It's funny that modern surfing is considered a "culture" in an anthropological sense. Studying Hawaiian surfing, or any aboriginal peoples as a culture seems to make sense. But the idea of long hairs who owned three pairs of shorts, traveling about, sleeping in cars and chasing waves as a subject of academia is bizarre. Fortunately, surfing is now well aware of its own history and that will be celebrated this Sunday in the fancy digs of the Fowler Museum at UCLA - a venue that celebrates Tibetan Bhuddist printmaking, Nigerian tribal masks, and the social contexts of fine 16th century silver.
Courtesy Bustindownthedoor.comIn the 70s, sneering Shaun Tomson could have never imagined that surf culture would be a subject of academic discussion.
Titled "Making Waves," the event will be screenings of "Bustin' Down the Door" and "Sea of Darkness," two award winning surf documentaries of the last five years and then a panel discussion about surfing's globalization and professionalization. If you were under the impression that pro surfing was all about exercise balls and New Era hats, apparently, this will set the record straight.
The event will be supported by three pillars of surf documentation in former world champ (his resume is too long to list, check out the interview we did with him last year) Shaun Tomson, filmmaker Michael Oblowitz, and film curator, Keiko Beatie. They've teamed up with the folks at the UC Humanities Research Institute, which serves all ten campuses in the UC system to promote collaborative, interdisciplinary humanities research and pedagogy, to make for a very academic affair.
Have you noticed how fleeting causes have become?
No doubt, social networking is an effective way to get a message out to like-minded people. And you can't beat free when it comes to the price of modern communication. But does it sometimes feel as if activism has been boiled down to re-tweeting and throwing your name and postal code on a petition? What happened to the days where giving a damn meant getting right in the trenches, when being an activist meant more than just "liking" the cause du jour?
Epes/A-FrameFreight Trains, said to be one of the fastest waves in the world, has been saved from a breakwater and marina expansion.
Surfrider Foundation recently celebrated a victory, but it was far from a few Instagram posts. This battle has waged for two decades, going back to a day where people used to go to these things called libraries. But after the decades of hard work on Maui, the right hander known as Freight Trains at Ma'alaea (which some call the fastest wave in the world) has been saved from a marina and proposed breakwater construction. The US Army Corps of Engineers, who assists government bodies with planning, designing, and constructing any water resource project, is now convinced that the marina would be a mistake.
"Surfrider has been working on it for a hell of a long time," said Stuart Coleman, the Surfrider Foundation's Hawaiian Chapter Coordinator. "It's definitely one of our longest running campaigns."
Adjacent to the legendary fickle right is a small boat harbor. But commercial interests going back to the late 80s have been pushing to expand the marina, which would require the controversial breakwater.
Bryce KanightsGreyson Smith grinds the over-vert clam shell at the West Linn skatepark in the suburbs of Portland, Ore.
Skateboarding is a baby compared to surfing. While we're celebrating the Z-Boys of the 70s and the Bones Brigade of the 80s as our pioneers, surfing was already huge in America for three or four decades by that point (I'm not even going to get into how it dates all the way back to the 1700s). When Alex Olson turned pro in 2008, becoming the first son of a pro skater to turn pro, surfing had already had generation after generation of pro lineage. Flip Skateboards' newest am, Greyson Fletcher, belongs to such a lineage. His great grandfather, Walter Hoffman, was a big wave pioneer in the 50s, his aunt Joyce a women's champion surfer in the 60s. His grandpa Herbie Fletcher, dad Christian Fletcher and uncle Nathan Fletcher are household names in the surf world. So how the hell did Greyson Fletcher, heir to a surf empire, become a sponsored skater instead of surfer? He lived inland.
ESPN: How did you get hooked up with Flip?
