Topics

16

SUP General / Start of trial of Surfer assaulted by paddle boarder

« on: April 13, 2019, 07:42:35 AM »

‘Bully on the beach’ trial begins
Paddleboarder charged with assault off Sunset Cliffs
By Pauline Repard
SAN DIEGO
An Ocean Beach paddleboarder charged with assaulting a surfer in a dispute over waves off Sunset Cliffs was the “bully on the beach” last summer, a prosecutor said in San Diego Superior Court on Friday.
But Paul Taylor Konen’s defense lawyer told a jury it was the other way around.
Surfer Kevin Eslinger was paddling after Konen, scolding him, when Konen — the paddleboarder — tried to swing away, attorney Brian McCarthy said.
“My client was trying to get away,” McCarthy said. “A wave comes, (Eslinger) doesn’t know what happens. The next thing he knows, he comes to.”
The two points of view were offered in opening statements in a trial before a jury of seven men and five women. Konen, 34, is charged with assault with a deadly weapon on Eslinger, with an allegation of causing great bodily injury.
He is suspected of using his paddle to whack Eslinger in the head, splitting open his scalp and causing brain damage that has left the popular East County swim coach with a slight speech impediment.
“The question in this case, is: Did my client deliberately assault Mr. Eslinger? Or was there a collision as a wave was coming, and he got hurt?” McCarthy told jurors. “I will ask you — who was the bully on the beach that day?”
Eslinger, a 56-year-old Point Loma resident, has been a swimming coach for El Cajon Valley High School for 32 years and with Heartland Swimming Association for 28 years. He testified that he grew up swimming and surfing off San Diego, mainly at Sunset Cliffs.
He made news in 2005 when he paddled a 19-foot board 120 miles nonstop from Santa Barbara to Ocean Beach in 29 hours, 31 minutes. Three years earlier, he had paddled 73 miles from San Clemente Island to Ocean Beach.
Eslinger testified that he and his wife, Janae Kelley-Eslinger, went surfing on June 26 at a popular spot known as The Boil, near the foot of Ladera Street. Three-foot waves were breaking and several other surfers were there.
He said he caught one wave and found himself blocked by a large paddleboard coming at him from one side.
“It surprised me,” Eslinger said. “I asked him what he was doing. Surfing relies a lot on etiquette. If a surfer is riding a wave, you don’t interfere with that. (For Konen) to come from that side had a sense of blatant interference.”
He said he had to duck out of the way as one end of the paddleboard swung over his head. Then, he said, he saw the same paddleboarder cut off his wife’s ride, and she fell off her surfboard.
Eslinger said he used his hands to paddle his board toward the offender, to “have a conversation” about his behavior. While Eslinger was lying flat on his board, the paddleboard cut across his path and the back end of the larger board came toward his head, he said.
“The last thing I remember is my hands in front of me, and blackness,” Eslinger said. He came to several seconds later.
His wife got him to an emergency room, where eight staples closed a long gash from the top of his head toward his left ear.
“I wasn’t sure what hit me — not until I saw the shape of the wound,” Eslinger said.
Deputy District Attorney Matthew Greco told jurors that hair was found clinging to a dent in the paddle, but no DNA could be extracted to prove whether the hair was Eslinger’s.
pauline.repard@sduniontribune.com

17

SUP General / Sunset APP contest on now

« on: February 17, 2019, 12:18:42 PM »

https://www.appworldtour.com/app-tv

James Casey, Sunova team rider got 1st in his heat.

18

SUP General / Oahu - Surf along north facing shores will be 40 to 60 feet today and tonight

« on: February 10, 2019, 10:26:21 AM »

I've never see a forecast like this before


 

Surf Forecast for O`ahu
 
 NWS   All NOAA
 

SURF ZONE FORECAST
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HONOLULU HI
424 AM HST SUN FEB 10 2019

OAHU-
424 AM HST SUN FEB 10 2019

HIGH SURF WARNING FOR NORTH AND WEST FACING SHORES

Surf along north facing shores will be 40 to 60 feet today and tonight, lowering to 25 to 35 feet Monday.

Surf along west facing shores will be 30 to 40 feet today and tonight, lowering to 16 to 22 feet Monday.

Surf along east facing shores will be 4 to 7 feet with much higher waves along shorelines with a north exposure through Monday.

Surf along south facing shores will be rising to 3 to 6 feet today, then lower to 2 to 3 feet Monday.

Outlook through Sunday February 17: Extraordinary large and disorganized surf will cause life- threatening conditions in the surf zone along north and west facing shores through tonight. Unprecedented coastal inundation is also possible along north and west facing shores as ocean water surges and sweeps over beaches and adjacent coastal areas today and tonight. Surf will decrease on Monday, but the low may deliver a large northeast swell for Tuesday night into Thursday. This northeast swell may bring warning level surf to east facing shores.

