A Guide to the South Bay Surf and Action Sports Scene
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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. 
