Last spring, on a green wave in the Mentawais, a chain of islands off the west coast of Indonesia, Jordy Smith performed the most sublime aerial in the history of surfing, a back flip while spinning one and a half times. Video of the flip, known as a rodeo clown, went viral when Yahoo posted it in June.

There is still some good news in our North Pacific forecast…the storm-track still has enough energy for at least one more “winter-size” WNW-NW swell before really starting to close up shop. The storm that will be sending this swell is actually start to develop today but the main portion of swell generation is going to occur as the storm peaks late Saturday night and through Sunday morning.

Sounding like something straight out of Hollywood, the covert operation that busted a SoCal sushi restaurant accused of selling endangered whale meat involved a popular eatery, a film director, undercover vegans, text messages and a Mercedes. [Tip to the LA Times]

The federal government on Wednesday recommended an endangered-species listing for the loggerhead turtles in U.S. waters, a decision that could lead to tighter restrictions on fishing and other maritime trades.

Take a huge oceanic catamaran, stick a hydroelectric turbine underneath it, and hitch it to a 6.5 million-square-foot parafoil flying nearly a mile in the air. That’s a Korean research team’s new proposal for generating gigawatts of clean energy.

Over the past year, Surfline has grown its surf cam network to include 84 HD cameras at the most prime surfing locations around the world. Today, Surfline has launched these HD cams on mobile.surfline.com for the iPhone and iPod touch.

As I was told from a young age by my parents, the television would make my brain go to mush. Although a statement such as that has not been scientifically proven, I am almost sure it’s true.

Fantastic news. It's a shame that the team got cut off during their speech.