Surfboard Wax

Surfboard wax is an often overlooked necessity for surfers.  Imagine a slip-n-slide.  Now, imagine the slip-n-slide on a well-polished basketball court that moves up and down, side to side, bucking you off.  That's what surfing without wax is like– it's impossible.

Unlike snowboard wax, surfboard wax goes on the top of your board and gives you traction to planet your feet for big maneuvers.  Boards are rewaxed daily, and a fresh coat of wax makes a world of difference.  I wanted to explore wax a little bit, and I found that wax comes in all shapes, sizes, colors and forms.  Here are a few of the most notable (and, oddly, sexual) waxes...

A regular bar of Sex Wax

 Multi-color surfboard wax

Mighty Humps Wax

Hang Ten Surfboard Wax

Pink Sex Wax Skull

Various wax combs for removing wax from a surfboard

Waxing a surfboard

A freshly waxed surfboard

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Better Your Best

Surfing is unique in that to fully embrace the sport, a surfer must immerse themselves in more than technical modifications to a jump shot or a curve ball.  Surfers have a special spiritual relationship with their sport and with the ocean.  Mickey Smith is a master at conveying this relationship, as you can see in my posts about Dark Side of the Lens and Esmerelda.

It just so happened that one of the partners of the company I work for, Mr. Peter Cline, had been tracking Mickey Smith when he was working with 180 Amsterdam.  He loved the work that Mickey had done with Dark Side of the Lens, and so hired him to direct a few spots for 180 Amsterdam's client Asics.  In Better Your Best, Mickey Allen creates the same connection he did with surfers and their sport with triathletes.  Enjoy the spot.

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Surfing Magazine Swimsuit Edition

As a... uh... update... to my previous post about Girl's Ripping, I wanted to share this with you.  Surfing Magazine's swimsuit edition is coming out soon and they're doing special promo videos on their Facebook.  Here's Chelsea...

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Exotic Creatures

I made a post about what to do when you're not surfing about the Long Beach Aquarium, but I had some extra photos.  At the Long Beach Aquarium, there are a huge host of creatures (yes, even some birds).  When I visited, I took photos of some of the most exotic species including the Saw Tooth Shark.  See the photos below (you'll recognize which is the Saw Tooth).  You don't want to run into one of these in the water.

We were also able to feed and hold tropical birds that live around the water where these exotic species of marine mammals are found.  When you're out surfing, try not to think too hard about what's lurking underneath.

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Long Beach Aquarium

I promised a post about what to do when you're not surfing on Offshore Winds' Facebook Page.  What better to do when you're out of the water for a month than discover what's going on underneath the water.  I took a trip to the Long Beach Aquarium and decided to take a few snaps.  Enjoy the photos...

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Dolphins in the Sea

Dolphins are quite good surfers.  They hunt and play in waves.  You can read my blog about an intimate experience with dolphins here: Dolphins At Dawn.  Here are a few amazing moments with dolphins (and one with pelicans) caught on tape.

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Greg Webber Wave Pool

Greg Webber Wave Pool

Every surfer dreams of waking up, downing some raisin bran, and leisurely stepping out into their backyard to see empty, piping barrels.  At one point, before surfing became a mainstream sport, that dream was a reality in many places in the world.  With countless numbers of surfers vying for waves around the world, one of the only places that you'll find empty barrels today is in your mind.

Greg Webber

Greg Webber, an Australian surfer, wants to change that with his Wave Machines.  There are unsophisticated (and incredibly expensive) artificial wave pools that exist, but Greg Webber has come up with a formula that looks to blow these machines out of the water.  Apart from being a 'wave scientist,' Greg is an internationally recognized board shaper, and makes a huge number of different board styles.  I'm sure most people have seen the Webber logo floating around their local breaks.

Greg Webber Logo

Greg Webber's unique idea for a wave pool goes something like this: there is an island surrounded by a ring of water which is surrounded by land.  The wave pool looks a bit like a target.  Moving hulls on the outside of the water ring spin in a circle, as a boat would, and create swell.  Greg Webber has had a lot of experience creating perfect wakes with boats for films (see video at the bottom of this post), and he has translated that knowledge into making the perfect bottom conditions to create beautiful, steep, surfable waves.  These waves can last indefinitely, as long as the hulls keep moving, because they break in a circle.  Part of Greg's ideas for his wave machines is a nightlife experience surround the pools, so people can watch amazing surfing while sipping on a pina colada (or two).

So... the obvious question is how much it would cost for one of these wave pools.  The short answer is, most people won't be buying one of these.  To build one, Greg estimates the cost of the wave pools will be between $750,000-$1,000,000.  If I had the cash, it would certainly be tempting.  However, in an interview with Surfing Life Magazine, Greg said: "We hope to charge about $1.25 to $1.50 for a ten second, 1.25m wave, $2.50 for a fifteen second 1.6m wave, and about $5 for an eighteen second 1.9m barrel."

Have I had this idea? Yes.  Is Greg Webber going to actually pull it off? I hope so. This looks sick.  Enjoy the artistic renderings of his ideas below...

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Coolest Surf Logos

The coolest surf logos.  Earlier, I did a post about the similarity between surf brand logos and how there are waves in most of the major brands' logos.  So as not to get your spirits down, I wanted to find some of the coolest surf logos– logos that were fresh, clean, and well designed.  Even these have a similar feel to one another and to the major brands' logos, but I think these are beautiful.

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