Solid interview with JJR of Lokbox fins at the fish brotherhood.

Surf tramping through the North West Of Spain, via Moods Of The Bay, a blog about San Sebastian.

AHEM… Attention JJR… The ridges on the front of a Humpback whale’s fins increase maneuverability, improve lift force and increase stall angle. The discovery has lead to serrated fan blades that use 20% less energy. I expect to be testing your first prototype within the week.

Gerry Lopez will be signing copies of his book Surf Is Where You Find it at Patagonia Cardiff, Saturday May 24.

Those fucking retards at the New York Times were kinda cute when they screwed up every other article on surfing. But this time, the sensationalists over there keep trying to connect localism with the Bird Rock Bandits killing of Emery Kauanui Jr.

The first incident is in an otherwise well written article on the case. The writer had quotes from Tim Bessell and Richard Kenvin. She seemed on it, then she went over to Fox news to write the rest of it:

Violence had long been a part of the local culture at Windansea; one group, the Windansea Surf Rats, had for decades used physical violence to intimidate outsiders and tagged the group’s initials in surf wax on the sidewalk near the beach.

She couldn’t find a connection stronger than that because localism isn’t about beating someone to a death. It’s rarely even a fist fight. It’s telling them to go home. It’s paddling their carburetor out into the lineup and dropping it. It’s wax on windshields. I’m not condoning it, I’m just stating what it is.

In the rest of the article, she offers no thread of connection between the event and localism, other than the fact that Emery was a surfer. If he played hockey, and La Jolla was a hockey town, would she have written about fights in the rink?

The second instance appears in a freaking fashion article of all things:

“Although little about localism or surf territorialism is new, the public was mostly unaware of how violent the battles fought between locals and outsiders over popular breaks have sometimes become… …the well-publicized San Diego murder trial of one such alleged surf gang”.

Surf Gang? How many of them actually surfed? They played football, they spent more time on MySpace and in bars drinking than in the water. They were not a surf gang.

The NYTimes are using Emery Kauanui Jr.’s death to ramp up page views, and thus ad dollars through sensationalist tactics and shoddy journalism. The reality is any attempt to draw a line between some jocks with gang aspirations and surfing is just plain incorrect.

NYTimes, I hope you can find a big enough pry bar to get your writers heads out of your collective ass.

It’s over. The last beautiful spot north of Ensenada is toast, and has been for a while. Wildcoast has some more story on Salsipuedes.

The gothic dolphins forenever is a black and white interweb existance that’s a mess of sudo sociographical texts containing overtones of scientific theory laced between photos of broken boards and grainy shots of gluefoot, in trim. It is well fucking out there… Oakland maybe.

Save The Waves is out there making sure you favorite beach, reef, point or refract doesn ‘t get munched. They can’t do it alone though. In addition to your volunteer services they need funding, so they are throwing a party in San Franscico…

Another bitching surf event poster.

Tickets are a donation of $20 general and $50 Green Package, (Green Package includes a Save The Waves membership and cool goody bag). All proceeds to benefit Save The Waves Coalition. Event info

Very few surf movies venture beyond surfing’s shallows… surfers, waves, turns, tubes, airs… it’s rare that a tough topic is breached. Between The Lines (trailer), though, is a documentary about the path’s two surfer’s lives take during the Vietnam War and it dives right into surfing’s deep end.

You can see the film at Hansen Surfboards in Encinitas, California on Thursday, June 26 and July 25 - 8 PM at the Huntington Beach Art Center.

The Surfilmfetibal in San Sebastian (12-15th of Junio) has been running for 6 years. San Sebastian is definately one of my favorite towns in Europe, but I’d go just to put some sound to these band names: “Delorean” and “Los Tiki Phantoms”.