Greyson: I was skating at the Vans Skatepark at the Block in Orange County and they started kicking everyone out for a private session with Curren Caples and his friends for his birthday. I was like, "I know Curren, I'm staying." Jeremy Fox was there from Flip with Lance Mountain and Geoff Rowley and they saw me skating the mini ramp and that's when they got interested a little. After that I started skating with Arto Saari at some backyard pools and stuff and meeting up with him in LA every weekend and skating his pool. Flip seemed stoked and I started getting some boards from them. Right before the Pro-Tec Pool Party Andrew [Shusterman] from Flip asked me if I wanted to ride for them and I was like, "Hell yeah, I'm interested. Sounds really fun!" That's when they put me on the team.
Chances are if you're from the States you haven't heard much about Romain Cloitre, let alone seen his surf talents in action, but to be sure, dude rips. Part of a hard-charging, full-on crew from the south Indian Ocean that's quickly catching up to more global powerhouses like the United States and Australia, Cloitre's coming on strong. Hailing from Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, similar to Jeremy Flores who currently sits fifth in the world and was raised on Reunion and now calls New Caledonia home, Cloitre splits time between the island, the southwest coast of France and wherever else his travels may take him. ESPN Surfing caught up with Cloitre on a recent trip to Indo, this is what he had to say.
Rich McMullinOcean City, New Jersey's Andrew Gesler, playing into and over the hurricane hype.Hurricane Season doesn't officially start until June 1, but don't tell that to Tropical Storm Alberto. Alberto formed Saturday afternoon off the Coast of South Carolina. Today, he's a moderate tropical storm heading northeast. And for every surfer from Folly Beach to Hampton Beach, it's an early gift.
But let's talk more traditional hurricanes and where they come from. They call it the "Horse Latitudes" -- the area 30 to 35 degrees north and south of the equator known for a lack of wind. The Sahara Desert lays in this region and in the summer, it gets so hot that as air rises, it creates its own East African jet. This creates massive columns of warm air that stretch toward the heavens. When these approach the Atlantic Ocean, they are met with wet air... and suddenly they are a tropical wave. Then it's on.
Hurricane swells can get good -- like hand in the face, weight on the tail, stalling for all your worth to get spit out on the shoulder good. But more often, wind shear, swell decay, onshores, and closeouts will find a way to mar the waves we're all waiting for.
When the second episode of Eric and John Jackson's AK-to-Chile shred/surf road trip web series "Brothers on the Run" came out this week, we weren't surprised to see Travis Rice make a cameo. After all, the footage was shot in Alaska's Tordrillo Range, which is where Rice and John filmed most of their all-time-banger AK lines for "The Art of Flight."
Anyone familiar with AK missions knows that you do not just fly to Alaska for four days and expect to get weather and snow conditions good enough for shooting. Most people wait weeks for a window like that. And yet, this is what happened for the boys on this trip. If a god of snowboarding exists, it is clear that he loves these guys.
What we didn't expect was to see big-wave surfer Ian Walsh on screen, ripping steep lines with authority. Because, while it's true that most pro snowboarders harbor closet dreams of being pro surfers, the pendulum rarely swings back the other way.
The few surfers who do snowboard mostly spend their time riding mellow pow lines on low-profile family vacations -- they definitely aren't jumping out of helis in AK on the same peaks that Rice and the Jacksons are filming on and holding their own on the way down. We tracked Walsh down to figure out what kind of special Superman powder he's adding to his papaya juice.
ESPN: First off, how does a guy who grew up in Maui, and makes a living surfing full-time, become a snowboarder?
Ian Walsh: Andy Irons. He was a close friend of mine, and when I was about 20 he won the world title and ... well, right after that he just wanted to do something different. He wanted to go snowboarding. So I went with him. We went to Park City, Utah. I'd never been in the snow before, but after the second or third day we were jumping around and I just thought, "Whoa, this is really fun."
Courtesy NYSFFEvery surf movie trailer in one place.
Every surf movie trailer ever made? That's quite a list.
Last week, the folks at the New York Surf Film Festival completed the first digital collection of surf film trailers online from "The Westsiders" to "A Hatteras Surf Odyssey, 1975." From blockbusters like "Surfers the Movie" to indie flicks like "Manufacturing Stoke," they're all in one place at Pinterest.
