2009 UK Good Beach Guide- Water quality plummets

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) today announces a 16.5% drop in the number of UK bathing beaches recommended for excellent water quality in its annual Good Beach Guide (www.goodbeachguide.co.uk), compared to last year. In total, 370 (47.5%) UK beaches are ‘MCS Recommended’ this year out of 777 tested, compared to 444 last year. This is the biggest year-on-year fall in the guide’s 22 year history and the first time since 2002 that MCS has recommended less than half of Britain’s bathing beaches.

The latest bathing water tests, conducted from May to September 2008, coincided with the seventh wettest British summer on record. Beaches failing the minimum legal standard jumped almost 50% from 53 to 78. MCS blames this steep drop in water quality on a combination of flood water mixed with sewage gushing from combined sewer overflows and polluted storm water running off farm land and city streets into rivers and the sea.

Thomas Bell, MCS Coastal Pollution Officer, said: “Today’s results reflect last summer’s heavy rain which swept waterborne pollutants like raw sewage, petro-chemicals and farm waste into rivers and the sea. MCS is now recommending 25% fewer beaches than three years ago and we’re becoming concerned that the existing infrastructure for handling storm pollution may not be up to the job.”

Bobby Martinez wins Billabong pro Teahupoo

Teahupoo, Tahiti -- Bobby Martinez (USA), 26, has taken out the Billabong Pro Tahiti presented by Air Tahiti Nui, defeating fellow Finalist Taj Burrow (AUS), 30, in clean three-to-five foot (1.5 metre) waves at Teahupoo.

Event No. 3 of 10 on the 2009 ASP World Tour, the Billabong Pro Tahiti survived a marathon waiting period, culminating on the second-to-last available day in improving conditions that peaked for a climactic Final.

Martinez surfed a near-flawless heat, opening up with an impressive 8.73 out of a possible 10 before putting his opponent in a combination situation with a Houdini-esque 9.73 out of a possible 10. Netting the highest heat total of the event, an 18.46 out of a possible 20, Martinez claimed his second Billabong Pro Tahiti and fourth elite tour win, establishing himself as one of the premier tube-riders in the world.

“I feel great and a bit emotional,” Martinez said. “I feel wonderful. I waited for the good ones out there and just got lucky. There weren’t too many waves and I was lucky enough to get a couple of good ones and not fall. Things just seemed to work out for me today. I really don’t know what to say. It feels really special.”

Next stop on the ASP tour- Santa Catarina Brazil in June 09

*photo ASP / CI / Robertson via Getty Images

Gliders Auto Emblems

OK we do distribute Gliders products in Europe so we are going to give them a big shout, but whats not to like, they're fun, funky, a cool gift and a great way to show your affiliation to the boardriding fraternity. Check the video below to see the range:





For more detail click here

"Waveriders" Film to play St Jean de Luz film festival

Waveriders premieres for the first time in France at the St jean De Luz International Film Festival. Waveriders reached top 5 at the Irish box office after cinema released across UK and Ireland!

WAVERIDERS is the previously untold story of the unlikely Irish roots of the worldwide surfing phenomenon and today's pioneers of Irish big wave surfing. The story unfolds through the inspirational and ultimately tragic history of Irish/Hawaiian legendary waterman, George Freeth, the son of an Irishman, who was responsible for the rebirth of this sport of Hawaiian kings in the early twentieth century. With its distinguished cast of world-renowned Irish, British and Irish/American surfers WAVERIDERS journeys full-circle from Hawaii to California and back to Irish shores following Freeth's wave of influence. The journey reaches a spectacular climax when the surfers conquer the biggest swell ever to have been ridden in Ireland by catching monster waves of over fifty feet.

Stars Kelly Slater, Gabe Davies, Chris, Keith & Dan Malloy, Richard Fitzgerald; Written by - Lauren Davies; Narrated by- Cillian Murphy;

www.waveridersthefilm.com

UPDATE: WAVEFINDERS IS SHOWING FROM 18TH-21ST MAY AT CARDIFF CHAPTER ARTS CENTRE

2009 Billabong Pro Teahupoo Tahiti

The Billabong Pro in Teahupoo kicked off with perfect conditions on Saturday but Sunday was taken as a lay day as the surf dropped. Heres the news:

"TEAHUPOO, Tahiti (Sunday, May 10, 2009) – The Billabong Pro Tahiti presented by Air Tahiti Nui has been called off for the day, with lumpy four-foot (1.5 metre) swell and onshore winds replacing the near-perfection of yesterday.


Stop No. 3 of 10 on the 2009 ASP World Tour, the Billabong Pro Tahiti saw the opening 14 heats of the man-on-man elimination Round 1 completed yesterday, and with the projections calling for improved conditions in the coming days, event organizers opted to hold competition off for the day.

“We obviously don’t have the idyllic conditions that graced us yesterday with the swell a bit lump and the wind onshore,” Luke Egan, Billabong Pro Contest Director, said. “We’ve called competition off for the day, but are monitoring swell and winds for the coming days and it looks like we may be running again soon. We’ll be back tomorrow morning to make another decision.”

Event organizers will reconvene tomorrow morning at 6:30am to assess conditions for a possible 7am start."

To follow the action go to http://www.billabongpro.com/tahiti09/news.php

Monster barrel reveals its secrets

Check out this impressive footage of a South Pacific wave filmed by the BBC as part of their new series which shows for the first time unique action of a wave inside the barrel. (Words courtesy of the BBC)

"A huge ocean wave has been filmed from beneath the surface, revealing features never before captured on camera.

The remarkable video, which will be shown as part of the BBC Natural History Unit's new series South Pacific, was filmed in super slow motion using a high-definition camera.

It reveals the hidden power of a four-metre-tall monster barrel wave

It also shows the first images of underwater spiralling vortices created by the wave's action.

The wave was filmed off the coast of Pohnpei in the Caroline Islands, part of the Federated State of Micronesia.

The location is well known in the international surf community. Some of the biggest waves in the world break on South Pacific islands.

The storm swells that create these waves travel more than 5,000km to break on their shorelines.

Super slow mo

"I really wanted to slow the wave down, so it was like being there, immersed in that environment," says the BBC's Huw Cordey, series producer of South Pacific.

"I wanted to capture the scale of the event."

Doing so took special skills and equipment. Australian cameraman Bali Strickland, renowned for filming expert surfers at some of the best surfing sites in the world, had to float in the water as the wave passed over him.

He filmed the wave using a £66,000 ($100,000) high-speed camera that captures the action at 20 times slower than normal speed, and in high definition.

South Pacific: Oceans of Islands will be broadcast on BBC Two from Sunday, 10 May 2009 at 2030 BST

"Money Hungry Pig idiots" Da Hui dams Billabong & ASP

Da Hui has taken to YouTube to share their feelings regarding Billabong and the ASP. Their point of conflict lies with a trials format that only allows 1 local surfer into the main event of the Billabong Pro Tahiti; a far cry from the 16 spots allotted by the Pipeline Masters. In the letter addressed to “Tahitian surfers of the Tahitian Surfing Federation and all it may concern”, a spokesman for Da Hui eloquently refers to the ASP and Billabong as “money-hungry pig idiots” and informed the Tahitians that “its time to stick out your chests, not your asses.”