Hello dudes and dudettes.

Well the countdown to the 10th Annual Summer Longboard Classic continues, and thank you to all who've stepped up and joined contest committees. Without your volunteer help, this could never be possible. There is still room on one committee or another if you'd like to help out, your club would greatly appreciate it. There are all sorts of duties to fill for "day of" operations.

A special thanks also goes out to those who've agreed to help sponsor the event. Back with us this year are: Taco Surf, Mossey Ford, AAAA Auto Storage and Bare Back Grill just to name a few. There are still opportunities to get your company's name out there by sponsoring the event as well [click here for contest entry and sponsorship forms].

This year we're taking great pains to get our message out there. Kathy's printed up preliminary posters to distribute with your sponsorship/booster packets (final contest poster will feature sponsors). Dave Washkowiak has provided us with CDs of poster art and sponsor packets if anyone needs them.

We've recently spoken with Bryan Stevens of Clear Channel Communications and may get some airtime on XTRA Sports 1360 AM. The show is "Down the Line Surf Talk Radio," hosted by former pro ripper Marty Thomas and Swami's Surfing Association's own Scott Bass. Tune in Sundays, 8:00 am to 1360 AM radio and don't miss the Kook or Duke segment.

In addition, I've been meeting with other clubs to briefly hype our comp. Oh yes, and I plastered the shit out of San 'O last weekend. So print up some posters and packets, put 'em in your car and invite as many people as you can.

Okay, down to business, our next meeting for Board and committee members (and anyone else who wants to help with the contest) is Tuesday, April 15th, at 1564 Chalcedony Street in PB. Join us at 6:30 pm for elk burgers and BYOB. If you wanna bring food, cool.

Our next monthly club meeting will be Tuesday, May 6th, at the Round Table Pizza in PB, 1221 Garnet Avenue; 6:30 pm for Board/committee members, 7:00 pm for general membership. Hope to see you there.

P.S. Be sure to support our other local surf clubs this weekend:

1. Our condolences go out the Joyce family of the Sunset Cliffs Surfing Association. Matthew "Worm" Joyce passed away recently, as his new set of lungs were strong, but it was his heart that failed. To see what he accomplished during his life, go to www.bigwormscff.com.

2. Dare Devil Jane, New York Station, The Stranger Six and the Moon Men are playing Friday, April 18th, at the VFW Hall, 835 Turquoise Street. All proceeds benefit Windansea Surf Club. Info or donate call: 858-945-6162.

3. La Jolla Shores Surfing Association 2008 Menehune Surf Contest will be taking place this Saturday at La Jolla Shores. Contact Lorraine: lorraine@ljssa.org.

Now shut up and surf.

Travis Long
President and Team Captain 2008

CLUB PARTICIPATES IN THE GROUNDSWELL SOCIETY'S
RINCON INVITATIONAL SURFING BENEFIT EVENT

By Richard Steadham

It's hard to pass up a surf trip to Rincon, especially when you've been invited to surf there as an honored guest. Such were the circumstances surrounding the club's recent foray up north on March 29 and 30. We were invited to "Share the Stoke" along with 13 other clubs and organizations who've made an ongoing commitment to serving children as part of their annual agendas. In our case, it was having the Muscular Dystrophy Association as our charity recipent from the proceeds of our Summer Longboard Classic for many years.

Other club's invited from San Diego were: Sunset Cliffs Surfing Association, San Diego Surf Ladies and Wildcoast. Clubs and organizations from other areas included: SurfClass, Santa Barbara Seals Surf School, Richard Schmidt Surf School, Surf Happens Surf School, Doheny Longboard Surfing Association, Boarding House Mentors and Turf 2 Surf Youth Program.

As our club wasn't scheduled to surf the event until eleven o'clock in the morning on Sunday, most of us decided to take in a bit of the Ventura Surf Club's Arden Taylor contest on Saturday, before heading on up to Carpinteria later that day. Ron Greene and his son Alex did the rest of us all one better by acutally surfing in the contest. Alex made it past his first heat Saturday morning, but was out in the next round that same afternoon; Ron survived his two heats on Saturday, but was eliminated in his Grand Masters Semi Final on Sunday.

Carpinteria is just a 15 minute drive up the 101 from Ventura, with Rincon point situated on the southern end of the small, seaside community. When Alex and Ron's heats were done for the day, it didn't take long for everyone to find their way north to the Motel 6 we'd all reserved rooms at and to check in.

John and Babette Esterly were the first to arrive and had already been exploring the quaint little shops and cafes over on Linden Street in town. Before long, most of us were over there too doing our own shopping and site-seeing. At one of the shops we were given a tip of going where all the locals go for Mexican food for dinner: Delgado's over on Carpinteria Avenue. We couldn't turn that advice down, so when the time came to eat it was the unanimous choice.

