Overhead surf shop is doing it again. They are hosting their End of Summer skimboarding contest. This fun filled competitive event will bring together the gulf coast’s best up and coming competitive skimboarders at the 130th public beach access on Maderia Beach. The divisions will include beginning, intermediate, and advanced. The contest starts at 8:30 in the morning. There will be a ceremony after the contest with food, music, and a live trophy painting. Don’t miss out on what’s sure to be an exciting event.
Category Archives: Surfing News
Upcoming Oakley Surf Shop Challenge
This weekend my buddy is going to be down at New Smyrna Beach shreddin the gnar and getting some clips. He’ll be hard at work at the Oakley Surf Shop Challenge, a surf shop surf contest hosted every year by Surfer Magazine and Oakley Sunglasses. This year is no different according to my friend Myles who works for the companies hosting this contest. If you’re headed to Smyrna this week, check it out. If you see a guy named Myles with black spiky afro like hair, and a big head say hello. Say hey dude! He was saying the forecast is looking pretty good. The website Swellinfo.com is showing the surf at knee high and choppy for Wednesday, so I’m thinking it’s going to be flat like pancake. We’ll see. Hopefully some surf fills in for the surfers. Myles said they’re expecting to run on Wednesday, so tune in. I think they’ll have live heats through the contest Website, and hopefully I can get some cool pictures for you.
WSL Event One of The 2019 Season Starts April 3
The World Surf League 2019 Season is about to get under way. The 2019 season will kick off in Australia at Snapper rocks. The event window is from the 3-13th. The surfers drawn for round one can be viewed in the featured image. The full list of events for the season with defending champions is here.
The surf forecast being described on the WSL website is for chest to shoulder high surf, a little bit under average, although their hoping for longer period swell near the end of the wave window, hopefully for the finals.
After seeing the really well known and influential leaders who have been at the top of the tour for so many years retire you may be wondering, who’s left on tour. Why should I watch if I can’t watch CJ, Taj, Mick, or Joel? Why would I want to watch it anymore? My favorite surfers aren’t even there anymore. Well, there are still a few guys on the tour worth watching. These surfers have a skill set unlike surfers of the past. It’s a whole new game with a whole new set of surfers pushing each other like nobody else in the world. The CT list of surfers for this 2019 season is here.
The timing of the events is sometimes a little bit off. The events are held half way around the world, so you might find that the heats are being run at what seem like strange times. Honestly, I have no idea what time the contest actually starts, or when during the day in, for example, eastern standard time, the contest is running through. All I know is, when it’s on, you can watch it at www.worldsurfleague.com
Correction: They said something about only broadcasting through Facebook now. I’m not sure if that’s still where it can be viewed. You may have to check one or the other to find it.
Surf Expo January 2018 Media Badge Confirmation
Great White Sharks in the Gulf of Mexico Spring 2018
It seems that every year we hear some “news” about how there are white sharks in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s as if the mere existence of these sharks in the Gulf is so profoundly unusual that it merits our attention. Well, it’s happening again. Two sharks that go by the name of Hilton and Yeti have been picked up by the satellite trackers attached to their dorsal region over the past couple weeks. Hilton first, in late April, then Yeti just yesterday. It’s worth mentioning that there are literally hundreds if not thousands of local sharks in your saltwater area ranging from all different sizes. 12 foot long Hilton is pictured in the featured image aboard the water platform attached to the Ocearch research vessel during his tagging. It’s actually actually quite commonplace to hear about white sharks in the gulf. Still, the recent ping from Hilton and Yeti’s satellite tags is a great opportunity to talk a little bit about sharks and their movements.
Let’s start with an analogy a fisherman once said. He was using this analogy to explain how to catch fish. It’s also a good way to understand how to find them. He said, fish are like people. Think about this, what you want to eat today may be a turkey sandwich, but tomorrow you might want a steak, and the next day maybe a salad. When talking about the food they eat, they may not always want the same thing from the same place. This subjective preference for different foods may dictate how these fish move. It certainly seems like a possibility, and definitely something the experts consider when trying make guesses about how and why these fish are moving. Food is a major driver for white shark behavior, and shark behavior in general for that matter. Food along the very fishy panhandle region of the continental shelf is a common source of sustinence for white sharks (see Hilton movement map below). Since being tagged by Ocearch Hilton has traveled 9929.312 miles between March 03, 2017 and April 2018.
When thinking locally about migratory shark behavior the local topography comes into consideration. We have an area behind Honeymoon Island State Park once described to me by a close friend as Shark Alley. It’s a trough that runs along the back side of the island that’s literally loaded with sharks. This deeper channel along the grass flat is a great transportation route for small and large sharks alike. On any given day you might spot a larger shark traveling through shark alley, and since this route is one of the more ideal routes, it’s more common to see the fish along it. Ideal routes to food, to move with the tides, or simply weather based movements are an obvious predictor of shark migration behaviors.
Questions one might ask as a researcher, questions undoubtedly left unanswered fall into a location and movement line of questioning. Do sharks have predictable patterns that they fall into? Do they have memories and are they impacted by them in a way that makes them more or less likely to return to a previous location? Some people think many fish travel along the same routes and to the same places year after year. Some people think fish just move as they wish. Do some species have preferences for certain regions of the gulf and why? Do they all have the same patterns of behaviors? Human behavior is so variable, are any fish like us? Biologists have mentioned that Dolphins are the only animals that engage in recreational intercourse. Do sharks exhibit unique human-like behaviors like this?
Correlational data are gathered and collated for many fish. It’s actually the only source of data for this kind of research. Problematic is the reality of the data, its depth and breadth. It’s hard to know exactly how many white sharks have been moving through the gulf. So we’ve got satellite tags on two of the ones in the gulf, but there could be hundreds more. We also have a hard time saying with certainty anything about why these creatures do what they do. If only they were like humans and we could just ask them, and try to trust that what they’re saying is accurate at least from their perspective. Unfortunately, sharks may be just as unpredictable and unreliable as humans.
You can read more about what Ocearch is doing on their website, watch videos, see shark info, and other related information on Ocearch.org.
Andy Irons Documentary: Kissed By God Review
A new Andy Irons documentary is coming out soon called Andy Irons: Kissed by God. Andy Irons was a really iconic figure in the surfing world 15 years or less ago. You would see pictures of him slashing a really radical turn on the windows of surf shops, promoted on the pictures atop the boardshort racks, and in many of the latest and greatest surf videos. He was a very well known and skilled surfer.
The documentary sheds light on Continue reading Andy Irons Documentary: Kissed By God Review
Quiksilver CEO Pierre Agnes Dissapears into the Atlantic Ocean
Quiksilver lost an important part of the company just days ago. Pierre Agnes, Quiksilver’s chief executive officer, was out on an early morning boating trip never to return. His boat was found washed up on the French coast near La Graviere in Hossegor, an iconic world tour spot. After discovering the boat, French officials searched for Mr. Agnes in the hopes of finding him adrift. However, he was not found, and the search was just called off. The surfing world is saying goodbye to a most influential leader.