Thanks Katie K and have a fun time out west snowboarding!

It seems that the ire once directed toward longboarders in the line up has been displaced by the FUD aimed at the newest type of surfcraft… the stand up paddle board. Overnight SUPs have become every surfers nightmare. Adding a new type a craft to the lineup has definitely shaken up the status quo! Those paddle wielding janitors or sweepers as some surfers like to call them can dominate a spot and that is very threatening to surfers especially if the stand up paddle surfer is someone completely new to any kind of surfing as they know very little of the rules of the road and can be potentially dangerous.

Stand up paddlers can see everything coming down the pike as they intimidatingly stand over the rest of the prone paddling masses. They can catch waves much further outside then even the previously hated longboarders. With increased mobility and paddling speed they can catch anything and everything. Add a couple of half competent SUPs to the mix in any line up and they can quickly dominate every wave coming through which isn’t exactly the best way to inspire good will from other fellow surfers. That was how things stood before Costco…

I was at a Costco in West Palm Beach the other day picking up some staples for our vacation at the in-laws in Juno Beach, FL when I noticed a palette of these Wave Storm stand up paddle boards amongst the rest of the seasonal summer stuff. At $449.99 these Doyle/BZ like soft SUPs include adjustable paddle, fin and leash. So they are surf ready and at a price on par with cheap ass Chinese polyester pop-out surfboards that you can find at a surf shop. Better prepare yourself for the onslaught… the Wave Storm stand up paddle nightmare is coming to a beach near you New England!

Not to be a total dick, but did Boston Globe’s Mark Feeney really subtitle his movie review article The Ultimate Wave Tahiti 3D, “Hangin’ 10 in 3-D in ‘Ultimate Wave’”? In Feeney’s short review he obviously likes the Tahitian travelogue/Slater surf flick/animated science bits, but “Hangin’ 10″? Really? Aren’t we light years passed this kind of mainstream media discrimination? This film was created for a general audience in mind, it’s not like it’s the latest Taylor Steele surf smut. That’s like a slap in the face of everyone involved in the movie. Call me some kind of surf centered elitist but a quaint colloquialism like “Hangin’ 10″ is best suited to describe the Beach Blanket Bingo/Ride the Wild Surf era Hollywood beach party films. Like where are the Beach Boys and Jan & Dean dude?

He even threw in a ’shooting the curl’ but I’m not even going to go there as that is at least semi relevant if not a bit outdated itself. Anyways that’s enough ranting for today because what the hell do I expect from someone taking about surfing in 2010 who is form New England…

Remember our five tagged Great White shark buddies from the Cape this past summer? Yeah, the ones they photographed hanging out in the surf zone off Monomoy Island waiting for some tasty seal treats to swim just far enough outside by themselves? Well they are enjoying every blue haired New Englander’s dream… that’s right they are enjoying the life of a snowbird off of Jacksonville, Florida! Seems that three of the five satellite tags have surfaced since January 15th and all of them right around the Jacksonville area. Probably hunting down endangered right whales because that area is their breeding ground in the winter. Tasty blubber!

Below is a little video tracking map of their 1000 mile fall safari down the East Coast. Hope they caught some good waves on the trip down. There is also a little snippet of a conference given by state shark expert Greg Skomal at the New England Aquarium. The best part of all of this is they are probably headed back north when the water warms for the easy pickings off the beach at Monomoy again. See the boston.com article Tagging Along With Great Whites for the full details.

Northern New England Surfrider March Chapter Meeting

Wednesday, March 10 at  Ri Ra Irish Pub (upstairs) from 7 – 9pm which is located at 72 Commercial Street Portland, ME.

Special Guest: Ed Mazzarella, Surfrider National

Meeting Agenda:

• Ed Mazzarella hello.
• Questions/comments for Ed.
• Access Efforts Update – Neal, Adam, group update from tour
• Higgins Beach Parking Lot Fundraiser update- Janice
• Higgins Beach on-street Parking update – Iver
• Higgins Beach Signage update – Doug
• Long Sands near shore disposal update – Joey
• Partnership List update – Jeannie
• Snowrider – Shawnee – date confirmed March 21 – John
• ISD Sunday June 20th  -brainstorm session – All

