A non-traditional surf story but rad none-the-less.

The American River will play host this weekend to inland surfing enthusiasts who will use stretched-out bungee cords to fling themselves upriver as fast as 30 miles an hour.

As long as park rangers don’t see.

Bungee surfing, a budding extreme river sport, involves attaching a bungee to a rock on one end and a board on the other. It violates a Sacramento County ordinance that prohibits tying things to stationary objects, Chief Parks Ranger Steve Slenry said.

Slenry said he’s never seen people do it on the American River.

But Robert Geier, owner of Even Surfing Co., who patented bungee surfing equipment about four years ago, is promoting a bungee surfing event on the river this weekend.

He and his friends are coming from Idaho to experience what they call the “fast glass” of the river – strong current and smooth surface.

Tim Pepper, 23, of Orangevale, makes his own bungee surfing equipment by tying a rescue throw rope to a rock, attaching that to a bungee, then putting a wakeboarding handle on the end. He travels downstream, skim board in one hand, handle in the other, until the bungee stretches enough to propel him quickly upstream again.

Pepper said he’s only been stopped once by a ranger.

He said problems arise when there are crowds on the river. People on rafts laze by, and he worries about crashing into them.

“You could have some pretty good conflicts there,” Slenry said.

Pepper remembers only one. A younger boy let go of a bungee, and it hit a girl in the face.

Mostly, he said, people wear life vests and helmets.

Geier said he and his friends will be on the river today through Saturday, trying to gain exposure for the gear he invented.

Slenry said that if rangers come across bungee surfers on the river, they’ll ask them to stop.

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The big news? As of today, EasternSurf.com is now the independent entity of its big sister print publication that you’ve known and loved for the past 18 years and counting. The all new EasternSurf.com website is a completely separate editorial and advertising vehicle, featuring its own unique, stand-alone content that will be continually updated throughout the week — vastly different than our older site, which was updated once every six weeks upon the newest issue’s release to visually enhance that edition’s content.

Most importantly, the re-launch of our website will complement Eastern Surf Magazine and help to grow our readership — one of the largest and most dedicated in the surfing world — by quantum leaps with each new post, as well as propel our business model forward. Besides offering a plethora of fresh, new departments and features that reflect the top-quality East Coast surfing photojournalism that ESM is known for — including pertinent East Coast news, photographer portfolios, evocative human interest pieces and profiles, engaging interviews, timely contest reports, entertainment reviews, photo features, historical retrospectives, travel stories, a range of stimulating galleries, and various multimedia and interactive content — we are also happy to announce that we have partnered up with Surfline, the gold standard in wave prognosticating, as our official East Coast swell forecasters. We will also be providing Surfline with links to our own website’s content on their soon-to-be-redesigned East Coast surf cam pages.

The EasternSurf.com team has worked long and hard for a year now to bring this dream, of becoming the most definitive website anywhere covering East Coast surfers as they make their respective marks at home and around the world, to fruition, which we humbly submit here for your enjoyment. As the founders and co-owners of ESM, we can say that this is without a doubt our most important endeavor to date since printing our first edition of Eastern Surf Magazine in 1991, and we can’t give enough thanks to our extremely talented, dedicated, and passionate crew for their collective efforts in producing the fantastic digital ride you are one click away from dropping into.

Rising monster wave star talks about hot surf spots, his training regimen and growing up surfing the shores of La Jolla.

Derek Dunfee is sitting on the bluff overlooking his local spot of Windansea in La Jolla.

There is a two-foot south swell lumping up on the reef, burgeoning its way into the channels on either side of the peak. A pack of frothing grommets devours the ones that don’t cap out the back and unload on virtually dry sand.

Derek turns and jogs to the car; he’s probably going home, maybe doing some training with his brother or some yoga. Perhaps he’s off to pick up a new wetsuit from his sponsor at Matuse.

Instead, Derek suits up, pulls a sweet little twin fin Stu Kenson fish from the back. The waves are a far cry from the $15,000 behemoth he dropped into last winter as the Monster Paddle champion at Mavericks but Derek is obviously amped. Why? Derek loves surfing. And it is that love that is quickly making him one of the most recognized big wave surfers in San Diego surfing history.

