Click on this photo to get a contest application for your Menehune!

***PRESS RELEASE FROM DOHENY LONGBOARD SURFING ASSOCIATION***

Sign Ups Now Open for Doheny Longboard Surfing Association’s
17th Annual Menehune Championships

It is true. Every summer at Doheny State Beach, Menehunes are waking up from their long winter naps and start surfing again at Doheny Beach. Why does this phenomena take place each year? The answer is simple, the menehunes are practicing their surf techniques to compete in the Annual Doheny Longboard Surfing Association’s Menehune Surf Championships scheduled for Saturday, June 22nd.

About 20 yards North of Tower 13 at Doheny State Beach, you will find the surf break known as The Boneyard.

The contest begins promptly at 7:30 AM and is open to boys and girls (menehunes) with divisions 8 and under up to 17 years of age. Hundreds of young competitors are expected to participate. Applications and additional information can be picked up at local surf shops throughout Orange County, California, including Hobie Surf Shops, or downloaded from the Association’s website at: www.dohenylongboardsurfingassociation.com

“The annual Menehune contest is as exciting for parents and family as it is for the kids. It provides kids with a fun and safe environment for competing and making new friends.” said, Mark Gale, President of the Doheny Longboard Surfing Association.

Doheny Longboard Surfing Association is proud again this year to have Hobie Surf Shops sponsoring the event. Hobie will provide early check-in, t-shirts and a barbeque to start the event beginning Friday, June 21st from 6-8pm at the Dana Point Hobie Surf Shop, located at 34174 Pacific Coast Highway. You can click HERE to see a slideshow of last year’s check-in, BBQ, and a bit of the contest! A new sponsor this year RWorld Surf & Skate of San Clemente, has graciously donated a surfboard for this years raffle.

The event features raffles and music throughout the day with an awards ceremony following the end of the competition. Mark Gale further states, “This event is all about enjoying the beach, friends & family while having fun in the surf. We hope these kids will fondly remember their time spent at Doheny with their fellow surfers and families for years to come.”

Contest entry is $50 dollars and proceeds from club contests help fund Ronald McDonald House and several ongoing charity outreach programs, including Doheny State Park.

Surfers will compete in 15 minute heats. The scoring is based on a 10 point system that integrates wave selection, length of ride, surfing moves and style. Judges are all Doheny Longboard members who have a long history of working within this type of scoring system.For more information and to find out how you can be involved as either a surfing Menehune or as a volunteer, please email the Contest Coordinator at – MC250C@aol.com .

See you in the water!!!!

* The Doheny Longboarding Surfing Association (D.L.S.A.) is an organization dedicated to board surfing in a clean and natural environment. In relation to that philosophy, the D.L.S.A. will act as a support group for other organizations with similar views and objectives. PR contact: Denny Michael at Dahuna@yahoo.com

***End***

-Tracey Engelking

In With the Old!

It’s Back!! Our annual Surf Swap & Sale at our Dana Point Hobie Surf Shop (only, in Dana Point!!) is set to go off this Memorial Day Weekend! We LOVE this sale!! It’s our chance to not only help you clean out those used surfboards in your garage, making room for a whole new rack of boards… but it’s our chance to buy those used boards off of you and have a brand new, though slightly pre-loved, quiver of our own!

You set the price for your boards, with a little help from us, and when it sells, 10% of the selling price will be donated to the Dana Hills High School ‘Dolphin Force’. Be wise in your selection of boards to bring down, surfboards 7’6″ and over sell the fastest and usually for the best price. SUP’s also do well at the swap, but as far as shortboards go, it’s hit and miss on how they fare. We also have had a strong turnout of folks looking for classics and vintage boards, too! Remember, cleaned up, unwaxed boards look the best in the racks. You want your girl to stand out amongst the sea of other boards, so shine her up nice and pretty!

