DailyStoke» Surfing HQ

Pearling (on a boat) Funny Shiz

Surfing HQ — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 11:00:19 +0000

Wipeout of the Week

Ok, we’re not going to rag on these folks for riding in a boat. No, we’re not going to do that. We’re not going to say: “well, I’m sure that’s fun, but you shouldn’t have been riding a boat in the first place.”. No, we’re not going to do that. We’re not going to speculate on the feeling of pearling in that thing. No, we’re not going to do that.

Taj Burrow surfs Firewire and Drinks Foster’s Lager

Surfing HQ — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Taj Burrow, pictured here, surfs a Firewire, and drinks Foster’s Lager (of course!). Mr. Spectator just drinks Foster’s, according the belly shot in this photo. If Taj keeps it up, we have a good idea what he’ll look like in 20 years. (Courtesy of the Firewire website – We love ‘em).

Hawaiian SUPerman

Surfing HQ — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 11:26:44 +0000

A slightly funny take on Californians invading Hawaii, as well making fun of SUPerman.

One California Day: Movie Review

Surfing HQ — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 11:56:00 +0000

Jason Baffa, director of Single Fin Yellow and One California Day knows his surfing and his filming. If you haven’t seen it, why not? It’s possibly the best filmmaking to cover California since The Endless Summer. In fact, it might just be better, in that the premise of the movie is cover California surfing from San Diego, on up. As you know, the differences between San Diego, Blackies, Huntington, Malibu, Santa Cruz, Marin etc. are as dramatic as the coastline (how’s that for a nice piece of imagery. anyway.)

Miki Dora Interview Footage – all surfers should watch

Surfing HQ — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 13:47:13 +0000

If you’re a surfer of any kind, you’ll find Miki Dora’s prognostications on surfing to be pretty deep. This is a guy, who, by all accounts, railed against the commercialization of the “sport” and who would no doubt be rolling in his grave at the kids running around in [brand name] boardshorts, flip flops with Sun-in in their hair, some 3000 miles away from ANY kind of surf, not even a wave pool. Anyway, we at DailyStoke.com are trying to grasp at some of that surfing nostalgia – a piece of which drifted away when Dora left the scene. Fact is – Dora was right. Don’t be a surfing clone.

Gerry Lopez Book SURF IS WHERE YOU FIND IT Lessons for Surfers & Trestles

Surfing HQ — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 12:42:37 +0000

Gerry Lopez, Hawaiian legend and excellent writer, penned a book called, Surf is Where You Find It that we recently checked out. It’s a fantastic book that you should read. In one particular chapter in the book, he describes the scene one day where a government commission was holding a hearing about putting a drainage canal that would destroy the world famous Ma’alaea Freight Trains. A number of pro-environment and surfing speakers were being shouted down by local fishermen and tour boat operators, who were in favor of the project as it would expand their marina. Lopez explains how one of the last speakers, an eighty year old man, who was shown reverence by all in attendance. In Lopez’s eloquent and moving words, he explains that the old man silenced the crowd when he approached the microphone, explaining his long history with Ma’alaea. Indeed, the “first time the government came to Ma’alea”, he was there. “The first thing they did was build a shithouse right over the freshwater spring,” the old man said. I’ve never laughed so hard in a long time. Moral of the story is that no development was permitted. Through one voice, the majority was struck down. Sound familiar? Trestles.

VANS: Checking out the New Styles Surf Sneaker Review

Surfing HQ — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 12:24:58 +0000

Vans, the company that started back in the ’70s as the Van Doren Rubber Company in California, and made its way by basically selling shoes out of their back door direct to skaters, is alive and well. We had a chance to check out the new line of styles — and there are tons of styles to choose from see www.vans.com, its ridiculous how many different styles they make in all forms: low top lace-ups, low top slip-ons, high-tops etc.

Anyway, after looking through all the new designs we chose the new VANS City Pack (pictured), they are light brown with red trim, with red tags on back and red trim all the way around. Pretty sweet stylin’. We review a lot of products here at dailystoke.com and with shoes we need to ask are they comfortable etc but it really all comes down to stylin’. They are lace ups which isn’t as easy as slip-ons after a day of surfing, but if you want slip-ons Vans has plenty. You also may have seen an ad in Surfer Mag for the Hemp version http://shop.vans.com/catalog/Vans/en_US/product/men/surf-shoes/hemp-106-sf-men.html those are pretty badass too and are next on the list. The hemp sneakers have a bamboo lining and water-based inks and glue.

