Hurricane Earl delivered some solid waves to Virginia Beach over the weekend. These pictures were taken at 54th Street on Friday evening, September 3rd. Photos by Brooke.
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Finally…the first surfing pics of 2010!
There was a good crew of bros out at 54th street today for an after work session. Alainna came and snapped a few photos. Life is good.
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All of the bros at Otani’s before an epic 4th of July weekend.Weekend Update: May 22-23
Barcrawl Group at Chicks for Sarah's Birthday
18 kt. Gold Stunna Shades? Check. Sarah’s Golden Birthday Barcrawl? Check. Looking ridiculously good? Check.
Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL) for President!
111th CONGRESS
Honoring Robert Kelly Slater for his outstanding and unprecedented achievements in the world of surfing and for being an ambassador of the sport and excellent role model.
Mr. POSEY (for himself and Ms. HIRONO) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Honoring Robert Kelly Slater for his outstanding and unprecedented achievements in the world of surfing and for being an ambassador of the sport and excellent role model.
Whereas Kelly Slater was a perennial amateur champion in the 1980s, winning 6 Eastern Surfing Association titles and 4 national titles;
Whereas, in 1992, at the age of 20, Kelly Slater was the youngest surfer to win the Association of Surfing Professionals World Championship;
Whereas, between 1992 and 2008, Kelly Slater was a 6-time winner of the Billabong Pipeline Masters, a competition held annually for the 45 top-ranked surfers by the Association of Surfing Professionals at the Banzai Pipeline in Oahu, Hawaii;
Whereas, between 1994 and 1998, Kelly Slater won 5 consecutive Association of Surfing Professionals titles;
Whereas, in 1995 and 1998, Kelly Slater won the Triple Crown of Surfing, the Reef Hawaiian Pro at Haleiwa Ali’i Beach Park, the O’Neill World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach, and the Billabong Pipeline Masters at the Banzai Pipeline;
Whereas, in 2002, Kelly Slater won the Quicksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau at Waimea Bay in Oahu, Hawaii, a competition that occurs only when waves reach a minimum height of 20 feet;
Whereas Kelly Slater was the 1st surfer ever to be awarded 2 perfect scores in the final heat of the Billabong Tahiti Pro Contest under the Association of Surfing Professionals 2-wave scoring system;
Whereas Kelly Slater won an Association of Surfing Professionals World Title in 2005, 7 years after his previous win in 1998;
Whereas, in 2007, Kelly Slater started the Kelly Slater Foundation to raise awareness and financial support for socially and environmentally conscious charities;
Whereas Kelly Slater holds 9 Association of Surfing Professionals World Championships, a record number;
Whereas, in 2008, at the age of 36, Kelly Slater was the oldest surfer to win an Association of Surfing Professionals World Championship; and
Whereas Kelly Slater is surfing’s all-time leader in career event wins: Now, therefore, be it
Surfing Restrictions Be Damned!
If there is one downside to summer, it has to be surfing restrictions. The police enforced blackball takes over right where my Memorial Day Hangover leaves off. The mid-day hours can be torture when you are forced to stare at waves that only kooks from Richmond in kayaks are allowed to ride. Solution: The CatchSurf Original 54. Snyder and I have been eyeing these for a while, so I finally pulled the trigger at WRV and took one home. The “Beater” comes with or without a removable skeg fin. I opted to go finless so it can be used as a skim board. With the way the waves have been over the past couple of weeks, I have a feeling this might be the most used board in my quiver this summer.
Click on the picture to the right to get your own “Beater.”
Phoenix with Two Door Cinema Club
The Norva really stepped up it’s game last night and put on one of the best shows I have been to in a while. Two Door Cinema Club opened up the show and rocked harder than anyone expected. You don’t usually see the crowd that into an opening act. They definitely could have played a few more songs, but no doubt made some serious new fans. Phoenix not only blew the doors off that place with how good they sounded but the visual light show was one of the best I have ever seen. It should be noted that the drummer for Two Door Cinema Club was filling in for the Phoenix drummer. That guy played those songs like he wrote them.
