Monday, June 30, 2008
Many of our local surfers made the Finals at NSSA Nationals this past Saturday. Cole Robbins won Open and Explorer Longboard. A few of our hot surfers had upsets on Friday, but a good showing from Santa Barbara area surfers. Here are their results from all Division Finals.
Open Boys
1. Koa Smith
2. Luke Hitchcock
3. Makai McNamara
4. Joshua Moniz
5. Nic Hdez
6. Parker Coffin - Santa Barbara
Open Longboard
1. Cole Robbins - Santa Barbara
2. Scott Brandenbur
3. Cody Ulrich
4. Kevin McNicol
5. Weston Williams
6. Patrick Nichols
Explorer Boys
1. Keanu Asing
2. Ezekiel Lau
3. Kolohe Andino
4. Conner Coffin - Santa Barbara
5. Luke Davis
6. Kaimana Jaquias
Explorer Womens
1. Leila Hurst
2. Monyca Byrne-Wickey
3. Alessa Quizon
4. Demi Boelsterli - Santa Barbara
5. Lakey Peterson - Santa Barbara
6. Nage Melamed
Explorer Girls
1. Leila Hurst
2. Malia Manuel
3. Nage Melamed
4. Kalia Moniz
5. Alisha Gonsalves
6. Lakey Peterson - Santa Barbara
Explorer Masters
1. Tim Senneff
2. Chris Keet - Santa Barbara
3. Rick Takahashi
4. Christian Budroe
5. Steve Moore
6. Scott Whitmer
Explorer Longboard
1. Cole Robbins - Santa Barbara
2. Mike Gillard
3. Scott Brandenbur
4. Cody Ulrich
5. Eli Gillis
6. Mike Lalland
2008 NSSA National Championship Interscholastic Results
College: Santa Barbara
College Men
1. Nick Olsen
2. Alex Ganguili
3. Keetin Devine
4. Marty Weinstein
5. Matt Johnson - UCSB
6. Andre Oziol
College Womens
1. Lauren Sweeney
2. Lipoa Kahaleuahi - UCSB
3. Allie Brown
4. Erika Cook
5. Lauren McLean
6. Lily Howard - UCSB
College Longboard
1. Christian Clark
2. Kevin Osborne
3. Chris Koerner
4. Todd Kinsey
5. Corey Hartwyck - UCSB
6. Woody Robinson
High School Mens
1. Brent Reilly
2. Kiron Jabour
3. Tyler Ginty
4. Gabe Garcia
5. Quinn McCrystal
6. Conner Coffin - Carp High School
High School Women
1. Kelia Moniz
2. Coco Ho
3. Sara Taylor
4. Taylor Pitz
5. Rachel Harris - Carp High School
6. Alexa Dilley
High School Longboard
1. Chris Cravey
2. Cole Robbins - Santa Barbara
3. Jeff Newell
4. Cody Ulrich
5. Mike Fisher
6. Kevin Dewald
Middle School Boys
1. Kolohe Andino
2. Luke Hitchcock
3. Parker Coffin - Carp Jr. High
4. Ian Crane
5. Kalen Galtes
6. Jesse Gaghemana
link to this
Friday, June 27, 2008
Well at this point at least one local kid, Conner Coffin, is guaranteed a Finals appearance on Saturday. He made it to the Finals in the Explorer Boys and will be surfing in a 6 man heat with Kolohe Andino. In other divisions, Conner got bumped out of Open Juniors in Round 3, but is still alive in Open Mens, with a Round 2 heat today.
Of the other locals in Open Mens yesterday, Kokoro Tomatsuri, Andrew Bennett, and Adam Lambert all advanced to Round 2 while Trevor Gordan and Brandon Smith were eliminated.
