SAN DIEGO BLOG
Posted: 10/24/09
A tropical storm warning remains in effect in Cabo San Lucas and parts of Baja California Sur. But Tropical Storm Rick, now with maximum sustained winds of only 65 mph, has altered course considerably and its center is expected to pass well to the south of the peninsula.
Link to latimesblogs.latimes.com for more.
Link to latimesblogs.latimes.com for more.
Posted: 09/08/09
The second annual Surfscience Teen Conference will be held at the Ocean institute in Dana Point on Saturday, October 17th. This conference is open to any 8th-12th grader with an interest in the ocean. More information can be found at the Ocean Institute website, here.
Posted: 08/03/09
Here's a brief description of our first few series...
All Yew- a series about shaping and riding a swell-propelled craft of your own design- anything from toilet lids to alias.
Surf Sufficient- a series explaining how to make, repair or maintain anything that has to do with the surfing experience
Super Eco Shaper Series- A series profiling shapers who are using environmentally friendly board building processes.
Tom's Creation Plantation- Mini stories about Tom Wegener and his alaia movement.
There's a landing page now with a quick preview of the site www.korduroy.tv
All Yew- a series about shaping and riding a swell-propelled craft of your own design- anything from toilet lids to alias.
Surf Sufficient- a series explaining how to make, repair or maintain anything that has to do with the surfing experience
Super Eco Shaper Series- A series profiling shapers who are using environmentally friendly board building processes.
Tom's Creation Plantation- Mini stories about Tom Wegener and his alaia movement.
There's a landing page now with a quick preview of the site www.korduroy.tv
Posted: 06/23/09
Patagonia Cardiff hosts the final screening from the US film tour of Thomas Campbell's latest surf film, The Present. Interviews with Thomas Campbell, Dan Mally, John Wegener, Danny Hess and local surfers. DVDs of The Present available now at Woodshed Films, Patagonia Cardiff and select Patagonia retail stores.
Link to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGbwPFpLPsY for more.
Link to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGbwPFpLPsY for more.
Posted: 06/11/09
Dane Zaun leads Mira Costa over San Dieguito for National Championship
CONDITIONS: A steep south swell produced chest to head high (4-6 foot) surf for competitors to work with. The wind cooperated and never really came into play as a major factor, allowing for clean, moderate-sized surf throughout the contest weekend.
HIGHLIGHTS:
The final. San Dieguito's 11th hour comeback against Mira Costa tied the score at the end of regulation and forced overtime. The extra period came down to the last set (again), and Mira Costa -- on the strength of MVP Dane Zaun's 8.5 wave score -- narrowly beat San Dieguito by just two points.
(Click here for full story)
OUTSTANDING PERFORMERS:
Dane Zaun had a pretty good weekend. That is, if you think leading your high school team to the Red Bull Riders Cup National Championship, and winning Finals MVP and Most Radical Maneuver honors qualifies as "pretty good."
QUOTE:
"This was simply an amazing Championship, and exactly what the Red bull Riders Cup is all about. In the Finals we had two well-matched teams and a format that really allows the kids to show off and highlight their skills. It had it all - drama, suspense, disappointment, exhilaration and a nail-biting finale. This is why we do it." -- Brad Gerlach, National Surf League Founder
RESULTS:
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Qtr-Final # 1: Mira Costa High (South Bay) def. Aptos High School (SC)
Qtr-Final # 2: Newport Harbor High (OC) def. Satellite High (CF)
Qtr-Final # 3: Malibu High School (Ventura) def. Ocean City High School (NJ)
Qtr-Final # 4: San Dieguito Academy (SD) def. New Smyrna High School (NF)
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Semi-Final #1: Mira Costa High (South Bay) def. Newport Harbor High (OC)
Semi-Final #2: San Deguito Academy(SD) def. Malibu High School (Ventura)
Finals: Mira Costa High def. San Dieguito Academy in OT
Most Valuable Player (Finals) - Dane Zaun
Most Radical Maneuver (Finals) - Dane Zaun (MC), Full bottom turn to air-reverse
CONDITIONS: A steep south swell produced chest to head high (4-6 foot) surf for competitors to work with. The wind cooperated and never really came into play as a major factor, allowing for clean, moderate-sized surf throughout the contest weekend.
