If you read the erBB enough, eventually you’ll find something as good as this wedged in between all the right wing propoganda posts:

My special lady friend Maggie Marsek is now blogging at Sealayer.com. It’s only been running a few weeks, but she’s already posted about the uber talented Chris Cravey, our trip to the Salton Sea, some Gothic Dolphins sightings and other rad surfy/cooky/photoy stuff.

Go check it out and leave a nice note. She gets giggly and blushes over sweet comments. I love it when she blushes.

Finally a weapon in the war against baggage handlers. Who knows how durable it is, but repairing it has to be easier than repairing a board.

If it could lower the excess fees airlines I’d wear and orange robe and devote my life to worshiping at the factory. In between surf trips of course.

I hope your 2009 feels just like this:

For much of the surf world, summer is the best time to travel to a foreign country in search of swell. You’ll want to bring some good boards, warm water wax and an ipod, but you’ll also need some knowledge of the native language to find the best eateries, haggle with street vendors and to generally grease the wheels of travel.

If you genuinely want to learn enough of the local language to get by, but never seem to find the time to study, you might like my new web app. It’s called Popling and it’s designed for people who lack the motivation to study and are online for much of their day.

Here’s how it works:

You sign up for an account and install the desktop application. You then subscribe to flash card sets which contain vocabulary or phrases in your topic of choice. Every few minutes Popling will display a small notification with a question from the flash card sets you subscribed to. If you aren’t too busy, click the notification to reveal the flash card, review it, then return to what you were doing. In just a few seconds you’ve learned a new word or phrase.

After a few days you’ll find you’ve learned quite a bit, without setting aside time to study.

Click the tiny notification window to see a card, ignore and it’ll go away.

Retention mode requires you to type the last card you learned.

Popling is just getting started. To help me get it ready for the prime time, I’m looking for some very vocal beta testers who want to learn, will report bugs and provide opinions on what could make Popling better. There are currently Poplings for basic Spanish, Indonesian, German and French with more to come.

If you are interested, go sign up for an account using the invite code: “seventy“. Be quick though, invites are limited. For more information, including a screencast of Popling in action, check out Popling.net.

Thanks, I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

The first shark attack in San Diego in forever happened this morning at Fletcher Cove, Solana Beach. Fox 6 reports the victim’s leg was severed below the knee and he bled to death. The attack comes after a week in which a 3-4 foot baby great white was spotted cruising around Cardiff reefs. As is often the case during events like this, the Surfer Mag forum already has a post with links to more info.

It’s kind of a weird scene here in Cardiff, with a helicopter urging everyone out of the water over a PA. While we are waiting for more info from the area news, check out this list of fatal shark attacks in the US and these accounts of white shark attacks in La Jolla Cove.

Posting will be light for a few days folks, I’m enjoying a different form of water, in coloRADo. Fresh powder and lack of interwebs are the culprets.

I hope your holidays are as peaceful as a session that lasts extra long…

I got this meme from Pinniped… maybe it’ll spread. :D

(Surf) Web Places to Check Every Day
1) Surfy Surfy
2) StormSurf
3) SoCal Wind

Top 3 Surf tools
1) 5’9″ GH Twin
2) 6’2″ Patagonia Thruster
3) Patagonia 2mm Front Zip Wettie
4) Matuna’s Wax

Places I wish were my local shop
1) Mollusk SF
2) Mollusk Venice
3) Thalia

Things to watch on-line right now
1) Vice TV
2) Random YouTube Bits and Pieces
3) Kenny vs. Spenny

Surf films I can’t Wait to see
1) The Present
2) Displacement
3) All my Pentax footage, edited

People I would love have shape me a board
1) Steve Lis
2) Michele Juno
3) Steve Pendarvis
4) DK

Surfers Artisist of inspiration
1) Glide Lines
2) Pinniped
3) Clayfin

Did you know JP at Surfy Surfy used to do a column for the print mag Surfer Surfing? Pinliner told me that off hand while he was putting the pins on my GH. No wonder he has taken to this self publishing thing so easily… he’s an old pro. In addition to moderating the erBB surfboard design blog since day one, JP also runs Leucadia!, which takes all the boring out of local politics, calls a spade a spade, an Aceti an Ass and makes it so fun to blast all the people trying to ruin this small town that you HAVE to get involved.

I’m not sure how he has found the time to do this, but he’s started another blog, this time at Surfing Mag. His first post is a manifesto of sorts and a shot across the bow of the popout industry. Keep in mind that this is on a blog, which is part of a mag, which makes lots of money from popout ads. Sounds like someone high up over there grabbed his sack and said, to hell with it, lets let surfers cover surfing however they want.

So anyway, you knew he could take a good photo and stir up the pot with his witty banter, but did you know he could write as well? If you didn’t, check out the new Surfboards Blog on Surfing mag.