On screen, Dick Van Dyke has been rescued from untimely death by flying cars and magical nannies. Off screen, the veteran star of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins had to rely on the help of a pod of porpoises after apparently dozing off aboard his surfboard. “I’m not kidding,” he said afterwards.

see video of interview (fast forward to 9 mins in)

Van Dyke’s ordeal began during an ill-fated trip to his local beach. “I woke up out of sight of land,” the 84-year-old actor told reporters. “I started paddling with the swells and I started seeing fins swimming around me and I thought ‘I’m dead!'”

Van Dyke was wrong. “They turned out to be porpoises,” he said. “And they pushed me all the way to shore.” The porpoises were unavailable for comment.

Van Dyke made his screen debut on the Phil Silvers Show before bagging his own TV sitcom in 1961. His film credits include Bye Bye Birdie, Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Dick Tracy, while his TV drama Diagnosis: Murder ran from 1993 to 2001. In recent years he has appeared on screen in Night at the Museum and its 2009 sequel.

read original at guardian.co.uk

Watch Live in a few hours (8am HI):

http://triplecrownofsurfing.com/choloshawaiianpro/live

Overhead waves at Haleiwa could well see the $900,000 Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, presented by Rockstar Energy Drink, kick off at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning. The first jewel of the Crown is the men’s Reef Hawaiian Pro and the Cholo’s Women’s Pro, at Haleiwa Ali’i Beach Park. The official website for the series is www.vanstriplecrownofsurfing.com.

Organizers will be looking for the present swell size to hold for a start tomorrow. Beyond that, the forecast for Haleiwa looks very good with an above-warning-level WNW swell expected to arrive some time Sunday and persist into the new week with reinforcements. The complete holding period for the Reef Hawaiian Pro & Cholo’s Women’s Pro is November 12 through 23.

While Saturday may be the smaller day of surf in the immediate window, the action continues on the beach with the crowning of World Miss Reef at 4 p.m. This event will feature 2010 Miss Reef winners from Panama, the Netherlands, Indonesia, Aregentina, Chile and the USA, and  will be broadcast live on the internet.

Live internet coverage happens every day this winter, starting at 7:45 a.m. with  “THE CALL” – the Triple Crown’s live daily morning show that features all the latest news, highlights and happenings. The series will also be broadcast live  on television around Hawaii on Oceanic Time Warner Digital Cable channels 250 and HD1250.

The free VANS LIVE app can now be downloaded for iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. The app features video highlights, photo galleries, results and live coverage from the North Shore of Oahu, via 3G or WiFi.

read more at triplecrownofsurfing.com

Kelly Slater (USA), 38, newly-crowned 10-time ASP World Champion, has claimed his 45th elite tour event, taking down the Rip Curl Pro Search Puerto Rico over Bede Durbidge (AUS), 27, in pumping three-to-four foot (1.5 metre) waves in Porta Del Sol.

Event No. 9 of 10 on the 2010 ASP World Tour, the Rip Curl Pro Search Puerto Rico has been an event of extremes.

Last Tuesday, the international sporting world was dealt a devastating blow with the tragic and unexpected loss of former three-time ASP World Champion and current ASP World Tour competitor Andy Irons (HAW), 32.

After a somber two-day postponement of the event out of respect for Irons’s passing, the world’s best surfers roared back to life for two of the most high-performance days in surfing history.

Today, Slater clinched his historic and unprecedented 10th ASP World Title before going on to take out the Rip Curl Pro Search Puerto Rico, as comprehensive and dominant a performance as the sporting world has ever bore witness to.

“This is the only event close to my home and I spent a lot of time in Puerto Rico when I was a kid,” Slater said. “I used to surf a lot of contests at Jobos and Wilderness, so this was kind of like a homecoming for me. A lot of my friends here I’ve known for 25 years and to surf with Dylan (Graves), I used to surf with his father in Florida when I was a kid. It was a special time. To be close to Florida and to win the 10th and get that wave (the Perfect 10) in the Final, there is nothing else I could add to it.”

Slater, who would go on to post an incredible 18.77 out of a possible 20 in the Final, secured the event’s second Perfect 10, exhibiting a masterful display of diversity and control in the rippable afternoon conditions.

“The wave that did it for me was that first one in the Quarterfinals against Adriano (de Souza),” Slater said. “That was the heat I needed to win to get the Title, and after that first wave, I felt this wave of relief. I still had to win the heat, but I was so relaxed and everything just started going my way. I was in the best possible headspace I could have been in for the rest of the day. This is a dream.”

read more at ripcurl