surf news, surfing news, swamis, surfing industry, seth pettersen, sacred craft expo, taj burrow, bells beach, rip curl

Seth will be playing at Sacred Craft in Ventura April 10th, Ventura County Fairgrounds

swamis, city of encinitas, surf news, surfing news, surf industry insight, surf blogs, surfing contests, surf ASP, ASP, swamis, city of encinitas

Please copy and paste the following email addresses into your destination field. (To:) The email addresses below are the Encinitas City Council members:

jbond@ci.encinitas.ca.us; jstocks@ci.encinitas.ca.us; tbarth@ci.encinitas.ca.us; mhoulihan@ci.encinitas.ca.us; ddalager@ci.encinitas.ca.us

Potential Email Titles to cut and paste:
Special Operations Permit for Swami’s,
No Contest at Swami’s,
Swami’s Contest

Please create a simple email that states your feelings. Do so in a polite and civil tone. Thanks! Edit/Add anything you see fit to personalize the message:

Dear Encinitas City Council Member,

It has come to my attention on Wednesday March 10th, 2010 you will be reviewing the Parks and Recreation Commission’s Report (PRCR) for the unsanctioned Women’s World Longboard Championship as posted for Agenda Item 7 on the city’s website. While I fully support all women’s surfing, I have many concerns with the city issuing a permit for the first contest in 45 years at Swami’s.

Best Regards,

SURF NEWS: This week — Jodie Nelson attacks Breast Cancer, Tsunami warning sends Hawaiians scrambling to stock up on Shave Ice; and Todos Santos big waves lures the big hunters to big event; Swamis landslides endears city council to allow for special permits underneath landslides; Eco warrior James Pribram joins Down The Line in-studio!

Seth Pettersen “Baby Buddah” – This is the song we play a bit during the show.

Slater maintains secondary tour plan is no pipe dream

But nine-time world champion has no plans to take on the ASP, writes Josh Rakic in surf news.

“I don’t think that the ESPN Tour is completely a dead idea. I think there’s some kind of possibility that it could still happen in the future.”

Kelly Slater surf news

And with those words from nine-time world champion Kelly Slater, it seems clear the rumours of the ”rebel” tour’s death are greatly exaggerated. But the iconic figure insists it’s no rebel tour and that if he had his way, the stalled ESPN-sanctioned tour would run as a best-of-the-best format to co-exist with the current ASP tour.

”It doesn’t have to be a rival or alternative tour to the ASP, it might be a supplementary thing,” Slater revealed to The Sun-Herald. ”The last thing I want to see is the companies or the ASP be screwed over. But I also don’t want to see the surfers screwed over. A supplementary series could work out great. It doesn’t need to decide the world champion. I think people were confused about whether that needed to be like boxing with different belts. No.”

Slater came under intense scrutiny last year after he and ESPN mooted the idea of a secondary tour, one which would feature just 16 athletes and unprecedented prizemoney, plus mainstream media coverage of a sport with a business model that has gone largely unchanged for two decades.

Unlike other international sports such as tennis and golf, surfing’s major companies not only sponsor the bulk of the tour’s athletes but are also the principle sponsors of the events – granting them almost total control of the sport.
READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE FROM SMH HERE

Surf News & Surfing Industry News: STOP SWAMIS SURFING CONTESTS – A Petition

Baldy and I first spoke about this a few weeks ago when rumors were swirling. Well someone in the surf community put together a petition to STOP SURFING CONTESTS AT SWAMIS.

My gut tells me that there must be a better place to hold this event, I mean anywhere is better than Swamis, right? I dearly respect Linda Benson and appreciate all of her efforts. Frankly she has helped me out in a few separate instances. Specifically introducing me to some possible investors in a film I was making. She is a hero in my book. A pioneer. The surfing matriarch of Encinitas. Nonetheless, I’m not sure holding an event at Swamis is in the best interests of the local surfing community. Perhaps San Onofre would be better?

It seems odd that there was no public input about this event. People started whispering about it here and there. Various locals have approached me about it – some rather pushy and sort of ‘in my face.’ The contest certainly is a point of contention. It seems people are either for it or against it, there is no middle ground. A very polarizing situation indeed.

Well, know there apparently is some public input.

Here it is:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-surfing-contests-at-swamis

By the way Linda sent me this link FOR the having the contest:

Here is the petition for having a Women’s World Longboard Contest at Swamis

I hope the City of Encinitas has a public hearing about this, that way both sides can explain their viewpoints and some sanity may come of all this.