The North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii. Must be the most over publicized piece of real estate the surfing world knows.
The reasons for that are simple. Surfing began there with the Polynesians, so it was the only surfing world (don't get me started on the Chimu and the Caballitos de Totora) Seecondly with a fetch half the length of the world and its volcanic nature (hence no continental shelf slowing wave power), the reefs of the North shore and quite simply hardcore. There power is allegedly (having never been or desire to) unsurpassed. Thirdly Hawaii is part of the US of A and there isn't a nation on this planet that can blow wind up its arse like it.....North Korea....na'h. All in all as a competitive surfer, you ain't shit till you've gone toe to toe with some North Shore grunt and made a mark in the sand.
The Triple Crown is held every year in Movember and December and comprises of three seperate competitions. The first is the Haleiwa pro, the second is the Sunset beach Pro and then the final event is the Pipeline masters. There all beautiful beaches and full on waves. The reason I love them is the passion. I can feel a rant coming on...........
Those people who are called professional surfers are quickly sorted into two sections, show ponies and thorough breds. The waves are thick, heavy lipped heaving machines and instead of the guys getting out there 6'0 beachie board, the 8footers come out and some testosterone is brought back. I love it. The lines the artists etch on these huge moving canvasses, the soul bared for the audience to marvel at...well it's poetic.
Anyway watch it Haleiwa has started it's waiting period and a huge swell approaches.
Mahalo
PS There will be all sorts of other competitions going on at the same time, keep your eyes peeled.
A few years ago I lost my much loved garage. Times move on and unless I parted company I would haven't have sampled the delights of South American surf etc.....but I surely miss that garage. The control of an area untouched by my partner and kids, a place where experiments arose out of plumes of smoke. A place where I sprayed my first surfboard and had enough left to get a bit "out there" on the walls. A place where saw dust and fibreglass fumes could mingle freely, far away from frowning eyes.
I can make fins, wooden, keel fins. Never a simpler or more satisfying surfing endeavour. Find the template you like, get some 9mm marine ply, cut out the shape with a jigsaw and then get the mask on and the random orbital out for some freestyling.
Three things led to failure on the last attempt. Firstly, the ply was poor quality and splintered. It would be so great to get some oak and teak ply or something which really adds strength and colour....it isn't easy to get hold of in the piddly quantities I want or can store.
Secondly, I lost concentration at a crucial time. After finishing off the first fin. I clamped up the second one and without thinking, sanded from the base not the tip, in 10 seconds the damage was done. I blame the third can of cider myself.
Lastly with no garage, there is nowhere to store excess wood, there is nowhere to leave things and come back to at a more auspicious time and the whole experience is just off key.
So we are house hunting at present and I'm gunna try and hang tough on the garage front.
So Kelly Slater 10 times World Champon hey....well I can think of no sport so dominated. It struck me as being somewhat creepy that the only guy to really put a rupture in his works was no other than Andy Irons who died the same week just aged 32.
I'm going to say that judges are soft on the guy but...that doesn't go anywhere near far enough to discredit a man who surely holds the gratifying title of "Most successful competitives sportsman on earth"....please if you know some fat clay pigeon shooter whose being shooting better than anyone, don't bother me alright. He is.
Last Friday the International Surfing Association (ISA) wound up its week long competition in Punta Hermosa, Peru. The ISA Games are a teams event where surfers compete for their country rather than compete as individuals. The surfers collect points for placing and the nation with the most points becomes the ISA champion.
Last week it was the host nation, Peru, that collected enough points to call themselves ISA champions. It was a proud moment for the host nation but unfortunately the moment was tarnished by a serious riot following the mens semi-final.
Australia had two competitors in the semi, Mick Campbell and Drew Courtney, and if both got through to the final Australia would've accrued enough points to be crowned champion. Peru had one surfer in the semi and not long after the heat began it was clear he was operating under orders to take Drew Courtney out of the competition. The Peruvian didn't catch a wave the entire heat, instead focussing on blocking Courtney from riding waves.
Toward the end of the heat Courtney caught a wave and the Peruvian had an interference called against him. According to Courtney "a bit of push and shove happened and a few words were said out in the water".
When he got to the waters edge the fervently patriotic crowd thought the Peruvian surfer had been slighted and they confronted Courtney. Another Australian competitor, who watched the incident from the roof of a nearby house, said a 100-strong crowd of locals surrounded the Australian. With no security to quell the situation it quickly became violent.
The first thing to hit Courtney was a bottle. He was then punched in the head a number of times by individuals who fled back into the crowd. When rocks started to be thrown Courtney had to use his board as protection.