HIGHLIGHTS:
The final. San Dieguito's 11th hour comeback against Mira Costa tied the score at the end of regulation and forced overtime. The extra period came down to the last set (again), and Mira Costa -- on the strength of MVP Dane Zaun's 8.5 wave score -- narrowly beat San Dieguito by just two points.
(Click here for full story)
OUTSTANDING PERFORMERS:
Dane Zaun had a pretty good weekend. That is, if you think leading your high school team to the Red Bull Riders Cup National Championship, and winning Finals MVP and Most Radical Maneuver honors qualifies as "pretty good."
QUOTE:
"This was simply an amazing Championship, and exactly what the Red bull Riders Cup is all about. In the Finals we had two well-matched teams and a format that really allows the kids to show off and highlight their skills. It had it all - drama, suspense, disappointment, exhilaration and a nail-biting finale. This is why we do it." -- Brad Gerlach, National Surf League Founder
RESULTS:
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Qtr-Final # 1: Mira Costa High (South Bay) def. Aptos High School (SC)
Qtr-Final # 2: Newport Harbor High (OC) def. Satellite High (CF)
Qtr-Final # 3: Malibu High School (Ventura) def. Ocean City High School (NJ)
Qtr-Final # 4: San Dieguito Academy (SD) def. New Smyrna High School (NF)
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Semi-Final #1: Mira Costa High (South Bay) def. Newport Harbor High (OC)
Semi-Final #2: San Deguito Academy(SD) def. Malibu High School (Ventura)
Finals: Mira Costa High def. San Dieguito Academy in OT
Most Valuable Player (Finals) - Dane Zaun
Most Radical Maneuver (Finals) - Dane Zaun (MC), Full bottom turn to air-reverse
Posted: 04/30/09
Surfer Victory: President Obama Cuts Army Corps Beach Dredge and Fill Projects
Imperial Beach. April 30. Surfers across the country are thanking President Obama after the Army Corps of Engineers' beach-fill budget took a significant cut from the White House.
While the Office of Management and Budget approved $4.6 billion for all Corps projects under the stimulus budget, it cut funding for beach dredge and fill projects in 2010.
"We are grateful to President Obama for listening to the concerns of surfers and environmentalists, since these unnecessary pork barrel projects have long been a point of contention over their destruction of critical coastal and marine habitat and recreational resources," said Serge Dedina, Executive Director of WiLDCOAST, an environmental organization based in Imperial Beach, California, that had fought a controversial dredge and fill project slated for that U.S.-Mexco border community.
Dedina and WiLDCOAST worked with surfers and environmentalists from Massachusetts to New Jersey to Florida and throughout Southern CalIfornia to focus attention on the destructive nature of Corps beach dredge and fill project projects.
Environmentalists and surfers have made the case that beach dredge and fill projects primarily benefit wealthy beachfront property owners, that erosion is not an issue until a building is placed on the beach, and that dredge and fill projects are a waste of money given global climate change-related increasing sea levels.
In Imperial Beach the Corps has scheduled a $70 million dredge and fill project that local surfers said would have caused significant environmental, recreational and public health impacts. The Army Corps was slated to dredge and area near a sewage outfall pipe that was used as a gunnery range during World War I. Local officials had spent more close to $250,000 lobbying for the project.
As mitigation for the potential of dumping ordnance on Imperial Beach the Corps said it would have a bomb squad on call. The Corps had rejected working with local surfers and WiLDCOAST who suggested finding an alternative dredge site. Surfers were also worried that the project would destroy the Tijuana Sloughs a historic big-wave surfing site and a reef proposed as a State of California Marine Protected Area that is also a significant leopard shark spawning site.
