Surfing is an inclusive sport not limited to the young, tan, tall and lovely. All kinds of people get on surfboards and ride the waves — even amputees.
A Southern California group called Amp’d formed last year to encourage amputees and others to surf, even if they’ve never been on a board. The group is the brainchild of Amy Ginsburg, a prosthetic practitioner with Hanger Prosthetics & Orthotics Inc. in Laguna Hills. She was working with a 13-year-old patient whose leg was amputated above the knee due to Ewing’s sarcoma. “We fitted him with a leg, and he was so excited that he could go in the pool,” Ginsburg says. She thought he might also enjoy surfing and put him in touch with another patient who had been surfing on one leg for several years. He wound up mentoring the teen… Details
Paddle surfing in big waves takes guts, knowledge and experience and O’Neill is proud to announce the opening of the one year waiting period for the 2009/10 O’Neill Raw Courage Big Wave Awards, an annual event to honour and reward the courage, passion and commitment of South African watermen who take on South Africa’s biggest waves using their bare hands.
Founded in 2008 by big wave legend and O’Neill ambassador, Chris Bertish, the Raw Courage Awards will be awarded in five categories including the Biggest Paddle Wave, Biggest Barrel, Balls to the Wall, Phsycofreak and Grom Charger with a total of over R40 000 at stake, R20 000 of which goes to the Biggest Paddle Wave winner.
Running from 1 May 2009 to 1 May 2010, the criteria specify that only rides on waves 15 foot and bigger will be accepted and…Â Details
VENTURA, California (Sunday, April 26, 2009) – Two-time and defending Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) North America Longboard Qualifying Series (LQS) Champion Taylor Jensen (Oceanside, CA), 25, and Kaitlin Maguire (Del Mar, CA), 21, won the ASP LQS 1-Star PLA and Gidget PLA Pros today in peaky two-to-three foot (1 metre) surf at C Street in Ventura, California.
The ASP LQS is a regional qualifier for the ASP World Longboard Tour (WLT). Each region sends their top performers at year’s end in an attempt to claim the coveted title of ASP World Longboard Champion each following year.
Jensen continued his tear through the ASP LQS today, notching another impressive victory on his belt in Ventura this afternoon. The powerful longboarder saved his best performance for the final, netting the event’s highest heat total of a near-perfect 18.57 out of 20, placing fellow finalists Tony Silvagni (Kure Beach, NC), 22, Brendan White (Dana Point, CA) and Joe Aaron (Capistrano Beach, CA), 18, in a combination situation on the way to his convincing PLA Pro win….  Details at the Gidget MySpace page Blog