Surf heights are forecast heights of the face, or front, of waves. The surf forecast is based on the significant wave height, the average height of the one third largest waves, at the locations of the largest breakers. Some waves may be more than twice as high as the significant wave height. Expect to encounter rip currents in or near any surf zone.


https://www.prh.noaa.gov/hnl/pages/SRF.php

19

SUP General / Book recommendation - The Pacific Alone: The Untold Story of Kayaking's Boldest

« on: December 26, 2018, 12:37:50 PM »

The Pacific Alone: The Untold Story of Kayaking's Boldest Voyage


 

https://www.amazon.com/Pacific-Alone-Untold-Kayakings-Boldest/dp/149302681X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1545855386&sr=8-1&keywords=the+pacific+alone


I have forced myself to put down this book long enough to write a brief recommendation for this book. This is the story of Ed Gillette's journey of paddling an of the shelf kayak from California to Hawaii in 1987. I have been fortunate to get to know Ed when he and his wife Katie owned a kayak shop here in San Diego. I went on three self supported Baja tips he led, and also volunteered at his shop helping teach disabled persons to kayak. This book does a great job of explaining who Ed is and what his journey was like.

20

SUP General / Video of Maldives trip - Sunova & Moon Tours

« on: November 10, 2018, 02:46:56 PM »

Here's the video Moon Tours produced of our May 2018 SUP tip to the Maldives. Featuring Bert and James Casey.
By the way, on spot is open.

21

SUP General / Many pictures of Maldives surf trip

« on: May 24, 2018, 09:52:45 AM »

We had quite a few cameras on the trip and I ended up with close to 2000 pictures. I posted 160 of them on my smugmug page

https://twh.smugmug.com/Vacation/Maldives2018/

22

SUP General / Maldive Sunova SUP trip, best trip ever

« on: May 20, 2018, 12:21:47 PM »

Just got back from the Sunova Maldives trip and thought I'd make a quick post. Most everyone on the trip would say that it was one of the best surf trips we've ever been on. Great surf, great boat, great organization, great food, great location, you get the idea. Here are a couple of pics from the trip and a log I kept so of my surfing. After a few days, they all kind of run together, so I made these notes for myself.


Log:
1. MAY 8th got on Carpe Novo and headed south looking for waves. Riptides, Ok waves but windy. A squall came thru and I quit before I caught a wave. A few stayed out and had fun after it calmed down. Boat trip and got to 2nd spot , mushrooms, and in water around 4 pm. Awesome surf, everyone had fun in mellow surf. Glassy conditions, funsize.  Spent night there.
2.  I missed early wakeup call and the sup crew scored before breakfast. They came in and Bert and I had quality funsize waves to ourselves.  A+ day. Shoulder high, longish rights, fairly glassy, high wavecount, fun watching Bert surf. Mushrooms. Squall came in prior to evening session, I and most passed. The harder core did OK.
3. Morning session at Mushrooms, pretty crappy, tide too low, swell dropped, morning sickness. Still got a couple of waves. Then headed south too new spot. Caught a 40 lbs yellowfin and small Wahoo on way to new spot. Evening snorkel then sup in smallish speedy surf.  Fell on my ass in the shallows, bad bruise. Little Mikados. Plan is to stay here for a few days.
4. Expected new swell but hasn't shown yet, only caught a few waves on morning session. Evening session was all time, got plenty of waves plus my wave of the trip [so far). That evening, everyone was like little kids at a birthday party.
5. Two other surf trip boats showed up at `our` spot. I didn't go out til the crowd thinned and I was able to get tons of waves, even better surf than yesterday. Another wave of the trip, maybe even barreled. Evening surf was OK. Had an evening  beach bbq that was fun.
6. 3rd full day at Mikados. I had 2 morning sessions, flailed in first session with too low of a tide, went over the handlebars big time on one. 2nd session was better with  more water. Took the afternoon off, I really needed a rest.
7. Early a.m. session because we're heading back. Finally starting to figure this wave out. Got several almost barrels. I never imagined water could be so clear and glassy. Hate to leave but we'll surf some on the way back. Stopped at Mushrooms,  some went for a surf but poor conditions  so I  snorkel which was ok.
8. Morning surf was also poor and I passed,  some went for a dive. Boat ride.
9. Last day we'd be able to surf and the weather is bad, wind and rain. Some did a good scuba and others tried foiling behind the dingy. We'll go on a village walk this afternoon before heading back. The village was interesting, just walked around a bit. Back to the boat and sit in the harbor til I fly out tomorrow night.

