Beach Volleyball News

The FIVB has announced four U.S. beach volleyball players have received end-of-season awards and the schedule for the FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Tour 2012. The women winners were Kerri Walsh (San Jose, Calif.), named Best Blocker and Most Inspirational and April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.) as Best Hitter and Best Server. Misty May-Treanor (Santa Monica, Calif.) earned the Best Defensive Player award. Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) won Best Setter among men. The schedule will feature a total of 14 events in 15 countries over a seven-month period, including a record-breaking nine Grand Slam tournaments.

 

The Beach Volleyball Hall of Fame holds awards ceremony and fund raiser in advance of its expected opening in Spring of 2012. The ceremony tood place in Hermosa Beach California and included sixty four inductees. The Hermosa Beach Historical Society and the California Beach Volleyball Association were the two organizations hosting the event, which drew five hundred attendees.

 

New Zealand family of four plays competitive beach volleyball as a team. Brad and Jacinta Blundell with their children Chloe, 15, and Jadyn, 13 play as a couple, and as a team of four. Article includes psychologist's comments on the benefits of playing on the same team, and the dangers of competing against one another, when not.

 

Pompano Beach, FL resident Mark Van Zwieten finishes fifth at Pan American Games. The 24-year-old ocean engineer from Florida Atlantic University teamed up with Andrew Fuller and participated in the 16th Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico. Together, they emerged as the one of the top-five teams of the tournament.

 

 

SUP News

WPA 2011 Championship Awards: an announcement listing World Paddle Association World and National champions for 2012.

 

SUPConnect announces the winners of the first annual SUP Photo Contest. The top 10 photo submissions will receive "an awesome shirt" from the Shore Thing Stand Up Paddleboard Collection.

 

Supzilla holds 34 Paddlers. At the Austin SUP Games, the Supzilla event set a new record for most paddlers on a stand up paddleboard at the same time. The Supzilla is a monstrous stand up paddleboard large enough to hold 34 paddlers at the same time.

 

 

Save big this winter with deep discounts at ShoreThing!

Sports Fishing News

Superyacht owner remains a mystery. Down under, where the $24 million super yacht is docked, sources say a mysterious U.S. man is the owner of the Mea Culpa, a 42m vessel rigged for extreme sport fishing. "He flies in and meets (people) at particular ports and does their fishing expeditions," one industry source said.

 

Rutgers Professor’s battle to save an unsung fish makes inroads as states move to protect the species. In his book "The Most Important Fish in the Sea," H. Bruce Franklin alerted the public to the dangers of the overfishing of menhaden, a small fish that is critical to the ocean’s ecosystem. The Atlantic States Fisheries Commission voted to sharply reduce the menhaden harvest. The protection of the menhaden affects sports fishing in several states along the Atlantic.

 

Side-Scanning Innovation: affordable side-looking sonar offers up nearly photographic images of what is off to the side of and beneath a boat. High-stakes tournament fishermen and wide-ranging anglers, who roam where charts are lacking or poor, such as deep into Mexican waters, are a couple of the kinds of anglers who find it money well spent. A good overview from Saltwater Sportsman.

 

Now you can look great on or off the water. We use the latest technical and high performance fabrics available to keep you cool and protected in the sun. Best of all, you'll even feel comfortable wearing our fresh new designs to your favorite restaurant. ShoreThing apparel is built to last and is easy on your wallet.

 

How to filet yellowfin tuna!

This one is for Johnny Tuna!

Dig the Beach 2011 Ranse Classic II

The $6500 Ranse Classic II Beach Volleyball/Footvolley Fundraiser Tournament will take place in Deerfield Beach, FL, November 11th through 13th. It will be a weekend of fun and celebration for Beach volleyball enthusiasts, and is open to the public. Athletes participating include AVP standout Nick Lucena, rising AVP stars Steve Grotowski, Adrian Carambula, Mark Vanswieten, Kristen Batt, Brooke Sweat and others. Shore Thing is proud of its association with Grotowski, Carumbula, and the Dig the Beach team, and will have two tents at the Saturday and Sunday events. Click the picture for more information.

Sports Fishing News

New world's record striper certified by the IGFA. Greg Myerson’s 37.1 kg (81 lb 14 oz) striped bass record was approved after the IGFA’s Record Committee came to a consensus on the catch and its supporting documentation. The fish was caught August 4th, in Connecticut.

 

Comprehensive calendar of 2012 Florida Keys fishing tournaments compiled by Saltwater Sportsman.

 

Turning a problem into profit and savoring every moment, the Big Game Club in Bimini has introduced lionfish nuggets. With proper cleaning, lionfish meat is excellent in taste and texture. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has also developed an Eat Lionfish campaign.

 

The 2nd Annual Flounder Pounder Fishing Tournament was held at Ft. George Island Marina in Jacksonville on October 22, 2011. The tournament grossed $25,000 with all net proceeds benefiting the Jacksonville School for Autism. 101 boats participated and over 400 anglers.

 

The 9th annual Rumble in the Jungle took place recently at Harbourwalk Marina in North Myrtle Beach.
The defending champ, Charleston-area entry In 2 Deep, won the Southern Kingfish Association-sanctioned event by less than a pound with a 31.70-pound king mackerel, nipping the 30.74 pounder weighed in by Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., entry EZ Now.

 

David, Sue and Dave Smith of Virginia Beach are believed to be the only trio from one family to earn the status of Master Angler in the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament’s recognition program. To be a Master Angler, you have to register 25 award-winning catches with the program, with no more than one from each species per year.