On Sunday morning, pancakes were on everyones' mind and the IHOP a couple of blocks away from the motel would fill the bill nicely. Ron finished first and was quickly on his way back down the 101 to surf what would be his last heat in the Arden Taylor. Not making it past that round, he was soon back up at Rincon to find most of us suiting up for our team's one-hour time slot in the water. Since the surf was sloppy and small and the wind beginning to blow, he decided to stay on the beach and capture the many Kodak moments for the rest of us to share here.

The whole purpose of the weekend's event was to give a bunch of deserving groms a chance to enjoy the famous surf break, along with a few adult supervisors from each of the clubs represented. In our early planning stages for the trip, we had up to eight kids lined up and ready to come with us. As the date drew nearer however, each family had personal reasons to bow out. In the end, the only grom we had on our team was Nick Hastings, who made the most of it by shredding wave after wave, crummy conditions notwithstanding.

We were allowed to have as many as 20 surfers in the water with us at one time, but because we only had nine on hand, Groundswell Society founder Glenn Hening and local surf legend Steve Bigler, paddled out with us and helped us to a third place finish in the category of total number of waves caught. One category we didn't fare so well in was in the number of waves shared. The most we could ever mangage was two on a wave at one time. Many of the other clubs had more than 10 surfers on a single wave at times and received plenty of points in doing so. Holly Stroschine of the San Diego Surf Ladies said, "The team camaraderie on Saturday was AMAZING! Starting with the first heat, as the hour went by, they really worked together and figured out how to get SO many people on the same wave! We watched and counted as the heats went by, amazed with one club's 12 out of 17!" Suzanne Barzee from the same club summed it up nicely, "To turn my head and see nine friends lined up on a single wave felt like something out of a cheesy Gidget movie. At the same time, it made me giggle, it made me proud to see us push the limits of one foot waves."

For the record, our team consisted of: Nick Hastings, Celia Treamer, Kym Milburn, Kathy Austin, John Esterly, Alex Greene, Travis Long, Randy Strunk, Richard Steadham and the aforementioned Glenn and Steve, making ours the smallest contingent there. More surfers on the team would have improved our final standing, but in the end, was not what was important anyway.

Awards were presented to all clubs and organizations no matter how they had surfed their respective heats. After all, it wasn't a contest in the usual sense, but meant instead as a reward for clubs doing right by kids as a matter of principle. The most inspirational group receiving an award was the Turf 2 Surf Youth Program. That organization goes out into gang neighborhoods in Santa Barbara, encouraging young people to give up gang-banging and take up surfing instead. It's a success story in the community up there and the kids receiving their award that day looked truly excited—yet a bit bashful—seeing all the surfers gathered there praising them and their efforts to surf, and in the process, change their lives for the better.

By four o'clock in the afternoon, we had been given our commemorative plaques and had packed away our belongings with only one piece of unfinished business left: driving that long distance home. Drats. Before we would take on that task however, Travis suggested we all meet at "The Habit" in Ventura for some eats before hitting the road. With bellys soon satisfied, everyone took their leave home at their own pace. For me that would be peddle-to-the-metal all the way to I.B.!

There's more "Sharing the Stoke" over on www.mylocallineup.com. Check it out.

HANGIN' WITH SURF GREAT, SHAUN TOMSON

By Celia Treamer

If you were at Rincon, you would have heard my excitement when I found out Shaun Tomson was at the event. Needless to say I am a big fan. When I was growing up, not only was he on the cutting edge of surfing, he was Hot!

Shaun Tomson was born in Durban, South Africa, August 21, 1955. He started longboarding at the age of ten and made the shortboard transition in the years that followed. By the time the '60s were out, Tomson had won the South African Boys' title, and had his first experience in Hawaiian surf. He earned the first of six consecutive Gunston 500 victories. One year short of finishing college, he joined the IPS tour's original  go around expecting to return, but the competition bug got a hold of him. As a competitor, Tomson’s steadiness and endurance manifested one of the most incredible careers in professional surfing. A fixture in the Top 16, from the tour's beginning until 1989, he earned the 1977 world title.

Lets go back to the mid 70’s when the whole Free Ride movement was taking place. Shaun along with Australians Rabbit Bartholomew, Mark Richards, Ian Cairns, Peter Townend and Mark Warren were, as an article in Surfer said “Bustin' Down the Doors.” To me, this best describes this crew of surfers. Their innovation and passion for competition and free surfing helped to form what we see in today’s professional surfers. Shaun T. is best known for his barrel riding skills back in the day known as tube riding. He rode deeper, with more maneuvers and style than many surfers of this time. He is still thought of today as one of the best at managing crazy barrels. Just check out his recent 50th birthday ride at Jeffrey’s bay on You Tube.

