IT’S 1pm on the second and final day of the 2009 Scottish Surfing Championships, and the best surfers in the country are gathered in a farmyard-cum-car park, overlooking the fabled reefbreak known throughout the surfing universe as Thurso East. In an ideal world there would be perfect, hollow waves spitting and reeling along this kelp-covered rock slab, but today: nothing. A few heats were held here early in the morning in smallish surf, but now the sea looks worryingly calm…Â Details & Video
After traveling all the way from Vega-Baja, Puerto Rico, for a few days of personal watercraft racing in Central Florida, Julio Rivera will be going home a record holder.
During the HydroDrag Spring Nationals on Sunday, Rivera blazed down the C-54 canal in South Brevard at 100.5 mph —
the fastest speed ever officially recorded by a personal watercraft rider.
“The feeling of going that fast . . . is indescribable. It takes a lot of nerve,” said the 36-year old Rivera. “The competition is really tough, and these races get better every year. The speed and the adrenaline rush keep me coming back for more.” …Â Details
The reigning world champion progressed up the field early in the race with some daring manoeuvres, but a number of spins and off-track excursions hampered his race.
The British driver was disappointed he did not taken advantage of the treacherous conditions but was satisfied with a points finish.
“I love racing in the wet and I would say that was one of my worst wet performances,†Hamilton said. … Details & Pictures
Phil Garcia had a strategy to make it across the near-freezing pond on his snowboard.
“I just had to lean on the back and apply slow aft pressure,” the 24-year-old Laguna Niguel resident said after he was one of a handful of skiers and boarders to skim the entire 107-foot-long pool in front of Mammoth Mountain’s Canyon Lodge. “We talked about it and I did it on my first time.”
Garcia was one of many Orange County residents to attend the ski resort’s 10th Annual Pond Skim contest at Canyon Lodge on Sunday, drawing a crowd of more than 2,000. The event celebrated the end …Â Details & Pictures