News and Reports from across the globe
Offshore in the Onshore - Dawn Patrol
Latest Groundswell Society News
Global Surf Clubs & Associations
News from the Atlantic Riders
Aloha fellow surfers,
After some hard surfing, seeing the world longboard tour in Raglan, playing
golf, drinking the best wines in the world and visiting family and friends
in New Zealand we have finally been able to organise the photo material
we have collected over the surf season of 2003.
Go and have a look at our photo site and be amazed by the beautiful deserted
beaches on the Portuguese coast that we visit on our Surf Road Trips.
Beginners and advanced surfers as you will see, we offer everything for
everybody (but not too kinky).
Anyway, this is the link www.AtlanticRiders.com/Framepage05.html
and of course the whole Atlantic Riders team will be there this summer
to make sure those waves will be ridden again.
Boas ondas, good waves,
Rene, Helen, Daan & Moko
Atlantic Riders ~ True spirit surf trips
Write: Info@AtlanticRiders.com
Look: www.AtlanticRiders.com
Talk: 0031 70 354 0988
00351 93 375 6547 from April onwards
Offshore in the Onshore
(by Roger Smith, surf guide with dawn patrol)
Some clever-dick from elsewhere decided this weekend that our home break was the ideal venue for a massive surf competition attracting surfers from the big cities in South Africa, just because it’s the most consistent point break in Africa, and delivered overhead powerful walls all day!
We were disgusted. After stealing overhead waves from us for two days, we hoped it would turn onshore. Nasty? Yes. But pulling into our normally deserted car park to find a mobile disco, prancing pros, and posturing wannabes, can you blame us?
It turned onshore and started raining. Our wish had been granted!
Whilst they battled big onshore conditions, we slipped off for some of our private waves at a point that is offshore in an onshore.
Louis, my son Adrian, and I paddled out in challenging conditions to surf grinding rights to ourselves. The water was warm, (Louis’ hood is for his surfers ear), it was raining and it was offshore when the whole coast was onshore.
Louis and Roger run Dawn Patrol, a surf tour operator based in East London on South Africa’s south east coast. They and their support team move up and down the coast, surfing the best waves on offer between Jeffrey’s Bay and the Natal South Coast. Check out their site at www.dawnpatrol.co.za.
Welcome to Saraina Koat Mentawai's 2004 Surf Report
Mentawai Islands Surf Report: March 22, 2004 brought to you by Saraina Koat Mentawai Surf Charters and Cultural Tours.
Our most notable new feature to our 2004 surf report is the addition of professional surf photographer Dave Collyer. Starting this April Dave will basically be spending six months straight on trips with our guests documenting the Mentawai surf season in it's entirety. Dave will not only be busy taking photos for our lucky guests who were able to book him for their trip; he will also be sending us those photos with a quick synopsis about each individual trip.
Overall, it should be really interesting to watch and read about Dave's experience living on our surf charter boats for such an extended period of time. For more information about Dave, his work, and how you can book Dave on your future Mentawai surfing adventure, check out his web site www.sickshots.com/id17.html
Our "Surf Spots" page is now more comprehensive than ever, here's an example of our new description and rating system for 14 of the best and most well known waves in the Mentawai's:
E-bay is a fast, barreling left that gets good when it's head high or bigger. When a pumping west swell is marching through, E-bay does a close impersonation of Padang Padang on Bali without the death cliff looming inside. The overall set-up at E-bay is flawless, stereotypical Indonesian, with beautiful, bluish-green water and tall palm trees everywhere. Besides its aesthetic beauty, double overhead E-bay is a beast and force to be reckon with.
