The theme of this past year, since I began my stint as an unemployed traveler and freelance journalist, has been road trips. Following The Great KL&C Northwest Odyssey, the winds of adventure this time were blowing south, leading me to the great and vast southern extension of California that is Baja.

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

5. The Recession
Budgets were cut. Surfers were dropped. Employees were sent packing. Stock prices tanked. Brands went out of business. No one was safe from the 2009 Velcro Valley Chainsaw Massacre. In 2010 surf company executives won’t be counting barrels in Tavarua. They’ll be counting their fingers hoping whoever they borrowed from to keep afloat doesn’t come looking to collect. Some say the worst is over. If the fat lady is singing, she’s a little off key at the moment.

The past week has seen an unbelievable variety of surfing accomplishments by the greatest surfers of the modern era. And with the word ‘Greatest’ included in the title, one cannot exclude the greatest surfer ever, Kelly Slater, from being a part of the excitement. In this case, he was involved in two of the occasions, along with the new King of Big Wave surfing, Greg Long, and the former King, Laird Hamilton, with a lot of the action taking place on the mythical islands of Hawaii.

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

You know the old saying—always a bridesmaid, never the bride. Surfing is not immune. The latest installment of Nugable’s Top Fucking 5® chronicles the best second-place finishers in ASP history. All five had stellar professional careers (some are still having them) but none have tasted the championship champagne or held the trophy high. A wise man once said “second place is just the first loser.”

There’s been a lot going on in competitive surfing lately.  And we haven’t written $hit about it lately.  Part of the reason why is because we’ve been off the air (not counting shitty podcasts) for five months now (largely because the vast majority of radio management is either gutless pu$$ies, complete idiots, or a combination of the two), and I’m not going to lie: Morale has been better with the T.E.S. crew.  Nonetheless, we’ve never heard of the word “Quit” before, so until every last available option is exhausted, we’ll continue to give you honest reporting mixed in with some edumacated opinions.

Taj Burrow, one of the top surfers in the world, joined Cyrus & Steve on December 4th, 2003 to talk about the competitive nature of Australian surfers, his chances at winning a World Title, and his environmentally-friendly efforts.

Owen Wright, who no doubt will be a regular in the ASP’s top 10 rankings sooner than later, knocked out Kelly Slater this morning in the second round of the Rip Curl Pro Search in Portugal.  With Slater out of contention for the world title, interest in pro surfing has been relegated to hibernation season, with fans possibly waking up briefly in December to catch the Billabong Pipeline Masters.

This is the question Bron asked himself and some of his friends during a recent visit to ASR representing Sanuk.

Video of Bron's soul searching ASR adventure after the jump.

For the first time since the epic and climatic 2003 finish at Pipeline between Kelly Slater and Andy Irons, the ASP has a real title race coming down the stretch.  Yet for some rather stupid reason, websites and blogs keep saying that Mick Fanning has overtaken Joel Parkinson in the overall standings.  What they fail to take into account is the fact that the two lowest contest scores are thrown out, hence the current standings listed by the ASP are flat-out wrong.  The standings become rather interesting once the ratings are adjusted.  The World Title race is a lot closer than people realize, and currently, Mick Fanning is NOT the current leader.

2009 adjusted ratings after the jump.

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

Now that Mick Fanning has made the world title an actual race again after back-to-back wins at Trestles and France, I thought it would be relevant to take a trip back to memory lane and critique the most undeserving world champions in ASP history. Perhaps undeserving is the wrong word. All five tallied enough points to win the title, but all of them left surf fans empty inside.