If you have a pair of Vans post a comment and tell us what you think, and if you have a favorite pair you’d like post that too and maybe Vans will do a giveaway with dailystoke.com and you might just get a free pair!

Please don’t drop in, friends

Surfing HQ — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:00:28 +0000

Its time for the best caption contest, post a comment for the best caption for this photo. Winner will be chosen by the dailystoke staff, and will get bragging rights for eternity.

Surf Forecasting Technology – Ask a Surf Forecaster

Surfing HQ — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:00:00 +0000

DailyStoke.com: How do you feel that forecasting technology will advance in the future? Or are we at the…uhh…peak now? How do you feel that forecasting technology is changing the surf culture?

Socalsurf.com: I think we are a long way from the “peak” of forecasting technology. Just like every form of technology…Forecasting technology is going to get more and more sophisticated and refined in the future. Computers are going to continue to get faster and be able to process more, we are going to get better and more specific satellites, more flexible ocean sensors, and probably even find new ways to use the older technology that we already have in place. It will allow us as forecasters to get more relevant and timely data, tighten up the predictability of the swell/wind models, and generally create more accurate long-range forecasts.

Forecasts and technology are changing surf culture…no doubt about it…at the end of the day everyone wants to get good waves…and they want to be able to plan for it. I think that forecasting tech is allowing surfers to get more strategic…An average surfer in Southern California has sooo much going on (work, family, chores, commuting, more work) that being able to get a little heads up on decent conditions and swell helps them clear the plate a little, maximize the fun-time if you will. I think that this will just become more refined as technology advances.

Adam Wright runs www.socalsurf.com and is a professional
meteorologist. He’s been a surf forecaster since 1999, and covers SoCal and Baja for Wavewatch.com as well as the weekly snow and surf outlooks for Fuel.tv. DailyStoke happens to think there is no better resource online to understanding waves, in plain English, than
Socalsurf.com. Learn more there, now!

Surf Forecasting Resources for Regular Surfers – Ask a Surf Forecaster

Surfing HQ — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Over the coming days, we’ll be profiling the work of Adam Wright, from SoCal Surf Forecast. Adam was cool enough to answer a series of questions from our writers, all about surf forecasts. Here goes!

DailyStoke.com: It’s one thing to follow a surfing forecast site like yours, religiously, but it’s quite another to understand in great detail the information that is presented there. Do you have any suggested resources for surfers who want to figure it out for themselves, or at least better understand the services you provide? We’ve reviewed the Surf Science book and Wetsand’s Surf Forecasting Book.

Socalsurf.com: I am all for people getting into forecasting for themselves… in fact I encourage it on my sites…it is always super cool to see surfers become more connected and passionate about forecasting, and in the end I think it makes people better surfers or at least have more fun, which is what this sport is supposed to be about.

Like you mentioned there are a few books out there that sort of go over the mechanics of forecasting, but they sort of assume that you have the basic vocabulary and terminology already. I think that it is important to build a “basic weather” foundation, where you understand where and why wind blows, how atmospheric pressure works…things like that. I have a post on the blog that helps to cover some of the specific forecasting basics.

Generally, if I know that someone is interested in forecasting but is starting from scratch, I recommend that they spend some time watching the weather channel, and the nightly weather forecasts on the news. Yeah some of them are super cheesy and pretty dumbed down but they do get you familiar with the meteorology terms and basic weather patterns. Talking a basic oceanography, physical geography, or intro to meteorology college/Junior-college course is another great way to get a lot of the terminology.

Once you understand the basics then those surf forecasting books, and sites like mine, suddenly make a lot more sense…you start to see where we are coming from an information standpoint and you can make the intuitive leaps that you sometimes need to put together “weather” with “marine/surf forecasting”.

Resource-wise the internet has a grip of information about weather forecasting, understanding weather patterns, oceanography, meteorology , hydrography. You can find anything…all the way up through PHD level information (big brain stuff)…you just jump on Google and there it is. The hard part is learning what you need to look for…once you have the basic idea down it gets a lot easier to refine your search for more info.