23

SUP General / ON my way to the Maldives

« on: May 06, 2018, 09:50:47 AM »

I made it to SFO, next is 17 hrs flight to Singapore then 4 1/2 to Male. I'm very excited or as the ozzys would say, I'm frothing.

24

SUP General / Do foilers and SUPers get along?

« on: May 01, 2018, 05:21:19 PM »

My observation is that foils are not a problem to surf with once you get use to them. The only time I've really surfed with them around was once in Kauai last year when I was out nubered about 3 to 1. Most of the foilers were in the beginner to beginning intermeadiate class.

First, I learned that if they are way down the line and headed my way, they can be on top of me very soon. Also I'd keep out of their way while they were paddling to take off. If they crashed, it was usually on take off, but once they were up and riding they'd usually be able to ride for the the length of the wave. By sitting inside of them, I got a lot of waves by taking off after they crashed and burned. This was pretty entertaining too.

Another thing was that there wasn't a problem sharing waves with the good riders. They could easily go around me, either above or below, and with their speed, they were past me and on a different section of the wave rather quickly. Also, they didn't ruin the wave for me by making it break.

Like I said, this was only one experience, and I'm interested to hear from others, SUPers and foilers, if this is an accurate assessment.

25

Random / Test picture posting

« on: April 29, 2018, 05:21:41 PM »

26

SUP General / The life of windsurfing legend Robby Naish

« on: April 14, 2018, 02:59:48 PM »

Not SUP, but many of us started out in windsurfing and here's a doco about the first legend that also brought us SUP and foiling.

https://edition.cnn.com/videos/sports/2018/04/11/robby-naish-maui-hawaii-windsurfing-legend-mainsail-april-2018-spc-spt.cnn

27

Random / 2001: A Space Odyssey

« on: April 08, 2018, 04:30:30 PM »

This is the 50th anniversary of A Space Odyssey. I rented the DVD from Netflix and watched it last night. It is an absolute mind blowing movie. I remember watching it for the first time in a CinemaScope theater and was totally blown away then as now. The special effects really hold up to anything you'll see today. Highly recommend it.

28

SUP General / GoPro Quik help

« on: April 05, 2018, 09:43:21 AM »

I just bought a Hero (2018) and its a pretty cool entry level camera. Now I need some help on video creating and editing. Is Quik the best way to start or is there an easier software to use? Are the any good tutorials that you'd recommend?

I'm hoping to be somewhat up to speed by before my May Maldives trip.

29

Downwind and Racing / Welcome to the Paddle League

« on: January 27, 2018, 12:19:06 PM »

Anyone know anything about this. Saw a notice on Facebook and looked at their website.
http://www.paddleleague.com/welcome/

i like the sound of what they are planning to do. Here's a quote from the website.

We're passionate about building a better, brighter and more sustainable future for stand up paddling that benefits all of the sport's stakeholders.

We want to help events become larger and more successful, we want to provide athletes more exposure to showcase their talents and expand their careers, we want to give brands a better channel to market their products and reach new consumers, and we want to offer major sponsors a platform to connect with and promote this amazing sport of ours.

We also firmly believe in reconnecting our sport with its "grassroots" foundation, which means placing a much bigger emphasis on junior, amateur and entry-level participation in order to establish a better sense of fun and community within SUP.

30

SUP Gear Reviews / Newly Acquired / On Order / Style and ease equals Steeze

« on: January 25, 2018, 11:12:35 AM »

Just got my new 9'6" Sunova Steeze and got to ride it in surf mostly waste high, some bigger a lot smaller. Bert's design thoughts: "A lot of boards in the SUNOVA range are for the SUP’ing purist, being dedicated condition and style specific designs, so there was a large number of requests for a board that did a bit of everything. People were asking for the paddle power, glide and nose riding of the Style with the performance of the Acid, (yea right) anyway , challenge accepted, so we got pretty close…."
I'd say that discribes it very well. 

It's very very stable and paddles great. The paddling is one of the reasons I chose it. I wanted a board my wife would enjoy flatwater paddling yet light enough (21 1/2 lbs) for her to be able put on her car.

It catches and rides any wave. Riding down the line feels like driving a Cadelac but turns and surfs like its suppose to. I'm not much of a nose rider but I was able to pull off a couple of cheater-5s.

This was the first time I've ridden a board over 9 feet or 31" wide and had to adjust a bit to that. I was more use to sitting inside and making a quick turn to catch a late drop. I couldn't whip the 145 liters around very fast, but could easily glide into waves early. Once on the wave I could go fast down the line or make S-turns on the face. I'd say this is basically a high performance all-rounder, if there is such a thing.