Big Board

by Erik Olsen on

Ah, the timeless beauty of human striving, the endless wonder of human accomplishment. It
is indeed a great day for the species!

Chalk another one up for the human race. Not only do we send
probes into deepest space, but yesterday, more than 40
surfers hung ten into the Guinness Book of World Records when they rode a wave on top of
a single giant surfboard off an Australian
beach.

The devoted and curious came to watch. Nearly 5,000 of them. They gathered Saturday along the fatal
shore to watch the riders crowd onto the 40-foot-long board, and when that right wave came, it carried
them on its beautiful shoulders, delivering them not just to the golden sands, but into the annals of
history, their names now inscribed next to those other preternatural specimens of human accomplishment: the fattest man
in the world and the bakers of the World’s
Longest Bruchetta.

Being Jack Johnson

by Erik Olsen on

The last podcast also featured a brief spiel on Jack Johnson, the surfer/guitarist/filmmaker who spends his days in
Hawaii and whose recent video is pretty damn cool. Well,
here’s the Outside piece on Johnson and
his enviable life. Warning: do NOT read this interview if you have a crappy job/life and have any firearms or cutlery
nearby.

He’e Holua-ing Down the Hill

by Nino Marchetti on

He’e Holua? What’s that, you ask? Hawaiian sledding, my friend. Using one of
these, you essentially slide down slopes and lava fields at high rates
of speed. That’s the theory to this ancient Hawaiian sport anyhow,
according to this Outside article. One
man is trying to revive the sport, having gone even so far as to write a master’s thesis on it. It sounds like a cool
thing to try, except for one quote he gives in which he talks about “dropping off a mountain being a rush”. Hmmm…I’ll
have to ponder that as I swirl in my hula skirt.

Surfing Chile

by Erik Olsen on

A nice little surf piece in Surfline about
a couple of dudes who head down way south to find some perfect waves. One of the guys in the story, Dean Latourrette,
is a buddy who’s books on getting by when unemployed have been
doing quite well…and are quite good if you happen to be in a similar situation. Unemployed and wondering what to do
with your time, that is. 

Anyway, give the article a read. If it
doesn’t make you pine for an exotic beach, I’m not sure what will.

Learn to Surf in Front of Your TV

by Erik Olsen on

A little unorthodox, perhaps, but you never
know if you could pick up some handy tips from a video like
this. A friend of mine, a wannabee surfer, sent me this a while back and suggested it was a good way to start to
learn how to hang ten. Several major Surf mags have given the video a thumbs up, so perhaps its worth a try. Richard
Schmidt has a strong rep on the left coast as a surf instructor. In fact he
teaches classes out of Santa Cruz, which is a nice surf town,
after all.