Know anybody personally who has swine flu yet?
I did not until this week. The bad news is that my brother and his family all have swine flu. The good news is that he did not tell me in person. In fact, they live in South Carolina. His story is a scary one. On the grounds that Swine Flu would keep you out of the water, I'll share some details here.
My bro said that it starts off like a light cold or flu and that is one of the key dangers. Many a macho man has shrugged off the early symptoms. But like a tsunami, it just keeps coming. By the time he started coming out of it, he had secondary pneumonia and had been given big time anti-biotics, steroids, and a cortisone shot. He also said it spreads like fire. His daughter acquired it from her church group (you'd think that wouldn't happen). Shortly afterward, the whole family had swine flu including my brother who is one of those guys that never get sick.
No medical advice here at Cleanwatersurf.com. But watch out for that stuff, No Bueno!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Quicky Pro France 2009
If you didn't catch it, Dane took 2nd in the Hurley Pro at Lower Trestles. He lost in his first WCT final to Mick Fanning. He was easily the most exciting and dynamic surfer of the event. The highlight for me was when he out power surfed one of his idols, Taylor Knox in the quarters. The guys in the booth were blown away and they replayed that ride about 5 times during the heat. Catch the on demand here.
No breaks now, the Quicky Pro France has kicked off. Guess who had the highest heat score of Round One. Video Go to Round One Heat 13 Nice tune too. Dane even manages to slam the French in his offbeat way. Well done.
No breaks now, the Quicky Pro France has kicked off. Guess who had the highest heat score of Round One. Video Go to Round One Heat 13 Nice tune too. Dane even manages to slam the French in his offbeat way. Well done.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
The Hurley Pro 2009
The Hurley Pro 2009 is the only World Championship Tour, WCT, event held in North America. It is going on now at lower Trestles. They are currently through round 3 and on hold because the surf is no bueno. You can check out the highlights so far here. Be sure to check out Dane Reynolds in Round 3 Heat 7. Que up your own music because they set it to the cheesiest synthetic background music they could find. The waves were not very impressive, but Dane launched an amazing air to pull in an 8.3 and advance past Ben Dunn. Joel Parkinson was eliminated in Round 3 by Rob Machado so the title race is suddenly a little more interesting.
-You can check it out live here The next call is Friday morning 7:30am Pacific
-The good news is that the Americans are kicking butt. Taylor Knox, Roy Powers, Dane Reynolds, Rob Machado, Kelly Slater, Kekoa Bacalso, Damien Hobgood, and CJ Hobgood are all still in the hunt. Hawaiians are American last I heard.
-The Webcast has been pretty good. Could use Occy.
-The waves have been pretty poor overall. We can hope the final rounds will be held in much better surf.
-The offical website is good, but Hurley needs to do a better job of keeping it updated throughout the event. For example, Round 3 was running for awhile before the list of Round 3 match ups was posted. I eventually found it on the ASP site well before the event site.
The main thing is that the worlds greatest surfers are just down the road. I hope to get down to the event, but if I can not, I will be grateful for the webcast.
-You can check it out live here The next call is Friday morning 7:30am Pacific
-The good news is that the Americans are kicking butt. Taylor Knox, Roy Powers, Dane Reynolds, Rob Machado, Kelly Slater, Kekoa Bacalso, Damien Hobgood, and CJ Hobgood are all still in the hunt. Hawaiians are American last I heard.
-The Webcast has been pretty good. Could use Occy.
-The waves have been pretty poor overall. We can hope the final rounds will be held in much better surf.
-The offical website is good, but Hurley needs to do a better job of keeping it updated throughout the event. For example, Round 3 was running for awhile before the list of Round 3 match ups was posted. I eventually found it on the ASP site well before the event site.
The main thing is that the worlds greatest surfers are just down the road. I hope to get down to the event, but if I can not, I will be grateful for the webcast.
Right On Rip Curl
I am on my 2nd Rip Curl Ultimate E-Bomb wetsuit. This one is a chest zip. Overall, I love the suit. Keeps my core warm even in ice cream headache water allowing me to surf as long as I want. The flexibility is great, especially with the chest zip.
