Oily Excuse for Shredding

The surf has been super finicky for that last few weeks. June descended- and like clock-work - the valley turned into an oven and began enticing our dear summery fog inland. The result: lots of wind and short period, multi-directional slop. Our plight here is the Bay Area is rather mild, however, when considering that we don't have to live with tar balls rolling onto our beaches like they are in the Gulf. Pro Surfer Sterling Spence put out this clip from a recent session which documents the arrival of the unwanted oily debris.

The BP disaster isn't really improving at a visible rate and it reaffirms my lack of confidence in those powerful people in Washington. The worst news I've drawn from this disaster is that this exact Gulf spill scenario took place in 1979, complimented by a smaller Alaskan spill, which, deja vu, happened again a few days ago.



This video blows my mind. The people who we trust to protect us as our "representatives", continue to allow corporations to push their agendas, without implementing any new regulations, requirements, or safety devices over the past 30+ years. The common man will bear the brunt of the pain and suffering, just as they did before.

I overhead a guy at the beach today ranting something to the effect that justice needs to be served. Executions should be in order. I'm not sure if we should be putting someone on the chopping block at the moment, but I do agree that severe penalties should be written into law for those who consciously avoid instilling public safekeeping measures into their business plan. There has been a blatant disregard for the impact of these sorts of operations and little done in the name of proactive emergency planning. Humanity and the environment have far too much at stake to simply bypass these issues.

While I got a little heated about the state of the Gulf today, I was stoked to catch a few jacked up, meager waves in Pacifica. When we pulled up it was maxed out low, but as the tide began to fill in a decent shoulder began to form. Between getting worked on larger sets, we managed a few turns and some sight-seeing. Most notably: a seal charged a guy on a longboard down the line from us. The typically docile creature suddenly made a bee-line for the guy, extended from the water, and swooped for the end of his board with fangs flared. No damage was done, but we sure did fear for our toes for the next few minutes.

My time in the water was short lived due to work- but this classic footage from The Extreme Scene kept my session going strong into the evening.