Latest surf fashion hits the catwalk

LollyPop Congrejo's debut line of beachwear gets its first outing


Friday's Les Planches Surf Fashion Show showed off the very first complete beachwear collection from LollyPop Congrejo at La Cote Sauvage, the designer's own sim. Simply Divine Events and BePleased Models helped the designer show off a new collection which included sportive and colourful bathing suits, plus striking combinations of pastel colors with black and white.

LollyPop started designing Second Life fashion about a year ago and started a custom-clothes business (if you own a SurfWatch t-shirt then you already have one of LollyPop's designs!). "I worked as a shirt designer in real life, and made custom clothes," says LollyPop "So, I decided to bring that to Second Life."

"My main inspiration for this collection came from RL French beachwear," explains LollyPop. "I really liked some of the shapes of the shorts and the graphic styles."

"I am very happy with the one piece bathing suits," says LollyPop. "They are, at the same time, both sporty and sexy. I also really like the blue and brown men's striped boardies: an unusual sight on the beach!"

LollyPop Congrejo's first collection was created exclusively for Les Planches Surf Shop and the clothes retail for between L$ 100 and L$ 200. Make sure that you visit the 2nd floor of the shop to see the clothes.

SLURL: Les Planches Surf Shop (LPSS)

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Surf's up on Tavarua Beach!

New Fijian-themed beach completes a new three-sim long surfable coastline

Tropical surf break on Tavarua Beach

Another new beach has appeared in the Truth Beach group of sims called Tavarua Beach, after the famous Fijian surfing island in the South Pacific. In fact, it's the second new beach to appear in the Truth Beach group this month!

Tavarua Beach is located between Truth Beach (the original beach sim of the group) and Tsunami Beach (which now has black sand, since Team Tsunami moved in). By linking up with Truth Beach to the West and Tsunami Beach to the East the new beach creates one long stretch of coastline with three separate surfable beaches. The longest continous stretch of surfable beaches that SurfWatch has seen in Second Life.

"I wanted to create a really great beach location for surfers with a high performance Epic wave," explains owner-developer Dharma Austin. "The beach itself is as close as I could make it to a Fijian Island landscape, where tropical vegetation comes right down to the water's edge. However, there is still plenty of room for people to chill out."

37 second wave run
Billed as "a unique tropical island surfing location with a high performance Epic II wave, a soft sandy beach and warm, clear turquoise waters", Tavarua Beach currently has a wave with a 37 second run breaking from North to South over about two thirds of the length of the sim.

"People may think I am nuts running a full sim and only using 3,600 prims out of 15,000 and about 100 scripts running on the island," said Dharma. "However, it is my goal to provide a lag free surfing environment: if such a thing exists in Second Life!".

The view across Truth Beach's pipelines and fluffies down towards Tavarua
Beach's EPIC break and on to the black sand of Tsunami Beach at the end

Opening bash
The new sim's opening party is Saturday night 1900 hours Second Life Time (SLT) at the Tavarua Beach's Cloudbreak Bar (1900-2000 hrs DJ set, 2000-2100 hrs bluesman Tone Uriza). However, no horseplay please or you may incur the wrath of Dakuwaqa, the shark god that guards the island!

SurfWatch: Surf's up on Nature Beach
SurfWatch: Tsunami Warning!
SLURL: Tsunami Beach
SLURL: Truth Beach
SLURL: Tavarua Beach

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Registrations close for Surfline

Three top 10 ranked surfers fail to register

Registrations for the upcoming SLSA Surfline Competition closed on Monday March 24th after 40 entries, less than 48 hours after opening for surfer registrations.

Notably absent from the 40 signed-up surfers are Milo Voss, currently ranked 4th in the 2008 SLSA Season Standings; Timbo Flanagan, who is ranked 5th; and Lanelle Saunders, who is ranked 8th (although perhaps Milo's recent election to the SLSA board may explain his absence). There are also at least half a dozen mid- to low-ranking competition surfers in the table that have not registered. At time of publishing, Carolin Gausman was the only surfer signed-up on the Surfline Competition waiting list (which remains open by the way).

