The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) is the governing body that sanctions all major surf contests around the world, similar to what the NFL means to football or the NBA to basketball. For the past 28 years they have been the organization deciding who are the best of the best in surfing. During this time they have been heavily criticized by surfers and fans alike for numerous reasons, among them making the scoring and ranking system too complicated, kowtowing to surf industry companies that sponsor contests, allowing heavily biased commentators and judges to influence contests, not financially compensating the surfers enough, and choosing poor locations for contests. So you can imagine the shock and surprise Kelly Slater, who supposedly won his 11th World Title Wednesday in San Francisco, must be feeling when he was told the deplorable news that due to a technical error by the ASP, Slater officially didn't win his 11th World Title. Rather, he clinched a tie with Australian Owen Wright, who is second in the rankings, and if for some reason Slater doesn't win another heat in either the Rip Curl Pro Search San Francisco or next month's Billabong Pipe Masters and Wright goes on to win both events, Slater and Wright would be tied and have to meet in a "Surf Off" to determine who exactly is the 2011 ASP World Champion. The press release issued this morning by the ASP explains their egregious error in detail.must have felt when he found out the deplorable news that due to a technical error by the ASP, Slater officially didn’t win his 11th World Title. Rather, he clinched a tie with Australian Owen Wright, who is second in the rankings, and if for some reason Slater doesn’t win another heat in either the Rip Curl Pro Search San Francisco or next month’s Billabong Pipe Masters and Wright goes on to win both events, Slater and Wright would be tied and have to meet in a “Surf Off” to determine who exactly is the 2011 ASP World Champion. The press release issued this morning by the ASP explains their egregious error in detail.

There is an old saying within the surfing community that goes, "If you can surf Ocean Beach, you can surf anywhere." Rare is a mantra more accurate in surfing. And thus sets the stage for the 10th stop on the ASP World Tour, the 2011 Rip Curl Pro Search San Francisco.

A surfing dog named Buddy won the 5th Annual Surf Dog Competition at Imperial Beach, CA.  Buddy, a Jack Russell terrier who was recently the first dog to be inducted into the Surf Dog Hall of Fame, won his fifth Surf Dog Competition and remains undefeated in surf dog contests.  His owner, Bruce Hooker of Ventura, said after the win that it may be time for the 14 year-old Buddy to retire.

This is a little story about taking a chance on the "swell of the season." I'd much rather head out on a feral mission looking for a new waves throughout this very over-surfed archipelago rather than going to those well-trodden Indonesian wave areas.

However, due to the choices I have made, I write this while we are stuck in what feels like the middle of the Indian Ocean in howling tradewinds, with no chance of getting anywhere near the island we wanted to check out. The state of the ocean and the pre-mentioned swell is upon us. But how I got us into this predicament is a long story...