As you may have heard, Australian film actor Heath Ledger died a couple of weeks ago, cause of death is unclear. Heath featured in many great movies, such as Brokeback Moutain or A Knight’s Tale. And beyond Heath’s fans it is also a sad news for the surf community. Heath, who was featured as “One of the World’s Most Intriguing Surfers” in the 2004 Big Issue of SURFER Magazine spent his childhood in Yallingup, Australia as the magazine recalls.
One of Heath’s most outstanding performance was linked to surfing when he played Skip in “Lords of Dogtown“. Dogtown is an area of West Los Angeles - the poorer, slum area on the south side of Santa Monica that covered Venice Beach and Ocean Park Beaches.
Skip and the Z-boys surfed the abondonned Pacific Ocean Park Pier. It was a very popular pleasure pier from 1956 to its closing in 1967. It featured a pier, rides and attractions, shops, a strolling promenade, and a large ballroom. Love that old school tone of this video:
To have an idea of where all this takes place, here’s a map of the area. If you didn’t know you would never guess that a gigantic park that was competing against disneyland was standing at this spot. Agrandir le plan
Today, the only parts that remain of “POP” are some broken pilings that are underwater and a few warning signs. Back in the 70’s, the Z-boys gave the name “The Cove” to this spot, due to its shape. It was a short break, hidden in between rusting piers and spiky concrete pilings. Indeed it was a dangerous place to surf, but the rusting sharp as knifes elements under the water weren’t the worst part of it. If you weren’t part of the Z-boys you just couldn’t surf the spot. One of those places where the term “locals only” takes all its meaning.
Laurent Roy a french photographer has just updated its Photoblog. He lets us appreciate a selection of very nice pics taken in the famous Britany spot of La Torche. Follow this link if you want to see the set and why not discover the whole work of this photographer.
I knew the Paris, New york, London, StarTrek… editions but not yet the Surfing Monopoly.
I’m not really sure that surfing values like respect of each other and sharing are really matching with the game capitalistic concept of Monopoly. But actualy, I do not forget it just a very fun game. Moreover, as Nollie says, a percentage of profits go the Surfrider Foundation.
Now I’m hardently waiting the Cluedo Surfing Edition, where the purpose would be to find: who has snaked kelly, on which beach, and with which board :D
The International Surfing Film Festival of Saint Jean de Luz , France, is the inescapable meeting of the fans of surfing. This fourth event organized by Bruno Delaye Production, will be held in Jaï-Alaï in Saint-Jean-de-Luz from the 16th to 19th of May this year and will present the first screening of numerous unpublished films from around the world
The St Jean de Luz Festival will also give Bethany Hamilton the oppurtunity to premiere the new documentary depicting her return to the water after her shark attack.
The documentary is named “Heart of a soul surfer”, and has a website where a trailer can be found.
yep for those of us who spend most of the year living in the city, nature documentaries such as the excellent BBC’s Planet Earth is a way to remind us of the great beauty of nature.
RipCurl has always been engaged to fight against environment threat. Today, the surf brand continues in this way by presenting 4 commitments gathered in the RipCurl Planet programm. It inclues partnerships with WWF and Surfrider Fondation but moreover, the company is also seeking to reduce its own impact on the environment by improving its operation and by developing more ecological products. A good exemple of this engagement, is that you will never see any plastic bag in a RipCurl store.
Some members of the french surf portail Surf4all have launch a new wiki about Surf. The website is quite new but we can already find many content. A great initiative all in GNU free documentation licence !
The 60’s and the 70’s are golden decades for color photography and for surfing. A Technicolor quest to capture the perfect wave. LeRoy Grannis is one of those who went on that quest. A life long surfer turned photographer in his forties, who’s now part of surf history. Sun soaked california waves, an endless dream…
Taschen, just re-edited, one of the most impressive showcase of Grannis’ work. Because as they say :”This unlimited popular edition is for readers on a budget or who were unable to get their hands on the original limited Collector’s Edition (it sold out in record time and copies were being resold for up to double of the retail price!) “. Lucky you.
To commemorate its 25th birthday the excellent skateboard mag Thrasher is giving us a chance to go back in time… to the glory days of the early eighties.
Thrasher started in 1981, and to commemorate you have access now to the 12 mags of the first year !
For any designer it is a dream come true, you’ll love the colors, the type, the layouts… especially since the 12 issues are available to download in pdf.
This is the result of a study found on the discovery channel website. Indeed, we can learn that a competitive surfers sustained 6.6 significant injuries per 1,000 hours of surfing… wow, it seems already enough but apparently is quite less than other sports.
Now, mums can be quiet : )