According to Dedina, "Hopefully surfers, environmentalists and coastal managers can now begin to work together to proactively plan a coastal management program nationally that addresses sea level rise rather than solely defending the interest of beachfront property owners through wasteful pork barrel projects. In our case here on the U.S.-Mexico border we don't need help with sand, but with our beach closure crisis caused by sewage from Mexico."
- Serge Dedina
Serge Dedina is the Executive Director of WiLDCOAST and a longtime surfer in Imperial Beach. You can reach him via wildcoast.net.
Imperial Beach. April 30. Surfers across the country are thanking President Obama after the Army Corps of Engineers' beach-fill budget took a significant cut from the White House.
While the Office of Management and Budget approved $4.6 billion for all Corps projects under the stimulus budget, it cut funding for beach dredge and fill projects in 2010.
"We are grateful to President Obama for listening to the concerns of surfers and environmentalists, since these unnecessary pork barrel projects have long been a point of contention over their destruction of critical coastal and marine habitat and recreational resources," said Serge Dedina, Executive Director of WiLDCOAST, an environmental organization based in Imperial Beach, California, that had fought a controversial dredge and fill project slated for that U.S.-Mexco border community.
Dedina and WiLDCOAST worked with surfers and environmentalists from Massachusetts to New Jersey to Florida and throughout Southern CalIfornia to focus attention on the destructive nature of Corps beach dredge and fill project projects.
Environmentalists and surfers have made the case that beach dredge and fill projects primarily benefit wealthy beachfront property owners, that erosion is not an issue until a building is placed on the beach, and that dredge and fill projects are a waste of money given global climate change-related increasing sea levels.
In Imperial Beach the Corps has scheduled a $70 million dredge and fill project that local surfers said would have caused significant environmental, recreational and public health impacts. The Army Corps was slated to dredge and area near a sewage outfall pipe that was used as a gunnery range during World War I. Local officials had spent more close to $250,000 lobbying for the project.
As mitigation for the potential of dumping ordnance on Imperial Beach the Corps said it would have a bomb squad on call. The Corps had rejected working with local surfers and WiLDCOAST who suggested finding an alternative dredge site. Surfers were also worried that the project would destroy the Tijuana Sloughs a historic big-wave surfing site and a reef proposed as a State of California Marine Protected Area that is also a significant leopard shark spawning site.
According to Dedina, "Hopefully surfers, environmentalists and coastal managers can now begin to work together to proactively plan a coastal management program nationally that addresses sea level rise rather than solely defending the interest of beachfront property owners through wasteful pork barrel projects. In our case here on the U.S.-Mexico border we don't need help with sand, but with our beach closure crisis caused by sewage from Mexico."
- Serge Dedina
Serge Dedina is the Executive Director of WiLDCOAST and a longtime surfer in Imperial Beach. You can reach him via wildcoast.net.
Posted: 04/27/09
So last week I'm watching my oldest grom Israel (13) surf with Zach Plopper on the south side of the Imperial Beach pier. The surf is 2-4' with a south wind and sort of fun in a sloppy new south swell high tide sort of way. But then I smell it and see it--the infamous IB sewage plume. Not just a winter problem anymore--south wind and smell blows in sewage from the outfall pipe on the border and from the sewage river at San Antonio about six miles south of the border.
So one of the many things we've been doing to address this issue at WiLDCOAST wildcoast.net, is to first--identify what the problem is and how to deal with it. Because it turns out that a lot of surfers in IB think that pollution is normal. That the problem can't be solved. That surfing in Mexican sewage is okay because they, "Never get sick."
In fact Imperial Beach Mayor, Jim Janney, actually doesn't believe that there is an ocean pollution issue. He said publicly that pollution in IB is an "old myth." I guess yesterday's news is old under his definition.
Turns out that the IB Mayor and lots of local surfers are dead wrong. And thanks to our friends at Shifting Baselines shiftingbaselines.org we have a new video, "Shifting Baselines in the Tijuana Tide," that addresses the ocean conservation problems from the highly polluted Tijuana River. The video is a co-production of Shifting Baselines with California Sea Grant and University of Southern California Sea Grant, and Wildcoast.