| Zone: Nyang Nyang Overall Rating : 8/10 Best Size: 4-8 ft Consistency: 5/10 Difficulty: 7/10 |
Bottom: Coral Reef Reef Factor: 8/10 Length of Ride: 25 - 100 yards Ability Level: Advanced Swell Direction: Southwest/West |
Best Wind: None or Southeast Best Tide: Medium - High Video/Photo Access: O.K. Shore Access: Easy: but requires a hike E-Bay Movie: Yes E-Bay Movie Clips: Yes |
We've also added a unique Swell and Weather Graph and Lunar Cycle graph to help you plan the best time to take your trip www.mentawaiislands.com/mentawaisurfspots.html
During the months of January and February only a few boats continue to operate. this is primarily due to the fact that these months tend to have the lowest odds of getting good waves. Despite their inconsistency, these months can still offer great waves with no other boats within 100 miles. At the end of this season SKM, for the first time, will be offering extended 13 day/14 night trips to the Mentawai's for 20% of the standard 10 day/11 night price. If you've got enough time to go on one of these trips they offer a unique perspective to what the Mentawai's might have been like 10 years ago.
This past January and February saw six separate swells; the most significant being a cyclone swell that developed off the coast of Madagascar and had every spot in the Mentawai's pushing double overhead. Most of the time, the waves have remained in a smallish waist-head high zone but any activity from the south bumps things up; there are always a few spots that are working.
Current conditions have wave heights in the 3-4 foot range. The southern Indian Ocean is just starting to wake up from it's summer slumber; starting in April we can reasonably expect to have low pressure systems gradually intensify into more powerful storms straight into September.
Here we go.
Terima kasih banyak, Anthony Marcotti
Saraina Koat Mentawai Surf Charters and Cultural Tours
www.mentawaiislands.com
e-mail: info@mentawaiislands.com
Local: (949) 487-7466
Mobile: (714) 478-2487
Latest Groundswell Society News
In March we held our annual Cleanwater Classic at Rincon. Everyone had a good time and we raised about $6500 with funds going to Heal The Ocean, The Santa Barbara Scholarship Foundation/Groundswell Society Scholarship, and the Carpinteria Jr. Lifeguard Assn.
Recently Pacific Sunwear interviewed the founders of The Groundswell Society and wrote up a really nice article about us. Please check out the article and buy a pair of shorts while you are at it www.pacsun.com/culture/lifestyle/community/groundswell/
We are in the beginning stages of planning our SASIC 4 events. Potential speakers start thinking about your talks. Our theme at this point is an unofficial one but will be something like "Riding with Grace." This SASIC we are going to promote 100% positivist, family, women, giving back, and having a good mental attitude when it comes to your time in the water.
We hope all of you are well rested after our latest month long surf lull and are ready for some South swells to begin hitting. I can hear them now.
Cheers from all of us at TGS!
Matt Meyerson
Co-Founder
The Groundswell Society
www.groundswellsociety.org
233 Ashland Ave., Ste. F
Santa Monica, CA 90405
Surf Dive Action Show 2004
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It's going to be HUGE!!!! |
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This years INTERNATIONAL SURF DIVE ACTION SHOW 2004 has a greater consumer focus and falls within the Australian half yearly school holiday period over 4 full days,15-18th July 2004. SDA2004 will include more than 200 local and international exhibitors inside the amazing Sydney Entertainment Centre (SEC) which will be sectioned into three distinct areas - SURF • DIVE • ACTION - all areas being interlinked by TRAVEL and FASHION villages opening into a central AUDITORIUM where a MAIN ARENA will provide a jam packed program of entertainment, sports exhibition and performances. |
Global Surf Clubs & Associations
Gumby has transformed its Clubs page to now include links to hundreds of surf clubs and associations across the globe. We have links to clubs in the US, Europe, the UK, the Pacific region, Japan and others.
In the coming weeks we will be including Surf Life Saving Associations as well.
If you know of a Club that we have missed then please email the name of the club and we will do the rest.
News Archive
Want to look through the list of Gumby News pages without having to hit the green arrow time and time again? Well we now have all our News pages listed on one page for quicker access.
If you are looking for something that was on an earlier News page but you cannot remember when or which edition then use our Search engine to find it.
Search Gumby and the Web
Gumby has expanded the search capability of its Search Tool. You can now not only search for things on the Gumby web site but use the same page to find stuff on the web.
You can type in a word or phrase and then select up to four of the listed search engines. The results come back in a window on the same page. You can look through all the results on one page rather than having to do the same search individually three more times . It saves a huge amount of time when researching a topic or trying to find something obscure.
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