A Guide to the South Bay Surf and Action Sports Scene
04/19/12LA has seasons?I’d never live in LA, because I actually like seasons. A bit snarky, don’t you think? Oh, the bitterness is almost palpable. I must’ve heard that cutting little statement at least a dozen times during my recent visit to Ohio. Did it get old? Absolutely. Honestly, they could’ve insulted my hometown in a hundred different ways by discussing… oh, I don’t know, the horrible traffic, the pollution, the crowds, the overabundance of plastic surgery, and so on. But no, they had to bring up our lack of seasons. It was frustrating to say the least. Though my retort was usually sharp—I’d just mention that during my weeklong visit I’d seen the sun once and that my rental car had a sizeable dent from a Pomeranian-sized... |
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04/09/12Zombies and PaddleboardsI could make it. That’s generally my first thought when I contemplate whether I could paddle from LA to Catalina. You’re probably thinking to yourself, Why are you even thinking about that in the first place? Don't you have anything better to do? Well, to answer your first question, I’ve been watching back-to-back episodes of "Doomsday Preppers" and I’ve decided that Catalina Island is the perfect place to escape—or “bug out,” my new favorite idiom— from the inevitable zombie apocalypse that will certainly strike LA within the next few years. I’ll skip trying to get a boat (since the marinas will probably be full of zombies… you're welcome), so commandeering a paddleboard is the only logical course... |
03/18/12Shillelaghs and SkateboardsOh, the morning after St. Patrick’s Day… how I despise thee. Sullen is the word that immediately comes to mind: Do I feel sluggish? Yes, thanks to nearly three pounds worth of corned beef and potatoes—and cabbage, my favorite—and several (err… give or take) pints of Guinness, I feel very sluggish. Do I feel remorseful? Beaten down? Bummed out? Well, yes, in fact, I do. Remember that shillelagh I mentioned in my last post? (For all of you who are unaware, it’s a traditional Irish club.) Anyway, I feel like there’s wee, Guinness-fueled hooligan trying to break out of my skull with a shillelagh like he’s Andy Dufresne trying to escape from Shawshank Prison. Oh God, I hope the warden catches him and throws him into solitary... |
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03/12/12Corned Beef and SurfWell, bop me with a shillelagh and pour me a pint of green beer; St. Patrick’s Day is almost here. Since my girlfriend is Irish (well… her family’s Irish; she’s from Simi Valley), St. Patrick’s Day has become a significant holiday in the Slater household. In fact, for this year’s celebrations I was told we were having a “genuine” Irish dinner: Corn beef and cabbage with a side of soda bread. I thought that because the meal was supposed to be “genuinely” Irish there would be at least one potato, but alas, I was mistaken. Now I guess I’ll just have to be content with the boiled cabbage—oh, because there’s nothing quite as delicious (or nutritious) as cabbage. Yum. Actually, in all honesty,... |
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03/04/12It never snows in LAMy father is a ski bum. Well, scratch that, he was a ski bum. His days of trekking through the Sierras and Rockies are now long gone; he gave that up back in the early ‘80s, along with his Tom Selleck mustache and penchant for neon-colored clothing. Anyway, for a time, many years ago (sometime around the rise of Memorex, if my memory serves me correctly) my old man was a genuine ski bum. After he graduated from college in Ohio, he hit the road, bent on exploring all the best ski resorts on his way out to Los Angeles. From what I remember, he did it all on a rather shoestring budget, but he managed to ski quite a bit. I’ve always kind of pictured him as trudging along with a bindle stick all on his lonesome (cue Lonely Man theme song from The Incredible Hulk), but... |
02/24/12Machete MadnessWhat’s the proper way to confront someone you have an issue with? Well, generally speaking, the polite thing to do is to calmly discuss your differences like a mature, cardigan-wearing adult. You talk it out. You resolve your dilemma with communication. It may sound boring, but it’s what adults are supposed to do… or at least that’s what Mr. Rogers led me to believe. Now that I’m an adult (eh… close enough), I’m starting to realize that the neighborhood isn’t always as beautiful as he made it sound. Case in point, you’ve probably already seen this video around the Web by now, but I’ll sum it up quickly: Last month, a disgruntled kayaker down in Costa Rica attacked two SUPs (stand up paddlers) with a machete. Why? Well,... |
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02/17/12Pass the Sex Wax, please.I hope everyone had an oh-so romantic Valentine's Day filled with flowers, chocolates, and as many chuckling-inducing euphemisms (most of them involve baseball for some reason) as I can think of. With that said, let’s switch sports and focus on surfing for a moment. It’s a common conception (no pun intended… kind of) that surfing and sex go hand in hand. Part of it has to do with the state of dress that’s usually involved when one surfs; generally, you’re not wearing all that much. In fact, the very first surfers tended to surf naked. In ancient Hawaii, men and women surfed in the nude and considered surfing as a sort of foreplay. Prospective lovers would openly flirt in the line-up and show off to one another while surfing. If they... |
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02/10/12Rainstorms and ReplicantsIt’s generally not considered “socially acceptable” to respond to someone’s upbeat statement with an overtly negative comment—it’s honestly just a step away from moving to a cave and shunning society. A friend of mine said to me yesterday, “I love the rain. We never get enough of it here in LA.” How did I respond? I told her, "I fricken hate it.” I’m almost positive I said it with a gruff, Walt Kowalski-like scowl on my face too. In retrospect, that wasn’t exactly a shining moment for me (my half-hearted attempt at an indirect apology). In my defense though, as a surfer, I see a rather different side of LA when it rains, and it’s not that great. About a week ago, I paddled out for... |
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02/03/12Skateboards and Swimming PoolsI try not to think that something’s impossible; in my mind, I just say that it’s improbable. Time travel? Doc Brown already made a flux capacitor, so the hard part’s over. Teleportation? Totally possible, I’m just not big on splicing myself with flies. Drive the speed limit? It can be done; it’s just really hard. However, I recently experienced a challenge that was so difficult and frustrating, that I had to label it as “completely impossible.” No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t do it: I tried to convince a lifelong New Yorker that LA is far superior to NYC (daunting task, I know). Unfortunately, that “debate” took up two hours of my life that I’ll never get back. Said New Yorker hit me hard... |
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01/30/12A (short) History of StokeSurfing, much like Hollywood, traffic and plastic surgery, is synonymous with Los Angeles. It’s an important part of this city’s culture and—dare I say it—even its history. For instance, back in the early 1900s, surfing had a hand in shaping the development of the South Bay. Henry E. Huntington was having a bit of trouble getting anyone to ride his Los Angeles-Redondo rail line, and he was looking for a way to boost ticket sales. After reading Jack London’s accounts of surfing in Hawaii, he contacted Irish-Hawaiian surfer George Freeth and hired him to put on “surfing demonstrations” at Redondo Beach. The ploy worked; hundreds of people gathered on a regular basis to watch Freeth surf, and he ended up becoming the... |
My name is Stefan Slater, and I’ll be your guide to the South Bay surf and action sports scene. My blog, Catching Air, features all of the info you need to know about this engaging (and sometimes eccentric) sports community. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the water. 
