Don’t Forget about Culture
When going on a surfing trip your #1 priority is to find great surf. You plan your trip during the peak season for swells. Once there you surf to your hearts content, All Day – Every Day. But one thing most people forget is that they are visiting someone else’s local surf spot. They forget that there are locals at every surf spot. One thing most surfers miss out on is the local culture. During surf trips and experiencing different cultures is when you find true stoke among the locals.
Picture Courtesy of ABC News
Golfing
Have you noticed that more and more professional surfers are hitting the greens on off days during a surf compitetion. This isn’t a bad thing, but it is a interesting trend in the ever changing surfing culture. One reason professional surfers have started golfing is because there are practically golf courses at every event location for the ASP World Tour. Whatever their reasons, it is defietly an interesting trend.
Win $10,000 – Havaianas Flip-flops + Threadless.com
Havaianas Partners with Threadless.com to Launch
First Ever Flip-Flop Design Challenge
$10,000 In Awards And Chosen Designs To Be Sold On Havaianas Website
New York, NY, March 10, 2010 – Havaianas, the world’s most stylish and comfortable flip-flop, is collaborating with Threadless.com, the world’s premier online design community, to launch the website’s first ever footwear challenge on March 15th. Six designs will be chosen, manufactured by Havaianas and sold as limited edition sandals on www.havaianasus.com this July.
In honor of the site’s 10th anniversary, Threadless.com will be making its first foray into the accessories category with the “Threadless Loves Havaianas” design challenge. “For our first design challenge outside of tees, we’re bringing the talent of the Threadless design community to footwear fashion,” said Threadless.com co-founder, Jake Nickell. Adds James Anstley, Director of Marketing at Havaianas, “Threadless.com and Havaianas both value creativity, cutting edge design and easy going style making this partnership a perfect union. We are delighted to engage the design community with this unique challenge and excited to see the results.”
Starting March 15th, contestants can register for the challenge and submit their designs at www.threadless.com/loves/havaianas. Havaianas and Threadless will select two designs from original artwork submitted and voted on by the Threadless community. The four remaining designs, featured below, have been selected from the Threadless.com archives. All six limited edition designs will be sold exclusively on the Havaianas website in July for $28. Threadless.com will also produce and sell t-shirts featuring the six designs for $18-20. In addition to having their artwork transformed into sandals, the two chosen designers will share $10,000 in awards.
About Havaianas:
Havaianas flip-flops are truly the best rubber flip-flops in the world. The ultra-high quality of Havaianas is due to a top secret rubber recipe that makes the flip-flops as soft as marshmallows. While there are many copy-cats in the marketplace, Havaianas fans know there is no substitute for authentic comfort and style. Havaianas are continuously showcased on fashion show runways around the world and can often be spotted at some of the world’s highest caliber events. An affordable luxury since 1962, every pair is still lovingly designed and manufactured in Brazil – offering hundreds of unique colors and patterns to fit your every style and need! www.havaianasus.com
About Threadless.com:
We’re not your average t-shirt company. The designs on Threadless tees are sourced from an ongoing open-call for t-shirt submissions from a worldwide community of amazing artists and designers. Once submitted, our community of over 1 million members casts votes that help decide which designs become Threadless tees. Threadless began in 2000 as a hobby and has since become the poster child for the power of crowdsourcing: integrating the involvement of a passionate, authentic and highly active community into every aspect of our business. In other words, we’re all awesome together! Join the awesomeness at www.threadless.com.
3/2 vs. 4/3
The hardest question to answer is what thickness of a wetsuit to buy. The reason is because each person is unique of how cold of water they can handle. Some people wear trunks yearround and others need a wesuit even through summer. What thickness to buy is a personal descion, there are no hard rules as for which one to buy.
Some questions to ask Yourself:
Will I be surfing all winter?
What is the average winter temperature of the air/water?
How long do I usually surf for in winter?
What is my budget?
My personal experience has led me to invest in a nice 4/3 for the middle of winter. During late srping, summer and early fall I just wear trunks.