To be honest, I had to inquire as to what Pinterest was. I admit that I can't keep up with the dearth of networking in 2012. As far as I know, there are no actual "meetings" for people addicted to social media, but they probably exist on Twitter. I'm actually thinking of going back to a rotary phone. From what I'm told, Pinterest is a way to "organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web," -- a.k.a. another great way to waste time on your boss' dime. But this surf trailer thing will certainly keep you occupied in the cubicle.
"We were searching for a way to engage with our audience in a relevant way on this new platform," said Morgan Rae Berk, founder of the New York Surf Film Festival. "There were a few lists and video channels online created by traditional surf media outlets and brands, but none that gathered this unique film genre's trailer centrally in a comprehensive visual collection."
Jason KenworthyIn the past six months, nobody's been more dominant than John John Florence.
John John Florence won the 2012 Billabong Rio Pro, beating Joel Parkinson in the final Wednesday. Florence is now ranked sixth in the world, while Parkinson has taken over the top spot on the ASP World Tour ratings.
Gallery
Highlights from the 2012 Billabong Rio Pro. Gallery 
Florence's victory furthers a string of good results for the 19-year-old Hawaiian, and is proof he can succeed in any and all conditions. In December, he was crowned the 2011 Vans Triple Crown champion and won the Vans World Cup at Sunset Beach. Then in January, he won the Volcom Pipe Pro, followed by a first-place finish at the Drug Aware Pro in Western Australia in March, and most recently, he posted an equal third-place finish at the Nike Lowers Pro. It would be hard to argue that anybody -- even Kelly Slater, who now finds himself sitting an uncharacteristic eighth in the ratings -- has been more dominant over the past six months.
"I can't even believe this right now," Florence said afterward. "I'm in shock. I was just sticking to my game plan and not thinking about the other guys. I'm so happy right now."
Meanwhile, Parkinson's rise to the pole position has him poised for a title run through the second half of the year. With the rise of the teen phenoms, some have noted this year could be one of 31-year-old Parkinson's last bids for a title that's elluded him throughout his otherwise stellar career.
Jason KenworthyBe it Hawaii, Australia, or in this case, Brazil, John Florence continues to lead an impressive charge.
Heartbreak comes in many forms. For Julian Wilson it arrived as a last-second tube by John Florence on Tuesday at Billabong Pro Rio. In Adriano De Souza's case it was the fact he lost with a perfect 10 in his scoreline.
On a day best described as feast or famine, Wilson had it figured that his round four win was a lock. In fact, he'd already come in when Florence took off on a thick, frothy wave at the horn and came flying out. Relegated to round five, Wilson would fight his way back, and will now, coincidentally, face Florence in the quarterfinals.
Jason KenworthyAdam Melling scores a 9.67 on this tube ride.
At the onset of the Billabong Pro Rio the smart money would have been on Gabriel Medina. Coming off a huge roll at the start of the month at the Nike Lowers Pro where critics, pundits and fans were convinced they'd witnessed one of the most dominate performances in Trestles history, it was assumed he would be unbeatable back on his native soil, or salt water, if you will.
Oh but what an equalizer the ocean can be. Wildcard Peterson Crisanto, another Brazilian, stepped up and upset Medina handily.
"I knew that heat wasn't going to be easy with Gabriel (Medina) so I just tried to stay on the rights and try and find the barrels," Crisanto said in his post-heat interview. "I almost made the first barrel, but I made the second one, so I'm happy to get through to the next round. I just tried to stay relaxed and find the right waves."
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Billabong Pro Rio: John Florence upsets Joel Parkinson to win in Brazil. Day 3 » Sally Fitzgibbons wins women's. Final »
XXL Awards: Nathan Fletcher steals the night, G-Mac breaks a world record. Story » Gallery
Mo' Medina: Gabriel Medina dominates the Nike Lowers Pro Story » Gallery
Byron Escape: Beyond the rat race, down around Byron Bay and Lennox Head things move at a little slower pace. Story » Gallery
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