Other Items

• NNE product needs
• New biz
• Set next month meeting date

Northern New England Surfrider March Events

• Surfrider NNE Annual Surf & Slice Fundraising Party! Join us at Flatbread, Portland on Tuesday March 9th starting at 5pm. Pizza, music, raffle, prizes, discussion on coastal access and, as in years past, lots of fun! Thanks to Flatbread for donating a % of Pizza sales throughout the evening to Surfrider NNE. Special guest Ed Mazzarella, head of Chapters Surfrider Foundation National! Ed will help us share Surfrider’s vision for public access along Maine’s precious coastline. Learn about issues we are currently working on, how they might affect you, and ways to get involved. Don’t miss this!
• Save Our Beaches Open Public Meeting on Saturday March 13th form 10:30am until noon at the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust Building. Public meeting to STOP the privitization of Goose Rocks Beach! The issue at hand is that several home owners have sued the Town of Kennebunkport to prevent public access to the vast majority of Goose Rocks Beach. For more info check out www.save-our-beaches.org and www.preservegooserocksbeach.org.

Northern New England Chapter Website
Rhode Island Surfrider MySpace
nne@surfrider.org

Rhode Island Surfrider March Chapter Meeting

TBA… URI Coastal Institute – Narragansett Bay Campus

Rhode Island Surfrider March Events

• Tuesday March 16th Come ski or ride with Surfrider from 4-8 PM at Yawgoo Valley in Exeter, RI. Lessons provided by our own Peter Pan. This is a great opportunity for the whole family.
  Discounted prices available on behalf of Surfrider, Rhode Island:
  $20 lift ticket only
  $33 lift ticket and equipment
  $45 lift ticket, equipment, and lesson.
  Please RSVP to Lauren Russo at LSRusso@gmail if you plan on attending.
• March 28th Save The Bay Seal Watch for Surfrider RI members only

Rhode Island Chapter Website
Rhode Island Chapter Blog
Rhode Island Surfrider Facebook
Rhode Island Surfrider MySpace
info@risurfrider.org

Connecticut Surfrider March Chapter Meeting

Aloha Connecticut Surfriders, our next meeting is this Saturday, March 6, at 4pm at Two Boots pizza in Bridgeport (281 Fairfield Ave). www.twobootsbridgeport.com

Connecticut Surfrider March Events

• March 20, 2010: Beach clean-up in support of Surfrider Europe’s Ocean Initiative. We’re meeting in the parking lot of Silver Sands State Park in Milford, CT at 11am.

Connecticut Chapter Website
Connecticut Surfrider Facebook
ct@surfrider.org

New Hampshire Surfrider March Chapter Meeting

TBA…

New Hampshire Surfrider March Events

• The NH Chapter is holding their monthly beach cleanup meeting at Seabrook Beach this Sunday, March 7th at 1PM. Meet at Zapstix Surf Shop

New Hampshire Chapter Website
nh@surfrider.org

Massachusetts Surfrider March Chapter Meeting

Come down and join us on Thursday March 4th at 6:30pm. Surfrider chapter meeting is at the Wainwright Bank Community Room which is located at 250 Elm St, Somerville, MA.  Take the Redline to the Davis Square stop to get there. Here’s a map for directions. The meeting is mere feet from Redbones and Anna’s Taqueria to get your grinds on!

Massachusetts Surfrider March Events

• Support Surfrider’s Rise Above Plastics Campaign and come to a kickoff meeting/pizza party for the Better Bottle Bill Campaign! Wed March 3rd @ 6:30pm Harvard Kennedy School of Government 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge, MA Taubman Building, Room 301
• Snowrider 2010 Saturday, March 20 @ Wachusett Mountain Ski Resort, Princeton, MA. Stay tuned for more info!

Massachusetts Chapter Website
Massachusetts Surfrider Facebook
Massachusetts Surfrider MySpace
Massachusetts@surfrider.org

The 42nd Annual new England Mid-Winter Surfing Championship organizers got just what they had hoped for. There were big waves, icy cold ocean water, and snow flurries for the event. It was only fitting that the nasty overhead swell was courtesy of an intense winter storm system that buried much of the northeast in over two feet of snow the night before. The Narragansett Town Beach, infamous site of many of these mid-winter contests, displayed its’ typical nor’easter swell form. Thick and steep swells made for elevator style take-offs and no mercy shown shut downs.

