I arrived at a spot this morning in which I found zero spongers in the water. I walked around a bit before I saw a group of spongers heading out to the line-up. Shortly after that, another group of spongers were heading out to the line-up, too. It went from zero spongers to a bunch with quickness.
It's the last weekend of June, and with that, hopefully it'll be the last weekend of June gloom. I know June gloom won't necessarily go away just because it's not June anymore, but after dealing with June gloom conditions since May, the sooner it goes away, the better.
When I initially paddled out this morning, I noticed a little sandbar that had potential. As the tide dropped a little, that potential turned into reality as nugs started to dump on that sandbar one after another.
It’s no secret that when it comes to advertising dollars, the American bodyboarding industry undoubtedly gets the short end of the stick. Just flip through any of the several one American-published bodyboarding magazines and you’ll see what I mean.
With the exception of advertisements from bodyboarding mainstays - such as Morey Boogie, Custom X and Toobs - American bodyboarding advertisements largely consist of unappealing products from unknown companies. With all due respects, I just don’t need a bodyboard shoulder strap that doubles as a towel.
It wasn’t always this way, though. In the early to mid-90s, money from big companies flowed freely through the American bodyboarding industry. It isn’t a coincidence that it was during that period that the American bodyboarding industry experienced the biggest boom in growth that it has ever seen – before or since.
It would certainly take a miracle of biblical proportions for the American bodyboarding industry to receive the same kind of money that it did in it’s hey day. For the time being, however, let’s enjoy some of the ads from a bygone era.
I checked out the USBA event at Huntington Beach yesterday. The waves weren't epic, but the contestants made do with what came through.
The cloudy/hazy conditions didn't make for optimum lighting for taking pictures or videos, so I snapped only a few before I decided to bounce by high noon.
I got to check out the Churchill Hubbs yesterday. It has a stiffer blade, foot pocket padding (a la Vipers), and ankle padding and built in fin tethers (a la no fin you've ever seen before).
There will be a couple of big bodyboarding events taking place this weekend here in SoCal.
First, the USBA Tour will be making a stop at Huntington Beach for the Sports Chalet US Open of Bodyboarding. The USBA top-16 will be at this event. Additionally, there will be various activities taking place during this event, such as autograph signing and a US Open party on both Saturday and Sunday nights at the Shorebreak Hotel.
The most notable activity, in my opinion, is the opportunity to sample a Mike Stewart custom board. If you've heard anything about MS customs, you surely know that they're not your average custom boards. If you haven't heard about MS customs, however, read about them here.
Second, the Ring of Fire II premiere will be going down at the Elks Lodge in San Clemente (1505 N. El Camino Real, San Clemente). This movie definitely looks sick, and what really has me stoked is the ton of Cali action featured in this flick. Check out the trailer below:
