The Westsiders Announces Participation in Santa Barbara International Film Festival The Westsiders Movie Poster

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Features

J-Bay Goes Nuclear

The proposed development of a nuclear power facility near Jeffrey’s Bay in South Africa has led to outrage among some surfers and members of the local community. Construction on the power plant, which has been hotly debated, is scheduled to begin as early as next year at Thyspunt, which is located 10 miles from J-Bay.

Contest Wire

Echoes of the Über-Oop

Yesterday afternoon I was back at the hotel in Sanur, having beat the traffic, having just filed my post for the day, full of self congratulation at my endeavour and initiative and was just contemplating running down for a quick surf when I first heard the commotion. Bemos from the contest were dropping crew back to the hotel from Keramas, and they were all buzzing as they got out, the buzzing paraphrased thusly: “Holy shit!”, “Oh my God!”, “That was the single greatest thing I’ve ever seen!” That kinda stuff, much of it coming from the ASP judging panel who themselves were still in disbelief. Pretty soon the foyer of the hotel was full of people with phones and laptops gorging data, all watching and replaying the same video. They were double checking they hadn’t been seeing things.

Books

A Golden Age

A chronicle of the Shortboard Revolution and a view of the quieter moments in between. Punctuated by the radical changes in design and performance that followed, and captioned by Witzig throughout with insightful observations and wry back-story, A Golden Age is a deeply layered time capsule that preserves the era of its focus.

Videos

John John’s Perfect 10

The maneuver of the day deserves its own highlight.

Features

Injectable Air?

The next push against big wave surfing’s frontier may come from an unlikely source. Researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital announced last year that they’ve successfully completed tests of an injectable form of oxygen that they hope will be able to keep a human being alive for up to 30 minutes without breathing. We’re looking at you here, G-Mac.

Contest Wire

Stop Me if You’ve Heard This One Before

They say if you walk in like you own the place, then you’re halfway to where you’re going. Well, Kelly announced his arrival at Cloudbreak this morning by burning some hot laps on his jet ski through the lineup, shooting follow-footage of local surfer Aca Lalabalavu who was heavily piped at the time. Kelly dismounts and paddles straight out for his quarter against Seabass, and that’s when things really start to burn. John John, still dripping wet, catches Kelly’s first perfect 10 and comments, “I don’t know, but from here it kinda looked like a 20.” John John didn’t know how prophetic he was being, because it’s only a matter of minutes later that Kelly draws another wall of Pacific toward him. It’s bigger, foamier and throatier than the first, and tail of his 5’10” quad is doing it’s best to skip out from under him. CJ offers, “Man, that thing was a bull ride!”…and it was another 10. That’s your perfect heat, right there folks, the fifth in pro surfing and Kelly’s second. History made before 10am. The signs for the rest of the day are there early. When Kelly comes in and starts talking about the significance of the feat, he adds the caveat that, “Man, the way the waves are out there today, someone could go real close to getting another one.” And when he says someone, well, you probably know who he means.