Tell your friends, and especially tell that board hoarder you know, to bring their boards on down to our Dana Point Shop (again the sale is only at the Dana Point Shop) bright and early on May the 24th. We will start taking in boards as early as 8:30am. When you fill out your forms, make sure to give us an easy phone number to reach you at, just in case we have an offer on the table that you want to hear. We have seen people come up cash in hand, looking to get a bit off the marked price only to leave when we can’t get in contact with the seller. Price your boards fair and be willing to STOKE someone out on a new ride! It’s crazy fun to watch people find the new log of their dreams at a price they can afford!

Stop in through out the weekend and see how your boards are selling, and make sure you shop the SALE! We go BaNaNaS marking items down!! Our outside parking lot will be full of great deals, and we’ll have special markdowns inside too! Seriously, you will Not be disappointed with this sale and swap! Make sure you are ready with phone in hand on Sunday May 26th around 4ish, just in case we didn’t sell your boards. You will have to pick them up again that night by 5pm. But, trust us, we do our best to sell them all!!

Ok, if you have any other questions, call our Dana Point Shop at 949-496-2366, otherwise, We’ll See You at The Swap!!!

-Tracey Engelking

Can’t wait to see you!!!!

-Tracey Engelking

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For this weeks science blog we will leave the oceans and look at what makes the sky appear blue. And no, it is not because the ocean is reflecting the color of the water into the sky. (Ed Note: Full disclosure, I have always thought this to be true before Gary explained it to me)

In order to understand what makes the sky blue we must first understand the basics of sunlight and color. I recently read a fascinating article about a young Isaac Newton’s early experiments with light waves. The year was 1665 and a 23 year-old Newton was home from school due to the plague. Newton confined himself to his room and began experimenting with a prism. He closed his blinds and cut a small hole allowing a small stream of light to pass through. Newton then held a prism into the beam of light causing the light to scatter, ultimately casting a rainbow upon his wall.

Prior to this experiment it was widely believed that sunlight was white in color and therefore could not be muddied or changed. What Newton proved was that sunlight actually consisted of all the colors in the visible light spectrum together. There were many people who criticized this experiment, mostly due to religious credence, claiming that white light was holy in nature and could not possibly be made up of colors, and that the prism itself contained the colors of the rainbow.

Subsequently Newton devised a second experiment consisting of a second prism. Remember, this was in 1665 and a prism was not easy to come by. So, Newton held the second prism into the blue portion of the rainbow allowing only blue light to pass through and just as he had presumed, only blue light was cast against the wall.

Visible light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum consisting of the electromagnetic wavelengths between about 400 and 800 nanometer. For reference, one-nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.

As we can see from the electromagnetic spectrum above, the colors containing the highest amounts of energy, thus the shorter wavelengths, are violet and blue. When sunlight passes through the atmosphere these higher energy wavelengths scatter, being absorbed and reflected off the molecules that makeup our atmosphere causing the sky to appear blue. In space, where there is no atmosphere, the light is not being scattered off of molecules therefore appearing black.

Why, then, does the sky not appear violet? This has to do with how our eyes work. We have three different light receptors in our eyes called cones. They respond most strongly to the colors blue, red, and green. Therefore, although violet and blue wavelengths are being scattered in the atmosphere our sensory system, using the blue cones in our eyes, tell our brain that the sky  is blue as it is the strongest wavelength stimulating the blue cones.

So this week when you are at the beach, looking up at the blue sky, you will have a basic understanding of why you see blue, but stick around until sunset and the orange and red sky will open up a whole new set of questions. This will be discussed next week.

-Gary Larson

The Machine.

We miss our friend. That won’t ever change, but we know that Terry wouldn’t want us to sit around and be sad. Terry would want us to be out surfing… riding waves with our friends and hooting with laughter! If you are lucky enough to be in possession of one of the 80,000+ surfboards he handcrafted over the years, Put it in the Water!! Terry made boards to be ridden by everyone from a brand new beginner catching his or her first wave, to the best of the best surfers in the world. He didn’t make things for people to hang on the wall, he made things to glide down the line!

Grab your friends, grab your boards, grab some waves… build a bonfire at the beach this weekend, and tell your best “Big Fish” stories of the waves you have ripped on a Terry Martin board, and better yet, tell your best Terry Martin stories too…

-Tracey Engelking

We LoVE Moms!!!!

