Tag Archives: surfer

>Flat Spell Frustrations

I’m suffering from a rather acute bout of the “flat spell frustrations.” I’ve checked the cam and report for the North Bay several times throughout the day; honestly, it’s as flat as a chalkboard and the forecast for the week isn’t looking good. Ah, but what can you do? It’s not like I can pull a Sean Connery move and invent a complicated weather machine (an obscure movie reference, kudos to anyone who gets it). With that said, it’s times like these that I turn to Surfer for solace.

This week, Surfer is running a very timely article on their site titled, “How to Survive a Flat spell.” It offers up a number of very helpful suggestions; my personal favorite has to be the “just get in.” It might seem like a rather redundant thing to suggest (What you miss the ocean? Well, just get in it for crying out loud—it’s not like its going anywhere.), but it’s something that many surfers—including myself—often overlook. I recently tried it out myself, and it’s surprising how even a quick dip can help ease the flat spell jitters. Check out the article, and hopefully you can find a few suggestions to help you survive this unfortunate flat spell.

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>Surfing in the Land of the Rising Sun

If you haven’t picked up the latest issue of Surfer, you should—there’s a couple of really entertaining travel stories, including one on surfing in the Baltic Sea. I just picked up my copy, and honestly, I’m already planning my next cold water surf trip to Finland. Didn’t know there was surf there did ya? Actually, I didn’t really know that either… I guess today is a learning sort of day.

Surfer just posted this video concerning the story behind this issue’s cover, which features Dan Malloy ripping it up at a mysterious break in Japan. Check it out!

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Opening day at Maverick’s

Wednesday was the opening of day of the official “big wave season” at Maverick’s… and it was a hell of an opening day.

According to Surfline, sets early in the morning were typically around 15 feet, with an occasional sneaker wave of around 18 to 20 feet. Pretty impressive, right?

Well,  this opening day also marked the first time in several months that the locals hadn’t been chased out of the water by a shark. Back in September, two separate crews had to vacate the line up several times due to a curious juvenile Great White. Thankfully, Jaws didn’t scare anybody this time around.

Check out this link to learn more about the awesome opening day at Mav’s.

Alex Martins at Maverick's

Alex Martins at Maverick's

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Surfing the web

YouTube:


Surfin’ mice. Need I say more? I actually think one of ‘em gets barreled.


Surfing the Great Lakes. Iceberg dead ahead!


Surfing with flares. Um… yeah. Don’t really get the point, but hey, it looks kinda cool.

Surfer:

http://www.surfermag.com/features/week-in-review-28/

This Week in Surfing, from Surfer Magazine.

I guess the big theme of the week was nudity; some of said nudity was quite nice, the rest well… not so much.*

*I’ll give you a hint: old, naked French people. Enjoy! Or should I say, Bonne Chance!

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Cartoons and grommets

Wilbur Kookmeyer

Wilbur Kookmeyer

As a full-fledging member of the adult surfing community (and yes, I actually have to acknowledge that I am an adult now… and no, I’m not happy about that), I have come upon a rather sudden and powerful realization. A surf epiphany, if you will. While this may seem like complete common sense to most non-surfers, it has suddenly become apparent to me that the supposed line that separates grommets from adults — that burly (and somewhat boring) line that consists of responsibility, maturity and everything else that involves a 401K — is actually completely false. Adult surfers are no different from adolescent surfers. In fact, I would even go as far as to say that adults surfers are just grommets that have refused to grow up.

Case in point, take a look at the very popular Wilbur Kookmeyer cartoons.

The aptly named Kookmeyer is a kook; a lovable loser who embodies the goofy beginner that resides in all committed surfers. Take a look at the clips below to see what I mean. Anyway, the cartoon ran from 1986 to 2006, and was loved by surfers of all ages.

There is a lot of joy to be had from cartoons, but this one in particular hit home for me. Surfing is a sport that is grounded in youth culture and adolescent beliefs, so it’s only appropriate that a cartoon should act as a form of commentary on its overall nature. Well, that might be a bit of a stretch, but that aside, the reason for Kookmeyer’s popularity was because surfers could relate to him in general.

Kookmeyer was simply a big kid, and every surfer could easily relate to his excitability, his obsession with waves, and his innate desire to do little else but hang out at the beach all day. When it comes down to it, no matter our age, surfers in general are always excited to have a little fun out in the water.

And isn’t that what being a grommet is all about?

To see more Wilbur cartoons, check out his kooky website.

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Spiders… and the evolution of the wetsuit

19th century wetsuit. Pickaxe sold separately

19th century wetsuit. Pickaxe sold separately

I think it was a well-planned ambush.

I stuck my hand inside my dive suit, and I felt something scurry across my hand. I looked down and, lo and behold, there was a group (let’s call them a platoon) of sinewy little spiders seeking their spidery revenge on me for disturbing their newfound home.

I despise spiders, so I did the only sensible thing that I could think of. I dropped the suit, stamped on it, and then flushed it out with the garden house. Looks like charlotte and her human-hating posse will be sleeping in a watery grave tonight.

Anyway, during the process of cleaning out the remains of my former arachnid enemies from my dive suit, I got to thinking about how wetsuits have evolved over time.

Even though my 7mm is a cumbersome mess of neoprene, dive suits were actually once made from copper (and no… they didn’t float) in the 19th century. Back in the 1940s, US frogmen were the first to wear polyurethene rubber wetsuits, but they were extremely rigid and inflexible. But in the 1950s, Jack O’Neal created the first neoprene suits, and surfers and divers finally had a wetsuit that wasn’t abrasive or constricting.

So yes, wetsuit technology has advanced incredibly over the years. But despite that, no one has figured out the obvious issue concerning vagrant, wetsuit-stealing arachnids. Flexibility is overrated when your covered in angry, vengeful spiders… trust me.

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