Chances are high that Bobby Martinez's Round 3 heat in Teahupoo will take place at 9:30 Pacific on Thursday morning and is streamable at the Billabong Pro site. With five of the seven surfers ahead of Bobby in the overall standings eliminated from the event, Bobby can really improve on his current 8th in the world standing with a good showing. In Wednesday action Ventura's Dane Reynolds surfed two excellent heats, the second of which was an insane showing against fellow rookie Jordy Smith. link to this
NSSA Update The Coffin kids have racked up another big accomplishment. The surfers from Santa Barbara just wrapped up their 2008 SouthWest Open season and Conner Coffin claims the 2008 Championship for Juniors and Parker Coffin claims the 2008 Championship for Boys. This Wednesday begins the West Coast Regionals for the Coffin Bro's as well as other local standouts. Patrick and Francis Curren finished 15th and 17th, amazing considering they only surfed 3 of the 10 contests.
Local Results from the 10th and Final SouthWest Open Contest:
OPEN JUNIORS 2. Conner Coffin-Santa Barbara 4. Parker Coffin-Santa Barbara
Kleiner Brothers Glased Out Some of the creative minds behind surf apparel company The Glas, which has a strong local presence, have left the company. Justin and Matt Keiner have moved on citing differences with the other partners. Local talent Bobby Morris is sponsored by The Glas. link to this
Its time again to honor our friend Brandon with the 4th Annual Brandon Yates Memorial Surf Benefit. This years format will feature a regular contest format with divisions for Groms, Juniors, Mens, a Pro-Am and a team event. The Pro-Am is 4 man heats and the purse has been kick started by Surf One with First Place purse guaranteed with at least $500.00. Other individual events are 6 man heats and the team event is limited to 6, 6 person teams. Team event scores are based on surfing abilities as well as fun for all tasks. The 4th annual Brandon Yates Memorial. Sunday, June 4th at Emma Wood State Beach. Entry forms will be hitting your local surf shops by this weekend.
Local Results From Lowers Contest
SB County surfers could not make it past Round 5 in the 6 Star Lowers Pro but it seemed like a good showing overall. The final results of locals:
Cory Arrambide knocked out in Round 5 Tyler Anderson knocked out in Round 5
Colin Schildhauer knocked out in Round 3 Bobby Morris knocked out in Round 3 Peter Mussio knocked out in Round 3
Goleta Surfing Tom keeps up the heat with some photos of April Windswell. Good to see that the scrappy can still get some action if they are diligent.
Locals at Lowers Pro Round 3 was tough on Santa Barbara County surfers, with Peter Mussio of Lompoc, Bobby Morris of Goleta, and Colin Schildhauer of Goleta all getting knocked out. In Round 4 we had only Goleta surfer Tyler Anderson and Ventura surfer Cory Arrambide, who both advanced. However Cory lost in Round 4 and Tyler was due to surf on Friday.
Round 3 Heats Cory Arrambide placed 1st to advance Colin Schildhauer placed 4th and knocked out Bobby Morris placed 3rd and knocked out Peter Mussio placed 3rd and knocked out
Round 4 Heats Cory Arrambide placed 2nd to advance Tyler Anderson placed 1st to advance
Round 5 Heats Cory Arrambide placed 3rd and knocked out Tyler Anderson due to surf
Previous surfers knocked out: Adam Lambert knocked out in Rd 2
Gerry Lopez at UCSB May 6th Gerry Lopez will be speaking at UCSB with an intro by Patagonian Yvon Choinard. This all takes place Tuesday, May 6 at UCSB Campbell Hall at 8 pm. Tickets are $10 general admission & $8 for UCSB students/youth 18 & under. Tickets can be purchased in advance by calling the Arts & Lectures Ticket Office (893-3535) or Order Online.
Entire books could be written about Gerry Lopez. Suffice it to say Gerry made his surfing reputation at Pipeline, riding it like nobody else before him, or since. He was among a crew of Indonesian adventure pioneers who first surfed Garajagan, or “G-Land”, long considered one of the best lefts in the world. Lopez starred as himself in the surf-cult classic film “Big Wednesday”, and was noted as “shaper of the year” in Surfing Magazine’s annual surfboard design issue, 2003. Gerry Lopez is as charismatic, intelligent and intuitive on land as he is in the waves. He’ll be talking about and presenting images from his just released book “Surf Is Where You Find It”. Don’t miss this extraordinary special event. Introduction by Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia’s distinguished founder.
