The waves at La Jolla Shores are a beginning surfer’s dream. They break far from shore, and the beach’s gradual slope means that when they do, new surfers have plenty of time to ride the gentle shallow whitewater all the way to shore.

La Jolla Shores is a surf instructor’s dream, too. The scenic strip of San Diego’s coast and its oceanfront hotels and boutique shops draw tourists year-round, providing a renewing pool of potential clients.

Those factors make the four surf instruction permits that the city’s Real Estate Assets Department issues there the most lucrative of the 13 citywide. Since 2005, when the city first required permits for commercial surf instruction on San Diego’s beaches, two companies have shared the sands at La Jolla Shores.

But how the city has distributed those permits in the last four years is threatening to put one of those companies, Menehune Surf, out of business, said Darren Fulhorst, the company’s owner. When his competitor, Surf Diva, was granted only two of the three permits it bid on in 2005, the city circumvented the formal bidding process to create a fifth permit at La Jolla Shores, which it granted to Surf Diva, and in the years since has been unwilling to account for how or why it did so.

That decision, Fulhorst said, set the precedent for the city’s move to revoke one of his two permits and grant it to Surf Diva when the fifth permit was eliminated during the 2008 bidding process. Last year, Fulhorst’s company was awarded only one permit to operate on La Jolla Shores, cutting his operating capacity by half. Surf Diva was awarded the other three.

read more at voiceofsandiego.org

This is one man’s view of the top ten surfing equipment innovations, other than the surfboard itself. There was a time when surfing equipment was nothing more than a long board with a glassed-in single fin, and a pair of cutoffs. These days the variety, reliability, and scope of surfing equipment is mind-boggling. Here’s one view of the best of the best.

10. Surf wax: There was a time when you would visit the home canning section of your supermarket or hardware store to pick up a bar of paraffin for your board. Remember that? Now you have a choice of waxes for every water temperature and in multiple flavors.

9. Travel bags: Modern travel bags provide your quiver with robust, lightweight and safe storage when traveling by car, train, bus, boat or plane.
8. Removable fins: FCS was the first, but there are other companies providing removable fins too. Two big reasons these fins are important: They facilitate packing your stick for travel, and you can radically change the response of your board just with a different set of fins

7. Leashes: Most of the best breaks in Santa Cruz are adjacent to or opposite steep craggy cliffs. Without a surf leash, you could loose your board exactly once before you had a huge ding repair task in front of you.
6. Water housings: World-class cameras manned by world-class photographers stationed in the break zone and in the barrel. This would not be possible without modern camera housings that provide the waterproof protection for equipment worth thousands of dollars.

5. Vibration reduction camera lenses: Whether hand held on land, on a pitching boat, or in the water, the image stabilization features of camera lenses has advanced the art and science of surf photography.
4. PWC: Expanding the limits of extreme surfing has been driven in large part by tow-ins with personal watercraft. Some now are talking about riding a 100-foot wave.
3. World wide web: Love it or hate it, the web has made more surf information available to more people than could possibly be imagined just a few years ago. From surf cams, to buoy reports, to predictions, forecasts and session reports, it’s all there for us.
2. Thruster: The prevalent three-fin surfboard design from Simon Anderson has withstood the test of time. It is the single most versatile, stable, and responsive fin configuration ever.
1. Wetsuit: Thanks to Jack O’Neill, surfers are no longer limited to warm water seasons and warm climates. Wetsuit technology is so advanced that surfing New England in the dead of winter is now a distinct possibility. For the most part, Santa Cruz surfers wear full suits all year long.

see the original article at examiner.com

Welcome to the 2009 Suzuki Caribbean Surf Tour.  It has bee a tough challenge for the CSN to negotiate sponsorship in the atmosphere of global Crisis, but our sponsors have yet again come on board to assist in the development of Caribbean Pro Surfing.

First, congratulations to Ametza Nicholls, who against all odds, managed to hold on to her lead and emerge as Ladies Champion.  And then, a special mention to Lewis St. John for totally “cleaning up” the trophies.  The new Oakley team rider completely steam rolled over all opposition at the 2008 Soup Bowl Pro in both the Jr. and Open Men’s Divisions to claim his double title of Open Men’s Champion and Junior Champion.

Now details on the 2009 Tour.  Due to the unexpected financial challenges it was decided the 2009 San Souci Pro should be postponed to October 3-4, 2009.  This means that the Tour will now begin in Jamaica for the Makka Pro on July 4-5, 2009, and concludes in Barbados November 28-29, 2009, for the Soup Bowl Pro.

Finally, surfers travelled from 7 Caribbean islands to compete for the title of Suzuki Caribbean Surf Champion.  In 2007, Alan Davis from Trinidad and Tobago and Jade Nichols from Barbados claimed the titles.  In 2008, Barbadians Lewis St. John and Ametza Nicholls held claim to the titles.  Who will surf away with the titles in 2009?  Will the Jamaicans powerhouses “Bolt” for a fresh face on the Caribbean surf scene?

Good luck to all surfers and see you in the line up.

see more info at http://www.geocities.com/jasurfas/