I recently got a chance to rap out with Dunf’ and learn a bit about what it takes to be a big wave rider on a stretch of coast that rarely delivers anything more than “fun” sized waves.

SDNN question: San Diego isn’t the first place that comes to mind for breeding big wave surfers. What local spots played a role in getting you into XL surf?

Dunfee answer: I grew up surfing a variety of waves in La Jolla. The reefs in La Jolla and Blacks Beach played a big role in pushing my comfort level in big waves.

Q: How hard is to adjust to big waves at say Mavericks or Puerto Escondido after enduring a So Cal flat spell?

A: It isn’t that hard to adjust because I plan my trips around the seasons. There are no long flat spells for me, I try to keep moving. Places like mainland Mexico and the South Pacific are good during the summer, and big wave spots in California are good in the winter. There is always big swell somewhere in the world, so I try to constantly stay in good shape, so I am always ready.

Q: What do you do to train for those frigid hold downs?

A: I surf once or twice a day, do Bikram yoga a few times a week and I swim in a pool. My brother is a personal trainer at Sharpe fitness in La Jolla, so I do cross-fit type workouts twice a week with him as well

Q: Where do afternoon surfs at Windansea fall now that you’ve caught a $15,000 Mavs monster? How do you stay motivated to surf normal day-to-day and often times sub-par conditions at home?

A: It’s real easy for me to stay motivated to surf normal day-to-day conditions in San Diego because I love to surf. The only way to stay in shape for surfing and to stay in tune is to surf everyday. A motivating factor when I am training for big waves is if I am surfing everyday and feel in tune. Plus, I am lucky because my shaper Stu Kenson shapes me a lot of really different small boards to keep it fun.

Q: What local big wave guys have you looked up to?

A: There is a group of guys from San Diego who always motivate me to keep pushing it. Greg Long and Nathan Fletcher are from San Clemente, and they are some of the best big wave guys in the world at the moment. Garth Englehorn is a local guy who charges really hard at Todos Santos (Baja Mexico). My good friend Johnny Maher from La Jolla has been charging everywhere from Puerto, to Chile to Hawaii this year.

Q: Who got you into big surf?

A: I always liked to challenge myself and push my surfing, so it was a slow and steady rise up the big wave totem pole. One person who helped me a lot was the Mavericks big wave charger Zach Wormhoudt. Zach was part of the first group of guys charging Mavericks in the early ’90s. Five years ago, I met Zach and he was really nice. He taught me so much about big wave surfing and equipment. He took me out to Mavericks my first time.

Q: Has Todos Santos played a role in your big wave upbringing?

A: I have surfed Todos a handful of epic times, but I haven’t put as much time as I should. I didn’t surf out there ’til I was 20, and I missed a few of the historic days like the day Brad Gerlach won the biggest wave. The past two years, Baja Mexico has gotten a lot more scary to travel to, so that makes me a little hesitant to go down there unless the swell and weather are perfect.

Q: Do you have tow-in aspirations? Cortez Bank? Jaws? Shipsterns?

A: Yeah I do like to tow-in, but the last few years I have focused on paddling in. I would love to tow Shipsterns, but Jaws looks really scary.

Q: How nervous are you paddling out at big Mavs? What goes through your head when you spin, paddle and commit?

A: I am more nervous on the drive to Mavericks then paddling out. My nerves usually calm once I get in the water; it’s all the anticipation that kills me. Usually, if I am paddling for a wave I feel pretty confident. I go through times in the lineup when I feel confident or scared, so if I feel scared I will sit on the shoulder to gather my nerves. If I feel confident and want the wave, I am 100-percent committed that I am gonna make the wave. It’s the only way to think about it because if you hesitate, it’s too late.

Q: What’s your plan for next winter? Travels?

A: I am going to stay in California and try to surf every Northwest swell that hits Hawaii and California. I put some money away from my XXL win just for next winter.

Although it is summer on this side of the world don’t expect any slowdown to Derek’s big wave antics. You can follow up on his global big wave strikes in the news section of the Matuse Web site.

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