeks. Sometimes there was something to surf, if you used the summer scale. We had an Edhat column over the break of our first go with the Go Pro Hero board mounted camera. You can check out the video below, it was pretty fun. Also, we are trying to help out reader Kevin who had his board stolen in North County a few days ago:
This 7'2" fun shape was stolen off the beach at Surf in the morning on 12-27-08. The logo reads Nielson. Please contact Kevin at 757-9457 if you see it. It was my favorite fun shape ever.
We've got one more Go Pro video coming up in a few days in some small but fun surf but hopefully we'll get size someday to take the thing out in.
There has been a steady stream of waves over the last few weeks, but finding them wasn't always easy. The buoys were lighting up, the CDIP swell model was showing energy, and if you went down to your usual beach, it could be only waist high. Meanwhile, surfers at other beaches were scoring great waves just a short distance away. Seems Goleta and Santa Barbara were shafted a lot while Rincon and south was going off. We had many a disapointing session in terms of expecting great waves, but it was surfable. Jon Shafer reports of great sessions at the 'Con towards the end of last week.
We've neglected to mention the 27 barrel oil spill from Platform A that happened a few days ago. This is of course the platform of infamy from 1969. The slick had grown 1.5 miles long and 200 feet wide but most of it has been skimmed up by now and none has reported to have made landfall and no wildlife has shown up affected yet. Sounds like a session at Sands.
In other big news is the security force out at Naples recently. Naples has been taking a hammering lately first with the vote to build on a portion of it and now the security force. Ethan Stewart has the lowdown in the Independent. Tom Modugno has details on The Clamp Down, and a Youtube remembrance here.
Jamie Budge dusted off one if his old surf movies and Scott Star helped convert it to DVD. The 1965 surf movie entitled "The Living Curl" is now available for purchase online, and a trailer on Youtube is below, or click through for a high quality version. It has some local footage including the long defunct Stanleys, and Miki Dora makes the cut too.
Santa Barbara Surfing wants to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to readers everywhere. This weeks Edhat column takes on the topic of Stand Up Paddle Surfing (SUPs), thanks to input from readers of this site and Jim Brewer, owner of Blueline Paddle Surf.
This week we offer a collection of surf related gleanings, but not all are locally related:
David Powdrell takes some photos from the air of surf spots in SB.
UCSB surf team placed 5th at Event #2 in San Diego. Their B Team wasn't far behind in 8th. Placing was Lipoa Kahaleuahi 1st in Womens, Rachel Harris 6th in Womens, and Paul Steinberg 5th in Longboard. UCSB's next contest is December 6-7 in Ventura.
In other NSSA news, Conner Coffin came back from a knee injury and placed 3rd in Men's and 1st in Juniors at SouthWest Open #5.
UPDATE: Jon at Rincon Surf Blog is reporting that surfboard shaper Dave Johnson's house has burned. Follow his site for more info on that. Here at Santa Barbara Surfing our thoughts are with those who have lost their property.
Best info on the Tea Fire is at edhat.com, independent.com or listen to 99.9FM which is doing a good job covering the fast moving fire. Map from an Independent reader.
Our SUP column has garnered a lot of comments from readers and is so packed with information it is going to be published in two weeks. Today's Edhat column is about some of the local events coming up, including the Rincon Classic. The Rincon Classic details are still in the formative stages according to Chris at Surf Happens, but the date of January 17-18, 2009 has been formalized. Surf Happens has picked up Deckers as a signature sponsor for both this event at this weekend's Surf Sand and St. Jude event at Campus Point. All that and more in this weeks Edhat.
Before we get to business, Leonard is selling his slightly used 6'6" CI MBM for $500 over in our oft used classifieds section.
Our next little surf column is going to delve into SUP's. We're interviewing some SUP proponents and we'd like any commentary pro or con about SUP's and especially any local stories about SUP's. Been burned by a 12' SUP sitting way outside at Rincon on a shortboardable day? Supped all by yourself along the coast on a beautiful summer day? Let us know by email at sbsurfing@gmail.com by Tuesday the 11th. (Photo: srfnff) link to this
We checked in with the local results of the NSSA surfers in this weeks column over at Edhat.com. One thing that came in after press were the results from last weekends Southwest Open contest where the big news of local interest was Lakey Peterson winning the Womens division. Look at the size of the trophy she got, its bigger then her (photo:NSSA). Some snidbits of local surf goings on:
Todd has another surf column in the Daily Nexus, this one about tension in the water
A friend of the guy behind 17ft.com has put up BuoyAlerts.com
The Indy covered Randy Cone in the last surf issue.
Jon Shafer has some beautiful pictures up at Rincon Surf Blog from the Mugu contest.
The Independent has a surf centric issue out today on news racks and online. The Indy's Ethan Stewart sat down with the people behind some of the local surf sites and penned a piece "Santa Barbara, Surfers, and the Interweb". We are probably jaded because we had a nice chat over coffee with Ethan Stewart, but we think this is a great take on surf sites and the effect they have on our everyday surf experience, both good and bad. Ethan also featured Tom Modugno of Goleta Surfing, Jon Shafer of Rincon Surf Blog and Chuck Menzel of Wetsand.
