Shacked

It’s the summer of 1957, and there’s a new face on the California surfer scene, Kathy Kohner. Although small, she is mighty, tackling waves four times her height. But, in order to do so, she needs to get that pesky long board out from the rear window of her family’s Buick…

Looking to make some friends after years abroad, Kathy has gone to the beach with her family in search of some worthy prospects. With long board in tow, a clear choice seems to be a group of guys in search of the perfect wave…surfers. No one is fully accepted into the surfer subculture until they are given a nickname, and after proving herself in the squall, Kathy will eventually be dubbed Gidget by her buddies — a hybrid for girl and midget, due to her diminutive 5'1" stature. Over the summer, during the car rides back to Brentwood from Malibu, Kathy will go on to tell her parents about her new friends, experiences, and, of course, nickname, inspiring her father to write Gidget: The Little Girl with Big Ideas — a book that would become so popular it would eventually evolve into a book series, movie series, TV series, comic book, and documentary. While Kathy will eventually give up surfing, her legend will live on in the form of Gidget — cowabunga!

Photo: Allan Grant

Here are a couple of surf photos from Wednesday shot at First Point by Brian Asher Photography. The link to his complete album of more photos is down below.

You can find more photos from this session in Brian's Facebook photo album:

Wednesday 9-4-2019 Photo Album

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

Brian Asher Photography

It's Wednesday, so here's some new Wipeout photos from the recent round of swells to hit our local spots. These were shot mostly at Topanga 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.

Big Wave Surfer Jamie Mitchell is going to paddle all “Seven Crossings” of California’s Channel Islands

Here's the press release (that you see all of the surf websites re-arranging the sentences and posting):

10X World Paddle Champion and professional big wave surfer Jamie Mitchell has created a life from the ocean, one which he wants to be able to pass down to his children. Born in Australia and now living on the islands of Hawai’i with his wife and two daughters, he sees we are on an ecological path that must be changed.

Through the 7 Crossings Project Jamie is determined to show that we are not separated by oceans, but connected. To help raise awareness, Jamie will paddle by hand the seven crossings of the eight Channel Islands just off the California coastline. Mitchell will paddle more than 150 miles through some of the most biodiverse and shark populated regions in the world, also known as “the Galapagos of the North Pacific.” The project will highlight climate change research, solutions, and educational outreach across Southern California, such as those at the USC Dornsife Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies based at Catalina Island. Jamie will personally document his journey on social media and the Seven Crossings Project website, with the project culminating in a documentary film due in 2020.

As Jamie puts it, “The ocean has given me so much, and now it’s time to give back. I want to make sure my daughters can see live coral, catch fish, and swim in the ocean. None of that will happen unless we make significant changes to the way we live and how we use our ocean. Sustainability is about survival as a species," he says. "The work of organizations like the Wrigley Institute is critical towards finding solutions. The science is there and the 7 Crossings Project will help educate people of all ages about the work being done—so we have good policy, businesses become more sustainable, and we can make better choices ourselves.”

Jamie wants to show how we can create a more sustainable life—and build a better tomorrow by helping design our future.

CLOSE TO THE MAINLAND, YET WORLDS APART

The Channel Islands extend over 150 miles and are as close as 12 miles off the Pacific coast of Southern California, the most Densely Populated Urban Area in the US.

The destruction of unique species' habitats and resources by non-native, exotic plants and animals have caused extinction of numerous rare and unique island species. Once found only on the Channel Islands, they have been lost forever.

THE ROUTE:

1.San Miguel – Santa Rosa
2.Santa Rosa – Santa Cruz
3.Santa Cruz – Anacapa
4.Anacapa – Santa Barbara
5.Santa Barbara – San Nicolas
6.San Nicolas – San Clemente
7.San Clemente – Santa Catalina

You can follow Jamies journey via his Instagram: @sevencrossingsproject .

And check out the website at sevencrossingsproject.com.

Hurricane Juliette has formed in the East Pacific and is expected to strengthen before traveling over cooler waters far from the Hawaiian island. “Additional strengthening is anticipated for the next day or two. Weakening is forecast to begin by Thursday,” forecasters said.

And she continues to look quite impressive on satellite Monday afternoon, while taking a favorable track within the SoCal swell window.

By Saturday, the end of the current five-day forecast, Juliette is expected to be a weakening tropical storm still hundreds of miles east of the Central Pacific and more than 1,500 miles east of Hawaii, according to the hurricane center.

Yup, another surf shop opened in Los Angeles this weekend.

Singer Lana Del Rey, the born and raised New Yorker that likes to claim Venice Beach as her home, even though each of her three mansions are not even in the 90291 zip code ( one is in the Hollywood Hills, and another in hipster haven Echo Park, and another in Malibu ), has being using surfing as theme in her latest songs and crap. So of course she has a surf shop now, where you can buy surfy things, like her $40 surf shop t-shirt.

Her new Venice Bitch Surf Shop opened up in a old gas station in Chinatown. Unlike the Birkenstock Surfy Shop, this was just a pop-up shop for the holiday day weekend. Here's some photos to make y'all jealous of the surfy stuff you missed out on.

The average water temps as the 2nd of September..

Not as many days for surf spot photos this month, as we had for July.

Below is the list of Surf Spots with the days we got photos for during the entire month of August. Each link will take you to our page that features a few surf photos and at the bottom of those photos there will be a link to that photographer's complete photo gallery where you can find all the surf photos for that day (many times there's well over 100 photos to check out). Most of these photographers offer high-res downloads and prints for sale.

Secos