For the ladies, Demi Boesterli was eliminated yesterday but Ojai's Sage Erikson advanced to the Quarterfinals.
link to this
Thursday, June 26, 2008
As observed earlier, UCSB claimed their 11th National Championships this past Saturday at NSSA Nationals in Salt Creek. We couldn't find any local coverage of this great feat, so we decided to do some hard hitting investigative journalism ourselves. We thus present our Edhat Column "UCSB Surf Team Claims National Championships" to fill in some more details. Special thanks to Co-Capitan Joe Riggio Jr. for helping answer our questions.
With that in the books, we look towards the last 3 days of NSSA Nationals, when things start heating up for our local contestants. Starting today the heats will be streamed online at Surfing Magazine.
link to this
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Congratulations to the UCSB Surf Team, who claimed their (EDIT: 11th) National Title. While the team results for NSSA Middle School and High School National Championships aren't announced until this coming Sunday, UCSB was announced as the winner of College Team. The news was first reported Sunday by the OC Register and Fox College Sports will air the finals on August 2nd. The highest placing UCSB surfer was Lipoa Kahaleuahi who placed 2nd in the Women's final. We'll post up all the results from the UCSB team as well as the local high schools when they are all out.
link to this
Friday, June 20, 2008
On summer solstice we have a rare June 
heat wave bringing us warm weather and in turn the water has slowly warmed to 62 degrees. Trunkable conditions have existed this week, with rideable waves in town picking up various bits of swell. Many surfers have said goodbye to their favorite surf spots for the summer as they are turned over to surf camps, junior guards, and day care. UCSB has a full on racket going down at Campus Point, pulling in a big rake every day as they lease the beach.
NSSA Nationals
NSSA Nationals started this Wednesay at Salt Creek and moves to Trestles next week. You can check out the full schedule at the NSSA which also has a preview, and local surfer Kokoro is Surfer of the Week. Of recent note is our local Surfer Scholars who qualified for nationals, congratulations to all and good luck down South.
4.8 GPA
Kokoro Tomatsuri - Carpinteria High
4.5 GPA
Conner Coffin - Carpinteria High
4.4 GPA
Rachel Harris - Carpinteria High
4.0 GPA
Parker Coffin - Carpinteria Middle School
Dustin Letinsky - Carpinteria High
Brad Margol - UC Santa Barbara
3.9 GPA
Mike Poole - UC Santa Barbara
3.8 GPA
Shane Orr - Santa Barbara High
Glennie Rodgers - Santa Barbara High
Derek Weil - UC Santa Barbara
3.7 GPA
Lily Howard - UC Santa Barbara
3.6 GPA
Woody Robinson - UC Santa Barbara
3.5 GPA
Quinn Dawson - Carpinteria High
link to this
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
We here at Santa Barbara Surfing finally 
got around to reviewing another product for the Surfing Product Reviews section. On offer is a review of David Rensin's biography of Miki Dora, "All For A Few Perfect Waves." We give it a thumbs up, thought it did a nice job of explaining the life of Miki Dora in all it's raw detail.
The timing on the review works out as David Rensin himself will be in Santa Barbara this coming weekend. He'll be signing books at Chaucers' Books at 3:00 on Sunday, June 22.
Chaucers' Books
Loreto Plaza
3321 State Street
(805) 682-6787
events@chaucersbooks.com
You can check out Rensin's website, Tell Me Everything for more info on the Miki Dora book and David Rensin.
Update 6/19: Thursday's issue of The Independent has an excellent story by Ethan Stewart on All For a Few Perfect Waves.
link to this
Monday, June 16, 2008
In our posting of locals on the contest scene, 
we've neglected the Robbins twins, 17 year old longboarders born and raised in Santa Barbara who were temporarily located in Carlsbad for a few years but moving back to Santa Barbara.
Cole Robbins recently won the NSSA West Coast Championships for both Open and Explorer longboard divisions. He will competing in NSSA Nationals this week. Cole also surfs on the ASP World Longboard Tour which is the LB equivalent of the WCT. He placed equal 17th in the first contest in France last month.
