DOWN THE LINE Surf Talk Radio

Scott Bass Surfer, Jeff Baldwin Surfer — Down The Line surf talk radio

September 9, 2012:

SEGMENT 1 sponsor
THE BOARDROOM INTERNATIONAL SURFBOARD SHOW –
HONORING MARK RICHARDS IN THE ICONS OF FOAM SHAPING TRIBUTE PRESENTED BY US BLANKS

October 6 & 7, 2012
Del Mar Fairgrounds Exhibition Hall
Open to the Public — Free surfboards !
Food, Music, Fun
Exhibits, Shaping, Events, Art
$10; U12 FREE
Free sub to SURFER Magazine for each paid entrant
Surfboard Demo morning at 15th Street in Del Mar Sunday Oct 7 CATCH BALDY

WEBCAST OF THE BOARDROOM: ON SURFERSVILLAGE.COM & SURFERMAG.COM & SOLSPOT.COM starts at Noon PSTboth Saturday and Sunday
EVENTS AND EXHIBITS INCLUDE:

Email:#1 Bassy and Baldie- Yeah guy! Great show with Tim Bessell; we listen to you religiously up here in the Pacific Northwest thanks for keeping us in the loop. Doug BC Canada

My trip to Florida:
Surf Expo – was great.
Surfing in Florida or Bahamas? Ponce Inlet or New Smyrna?

Belly Up Tavern & THE BOARDROOM INTERNATIONAL SURFBOARD SHOW have a special night planned for Oct 6th when Stephen Marley son of Bob Marley plays at the Belly Up Tavern. Reggae and Surfing, go together like Wavestorms and Costco.
Stephen Marley at the Belly Up Tavern.
I have one pair of English Beat tickets for Friday Night Sept 21st. Trivia- 858 570 1360 if you’d like to win a pair of tickets as part of the The Boardroom International Surfboard Show promotion, you’ll have to answer some trivia. Call now to test your surfing knowledge. 858 570 1360
TRVIA: MR trivia, in what city did MR’s father, Ray Richards, have a surf shop for years?

SEGMENT 2: Segment Sponsor Quiksilver Waterman Collection is presenting next years’ Surfing Heritage Vintage Surf Auction presented by Quiksilver Waterman Collection which takes place May 11, 2013 in the brand new state-of-the-art building at the OC Fairgrounds called The HANGAR. Quiksilver Waterman Collection and their brand ambassadors on twitter Mark Healey @healeysurf , Shayne McIntyre @ShayneMcIntyre, Jamie Mitchell, Peter Mel @peter_mel, Mel Pu’u: Robby Naish

TOP 5 STORIES:

I survived 9/11 by surfing 15 floors on slab of concrete — Miracle hidden for 11 years by myth, disbelief
and survivor guilt is revealed for first time

Out of the terrible tragedy of 9/11 came a miraculous story of hope — a tale that became the stuff of urban myth.

It was reported that, as the North Tower fell, one man “surfed” down the falling building on a slab of concrete and survived.

The adjoining South Tower collapsed, although Pasquale and his work pals did not realize it had gone.

Only then did they descend the tower down Stairway B, their progress impeded as firemen ran upstairs to get to the crash scene. By 10.28am Pasquale, still clutching his briefcase, had reached the 22nd floor. He said: “Suddenly, I felt the handrail start to shake and heard this loud, loud noise from above.

“I crouched in a corner of the stairwell in a fetal position and covered my face with my hands. Then I felt the wall and base of the floor crack open and give way.

“That’s when I knew that this was it — the entire building was going. I said to myself, ‘My God, I can’t believe this is how I’m gonna die’.

“I thought of my wife, my unborn child, and in those split seconds I was praying, knowing that I was going to die.”

The story was mentioned tentatively by TV reporters — first as fact, then as hearsay, then as fiction.

But now, as the 11th anniversary of the terrorist attack on New York approaches, the story of the 9/11 “surfer” has finally been proved.

British documentary makers have interviewed him and got eye-witness and expert testimony from rescuers, doctors, engineers and scientists.

The result is 9/11: The Miracle Survivor, screened at 10pm on Monday on Channel 4.

The “surfer” survivor, Pasquale Buzzelli, and his wife Louise explain why the full story of “the world’s luckiest man” has taken so long to be told.

Pasquale, 43, told me exclusively: “It was difficult to talk about it. It still is.

