SAS: Return to Offender

A campaigner from Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) has set off to the Netherlands recently to return some shipping litter (hospital medical bags) that have been washing up on Cornish beaches to a Dutch Shipping company it is believed to have come from. The containers the medical bags were held in were part of a cargo being carried by the MV Endeavor ship that was travelling between Ireland and Spain. The boat reported meeting bad weather near the Isles of Scilly last December and as a result 11 containers were lost overboard, believed to contain the medical bags, pouched tobacco, doors, non-toxic fibres and milk powder.

SAS, with support from the Dutch surfing community will tomorrow deliver the litter, to shipping company JR Shipping in the northern Dutch town of Harlingen on the Waddenzee. It is part of a campaign run by SAS called Return To Offender.....Nice one lads (Editor) www.sas.org.uk/pr/2008/sennen-hospital-waste-1.php

Surfing in London?!

Two-metre waves are to break near the Thames at an attraction aiming to tempt urban surfers to taste the "quintessential California surf lifestyle" in a disused dock in East London.

From 2011, the world's first outdoor artificial surfing machine will try to rival ocean breakers using cleaned river water. The Venture Xtreme project at Silvertown Quays has secured outline planning permission; building work to transform the former grain dock will begin this year. An artificial beach with palm trees, boardwalks and rentable fire-pits and barbecues is planned for post-surf relaxation.

The £20 million ($44 million) project is the brainchild of Steve Jones, an adventure sports enthusiast who climbs, canoes and surfs and believes that urban surfers, mocked as "weekend warriors" by coast-dwelling locals, want to take to the waves after work instead of going to the gym.

Surfers can expect to pay £30 for an hour's session that will offer at least 10 waves a rider, each rolling more than 100 metres. The wave machine can be set to make the surf break left and right from a central peak. Floodlit surfing and screens highlighting riders' best moves aim to attract an estimated 100,000 surfers and body-boarders a year, as well as half a million spectators.

Wave pool: A sign of things to come?

Quiksilver are holding a surfing event in the worlds largest wave pool this Jan and here at Extremehorizon we reckon its something we are going to see much more of. As more wave parks are built they'll attract more spectators, more riders and more sponsorship. Guarenteed waves at a specified height in warm safe water is a contest organisors dream...next step the Olympics?....heres a snippet of Quiksilvers press release:

Malaysia’s land-locked city of Kuala Lumpur is about to get a blast of boarding culture with the upcoming Quiksilver Revolution 2.0 bringing an international line-up of surfers and skaters to its chlorinated shores.
At a huge 18,000 square feet (1,672 square metres), the man-made surf pool at Sunway Lagoon resort theme-park in the heart of city, is the largest in the world and the perfectly shaped waves it produces has attracted five of the world’s most talented surfers to take part in a surfing display.
On January 26, aerial specialist Ry Craike (Kalbarri, West Australia), top-ranked professionals Troy Brooks (Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia) and Josh Kerr (Snapper Rocks, Queensland, Australia) will be joined by Peurto Rican hotshot Dylan Graves and Indonesian star Wayan ‘Betet’ Merta (Bali, Indonesia) as they give a futuristic surfing demonstration to an expected 30,000 curious landlocked fans.

The "Eddie" might go....

Waimea Bay, Oahu, Hawaii - In one of the most epic winter weeks for surf from the Hawaiian Islands to the coast of California, organizers of the Quiksilver Big Wave Invitational in Memory of Eddie Aikau, the world's original big-wave surf competition held at Waimea Bay, Hawaii, have placed the event on high alert to possibly run today, Sunday, January 13.

The paddle-in only event requires a minimum swell height of 20 feet Hawaiian scale, which translates to wave face heights of 40+ feet. The swell bringing waves to California today, passed through Hawaii on Wednesday and Thursday with wave faces in the 25-30 foot range. The new swell arriving tomorrow in Hawaii is forecast to go higher.

Some of the surfers competing at Mavericks yesterday have already booked last minute flights to Hawaii and are awaiting the official contest call, hoping to ride the next giant swell to sweep through the Pacific. Those surfers include Peter Mel, Ross Clarke-Jones, Brock Little, Anthony Tashnick and Garrett McNamara.