If your mom took you to the beach with all the gear, and then some, you better HooK HeR Up for Mothers Day!!! We wanted to make showering your mom with love easy for you, so we went around to our stores and created some easy to follow photo gift guides! Here are a few of our top picks from our shops… don’t forget, we WRAP too!!!! If you can’t make it into our brick and mortar locations, you can always shop us online at www.hobiesurfshop.com! Enjoy and Happy Mother’s Day!!!!!

Every kind of bracelet you can think of, from friendship, to stackable, to a build your own…

Crochet TOMS… when you give your mom the gift of Toms, you also give a pair of shoes to a person in need through Toms “One For One” program.

Your mom rips!!!! Why not get her a new stick?? A Hobie Surfboards “Slug Fish” would look lovely at brunch with a bow on it!

Galileo Jewelry, made right here in Laguna Beach by hand, using gemstones that will remind your mom of the beach every time she looks at it.

Nothing beats a good stripe or a nautical inspired look! Anchors and navy blue are always a winning style.

We carry all types of “one of a kind” jewelry pieces that came from Mother nature herself…

Maxi dresses, long necklaces, and summery beach hats, with a little sign that says “You are loved”!

Driftwood hearts or a rustic turquoise and leather neclace…. so so so beautiful!

Frames, candles, lanterns, perfumes, mugs that say I Love You Mom, cards and tiny treasure keepers too! <3

Ok, if you really can’t find something you think your mom would like… go with flowers, and nice sweet card, a heart that says “Love” and a Hobie Surf Shop gift card!!

-Tracey Engelking

May 11th at The Orange County Fairgrounds

We know where we will be Saturday afternoon and evening… what about you? Even though I am eternally a “Girl on a Budget”, I have every intention of hitting the OC Fairgrounds and getting goggly eyed at all the incredible watercraft up for auction at The Surfing Heritage Foundation’s Vintage Surf Auction (all the details for the event are at the bottom of this post… keep reading!). A taste of every style of surfboard  your feet could desire from the 1920′s through 1970′s will be represented over 50-60 craft. The auction is called “California Gold”, so even if you aren’t necessarily in the market for a board, there will be memorabilia-O-plenty up for grabs too… think Original Endless Summer silk screened movie poster, and the beyond rare “The Surf Riders of Hawaii” by the Father of surf photography A.R. Gurrey Jr. Only six copies are known to still exist.

The Surf Riders of Hawaii

To make sure you all go home from this blog with deeper knowledge of the event, I tapped Hobie Surf Shop owner, Mark Christy, to give me a few thoughts. We at Hobie know Mark to be an avid Vintage Surf collector… all you have to do is look in the rafters in any of our shops to see some of his most beautiful acquisitions. He will be at the auction, and he will hopefully be adding a few treasures to our ceilings after the show is over! I dropped him a quick email asking if there are any boards in particular that he is looking forward to seeing, any quick thoughts on the auction as a whole, and any boards he HAS to go home with.

Mark’s answers… 

There are a few AMAZING boards in the mix.

I’m actually a bit stunned that Surfing Heritage is selling the Mickey Munoz/Flippy Hoffman “Ah Woo” board. It is iconic in terms of sheer size and pedigree as documented by a lengthy article in The Surfer’s Journal.

I love the Pete Peterson board and cannot wait to see what it fetches. And anything that Simmons built is capable of going through the roof due scarcity and his influence on board construction and shape.

A couple of foamies that are extremely rare and interesting are the Hobie Bi-Sect and the two Noll “Da Cat” models. These are stellar investment boards and sure look better on the wall than a stock certificate. Although I must say that personally, I prefer clean originals over perfectly restored boards. I like the fact that the patina can tell you a little story.

And I’d love to see the “Laguna Beach Redwood”. Man, if that board could talk… I don’t recall seeing any board ever from that era with that type of progressive shape. But if Dick says it is legit and original, I’ll take his word for it as he is the Oracle of knowledge when it comes to wooden boards.