Grover Anderson at Albertsons May 3rd Isla Vista musician Grover Anderson will be playing in the Albertson's parking lot (sort of like U2) in Goleta on May 3rd. It is a battle of the bands called "Will Play For Food" featuring Grover, The VelTexans, and Hero & the Victor. The event takes place from 2-5pm so you have plenty of time to pick up some groceries in between sets. link to this
Bobby Martinez Leaves Channel Islands Has the attrition already began at Channel Islands surfboards after the Burton buyout? One could think that after Bobby Martinez left CI to surf for DHD Surfboards. This news became official on April 9th. Bobby wasn't surfing his CI boards at the Bells Beach contest and his name is long gone form the CI team riders page. Other surfers of note riding DHD is current World Champion Mick Fanning.
Locals at Lowers Pro The 6 star WQS event at Lowers is going on now, with a lot of Santa Barbara County talent still in the running. Here is the current breakdown with Round 3 just starting.
Round 1 Heats Peter Mussio placed 1st to advance Colin Schildhauer placed 2nd to advance Adam Lambert placed 2nd to advance
Round 2 Heats Peter Mussio placed 2nd to advance Colin Schildhauer placed 1st to advance Adam Lambert placed 4th to get knocked out Bobby Morris placed 1st to advance
Round 3 Heats Cory Arrambide: Surfs in Round 3 Colin Schildhauer Bobby Morris Peter Mussio
Round 4 Heats Tyler Anderson: surfs in Round 4
SBHS at ISF State Championships JP has a good rundown on the Dons surfing at ISF States. In summary the boys longboard placed 2nd, girls shortboard and longboard placed 3rd. This is a great showing for a Santa Barbara County team to go down to the ultra competitive SoCal region and score well. Here is the rundown on the surfers, big props to them:
Boys' Longboard: Shane Orr, Gabe Biancone and Willy Radis
Girls' Longboard: Chelsea Zaniboni, Glennie Rodgers and Elle Iverson
Girls' Shortboard: Cory Radis, Glennie Rodgers and Chelsea Zaniboni
Boys' Shortboard: Shane Orr, Gabe Biancone, Tristan Cronshaw, Emmery Hickenbockum, Antoine Allain, John Outwater, Bryce Lupolli, Willy Radis and Christian Soulages
Body Board: Tristan Cronshaw, Austin "Gibby" Gibson and Ryan Cook link to this
Note: Santa Barbara Surfing will be traveling to warmer waters next week and won't be back and updating until April 29th.
Your Local Sand Update This is pope checking in at 9am for your sand update sponsored by Santa Barbara Surfing. Up in Goleta at Campus Point the sand has come back in record time, burying the slippery bedrock and cobbles. It is now possible to walk to the point on sand and a little bar has formed straight out to attract the wide swingers. Deveruax has also instantly added a ton of sand as well as around the corner at Sands. Sands still has some ways to go to offer A Frames, but it is starting the foundation. After the big Feb 25 swell and devil winds that stirred up havoc in late March/early April these beaches were devoid of sand. Further down the coast Rincon still has a stable of cobblestones lining the point to setup some epic long knee to waist high rides. However this all may change as there was a dude down there on Sunday loading up as many cobbles as he could into his truck for home improvement projects. How long until we declare the cobblestones at Rincon Endangered Species and rally to protect them from reckless poachers?
One Winter Story One Winter Story shows tonight (we hear 6:00 or 6:30) at the Marjorie Luke Theater for $12. The film follows Sarah Gerhardt and her surfing at Mavericks. The Independent has a review of the film, and we're told this is an inspirational film good to bring the groms to. Also on the subject of film reviews, The Nexus has a review of the film Bra Boys that opened last Friday.
Earth Day Beach Cleanups Surfrider is sponsoring some beach cleanups this Saturday from 10am to noon.
East Beach: Meet at the entrance to Stearn’s Wharf. For more information call Santa Barbara City Creeks, 897-2658.
West Beach: Meet at the west end of the beach closest to the harbor parking lot just off the bike path. For more information call Channelkeeper at 563-3377.
Ledbetter, Miramar, or Hendry’s Beach: For more information, call SB Surfrider at 245-9930. gretchen@eco-errands.com
Isla Vista Beach (Camino Majorica and Del Playa) Contact UCSB Coastal Fund coastalfund@gmail.com
E. Storke Wetland: Meet at the parking lot north of the Storke soccer fields. For more information, please call Project Clean Water at 568-3546.
Devereux Slough: Meet where Devereux Creek crosses under Phelps Road in Goleta. For more information, please call Project Clean Water at 568-3546.
NSSA and ISF Update ISF High School States is being held in Oceanside this weekend. Of the 24 high schools competing, SBHS is the #1 seed and gets a first round bye.
