The Surf Blog Spot

I was reading the California surf reports this morning and the reports show some chance of fun surf this weekend.  The South Pacific is showing signs of activity.  The predicted storms down by New Zealand looks like they should arrive around January 4-5, 2009.  Central and Southern California should see the best waves.  Keep your eyes open and continue to check the swell forecasts.

Swell Forecasts

In case you forgot…there is only one day left until Christmas!  I hope everybody has been good this year and I hope you do not receive any coal.  Maybe a new surfboard??

Well, if surfing is not your thing on Christmas Eve and you are overwhelmed with the in-laws….then take a seat and find out exactly where Santa is making his next delivery.  He might be coming to your surfing town as we speak.  He might even have a new wetsuit or surfboard for you!!

 Track Santa

Dailystoke.com is offering a cool surfing sweepstakes this Holiday season.  The contest runs until 11:59 pm PST on December 23, 2008.

Enter for your chance to win cool surfing stuff!!

Official contest rules are available here

The Top 45 surfers on the 2009 ASP World Tour have been decided with surfers rated 1-27 on the 2008 ASP World Tour ratings automatically re-qualifying for the 2009 tour. Bede Durbidge (AUS) finished runner-up to the World Title holder, Kelly Slater, who won it back in October.  We will have to wait and see if Slater comes back for a 10th ASP World Title.  I bet he does.  What do you think?

World Surfers Numbered 1-10 respectively:

Kelly Slater (USA), Bede Durbidge (AUS), Taj Burrow (AUS), Joel Parkinson (AUS), C.J. Hobgood (USA), Adrian Buchan (AUS), Adriano de Souza (BRA), Mick Fanning (AUS), Bobby Martinez (USA) Jeremy Flores (FRA).

World Surfers Numbered 11-27 respectively:

Luke Stedman (AUS), Fredrick Patacchia (HAW), Andy Irons (HAW), Chris Ward (USA), Kai Otton (AUS), Tim Reyes (USA), Tom Whitaker (AUS), Kieren Perrow (AUS), Dayyan Neve (AUS), Bruce Irons (HAW), Mikael Picon (FRA), Dane Reynolds (USA), Taylor Knox (USA), Damien Hobgood (USA), Heitor Alves (BRA), Jordy Smith (ZAF) and Ben Dunn (AUS).

Top 15 ASP World Qualifying Series (WQS) surfers in ranked order:

Nathaniel Curran (USA), Chris Davidson (AUS), Michel Bourez (PYF), Gabe Kling (USA), Jihad Khodr (BRA), David Weare (ZAF), Josh Kerr (AUS), Nic Muscroft (AUS), Kekoa Bacalso (HAW), Greg Emslie (ZAF),  Tim Boal (FRA), Dustin Barca (HAW) Tiago Pires (PRT), Phillip MacDonald (AUS) and Drew Courtney (AUS).

3 2009 tour wildcards, as decided by the ASP in conjunction with the surfer’s union:

Injury applicants Dean Morrison (AUS) and Aritz Aranburu (EUK) and WQS NO. 16 Marlon Lipke (DEU).

Complete 2008 standings and event list for the entire 2008 ASP World Surfing Tour

Chris Ward, Kelly Slater and Pipeline Master Gerry Lopez

Kelly Slater has Mastered the Banzai Pipeline once again.

Nine-time ASP World Champion, Kelly Slater, just won the 2008 Billabong Pro Pipeline Masters a record sixth time.  This victory was Slater’s sixth tour event win of the 11 event 2008 ASP world tour.  What a great accomplishment for Slater!

The 2008 ASP World Tour has been a dream season for Kelly Slater.  Not only did he set another surfing record this year with his 9th ASP World Title, but he also won 6 out of the 11 ASP Tour events.  Slater clinched the 2008 ASP World Surfing Title back in October at the Billabong Pro Mundaka.  He could have opted out of the Billabong Pro Pipeline Masters event and ended his tour back in Spain.  However, I do not think Slater wanted to end his dream tour without taking a crack at the Pipeline event he has won 5 times and did not want to disappoint his fans. 

