SBCSurf.com - Blog - Blog

A Tale of Transitions

So it's that time of year again. No more swells in the double digits. You're not quite sure if you're a bit happy that it's warm or a bit bummed that it's flat. Or both at once. For South Island surfers, the next few months will be mostly about fishing, camping and heading off in search of waves outside the Strait. It's transition time, and here's a new clip from Keegan Varney with himself, Ben Murphy and Ryan Oke shredding one of the last pulses of the season before the summer doldrums set in. From his description:

"As spring comes to a close in the Pacific Northwest, three surfers head out in search of the remaining northerly swells and get ready for the transition towards long summer days, tropical surf trips and healing old injuries."

For more, check out Keegan's YouTube feed here.

Back Where It Began

Think this kid is going to rip when he grows up? Uh, yes. Here's a clip of Rip Curl rider (and now professional paramedic) Christian Moutinho teaching his son to surf at the same Brazilian beach his dad learned at way back when. At nap time, Chris heads out to rip a few waves of his own.

Edit by Goose Goose Revolution.

Tomorrow's Free

"My home is a van," says Monte Clarke on his blog Tomorrow's Free. "No rent, no bills, no stuff. The goal, one year off to search for the best things in life: perfect surf, mini ramps and rad humans to kick it with."

If you don't know Monte, you should—he's a devoted surfer, a longtime member of the Storm Surf Shop staff and a stoked presence in the Tofino lineups. Tomorrow's Free is his new Tumblr blog, and it's worth adding to your follow list for more homegrown Internet goodness. "It's a collaboration of me and my friends," he says, "sliding across the ocean on weird crafts and messing around with old equipment in our attempt to capture interesting images."

Check it out at tomorrowsfree.com.

Above: heading south on a local ferry off the coast of Guatemala.

One Sesh Down South

Fresh off the plane from an Indo trip, our pal Isaac Raddysh spent a week posted up on the South Island before heading home to Tofino. Here's the record of one session in some reefy, fun-sized lefts. Filmed by Jasper Snow Rosen. For more, see the Subject to Holdups blog here.

James Murray at Habit

South Island surf shooter James Murray has a show opening later this week in Victoria. According to James, it's "pretty much all surf and water shots." Sounds good to us. The opening party is this Thursday, March 7th, at 7:30 p.m. at Habit Coffee on Pandora. There's going to be a keg and beer. See y'all there.

Above: South Island goodness.

Below: Emily Ballard cross-stepping.

Orcas at the Point

It's the Wild Kingdom out there. Last Friday, a pod of transient (mammal-eating) orcas cruised through the lineup while hunting seals at pointbreak near Tofino, and filmer Adam Chilton was on hand to capture it. Here's the video above. There's never been a recorded attack on a human by an orca in the wild, but it's still a very wise idea to get the heck out of the water when a pack of 20-foot, 6-ton predators is in the area. That being said, how lucky are we to surf in a place where there's this much life in the water?

There's also a good shot of the encounter on Sepp Bruhwiler's Instagram feed here.

ps. Looks like Adam's video is going viral. 135,000 views and counting as of this morning.

Groundswell Now Available Online

In the fall of '11, a crew that included Peter Devries, Trevor Gordon and Chris and Dan Malloy set sail for a surf trip into B.C.'s unspoiled Great Bear Rainforest. Groundswell, a short film about the Great Bear and their journey into it, premiered on the West Coast this past November and is now available to the public at thesurfnetwork.com. It's $6.99 to buy or $3.99 to rent. Directed by Chris Malloy and shot by Scott Soens, Jeremy Koreski and Dean Azim, the 25-minute documentary is a truly beautiful look at one of our country's ecological treasures and what's at stake in its future. A must-see if you care about clean water and keeping the coast intact.

Here's a bit more about the film, from the Raincoast Conservation Foundation site:

Last fall, Raincoast set sail with a world-famous line up of US and Canadian surfers. Our collaboration with accomplished filmmaker Chris Malloy has produced a remarkable 25-minute documentary titled GROUNDSWELL. It chronicles not only a world-class surfing adventure, but provides a cerebral and compelling examination of an issue that embodies many aspects of today’s environmental challenges: our energy future, geopolitics, aboriginal rights and title, and more.

For Chris Darimont's feature story about the trip from the Summer 2012 issue of SBC Surf, click here.

To download the full version of Groundswell from The Surf Network, click here.

Groundswell was supported by Patagonia and Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

Hillman for Maru

In a short interview for Maru, Halifax-based photographer (and accomplished banjo picker) Jack Hillman shares a bit of a wisdom about how to stay warm when you're shooting in Nova Scotia's frigid winter waters. The Thermos is a solid tip—as is the beard.

