Surf’s Up Alaska

by Erik Olsen on

Mark Sundeen, a great travel writer whose book The Making of Toro had me laughing till my gut hurt (or was that just gas?) has penned a great piece on surfing in Alaska that I highly recommend. The article was in Outside’s November issue and is available in its entirety online. It took him a while to get to the destination from LA, some three flights and lots of trudging, but he finally ended up in the fishing village of Yakutat, on the Gulf of Alaska some 300 miles southeast of Anchorage. Not exactly surf country in the way most of us think surf country should be.

But the waves are tasty and glassy and, yes, cold. He is in good company with a swarm of top notch surfers including six-time world-champion surfer Layne Beachley, probably the top chick surfer around. As an extreme surfer myself (that is, extreme amateur), I have to say that I’ll leave this one to hardy souls like Sundeen to cover. But I confess it would be interesting to see someone hanging ten with icicles hanging off their toes.

Surf During Lunch

by Erik Olsen on

There you are sitting behind your computer surfing the Web and perhaps dreaming of a different kind of surfing. Well, then take a quck gander over at the Surf Channel, an online resource for everything curlsome and frothy. The site is robust and offers online videos on surfing with some rather impressive stuff that actually takes you beyond surf into realms of snow and more. Overall, the videos are well-produced and a great way to pass the time during lunch.

Surf Nation

by Erik Olsen on

As frequent Gadling commenter and Brit (and superb photographer) localsurfer frequently points out, there IS fine board riding to be done in Great Britain. You just gotta know the right spots. Well, along these lines, I also just discovered an excellent surf blog from the good folks at the Times of London.

The blog is run by writer/surfer/all-around-dude Alex Wade, whose comment a while back directed me to the site. Wade’s blog says it will bring you up-to-date news of the British surf scene.

He tells us “what’s on and where to surf, as well as the best of contemporary surfing writing from around Britain”. Wade is also working on a book called Surf Nation that promises to improve the image of the coasts of Britain and Ireland as surf spots extraordinaire which might, as we suggest, come as news to some people.

Actually, in his blog, Wade ranges far beyond the British surf scene to cover such epic spots as Hawaii and Australia, but we’re not going to nit-pick. It’s a great little blog for surfers from all nations.

Surfing Pipeline

by Erik Olsen on

What is the place that comes to mind when you think of colossal swells and death-defying dudes (and dudettes) riding their massive faces for fun?

Pipeline, of course. And since it’s January, it means winter storms, winter swells. And this year, you can catch the Rip Curl Pro Pipeline Masters at Banzai Pipeline, the ultimate competition in the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing and part of the Association of Surfing Professionals World Championship Tour. It’s coming up soon. The Pipeline Masters ran in December and featured the top wave riders on the globe. Check out this site for more information, including photos, videos, a calendar and info on the event.

Photo of the Day (12/24/2006)

by Erik Olsen on

I caught this excellent photo on yesterday’s cover of the Los Angeles Times and had to swipe it for the Photo of the Day. The shot shows the “Surfing Santa”, a.k.a. Michael Pless, who’s been hanging ten as St. Nick since 1996.