In the NSSA we've got the list of 2008 champions for Gold Coast Explorer and Northwest Open. We also have the results of local surfers from two weekends ago in Pismo Beach. The local talent is filtered below:
2008 NORTHWEST CONFERENCE OPEN CHAMPIONS Womens: Demi Boelsterli (Santa Barbara) Longboard: Samson Anderson Magazino (Santa Barbara)
Congratulations to all the local champions and all those who competed. Below are results from the contests, both held at Pismo Pier for two different conferences:
GOLD COAST EXPLORER SEASON EVENT #9
EXPLORER MENS 2. Adam Lambert-Santa Barbara 3. Kokoro Tomatsuri-Summerland 4. Brandon Smith-Santa Barbara 6. Trevor Gordon-Santa Barbara
EXPLORER JUNIORS 2. Conner Coffin-Santa Barbara 3. Kokoro Tomatsuri-Summerland 6. Shane Orr-Santa Barbara
EXPLORER BOYS 1. Parker Coffin-Santa Barbara 2. Conner Coffin-Santa Barbara
EXPLORER MENEHUENE 1. Parker Coffin-Santa Barbara
EXPLORER WOMENS 1. Demi Boelsterli-Santa Barbara 3. Rachel Harris-Carpenteria 5. Rachel Harris-Carpinteria 6. Lakey Peterson-Santa Barbara
EXPLORER GIRLS 1. Lakey Peterson-Santa Barbara 5. Glennie Rodgers-Santa Barbara
EXPLORER MASTERS 1. John Gardner-Carpinteria 3. Chris Keet-Santa Barbara
EXPLORER SENIORS 6. Matt McAllister-Santa Barbara
EXPLORER LONGBOARD 3. JP Garcia-Santa Barbara 5. Shayne Millhollin-Santa Barbara
NORTHWEST OPEN SEASON EVENT #6
OPEN JUNIORS 3. Daniel Prichard-Goleta 7.0
OPEN BOYS 1. Frank Curren-Santa Barbara 11.0 tiebreak 4. Pat Curren-Santa Barbara 6.0 5. Decker McAllister-Santa Barbara 5.0
OPEN MINI GROMS 1. Decker McAllister-Santa Barbara 13.0 5. Cousteau Christopher-Santa Barbara 3.5
OPEN WOMENS 1. Demi Boelsterli-Santa Barbara 11.0
OPEN LONGBOARD 1. Samson Anderson Magazino-Santa Barbara link to this
Spring Wind What could usher out an excellent Santa Barbara winter surfing experience than to go straight into our typical winds of spring? Blown out? Check. Cold water? Check. Flat spells? Check. The spring game of finding the wind swell without the wind is on. The Santa Maria Times has a piece about the winds and water temps of late that is worth a read.
Grover Anderson and Justin Ratowsky Grover Anderson was on KJEE this morning and he'll be playing with Justin Ratowsky tonight at the Sandbar. Grover and Justin are both Isla Vista musicians, if you've surfed Sands or Deveraux much you may have seen Justin riding his bike around while playing guitar.
Bobby Morris profile on Goleta Surfing If there are a few things this site enjoys, it is the surfing of Goleta boy Yellow Board Bobby, and the photo essays Tom puts up at Goleta Surfing. Tom breaks it on down with a Mini Bio of Bobby Morris, including childhood photos that are sure to get him razed next time he's in the lineup.
One Winter Story Another great surf movie to check out:
On Friday April 18th, we are screening a fantastic documentary about big-wave pioneer Sarah Gerhardt at the Marjorie Luke Theatre, a fundraiser for Santa Barbara Channelkeeper. There will be live music, featuring Omar Cowan and Jason Campbell and the Drive, there will be a raffle, and the filmmakers will be on hand to do a Q & A afterwards. The show begins at 6:30, tickets are $12 and will be on sale at the door beginning at 6 pm or in advance by calling Channelkeeper at 563-3377.
Bra Boys The 'Bra Boys' documentary will be showing in Santa Barbara on Friday, April 11th at the Fiesta Five Theater. Bra Boys follows Australian surfers Jai and Koby Abberton during a bizarre murder trial in 2004 which saw Koby serving some time. You can check out the trailer on the Bra Boys site. You can also read about a recent scrape with the law Koby Abberton had in March, and his failure to pay taxes in the Sydney Herald.
Mike Vincelli's Surf Comic Strips Mike has some good surfing comics up every Monday at Beach Nuts Comics. Our favorite of his is below: link to this
SB Surf Grls Documentary The local womens' surf group which is open to all female surfers, SB Surf Grls, will be the subject of an upcoming documentary. They'll be having a fund raiser this coming Monday where Shaun Tomson among others will be in attendance.
Details: When: Monday, April 7th From: 5-10:30PM Where: Stateside, 1114 State Street, Santa Barbara CA, 93101 Free Admittance, Live and electronic music, contest, prizes, celebrity presenters, auction, and much more.