As for anything I would have to go home with? Depends on what kind of beer they’re serving. And I would advise anyone attending to pay special attention to the silent auction boards. Silent auctions often represent the best “deal” but rarely do you see boards of this calibre not walking up onto the live stage. If you know what you’re doing, you could do VERY well by paying close attention to the “stars of the silent screen” including the Bing Figure 8, the Velzy “V” logo, the Hobie/Munoz Positive Force and the Joe Quigg’s. -Mark

So, now you have it, all the details for the night are below. Can’t wait to see you there!! The Surfing Heritage Vintage Surf Auction is being presented by Quiksilver Waterman Collection, and  will benefit the Surfing Heritage, a 501c non-profit dedicated to preserving, presenting and promoting surfing’s heritage.

INFORMATION ::

The Surfing Heritage Vintage Surf Auction presented by Quiksilver Waterman Collection – May 11, 2013

• WHERE: OC FAIR & EVENTS CENTER – LOS ALAMITOS / OC SPAN / ANAHEIM BUILDINGS
• WHEN: MAY 11, 2013 – PREVIEW OPEN AT NOON – VIP COCKTAIL/DINNER RECEPTION 3-5PM – LIVE AUCTION 5PM
• WHAT: A FUNDRAISER FOR THE SURFING HERITAGE & CULTURE CENTER
• WHY: TO PRESERVE, PROMOTE AND PRESENT SURFING

• HOW: BIDDING PACKAGES AVAILABLE NOW

The theme is “California Gold” and the Surfing Heritage (SHACC) is focusing on just that, boards and memorabilia with a California flair from the ’20s through the ’70s. We’ve already coalesced a solid selection of “Gold’ from various sellers and are actively searching for more. We’re anticipating between 40 – 50 prime vintage surfboards for the live auction and at least 40 items including surfboards for the silent auction.

Randy Rarick, a member of the Surfing Heritage Auction Advisory Committee, and a great friend of the Surfing Heritage, has lent his auction expertise to the Surfing Heritage and will also serve as the emcee of this gala.

Event Info

* The Surfing Heritage Vintage Surf Auction presented by Quiksilver Waterman Collection
* Benefiting the Surfing Heritage 501(c) non profit
* OC Fair & Events Center 88 Fair View Dr. Costa Mesa, Ca. 92626 (driving directions & parking info below)
* The venue is both indoors and outdoors, plan on air temps between 60-70 degrees Fahrenheit. Dress accordingly.
* There will be an ATM on site.
* There will be select food trucks on-site

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS (subject to change)

Noon – Live auction preview, SHACC silent auction preview, California Gold art wall silent auction preview, surfboard appraisals

12:30 – Music by Tower 7

1:00 – Silent auction opens

1:00 – Book signings by Rusty Miller, Paul Holmes, Chris Burkart, Gerald Dersholan, Anna Trent Moore, Christian Beamish & others TBA

2:00 – “Come Hell or High Water” Keith Malloy film screening

3:00 – Music by Mattson2

3:00 – VIP afternoon dinner & cocktail reception

3:45 – Music by Tom Curren

4:00 – SHACC silent auction begins closing in stages every 15 minutes

4:00 – VIP hosted “free pour” Primo Beer and/or Longboard Vineyard wine

4:45 – Welcome from SHACC member Mark Fragale

5:00 – LIVE AUCTION BEGINS IN LOS ALAMITOS BUILDING

7:00 – California Gold art wall silent auction begins closing

8:00 – Music by Ray Barbee & Mattson2

10:00 – Event over, doors close

The OC Fair & Event Center is located at
88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.

Donavon Frankenreiter…. glassy summery love.

