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Friday, February 28, 2003

"...and it seems like at least the wind and clouds should be sticking around."

-Or it could be a glorious sunny day like it is today. In other news the SBIFF confirms that Sunday night is "Thicker Than Water" and "Local Boys" was rescheduled at the Granada Theatre on Saturday, March 8 at 4:30 pm. There is also a whole writeup about the surf movies in this weeks indepenedent.

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Thursday, February 27, 2003

<---- New Report from Wednesday.

A storm system came in last night but cleared up by this morning. It left with it some choppy water and the swell seems to have either been beaten down or subsided since yesterday. Currently the buoys show some energy still out there, but there is quite a bit of wind still. 4 days in a row of heavy winds, high clouds and scattered showers...and it seems like at least the wind and clouds should be sticking around.

Don't forget that the Santa Barbara Film Festival starts on Friday. The first of the "Surf Sessions" movies is "Heart of the Sea" which shows at 1:00 on Saturday at the Victoria Theatre. Sunday is Jack Johnson's "Thicker than Water" at the Arlington at 8:30 (although old schedules say "Local Boys" will be shown instead.)

A much nicer version of the Rincon Classic writeup is now up at SurfSB.com.
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Tuesday, February 25, 2003

<---- New Report, from last Thursday sadly.

Chris from SurfSB sent in a write up about the 2003 Rincon Classic which is now posted here on SBS. "This years event was blessed once again, with perfect weather, and a last minute north west swell from Alaska. Immaculate head high conditions prevailed for the 130 participants in the 11 divisions available..."

Doug's Surf Country now it's own website. It has never shown up on google because there are no links to it. This should change things. Also...there was a 40% off coupon in the independent a few weeks ago good for anything at Surf Country but a board. Get your hands on one if at all possible.

Lake Superior. Auckland.

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Wednesday, February 19, 2003

<---- New Report for Tuesday.

Some photos by Scott Aichner at SurferMag. Scott went to my high school in Ventura and, through acquaintences, I sponged with him during my Junior year. He was a really talented bodyboarder then but now it appears he's a really talented photographer. My 1 year bodyboarding stint was my answer to the frustration of getting absolutely hammered while surfing at Rivermouth on cold offshore mornings before school. Lesson learned: even while bodyboarding I still got hammered there, so I eventually returned to surfing for stand up hammering.
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Monday, February 17, 2003

<---- New Reports for Sat, Sun and Mon.

Wetsand rolled out a fresh looking site this weekend. Most of the content is the same but organized a bit differently then before. Many locals such as Brenden Aroyan, Wardie, Greg Huglin, and George have fotos up which are worthy of checking out.

This February has been pretty flat, at least compared to our January it is. Check out what those cats up in the bay area have had though, by checking out the photography of Paul Ferraris.
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Friday, February 14, 2003

<---- New Report for Friday from a little pulse that has finally reached our shores.

Daily Nexus news on Ocean Meadows Condos. Santa Paula planning on honoring the 75th anniversery of the St. Francis Dam Disaster. After 6 months of deciding the challenger, the Americas Cup starts tommorrow featuring the Kiwis and the Swiss.
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Thursday, February 13, 2003

Said Boat from yesterday washed up at the mouth of Mission Creek. Old Glory still flying. Mission Creek had burst the lagoon and made a nice 4' high trench on it's path to the ocean. 1 foot brown waves everywhere were marching up the beach from the south, with about a 3 second period. In all of Santa Barbara County, only did East Beach exceed state water quality standards during today's results.

Check out Surf Art Auctions for all of your surf art needs.

Surfline is looking for a surf reporter for Rincon.
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Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Did some searching today and only found boats washed up on shore and 1-2' Lake Michigan conditions. Of course further south may have been different.

Typically out of tune with local goings on Pope needs the low-down on the Rincon Classic from last weekend. Rumor has it Slater was surfing a mere 1/2 hour before I got there. Rats.

The Gene Autry Museum is having a surfing exhibit until July 23, entitled "Ocean View: The Depiction of Southern California Coastal Lifestyle". The complete schedule, which ranges from performances by Dick Dale and Agent Orange to Meeting the Real Gidget can be found here.

Also I got an email from a new online surf shop out of Pismo called Pro Action USA.
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Tuesday, February 11, 2003

Big weather out of the south. The Harvest Bouy was showing massive windswell from 180° this morning and not much out of the NW.

The photos from Israel from a few days ago were from a former Santa Barbarian named Bob Campi who is on assignment as an overseas photojournalist with NBC News and is staying in Tel Aviv for now. Apparently that is the best surf Israel has seen in 5 years.

"I'm in my fourth month of surfing here collectively. Two and half months last spring and currently going on my second month here...although this place is capable of grave danger at anytime, through surfing, I have experienced this country in a way certainly my colleagues can't quite grasp.I can assure you one thing though, the surfing community here is alive and well here, with many talented Israeli surfers in the lineup."

It seems Bob has a habit of putting himself in some of the most war stricken parts of the world, as you can read about in his stories in Afghanistan and Kosovo.

