Looks like surfers are again getting the drug rap.

Two men, three boards and 141 pounds of marijuana —- that’s what U.S. Border Patrol agents found when they stopped two surfers off the San Diego County coast Thursday night.

The men were illegal immigrants, and they were trying to smuggle six bales of the drug on one of the surfboards. It’s one of the more creative ways criminals are trying to sneak drugs into the country via the ocean, said Mike Unzueta, special agent in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s San Diego office.

“We’ve seen marijuana that was hidden within surfboards,” Unzueta said. “We’ve seen compartments built into boats. We’ve seen people smuggling on Jet Skis, too.”

Just nine months into the federal fiscal year, nearly 54,000 pounds of marijuana have been intercepted on their way to local shores, Unzueta said.

That’s double what agents would expect to find in a 12-month period, he said.

Officials from multiple agencies say smugglers may be heading out to sea because of increased security at the land border between the United States and Mexico

read more at north county times

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.

read more at mercury news

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.

read the full story at espn