This is a magic time of year. May, much like September, has all the textures, sounds, and feels of summertime with none of the crowds, long lines, lack of parking, clogged up freeways, and even more clogged up surf breaks. You know, as year round residents of the Southern California, we all have a teeny “nnnoooooooooooooooo…. wwhhhhhyyyyyyy….. how are there SO many of you, where did you all come from, and how did you all coordinate to show up at exactly the same time on exactly the same date???” mentality when it comes to our beaches and the summer crowds… (ok, I’m probably exaggerating, there are at least 4 less O’s in most locals cry of No ;) ) But, right now, today, with this beautiful pre-July 88 degree day on tap, and this sizable swell in the water. This is a fine day to live at the beach. A day like today makes me remember my favorite saying about real estate prices in Costal OC.. “It’s not that the prices are high for what you get, it’s that they are not high enough for what you get.”

So here it is. This is our time. Before the June gloom takes over the mornings and before the train starts to drop off the visitors, this is our time. The first South Swells of summer are lighting up the coast! Parking is ample, the freeways are free, the water is warm, the surf is glorious… and it’s all ours for a few more weeks! So get down here, you local. Gt your feet in the sand, get your board in the water, get your bronze on. Bring your bbq, some wood for the bonfire, spray yourself down in Coppertone… Your beaches are waiting for you! Happy May So Cal, it’s our time… see you in the water and on the sand!

-Tracey Engelking

*Waves Explained from our friends at Magic Seaweed :: 

Waves.

In a perfect world a wave looks very simple. The height of a wave is the total distance from it’s peak to it’s trough. The period is the time, in seconds, that it takes for a first then second wave to pass the same point. In other words the time in seconds between successive peaks or troughs. Interestingly for us as surfers this number is consistently related to both a swells speed and the depth of water in which it can start to react with the seabed. This makes it something of a magic number for determining how a swell will transform itself into surf at your beach (something we’ll continue to cover in detail) and at least as important as the height of the swell.
The direction is exactly as it sounds – the direction in which the swell is heading. This is typically expressed in compass points (North, East, South, SW) or degrees (180, 270) and, while there’s no absolute convention surf forecasters tend to talk about the direction the swell is coming from. So a south swell is one that is heading from the south to the north, it could also be described as having a direction of 180 degrees.

The sad reality of what is a drift at Sea….

The topic of cleaning, or the ability to clean, plastics from our Oceans is obviously a touchy subject. It drifts on and off the front pages of our news. In our continued effort here at Hobie Surf Shop Blog to bring you “Surf Science” education, we felt the need to share some enlightened thoughts on the cleaning of the five ocean gyres, also known as swirling “Garbage Patches”. We hope to get our resident Surf Scientist, Gary Larson’s, thoughts on the subject soon…..

Boyan Slat’s “Ocean Cleanup Array”

The Surfers Journal recently ran an article called “Trash Pick Up” touting 19 year old engineering student, Boylan Slat’s, “Ocean Cleanup Array” (see photo interpretation above) as our catch all solution to the problem of plastics in our Seas. The idea behind the Array, is a simple yet complexly designed machine that is anchored in the Ocean and it just sits and waits for the currents to bring the plastics to its outstretched funnels. The plastics are then separated from the plankton and such, stored, collected, then recycled into new plastic products… simple, right?? Not a chance says Stiv Wilson….

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Stiv Wilson’s words in response to “Trash Pick Up.” (Keep reading Wilson’s take at Inhabitat.com, the man knows his stuff.)

As the policy director of the ocean conservation nonprofit 5Gyres.org, I can tell you that the problem of ocean plastic pollution is massive. In case you didn’t know, an ocean gyre is a rotating current that circulates within one of the world’s oceans – and recent research has found that these massive systems are filled with plastic waste. There are no great estimates (at least scientific) on how much plastic is in the ocean, but I can say from firsthand knowledge (after sailing to four of the world’s five gyres) that it’s so pervasive it confounds the senses. Gyre cleanup has often been floated as a solution in the past, and recently Boyan Slat’s proposed ‘Ocean Cleanup Array’ went viral in a big way. The nineteen-year-old claims that the system can clean a gyre in 5 years with ‘unprecedented efficiency’ and then recycle the trash collected. The problem is that the barriers to gyre cleanup are so massive that the vast majority of the scientific and advocacy community believe it’s a fool’s errand – the ocean is big, the plastic harvested is near worthless, and sea life would be harmed. The solutions starts on land.

