"Tonight the pickle was stolen off the top of my car in front of Ralph’s. I love this board, it’s the board i learned to surf on, and put many hours and dollars into fixing it. More than anything is the sentimental value of this board. I feel violated. Cheated. Heartbroken that someone would do this. Please share this post and do anything to help get it back. The surf community wouldn’t do this, i hope not at least. If it shows up, no questions asked. Please please help me get my baby back. The board was taken while i was in Ralph’s on Lincoln in Venice." - Patrick.Lucas.Selsted

It's Wednesday, so here's some recent Wipeout photos from the local spots.                                                                                        

It's Wednesday, so here's some new Wipeout photos from the latest round of swells to hit our local spots. These were shot by Six12 Media.

      We post new sets of local wipeout photos every Wednesday (more or less).   Click: Wednesday Wipeouts to check out the previous Wipeout Wednesday photo sets.   

We never wanted to run stories like this, but we now feel we have to.

Since non-surfing surf coach Rhonda Harper wants to continue milking this made up hate crime to fund her very questionable Black Girls Surf and Inkwell Clothing companies and her many GoFundME accounts, we decided to not stay silent any longer. Rhonda keeps doing interviews, is constantly in contact with news sites and just keeps lying about what happened (in one of the more recent ones, she is now saying the board was grabbed from under the surfer's feet). Always promoting it as a hate crime, which it was not. All the news sites love her story, because it's a good race-baiting headline for them. It's got to stop.

She is not even the victim in this, she is just exploiting the situation for herself and because of her hatred of white people and the surf industry. Unfortunately since she is playing the race card, we will have to address that.

This is such a huge ridiculous dramafest that we have to break it into several parts. The first five parts will be:

Part 1: The Leash Pull
We talked to surfers that were in the water, people that were on the pier, and to Wagner Lima himself about what happened. And did some digging up of info. We are the only site that actually did that. The NBC cameraman lied and Harper is not telling the exactly what happened.

Part 2: The Real Rhonda Harper
Rhonda starts her online harassment and doxing of Wagner Lima. She finally has a white man she can make an example of, even if he isn't white, but he's good enough to use to promote her agenda. Her Facebook page is filled with her making hateful comments.

Part 3: The Fake SeaMaven Story
The complete BS story that this feminist blogger wrote using race that triggered all the backlash and harassment everyone was receiving.

Part 4: The Harassment and Backlash

Part 5: Rhonda Can't Surf
A surf coach that can't surf? Yeah really. People that have tried surfing with her told us how awful she is....at surfing.

Everyday or so we will post a Part of this ridiculous story.

PLEASE NOTE: Danielle is the surfer whose leash was pulled, she never wanted to make a police report or a huge fuss over all this. She actually wants it all to go away, unfortunately Rhonda Harper is the one who wants to keep milking this. They actually had a falling out over it, with Rhonda calling her a coward and such (it will be covered in on of the stories). We ask our readers to not harass any of the parties involved.

Boardriders Malibu and Vintage Surfboard Collector Club are hosting the Topanga Surf Swap. Mark your calendars on February 9 - 7am to 2 pm, for some epic vibes! Whether your looking to buy, sell or trade, there will be boards and gear for everyone! Special live performance by @themattson2 and tasty brews provided by @mspecialbrewco ... We will see you here!

Boardriders Malibu
18820 Pacific Coast Hwy
Malibu, Ca 80265
310 - 359 - 8274


Check out photos from the last event: Topanga Vintage Surf Swap

Here's some of the photos from Sunday morning at the Venice Pier. This set was shot by Six12 Media.
















You can find over 50 more photos from this session, all full size and in high-resolution, in this photo gallery:

Venice Pier - Sunday 1-20-2019 - Photo Gallery


If you were out there, we probably got some cool surfing shots of you, go check them out!

Wanna see photos from previous days at this and other local surf spots?
Click Surf Spot Galleries and look for the spot and then the date.

On Saturday, January 26th, Mollusk Surf Shop is having a slide show and book signing for “Authentic Wave”. The beautifully printed surf photography book about traditional longboarding in California over the last 20 years by Tatsuo Takei. Come have a beer and listen to some insight behind this collection of amazing photos!

Mollusk Surf Shop
1600 Pacific Avenue
Venice Beach, CA 90291-9998
(310) 396-1969
Store Hours:
Mon to Sun 10am to 6:30pm

A pygmy sperm whale had to be euthanized after officials rescued the beached marine mammal in Malibu following multiple attempts by a group of good Samaritans to save its life on Friday morning.

It was unclear how long the whale had been stranded on Zuma Beach, but Sky5 first spotted the beached animal just before 8:15 a.m. near Tower 14.


Within minutes, a group of four women were frantically working to push the whale out to sea, aerial video showed.

Their efforts, however, were stymied by the high surf that was pounding the Southern California coastline on Friday, as each crashing wave brought the animal back to the shore.

More bystanders near the beach steadily went down to the water to help; at one point, nearly a dozen people were working together to get the whale further into the ocean.

Soon after, an individual could be seen swimming into the pounding waves alongside the marine creature as attempts to save it grew increasingly desperate. But the whale appeared to be struggling and kept moving back toward the beach.

Other people also tried to help the whale until officials arrived at the scene.

Aerial footage showed lifeguards bringing makeshift gurney to the water around 9 a.m. and rescuing the whale, who was placed into an awaiting California Wildlife Center van.

Capt. Remy Smith with L.A. County Lifeguards confirmed to KTLA that his agency as well as personnel from the Wildlife Center went to the scene to rescue the 12-foot beached whale.

The animal, however, was found to be suffering from numerous health issues, including chronic wounds, diarrhea and blindness, according to Jennifer Brent, the Wildlife Center's executive director.

"We were advised by experienced veterinarians at Sea World in cooperation with NOAA that this species does not fare well in rehabilitation and combined with other problems ... the decision was made to euthanize," she wrote in an emailed statement.

The carcass will be taken to the Natural History Museum for testing, she added.

KTLA's Jennifer Thang contributed to this story.

Here's even more surf photos from another photographer at the Venice Pier. These were shot by Rocketfish Media - SteveChristensenPhoto








There are more photos, all full size and in high-resolution, in the Venice Pier - January 2019 Photo Gallery from Rocketfish Media - SteveChristensenPhoto.

Wanna see photos from previous days at this and other surf spots?
Click Surf Spot Galleries for a list of past days.

North Pacific continues to churn out storm after storm with more solid NW swell due for the West Coast this week.

West Coast gets a string of swells thanks to the recent, and ongoing, storm activity just off the coast. However, this week will come down to windows - some areas will deal with pesky south winds while others flourish with opportunity.