“It’s evident that if you live and surf here you can find those rare makeable barrels,” said ESA Co-Director Ron Belanger. Belanger also noted that there were some unusually strong rip tides and currents that made paddling through the heavy close-out sections more difficult than usual. Several competitors had to forgo their final heats due to the brutal New England air temperatures.

Little Compton’s Pat Brown was so numb after two straight heats in the overhead smashers, he opted out of the Open Division Final. “I was shaking so much after getting caught inside in the last heat, I figured I would be too fatigued to go back out again,” said Pat with purple lips quivering. Another Junior Men’s competitor Andy Ragosta admitted that he should not have gone out for a pre-contest practice session. “That was a big mistake,” he said. “That extra time in the water just drained my energy for the contest. By the third heat, I was too cold to go back out.”

The big star of the tournament was Narragansett’s James Pilkington, who charged the biggest peaks and made it through the sections when it counted. He grabbed the nastiest set wave in both the Junior Men’s Final and Open Division Final to nail down easy wins in both. Pilkington showed his local wave knowledge by moving to the rare spots where you could make the waves, and then did it. Rookie competitor from Massachusetts South Shore, Ray Jarvis made an impressive showing at his first ESA event. Jarvis found the best wave of the heat and ripped it to a win in the Master Shortboard Final. He gave James Pilkington a run for his money in the Open Final with a solid second place showing.

Nantasket’s Naoto Ohashi showed why he is the #1 rated Men’s longboarder in New England when he trimmed his way to victory on two harsh looking rights off the seawall to win the title over Westerly’s Jarrett Parker. Top Peruvian transplant Jose Galvez pulled off some of the most powerful moves in the contest, as he ripped it off the top with a couple of big floaters to take the Senior Men’s title over Ron Belanger.

The icy cold kept the female ranks light. Sara Parker of Westerly and Kitty Pechet were the only two women to paddle out in the 32 degree waters. Sara took the Women’s and Women’s Longboard crowns while Kitty captured the Grand Legends and Senior Women’s Longboard titles. In the final elder events, Narragansett’s Peter Pan managed to find several big right peaks that kept going, as he won both the Legends and Legends Longboard Finals over Pawtucket’s Tim Brooks.

All finalists were stoked to get free hot chocolate and coffee courtesy of the Rhode Island Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. Lauren Russo of Surfrider Foundation was glad to help out. “It was cold out here today,” she said. “But everyone was having a good time. We even got a few new members to join the organization despite the cold.” Thanks to Eastern Surfing Association sponsor Hyperflex Wetsuits, everyone also got to go home with a pair of new 6mm winter Oven Mitts. “This is way better than a trophy,” said Narragansett’s Andy Ragosta. “In this weather, we need warm mitts instead of a plastic trophy.”

Final Results of the 42nd Annual New England Mid-Winter Surfing Championships held in 4-8 foot heavy surf at the Narragansett Town Beach on February 27th, 2010. Sponsors included the Eastern Surfing Association, Gansett Juice Surf Shop, Hyperflex Wetsuits, and Surfrider Foundation of Rhode Island.

Junior Men
1.James Pilkington
2.Pat Brown
3.Cob Ingalls
4.Andy Ragosta

Men
1.Joe Booth

Masters
1.Ray Jarvis
2.Jarrett Parker
3.Ryan Lawhorne
4.Nick Carter
5.Nick Parker

Senior Men
1.Jose Galvez
2.Ron Belanger

Legends
1. Peter Pan
2.Tim Brooks

Grand Legends
1.Kitty Pechet

Women
1.Sara Parker

Junior Longboard
1.Andy Ragosta

Men Longboard
1.Naoto Ohashi
2.Jarrett Parker
3.Nick Carter
4.Nick Parker
5.Jeff Gillespie

Master Longboard
1.Ron Belanger

Legends Longboard
1.Peter Pan
2.Tim Brooks

Women Longboard
1.Sara Parker

Senior Women Longboard
1.Kitty Pechet

Open Bodyboard
1.Peter Pan

Open
1.James Pilkington
2.Ray Jarvis
3.Jose Galvez
4.Joe Booth
5.Jeff Gillespie
6.Pat Brown
7.Cob Ingalls
8.Jarrett Parker
9.Sara Parker
10.Ron Belanger
11.Nick Parker
12.Andy Ragosta