SLSA SurfWatch Surf Camp Presentation: SurfWatch History of SL Surfing

Enjoy this replay of SurfWatch's Surf Camp Presentation on SurfWatch History of Second Life Surfing presented by Tauri Tigerpaw

Heather Goodliffe 

Welcome to SurfWatch's History of Second Life Surfing!

I'm so excited to share SurfWatch's Second Life (SL) surfing through the years with you and talk about some of the people and events that have brought something special to the sport.  You could read The History of the Second Life Surfing Association which is on display at the SLSA Hall of Fame at Solace Beach and find out that Heather Goodliffe and Sebastian Saramago did the design, scripting and surfboard building of the first SL boards (SW has multiiple interviews with them.  Use the search bar to find them.).  You would find out Keala Mimistrobell put together the first surf competition in SL, the Namiko Pro, at Chi which is still around today, on March 24, 2007, with 17 surfers (we have an interview with Keala), and SamyJo Ah pulled off the victory.  And you could further find out more

Sebastian Saramago

about the SLSA itself.  But only from SurfWatch will you hear about the totality of the sport as a whole, including other groups, and hear the history as spoken out of the mouths of the people involved.

Barchan Paderborn started SurfWatch with a first post in February 2, 2008 which was Socks Clawtooth's Second Life

Keala Mimistrobell

Surfing 101- what it is, how you do it, where you go, starting the first iteration of the wave report.  Barch's brilliant  idea was to cover virtual surfing like real life sporting events.  And we had a lot to cover.  There was the SLSA (Second Life Surfing Association), the JSA (Japanese Surfing Association) headed by Analog Jun, the ABBSL (Associacao Brasileira de Suf no SL - Brazilian

Barchan Paderborn

Surfing Association) headed by Leogarto Burt who you'll currently know from the HP boards.  There was also the ASA (Australian Surfing Association), the VSA (Vibrations Surf Alliance) and the Surf Jams, tandem comps where 2 surfers rode the wave as a team, the PCX (Pacific Coast Extreme), and other groups and teams and organizations all having competitions and crossing over.  The SLSA would typically have 40+ people just waiting for registration to open so they could fight over a competition spot.  It was an exciting time.

Socks Clawtooth

Part of the fun for me in doing this class was to get to dig through the archives of articles and photos to share them with you.  And you know you can find all the articles in the SurfWatch archives on the blog page - be sure to read through the comments as well - they really give you a sense of the personalities and passion going on in the sport.  You can also go to the Year in Review posted every December and see a summary of what was covered that year.

In 2008 there were 161 posts. Barch invited me to get involved with SurfWatch in a marketing capacity back in 2008.  This turned into interviews of top surfers like Flynn Sheridan and VW Sands, surf creators like Heather Goodliffe, and directors vying to have those key spots on the SLSA Board of Directors.  They covered board burning of Action surfboard and skateboard boards heating up the competition between SSi boards and scripts. They had a huge rivalry.  Surfboard sales were a large market.  Other scripts and styles came and went through the years i.e.  Robin Mapp came out with a unique surf script that the SLSA used in one competition.

JSA's Analog Jun

There was the Havk4 situation which was a physics code change in Second Life that impacted how objects interacted with surroundings like boards and waves.  This changover shut down SL competition surfing for a time since the boards were underwater - that will explain a lot of the pictures from that time period.  Names like Wilfred DeCuir were big on the competition circuit.  The bulk

ABSSL's Leogarto Burt

of activity was competition coverage - and there was a lot of it - and Socks exploring the various surfing sims which as you know come and go constantly.  You could go from competition to competition.

There was also SLSA election coverage. In those days we had actual elections where multiple people were vying for those 5 Director positions.  SurfWatch would interview candidates and

they would use SurfWatch to tell the surfers what they would bring to the table and why they should be elected.  There was and always has been conflicts of whether SL surfing should be like "real" surfing or like gaming surfing which was a hot topic.  That year, Barchan asked me if I wanted to take on SurfWatch as he had real life obligations, and I jumped at the chance. I had been an SLSA Director and long term marshall, Hall of Famer, Outstanding Sportsman, Favorite Performer, Funniest Drunk, conducted marshall training, and done many benefit performances for the SLSA.  My goal was to use SurfWatch interviews and stories to keep a record of the history of SL surfing that no one could revise at their convenience.

2009 we jumped to 286 posts.  One of the highlights for me that year was the March 19 post of Heat Draws from the very first SLSA competition.  Names like Bobbi Laval and Colleen Brennan are still around today.  SurfWatch also started dipping into other popular sports like whitewater rafting.  We went in depth on the sticky problem of real life board design rights and interviewed Maria Brophy, RL wife of RL board designer, Drew Brophy, on the use of Drew's board designs in SL. We covered the start up of a new surfing group, the Metaverse United Surfers Tour (MUST) headed up by Clarke Torok who became the triple crown surfing champion in December 2007. Search the archives and read the interviews and always read the comments to get the full story.

We broadened our coverage to include holiday celebrations, discussions of ethical situations like team dating, and dealt with

Flynn Sheridan

issues of censorship as people tried to control what SurfWatch covered with threats, or modifying notecard chat and passing it around as authentic.  All the while still covering elections, competitions, surfing sims, events, and surfing instructions for the growing community.

