Betty DepolitoThe North Shore’s Honolua Blomfield won the Taiwan Open World Longboard Championship in 3-4 foot excellent surf edging out the 2011 World Longboard Champion Lindsay Steinride of the U.S.A. in the final. It was an epic battle all day with Blomfield earning the highest score of the competition to win the event, a 18.60 out of 20 points. “I feel like I am on the top of the World and that this isn’t real,” said the 18 year old Blomfield after the win. The surf in Taiwan was excellent with perfect pumping long rides that really showed off the fun and excitement that is long boarding. Blomfield took out Hawaii’s Crystal Walsh along the way the only other Hawaiian in the quarterfinals. In equal third was Tory Wilkerson, U.S.A. and Rachael Tilly, U.S.A. The men’s event was not finished at the time of this writing but Kai Sallas from Honolulu had advanced to be the highest Hawaiian surfer!
WAVE POOL PRO SURFING IS HERE The World Surf League announced that the WSL Surf Ranch Facility in Lemoore, Central California will host the world’s best surfers as part of the 2018 Championship Tour (CT) calendar. The WSL’s new CEO Sophie Goldschmidt made a statement saying, “we’re only scratching the surface of how this technology can be applied and it is completely game-changing for the sport. The September event has the potential to be something special for both surfers and fans.” The WSL tested the wave that Kelly Slater’s crew designed and later sold to the WSL, for a contest format not long ago and it seemed to be a hit with the pro surfers. They are still refining the technology but the implications for fans is definitely something to think about. The schedule can be exact, the fans might be charged a fee to get in, it would have great viewing potential and the stoke of having such a perfect non-stop wave to showcase talent is a big opportunity. I’ll buy a ticket now if I can! In Hawaii there are so many rules and regulations to have events and costs are getting higher and higher. This has reasonable potential to be a very cost effective event as I see it and a really fun arena setting that can be controlled easily! Sounds wonderful! There is a men’s and women’s CT event on the schedule at this time that seems to take the place of the Trestles, California time period. Things change sometimes so stay posted at the World Surf League website for updated schedule and information.
KAHUKU POINT, A THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS CLEANER Mahalo to Kokua Hawaii Foundation and Plastic Free Hawaii and about 30 volunteers that came to gather to clean up Kahuku Point last month. They also removed about 5000 pounds of invasive plants and planted native plants there! An insane amount of work. If you are interested in helping out the North Shore Community Land Trust hosts a community work day to restore the land at Kahuku point every 2nd Saturday of the month.
PRETTY LOUSY WINTER SURF SEASON SO FAR! The long-lived jet stream blocked over the Aleutians at the Date Line. That kept WNW to NNW swell to a seasonal minimum most of November and gave way to a zonal pattern with embedded short-wave troughs. A pair of surface, winter-caliber lows tracking east hugging the Aleutians are on tap to provide overlapping, long-period, above-average NNW swell events and lots of storms heading towards California into December. This is all according to Meteorology expert Pat Caldwell from the National Weather Service. La Nina continues! That means more than average rain also for Hawaii. The northern hemisphere hints of more above average wind swell, north to east so things have not come around enough for those coveted W & NW swells. Caldwell is the guru of surf forecasting having his masters in Meteorology and a keen interest in statistics and surf forecasting. He has worked for the department of Oceanography in Hawaii, has done computer programming and worked at the environmental protection agency of Saudi Arabia! Most of all he is an avid surfer! Things do change quickly around here so lets hope they do making our forecast better. Thank you to Pat Caldwell for the update!