For more from Maru, visit their Facebook page here or their website here.

And you can follow Jack online at his website here.

Trading Barrels

If you live on the West Coast and you stuck around for the holidays, chances are you got a few fairly epic days as the swell heights and periods both pushed into the double digits. South Island photog James Murray sent in a couple of shots of Ryan Oke and Jasper Snow Rosen from a session a few weeks back. Here's what he had to say:

"Ryan, Jasper and I had been planning on getting together during the third week of December when that really good swell pushed through to try and get some shots. The day we decided to meet up at the beach, we hadn't planned on originally going to the spot that we did, but after surveying the scattered breaks we spotted some nice little barrels breaking off in the distance. So we tried our luck, hiked for a bit, and lo and behold came across these beauty little barreling rights. After a couple of hours of Ryan and Jasper trading barrels, the tide was getting precariously low, as Ryan with a newly punctured board found out. So we called it quits, stoked that we decided to hike that extra little distance down the coast, where the grass was apparently that much greener."

—Ryan Oke

—Jasper Snow Rosen

Happy Holidays from SBC

Wishing all the best for you and yours this holiday season. Wherever you're spending it, we hope you're being blessed with waves. Have fun, be safe and stay warm. We'll see you in the New Year!

Photo by Jeremy Koreski.

Barracuda Launches New Site

If you're a fan of local shaping and homegrown Canadian surf culture, you'll want to check out the new site that Barracuda Surfboards launched not too long ago. The South Island surfboard company has been in the board business for over a decade now, and they're got some pretty interesting projects coming down the pipe. Click here for their site, and you can also follow them on Facebook here or Twitter here.

The Billabong Pipeline Masters

It's a lay day on the North Shore today, but the first two days of competition at the Billabong Pipeline Masters In Memory of Andy Irons have already wrapped. You can follow all the action at triplecrownofsurfing.com. In the meantime, check the event teaser above.

New Tunes from Tom Curren

Ask almost any of today's leading surfers who their influences are, and you can bet they'll mention Tom Curren. But the California native and three-time world champion is more than just a master of stylish rail surfing—he's also a fine songwriter and guitar player. Directed by Chris Malloy, here's the video for Summerland Road, the first single from his new EP of the same name.

And for some truly classic Curren, here he is carving speed lines at firing J-Bay on a 6'11" quad.

Photog: Guiry

Alex Guiry is a travel and lifestyle photographer who's been studying at Emily Carr in Vancouver for the last few years while traveling to distant surf destinations on the side. "My work is based around the lifestyle of surfing," he says, "as well as the byproducts of traveling with a surfboard. I play on the harsh realities and the enlightening ones—in a way, I like to think I'm an artist-as-ethnographer."

Alex is headed off to Mexico and Central America next month, so we're looking forward to seeing more of his work here at SBC. There's currently an exhibition of his work up at the Sitka store in Victoria, and you can see a ton more from him at his website here or his Facebook page here.

—Long Beach, B.C.

—Tofino, B.C.

—Ecuador

—Thailand

—Indonesia

—Ecuador

—Peru

#EddieWouldGo

The waiting period for this winter's Quiksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau starts on December 1 and runs through to February 28. Only held if there's a day with the swell at Waimea holding steady at 20 feet or more, there's a reason that winning an Eddie is one of the most respected feats in the world of surfing. If you don't know much about who Eddie Aikau was, here's his brother Clyde talking about why he became a hero to so many people in Hawaii and around the world.

For more about the event, including this year's invitee list, be sure to check out the contest site here.

Win a Vestal Watch and Shades

We've got a new giveaway contest up and running—this time it's from Vestal, who want you to win a prize package consisting of a Utilitarian watch and a pair of Compressor sunglasses. To enter, all you have to do is fill out the online form here.

Good luck, and for more from Vestal be sure to check vestalwatch.com.

Lake Huron Comes to Life

The storms that have been sweeping up the Atlantic lately haven't only generated swell (and, sadly, damage) for the East Coast. As the systems track north and inland, their winds have been kicking up a ton of waves on the Great Lakes. Matthew Timmins, a photographer who splits his time between Grand Bend, Ont., and Revelstoke, B.C., sent in this report and a few snaps from recent freshwater sessions on Lake Huron. For more of Matthew's work, see matthewtimminsphoto.com.

Andy Oke watches another wave north of Kincardine. Living in southwestern Ontario has its advantages—depending on the wind, you can choose from Huron, Erie or Ontario to get your fix.

Swell like this only comes a few times a year on Huron. Brian Dale makes the best of it.