"The Tijuana River is one of the worst sources of ocean pollution in North America," says writer/director of the film, Tyler Carlisle. "It's a problem that is currently caught up in a cross-border blame game as the large-scale problems continue to go unaddressed."
The video presentation is intended to help local conservation efforts communicate more effectively the current situation. Over 60 percent of Tijuana's raw sewage flows directly into the river, through the Tijuana River Estuary and into the ocean. Imperial Beach pays the price for this problem with over 200 days a year of closed beaches and periodically high levels of Hepatitis A measured in the coastal waters.
The video encourages viewers to join local efforts such as Pervious Pavers in an attempt to curb the overall pollution and runoff problem. It will be posted on multiple websites on Earth Day, along with a Spanish language version of the same piece.
The project is part of the on-going efforts of the Shifting Baselines Ocean Media Project (www.shiftingbaselines.org), which brings together ocean conservationists and filmmakers in an effort to communicate the problems to wider audiences.
- Serge Dedina
Serge Dedina is the Executive Director of WiLDCOAST and a longtime surfer in Imperial Beach. You can reach him via wildcoast.net.
So one of the many things we've been doing to address this issue at WiLDCOAST wildcoast.net, is to first--identify what the problem is and how to deal with it. Because it turns out that a lot of surfers in IB think that pollution is normal. That the problem can't be solved. That surfing in Mexican sewage is okay because they, "Never get sick."
In fact Imperial Beach Mayor, Jim Janney, actually doesn't believe that there is an ocean pollution issue. He said publicly that pollution in IB is an "old myth." I guess yesterday's news is old under his definition.
Turns out that the IB Mayor and lots of local surfers are dead wrong. And thanks to our friends at Shifting Baselines shiftingbaselines.org we have a new video, "Shifting Baselines in the Tijuana Tide," that addresses the ocean conservation problems from the highly polluted Tijuana River. The video is a co-production of Shifting Baselines with California Sea Grant and University of Southern California Sea Grant, and Wildcoast.
"The Tijuana River is one of the worst sources of ocean pollution in North America," says writer/director of the film, Tyler Carlisle. "It's a problem that is currently caught up in a cross-border blame game as the large-scale problems continue to go unaddressed."
The video presentation is intended to help local conservation efforts communicate more effectively the current situation. Over 60 percent of Tijuana's raw sewage flows directly into the river, through the Tijuana River Estuary and into the ocean. Imperial Beach pays the price for this problem with over 200 days a year of closed beaches and periodically high levels of Hepatitis A measured in the coastal waters.
The video encourages viewers to join local efforts such as Pervious Pavers in an attempt to curb the overall pollution and runoff problem. It will be posted on multiple websites on Earth Day, along with a Spanish language version of the same piece.
The project is part of the on-going efforts of the Shifting Baselines Ocean Media Project (www.shiftingbaselines.org), which brings together ocean conservationists and filmmakers in an effort to communicate the problems to wider audiences.
- Serge Dedina
Serge Dedina is the Executive Director of WiLDCOAST and a longtime surfer in Imperial Beach. You can reach him via wildcoast.net.
Posted: 04/19/09
I was lucky enough to roll up to Anaheim on Friday night for the Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards. Cool scene. Not cool, though, that they charged us peons without drink tickets nine bucks a pop for a watered down vodka soda. Sorry, I'm still a little chapped on that one. Anyway, yeah, the scene was cool, standard Industry operating procedure -- beautiful people having a good time. The actual awards show was great. Even my fiancé, the ultimate Industry skeptic, came away form the event raving.