Da Cat…
I was roaming through Borders the other day when I came across this little gem. I can’t remember the last time I read a book fo
r fun, so I decided to check it out. I’ll probably be making a few more posts about this one as I get through it, but after reading the forward I’ve already come across something worth sharing.
I realized several years ago that I have no idea what surfing sounds like. I don’t know if I’m the only surfer who suffers from this affliction, but it’s like the moment I start paddling for a wave everything gets quiet. I know that the act of what I’m doing and what’s going on around me has to be producing some kind of sound, I just can’t hear it. I’ve consciously made efforts to hear what’s going on around me, but the silence takes over everytime, it never fails.
Somewhere in the forward of the book, the author writes that when you are surfing ”You’re so in the moment it’s like dreaming; you act on instinct.” I’m fairly certain this is why I lose the ability to hear while I’m surfing. Maybe it is afterall, instinct. Perhaps my brain is turning off an unneeded sence to enhance my balance or the ability to focus, I don’t know. Maybe my self diagnosed, surfing caused hearing loss isn’t such a bad thing afterall.
Here’s Johnny!
After two winters of driving past signs telling me to “Come sit by the fire. Thurs-Sat,” a few of the Bros and some ladies (not pictured) decided to take up the offer and make our first visit to the Hunt Club at the Cavalier Hotel.
Now I have to tell you that I had grand delusions of what this place would be like. I was imagining a rich mahogany bar, fine cigars and brandy, a glowing fire, walls covered with 12-point bucks, perhaps a bear skin rug or two, and photos of past guests come and gone. Well, at least there was a fire. What awaited us was bizarre combination of a VFW Hall and the bar from Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining. Just like the rest of the Cavalier, the Hunt Club is a sad memory of its former glory. The dingy wall paper and worn carpeting complemented the stained furniture perfectly. The bar seemed better situated to be a coat closet than the meeting place of former Presidents. To say the place was disappointing would be an understatement. The only “hunt” themed item in the place was tiny faded picture of fox hounds hung awkwardly above the gigantic fireplace. I will say, however, that the walk-in fireplace is very impressive and helped warm us up long enough to finish our drinks and snap a few pictures.
If anyone from the Cavalier ever reads this please take note. Restore and modernize the Cavalier. Just because everything in there is old, doesn’t make it nice. Done right, a restoration of the Cavalier, its indoor pool, its iconic ballrooms, its classic lobby, and even its Hunt Club could make the hotel a premier destination once again.
Ultimate Wave?
Since my dad’s back surgery he’s become the most informed man I know. I’m fairly certain that he’s watched every televised winter olympic event, including the qualifiers. He reads every square inch of the newspaper and tops it off with marathon sessions of burning up iTunes giftcards on obscure alternative rock that even I haven’t heard of. He’s even discovered Facebook. So it was no surprise that he knew a surf movie would be playing at the Virginia Aquarium this weekend.
Fresh off a 3D movie high induced by Avatar, I picked him up and went to soak in the only surf I’m likely to see anytime soon. First things first, ‘The Ultimate Wave Tahiti 3D’ is hardly a surf movie. It’s 40 minutes of Kelly Slater and friends in visually pleasing, scripted situations, interspersed with high school level earth science lessons and unusual animation. The 5 minutes or so of actual surfing featured small to moderate sized Teahupo with a generous helping of stand-up paddleboarding. It seems that not even Quiksilver’s near limitless resources could ensure that the crew scored the below sea level, sucked over dry reef, canyons of death that we’ve become accustomed to seeing at Teahupo. With that said, the movie was actually pretty good. The 3D was at times intense, especially during the animated and scientific sequences, and even the most core grommit could appreciate the natural beauty of Tahiti. Even the science lessons were informative and, without a doubt helpful, to the non-surfers in the audience. All in all, $8 well spent especially to get dad out of the house.