Local Surf Shorts Morgan has another short video up on Youtube, this one from the quick strike Sunday swell we had at the end of February. Featured is Chris Brown, Darrell Goodrum, Chris Artnz, Spencer Regan, Trevor Gordan, Travers Adler, Max Klett, Tarik Khashoggi, and Brandon Smith. The more we think about that swell, the more we realize how the quickness it came about allowed the locals to enjoy their waves, unlike the December 5 swell that had the Yadin Nicol Aussie Possie, Slater, and tons of other pros invade. The Rincon Surf Blog linked to Andy Hahn who has several local videos to enjoy during our flat spell.
Bobby Martinez At Bells Our previous news had Bobby making it all the way to the semifinals at WCT Event #2. There he lost to Bede Durbidge in some inconsistent conditions. Bobby's previously successful plan of being patient and waiting for a good wave or two didn't work in this heat, as a good wave or two never came. The usually beaming Martinez was visually disappointed in his post contest interview but he always stays classy. His overall standing should move up from 17 to 9th or better after the results are posted. His next event isn't until May 8th in Tahiti, which he won two years ago.
Wet Wednesday Mishap Windy conditions wrecked havoc at last nights Wet Wednesday sailing race off of the Santa Barbara harbor. A few boats flipped and one man is still missing. This is the second time in two weeks that a search and rescue operation has been run to find a local sailor gone missing. Let's hope our fellow water friend is found OK.
Morgan also has a youtube video up, this of Slater surfing Rincon in February. Check out the crazy burn Slater does to a longboarder.
4th Annual Yates Contest The 4th Annual Brandon Yates Memorial will be held this year on Sunday June 8th, so mark your calendars.
If you don't already know, this is the ONLY surf contest allowed to take place at Emma Wood State Beach. This is a BENEFIT to raise skin cancer awareness and to donate 100% of proceeds to cancer research in Brandon's name. This benefit runs purely on donations. Donations of time, blood, sweat, tears and wonderful product.
Each year we have had a different and unique format. This year we will feature a traditional contest AS WELL AS a fun for all team format limited to 6, 6 man (or woman) teams. Divisions are: Groms(13 and under) Juniors(14-19) Mens (20 +) Pro/Am (Open) and the aforementioned team event.
After an equal 17th finish in the 1st contest of the year, local surfer Bobby Martinez is doing well in event #2 at Bells Beach on the ASP World Tour. He won his Round 1 heat vs. Luke Munro and Royden Bryson to advance to Round 3. In Round 3 he defeated Aussie Jay Thompson, and in Round 4 he defeated Frenchman Jeremy Flores. He then went on and defeated reigning world champion Mick Fanning in the Quarterfinals. He is slated to surf against Bede Durbidge in the Semi-Finals which should take place around 5:45pm Pacific Time today. Details and live streaming available on the Rip Curl site. Dane Reynolds also made the quarterfinals against Taj Burrow.
Martinez caught three waves to Flores’ nine, but found enough points on his selective rides to advance 16.33 to 13.10 over the Frenchman. Flores finished equal 3rd in the first event of the year while Martinez was forced out at equal 17th.
“Sure, Jeremy having a good event at the Gold Coast motivated me, but I could have been in the 33rd Round and been motivated no matter who I got because I haven’t had a good year yet,” Martinez said. “I just want to try my best and get a good start. It don’t matter who I got or what round I’m in, I don’t think about the next person because we are all here for the same reason.”
Martinez will want to maintain that strategy as he has drawn Reigning World Champion Mick Fanning in the next round.
“It’s going to be a good one,” Fanning said of his match-up with Martinez. “Bobby has been surfing great and he looking really good on his feet so it’s going to be a fun one. I’m pumped.”
Channel Islands surfboards after the Burton buyout? One could think that after Bobby Martinez left CI to surf for DHD Surfboards. This news became official on April 9th. Bobby wasn't surfing his CI boards at the Bells Beach contest and his name is long gone form the CI team riders page. Other surfers of note riding DHD is current World Champion Mick Fanning. 
cobblestones lining the point to setup some epic long knee to waist high rides. However this all may change as there was a dude down there on Sunday loading up as many cobbles as he could into his truck for home improvement projects. How long until we declare the cobblestones at Rincon Endangered Species and rally to protect them from reckless poachers?
There he lost to Bede Durbidge in some inconsistent conditions. Bobby's previously successful plan of being patient and waiting for a good wave or two didn't work in this heat, as a good wave or two never came. The usually beaming Martinez was visually disappointed in his post contest interview but he always stays classy. His overall standing should move up from 17 to 9th or better after the results are posted. His next event isn't until May 8th in Tahiti, which he won two years ago.