Going in, I was eager to see how the two San Diegans -- Brian Conley was a finalist for Ride of the Year and Derek Dunfee was up for the Monster Energy Paddle Award -- would fare in what is always a stacked field at these things. In the big money prize of the evening, Conley, who was unable to attend because of the birth of his child (congrats Brian), took fifth place. For me, this was a hard one to swallow. There were so many moving parts to Brian's Mexican barrel ride -- from the step-off with the hand cam to actually keeping the hand cam in position and shooting quality footage the whole time to navigating the tube -- and he handled it all so seamlessly, that I think it looked easier than it was. The wave might not have been the biggest, but the category was ride of the year. I'm not saying he should have won (then again, I'm not saying he shouldn't have), I'm just making the point that perhaps the quality of ride on his wave was better than fifth place.
Dunfee, however, got exactly what he deserved in the paddle-in category -- a win and a check for 15 large. A speechless Dunfee, or Double D as his friends and sponsors refer to him, took the stage to accept his award after being mobbed by friends and family. Derek's humility in victory was admirable, conceding he thought Grant "Twiggy" Baker had won before his own name was called. Dunfee is the kind of guy you like to root for -- a gracious champion, respectful, appreciative, someone with real perspective. Congrats Derek. You deserve it, bud.
- Evan Fontaine
Going in, I was eager to see how the two San Diegans -- Brian Conley was a finalist for Ride of the Year and Derek Dunfee was up for the Monster Energy Paddle Award -- would fare in what is always a stacked field at these things. In the big money prize of the evening, Conley, who was unable to attend because of the birth of his child (congrats Brian), took fifth place. For me, this was a hard one to swallow. There were so many moving parts to Brian's Mexican barrel ride -- from the step-off with the hand cam to actually keeping the hand cam in position and shooting quality footage the whole time to navigating the tube -- and he handled it all so seamlessly, that I think it looked easier than it was. The wave might not have been the biggest, but the category was ride of the year. I'm not saying he should have won (then again, I'm not saying he shouldn't have), I'm just making the point that perhaps the quality of ride on his wave was better than fifth place.
Dunfee, however, got exactly what he deserved in the paddle-in category -- a win and a check for 15 large. A speechless Dunfee, or Double D as his friends and sponsors refer to him, took the stage to accept his award after being mobbed by friends and family. Derek's humility in victory was admirable, conceding he thought Grant "Twiggy" Baker had won before his own name was called. Dunfee is the kind of guy you like to root for -- a gracious champion, respectful, appreciative, someone with real perspective. Congrats Derek. You deserve it, bud.
- Evan Fontaine
Posted: 04/12/09
Surfrider Foundation may have gotten the break they needed to turn the tide in their favor in a fight to derail a Carlsbad-bound desalination plant. Some six years in the making, the plant -- slated to be the nation's largest of its kind -- is a $300 million dollar project spearheaded by Poseidon Resources that will be built where the current waterfront power plant sits. Already given the go ahead from the City of Carlsbad, the California Coastal Commission and the State Lands Commission, the last hurdle Poseidon needed to clear was to get the okay from the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board. There was, however, a sticking point -- and a pretty big one at that.
The Board, back in 2006, had already authorized a permit for the project, provided Poseidon put together and draft an impact plan. That plan, however, exposed new question marks, forcing a number of agencies to re-evaluate the merits of the plan and subsequent mitigation. Seems the calculations on the number of fish and other ocean life that would die as a result of the new plant were grossly misrepresented. Enter Surfrider and the Planning and Conservation League who took issue primarily with the Coastal Commission's leniency with Poseidon, demanding that they place more stringent requirements on the company so that it drastically cuts down the estimated number of deaths to fish and other marine species that will likely lose their lives as collateral damage in the wake of this project. They also argued that given new information, mitigation requirements assumed by Poseidon should be increased. Poseidon, as seems to be the case in these type pf matters, is mandated to fulfill a mitigation requirement that calls for them to rehabilitate 55 acres of wetlands.
The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board did end up unofficially approving the plant on the tentative plan to push through the official permit at a yet to be determined date in May. "Poseidon's experts weren't able to verify the validity of their proposed restoration plan," Surfrider attorney, Marco Gonzalez, said. "The Regional Board reaffirmed our position by refusing to take their word for it, and requiring an accurate future assessment to be verified by real, third-party experts." Still, a pretty sweet trade, right -- a perfectly good natural habitat for a desal plant, a bunch of dead fish and a wetland to be named later.
