A year ago Patagonia opened their first surf waterman’s shop in Cardiff. Since day one their events have positively contributed to the local community’s vibe as Gerry Lopez, The Cambell brothers and Shaun Thompson have all enlivened weekend nights on Chesterfield with projected surf and stories.

This Saturday night should be no exception as Patagonia celebrates the anniversary with what looks to be an evening chronicling dirtbag adventure. Dan Malloy and Chris Del Morrow will be presenting a slide show about their surf trip to Liberia with photos shot by Ted Grambeau. They’ll also be showing the film “Mountain of Storms” which documents “Yvon Chouinard and friends’ six-month roadtrip from California to Chilean Patagonia, surfing, skiing and climbing along the way“. As an added little bonus, a 2mm wetsuit will be given to one lucky person in the crowd. I put your odds at winning somewhere around 1 in 200-300, which is pretty damn good.

Patagonia Cardiff will also be helping out with the La Paloma premiere of One California Day (August 10th) by donating 2 boards to the raffle, one for each showing.

The shop itself has slowly evolved, expanding the board line to include shapes by Malcom Cambell, Gerry Lopez and Donald Takayama. I’ve heard that Rich Pavel and Skip Fry may be shaping a few boards for the racks as well. Don’t expect those to last long, but don’t hold your breath for them either. The wetsuit line is apparently selling like hotcakes, even in the summer. Look for two flavors of tops (I believe one with sleeves and one without) to arrive soon.

From Sean Collin’s official response:

” There were mixed accusations of rock throwing to clear the water before I arrived, and we certainly do not support rock throwing and/or physical violence of any kind. Additionally, we certainly did not direct in any way the removal of people from the water or the security for the event as it was handled entirely by the local Barra police. We also did not insist on everyone being removed from the water before we arrived. ”

I’ve only got one thing to say after watching this video…. Holy shit! That chick rips!

Two more rad events this weekend: Maek Art Show in Encinitas, Thread showing in San Fransisco.

Surfine is holding a goodwill tour at the location of last year’s “Somewhere In Mexico” contest put on by Rip Curl. Sean Collins attempted to negotiate a deal between the local people of ‘La Jolla’ and Rip Curl, even up offering free advertising on surfline.com. In the end, Rip Curl only paid $5,000 to the town when, in comparison, it costs $70,000 to put on the Body Glove Surf Bout at Trestles.

Bash Sean Collins and his webcams all you want, but he’s stepping up and doing the right thing here where Rip Curl failed. Good on him.

UPDATE: If you haven’t already heard, this thing went horribly wrong. Read the comments.

Patrick Trefz premieres his film Thread this Friday in Venice.

UPDATE: Thread is opening in SF Thursday the 28th and admission benefits Save The Waves!

This year’s Fish Fry (titled Anything But Three) was less commercial and had fewer attendees. What it lacked though, is what benefited it. With the majority of shapers represented being underground, independent or alt surfcraft specialists, a very freeform and BROtherly stoke was extended to everyone.

Christenson, Mandala, Jake Moss, Shaun Ambrose, Ford, Ian Zamora and KG plus lots of other established and up and coming shapers had amazing boards at the event. Surfers got the chance to ride as many different shapes throughout the day as they could pick up. I personally surfed boards I’ve never imagine existed. How else are you going to know how an epoxy, hull bottomed, perimeter stringer bonzer will perform?

Without a doubt though, Marlin Bacon’s (101fins.com) featherlight bamboo fins made the biggest impression. Both the glass-on versions and the new loxbox removables were lightening bonzers, quads and twins all over the reef.

Such a high level of excitement over handcrafted boards and fins begs the question, why does this only happen once a year?

The lovely Maggie Marsek has around 20 beautiful images hanging in Honeys in Encinitas through the end of June. We think Honey’s is the best brunch on the planet, so if you haven’t been you’ve got two great reasons to go.

If it wasn’t crowdiff before, it will be on the third. Just leave your thruster at home.

Salsipuedes has been under the gun for a while now. Here’s a sways thread where you can pay your respects and more information about the project.

Update: How to ensure fair access to Salsipuedes

• Get records of # of paid surfers from the last 10 years from managers (They kept pretty good records)
• Get general statistics from American studies on amount of money spent by each visiting surfer
• Draft short proposal on economic effect on the projects restaurants, parking facilities and shops
• Include in proposal parking facilities required by surfers
• Present to developers as a win/win situation

Sounds like a good plan for Wildcoast or someone to take on instead of fighting the entire project, which isn’t really feasible.