“I lost 14 colleagues who were with me when the tower collapsed. They were the last people I saw, then they were gone.

“They were the victims and I was the survivor.

“So I had a sense of guilt. I just wanted to pretend it didn’t happen.”

Louise, also 43, said: “Pasquale did not want the eyes of the world just on him. He had lost many friends and he didn’t want their families to feel hurt by his presence.

“Yet everybody else around him was saying, ‘People need to hear your story. People need to know that there was a miracle that horrible day’. ”

At 8.46 on the morning of September 11, Pasquale was in a lift on his way up the North Tower when the first plane hit it between the 93rd and 99th floors.

The lift stopped on the 44th floor and the doors opened to scenes of panic. But he decided to continue to his office on the 64th floor, where he worked as a structural engineer for the New York Port Authority.

Pasquale was still unaware of the terrorist attack that had trapped hundreds.

But most of his colleagues were already heading down the emergency stairways.

Pasquale called Louise, who was seven months’ pregnant. He said: “I told her, ‘I’m OK, don’t be alarmed, don’t be worried, I’m perfectly fine’.

“And she said, ‘What’s the matter?’ So I said, ‘Just do me a favour, turn on the television and tell me what you see’. ”

Louise added: “I got up, hit the remote and saw the top of the North Tower alight. I said, ‘Oh my God, Pasquale, your building is on fire. They say a plane has hit your building!’ ”

At first, like many, he thought it was an accident.

He said: “That was higher up and, because the air-con and lifts were still working, I felt no sense of danger.” The full horror dawned on him and some of his colleagues when, clustered round a TV, they watched as the second plane exploded into the South Tower.

He said: “It hit at about the same level as we were up there in the sky. Yet we couldn’t see it from our window and we didn’t feel the impact. We could only watch it happening on television.

“It was a very weird feeling, so surreal. And now we knew we could die.”

He made a second call to Louise, who told him: “Why are you still there and why are you calling me? Leave!”

The building shuddered as the adjoining South Tower collapsed, although Pasquale and his work pals did not realize it had gone.

Only then did they descend the tower down Stairway B, their progress impeded as firemen ran upstairs to get to the crash scene. By 10.28am Pasquale, still clutching his briefcase, had reached the 22nd floor. He said: “Suddenly, I felt the handrail start to shake and heard this loud, loud noise from above.

“I crouched in a corner of the stairwell in a fetal position and covered my face with my hands. Then I felt the wall and base of the floor crack open and give way.

“That’s when I knew that this was it — the entire building was going. I said to myself, ‘My God, I can’t believe this is how I’m gonna die’.

“I thought of my wife, my unborn child, and in those split seconds I was praying, knowing that I was going to die.”

At home, Louise watched in horror as the North Tower her husband was in collapsed. She said: “I knew it was over then. There was just dust and smoke and I couldn’t watch any more.”

Incredibly, though, Pasquale was still alive. As the walls around him crumbled, he began to free-fall. He said: “I’ve never jumped out of a plane but I guess I was experiencing that feeling of surfing down, just riding the air and getting buffeted around, as if I was on a roller coaster.

“Then I saw a bright flash. When I opened my eyes it was three hours later.

“I was staring numbly at blue sky and thought I must be dead, until I felt pain in my leg.”

He was on a ledge of the ruins seven storeys up. He had fallen 15 floors but suffered just a broken leg and a crushed ankle. He was rescued by firefighters.

Pasquale called his wife from hospital, who was at home thinking he was dead.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/4526901/Pasquale-Buzzelli-survived-911-by-surfing-15-floors-on-slab-of-concrete.html#ixzz25umwjJVr

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/4526901/Pasquale-Buzzelli-survived-911-by-surfing-15-floors-on-slab-of-concrete.html

#1 Donovan Frankenrieter concert tonight 4pm at the Billabong’s Cosmic Creek event today in @Salt Creek on the grassy knoll. FREE Concert!
Have you ever surfed in this event?

BILLABONG International shares have again risen on hopes of a takeover, but continue to trade below the price proposed by private-equity suitors.

Shares in the surf, skate and skiwear group jumped almost 4 per cent to $1.415 yesterday — on top of Thursday’s 7 per cent rise — as the market digested the news that US-based Bain Capital had joined TPG in expressing interest in an acquisition.
BAIN Captial is presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s old employer. Long ago. Apparently hey turn companies around. I think I’d rather have a surfer at the helm of Billabong. I hope htey come out this okay.

