Volcom Stone and Geoff Rowley are partnering up for a three-day event in Southern California from December 5th thru the 7th. The event will be held at five boardshops including: Sunken City, Laguna Surf and Sport, Identity Boardshop, Epidemic, and Hanger 94. The event includes free BBQ and the first 100 in attendance will receive a custom hand screened t-shirt by Rowley. The hearsay is that there will be some additional Volcom goodies as well. If you don’t make it for the custom shirt at least there’s some free BBQ.

The world of surfing is in a very good state at the moment. After the European leg of the tour, Kelly Slater is now the 9x world champion and the Vans Triple Crown of surfing is underway with the season ending Pipeline masters looming in the very near future. As far as the actual surfing being performed I have to say that I’ve had a new found respect for a particular surfer. I had been been chilling, getting my surf on, when all of a sudden we get a week of shit wind. Like any other surfer I started to get the itch to surf, so I go out and do the next best thing, buy a surf vid. Though Dude Cruise has a kooky name, the movie is anything but kooky. The movie follows surfers Bruce Irons, Ry Craike, and Dane Reynolds on a trip which results in sick tricks and Bruce rolling a truck on a beach. After watching the movie which I’ve done maybe 10 times, I gotta give Dane the proper respect and say that he is in my opinion the sickest surfer on the planet! Frontside airs, backside airs, hacks, barrels, the kid can do it all, and in Dude Cruise you get the chance to watch him do his thing. A few months back I took a few kids, new to the sport, to watch a competition in Huntington Beach. They were kinda bored because they felt every surfer was doing the same turns over and over again. For those of you who may feel the same way, go cop Dude Cruise and you will get a taste of what’s to come next year on the World Championship Tour. 2009 is set to be a sick ass year on tour, as Kelly Slater goes for an unprecedented ten titles and Dane wrecks havoc in his sophomore year.
Surfing Insight and Article Written By: Manny Raya

Beaches, not bitches, have always had their share of surfers. These surfers are always out there in the sand and the waves everyday in order to catch that one tubular ride. They are in search of that one rad wave they can tell their grandkids about. But be careful, if you are not from that particular strand of beach. These surfers are very territorial and do not want an outsider coming onto their turf. If you try to get some waves, be prepared to defend yourself. Like anything and anywhere else, you just do not come to somebody elses house and make yourself at home. You have to prove yourself and not show up any of the respected players. This will really piss somebody off and you will have to lace up your clogs and get off the beach. The local surfers will not allow anybody to take a wave they feel is rightfully theirs. If you do catch a wave you better grab onto that J7 and ride the tubular for as long as you can. Isn’t this what you wanted in the first place?
Until the next lesson, “Stay Down.”
Author: OG DUDE

Stardum welcomes back surf reporter and Raiders commentator, Manny Raya. Raya has been busy working with his surf camp and watching Raiders’ Football, so ya, he’s happy and not surprised. Sit back, relax and let Manny walk you through the newest insights into the ASP World Championship Tour:
“Not much has changed in the world of surf since we last touched base, it has however been an exciting month on the ASP World Championship tour. Since the last report Bruce Irons (pictured) did what we all knew he could do and won a contest in Bali. Bruce is withdrawing from the WCT at the end of the year to try and once again claim the title of best free surfer in the world; but now he does it having won a contest against the elite of the WCT. As I previously stated “not much has changed” but in saying this I don‘t mean that literally nothing has changed. Just this last week the Boost Mobile Pro at Trestles was held and you’ll never guess who the victor was…Yup that’s right, Kelly Slater has won his 39th contest on the WCT. The Boost Mobile Pro lived up to its high performance wave title as did the surfers wave riding abilities. At the end when all the onshore wind settled it was Slater winning the contest in dramatic fashion, taking down Taj Burrow in the final minutes of the event. “He had me killed there for a little bit in the beginning” Slater noted. However, in ultimate Slater fashion, ,Slater in the last ten minutes of the final heat managed to get two high scores to take down Taj who was sitting on a 9.00 and a 9.63. Adding further drama to the story, comes the fact that the heat rather then the usual 35 minutes was extended to 40 minutes based on a suggestion by none other then Slater himself. The previous semi-finals had been starved for waves due to inconsistent conditions, so Slater asked if the heat could be extended. Upon Burrow’s agreement for the extension it was done, 40 minute heat. Conceding the extension of time was the only conceding that Taj did. A dejected Burrow failed to concede defeat claiming “I felt like I won”. As a spectator watching the event online I noticed that during the celebration ceremony Burrow seemed nowhere to be found. Burrow however has no one to blame but himself. The last 15 minutes of the heat was all Slater. After catching two great rides in the first ten minutes Taj did nothing in the remaining 25 minutes to finish Slater off. Slater used this to his advantage and picked off every wave he could ultimately getting the scores he needed and deserved. Slater took down some pretty big names on his way to the Boost Mobile Pro championship; beating ASP former champ and Hawaiian legend Sunny Garcia, Southern California local Bobby Martinez, current WCT #3 Bede Durbidge, and polished it off by beating now world #2 Taj Burrow. Now as the champagne dries off on the beaches of San Clement Ca, Slater and the ASP’s top 44 head to France for a contest whose waiting period begins Sept19th ,all with one question in mind. How many heats does it take until Slater is crowned ASP world champion for the 9th time?”

