Press Play: The Junior Lifeguard Movie

There’s only one man who can roll blue carpet into the sickest Pipeline barrel you’ve ever seen. Andrew Miller, better known as Drewtoonz (Dawn of the Stone Age and Surf Skool), recently released his latest animated surf movie, The Junior Lifeguard Movie, a comical educational water safety flick sponsored by the North Shore Lifeguard Association. In beautiful Hollywood surf movie satire, the movie’s main character, Tommy Stone, little brother of Hawai‘i pro surfer Johnny Stone, wins $500 at an amateur surfing event in his home state New Jersey, and travels in July to O‘ahu to surf the big waves of the North Shore.

Johnny Stone is all the wiser to his little bro’s inexperience and enrolls him in Junior Lifeguards, where Tommy learns all the basics of ocean safety: training, rip currents, swimming, rescues, healthy eating (that doesn’t mean spam musubi), and CPR. The sketched likeness and calm voice of Rick Williams leads the class, a groups of real Junior Guards including Eli Olson as they all whip Tommy’s butt in all the drills and training. 

A freak swell rolls in and Pipeline is huge. A crew paddles out at dawn patrol, pulling in deep to the perfectly round carpet barrels, and Tommy, knowing his limits, plays it safe and decides to video from the beach, where he puts his training to good use and calls in a rescue. The lifeguards are stoked, Tommy’s stoked to put his training to use and the community should be really stoked about this hilarious and zany, yet comprehensive 20-minute water safety water safety. —Kevin Whitton


Pay Up Sucka!

In a sickening upward trend of airline travel ticket prices and baggage fees, one that truly makes our heads spin and our stomachs twist since traveling is such a integral component of a surfer’s trek for enlightenment, not to mention the vocational mainstay for thousands of professional surfers around the world, there is no an international petition on the Internet to stop discriminatory airline surfboard baggage fees.

While several airlines have banned surfboard bags altogether, like British Airways and Bahamas Air, Delta is leading the pack in the greedy quest to extort funds from traveling surfers by charging exorbitant surfboard baggage fees for nothing in return. As of August 29, 2008 Delta furnished their updated and greatly upped extra surfboard baggage fee via their website: One item of surfing equipment is accepted as baggage for $175 (for travel within the United States, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico) and $300 (for travel outside the United States, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico). Don’t pick your jaw up off the floor just yet, that’s per board. Frustrating indeed, especially when skis, snowboards and extremely heavy golf clubs are considered regular check-in luggage.

To combat this blatant consumer rape targeted at the surfing demographic, a petition has been created to let the airlines know that we as surfers refuse to pay the out of control fees and will boycott such airlines and fly only surfer-friendly skies, namely Qantas, Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines, South African Airlines, Air Tahiti Nui, TACA and Virgin Atlantic.    

To sign the petition and learn more about airline fees and restrictions and embargos on surfboard baggage and how much you’ll have to drop for three boards on an international flight (each way), check out the websites listed below. —Kevin Whitton

www.ipetitions.com/petition/StopUnfairSurfboardFees
www.surfers-against-airline-fees.com
www.surfline.com/travel/boardbag_charges.cfm?id=15425


Coming Up For Air
Lifetime Hawai‘i resident, big wave surfer and bodysurfing extraordinaire Alec Cooke, better know as the wily Ace Cool, spearheaded a campaign to raise awareness of the conditions of our nearshore reefs and water quality by swimming around the island of O‘ahu, powered solely by his trusty swim fins. Ace started his swim on Sept. 5, 2008 from Hale‘iwa and circumnavigated the island in a counter clockwise direction, heading west around Ka‘ena Point, south, east and back up north passed the sharky waters off Kane‘ohe Bay and Ka‘a‘awa. He finished his 100-plus mile swim on Sunday, Sept. 14 at his original launching site.

“I am exhausted and got some stings, but I’m in good shape, just a few blisters. I am sore though,” exclaimed Cooke. “It’s been a great experience and I hope to remind people to keep their trash out of the ocean. An arrival celebration greeted the elated swimmer on his return to land.

Ace swam more than 10 miles a day, flanked by a support boat for safety, swimming for about 10 hours at a time before stopping the clock and setting up camp on land each night, just before sundown. The following morning he would start the clock again and return to the water in the same place he exited to resume his monumental feat. Filming from the support boat took place to document the aquatic adventure and to locate areas of polluted water and shoreline conditions. To train for the swim, every two to three days Ace would swim about eight miles, either from Sunset to Hale‘iwa or from Hale‘iwa to the end of the road at Ka‘ena Point. —Kevin Whitton

www.acecool.org



The Best Of Days
It’s no coincidence that the fourth annual Shorebreak Classic, in memory of Jason Bogle, David Aluli and Peter Miller was graced once again with beautiful weather and contestable surf. Over 100 stoked boys and girls, ages three to 18, came out for a day of fun, prizes and competition at Kalama Beach Park in Kailua on the windward side of O‘ahu. The long list of sponsors outdid themselves this year and every grom went home with a filled bag of goodies and a belly full of food provided by Zia’s Café and Emmet Miller, Peter’s father.

The event is put on by the Peter Miller Foundation, an organization that supports underprivileged young people who yearn for the chance to participate in surfing or other ocean sports. Congratulations to all the contestants and to the winners in each division: Mini-grom (boys and girls, up to age 9) Kamalei Hassett, Groms (boys age 10-12) Timmy Metcalf, Boys (age 13-15) Cole Yamakawa, Juniors (boys age 16-18) James Fisher, Girls (all ages) Se’anna Gentry. —Kevin Whitton