Brett Robbins is surfing on the Longboard WQS (along with his brother Cole) to qualify for the WLT. The brothers placed well in the first contest at K-55 a few weekends ago. Cole got to the Quarterfinals, and Brett got to the Semi-finals. The brothers next contest is a Professional Longboard Tour event in Ventura this coming weekend.
link to this
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Tonight (Thursday June 12th) is
the premier of "Puddles In The Sky" in Santa Barbara. It will be shown at the Stateside in La Arcata. Besides the film, Years Around the Sun will be performing a set. This all kicks off to a 21 and up crowd at 8pm. Raffles and free stuff of course will be involved and some surfers from the movie are expected. However, as far as local Bobby Morris being on hand, it doesn't look good as he just got knocked out of the WQS event in the Maldives yesterday.
The trailer is available at the Puddles website or a backup location here.
"Shot entirely in vivid high definition, the movie delivers stunning imagery from Indonesia, Australia, the Hawaiian Islands as well as North and Central America, and equally developed soundtrack fluidly blends original scores by the Protist and up-tempo grooves from Sixtoo, Years Around the Sun, Jose Gonzales and more. This is cinematic immersion into the art of surfing. Australian style master Adam Robertson narrates and stars with Andrew Bennett, Dane Reynolds, Bobby Morris, Asher Pacey, Yadin Nicol, Cully Chesnut, Shane Dorian and others."
link to this
Monday, June 09, 2008
Things slowly picked up in the water through the end of last week, culminating in an awesome day of waves on Sunday. Below is the rundown on Pope's sessions. Don't forget to check out two of our favorite sites, Goleta Surfing and Rincon Surf Blog, which both have updates and photos from the weekend.
- Monday June 2: Sands @ Noon on Longboard. Calf high paddle
- Tuesday June 3: Sands @ Noon on Longboard. Knee high struggle.
- Wednesday June 4: Deveraux @ Noon on Longboard. Fun thigh high
- Thursday June 5: Sands @ Noon on Fish. Waist High+ Peaks
- Friday June 6: Sands @ Noon on Fish. Chest High with nice shape
- Saturday June 7: Rincon @ 8am on Fish. Shoulder High but a mess
- Sunday June 8: Rincon @ 9am on Fish. Shoulder high, clean and long, best session in months.
The Sunday session started out with a paddle out on the backside of the indicator. Which was our first sign the waves had some sort of size as we actually had to time the paddle out to the sets, as opposed to the typical summer action of just going. The crowd wasn't too bad and there was a vibe of general stoke out there. Everyone was getting plenty of waves, and they were long enough rides to spread things out a bit. Rincon has that ability to let you practice the same turn over and over again and it's amazing how your surfing can improve over the course of a session. A typical wave went like this: Work hard to get into one, think you are a little late so angle down the face, get to the bottom and discover you are actually outrunning the wave so throw up a cutback, make it to the foam and come around to discover you are getting swallowed, throw a couple pumps in there, and by this time you are in a rhythm with the wave, turning off the top or throwing a cutback in there where appros. Didn't see anyone get a barrel out there, but some sections on the inside gave the opportunity. The last wave took us past the Rivermouth and to the top of the Cove lineup, where Clay was waiting for his next wave. That Epic Wave (or EW as it would be known to pope's associates) was stoke enough to fuel us through any sort of setbacks henceforth.
link to this
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Pope was surfing Rincon on Saturday morning and found an iPod lying on the ground in the parking lot. If you lost yours email him at sbsurfing@gmail.com with some info such as model/color/where you lost it.
link to this
Friday, June 06, 2008
We have here an opportunity to help out in the local community. Matt Johnson, the PE teacher at McKinley Elementary (on the SB Mesa), is preparing to take some students out for surf lessons. Matt has gone so far as to become a certified lifeguard and get some donated surfboards. What McKinley needs now is some wetsuits for the kids. So if you have any kids sized wetsuits, your donation would be appreciated.
