Surfers tell tall tales

We've all done it before, chatting to surf buddies, stretching the truth a little to tell a better story. You know the kind of things, ..."it was easily double overhead", "...it was definately a 15ft great white that brushed past my leg".

We all love to talk and hear stories, it's part of what surfing's all about, but here I'm going to look at surf tales that are so ridiculous that only the insane would believe them. The idea was prompted by the recollection of a tall story I was told by a customer in a surf shop I worked in many years ago on the UK's North sea coast.

"It was mid-winter and the surf shop in question had no heating, unless the faint glow coming off the shop's single light bulb counted. The wind used to howl from the North, down from Scandanavia, into and under every gap the shop front had (which were numerous), turning the place into an ice box. One day a guy walked into the shop, which was unusual in itself, carrying a shortboard under his arm. The guy wore a heavy jacket and had shoulder length blond hair, he looked the part so I had no reason to doubt the initial conversation.

It turned out that he wanted to sell the 6'2" he was presenting to me, deck up, as it was an unwanted gift from his Uncle in Winnipeg, Canada, who had shaped the board for him. Of course doubts began to surface at this point, but I carried on. I asked the guy why he didn't want the board. His response was that it didn't feel right when he was surfing it, so I took hold of it and instantly felt the wax job.....which was all over the bottom of the board!

There were two ways to proceed, either be sympathetic and explain where the wax should really go, to let the guy know the game was up, or carry on with the conversation to see how far this mans bull*hit extended. So of course I decided on the latter. Next I asked him, where he surfed and he informed me that he surfed locally and actually surfed that very morning on the very same board (bit slippy was it?). So what wetsuit do you wear? Then the all time lie came tumbling out, he told me he didn't wear wetsuits. By now I'm biting down on my lip and mentioned that the water temp was around 5 degrees C (41F) and the wind chill about -3 c (26F) today and his response was all time..."I only need to wear boardshorts because I dont feel the cold"

Obviously the guy was immune to hypothermia! I never did let him know that his "clever" surfer story bluff was uncovered."

I havent heard such a tall surf story since but I bet there are thousands out there. If you have any similar kooky, way out, incredulous, surf stories that you've been told or have heard feel free to share them with us either as a comment or email us at contact at extremehorizon dot com and we'll published the best on the blog (clean stories only please!....we're a U rated site :)

Surfing for peace

As surfers we sometimes get a bit pi**ed off if the waves aren't good or the wind is in the wrong direction, but spare a thought for the boys and girls in Palestine. Their beaches were occupied for 38yrs, so until recently they couldn't surf at all but now that they can, finding equipment is a big deal for them.

This is why Dorian Paskowitz, a retired Jewish Hawaiian surfer, embarked upon a different kind of peace mission as he set out to bring a stack of boards to the embattled Gaza strip in a gesture of goodwill. He's hoping to get Isrealis and Palestinians surfing the same waves...as he puts it "Even God will surf with the Devil, if the waves are good".....

..... Amen brother




for more info on surfing in Gaza visit : http://www.gazasurfclub.com/Welcome.html

Mass stranding of dolphins remains a mystery

Initial post-mortem examinations of some of the 26 dolphins found dead in Cornwall have so far revealed no clues as to the cause of the mass stranding.

The animals appear to have been well-fed and there were no obvious signs of disease or poisoning.

The dolphins died when they became trapped in a river creek off the Fal estuary on Monday.

Confusing sonar signals from ships are among the possible causes being considered by wildlife experts.

And they are continuing to search the area in case there are more dolphins in trouble.

David Jarvis, from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue organisation, told BBC News there are several different theories as to why the animals ended up trapped in Porth creek.

"They could have been looking for food," he said.

"It could have been something to do with sonar, it could have been that there was a killer whale out there that frightened them. "It's obviously quite worrying, because they were over such a large area of coastline."

The stranding has been described as the worst ever seen in the UK.

The last case was 27 years ago when a pod of whales were stranded on the east coast.

Some of the dead animals found on Monday are believed to have been pregnant. Two of them had to be put down.

Veterinary pathologist Vic Simpson, who performed some of the post-mortem tests, said: "It's quite unprecedented, we have never had anything of this magnitude."

He said he thought there was a "good chance" of working out the cause of the dolphin deaths.

* source BBC

Mexico To Tag Sharks After Deadly Attacks

Biologists in Mexico plan to tag hundreds of sharks off the Pacific Coast to help understand the cause of a rare spate of deadly attacks on humans, the local government said on Tuesday. Sharks near the south-western resort of Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo killed two surfers and maimed another in the past few weeks, the first fatal shark attacks along Mexico's Pacific coast in 30 years, according to official records.

Biologists plan to tag sharks and ask fisherman to look out for them and report back on their movements. A smaller group of sharks will be tagged with electronic devices that would transmit data on their behaviour and locations to biologists via radio frequencies. The tagging is expected to begin in about two months and the study should last a year. We need to get to the 'why' these animals are coming so close to Guerrero's shores.

Shark experts believe unusually cool sea-surface temperatures could be partly responsible for the attacks, but they also note that a dearth of data about sharks in the region makes it difficult to reach conclusions. The researchers plan to use a special baited fishing line to catch sharks in the area and then tag and release them. Fishermen who come across tagged sharks will be compensated for reporting their location. More expensive telemetric tags on a smaller number of sharks will emit radio frequencies that scientists can track.

Surfer Bruce Grimes from Texas recently became the third person to be bitten by a shark since late April. Grimes survived the attack but needed 100 stitches in his arm.

*source: Reuters

Surfing fitness exercises

Here's the second in our ongoing surfing fitness exercises brought to you by Clayton Beatty:

www.totalsurfingfitness.com

Split Squat Twist

• This exercise will improve your leg strength, balance, and core strength.

• Start in a lunge position but with one foot in front of the other.

• Keeping your body in an upright position, lower your back knee towards the ground stopping just short of touching, whilst rotating the ball to one side

• Your front knee should end up directly over your ankle.

• Push back up to the start position and repeat, but this time rotate to the opposite side.

• Do 4 rotations each side and then swap legs.

• To increase the intensity, use a weight plate or medicine ball instead of a basketball.

British Longboard Union Midsummer competition

for more info visit:

http://www.british-longboard-union.co.uk/

Surfing in Dubia?

I'm pretty sure that the Gulf isn't going to make it as a surf destination, but this geeza did manage to catch some waves in Dubai!....