Thursday, July 24, 2008
We have a new article up on Edhat.com, 
this one on Local Surf Shops, and how they are effected by all of the new surf clothing stores opening up in town. Surely we missed some good stories in there, and perhaps gushed too much about our good experiences at Surf Country, but we love our local surf shops. Speaking of Edhat, Tom has some great sunset photos up there too. Tom also has another great photo essay, this time on local surfer/shaper Marc Andreini on his Goleta Surfing site. This is an amazing read, a loving display of photos all the way back to the early 60's with the context and story to go along.
Some surfers experienced good results from the much anticipated South Swell that arrived over the weekend. We here at Santa Barbara Surfing drove all the way to Ventura (we're guessing $13 for gas in the wife's Toyota T-100) on Saturday evening for a glass off. The waves were in the waist to maybe chest high range, backing off a lot, and pretty mushy and messed up from the wind. Winter couldn't come soon enough after that excursion.
However in the days since that straight south swell surfers have been getting waves here in town from systems much closer both arriving from both South and North. Good times were had by those willing to check their local spots on a whim.
link to this
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Bobby Martinez was eliminated in Round 4 by Brazilian Adriano de Souza at the Billabong Pro. Bobby, a goofyfooter, is an amazing backside surfer, something he excelled at growing up in our land of great right point breaks. However this contest seems to give fits to most all the goofyfooters, and Bobby was no exception having a tough time getting into a rhythm. (Edit: Bobby placed equal 9th and improved his standing from 10th overall to 9th overall.) The next event is a long and perfect left which should hopefully showcase Bobby's excellent frontside tuberiding.
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Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Bobby Martinez is down in South Africa surfing at the WCT event at JBay. In his Round 2 heat he scored a perfect ten on one wave with a screaming backside barrel. Seeing has how the time change makes the event run run from around 10pm to 8am our time, it's hard to track Bobby live (he'll probably surf 1am Wednesday our time), but the heats are archived on the contest site.
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Friday, July 11, 2008
Thanks to those readers who responded, our article about gas prices and surfing is up on Edhat.
This weeks Independent had a few nice words about Frank Louda here and here.
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Wednesday, July 09, 2008
- Tom has some a photo essay up at Goleta Surfing during the Gap Fire.
He also has a page up from the hot weekend a couple of weeks ago. - Jonah sends us a link to a guy who is making cardboard core surfboards. He is looking for a glasser.
- We actually had some waves over the last few days, although that looks to be ending. Photo to the right by Pope of an uber snake at Sands on Tuesday.
- Locally, the guy behind Point Concept Surfboards is also making some beautiful wood surboards at Timberline Surfboards. You can see his latest creation, and follow the progress at PCProgress.
- KEYT has some hard hitting journalism on the parking situation this summer down at Santa Claus Lane.
- Rincon Surf Blog has some Gap Fire photos and other local news.
- Were quite late on this, but the local surf community lost a friend on June 30th. Carpinteria surfer Frank Louda was surfing along the Gaviota Coast when he was spotted floating in the water. According the The Indepenendent, The Daily Sound, and KSBY, the cause is still under investigation. His wife said, “Frank had an extraordinary talent for enjoying life and was doing what he did best.” Well said.
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Monday, July 07, 2008
We took a bit of a break from Santa Barbara Surfing during the Gap Fire to focus on more pressing issues but now that things are looking better we're back. We have been putting together a little story for Edhat.com about gas prices and the effect on local surfing. A similiar story ran today at the San Diego News Tribune. We're looking for anyone who wants to chime in with personal experiences to email us at sbsurfing@gmail.com. Of local interest is our lack of South swells and how far we have to drive/fly/boat to get to waves in summer. What has changed for you?
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Tuesday, July 01, 2008
One good thing about the implosion of the Santa Barbara NewsPress is that local online media content has multiplied. It has only been about five hours since a few acres started burning above Goleta, visible to most of the area. A lot of websites are already covering this for those looking at what is going on.
Besides KEYT covering it 24/7, Edhat.com, The Independent, and the Daily Sound all were able to alert the community to what was going on fairly quickly. Just a few years ago it seemed up to date coverage was out of the question. Kudos.
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Santa Barbara Surfing. Created by Tim Maddux. Continued by Pope.
He also has a page up from the hot weekend a couple of weeks ago.