Santa Barbara, California has a plenty to be thankful for: beautiful beaches, sunsets, cliffs, and water ways, along with scenery on both sides of the highway. It’s now the year 2008 and we’re gonna go ahead and add freshly opened, as in this year or so, surf shop J7 to the list of reasons to stop through Santa Barbara. The J7 surf shop is specializing in high performance surfboards shaped by owner Jason Feist who already has a large following of established surfers throughout the California coast. Feist is also adding an apparel line of bikinis that will retail in his surf shop under the tag name “Feisty.” The J7 shop is located at 24 E. Cota St. in Santa Barbara and is a cool little joint to grab a board and a bathing suit to start that California tour.

The final day of the 2008 Billabong Pro J-bay started in pumping six foot surf and ended in three foot onshore slop. However, despite the changing conditions the one thing that remained the same is Kelly Slater. Kelly has the uncanny ability to turn any wave into a decent score. No matter how good or bad the wave was, Kelly annihilated the thing. When it was six foot and offshore Kelly would nail the sickest cutbacks and floaters and when it was onshore and sloppy Kelly was throwing out the tail and making the worst of waves look good. Kelly wasn’t the only one putting on a performance though. Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson, Taj Burrow and South African local Jordy Smith put on an amazing show proving that they are indeed the best surfers in the world. They all managed to slow down and perform an onslaught of maneuvers on a wave that’s supposed to be so fast that surfers usually only do quick speed turns. The high level of surfing was amazing to watch it. Watching the event was like watching a surf video. There were barrels, airs, carves, floaters, pretty much anything you could ask for, except instead of taking months to film and break down the footage these guys were doing it live and on their first take. The scores reflected the level of surfing as well, There were two perfect 10’s a 9.90, 9.97, 9.93, 9.90, 9.80, and the list goes on. Given all the high scores, at the end there was only one man standing. Kelly Slater took down Mick Fanning in the final to grab a fourth victory out of five events this year. Mick struggled in the final falling off his board on nearly every wave he caught. Mick went on to say “I don’t know what happened, I just had a shocker. I was feeling great, I just couldn’t stay on my board.” Though Kelly started off the same way, (unsuccessfully trying to land airs), he managed to get two decent scoring waves and seal the victory. Kelly now sits atop the rankings with a stranglehold on the lead. The world title is his to lose, however given the way he’s surfing I cannot imagine him losing the thing. The Dream tour resumes July 30th with the Rip Curl Search event being held “somewhere”. As far as the search event goes it has been the sickest event on tour for the past three years. Rip curl doesn’t reveal the location until the date of the contest and sometimes not at all thus the “somewhere” however, stay tuned and check back with strdum.com to find out what happens with the ASP’s top 1 plus 44 as they head to Bali?
This article brought to you by Manny Raya and Stardum Entertainment. “Ride on.”

As the ASP’s Top 45 await the Billabong Pro J-Bay July 10-20th, Kelly Slater stands alone as the only WCT surfer on tour to win an event in 2008. Slater has won 3 out of the 4 contests thus far with the only other contest having been won by a wildcard. Currently Slater sits atop of the rankings with a 938 point lead over second place Joel Parkinson. Slater has gotten off to quite a start despite his claiming that he’s not sure whether he’s going to give it his all this year. Slater, an eight time world champion, looks like he’s coasting on to win an unprecedented ninth title. At the age of 36 he is doing it against as strong a field as there has been in any number of years. While Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson, Andy Irons, Dane Reynolds, Jordy Smith and Bobby Martinez are considered some of the best surfers on the planet, none of them have been able to match Slater’s frontside hacks and backside tube riding as of yet. The funny thing is that when Mick Fanning dominated the 2007 tour and won the world title it looked as if Slater was past his prime. With it now four contests into the 2008 year it looks as if Slater jumped into a fountain of youth and decided to smash on any and every contender he faces. It may seem that I have a man crush on Slater which I don’t (he’s actually my second favorite surfer), but there’s really nothing to do but give the guy praise. It’s not that he’s been catching all the best waves in his heats its that whatever wave he’s caught he’s completely hacked the you know what out of it. So as Slater sits back and looks at the swell models for the next event trying to make up his mind whether he’s going to go or not I hope that the rest of the WCT steps their game up. I’ d hate to see Slater win the title and miss him surf France, Spain and Brazil as he’d most likely skip them and show up in Hawaii to take the pipeline masters.
Article by Surf Rider and Writer: Manny Raya.

After all top names were eliminated from the Billabong Pro Tahiti a wildcard in the form of Bruno Santos stepped in and nailed near-perfect runs to capture the title. This marked the first time in 5 years that a Brazilian won an ASP World Tour event. Manoa Drollet competed against Santos in the finals but just couldn’t muster enough to come away victoriously. On his way to the title Santos defeated Mick Fanning, Taj Burrow and C.J. Hobgood - all who were fully capable of taking the title themselves. Did skill exude, or did Santos just have luck on his side? Here’s what he had to say about it: “I’ve surfed more than 10 heats if you count the trials. The waves in the trials were so perfect and I have surfed the best barrels of my life in this event. I got injured in the trials and had to get 15 stitches and not surf for 15 days. My first heat back was the one against Mick Fanning that I won in the last minute so I knew from then that luck was on my side.”

Next stop on the ASP World Tour: Globe Pro. The Globe Pro begins May 25th and runs till June 6th. This time the surfers travel to Tavarua, Fiji in search of the waves. Until then, get your ass to the beach and catch your own waves!