Biggest wave ever surfed? 05th Jan 08

Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker from Durban joined an elite crew of big wave chargers to defy Pacific Ocean storms and ride the biggest waves ever seen on the Cortes Bank, 160 kilometres off the coast of Southern California on Sunday 5 January.

Baker and an all-star trio of Californians Mike Parsons, Brad Gerlach and Greg Long set off in the tail end of a vicious storm at 7am in a high powered 12 metre speedboat designed and piloted by photographer Rob Brown. Arriving at 12 noon, the crew unloaded two jet skis and towed each other into waves with faces estimated at 25 metres (80 foot) before reloading as darkness fell and heading for home just before the next storm arrived in the area.

According to Long, it was the biggest waves any of the surfers had ever seen – by a significant margin. "We all rode the biggest waves of our lives by far," said Long. "Compared to the wave Mike had out there in 2001 (measured at 66 foot), this was so much bigger. I don't know how it looks in the photos, but I know I saw a lot of 80-foot-plus waves out there. It was the most incredible thing I've ever seen in my life."

The detailed data on the conditions was provided by veteran forecaster Sean Collins of Surfline.com who despite predicting giant waves, was skeptical that the group would find rideable conditions between the storms. As it turned out, the sun came out, the wind dropped and the quartet enjoyed an afternoon of epic surfing.

In addition to the thrill of riding the enormous waves on the isolated seamount, the trip was motivated by the quest to find and ride a 100 foot (30 metre) wave and inspired by the Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards which honours the best exponents of big wave surfing annually.

Parsons, Gerlach and Long are all previous winners of Billabong XXL awards while Baker has been a finalist in the awards and gained international renown by winning the Mavericks Surf Contest in 2006.

Seal Bitten by Great white shark on UK east coast?

Claims that a great white shark was responsible for injuries to a dead seal found on a Norfolk beach on the UK's North Sea coast were met with a mixture of cynicism and humour last night.

A national newspaper reported the find on Sheringham beach as being the work of a giant shark, with the clear suggestion it was a great white.

The seal was photographed by Sheringham lifeboatman and professional photographer Chris Taylor, who said he had sent the pictures to Dr Ken Collins, of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton.

While the two men have both said they feel it is likely the wounds were inflicted by a shark, neither has claimed any certainty - and they have stressed the point it could be a porbeagle shark instead. The porbeagle is much more likely to be found in the North Sea and tends to feed on smaller fish such as mackerel.

Other commentators have said the wound could have been caused by anything from a boat propeller, another seal or a dog which attacked the seal on a beach.

Last night Mr Taylor said: “Great whites can survive in these waters (perhaps wearing a 6mm suit and a woolly hat! - Ed) and it doesn't look like it was caused by a boat propeller because of how clean cut it is.

“But I am certainly not out there shouting 'shark' - no one is sure what did this, there is a lot of speculation.”

Kate Price, a vet nurse wildlife assistant at the Norfolk Animal Hospital near King's Lynn, said she had never come across such an injury. Fights between competing bull seals and attacks on seal pups by non-parental adults were fairly common, but the injuries inflicted were completely different.

“We get quite a few bite injuries in, but nothing like that.”

EDP fishing correspondent Roy Webster said he knew a large number of sea anglers who fished both from shore and boat and he had never heard a single report or rumour about a great white off the Norfolk coast.

“The possibilities are endless and one can only speculate. Did a big dog attack it when it came up on the beach? And bear in mind any attack could have been many miles offshore.

“It's more likely one of these mysterious black panthers said to roam East Anglia did it than a great white.”

Picture copyright www.christaylorphoto.co.uk

Jack Johnson

In an effort to acknowledge and support the important work that non-profit groups are doing in communities across the planet, JACK JOHNSON’S 2008 world tour is reaching out to groups working in the realms of water quality, community & school gardens, land preservation, environmental education and more. In association with the tour, several nonprofits in each city will host volunteer events leading up the show and will interact with fans at the concerts' “Village Green,” with the goal of raising awareness about local issues and engaging community action.
http://www.reversegarbage.org.au
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/rokkasho_waste
www.cultivatingcommunity.org.au
www.treeproject.asn.au