2010 we peaked at 660 posts cause there was a lot going on!  Surfers had other interests in their off-board time, and we were happy to include that in our beach/surf lifestyle.  We gave serious surfers a voice to talk about issues of concern to them and share it with the community.  SurfWatch had a 12 hour 2 Year Anniversary Celebration party to accommodate all the groups

Wilfred DeCuir

and time zones with singers, comedians, DJs, contests, and speakers like Heather Goodliffe.  Barch even came back to attend.  We started our video production - SurfWatch - in the Tube and on it - and you can find those early videos that are still hilarious on SurfWatch's youtube page and stay tuned for our upcoming series, The Final Heat.  We started our first in-world edition which I'll be passing out to you later (for attendees and by request).

Bobbi Laval LaSalle

There were changes in the SLSA Constitution - yes, did you know there was one? and beach fashions and benefits and even beach beauty contests and surf festivals.  SurfWatch offered merchandising - our SWacks, Surf Watches, Stoked bracelets, etc. which are still around today, some created by amazing designers such as Connie DeCosta.  They are still available!

Colleen Brennan

2011 we dropped to 264 posts.  New Virtual Worlds entered the scene. It was around January of 2011 that real life pulled me back and I handed the reigns over to one of our two ever amazing managing editors, VSA co-founder and SLSA Head Judge Lissa Pinion Sands.  

2012 we had 338 posts. It was a bittersweet year for me.  Around March Lissa made the decision to step down.  Running SurfWatch is fun in so many ways, but it's never easy.  I came back and we continued to cover the latest in virtual surfing news, including other worlds.  In September of that year, I announced SurfWatch would be shutting down.  Not one of the members of our staff group left the group at that time and it was an honor to share the SurfWatch Staff group title with them.

Tauri, Bodhi, Guiles whitewater rafting

2013 and 2014, zero posts.  2015 had 1 post.  2016 zero posts.  We heard stories of conflicts and major drama in the community and decreases in Second Life attendance totals during that time, but none we were able to corroborate to date because so many people had gone.

2017 I came back to SL at the request of an old friend.  I was asked to start up SurfWatch again to see if we could revive SL surfing.  Maybe 10 competitors were competing in the competitions and only the SLSA was around, none of the other organizations existed.  In trying to help revive the virtual surfing sport and community, we did 432 posts.   We've tried to reintroduce the surfing Legends and history to the new community.

We cover competitions, events, news, sims, fashion, new boards and waves, the new surfers, the old surfers, and the growth of the community which has been huge.  We try to spread the word about SL surfing via the pages of SurfWatch.  We've had the largest staff SurfWatch has ever had, which shows the dedication of other surfers to the growth of the community.  Kantbe Thursday stepped up from staff to Managing Editor, and we are so lucky to have her on board.

SW 2 Year Anniversary Party

2018 to date we're at 257 and counting posts.  There are new waves, new boards, new people, new sims to cover.  New technologies to explore to revive old areas like the video component of SurfWatch - In the Tube and on it.  So many people dedicated time to keeping SurfWatch on top of scores, breaking news, and events of interest in the surfing community.  Lissa Pinion and currently Kantbe Thursday have been and are instrumental in keeping SurfWatch going, in addition to each person that has spent time on staff or as a special contributor adding to SurfWatch.  No one on staff is paid and, in fact, often incur expenses all in support of SL surfing. We currently have 10 members with a requirement to submit one item monthly.  We

SWack - SW backpack

also publish special contributor pieces for people that want to contribute periodically but not commit to a monthly schedule.  We get a very diverse perspective on SL surfing in general with SLSA directors on staff, long time members of the surf community, surfing pros, new surfers, beach lovers and surfinistas. SurfWatch has had the blog, the in-world edition, video, and merchandising.  We're hoping to revitalize some of those, especially the video on Youtube.  And we also have a presence on Flickr.

I also want to pass you some of these copies of SurfWatch's In-World Edition (available during class and by request).  We had 10 actual

Lissa Pinion Sands

magazines published in world - completely different content from the blog - with editor Ashleigh Dickens at the helm.  She was incredibly talented and when you have time, take a look at SurfWatch In-World.  The editors would get together and come up with a theme, and Ashley would wrangle the staff into coming up with angles that fit into the theme, creating a final product that was just incredible.  We hope to start that again in the future.  You'll find articles on the Women of SL Surfing Swim Suit edition, all the charitable work done by the SL surfing community, Predictions for the future of SL surfing which is fun to read looking back, and much more.

Kantbe Thursday

We appreciate everyone that takes the time to read, like, share, comment on SurfWatch and connect with us in our in-world group and on Facebook:  Tauri Tpaw.  Our mission is to grow virtual surfing, not just the competitions but for the soul surfers and beach lovers,  including everything connected to virtual surfing and beaches like boards, fashion, diving, entertainment, photography, etc.  Your support of SurfWatch is support of virtual surfing and beaches, and we thank you (more photos at presentation).


*photo credits: 
Tauri Tigerpaw
Colleen Brennan
Kantbe Thursday
Sebastian Saramago
Sean Azambuja
Logos courtesy individual groups

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