Continue Reading at the link…

The Fallacy of Cleaning the Gyres | The Surfer’s Journal.

-Tracey Engelking

Shevon Franz

HOBIE : Give us a little background, where are you from, where did you go to school, ect…? 

Shevon : I was born in Laguna Beach at South Coast Hospital. I grew up in Dana Point and San Clemente. From K-4th grade I went to school in San Clemente, then my family moved back to Dana Point and I finished through High School there. I went to Saddleback College for a bit.

I had a job in a DR’s office year round when I was 16, but when I became a lifeguard, I let that go. So working only in the summer as a guard gave me all winter to be a beach bum at SanO…. literally. I would be surfing all day, and then I’d be scrounging for change to fill my gas tank so I could go back the next day… haha! I did apply to Hobie twice back then, but they didn’t hire me!!

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HOBIE : OK, so we didn’t hire you right away.. when did you start working for Hobie, and what was your first job with us? 

Shevon : I started in 2002 in Laguna Beach, Courtney hired me. I worked in the boards -surf and skate- I was, at the time, the only girl at the company who could put together a skateboard…. I was the Tom Boy.

HOBIE : What is your first Hobie memory? 

Shevon : Walking into the Original Hobie Shop on Coast Highway in Dana Point and buying my first pair of Flojos sandals. They were white and had a criss cross strap. I think they were on sale. They were in a bucket in the middle of all these surfboards. I remember they had this really small women’s section…. like three bikini styles, three tee’s and some Flojos.

Baby Shevon… always in a bikini! <3

HOBIE : You are one of, if not our best bikini salesperson, what makes gravitate to our bikini customer, and what makes you SO successful at helping them find the perfect look?

Shevon : I love the bikini customer! I want to make them feel sexy on the beach at every age. I want to help them find a suit that makes them feel confident. Swim, for some women, doesn’t do that. With swim, it’s intimidating, some women have a fear of it, and they shouldn’t. It really makes me happy to see someone leave, and I know they are fulfilled.

HOBIE : What is your #1 tip for girls when they come in to look for a new bikini?

Shevon : Find a style that makes YOU feel confident to walk on the beach… it’s not about the latest trends, it’s about what makes you feel like you look sexy.

HOBIE : What is your biggest bikini “Don’t”? 

Shevon : Having too much fabric in the back. If it’s hanging or covers too much, it makes you look bigger. The more fabric, the bigger the bum looks, trust me. (ED Note: Ok, I know ladies, I did not believe her either. I believed that the best way to cover my… um.. not so small behind was to swath it in as much coverage as possible, and I was WRONG! Shiv is right, it was only making me look bigger, so give a bitsy bottom a try, you will probably LoVE it!!)

Ready!!!! She will not let you drown!!

HOBIE : You are a lifeguard with Orange County Lifeguards. How long have you been a guard and what makes you keep going back even with your busy schedule? 

Shevon : I became a guard in 2001 and started with the Orange County Junior Guards program, but I had to wait three seasons until I could take the responsibility for the 45 kids at the beach. I did Junior Guards for six summers and now I’m a tower guard at County and Private beaches.

I stay because it’s a very fulfilling job and I love the people I work with…. and… you’re at the beach! Who could complain about that?

HOBIE : Your sister, Tara, also works for Hobie, what is it like to work for the same company? 

Shevon : We have a rule that we don’t talk work – unless it’s something really traumatic and she needs advise. We’ve kept things separate.

The Franz Family!

HOBIE : What do you love about working for Hobie? 

Shevon : The family aspect of our company and the lifestyle. I grew up with Hobie, and I always wanted to work for them. Always.

HOBIE : If you had your life to live over again, and you could change one thing, what would it be?

Shevon : I would travel more!

HOBIE : Thanks Shiv!! I’ll make sure we send all our bikini loving ladies to you for help this season! 

Shevon : Do it!! haha!

-Tracey Engelking