In an incredibly lame attempt to inflate our ego, here is the part Ethan gave ink to on Santa Barbara Surfing:
“If one person writes about a spot - when it breaks, how to get there, or something like that - that information is online forever. All you have to do is Google it,” said Paul Costales. Better known as Pope, Costales has been the mastermind behind Santa Barbara’s longest running surf Web site, SantaBarbaraSurfing.com, since 2001. The site, which was started by former UCSB PhD student Tim Maddux in 1995 as a no-frills, underground surf report resource, has consciously evolved over the years into more of a local surfing community bulletin board.
Purposely avoiding the naming of surf spots save for the obvious such as Rincon, Campus Point, and Isla Vista’s Sands Beach, Pope provides recaps after swell events, pictures, and, perhaps most importantly, links to and short stories about the various goings-on in Santa Barbara’s wave-riding tribe. From coastal preservation issues and supposed shark attacks to the fate of the UCSB surf team and upcoming film premieres, SantaBarbaraSurfing.com keeps its visitors - about 100,000 of them a month - in the loop and better connected, but when it comes to the actual pursuit of finding and riding waves, you are still, at least as far as this site goes, on your own. With uncrowded waves about as easy to find around these parts as an uncrowded freeway in Los Angeles, the restraint, in the eyes of many longtime Santa Barbara surfers, is necessary.
The 100,000 visitors a month would of course be crazy, the site runs something about 100,000 hits a month, and unique visitor stats aren't tracked but would chime in ten times lower or something like that.
Ethan got it right in the story. Surfing was better before the internet. Having no idea how the waves would be when you got to the beach made those good sessions that much more cherished. Consistently going to the beach would score you great uncrowded waves before the coconut wireless kicked in. Sadly, that day is long gone. It is our goal here at Santa Barbara Surfing to try to implement the good things (connecting local surfers, photos, stories) without leaving a footprint on the web we'll regret such as naming spots or providing real time reports. link to this
Our latest Edhat column is about the those first few swells we had to open up October. Water is still warm enough to trunk on a longboard but what started out as a great opening salvo of swells led to reality that the North Pacific isn't quite churning 'em out like big sunglasses yet.
UCSB Sur f Team The UCSB Surf Team is gearing up to defend their title in the first event this weekend at Blacks Beach in San Diego. This from the NSSA preview:
UC Santa Barbara owns a glittering resume with 11 National Championships and raised the bar in 2007-08 sweeping the Conference, State and National titles. The top ranked Gauchos opened up with a victory over Cal State San Marcos at Blacks last year and are hopeful for a repeat performance.
Coming off a tremendous year, UC Santa Barbara captain Joe Riggio is cautiously optimistic about his team’s prospects for the upcoming season. “Another title is what we are aiming for, however every year is different,” Riggio said. “Every team is going to be looking for a strong start. Graduation did take some of our top guys but we just picked up some fresh talent and are looking forward to competing.” Gaucho co-captain Matt Shulman added, “After winning three of four conference contests, the State Championship, and our 11th National Title, it will be hard to duplicate that level of success. Regardless, we are coming out with guns slinging.”
UC Santa Barbara’s recent successes at Blacks along with a strong Women’s lineup are another reason for high expectations. “We won the past two out of three events at Blacks,” Riggio said. “It is the best location on the conference schedule and we feel really comfortable competing there. We are also fortunate to have sophomores Lipoa (Kahaleuahi) and Lily (Howard), who were both Nationals’ finalists, returning to our squad.”
One Track Mind Patagonia is premiering One Track Mind tonight in Ventura. Surf film, free raffle prizes, live music and you can bro out with Matt Costa (performing), Tom Curren, Kelly Slater and all three Malloy brothers (with beared-veggie-powered-antarctic-explorer look).
Thursday, Oct. 16, 7:00 PM
Patagonia Headquarters 259 W. Santa Clara, Ventura, CA Upper parking lot, corner of Main and Olive Streets Admission is FREE link to this
Santa Barbara Surfing. Created by Tim Maddux. Continued by Pope.
we are trying to help out reader Kevin who had his board stolen in North County a few days ago:
Conner Coffin came back from a knee injury and placed 3rd in Men's and 1st in Juniors at SouthWest Open #5.
coverage of the local surfing scene. He put up some nice page called Autumn Intervals with photos and story from swell a few weekend ago featuring Bobby Morris, some other Bobby Morris photos from last weekend are on Edhat, and he has a great story about Goleta surfer/artist Jeff "Bullet" Campbell, who we think we saw at Campus Point on Monday at lunch.
it is going to be published in two weeks. Today's Edhat column is about some of the local events coming up, including the Rincon Classic. The Rincon Classic details are still in the formative stages according to Chris at Surf Happens, but the date of January 17-18, 2009 has been formalized. Surf Happens has picked up Deckers as a signature sponsor for both this event at this weekend's Surf Sand and St. Jude event at Campus Point. All that and more in this weeks Edhat.
selling his slightly used 6'6" CI MBM for $500 over in our oft used classifieds section.
One thing that came in after press were the results from last weekends Southwest Open contest where the big news of local interest was Lakey Peterson winning the Womens division. Look at the size of the trophy she got, its bigger then her (photo:NSSA). Some snidbits of local surf goings on:
out today on news racks and online. The Indy's Ethan Stewart sat down with the people behind some of the local surf sites and penned a piece "Santa Barbara, Surfers, and the Interweb". We are probably jaded because we had a nice chat over coffee with Ethan Stewart, but we think this is a great take on surf sites and the effect they have on our everyday surf experience, both good and bad. Ethan also featured Tom Modugno of Goleta Surfing, Jon Shafer of Rincon Surf Blog and Chuck Menzel of Wetsand.