Gabe Kling jumped on a plane last night bound for Western Australia for the next leg of the WQS season which will be at Margaret River and then Tasmania. Kling's quiver of boards for this trip includes Tokoro, Xanadu and Al Merrick's, which he painted up himself shown here in these photos. Kling headed over a few days early to get some work done for his watch sponsor Casio before meeting up with Brian Toth and Ryan Miller over the weekend. Tothy is frothed up to get over there for the comp as you can read on his blog, The Toth Froth. The contest starts on Monday and should be a good one with so many of the WCT guys competing in it as it will factor into the one world ranking system since it is a 6-Star Prime event. Be sure to sign up to win a pair of Kiling's signature trunk right over there to the right of this blog-------------------->
posted by Brandy at 11:26 AM

In between tour stops, Gabe Kling has been spending time in California, getting boards and taking advantage of the El Nino winter swells. Micah Byrne has been sharing some of his favorite Orange County secret spots with Kling. Now, I know that an Orange County secret spot sounds like an oxymoron but there are a few spots that only work when a combination of conditions are just right so, to the masses they are basically secret spots. Fuel posted a gallery covering not only the Golden States recent run of surf which features these three of Kling (top) and Byrne (bottom two) from one of those secret spots sessions but also some East Coast love from all the surf they've been having as well.
posted by Brandy at 10:37 AM

I am very happy to see The Cove win an Oscar last night for "Best Documentary" at the 82nd Academy Awards. It is a pretty gnarly and very controversial movie (at least in Japan). As a surfer it breaks my heart to see the slaughter tactics used to kill dolphins at this secret "Cove" in Japan. I'm all for culture and tradition which is what Japan claims this is but it in this case it seems like "overkill" (pun intended) and sometimes culture and tradition's have to change with the times just like everything else and this particular cultural tradition hasn't done so. If you haven't seen the movie yet then run to your Redbox or select in your Netflix queue and whether you like it or not it will at least make you think which is one of the best things a movie can make you do.
posted by Brandy at 9:35 AM

Zander "Zoozander" Morton posted a brief blog along with some photos from his recent trip to Guadeloupe which is a French island in the Caribbean. Zander said they had a great time, found some really, really fun waves and many setups with lots of potential. Seeing how it's a French island, the one downside is everything is expensive there. Seeing how he went with Surfing Magazine's Jimmy Wilson, I'm assuming that we will be seeing this trip in their mag and on-line in the near future which will be great as there are no surf photos posted in Zander’s blog and I, for one, want to see some waves!
posted by Brandy at 9:36 AM

Brian Toth is a funny human who posts funny things in his blog, The Toth Froth, like gun shooting granny video's. Tothy must have had a lot of time on his hands this day to find the video on youtube. Make sure to join the Matix Skybox on Fantasy Surfer to win a big box of prizes after each world tour event. The first comp at Snapper Rocks in Australia just finished and we should have the winner for that event as soon as they get a few more bugs ironed out on F.S.
posted by Brandy at 1:05 PM

Ricky Whitlock finished 2nd at last weekend's VQS Blowfish Surf Series event at Seaside Reef, Ca. When the swell was as big and pumping as it was for the comp then Seaside can be a very tough place to compete with the long paddle and thumping inside. Unfortunately, the VQS events are a winner take all in the pro division so, Whitlock got no cash for his efforts but he did gain valuable points towards qualifying for the VQS Championships in May where the prize purse is huge. The goofyfooted Whitlock catches a good left in the video at about the 1:52 mark.
posted by Brandy at 2:54 PM

These dudes from North Carolina are some classic characters in the world of surfing. One of them who rides for Matix is Mark Yonkers. Every year they head to the north shore and post up for the entire winter and it isn't in the million dollar beach front houses but wherever they can hunker, this year it was in a van down by the river. Not quite but they did have a beater van which you'll see in the above video and then they were able to pitch a tent city on someone's property and call it home for 3 months. Got to salute these guys for bringing it back old school in this day and age of pampering.
posted by Brandy at 10:12 AM