A pelican at Surfline sim yesterday (who declined to comment).

The Second Life Surfing Association event at Surfline will take place on Saturday 5 April on pipeline waves with 40 surfers taking part in 8 heats.

SurfWatch: Surfing Calendar - March-April 2008
URL: Surfline Competition Registration
SLURL: Surfline

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SURF REPORT -- Black River Harbor: surfing serenity

The natural serenity of Black River Harbor

Black River Harbor is a long surfable natural harbour in the Heliopolis Estates group of sims with a single pipeline break that runs in for more than 240 yards. Inspired by the Pacific north-west of America, the setting for Black River Harbor is truly picturesque with grassy shorelines on each side of the surf break, the eastern shore being dotted with reeds, pine trees and cherry trees. The western shore borders the main Heliopolis sim and if one continues westwards, Monkeh Barrel is about 350 yards away. The length of the harbour is marked out with hazard marker lights to help guide boats around the waves and away from other hidden water hazards.

The uninhabited eastern island border of Black River Harbor provides a quiet meeting point for surfers or simply a place to chill out and there are a couple of open wood camp fires to help keep surfers warm in the near constant cold drizzle of the harbour. You will fine a wrecked sailing boat at the north end of the island (someone clearly didn't pay much attention to the hazard markers!) and you should be able to hear the sounds of some woodland birds. If you listen carefully, you may be able to hear flocks of Canada geese flying high overhead.

The view looking to the west across the eastern island

The western shore is more hilly, has more pine trees and experiences the odd thunderstorm on occasion. The western hills sink into the harbour creating an interesting shoreline and waterfall in nearby Heliopolis runs into an inlet linking up with the main waterway. A stone waterside 'meditation zone' has been built by the owners, surrounded by flaming torches with another wood fire. Divers will find kelp beds off the northern edge of the shore and shoals of yellow fin tuna, angel fish, butterfly fish and blue tang. There is also another sunken sailing boat wreck if you look for hard for it.

Pipeline waves break right down the centre of the harbor from north to south, in single file and veerying a little to the west towards the Persistence sim due south and Ambrosia Island south-west. The pipeline break is clearly marked with yellow and red lit hazard markers and has a nearly 45 second run. Meanwhile, to make things interesting, two sets of ocean foam waves break diagonally across pipeline break from north east to south west and from north west to south east.

There are no commercial facilities at Black River Harbor, giving it an 'out in the wilds' appeal (watch out for the bears). However, for those that want to explore under the waves, the sim offers visitors free scuba gear (just click on the sign) including a face mask, flippers, air tanks and wetsuit! Visitors can rez their own boards at the harbour and there are usually free boards available on the shore for use on the sim.

Surfwatch: SURF REPORT -- Monkeh Barrel takes no prisoners
SLURL: Black River Harbor

Read more SurfWatch Surf Reports

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Psychedelic boards! Groovy baby!

Poid Mahovlich has created a new surfboard range that will light up your line-up and brighten up your break! Not to mention, impress your friends!

Poid's new boards boast an incandescence that lights up the surfer and the wave in a shimmering light. The new range currently includes 10 unique graphic designs created by Poid using a real life photographic process combined with Second Life luminous colours including purple, yellow, red, orange and green.

Poid Mahovlich and her BlissRa luminous surfboard

All the surfboards are based on the new sculptie scripts from Heather Goodliffe and Sebastian Saramago. SurfWatch found that some boards reflected more light than others and visibility is very much related to 'draw distance' and partly to your graphics settings. We also felt that the phosphorescent boards unique visual effects did come at the expense of some performance, but to be fair we only found inconsistencies in the boards' maneuverability while stationary and paddling out and not whilst actually surfing.

Poid's new board range by day and by night

Our favourite surfboards were the luminous green 'FoamRa', the red 'RipRa' and the lilac and blue 'BlissRa'. Poid's new psychedelic boards are available at her shop at Surf Camp on the PrimWorks sim.