Contact For Donations:
Angela Lang, Art Teacher
McKinley Elementary
(805) 966-9926 x211
angelafayelang@yahoo.com
Although us surfers can become jaded about surf schools and introducing throngs of new surfers into the lineups, this right here is an opportunity to give these kids (many who are living below the poverty line) a chance to develop a positive outlet.
link to this
Thursday, June 05, 2008
With the recent news that a Black Bear has been roaming in the UCSB, IV, and Goleta environs, here are some ocean related sightings to add to the mix up there.
Coal Oil Point has been the home of many interesting sightings by Pope in recent weeks, having forced himself to surf sessions out there regardless if there are waves or not. A few weeks ago the Whale Watching people on the cliff informed Pope to not disturb a juvenile Elephant Seal that had beached itself right at the top of the point. This was something Peter Howorth wrote about in a recent NewsPress "Pacific Log" column. It was eventually scared off by a beach goer before the marine mammal people could check it out.
Pope has also had several sighting of Sea Otters at Sands and Deveraux, apparently the re-locating effort is long over for these dudes and they are starting to gain a higher visibility in these parts.
Sunday was an entirely flat day surf wise, but that didn't stop an amazing Dolphin show at Sands. Alone, in the water at Stu Peak, Pope found himself surrounded by 4-5 dolphins all within a few yards, some on the inside position, and all just hanging out for 5-10 minutes before moving outside and around the point. The Snowy Plover Docent was impressed.
Wih a warning that the photo is fairly graphic, Jon Shafer posted about the Sea Lion carcasses washing up at Coal Oil recently. There are currently two of these big dudes about half way between the stairs and the Jail House. Around lunchtime on Wednesday you had to walk between a gateway of dead sea lions (one with a menacing gash) to go surf at Sands or Deveraux.
In lieu of there being any real waves to speak of, the natural environment has certainly stepped up to entertain those surfers looking to just get wet.
link to this
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Next Surfrider Meeting
Wednesday, June 4, 7:00 PM, Home Planet Productions Theater (735 State Street )
Local surf photographer Branden Aroyan will present a slideshow of local footage with Kelly Slater and his recent travels to the North Shore. UCSB PHd Candidate Jonah Busch to present “Do surfers respond to water quality risk?”
Brandon Yates Contest
The 4th Annual contest to honor Brandon Yates is going on this Sunday, June 8th at Emma Wood State Beach.
Pro-Am, Mens, Juniors, Groms and Team
$40 per person for amateur divisions
$100 for Pro-Am($50 goes towards purse)
Beach sign-ups from 7:15am-8:00am
8am start (individual events first. team events around noon)
Sandwiches for lunch
All proceeds donated to Cancer Research
Any questions call Darryl at 805.284.4455
Bobby Martinez In Fiji
Bobby Martinez had a good run in WCT stop #4 in Fiji. He made it all the way to the Quarterfinals where he lost to eventual winner Kelly Slater. Bobby was winning most of his heat against Slater with a 9ish score on one wave, but failed to get a good 2nd score and went down to Slater's two 8 somethings. Bobby has risen from 12th place to 10th place with that showing.
Puddles In The Sky Premier
Matt Kleiner's Puddles in the Sky will premier on June 12th at Stateside in downtown SB with live music by Years Around the Sun.
"The movie includes footage of Locals Standouts Bobby Morris and Andrew Bennett from Indonesia, Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, Australia and of course right here in SB. Pros from the movie will be on hand as well as surfing magazine and other sponsors. There will be a raffle for some great prizes and plenty of free stuff."
Sorry kids, this event is 21 and up. Admission is only $5 and doors open at 8pm.
link to this
Santa Barbara Surfing. Created by Tim Maddux. Continued by Pope.
the premier of "Puddles In The Sky" in Santa Barbara. It will be shown at the Stateside in La Arcata. Besides the film, Years Around the Sun will be performing a set. This all kicks off to a 21 and up crowd at 8pm. Raffles and free stuff of course will be involved and some surfers from the movie are expected. However, as far as local Bobby Morris being on hand, it doesn't look good as he just got knocked out of the WQS event in the Maldives yesterday.
Next Surfrider Meeting