Must Go!

Dale was in the house and he agreed to lifeguard duty for the night!

Hobie Crew spliting the peak!

Wave Pool at Walt Disney World in Florida this past week at Surf Expo

John and Jason got a chance to enjoy some fresh water SUP with the Hobie crew while in Florida.

MORE Hobie Crew

Thanks to John for taking the photos

The Hobie Crew surfs the wave pool in WDW

Lake is still frozen

Tim and I planned a 6 mile paddle today. With high temp of 60
degrees, I never thought the lake would be ice 4" thick.

GoPro on the slopes

Went up to the slopes yesterday and tried the GoPro out with the chest mount. Chip Howell was with us. Says he's doing the next Coastal Urge race.



Skiing Sugar Mountain, NC from Stan Clinard on Vimeo.

BOP savings

Cold Stroke Open Class Results

Men's 12'6" & Under Open Class

1	Tommy Lloy	79	40:30
2	David Slemp	40	43:18
3	Justin Cook	77	43:21
4	Bryan Batten	43	45:30
5	Fred Ogrim	53	45:49
6	Mike Peopels	81	47:07
7	Miles Abernathy	8	47:59
8	Mac Barnhardt	45	48:07
9	Matthew Cesmat	62	49:07
10	Stan Clinard	24	49:14
11	Stephen Hill	11	49:18
12	L. Mileto Allemand	12	49:31
13	Trey Dix	84	49:42
14	Hans Wachtmeister	30	49:47
15	Ben Van Enk	60	50:20
16	Ed Horger	83	50:27
17	Ernie Brassard	85	51:08
18	Zo Tipton	10	51:54
19	Sean Rutkkay	66	51:58
20	Aaron Campbell	64	52:08
21	Taz Lancaster	67	52:22
22	Steven McCormick	63	52:46
23	Gordon Rock	65	53:53
24	Mark Pace	37	54:19
25	Dayton Manuel	14	54:34
26	Travis Bowers	44	54:49
27	Greg Roche	58	55:03
28	Todd Butler	42	55:46
29	Mike Abernathy	9	57:35
30	Will Cutler	23	58:57
31	Mathew McMillan	39	59:18
32	Nick Cesmat	61	59:46
33	Tom May	25	61:32
34	Joseph Parcells	38	62:46
35	Bryan Hering	29	67:00
36	RB Leonard	41	67:35

Paddle board race draws crowd despite cold in Wrightsville Beach - WECT TV6 - WECT.com - Wilmington, NC news and weather -

Paddle board race draws crowd despite cold in Wrightsville Beach - WECT TV6 - WECT.com - Wilmington, NC news and weather -

Cold Stroke Classic

Ice ice baby!

Byron Kurt Wins Australian National Distance Paddling Title

SUP long Course Relay Nat Titles from Ocean Sports Media on Vimeo.

Not sure if Chuck is racing next weekend but Byron surely is!
Team Hobie!
Byron Kurt Wins Australian National Distance Paddling Title

The Australian National Distance Titles took place December 12th & 13th at Coffs Harbor. Saturday’s 27km distance race was intended to be a down winder, but the downwind never showed. Instead, the downwind was replaced by a fresh 12 mph headwind that turned the race into a "27 km mile washing machine" that tested racers abilities, stamina, and strength. The only respite was the fact that the race could be done as a relay.

At the end of the grueling 27km, the race was won solo by Hobie’s Byron Kurt of California using a custom shaped 14’ Hobie Race Board , and fellow team rider Tommy Lloy who also did the race solo finished 6th on a similar 14.

“Looking back and not seeing another SUP close, I was happy to see the finish line at the pier in the harbor. I was gassed. Tommy finished 6th overall which was great since he does not train at all, just surfs. Tommy will be a serious threat if he trains and takes racing serious. He finished a very respectable 7th overall at this year’s Rainbow Sandals Battle of the Paddle and I feel that there will be more great finishes from him in the future” commented Byron

27KM RELAY RACE – 12th December 2009

At the 12km 1/2 way mark and the changeover the positions were:

1st – Byron Kurt – Hobie 14 -Solo
2nd – Pete Meyer – Naish 14
3rd – Mick Di Betta – LahuKai 14
4th – Simon Dodd – C4 14
5th – Noel Graham DC17
6th – Tommy Lloy – Hobie 14 – Solo
7th – Alison Fullager – Naish 14
8th – Jasleigh Geary – Naish 14
9th – Rod Clarke – DC16
10th – Sue Sheard – DC16 with a broken rudder (DNF)

