Photo by Mila Zinkova

On game days, surfers will have to wear their rash guards to class. I wonder if the school will issue 20-year-old surfboards like my high school did with warm-ups across every sport. In spring of 2013, Hawaii high schools will offer surfing alongside traditional and boring ball-based sports. I suppose they’ll compete among the islands since they don’t have too many other nearby conferences offering surfing as a high school option. Those Hawaiian high school students not surf inclined will still have options to participate in the officially sanctioned air riflery and bowling teams. Man, Hawaii really does have it all.

If you’re going to learn to surf, why not do it at a lifeguard training beach? An unconscious surfer floated past 17 experience lifeguards who were on the beach practicing their rescue skills in New Zealand. The guy was actually an experienced surfer and he’s busy making a recovery in the hospital. Sometimes it pays to be good, and other times, it just matters that you’re lucky.

via Wend

A Hawaiian man completed what is believed to be the first ever crossing from the Big Island to Kauai on a stand-up paddleboard. It took five days alone at sea on his surfboard to cross the 300 miles of open ocean. He survived on dried foods and freshwater strapped to his board and slept on an inflatable mat that he’d tie to the top of it, occasionally getting awoken when a wave flipped his board and mat. He was treated for infected blisters on his feet, but was otherwise in remarkable condition. He wasn’t even sore - the hardest part, he said, was the mental anguish of spending five nights floating in the middle of the ocean on a surfboard.

Monstrous waves topping out at over 50 feet were ridden by a handful of surfers off the west coast of Ireland. The newly discovered break dubbed ‘Prowlers’ may go off as rarely as once every 5 years or so, being a far-offshore reef that’s very picky about conditions.

via Adventure Journal

While our friend Greg Hill has been working towards 2 million vert in one year, Dale Webster has quietly extended his daily surf ritual to 35 years. Every day since September 2, 1975 he’s paddled out into Bodega Bay and caught at least three waves. He broke the previous record (which was 28.5 years back in 2004) and decided to extend his surfing days to 10,000. On the morning of 10,001 it didn’t feel quite right lying in bed, so he got up and kept going.  I wonder if he still gets harassed by the locals.

via GetOutdoors