Dharma

We spent much of last weekend hanging with the Bing Surfboards and Wegener Surfboards crew and had a blast. Unfortunately, my digi camera was stolen in transit, but I do have some phone photos we'll load onto our Facebook page soon.

In the meantime, dig the new Dharma model created by Bing shaper Matt Calvani and team rider CDM...

Captain's Solo Sesh

We went away to California for a few days and got back around 2 am this morning. More on that trip soon. While we were away, a little swell filled into the South End and our buddy Captain Jack scored this little ditty all to his lonesome...

Luau - 2010

Yep, another Luau come and gone. That makes seven of them now, six of which have been orchestrated by TCSS. It's been a nice run, and this year definitely did not dissapoint.

Big thanks to all of our friends, customers, family, and vendors who continue to support us and the community - thanks for coming, and see you all soon, we hope.

BTW...if anyone has photos of the grand prize raffle winner, please send them to us. Thanks!

We will load more pics on our Facebook page. Enjoy...

Stoked paddle team

Wunderkid, Blake, took top place in SUP and prone

We cleaned the hell out of the beach. Special thanks to Ocean Minded sandals!

Emcee, Brad, and Greg the bluegrass picker

Capatin Jack's band kicked ass

Rios' food always dominates

Our team for the day

Tuna (pics)

Tom Wegener has been busy experimenting in Oz this winter (down under). Take a peek at a couple of his latest Tunas...so nice.


And here is a dude named Xabi making small, mushy waves look really fun on one of Tom's traditional Tunas.

Tuna from xabi lafitte on Vimeo.

Web Nerd Needed

We have never done this before, but here we go...

Now Hiring:

We are looking for an IT/Web person (technical term) for work at our New Buffalo, Michigan location. Must live near the area - no remote work. Part or full time. Some experience with html and solid computer skills preferred, but passion for the job is a must. Duties would include updating and editing the website, filling and shipping orders, marketing, and other neat computer stuff. We may have you doing other things around the Shop as well.; we wear many hats here.

A college student or starving freelancer may work - this job is more about the lifestyle than the money. We are a small business with a limited (small!) budget, but if you like the idea of running a (growing) surf shop e-commerce website, working in a fun atmosphere, and are into surfing and the lifestyle, send an email to info@thirdcoastsurfshop.com. Please give us time to respond as we are in the hieght of our busy season.

Not a bad place to work.

Red Bull Shenanigans (pics)

Pro surfer Jamie Sterling was in the region last week, searching for surf in a Red Bull seaplane. I can only imagine what the UP of Michigan locals thought when they saw this rig pull in. Is it deer hunting season yet?

Our new friends at Matuse, who sponsor Jamie, sent us this link. We plan to begin offering the superior line of Matuse wetsuits in our online store this fall - check out the goods here.

A collage of Brian Nevins' photos from the Red Bull trip...

And here are a couple photos (credit goes to Steve Sramek) from the last trip Red Bull put together in the Lakes, circa Decmeber 2004. They rented a house on Lake Superior and piled seven of us in for a week - we used it as our base camp and drove wherever the surf was good, all over the UP. It would have been cool if we had a plane that time, but we still had fun...

Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater.

Moondog and Slasher Bob.

Ride the Blue Buffalo (pic)

New art via Captain Jack...

We are pretty stoked about the new 3rd Coast Surfboards built for us by the fine folks at Bing.

Like Christmas Day (pics)

Bill and B-Rad's new Bings came in a few days ago so we had a little unveiling party....

Bill's 9'8 Silver Spoon - white opaque tint with brown resin comp band.

B-Rad's 7'4 Q2 - black tint with tree of life hand painted by Chris Del Moro.

Happy Campers.

Transportation (pic)

One of our local beach breaks involves a long walk down the beach to get to the better waves next to the jetty. In summer, when it's warm and pleasant, no biggie; grab your board and huff it the mile or so. But come winter, with sub freezing air temps and a cold, biting wind, it's not so fun.

TR is a high school shop teacher with some welding skills. He built this little cart specifically for this spot, and has the whole gig down - a simple tent, small heater...he stays warm when it's cold, and stays in the water longer than anyone.

Some of the guys' boards got a free ride this day...

Speed Freaks (pics)

Three new finless boards have found their way to our door via Jon Wegener's shaping bay...

8'0 Bluegill for a customer

6'6 Stringerless EPS Foalaia

3'6 Paulownia Paipo

3rd Coast Classic Recap

Our second and last skim contest of the year took place on Saturday, and everyone involved had a great time. The weather was perfect and there were some micro waves for the kids to shred.

These contests are always about having fun doing what we love and not sweating the competition. We had kids from as far as Chicago and Muskegon - all of them walked away with goodies and many with really nice raffle prizes. Many thanks to those who came...we'll see you at the next one.

Trevor, Karter, and Cody. These kids rip.

Men's Division winners: Jim, Matt, and Kirk.

The infamous sticker toss.

The gang.

Difficult Concept (pic)

In the Vol. 19, #3 issue of The Surfer's Journal, there is an article titled "Jersey Before Foam". It's a recollection of surfing in New Jersey written by Gordon "Mike" Howes. I found this paragraph interesting...

"Duke & Blake

In the summer of 1937, my buddy Stretch Pohl and I went to see a surfing demonstration by Duke Kahanamoku and Tom Blake down at Atlantic City steel pier. Stretch was ten years older and had a car. There was a huge crowd and we did not get a chance to actually talk to Duke or Tom, but their surfing made a great impression on us. I always thought it possible to ride a surfboard on New Jersey's waves and their demonstration proved it. This was a somewhat difficult concept for many East Coasters to understand. Even in the 1960s my son still had people telling him it wasn't possible to surf in New Jersey."

As a Great Lakes surfer, those last couple sentences sound all too familair (not that we care). I wonder if, 50 years from now, we'll be saying "Even in the 2000s my son still had people telling him it wasn't possible to surf in the Midwest"?

Looks suspiciously like surfiing, no?

Brian Stabinger going left in Duluth, Minnesota. Photo: Bob Tema

Chicago's First SUP Race

We helped run the first SUP race in Chicago on Saturday and had a great time in the big city. Third Coast and GLBC worked in cooperation with Corona and Surftech to pull the race together, and though the turnout was not huge (mostly due to late notice), everyone had a great time.

Erin and I drove through the pouring rain and got to North Ave. way too early, arriving to an empty parking lot and a cold southeasterly wind. Bill from GLBC arrived soon after and we were off to get the day started. Luckily, the front passed, the sun came out, and it turned into a beautiful day. The following photos help tell the story...

The day started out a little gloomy, but the skyline never dissapoints.

This was scene early in the day.

By afternoon, there were thousands of poeple all over the beach.

Racers contemplate the course for the qualifier, a 3 mile round trip affair.

Gearing up for the final race...no shortage of boards.

And their off!

Some of the racers and the killer background.

Smiles all around.