#2 The home of the late Andy Irons, the three-time world surfing champion from Kauai, sold earlier this year for $4.3 million.

Larry Wilson II of La Jolla, Calif., is listed as the buyer of the property, which is assessed at $4.33 million, according to property tax records.

The three-bedroom, three-bathroom fee-simple 2,610-square-foot home on 16,408 square feet of land was built in 2003. It originally listed for $4.8 million and was on the market since September 2010 before selling in April, so it was listed for more than 500 days.

The Asian-inspired two-story home at 5494 Weke Road sits on Hanalei Bay, according to the listing.

#3 FROM ESPN: The argument could be made that the hotbed of American surfing is San Clemente, Calif. I’m may be biased, my mail gets delivered here, but the relatively quiet town has produced more game-changers and world tour surfers Jim Hogan, Matt Archbold, Christian and Nathan Fletcher, Dino and Kolohe Andino, the brothers Gudauskas, the Beschens, Chris Ward, and the list could go on and on. So ESPN Surfing tapped current rat-packer Ian Crane to see what’s going on around town these days.

#4 A great cause and great fun; 100 Wave Challenge. Sept 22 Mission Beach. http://www.100wave.org

surf industry news.

Christian Fletcher – pulling on a cancer stick.

Before I get to the intriguing shark attack story at Hanalei Bay, let me touch on the Christian Fletcher controversy. Allegedly Christian Fletcher exercised his first amendment rights ala Kanye West in front of the entire surf industry at the Billabong XXL Awards on Friday night at the Grove Theater in Anaheim. Now, I wasn’t there ( I was but I left after the video highlights) but the surfing industry players were, so this is all second hand & third hand info I’m hearing from friends, surf industry people and from the internet/FaceBook/Twitter etc. etc. But the Fletcher clan, Herbie, Nathan, and Christian gave out the award for the XXL Monster Wave of the year. It was won by a German guy Sebastian Steudtner who lives on Maui. Steudtner is a kite surfer/tow surfer. Well apparently Steudtner can’t, according to Christian Fletcher, paddle into waves. Upon opening up the envelop to announce Steudtner the winner, Fletcher said the following (more or less depending on whose version of the incident you believe) “the f-ing German who can’t paddle won… f-ing guy can’t even paddle.” Fletcher then threw the winning envelope on the floor, telling Steudtner he “doesn’t know how to surf or paddle”, plus a few other digs, all while the poor guy had to step up on stage and deal with the train wreck. Again this is second hand, as-told-to me info. Maybe I’m getting this all wrong? Maybe Fletcher didn’t say any of this stuff? The particulars of what exactly was said doesn’t mar the fact that it was not a classy move. It was ugly. It is all on video, and video doesn’t lie.

This wasn’t the “Paddle-in” category. It was the “Monster Wave of the Year” category. This was a Monster Wave (see below) and the ‘f-ing German’ accomplished everything according to the rules. Fletcher was stoic in his moment of classlessness. Steudtner apparently handled it okay, but the audience was in disbelief, from what I’ve been told. More than a few people have expressed utter disgust at the Fletcher remarks and actions. Probably not a good way to extend his legacy. Dennis Rodman was a hell of of a defender and a rebounder, but the masses don’t remember him that way. Looks as if Fletcher may have the same PR peeps. Sort of sad, but only if you care about Christian Fletcher. I don’t know him and have no desire to know him. I have interviewed Herbie and found him to be a very sensitive, thoughtful individual. Oh by the way, most people with half a brain don’t care if other people are so-called ‘good surfers’ or ‘pro surfers’. People are impressed by kindness, consideration and classiness. Maybe Christian Fletcher will apologize. I think that would be a pretty classy move. And for the record, the wave that Steudtner rode was not a ‘paddle-able’ wave. Just saying.

The winner, on a wave much larger than anything either myself or Christian Fletcher has ever ridden. Give him his moment, according to the judges, he deserves it.

Now on to something that is impressive. Check out this great interview with Jim Rawlinson, AKA Shark Rider, by my radio host co-hort Scott Mijares on Hawaiian public access radio. Surf Stories on KKCR. Joining Scott Mijares in the studio was Larry Bertleman, Marine Biologist, Terry Lilly, and Songwriter/ Musician Allan Thomas: