george crosland photo blog

There is a wave in Newport Beach, CA called the Wedge. Waves come in, refract off the jetty and double up in size. When the right swell comes in things get crazy. Due tot he shalloewness of the wave it is primarily ridden by body boards and body surfers. It is almost un-makeable on a surfboard, you end up in 6″ of water. People do surf it and sometimes you pictures of Kelly Slater, CJ Hobgood, Punker Pat and others surfing it. Today at mid-day, it was the realm of body boarders and a few surfers not going for the mackers

Imagine surfing that beast! Like a mini Pipeline with no Exit!

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Stand up paddle surfing is gay enough (sorry Laird Hamilton) but stand up paddle skateboarding?…..fuck no. This photo was taken from Transworld Surf

What does surfing have to do with skating or snowboarding? The answer is everything. Back in the 50’s skateboarding evolved from surfing. To a degree snowboarding evolved from surfing as well back in the late 60’s (George Poppen) and late 70’s/early 80’s (Jake Burton and Tom Sims) Currently, surfing seems to be borrowing tricks from skateboarding, so does snowboarding. To me they are all related – enjoying whatever environment you are in (urban, mountains, ocean) while participating in a sport that allows for expression of individualism while standing sideways.

So the world’s best surfers are in town to compete in the Boost Mobile event at Trestles. Got some shots of the best of the best surfing for you. The surfers compete in 30 minute heats with 2 or 3 people total. 1 or 2 people move on the next round until it comes down to 2 people. The winner of the last heat wins the event

Dane Reynolds was in a heat against Kelly Slater and Corey Lopez. Dane was surfing very well, unfortunately Kelly’s surfing was phenomenal. Their heat was by far the best heat of the day. Here is a big ol frontside air reverse. I was going to go ask Kelly Slater to do some frontside air’s tuck knee cuz surfers do all their frontside airs stink bug (grab between the knees) like shown here. If any surfer can grab tuck knee it would be Slater

Cory Lopex – 360 Ollie. His surfing would have won most other heats in the day but not against Kelly and Dane

Slater – backside. He was surfing so well, by far the best performance of the day

Rob Machado rarely competes anymore but on this day he beat out Andy Irons and Kai Otton, quite a feat. Rob makes everything look so easy

Here is Kelly right after winning his heat. He is probably watching Andy Irons surf right here, Kelly waited around until every last fan got an autograph, photo or whatever they wanted

Andy Irons lost his heat. In fact it looked like he was not trying – bailing out on some good waves. If you have ever met Andy’s fiancée Lindy, you know Andy is the true winner. She is the nicest, hottest girl – ever

Andy Irons surfs while Kelly Slater gets mobbed by his fans. Andy always goes left at Trestles and never wins. He should go right more.

The Boost Mobile will be going until Saturday September 15. Hey, check it out on Saturdayfor some great surfing and tons of hot girls

Back in October I had been lucky enough to pass through the Big Sur part of California on my motorcycle on my way to the Icer air comp in San Francisco. The Big Sur is a magicl place where the ocean meets the mountains head on. Highway 1 barely clings to the slopes as it winds it’s way from Monterey to Morrow Bay. The Big Sur actually runs from Bixby Creek in the North and San Carporford Creek in the South. The Big Sur is a place where hippies lives a substinence existence in trailors next to hippies. In the 60’s and 70’s the Big Sur was where people went to dance naked under the stars as cattle ranches gave way to ranch estates. Anyway there is surf hidden in there, fickle, cold and hard to access but there none the less. A recent article on Transworlds http://www.transworldsurf.com/surf/features/article/0,19929,1586331,00.html website made me want to go back.

I grabbed the bike and went back to have a look. Starting in Morro Bay, the Huntington Beach of Central California, I rode north 50 miles to Treebones www.treebonesresort.com resort, set up camp for a few days and looked around

twenty miles of dirtroad between nowhere and nowhere - carrizo plain of California

Between San Simeon and Willow Creek Elephant Seals come up on the beach to mate, give birth and so on. It is an amazing sight between December and March. these things weigh up to 5,000 lbs. Here, a male gets ready to mount a female, no rufies no choice on the females part, really

There was some fun looking surf between Cambria and the Big Sur. I bet with all the seals around and cold water there are lots of sharks

Up to 10,000 lbs total weight, head to head

Home for a few days, whales swam by all day

The sunsets were nice too

Found this hidden cove with 10 foot waves smashing in and a few elephant seals, males, that appeared to be fighting.

A seal bleeds on the rocks and looks me eye to eye from 8 feet away

A big wild left off Cape Saint Martin

Cape Saint Martin

Willow Creek is a place with powerful beach break

part two coming up

Was going to go to Bear Mountain today but bombs were going off down in San Diego in the form of some very nice waves with offshore winds. Much cheaper too. A beautiful day, hope yours was nice.

The view from the road - holy moly

Double overhead and offshore

Islands in Mexico

Peace Love and Understanding

Every nook and cranny had some surf

Elsewhere in the county, a lone tree overlooks much of North County

Yea, yea it is wintertime but the surf has been so good in So Cal that you HAVE to take advantage. Besides, when Tom Sims and Jake Burton started snowboarding way back when, it was they could surf in the mountains.

Sunset Cliffs going big

The scenery is not bad either

Carlsbad has been good too

Carlsbad does it’s best imitation of Mundaka

Nice!

Slash

The only thing better than getting shacked is watching your friends getting shacked

Had a good little session at Pala too, complete with mini bikes

Swamis and very nice winter day

Mountain Lion track in a remote part of San Diego county

Sunset and the second highest mountain in San Diego county - Cuyamaca peak

Moonrise

Went b ack to the Bay area again this weekend, this time for a socila call, to visit my girlfriends sister and friends. Even though it was a socail thing that does not mean I did not get out to see the sights.

A very tight but skateable squarish pool in Marin county

Dinner on Saturday night!

San Rafael skatepark had bad reviews but it seemed fun to me

backside air in the peanut

The Peanut

Fort Point is a fascinating surf spot. It is right under the Golden Gate bridge, weird tides, ships, tourists, difficult entry/exit and rocks in the lineup but the setting can not be beat

Slotted! With Alcatraz in the background

Slotted again with San Francisco in the background

Turn it!

Still say that spring is the best time of year in California; tons of snow, tons of sun and no crowds on the slopes. Fall however is a close second. The waves are usually good, the winds off shore, the skies sunny and warm and the tourists - gone. Well Jimmy Buffett has been lurking around Carlsbad all week, I swear it is true. The week in surf has been pretty damn good.

The next three photos are as close as I can get to to a sequence with the elph. This photo is as good as gets; good waves at a spot that rarel y breaks in Laguna Beach, the only crowd are your friends (two of which are cheering him on in the channel), yea, things could be worse.

Remember this photo, this is a super critical photo, cuz righ in front of this guy is a serious rock garden just inches below the surface, make this section or get seriously fucked up.

and he makes it through to the inside

Meanwhile, on the other side of the cove, Longboarders are having fun

Check the rock above the surface just in front of the guy surfing, insane, there are more down there. Go back to photo #2 and imagine getting crushed in that rock garden.

Meanwhile back at the Y, Rich Lopez with a nice stale fish.