I decided to head out to Linda Mar today for a surf session. I didn’t expect much given the forecasts. Gloomy weather, moderate onshore winds, mild swell. What surprised me was an empty summer lineup at Pacifica. There was one other surfer in the water with me for the first half-hour or so, and he was easily 100 feet north of where I was positioned. The next two hours I had the ocean all to myself. Took a fun board out and caught a few really good rides. Fun day. Came out of the water, got dressed, then saw this sign.

When the contest light turns green at the Billabong Pro Tahiti, all eyes won’t be on the greatest surfer of all-time, Kelly Slater, who has won this event three times. Nor will they be on former three-time World Champion Andy Irons, who was a winner at Teahupoo back in 2002. They won’t be on goofy-footers Bobby Martinez and C.J. Hobgood, both former Billabong Pro Tahiti Champions. Neither will they be on local Tahitian chargers like Manoa Drollet and Michel Bourez. No, all eyes will be on the number one surfer in the world, Jordy Smith.

Having been involved in the action sports industry for the better part of a decade, I have somehow managed to not once attend the industry’s largest trade show, ASR (Action Sports Retailer). With an exciting new business venture about to get underway, the time was now to attend what was once an action sports retailer expo and is now an action sports extravaganza of epic proportions.

With hilarious narration, video footage shows a little grom armed with a calendar or poster of some kind running on the beach. The kid approaches Jeremy Flores, who is leaving the water after finishing a competition heat. Despite the little kid’s begging and pleading, Flores shakes the kid off. The kid is left to his knees, with tears being his only consolation.

I’ve been wanting to publish this story for some time now but didn’t want to get my sources in trouble, since everyone would know who my sources were the moment I wrote the story. Now that the Half Moon Bay Review is publishing a report on a new group who is interested in running a surf contest at famed Mavericks, it’s time to let the flood gates open and allow the public to decide for themselves who should be the winner in this Battle Royale.

General Motors is hitting overdrive on their marketing campaign for the soon-to-be-released Chevy Spark, GM's answer to the Mini Cooper. The new Chevy Spark Woody, which is wrapped in wood-colored vinyl, is part of GM's attempt to connect with the youth culture. The specially-designed model of the Chevy Spark was introduced on the southern coast of Great Britain at the annual Boardmasters surf, skate and music festival in Newquay, England, with a surfboard attached to the car's roof.

Ben Harper joined Cyrus, Steve & Omar right after his first time snowboarding on April 20th 2006, plus talked about introducing Jack Johnson to the world, and his skating and surfing roots.

Former three-time ASP World Champion Andy Irons joined Cyrus & Steve on January 9th, 2004 and January 11th, 2005 following both his second and third ASP World Championships to talk about his rivalry with Kelly Slater, and the way he's portrayed in the media.

The folks over at Ruse Entertainment created this hilarious and savvy video introducing the newest way to roll: Tarp Surfing. Santa Cruz surfers Homer Henard and Nic Lamb, with special assistance from Omar Etcheverry, show the world how to Tarp Surf with style. The perfect way to get barreled during the summer doldrums, when surf is either too small, blown out, or just pure crap.

Note: This story is a special contribution from Nugable.  Go to his website for hilarious, insightful and honest surfing revelations.

The online surfing world has been stagnant lately. Well, that’s not completely true. Surfline posted its 47^th “How Good Was California This Week?” photo gallery this month. I did enjoy that. Kurungabaa posted the complete works of Dostoyevsky (in Russian). Transworld, (God bless them) ran a Vimeo video of something. And Boardistan (perhaps my personal favorite) kept a tidy tally on its Google news alert with the keywords “Surf, Skate and Snow.” Copy and paste carpel tunnel is no laughing matter gentlemen.

…and so it goes.