Blog: Poid Mahovlich
SLURL: Surf Camp shop

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SLSA announces competition date changes

The Second Life Surfing Association (SLSA) today announced date changes for the next two SLSA surfing competition events, citing clashes with the Easter weekend holiday and real life obligations.

The SLSA Surfline competition that was scheduled for Saturday 22 March will now take place on Saturday 5 April 2008 and the association's surfing competition at Neart that was scheduled for Saturday 19 April is now scheduled for Saturday 26 April 2008. However, the last scheduled competition event of the season, El Corazon, remains as originally scheduled on Saturday 20 May 2008.

The association will open registrations for competitors in the Surfline event on Saturday 22 March. Check out the SLSA Forum for details.

SurfWatch: Surfing Calendar - March-April 2008
URL: SLSA website
SLURL: Surfline
SLURL: Neart
SLURL: El Corazon

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Tsunami races onto new beach

Well, in our defence for running yet another Team Tsunami story, SurfWatch did issue a tsunami warning last week! (see SurfWatch 6 March: 'Tsunami Warning!'). However, even SurfWatch has been surprised at the pace of Team Tsunami.

Hot on the heels of its surfboard sponsorship agreement with Reaction, Team Tsunami has now cut a deal with veteran beach owner-developer Dharma Austin for the rights to a new beach that was called 'Nature Beach' until a couple of days ago (see SurfWatch 7 March: 'Surf's up on Nature Beach'). What is it called today? Tsunami Beach, of course!

Under the terms of the new deal, Team Tsunami will get full usage of the new Tsunami Beach and will take the lead role in developing the sim. Team Tsunami will also take an active role in promoting the Truth Beach group of sims and, in particular, help promote surfing as a core activity. Both Team Tsunami and Dharma are keen to point out that the deal is as much about contributing to the surfing community as it is a commercial deal between two parties.

"As a long time supporter of surfing in Second Life its a real pleasure to have a team of enthusiastic surfers using the new beach," said Dharma. "Team Tsunami has so much potential and I'm looking forward to working with them. Tsunami Beach, like Truth Beach, has been designed with surfers in mind and so I'm confident that the beach is now in good hands."

Left to right: Abel Halderman, Kathy Heberle and Dharma Austin
on the new beach that is now called Tsunami Beach

"As soon as we met Dharma and she offered us her support, we knew that Nature Beach was the perfect place for Team Tsunami," said team captain Kathy Heberle. "The sponsorship deal we have worked out is very fair and finding the new beach was one of the best things that's happened to the team. We've really had a fantastic start to 2008 and we're very grateful to Dharma for helping Team Tsunami establish a home base."

Tsunami Beach, as it is now called, is located next to the Isles of Corleone and Truth Beach sims and has both an EPIC II wave and ocean foam waves, giving the surf break a character all of its own. Team Tsunami has already moved quickly to construct a team clubhouse, which now takes pride of place on the Eastern side of the sim. "Team Tsunami riders enjoy spending time with each other. So, we were already looking for a place that we could call home," said Team Tsunami rider Abel Halderman. "We're keen to play a role to help Tsunami Beach and neighbouring sims become premier surfing spots."

What does this move mean for other users of Tsunami Beach. Can we still surf on it? Is it allowed? "All beachgoers and fellow surfers are welcomed to come share this wonderful beach with us," Kathy assured SurfWatch. "However, there may be times when we have to restrict access to team members for the purpose of practicing. We'll try to announce these times in advance."

"We're keen to play a role to help Tsunami Beach and neighbouring sims become premier surfing spots." added Abe.

Meanwhile, Team Tsunami also seems to taking the lead in lobbying the SLSA for new rules and recognition for surfing teams if Kathy's SLSA Forum suggestions are anything to go by (see SLSA Forum: 'Step 1: Sanction Teams').

SurfWatch: Surf's up on Nature Beach
SurfWatch: Tsunami Warning!
SLURL: Tsunami Beach

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Buffy wins big at Surf Jam!

