Come feel the wind in your hair!
And can we talk about the incredible Jaws event once more before our attention swings to Pipeline and today’s crowning of both its Master and the Championship Tour Champion? I almost can’t wait but… Jaws. It was just so much fun. The amount of waves ridden, the boldness of the competitors, the daring jet-ski rescues, that iconic yellow helicopter swirling overhead.
But have you ever ridden in a helicopter? I have a small handful of times in Papua New Guinea, backcountry Wyoming and Canada. The way those whirly birds raise straight from the ground, the way they dip, dodge, dive and duck is incredible.
Well, a very lucky young man, a university student from Humboldt State University just north of San Francisco’s Bay Area, got to play Jaws rescue and go for a ride and let’s read the thrilling tale Kris Nagel from a very well-written Coast Guard press release.
The Coast Guard and a California State Park Lifeguard rescued a 20-year-old Humboldt State University student from being swept into a rocky shoreline near Moonstone Beach, Sunday afternoon.
At approximately 1:30 p.m., Coast Guard Sector Humboldt Bay received a 911-dispatch call reporting a surfer being swept toward a rocky shoreline due to a combination of rough seas and the surfer’s exhaustion.
Sector Humboldt Bay dispatched an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew and issued an urgent marine information broadcast via VHF-FM channel 16.
The Dolphin crew arrived on-scene at approximately 2:00 p.m. and found California State Park Lifeguard, Keven Harder, was in the water and had established contact with the distressed surfer.
After it was determined that the swimmer was too fatigued to make it back to shore, Harder signaled the Dolphin crew to deploy their rescue swimmer to hoist the surfer. Once the surfer was hoisted, the Dolphin crew remained on scene until Harder was able to swim back to the beach.
The fatigued surfer, Kris Nagel, was taken to the California Redwood Coast – Humboldt County Airport and transferred to emergency medical services personnel who evaluated and released him.

I wish our World Surf League would also employ the Coast Guard press release writer for its own. I can taste the salt. Feel the wind.
And have you ever been rescued anywhere? Skiing? Snowboarding? Mountain biking, hiking, street luge?
Describe!
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Silly bugger should have spent less time studying at uni and more time studying the conditions…..?
I was rescued by my divorce attorney. It cost a fucken fortune. It was worth it.
Ditcher, Kwik and Hyde? they do great work
Well I assume the university was named after Wilhelm Von Humboldt , the father of modern education , but , his brother Alexander Von Humboldt was no slouch either , scientist , adventurer , discovered the source of the Amazon ( the river ) and has an ocean current named after him , the Von Humboldt Current , which flows along the west coast of South America , from Southern Chile to Northern Peru .
Now these brothers , were somewhat like the Characters from Hess’ Narcissus and Goldmund , though slightly more competitive , and this modern drama at sea , could possibly be a Titanic Stuggle between these two godlike Prussian Figures fighting over the soul of our student surfer …… to stay in the academic cloister of the university or be set free on the ocean currents to discover the world ?
Measuring the World
Novel by Daniel Kehlmann …. is a wonderful fictional read concerning the lives of Alexander and Wilhelm Von Humboldt and the mathematician Gauss ( who strangely enough reminds me of Wiggs ) .
Been in the water up there a few times with the waves getting big and scary, wondering how I was going to get to shore. Puts you in your place, quick. Plus, sharks.
Yeah I lived up there 14 years and know that stretch of coast well. Out of a mile there’s only 30 yards of rocks on that part of the coast. Usually paddling out is the hard part.
Coast guard provides student a happy ending. Now that’s a government service I’d like to try
Pat O: “we’re expecting 6-8 foot classic pipeline”….. it’s funny how some people hear so much PR aka shit around them they start to believe it. Poor guy, he seems like a good dude.
And the Surfline forecaster guy said today would be the biggest finals day in years
Last week Joe said “ We have to thank Surfline for these great conditions in this year’s triple crown …. “ Joe , this was horrible ….
I think we must all remember that they are not a wave producer but a bunch of modern hi tech prophets selling dreams which sometimes …. occasionally come true for a price …… does this make Surfline a Religion ?
Surfline … selling dreams and 805 Blonde Ale.
On a Wavestorm!
But did they save that wavestorm or leave it to be dashed upon the rocks?
Just today I rescued myself from Chas’ latest shark story. I was about to dive in, thinking about how much entertainment his writing has brought in the past, but i stopped, realizing the odds weren’t good for escaping safely on this one. No helicopter needed.
