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

Windsurfers from across Europe took part in the European RS:X Windsurfing Championship held in Tel Aviv.

The event, the first international windsurfing competition since the Beijing Olympics, is one of the most prestigious sporting events of year.

It was organized by the International Olympic Federation and the Israel Olympic Committee, and was held as part of Tel Aviv’s centennial celebrations.

This year’s competition was won by 22-year-old Israeli Shahar Zubari, who won a bronze medal for windsurfing at Beijing last summer.

story from israel21c.org

After being diagnosed with autism, Alex was enrolled in the school district’s autism program, but his parents were looking for other ways to break him out of his shell, his mother said.

Then she learned of Surfers Healing, a nonprofit foundation that runs free day camps for children with autism that allows them to ride a surfboard with a professional.

Israel “Izzy” and Danielle Paskowitz have run a for-profit surfing camp for 37 years. They started the Surfers Healing foundation and camp in 1999, after seeing the effect surfing had on their autistic son, Isaiah.

About 60 autistic children from the Las Vegas Valley are scheduled to attend the camp in San Diego on Aug. 5.

Many autistic children suffer from sensory overload. Simple sensations could overwhelm them, but for some reason, being on the water helped Isaiah to focus, Izzy Paskowitz said.

read more at lasvegassun.com