Fresh Friday March 3rd 2006

The Men and Women’s ASP WCT circuit has started up in Australia and has been live broadcasted on the web. The Men’s first and second rounds have been completed with the contest directors looking for better weather over the weekend. A strong gale blew through on Thursday and the contest was cancelled for Friday. 5PM Florida time is 8AM their time so tune in this afternoon for any coverage. I think the Women’s contest is next when the weather clears. You can find the live webcast through ASP’s Main page here: ASP World Tour Main Page

Kelly Slater did really well in his first heat. In the local paper, Florida Today, they had an article titled, “Slater’s Last Wave” Slater's Last Wave by Florida Today

After watching the heat, I doubt that this is Slater’s Last Wave!

From ASPWorldTour.Com editor:

"Coming to life just over the halfway mark of the heat, Slater countered with a massive 9.8 out of 10 when he executed a series of gravity defying top turns after making his way in and out of a very deep tube ride. On the highest scoring wave of the day, Slater’s disappearing act had the crowd in raptures."

Pier Talk

This past week, a friend’s friend was visiting from Newfoundland, Canada. Luckily we had a couple of days of surf while he was here and we got to spend some time in the water. It was interesting to hear his comments and share the experience while surfing on his Florida vacation. He is use to full suit, booties, hood, gloves, with a mandatory warm fire on the beach to be able to surf in Newfoundland.

Needless to say he surfed with only a rash guard and found it silly that we wore any wetsuit in this fine weather! (Current Central Florida Water temp. is 66F)

He was intrigued by all the wildlife in and out of the water and commented that all Floridian surfers surf very good. He surfed pretty good himself and I was impressed that someone from such a cold climate could surf. He loved the freedom of no rubber but was semi-disappointed at lack of wave energy. He described surfing in Newfoundland with great detail and it sounds as if it is in great contrast to the Florida Surfer way of life!

Overall, his stay was enjoyable and the people he met left a favorable impression on him. However, one day at 2ndlight, a guy tells him to get the fuck out of the way. He paddles up to me and ask me what to do about it. I was dumbfounded and basically told him to shrug it off and just keep surfing and having fun. It always amazes me how rude some people can be to others. Sure my new friend stuck out in the crowd as a potential kook, he was white-skinned and looked, well…Canadian.

But it was quite the contrary if you knew the inside details.

I saw the Canadian catch and ride a lot of waves that day at 2ndlight. But, rude-guy caught none. I was a little embarrassed for my Canadian friend and the infraction, but it carries over to a good conversation today and something to think about. I wonder what he is telling his friends about Florida Surfers back in Canada!

We Are Water happenings

I got pretty good feedback from the Artificial Reef Study for Cocoa Beach article a couple of weeks ago. A lot of people have checked it out and mostly agree with it. Cocoa Beach could greatly benefit with an artificial surfing reef! It just needs a push from the right people to further the study and look into getting it made. Its more than likely a far fetched idea, but anything that improves the surf around here gets a thumb’s up from me!

Artificial Surfing Reef in Cocoa Beach

Also, Dermot has An Irish Summer Part One article up on Swell Memories. Part two looks to be published next week.

An Irish Summer Part One by Dermot

We Are Water’s Inlet Pro 2006 photo album has consistently gotten 200 readers a day linking to it from the main page of 2ndlight.Com

Thanks for checking out the photos! It’s neat to be able to share photographs like this. What did we ever do before the internet?

Inlet Pro 2006 Photo Album

Fresh Friday Out for March 3rd 2006

No surf today, but hopefully for the weekend. Have a great one and thanks for checking out We Are Water...WeAreH2O.Com.

Dave Reid
Sales@WeAreH2O.Com