- Evan Fontaine
The Board, back in 2006, had already authorized a permit for the project, provided Poseidon put together and draft an impact plan. That plan, however, exposed new question marks, forcing a number of agencies to re-evaluate the merits of the plan and subsequent mitigation. Seems the calculations on the number of fish and other ocean life that would die as a result of the new plant were grossly misrepresented. Enter Surfrider and the Planning and Conservation League who took issue primarily with the Coastal Commission's leniency with Poseidon, demanding that they place more stringent requirements on the company so that it drastically cuts down the estimated number of deaths to fish and other marine species that will likely lose their lives as collateral damage in the wake of this project. They also argued that given new information, mitigation requirements assumed by Poseidon should be increased. Poseidon, as seems to be the case in these type pf matters, is mandated to fulfill a mitigation requirement that calls for them to rehabilitate 55 acres of wetlands.
The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board did end up unofficially approving the plant on the tentative plan to push through the official permit at a yet to be determined date in May. "Poseidon's experts weren't able to verify the validity of their proposed restoration plan," Surfrider attorney, Marco Gonzalez, said. "The Regional Board reaffirmed our position by refusing to take their word for it, and requiring an accurate future assessment to be verified by real, third-party experts." Still, a pretty sweet trade, right -- a perfectly good natural habitat for a desal plant, a bunch of dead fish and a wetland to be named later.
- Evan Fontaine
Posted: 04/12/09
Has anyone noticed that the Discovery Channel seems to employ more than it's fair share of people who are willing to go beyond the line of what any normal person would consider sane? I don't know who's in charge of their programming, but I want to shake that person's hand. Seriously, how they get these people to do what they do is beyond me. The reason I bring it up is because I was watching a show on Discovery not too long ago, documenting how one of these screw-loose maniacs wanted to better understand the feeding habits of the Great White shark. What was his super scientific plan, you ask? He towed a whale carcass out to sea. Might as well have been an all-you-can-eat buffet. The sharks swarmed the thing like flies on, well, you know. If you're wondering where I'm going with this -- a dead whale washed up on the beach in Del Mar yesterday.
Not living too far from where this thing washed onshore, you'll have to understand my reservations of running back into the water. Then, how's this, the lifeguards towed the carcass five miles out to sea only to have it wash back up a few miles south next to Flat Rock at the south end of Torrey Pines State Beach. This was the same whale that had washed up in Huntington Beach a week prior. The body was so far gone, had rotted away so much that when one of the lifeguards who was towing it out to sea, went to climb out on the decomposing carcass, but the minute he transferred his weight to his hands to push himslef up, they punched all the way through the skin. Before he knew it, dude was elbow deep in rotting whale innards. Someone should do everyone a solid and go Reno 911 on it's ass - all you need is a few well-placed charges, someone with questionable morals to push the button, then call in the clean-up crew. Problem solved. Oh stop, I'm only kidding... kind of.
- Evan Fontaine
Not living too far from where this thing washed onshore, you'll have to understand my reservations of running back into the water. Then, how's this, the lifeguards towed the carcass five miles out to sea only to have it wash back up a few miles south next to Flat Rock at the south end of Torrey Pines State Beach. This was the same whale that had washed up in Huntington Beach a week prior. The body was so far gone, had rotted away so much that when one of the lifeguards who was towing it out to sea, went to climb out on the decomposing carcass, but the minute he transferred his weight to his hands to push himslef up, they punched all the way through the skin. Before he knew it, dude was elbow deep in rotting whale innards. Someone should do everyone a solid and go Reno 911 on it's ass - all you need is a few well-placed charges, someone with questionable morals to push the button, then call in the clean-up crew. Problem solved. Oh stop, I'm only kidding... kind of.
- Evan Fontaine
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