At the 27km finish in the harbour the final results were:

1st – Byron Kurt – Hobie 14 – Solo
2nd – Paul Jackson (Pete Meyer) – Naish 14
3rd – Shakira Westdorp (Mick Di Betta) – LahuKai 14
4th – Sunny Russell (Noel Graham) – DC17
5th – Will Anido (Simon Dodd) – C4 14
6th – Tommy Lloy- Hobie 14 – Solo
7th – Mark Waldeck (Alison) – Naish 14
8th – Angela Van Hoof (Jasleigh) – Naish 14
9th – Brett Williams (Rod Clarke) – DC16
10th – Sue Sheard DC16 – DC16 with a broken rudder (DNF)

MOre sweeping last Sunday

More Sweeping from William Pope on Vimeo.

Sweeping!

Sweeping ! from William Pope on Vimeo.

Not the best day but WTF

Spot X from William Pope on Vimeo.

Mac's Video from the North End of Carolina Beach

Find more videos like this on Stand Up Paddle - NC/SC

Late Afternoon Stand Up Paddle Session

Zo and I hit a quick up wind against the current this afternoon.  The downwind on the way back was a lot easier...imagine that.   Caught a few waves until the daylight disappeared. 

Cortez Banks

There is a fine art to chasing swell and no matter how prepared you are, Mother nature always throws you a curve ball. This years El Nino pattern has made it a busy swell chasing season, traveling to Hawaii, Oregon, Mexico and up and down the California coast. There is so much work that goes into being at the right place at the right time, but the pay off can be huge. Every swell episode starts with days of consistent studying of swell charts on wind conditions, storm track, swell direction, size of the storm fetch and weather pattern. I also spend hours on the phone getting more educated opinions from several of my weather guru friends and then put it all together at the last minute to pin point the best location to intercept the biggest swell.

Unfortunately this swell hit Hawaii on Christmas day, making it tough to get away; so I decided to catch the tail end of the swell when it hit the West coast. Our plan was to go up North because of the better wind direction and swell size, but we also had our eye on a couple other outer reef breaks that were closer to home, incase the wind switched in our favor. I spent Saturday afternoon packing my truck with all my SUP guns, paddle boards and tow boards; ready for an early morning departure. Just before dinner the phone rang with news that the wind conditions stayed favorable for the outer waters so I quickly called the rest of the crew to change plans and see if we could pull off a miracle and get our good friend’s boat ready to go that night. We couldn’t get a hold of the captain and decided to wait and make the call at midnight to either pack the boat for a 100 mile adventure at sea or drive up North.
Later that afternoon, the offshore winds picked up a notch making it even tougher for me to make the drop, witch made for some pretty insane levitating air drops followed by a couple great deep ear popping beatings. One of my good friends, Eric from Towsurfer.com was running safety on the jet ski for us, which really helped everyone get back out especially after a big beating. About an hour and a half before dark, the sets started to pulse with a couple solid bombs. we milked the session as long as we could before going back to the boat to load up the skis for the long journey home. We loaded up, battened down the hatches, so to speak and slowly motored home. Tim prepared an awesome pasta and sausage dinner with his special salad that we all devoured in minutes. It’s crazy how hungry we all were in the middle of our session, but we never went back to the boat in fear of missing a good wave and it was all worth it.
After a good 6 hours of sleep, we finally entered the Harbor entrance and motored to the dock. We all powered as a well oiled machine and unloaded the boat faster then we loaded it 24 hours ago. Tim and the captain and crew were exhausted and all hurried home to catch the last couple hours of sleep before sunrise. I was still buzzing from my Dream trip and could not even think about sleep, so I zipped home, switched out a couple SUP boards for smaller surf, checked the buoys and decided to continue my SUP mission with a 2 hour road trip up North……..

A special Thanks to Tim Ditty for all of his support, photos and the use of his beautiful boat, AJ the captain and his first mate for making it possible and Eric Akiskalian for taking photos and running safety and TJ and Bryce for charging so hard and to my wife Susan for her patience and to my truck “The Road Warrior”…….