Buffy Munro was awarded first place on Saturday's VSA Surf Jam, the second Vibrations Surf Alliance competition event of the year. Buffy entered what proved to be an exciting Surf Jam final together with Jaqueline Infinity, Vic Bonetto, Mateus Rieko and reigning VSA champ ONeill Auer and came out scoring high with 13 points for a big win at Majini Island!

"Buffy was really on form today and surfed way above her mid-level SLSA ranking," said judge Sally LaSalle. "It's Buffy's 'home turf' so perhaps this gave her some home girl advantage, but nevertheless she surfed hard and certainly deserved her win."

Left to right: Jaqueline Infinity, Buffy Monro and ONeill Auer

ONeill and Jaqueline joined Buffy on the winners podium with 11.75 and 11.5 points taking second and third place respectively. This is the second consecutive time that Jaqueline has taken third place at the VSA Surf Jam, making her a strong contender for next month's event, which is currently scheduled for 12 April. ONeill's second place on the podium confirms that he remains a force to be reckoned with and is well positioned for the next competition.

"The finals where held it pretty good conditions on Majini, early heats were totally lag free," said Sally LaSalle. "There were some good performances: Vic Bonetto did very well in the early heats, as did Matteus. However, tougher finals conditions saw Buffy, ONeill and Jaq shine through on the day."

Spectators enjoy the surfing from the VSA's custom-made aerial platform

Hats off also to the VSA organisers, under the watchful eye of Bishara Resorts Estate Manager VW Sands, who were a model of surf competition efficiency. "The competition took about 3.5 hours in total, which was pretty smooth," said Sally.

FINAL STANDINGS
Buffy Munro (13.00)
ONeill Auer (11.75)
Jaqueline Infinity (11.50)
Vic Bonetto (11.00)
Mateus Rieko (10.00)
----------------

SEMI FINALISTS
Selina Otsuka (11.25)
Abel Halderman (11.25)
Wilfred DeCuir (10.50)
Melora Loring (10.25)
MaryAnn Maa (8.00)

SurfWatch: Surfing Calendar - March-April 2008
SurfWatch: ONeill Crowned VSA Surf Jam champ! (2 Feb 2008)
SurfWatch: SURF REPORT -- Majini Island
SLURL: Majini Island

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Surfing Calendar - March-April 2008

SLSA Surfline Competition
Saturday 5 April 2008, 1100 hrs SLT (1800 hrs GMT)

The Second Life Surfing Association event at Surfline on pipeline waves, is now scheduled for 1100 hrs Second Life time (SLT) on Saturday 5 April (this event was originally scheduled for 22 March). 40 surfers are expected to take part in 8 heats.

All top three season standings-listed surfers (Pova Rustamova, Devinna Toll and Colleen Brennan) are registered for the competition. However, in the absence of competition registrations from 4th and 5th placed Milo Voss and Timbo Flanagan, Christine Daffodil and VW Sands might end up being the 4th and 5th SLSA-ranked competitors taking part in Surfline.

Registrations for the 40 competitors in the Surfline event have closed, but surfers can still register on the Surfline Competition waiting list.

Competitors and spectators please check out the SLSA's requirements for attending on the SLSA forum before you teleport to Surfline on the day.

Surfers contact: Sierra Sugar, Milo Voss, Carenahh Kuu and Radical Twang

Useful links
URL: SLSA competition calendar
URL: Judging Criteria
URL: Competition Day Requirements (for Surfers and Spectators)
SLURL: Surfline

VSA Surf Jam
Saturday 12 April 2008, 1100 hrs SLT (1800 hrs GMT)

The third Vibrations Surf Alliance Surf Jam of 2008 takes place on Saturday 12 April at 1200hrs SLT on Majini Island, part of the Bishara Resorts sim. The monthly Surf Jam's are members only events, limited to 20 competitors. Surfers will face off in four preliminary heats, narrowing down to 10 surfers in the semis and 5 for the finals' heats.