Italos hair must be turning white.
I thought I was going to have to rescue Chas in the pool that time.
What stopped you? Couldn’t catch your breath laughing so hard?
I was busy rescuing Derek at the other end of the pool
I wish you would have.
Surfline really on their game today…
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Looks like we’ll all be rescued from the wait.
I saw a cam and op fucking around in the tower on explore.org !
Still on hold! Fuckin seeding round screwed this one
It’s gonna be on hold every hour till 2pm I reckon.
A story in 3 photos:
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Roflmao
Did Surfline not even bother to check their cams yesterday? Cause if so they’d of seen the HUGE fucking sandbar and weird currents just fucking everything up.
Send’em all out at Old Man’s with 12’ logs. The person who has the most fun wins.
Points for attempting headstands and board transfers with yer buddy.
A Medina 6.5 Airwind Day gone begging ?
who is that guy in the pic above?
Are you going to admit your employer got it drastically wrong, Nick?
Oh man I feel for Kevin, like last night the swell began to rise like a deep west beast in the making and the buoys were swinging for the fences. It dead set looked like it might be on the edge of too solid this morning. Then, blurrghhh. Re “admitting”, what’s to admit? He got it wrong and he feels like shit.
But were there any NS locals or people familiar w/ the swell/current/sand placement that might’ve seen this one coming? Why not bring in someone as a guest North Shore forecaster, have them on the clips/updates giving their thoughts?
Or just some random surfers sitting on the balconies of any of the beach front houses at Pipe …
“ What’s it like ? “ random surfer “ shit ! “ yells next door to another random surfer “ do you concur ? “ … “ yep , shit ! “
Fair enough. Good call. Poor Kevin.
No
The trials starring nobody
Fucked this shit up
they will run 1 round today at about 10 and then finish it off tomorrow. some cute barrels but title decided by an air. JJF will have to wait til next year for another crack at a pipe masters
No they won’t. They’re putting it all on Thursday. Something quite nasty in me enjoys these death roll events.
The 2019 Gums Masters in memory of the Pipe Masters?
Well I do think Italo’s stocks just jumped a bit.
And Kelly’s just dropped. What a joke, all of it. Millions of dollars at stake in various ways, and satellite technology to predict swell better than at any point in surfing history, and they fuck it up.
Gonna become a billioniare, run for president, win, then first order of business will be getting this comp moved to sometime in Jan/Feb
I love the sadist in you, Nick
It looks like curl curl on a bad day
Ah well, there you have it.
They canned it again.
I’ve have always wondered if the human that called it Curl Curl had a stutter ?
The early australians called it curial curial
Meaning
River of life river of life.
Thanks Bex Medina
Medina
definition;
the old walled part of a North African town…. where your latest avatar may feel at home…. in the Maghreb .
Enjoyed watching the news in 2008 when Mark Philippousis had to rescued from Bells.
It was big,I’ll give him that, but he he was warned.
While he enjoyed being rescued at Bells, I reckon he would rather have been rescued from the contract of ‘The Bachelor’ he starred in. The look on his face when he realised that he wasn’t going to be in a house with a bunch of model wannabes, and was in fact trapped in house full of ‘cougars’, certainly said so.
Didn’t see it.
He’s does alright with the ladies though.
Sure, there is always a market for famous people with a certain amount of cash stashed away. If you get a chance to see the first episode, where he gets introduced to the ladies for the first time it is classic. He is looking quite pleased with himself about being the one guy all these babes are going to be fighting over.
And the first one gets presented. He keeps the smile. The second one is presented. The smile quivers, but stays. As the third, fourth and fifth ones are presented, you can see the smile heading south quickly. By the end, you can see his eyes darting around looking for his agent wondering how the hell he got signed up for this. Truly great car crash television.
He might need a Philiposuction ?
I’ve been rescued from myself, many times before.
Is that you JPY? Still in Newcastle?
Where is Newcastle?
Exactly
Back in Black ! Or just worried about your skin with the average temperatures slowly climbing ….. ?
In solidarity with sisters living under brutal regimes
E.g.
Britain,Australia,Saudi arabia
He won’t be smiling if he gets the bill. Also, I love the subtle humor, “just north of San Francisco’s Bay Area.” No personal rescues but have had to call twice for others when I got down the mountain while biking.