The zipper pull tab on my first E-bomb corroded off when the suit was about 2 1/2 year old. It was getting ratty, so I customized the zipper with a piece of copper wire and bought a new one. That wetsuit is now a back up or second session suit. Having a dry wetsuit for that second surf is magic.
A few months ago the zipper pull tab on my "new" E-bomb corroded off. Not only is this a disturbing trend, but at just over a year old this suit should have a lot of life left. I checked the Rip Curl website and of course nothing over 12 months is covered by warranty. I decided to return the wetsuit to Rip Curl for repair. Since it was a corrosion failure and a trend, I felt they should fix it for free. If they did not feel the same way, I have heard good things about Excel Wetsuits.
To return an item for repair in North America ship it to:
Rip Curl Service Center
3030 Airway Ave
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
You can call, 714-422-3600, if you like but the voice mail will just tell you to ship it with a note and they will call you when they get it. It is kind of a cryptic system, but it works.
When the young lady called me she told me that as a non-warranty repair it would be twenty something bucks. Seems like a fair price, but I get hung up on the principal of things sometimes. I told her I believed that the suit should be fixed for free and why. She said she would ask.
That is the last I heard from Rip Curl until the FedEx truck rolled up yesterday. Not the best communicators, but Rip Curl makes a great wetsuit. Since they are willing to stand behind it, my next suit will probably be a Rip Curl E-Bomb Chest Zip. Hopefully, they will have improved the zippers by then.
The zipper pull tab on my first E-bomb corroded off when the suit was about 2 1/2 year old. It was getting ratty, so I customized the zipper with a piece of copper wire and bought a new one. That wetsuit is now a back up or second session suit. Having a dry wetsuit for that second surf is magic.
A few months ago the zipper pull tab on my "new" E-bomb corroded off. Not only is this a disturbing trend, but at just over a year old this suit should have a lot of life left. I checked the Rip Curl website and of course nothing over 12 months is covered by warranty. I decided to return the wetsuit to Rip Curl for repair. Since it was a corrosion failure and a trend, I felt they should fix it for free. If they did not feel the same way, I have heard good things about Excel Wetsuits.
To return an item for repair in North America ship it to:
Rip Curl Service Center
3030 Airway Ave
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
You can call, 714-422-3600, if you like but the voice mail will just tell you to ship it with a note and they will call you when they get it. It is kind of a cryptic system, but it works.
When the young lady called me she told me that as a non-warranty repair it would be twenty something bucks. Seems like a fair price, but I get hung up on the principal of things sometimes. I told her I believed that the suit should be fixed for free and why. She said she would ask.
That is the last I heard from Rip Curl until the FedEx truck rolled up yesterday. Not the best communicators, but Rip Curl makes a great wetsuit. Since they are willing to stand behind it, my next suit will probably be a Rip Curl E-Bomb Chest Zip. Hopefully, they will have improved the zippers by then.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Saltwater Buddha
--Just finished Saltwater Buddha by Jaimal Yogis. It is one of the best surf related books I have ever read. Looking at the reviews, a lot of people love this book. Jaimal takes us along as he runs away to Hawaii, joins a monastery, runs off to Hawaii again, and then accepts joining the real world but on his own terms. Throughout his travels his surfing and spiritual journeys get him into some heavy situations. However, Jaimal keeps the story light, fun, and quick. You'll love this book and wind up recommending it to friends and family even if they don't surf.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Thousand Oaks is tougher than we thought
Wow, The possible jokes are endless. Good that Americans are passionate about a serious national issue. Ridiculous that a man lost part of his pinky. What does it have to do with surfing? Not much, but here's the stretch.. We have all seen some really stupid altercations in the water. I will argue that they have absolutely no place in surfing. They ruin the whole point of surfing. Maybe by looking at how ridiculous this sidewalk scuffle turned out, we can all just nod and paddle away next time.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Plastics at Sea
Wetsand.com posted an article in the Green Room by the American Chemical Society. The information is good but incomplete with a very misleading title. If you are going to read the article, I recommend that you also read the comment by BLBofVentura (a chemist) below. The point of the article is that a study found that plastics rapidly break down at sea (very questionable), but release toxins in the process.
Article
Article
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