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Monday, February 10, 2003

<---- New Report for Sunday

Step Into Liquid
So the Step Into Liquid evening at the Arlington was pretty amazing. I knew it was going to be an interesting evening when I saw Meter Mel walk by me about 5 seconds after I was inside. I'm sure there are plenty of reviews about the movie itself, so I'll try to link to one once google finds a good one. In the meantime, if you can put up with message board banter, you can check out this post for some snippets.

For me the crowd was the most interesting. A short list of people in attendance: Tom Curren, Pat O'Connell, WingNut, Davey Smith, Shaun Tomson, Sam August, Kelly Slater, The Malloy Brothers, the towing teams of Ken "Skindog" Collins/Peter Mel & Brad Gerlach/Mike "Snips" Parson, Jesse Billauer
, and Dave Webster. We also saw Bo Derek a few times. Local Shaun Tomson was the MC, and every time he spoke I couldn't help but think of his performance from "In God's Hands", "Let's say you surf your local break...and you're pretty good..how far are willing you to take it?"

The movie itself was pretty good. Great cinematography but a little too feel good for my tastes. At times it was painfully trying to emulate Bruce's style, but it was good at showcasing diversity and a more human aspect of our surfing world. Seth Bayer was there, and I somehow couldn't help but think that watching his homegrown film with a couple hundred other people a few days ago was more rewarding then all the glam and hipe of Step Into Liquid. Sort of like a circus, but with surfers.
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Friday, February 07, 2003

Don't forget to check out "Step into Liquid" tommorrow night. Today was windy from the impending low that's hovering north of us and seems to be crawling our way.

For those that are jonesing for some pics we've got a couple of cool ones from surprising places from readers recently. Rob sent in a foto a friend of his took at a French outer reef. Viva La France.



Then we got Chance bringing some pics of a freind who lives in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amazing.


Have a surf-centric weekend.
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Thursday, February 06, 2003

The movie "Scratching the Surface" last night was a pretty good event. I think it sold out early, most probably because 1/2 of the people there were associated with the movie and probably got in free. "The Messengers" opened with an hour or so set of irie music which the open container crowd seemed to enjoy. Afterwards they gave away a 9'2" Wayne Rich. Then the 47 minute long movie by Seth Brayer showed. Victoria Hall was filled with people you might reconize from the SB surf scene; Wayne Rich, Clyde Beatty Jr., Mikey and Jimmy, Oliver, Nells, Derek of IVRP fame, Sean Kirkpatrick, a bunch of Tar Pits punks, and my personal favorite: Randall (whom I've never seen out of I.V.).

I soon learned why Randall (Stoker) was at the movie. He was in it. I could not believe my eyes. Here's this dude I've seen for the last 10 years bumming around the streets and water of IV and he's got a Coal Oil Point sequence in a movie that will be shown at the Film Festival. I saw Randall doing some strange things on beach and waterNov 20, and the more I think of it, this may have been the day they took that footage.

Besides Randall the movie had some good shots of Tom Curren and Occy, two stylemasters who really set themselves apart. Most of the movie was longboarding, and most was filmed in the water by Seth riding behind or in front of the subject. George made a cameo in the movie and there was some good local history lessons by the Yaters. There was one 2 second shot at the end of the movie of a spot in Carp, to which the Tar Pits punks started shouting "kook" and "don't surf here!". If they hadn't of said anything I'm not so sure most people would have placed the location.

The Harvest Buoy has almost doubled since yesterday. Which isn't saying much, but I think we are in an uptrend.
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Wednesday, February 05, 2003

thanks to Pete for the heads up on a 2nd surf movie tonight:

FEBRUARY 5TH, Campbell Hall at UCSB, 7:30pm, FEATURING MUSIC BY OLIVIA and a MESSAGE FROM BRITT MERRICK, $2 Admission. This is from Bryan Jennings the maker of Changes and Follow the Leader. Raffle for CI board.

"The Outsiders is a new look into the lives and abilities of several top-notch surfers from Australia and the United States and reveals the true substance behind their fame."
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Don't forget about the surf movie tonight at Victoria Hall at 7:00. Some band comes on first and then the movie, "Scratching the Surface", plays about 8:30. Tickets are $10 and go on sale starting at 4:30 at the Victoria Hall Box Office.

In other news It appears that hometown hero Tom Curren will in some way be associated with the "Step Into Liquid" flick that is showing at the Arlington and there are still some tickets left, although I don't know if they are in the cheap ($20) or more expensive ($40 & $100) seats.
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Tuesday, February 04, 2003

The Harvest Bouy and CDIP SoCal Swell Model are reading the most dismal I've seen in about two months or so.

In the meantime, play frisbee or something.
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Monday, February 03, 2003

<---- New Reports for the weekend. (1) (2)

Some wildlife spottings this weekend, a baby sea lion at Rincon and a whale breaching off the coast near Leadbetter. There isn't a lot of swell action going on in the water today, at least up in Goleta.

I actually know one of the kids that got busted for the "bomb" in the Albertson's parking lot last week. By no means a bomb it was more of a science experiment that would interest a 17 year old. We built similiar contraptions in high school and here I am now 12 years later (with all 10 fingers) enjoying working for an R&D company. I can understand the fear people have these days about terrorism but this is just blown out of proportion.
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Santa Barbara Surfing. Created by Tim Maddux. Continued by Pope.