An unidentified surfer on a solid lake day north of Kincardine.

While his hometown of Grand Bend was out of power thanks to Sandy, JP White found a few in Bayfield as the storm made its way over the Great Lakes.

Geoff Johnson on an ocean-esque day in October.

JP White about to leap off the Bayfield pier for a sunset sesh.

White, again, with sunset spray.

Surf Anywhere?

The Alberta River Surfing Association wants to engineer a perfect river surfing wave design and share it with the world. Press play above to spend a few minutes while Neil Egsgard, the president of ARSA, tells you all about it. It's an intriguing idea—if these fellows can figure it out, you could install a surfable standing wave pretty much anywhere swiftly flowing water and a shallow riverbed interact. For more about their project, you can check out the Surf Anywhere page here.

Soul Searching

A few days ago photographer Nick Sopczak sent us this slideshow of surf images from the West Coast.

"I'm passionate about the wild," Nick says. "The animals, rivers, pristine ocean, rainforest and mountains. I'm dedicated to seeing it stay in its abundance forever. The Search for the Soul Surfer images are inspired by all the dedicated and passionate surfers I've photographed, surfed with and chilled with. You inspire me and teach me."

Waves, sunshine, tall trees, wetsuits hung on a campsite clothesline—looks like the good life.

For more of Nick's work, see 500px.com/NickSopczak. As well as his surf stuff, he's got some rad bike and climbing photos.

One Small Step

"Surfing," says Vancouver Island writer Grant Shilling, "is one small step toward the path to peace." The writer of The Cedar Surf and the recently-released Surfing With the Devil shares some of his thoughts on surfing and spirituality in this interview from Green Prophet.

For more about Surfing With the Devil, click here.

Photo above: the Gaza Surf Club.

After Leslie

The hurricanes and tropical storms get all the hype, but the best sessions on the East Coast are usually the ones that stay under the radar. Nova Scotia photog Trevor Nicodemo sent us this email, along with a few shots of young ripper Jacob Albury:

"After the hurricane media frenzy, the crowds, celebrity sightings and a week of solid Leslie swell fizzled away, things returned to normal on our foggy fickle East Coast. Thankfully only a few days of "catch up on life and wait" before we snapped up another small window of waves rolling in on a two-session Sunday, bringing crisp clear skies and offering up some respectable chest to head high gems. Here's a few shots of South Shore native, Jacob Albury, displacing some water on a fun mid-September Sunday in the Canadian Maritimes."

Win a Pair of Sanuk Enduros

Today's the first day that really feels like fall on the West Coast, so it's probably a good time to start thinking about staying a little warmer while you're roaming around outside. In that spirit, Sanuk and SBC Surf are giving away a pair of Sanuk Enduro boots, which look pretty awesome for the Cox Bay surf checks. The contest is open until Tuesday, September 25th. Click here to enter, and here to find out more about the Enduro.

Bending Colours

This November sees the release of Bending Colours, a film based around the life of South African superstar Jordy Smith. It has the production power of Red Bull and O'Neill behind it—and the director is Kai Neville of Modern Collective and Dear Suburbia fame—so you can expect it to be optically dazzling. Here's what the producers have to say:

"In Bending Colours, director Kai Neville, Red Bull Media House and O'Neill blend sports action with arthouse aesthetic to tell the compelling story of surfing prodigy Jordy Smith. Sure to be one of the most talked-about water-based documentaries for years, it will be getting its world premiere live on RedBull.com/Surfing on November 5."

Check out the trailer above, or click here for some stills from the film.

Kew's Triptych

Wandering surf scribe (and frequent SBC Surf contributor) Michael Kew is releasing his first film this fall. There isn't a ton of info yet online, but a perusal of his blog, Peathead, will give you a taste of his style. Triptych features recent travels to the Pacific Northwest, Oceania and the Arabian Sea, and Nova Scotia local Nico Manos is part of the very solid crew of surfers featured. Stay tuned for further details.

PS. If you haven't seen Kew's book of collected writings, Crossings, we highly recommend it. Click here for more.

Stussy + Koreski + YVR

Earlier this summer Stussy Canada presented an exhibition of works by SBC Surf photo editor Jeremy Koreski at the Catalog Gallery in Vancouver. In partnership with Pacifico and Raincoast Conservation Foundation, the show helped with Raincoast's efforts to raise awareness about the threats facing British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest. Here's a video recap of the event, with some words from Jeremy about what's motivating him these days.

Check out Stussy's blog post about the show here.

For more from Raincoast, click here.

You can follow Jeremy on Twitter and Instagram @jeremykoreski.