Surfers contact: VW Sands

Useful Links
SurfWatch: VSA Surf Jam report, 2 February
SLURL: Majini Island

SLSA Neart Competition
Saturday 26 April 2008, 1100 hrs SLT (1800 hrs GMT)

After the Second Life Surfing Association's Monkeh Barrel competition changed to pipeline waves at the last minute, Neart, in the West of Ireland group of sims, is now expected to be the association's first longboard event of 2008. As usual, a field of 40 surfers are expected to take part in 8 heats starting at 1100 hrs Second Life time (SLT) on Saturday 26 April.

Surfers contact: Sierra Sugar, Ritch Goalpost, Milo Voss, Carenahh Kuu and Radical Twang

Useful links
URL: SLSA competition calendar
SLURL: Neart

Other events

Friday Surf Night at Chi, 4 April 2008, 1700 hrs SLT (0000 hrs GMT)
Centre yourself, get in touch with your life force, find your happy thought and get over to Chi on Friday night for the island's weekly surf session! Plenty of pipes and fluffies to shred-up out in Chi's unique surfing breaks, a great chance to chill with some old friends or make some new ones, plus advanced level SL surf lessons and competition coaching. See you there! Peace.

SurfWatch: Surf report on Chi
SLURL: Chi

Updated as of 29 March 2008

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Surf's up on Nature Beach!

New beach offers wave break with both EPIC II and fluffies

A big wall of water advances towards Nature Beach

SurfWatch can reveal that a new EPIC II wave has appeared on Nature Beach, next to the Isles of Corleone and Truth Beach sims. Terraformed just this week, Nature Beach is currently the only surf break that we've seen that combines the EPIC II wave and ocean foam waves (or fluffies) and for that reason alone its worth paddling out and catching a few.

Up close and personal with Nature Beach's EPIC II wave

Nature Beach's surf can be a lot of fun, if highly unpredictable, and lag issues can cause some interesting waves! We'd advise that those who want to experience the new wave to hurry, since the sim owner Dharma Austin points out that this is a work in progress and SurfWatch has been told that it is by no means certain that the current wave set-up will stay as it is longer term. The big wave currently has about a 170 yard run, just a little longer than Monkeh Barrel.

Update 13 March 2008: Nature Beach has now been renamed Tsunami Beach (see SurfWatch 12 March: 'Tsunami races onto new beach')

SLURL: Tsunami Beach

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Tsunami warning!

There's a new force in surfing coming to a beach near you and its called Team Tsunami! The team, formed a few weeks ago, is one of a growing number of surfing teams in Second Life. Although teams are not currently given accreditation by the SLSA for competitions, one could say that there is a ground swell of support by surfers to get together, surf together, learn together and win together. Many would also like to see some form of SLSA-backed team competition in the future.

"The name was decided by a vote of all the team members," says Team Tsunami captain Kathy Heberle. "It sounded cool, but it's also the name of a really big wave and we want Tsunami to be a big wave that sweeps away the competition while being a force of positive change within the surfing community."

"Basically a team tells everyone: 'this is my group of friends, this is who I like hanging out with,' says Abel Halderman. "It gives us a reason to celebrate when one of our number does well and it gives us a base to help improve our surfing. I also think that teams have the ability to help build the surfing community too. For example, I might not always be able to compete or help out at a competition, but through my team I can make sure that someone can."

There are curently 10 members of the Tsunami Team.

Team Tsunami left to right: Mal, Amp, Colleen, Abe, Kathy,
Milo, Amanda, Oroonie and Wil

Kathy was ranked 8th overall in the 2007 SLSA standings; Abel, a fast learner, is currently 15th in 2008 standings; Colleen Brennan, who was 4th overall in last season's rankings and is currently ranked third in 2008; long time resident and Second Life surfing legend Malcolm Sydney; and Milo Voss, joint third at the SLSA's Monkeh Barrel competition and currently ranked 4th overall in the 2008 standings. Colleen, Malcolm and Milo are all co-captains of the team. Then there is Oroonie, who was number 8 at the end of last year's season and is presently joint 42nd in 2008 alongside Malcolm; fast learners Wilfrid 'Wil' DeCuir (a.k.a. the crazy Canuk) and Amanda Stine; plus the team's newest additions Pyper Dollinger, previously with the Reaction Pro team and Amphiprion Watanabe, who was ranked 25 last year and is now also 25th in the 2008 standings.