Today Shaun lives in the Santa Barbara area where he continues to travel and surf with his trademark style. He is also a businessman, advocate for the environment and all around good guy. In a horrible tragedy in 2006, Shaun’s 14-year-old son died in a school prank that went terribly wrong. He is an amazing and strong parent who is now helping up-and-coming groms by organizing events for them. The recent “Sharing The Stoke Invitational” at Rincon is an example of his devotion to insure a “better future for tomorrow’s surfers.”

Shaun recently co-produced a film about the mid-70's surfing era, and the part he and his contemporaries played in shaping surfing today. It premiered in Santa Barbara to a sold out 2,000 person crowd and received excellent reviews. It is called appropriately, “Bustin' Down the Doors.“ I asked him at Rincon when the rest of us would get a chance to see the film and he told me it would be released in August. I for one cannot wait to see this and hope we can make it an event for all the PB surf club members to share the stoke of one of our greatest surfers. I feel honored that our club was invited to this awesome event. I feel honored too that I got to meet Shaun and look extremely forward to next year’s invitational.

Surfer's Code

Shaun Tomson has given lectures on his Surfer's Code and has passed out small plastic cards with it printed on one side and an endorsement for his clothing line on the other. The code is as follows:

I will never turn my back on the ocean
I will always paddle back out
I will take the drop with commitment
I will know that there will always be another wave
I will realize that all surfers are joined by one ocean
I will paddle around the impact zone
I will never fight a rip tide
I will watch out for other surfers after a big set
I will pass on my stoke to a non-surfer
I will ride, and not paddle in to shore
I will catch a wave every day, even in my mind
I will honor the sport of kings

A Tourmaline experience

Monday, 23 March, 2008

It was a typical Tourmaline morning; the few die-hard Dawn-Patrol crew in the parking lot, one or two unfamiliar faces checking things out while on Spring Break, and knee- to waist-high waves peeling out in front of Skeeter’s bench. Determined to “get a few” before the crowd filled in, I suited-up and headed out, grabbing as many waves as I could before the peak was taken over. After completing the morning ritual, I set off to find a post-session repast before heading home. Spotting a rare parking space in front of Star Surfing Company, I pulled in to see Glenn Paculba and inquire about a new surf bag for an impending acquisition. Seeing him behind the counter, I walked inside, giving a cheerful hello. Past the threshold, out of the corner of my eye I noticed a figure next to the wetsuits. Fingering through the layers of rubber hanging on the rack was surfing’s elder statesman, Larry Gordon. Somewhat surprised at seeing Mr. Gordon outside of the Tourmaline parking lot, I greeted him with an energetic hello as well.

To my astonishment, Mr. Gordon greeted me by name and engaged me in conversation, He complemented me on the number of waves I had caught this morning and compared me with Dave Mills, one of the finest surfers in the lineup. I humbly assured Mr. Gordon that I caught only a few, maybe one or two good ones, and that I was nowhere near the caliber of Mr. Mills. He noted that I got more than that and a few nice nose-rides as well, jokingly adding that that was why he was at Star, looking for a new wetsuit so that he could join in. I respectfully thanked him, stating that I had tried, and hoped to see him in the lineup.

Glenn and Mr. Gordon continued their discussion on wetsuits; Glenn offering Mr. Gordon to try it on at his leisure at home, bringing it back if it didn’t fit, or paying for it if it did. Their business transacted, Mr. Gordon collected his wetsuit, said goodbye, headed out the door and dashed across the street.

Now, for those of you who have known Mr. Gordon for years, your perspective certainly will be different from mine. But to run into Larry Gordon, one of the pioneers of our passion and an icon of the sport throughout the world, at the local surf shop, having him recognize you, and talk with you like you’re one of the longtime locals, well, that was just too cool. What an honor.

Richard Shultz

Apr 11: Sliding Liberia, A story of War, Peace and SURFING by Britton Caillouette, Nicholai Lidow and a fundraiser for SurfAid International. 7pm and 9pm at the fabulous La Paloma Theater in Encinitas; 471 S. Coast Highway 101. Several club members will be attending the 7pm showing as a group. If you're planning to go see it, make it that one and look for us there, so we can all sit together.

Apr 15: Summer Longboard Classic Committee Members' Meeting; 7 pm at Travis Long's house; 1546 Chalcedony Street (near Ingram) in Pacific Beach. Continued planning on our contest, now just two months away! Volunteers welcome to come and join a committee.

Apr 26-27: Logjam Contest Sponsored by the Big Stick Surfing Association; Pleasure Point, Santa Cruz.

May 6: PB Surf Club Meeting; 6:30 pm Board Meeting, 7:00 pm General Membership; Round Table Pizza, 1221 Garnet Avenue in Pacific Beach.

Jun 14: The PB Surf Club's 10 Annual Summer Longboard Classic; Tourmaline Surfing Park.

Club Calendar