The Australian team physio rushed to the surfers aide and he was also hit by a large rock in the shoulder. Team coach, 1988 world champion Barton Lynch, stepped in and tried to calm the crowd but had to retreat when they turned on him too.
By now the crowd had grown to 500 and Courtney made his escape by running along the rocky shoreline and through a hole in the scaffolding of the competitors area. The local police force arrived with sirens on yet no officers got out of the car. ISA security, clearly outnumbered, also did nothing.
The Australiam team house was situated just ten metres from the competitors scaffolding but to get there would've meant Courtney leaving the safety of the competitors area and running the gauntlet of the angry mob. He stayed in the competitors area. Much of the anger was then directed at the Australian house and for fifteen minutes the crowd surged with more violence likely.
Tensions began to ease however, and surfers from the Peruvian team made their way into the Australian house offering apologies for their countrymen's behaviour. The Peruvian surfer that blocked Courtney in the semi-final was succesful in keeping him out of the final so Peru were crowned ISA champions.
According to sources the victory was hollow for the Peruvian surfers. Although that wouldn't have been obvious from reading the absurdly one-sided press release written once competition was completed. That press release, clearly written by someone involved in the Peruvian team, made no mention of the violent infraction although it did include this quote by ISA founder, Fernando Aguerre, "Today we present to the nations of the world a vision, a unified hope of surfing for a better world".
The ISA Games offer gestures of international unity such as the 'sharing of the sands'. As an organisation it has much to offer, yet the riot - the way it was handled, and the way it has been covered up - leaves a serious black mark against them.
Of great concern, especially for the Australian team, is that the ISA junior world championships are due to be held in Punta Hermosa, Peru, early in 2011. Following the riot coaches from France, Tahiti, Great Britain and South Africa expressed their concern about sending their junior national team to Peru.
In response to the riot, Surfing Australia CEO, Andrew Stark, said he is "insisting that the ISA provide a safe and secure events for our teams to attend". Stark also said that they "will only send the Australian Junior team to Peru next year if we can guarantee that the necessary security measures are in place and we can be assured that the team will be safe".
As for Fernando Aguerre, he has made it his life's work to get surfing into the Olympics and the ISA is his vehicle for doing so. Friday's deplorable behaviour may prove to be a setback to his goal, yet how he responds will be a good gauge as to whether he is capable of achieving it
There are two boards I've always wished to own. The first is a 6ft 10 inch Channel Island Black Beauty and the second is a Greg Webber Fat Burner. These boards could be ridden well by big boys. At 6ft 4 in and 16 stone, I'm not your average shortboarder for sure. For the last few years I've been riding fishes and have nothing but praise for Steve Lis and his fellow kneeboarders who designed them through the 1960's. You know, whilst on the topic you have to mention a few of the many great fish pioneers such as Skip Frye, Rich Pavel and Dick Van Straalen. And to be honest if Tom Curren hadn't hopped off that boat in Indo in 1994 when the swell was making and jumped on a fish, the world might have forgotten about the fish and .....my beloved surfing might be dying with matchstick boards and that terrible music.
The music is terrible as is the footage but half way through this section the fish was reborn and with it bigger guys began to see an alternative to longboarding or missing waves.
The fish rebirth naturally led to quad fins, no finer example here than the Pavel Speed Diallers. The speed and unique characteristics of the set up, brought back larger tails.....more good news for the big guys. The whole Clarke Foam debacle made alternative more buoyant materials accessible too. You can see where the big guys are getting some love from here by now.......
However , a solid PU construction thruster for men packing a bit more explosion in their suits has never truly been under my feet, that is of course until the Webber Fatburner! I've heard all the patter going, "Simon Anderson is a big guy his boards are for your gang".....blah blah, well the proof is in the pudding and his XFC model sits in my room, a bit like all warships after the dreadnought superseded all that went before it, eclipsed by light years. Greg Webber himself is quoted as saying "its the best model I've ever shaped". And as you can now tell I'm a devotee.
Every surfer who owns one adores it, I had to have one and yet....the 450 pound price tag has kept me as a distant admirer, until .....shameless plug coming.......Down The Line...gave me a staggering 150 pounds off......minus a near miss divorce.......I've never looked back. The distribution of foam, rocker and ...just everything has enabled me to generate speed and knock it off with solid turns, access the top part of the wave far more easily and allowed me to draw lines I simply couldn't before. Where it differs from my lovely quad is that middle fin and tail shape allows pivot and turning arc in a different way, there is a place for both in this cavernous heart. What is most noticeable apart from its voluptuous nature are the appreciable set of double concaves running through it, reminding me off a more moderate Brett Warner I lived and swore by in Bali.
Surely the quiver can take no more?!?!? I haven't got a Black Beauty though...still in the world of Cornish beach breaks it's hard to envisage its function.
