Easy digital access to NSSA Nationals photos

In an effort to bring 2009 NSSA Nationals competitors free, digital access to their shots from the contest, we present the SURFING x Facebook Online Darkroom. Here’s how it works:

1. NSSA Nationals competitors send a Facebook friend request to “SURFING AT NATIONALS“
2. Our most experienced photographers head down to Lowers to shoot the heats…your heats!
3. Following the day’s action, we upload and tag the best photos on the “SURFING At Nationals” Facebook page. If you’re not a friend, you can’t get tagged, so get online and add us ASAP.
4. You can download, post, print, and share your photos with the world for free. Send them to sponsors. Impress a girl. Make a poster for your wall of you ripping.

But remember, in order for it to work, you need to add “SURFING At Nationals” to your Facebook friend list now. After you’ve done that, wax up and hit the water. We’ll see you at Lowers!

Pioneering big wave surfer Jeff Clark will no longer be the one giving the Maverick’s Surf Contest the green light.

Thirty-five years after he discovered the heaving surf break off the coast of Half Moon Bay, Clark is out as contest director, according to the company that owns the event. He will no longer be charged with the task of surveying weather conditions, swells and tides and deciding whether they will ultimately combine to create contest-worthy waves.

“Maverick’s truly belongs to everyone, so we’re looking forward to democratizing the contest direction process,” Keir Beadling, CEO for contest organizer Mavericks Surf Ventures, said in a statement. “Studying the seasonal swell patterns and when to call the surfers is no small responsibility. We’re excited to pass the torch to the next generation of Maverick’s enthusiasts to assure the contest’s continued success.”

Clark recently underwent a procedure to take care of chronic hip problems he believes were caused by surfing and asked Maverick’s fans to help foot the $30,000 bill. Whether Clark chose to step down is unclear. Clark could not be reached to comment Monday.

This past weekend, for the forth year now the Loews Coronado Bay Resort surf-dog contest descended—fittingly—on San Diego’s Dog Beach. In the true spirit of interspecies competition, canines and humans of all shapes, forms, makes and models braved two, hair-raising feet of south swell, all for the honor of being named top dog (pun very much intended).

There were mutts, retrievers, mountain dogs, a 75-pound English bulldog named Dozer who refused to let anybody get near his stick, Buddy, a Jack Russell terrier who’s apparently considered “the Tiger Woods of dog surfing,” and who could forget the heart-wrenching story of T.J., an unlikely spaniel from the hard-scrabble streets of Rosarito. I’m telling you, it’d be impossible to make this stuff up.