Team members are enthusiastic about working together. "We have the nicest people who also happen to be some of the best surfers in Second Life," says Kathy.

"We do have some of the best surfers in Second Life," agrees Colleen. "And all of us would surf just as much even if there were no SLSA events, simply because we love doing it!"

"And we're all surfers, who have the drive to succeed," says Wil.

"It's the experience of the team members, the willingness to teach each other and the enthusiasm for the team to succeed that really sums up what Team Tsunami is about," says Milo.

"And we like to talk a lot," adds Mal.

Team Tsunami signs Reaction
Team Tsunami has just signed Reaction as its first major sponsor. "Team Tsunami is a well formed team, with some great people on board and it has a lot of potential," says Radical Twang, head of Reaction. "Reaction is always looking for ways to support the surfing community and help further the sport in Second Life, so working with Tsunami made a lot of sense."

"We're very pleased to have Reaction on board as our first big sponsor and oh my gosh, there is such an opportunity for sponsorship!" says Kathy. "Surfing has to be one of the fastest growing sports in Second Life. I can't think of a better, cheaper way to get good, in world advertising for yourself than to sponsor a team."

Radical agrees: "there are plenty of opportunities for sponsors and surfing is now certainly one of the fastest growing communities in Second Life. We took the decision early on that Reaction should be active in sponsorship right from the start." Reaction also has its own Reaction Pro surfing team.

"My biggest goal is to establish an identity for the team," says Kathy. "We'll do that at a community level by competing and doing well in those competitions, although those are also individual achievements. Establishing ways of communicating with each other, developing a presence on the web, practicing together and soliciting sponsorship are all collective ways Team Tsunami can establish its identity."

"Tsunami is power and strength. It is nature's freight train and a hell of a wave to surf," says Milo.

"So when you surf against Team Tsunami be prepared to be blown away!" warns Amanda.

"Total destruction!" yells Oroonie.

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New SLSA directors announced

The Second Life Surfing Association (SLSA) announced a new executive board of directors on Sunday following elections over the weekend. The new directors are Ritch Goalpost, Milo Voss, Carenahh Kuu and Radical Twang, who join Sierra Sugar to make an SLSA board of five.

"I am looking forward to work with the four newly elected directors," said Sierra Sugar, the only incumbent director on the new board. "Ritch, Milo, Carenahh, and Radical all are wonderful individuals with both strong business and creative strengths. I've spoken with each of them many times, both regarding the SLSA and other matters, and I'm excited to see what the five of us can bring to the surfing community over the next several months."

Any of the association's 280 members* were eligible to stand for election, although voting was limited to the 44 members that competed during the last three months of SLSA events (being Majini Island and Monkeh Barrel). However, the new directors were all keen to make clear that they wanted to see inclusive association policies that represent all SLSA members.

"I see my entry as a service to the surfing community, my duty in fact, to make it stronger for everyone," said Milo Voss after the announcement. "It's a fast growing community and the SLSA has to grow with it and keep in step with the needs of its members."

"It's great to be on board! I hope to help provide the SLSA with new ideas to help improve the association and gonna try my very best to take everyone's opinions in to consideration," said Radical Twang.

"In the 18 months since I launched my first surf sim, I have seen the surfing community grow and change considerably, but it has always seemed to keep one thing consistent: community. I want to see that continue and develop," said Carenahh Kuu. "I am also looking forward to working with the other directors and expect to learn a lot!"

The SLSA's electoral process would normally require that two or three new directors be elected every three months, leaving two or three incumbent directors in place for an overlapping three months. However, circumstances necessitated an election for four new directors this time, whose term will now expire at the end of August 2008. The outgoing directors are Portia Roelofs, Seano Osumi, Craig Stallion and Rani Decosta.

* 2 March 2008 figure

URL: SLSA website

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