Recent Rants

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.

To the indefatigably stoked crew:

I'm land bound till at least August because of surgery. In the meantime, I've got a quiver of boards sitting around like bird dogs with no quarry. They're pent up and need to get wet. If anyone's going on a trip, just wants to try something new, or has a friend from outta town hit me up here, on email or twitter.

Just a heads-up to any whose interest I have piqued with regards to bodysurfing. Early this morning I had to head to the ER for a badly throbbing foot infection, one that left me basically immobile. It was drained and was totally gross and I'm off my feet for a few days.

heh

Fire rescue crews say tiger sharks are hampering their search for a missing surfer on Oahu's North Shore. They believe they spotted the California man's body off Papailoa Point Wednesday morning, but several sharks in the area prevented them from getting a closer look.

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.

Seal Rox. Amber Lamps. Mike Hotel Six Five Charlie.

USGS was out today installing pressure sensors in the surf zone between Rivera and Taraval. They are a couple hundred yards apart and stacked 2 deep. They are marked by a ~6, spring loaded orange pole and will up until March 26.

This was inspired by the wax removal rant. What is the wonkiest surf "accessory" you've seen

Exhibit A: Power Balance's holographic balance stickers

Locals in Bournemouth, England have begun calling the recently-finished artificial surfing reef "the beached whale." The reef cost $4.5 million dollars and... it's not working. Article link is below. Also interesting are the reviews of the world's other surfing reef experiments: http://oceanswavesbeaches.blogspot.com/2009/08/do-artificial-reefs-work-...

I'm a big fan of the Pickle (http://www.picklewaxremover.com/) for getting the final bits of wax off a board, but I've always struggled to find a good way to get that first chunky layer off. Over the years I've used spatulas, wax combs, random plastic, etc. but haven't found that perfect device. Maybe the Wax Buddy works (see video). Anyone use it? Anyone find something really effective?

An earlier rant turned into a good discussion on CPR (http://stokereport.com/rant/blacks-surfer-comes-back-life).

I took a first-aid certification class ($50 bucks) at Bay Area RedCross and that was informative but it didn't cover CPR. But good overall material and they also have separate CPR classes (I think $65 bucks): http://bit.ly/9A7zCl (I think their site is down right now...?)