April 27, 2010, 9:39 am : German tow surfer happens to claim Billabong XXL Win

Filed Under: Events, Interviews, News, Surfing
Discussion: C[0]mments

By his own admission, Sebastian Steudtner didn’t aim to win the Billabong XXL Award for biggest wave ridden. Media are full of references to his German background and the fact that he learned to tow surf before he could paddle in. In this Surfline interview: http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/who-is-sebastian-steudtner_42900/, he makes no bones about his unorthodox rise to this prominent victory.

Others (including Christian Fletcher, per his rant as the award presenter at the ceremony) are trying not so subtly to call him out for his lack of a traditional paddle apprenticeship. But anyone that commit to and surf a wave this size deserves the respect of anyone who has never done it. Which is 99.99% of us. Just ask Ken Collins what happens if you eat it on a wave of consequence at Jaws: http://www.surfline.com/surflinetv/ken-skindog-collins.

Check out Steudtner’s 66 foot winner:

April 15, 2010, 11:28 pm : Water Time -a sneak peak from Allan C. Weisbecker

Filed Under: Uncategorized
Discussion: C[0]mments

Water Time, a film in production by Allan Weisbecker and his team (to this point consisting of his dog Honey), will hopefully be ready to go by the time the New York Surf Film Festival rolls around in September.

For those that can’t cross their fingers and wait that long, check the first seven minutes. Look, knowing Allan, if he is seven minutes into this damn thing, he’s gonna finish it. Looks very interesting so far.

April 11, 2010, 11:22 am : Kelly Slater Still Schoolin’ the New School

Filed Under: News, Surfing
Discussion: C[0]mments

For those casual fans of surfing, scoring an 8.93 out of 10 in a World Tour contest means the surfer has surfed that wave exceptionally well. 9 time World Champ (why do all other surf media say “former 9x World Champ”? His crowns aren’t going to suddenly disappear) Kelly Slater just won the Bells Beach Pro, which is the longest running pro surf contest in the World.

Slater proved his continuing ability to bust out innovative surfing when needed, throwing up this aerial in the final. The mark of a champion and true competitor; the ability to dig down for their best performance when it is needed most. And he is doing this at the age of 38, several years senior just about everyone else on the World Tour.

Check the video of that aerial:

April 11, 2010, 8:04 am : Some Snoop Dogg for y’all

Filed Under: Imagery, Music
Discussion: C[0]mments

As I was looking back through my previous posts, I came to the gallery of Slightly Stoopid from the Blazed and Confused tour. Yet I never posted any of my Snoop Dogg pictures. Well it’s time to change that. Nevermind that the show was eight months ago, such a classic artist and entertainer is timeless.

The only knock, if I can find one, is that Snoop doesn’t mix it up with the rest of the ruffians backstage. He stays well within his circle of body guards, which is understandable but too bad, since it would have been great to score an impromptu interview with him.

P.S. – The current plugin I am using to generate image galleries isn’t working correctly. Sorry for the scrolling thumbnails. I’m working on a fix.

All images Copyright Jeff Schad, 2009