Slater has made the Pipeline Masters final 10 out of his last 17 times he entered it.  He won the event in 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999 and again in 2008.  Ironically enough, Slater’s 9th win comes 9 years after his last Pipeline win.  Plus, this year Slater won his 9th ASP World Title.  I guess Slater’s lucky number in 2008 was the number 9.

Do not forget about the 2008 Billabong Pro Pipeline Masters Triple Crown of Surfing.  The final rounds of the Pipeline Masters surf competition conclude today.  

A new Pipeline Master will be crowned after the final today, as well as, a Vans Triple Crown of Surfing Champion. The champion should be crowned around 2pm, local Hawaiian time.  The race for the Triple Crown is between three Australians: Joel Parkinson, Tom Whitaker and 2007 Triple Crown Champ Bede Durbidge.

Look for Kelly Slater to make it into the finals!  He is killing it right now in the quarter finals against North Shore local, Jamie O’Brien.

More coverage and live action:  http://billabong.wetsand.com/ 

ASP website:  http://www.aspworldtour.com/2008/

The ASP has their new 2009 global surfing schedule. Find out where your favorite surfers will be surfing in 2009!

There have been some changes to the 2009 ASP surfing format and some location changes. The 2009 ASP Surfing Tour will start in Australia on February 28 and the season will end on Hawaii’s North Shore around the middle of December. One notable event stop not on the 2009 ASP contest lineup is the Tavarua, Fiji Globe Pro. The nine time ASP winner, Kelly Slater, has owned this contest and if he decides to surf the 2009 season, he will definitely miss Fiji. Fijians, ASP surfers and ASP followers will bypass the famous surf breaks of Fiji. The most famous spots like Restaurants and Cloudbreak will surely be missed. Read more……

Find all the 2009 ASP Tour schedules

Put your towel down and learn how to surf.

Get your kid, nephew, niece, granddaughter, boyfriend, girlfriend, or husband one of these surfing towels just in time for the Holidays.  3 designs available!!

 Mom and Dad, please do not buy me one this year.

The Ollypop Surfing Towel website

Get your online shopping on!!

Today is “Cyber Monday” and today is the day to do your online shopping.  Black Friday is more commonly known as the kick off to the holiday shopping season.  Black Friday is traditionally associated with the brick-and-mortar store shopping, while Cyber Monday is the official kick-off to the holiday online shopping.  Shoppers can find tons of online shopping deals like free shipping, cyber discounts and other promotions.

Make sure you check out my website and surf the online shopping possibilities.

Check out the Cyber Monday website (sponsored by Shop.org):

http://www.cybermonday.com/

I live, work, and surf in San Diego.  I am also a huge San Diego Chargers fan.  If you have ever visited San Diego, then you know that the county is huge.  The county has a geographic area of 4,200 square miles and about 3 million people live here.  The county is approximately the size of Connecticut.  You will also notice that San Diego County has 70 miles of Pacific Ocean coastline.  That many miles of coastline equals that many surf spots.

Since there are so many surf spots in this huge county, I find myself driving around checking the local surf spots.  Most of the time I have my radio on and I am listening to the local sports talk radio.  So I hear all of the Chargers smack talk and discouragement.

Listening to or watching Chargers game this year is very tough.  They have lost 4 games in the last 24 seconds.  Their defense is horrible (compared to last year).  LT is not the same LT.  Listening to the Chargers game yesterday was embarrassing.  They played the Atlanta Falcons and Michael “The Burner” Turner proved San Diego wrong.  We should have kept him.  What is wrong with this once All-Star Chargers team?  They can not cover anybody and their offense is sooooo predictable. 

What is wrong with this team?? Send a comment if you want to vent!

I guess we can all look forward to the San Diego Padres season………