Beach Breaks
Beach Breaks are in my opinion the most fun to surf. The produce rippable and powerful waves. Most of which produce sand sucking barrels with the right conditions. Aside from that the take off is often steep and fast which adds another element to surfing beach breaks. These are just a few reasons why beach breaks are fun to surf.
WHY SURFING SHOULD NOT BE IN THE OLYMPICS
WHY SURFING SHOULD NOT BE IN THE OLYMPICS
By Corky Carroll
I have said this before, but after watching these last Olympics I am more convinced than ever. Surfing is not now, nor will ever be, or at least should not ever be, an Olympic sport. O.K., I know right now there are tons of you bright eyed and bushy tailed proponents of the “sport” of surfing who are saying, “What are you saying? Surfing is the coolest sport in the world and for sure should be in the Olympics!”
But that is my point. Surfing is the coolest sport, art form, lifestyle and/or thingie that many of us do to one extent or another. And I do it to probably much more of an extent than almost anybody so my opinion counts. At least to me. Surfing is too cool for the Olympics. Way too cool. And my case in point right now is my experience trying to watch these just past games on the television.
There I was, all set and waiting for the games to begin. I like watching the ski events and rooting for our guys and chicks. And I can even be content to watch some of the figure skating and the racing. Plus the bobsleds are pretty cool too. Plus the nice thing about the winter games is that there are none of the really lame sports such as synchronized swimming and ballroom dancing that they have in the summer games. What is up with the geeks who make these decisions as to what is an Olympic sport? It is impossible for me to think of surfing alongside these kinda activities.
So anyway, there I was all happy and ready get into some serious couch time in front of the tube watching the skiing and bobsleds etc. Checking the guide one day I saw that I was just in time to see some of the action. So I cranked on the set and tuned into the channel and kicked back and got ready to be entertained. Then the announced announced, in the Olympic announcer kinda voice that I was expecting, “And today we will be presenting the exciting sport of Women’s Curling.”
Women’s Curling? I felt a monster sigh of disappointment leave my body. Is it just me or is curling the most lame idea for a sport, especially an Olympic sport, ever? This is some sort of drinking game for Eskimos or penguins or other lifeforms that might find themselves in some frozen forsaken snowed in bar in the area of either the north or south pole. But in the Olympics?
I tried to give it the benefit of the doubt and struggled through about twenty minutes. NOT. Click. Even though the waves were blown out afternoon chop it was better than watching the exciting sport of women’s curling. That was about as much fun as stepping in gum at the supermarket parking lot.
A few days later I saw that the Olympics were coming on again so I got all set in front of the television set one more time. This time it had to be something better. Then the announced announced, in the Olympic announcer kinda voice that I was expecting, “And today another exciting look at …………. Women’s Curling.” Does the term “vomit” mean anything to these people? Gag me with a snow shovel Margaret. There it was again. I could not believe my ears, and eyes.
Oh well, I didn’t have all day to watch television anyway as I needed to go to the airport to pick up some guests who were coming for a week of surfing with me. So I figured I would go to the market and buy some food and then head out to the airport to get ‘em.
A few hours later I cruised into the food court at the airport to grab a cup of coffee and a cinnabun while I was waiting for the flight to come in. I looked up to see that the Olympics were on the television set above the bar. Cool, I thought. The stupid curling had to be over by now. YOU WOULD THINK! But noooooooooooo! There it was again, and it was the same match that was on earlier. Just farther on. How long is a curling match? Do they call it a match?
After that I checked the guide to see what was on before trying to catch any more of the games. But every single time I checked there was curling. Men’s Curling. Women’s Curling. It would have been more fun to watch Hair Curling. Or the exciting sport of “Lip Curling.” I could see Clint Eastwood winning a gold in that one. “Make my day.” But I did get the idea that this might be a good way for some of the SUP (stand up paddleboard) guys to make it into the Olympics. They could try out to be “sweepers.” Those people who run along like crazy and sweep off the ice as the big thingie slides along. Geeze, where is Olympic Bachi Ball when you need it?
CORKY CARROLL is a columnist for the Orange County Register newspaper in Southern California. He was five times United States Surfing Champion, three times International Professional Champion and Number 1 on the Surfer Magazine Poll. Currently he opperates a surf adventure program at his home on Mainland Mexico.
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