SurfWatch 2010 - the Year in Review

Preparing for this Year in Review piece, I took a look back thru over 649 postings for 2010 as of this writing.  Some posts brought a tear to my eye, some a smile to my face, some an, "Oh ya, I forgot all about that!".  Second Life (SL) surfing had some major changes and SurfWatch itself made some major changes.

We covered the new surfable waves - the Cortes and the Cyclops, the international surf party, the Second Life Surfing Association's (SLSA) new scoring system, SLSA's new mascot (Salsa) and SLSA constitutional changes.  We posted on the SLSA's Archipelago sim being Number 1 on the SL listings for destinations. We talked about the SLSA new voting system, covered all the SLSA elections, and posted surfing interviews including promising surfers and old timers.  We did surf traffic reports,  posted on the Hall of Fame (HoF) design competition and our take on the meaning of the HoF.  We covered events and competitions by the SLSA, Pacific Coast Extreme (PCX), Australian Surf Association (ASA), SurfJam, Brazilian Surf Association (ABSSL), World Cup and various mini comps.  We debuted our first video attempts which are now classic.  We posted Mick Lunasea's Surfing 101 series, got Harbor Pier's perspective on the ride, and introduced Kantbe (Thursday) Serious.  We promoted surf retailers, surf sims, and took trips down memory lane.  We covered new surf sims, surf sims that were no longer, anniversaries of surf sims and changes going on effecting all of them.

Beyond surfing, we covered motorcycle riding, did a tour of spectacular homes, reported on crimes like the trailer meth lab, gave advice, posted on tidbits and SL sticky situations, and letters to and from the editor as well as opinion editorials.  We covered kayaking, vandal attacks, did before and after make overs, and shared all our temp workers and visitors to SW Headquarters.  We had pieces on Relay for Life and Grandma Barnside's recipies, What's Hawt, gave coverage to some new publications, and did special Valentine's, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas postings.  We covered musicians, sales, and real estate. We shared growing families in SL and Real Life (RL).  We covered dating adventures, posted on fashion, and held contests to spread the linden.  Mari's (Marianna Monentes) Mailbag covered exploring sims to friendship to forgiveness and everything in between.  We channel surfed with Jimbo the Cart Boy and tagged along with Bandit.  We covered festivals, parties, concerts, contests, carnivals and events.

We had our SurfWatch 2 Year Anniversary Celebration with a 12 hour party hosting Heather Goodliffe as she addressed the surf community, entertainers, DJ's, and competitions.  We made some major changes on the blog page design adding the Wave Report, the surf sim list with constant updates, and various other elements.  I took a step back and Lissa (Pinion) took a step forward becoming the new Editor in Chief.  We continued our quarterly In-World editions under the editorship of Ashleigh Dickins.  We opened a shop, and we changed headquarters twice moving from Stables to Boracay to Vibes Surf Beach.

What will 2011 bring?  More change, no doubt.  Maybe whole new worlds of virtual surfing - and you know SurfWatch will be there to bridge all of virtual surfing as your one stop source of virtual surfing news.  Maybe some projects that fell off the radar will have a chance to surface.  No doubt new stars of surfing will emerge, new technologies will develop, people will come and go and return as someone else or with a renewed spirit.  Some will step up as leaders.  Some will step back into RL.  And SurfWatch will be here like an old friend you can curl up on the warm sand with.  Under sunny skies, in knee-deep snow, thru the hailstorms and whatever the future brings, we'll be here.  Thank you for reading SurfWatch.  We wish you all the best for 2011!

Tauri Tigerpaw
Executive Editor
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