 

At the 2011 Sportfishing Summit held October 12-14, in New Orleans, the American Sportfishing Association's top awards were presented to two lifetime leaders. The Norville Prosser Lifetime Achievement Award, named after ASA's former Vice President for Government Affairs, was presented to Randy Lemcke, senior vice president for Plano Molding Company. The ASA also awarded its Future of Fishing Award to Coastal Conservation Association of Louisiana founder and Center for Coastal Conservation founding Chairman Jack Lawton Jr. for his work over the past three decades nurturing and growing recreational fishing.

 

Tomball, Texas eight-year old catches back-to-back grand slams. In September, Garrett Arnett, while fishing with his dad, T.J. on Galveston Bay, caught not one, but two “grand slams” of speckled trout, redfish and flounder.

 

Now you can look great on or off the water. We use the latest technical and high performance fabrics available to keep you cool and protected in the sun. Best of all, you'll even feel comfortable wearing our fresh new designs to your favorite restaurant. ShoreThing apparel is built to last and is easy on your wallet.

 

Stand Up Paddleboard News

SUPConnect is sponsoring their 2011 SUP Photo contest, which includes this smashing photo of a wedding kiss, entitled "Stand by Me."

 

New Zealand's 2012 Hyundai Tour will boast $20,000 in prize money and includes Stand Up Paddleboarding and a SUP Race. Five events will take place at surf spots around New Zealand. World-renowned surf destination, Raglan, is included in the mix for the first time in the tours' six-year history. Stand Up Paddleboard has been included for the past two years, with three events taking place, won by Shayne Baxter, Daniel Kereopa, and Armie Armstrong.

 

Recorded talk by Dave Cornthwaite, the 2,404 mile Mississippi Paddler. The journey was part of his Expedition1000 project – 25 journeys of 1000 miles or more, each using a different form of non-motorised transport. This is a segment of a recent takl in Britain.

 

The Malibu International Full and Half Marathon (MIM) will add a new dimension to the race with a SUPathlon, a run and a stand up paddleboard (SUP) competition. The SUPathlon will feature one distance, a seven-mile run with a six-mile paddle. There are four divisions, each featuring a run followed by a paddle. The four division are: the SUP, the classic lay down paddle, the out-rigger canoe, and the two-person relay one runner and one paddler.

 

The San Francisco Chronicle ran a feature piece on Stand Up Paddleboarding as a sport in that region.

 

 

 

Beach Volleyball News

2011 Pan American Games Beach Volleyball schedule from USA Volleyball. To be shown on ESPN Desportes and ESPN3. There are also live video streams of some of the women's games.

 

Three American men's pairs, led by Matt Fuerbringer and Nick Lucena, landed top ten placements at the final FIVB 2011 Swatch World tour event in Agadir, Morocco on October 9th. As winter approaches, they will resume training for the final leg of the Summer Olympics qualifying period, where the final U.S. beach volleyball ticket to London is up for grabs.

 

Mbebui Chafeh, former All-American at Cal State San Bernardino, paused for an interview. She recently won the made-for-TV "Best of the Beach" collegians event and competed in the World University Games in August in China.

 

19 Year Old beach Volleyball player pushes to save city beach from privatization. In Adelaide Australia, nineteen-year-old social volleyball player Julia Kaminski has started an online petition calling on the council to retain the beach volleyball center. The council was considering selling City Beach. The council said they were reviewing assets which were “financially under-performing”

 

Emily Podschweit, libero at unbeaten, nationally ranked, defending Class 5A champion Chaparral High School in Denver, is recognized as one of the country's best young beach volleyball players, yet lives nowhere near a beach. She was introduced to the sand game at age 12 through the traveling Association of Beach Volleyball Professionals (AVP) tour. PrepVolleyball.com has named Podschweit one of the top 150 recruits in the nation.

 

Pompano Beach volleyball coach encourages beach volleyball for his players during summer. The coach, Billy Strachan, of the Pompano Beach Golden Tornadoes, had some good advice.
“I encourage my girls to play on the beach in the summer because you get a million reps, and you see the ball coming at you in different ways,” Strachan said. “You learn to read the hitter faster.” He also praised the conditioning benefits of playing on the beach — running on the sand is much tougher than on a hard court — and said switching between versions of the game keeps players from burning out mentally.

 

 

Sports Fishing News

A fisherman has caught an 83 pound wahoo to take the lead in the 2011 Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament. So far, a total of 1,116 citations have been earned for captured fish, while 2,395 citations have been issued for released fish. There have been 630 citations issued for released red drum and 769 for released white marlin. There are 472 release citations issued for speckled trout. (Note: illustration is not the fisherman, nor the fish -- it's from another catch in Virginia!)

 

Smart Phones as a tool for fishermen. An Australian based blogger provides commentary on a California program that lets fishermen know which areas of the California coastline are protected -- where fishing and other recreational activities are restricted or limited -- and which are not. Through an interactive map, users can locate a Marine Protected Area and find information about its boundaries and regulations. "One of the cooler features of this website is that you can actually get your location and then see where you are on a map and then see if you are in an MPA, or if any MPAs are around you," said Aaron Del Monte, a California Department of Fish and Game staff programmer analyst.

 

Fine Art America recently held a contest for paintings under the theme of "Saltwater Fishing and Gamefish." Some of the entries are fabulous. The top three winners were entitled "Father and Son Fishing," "Grizzly Catch," and "Bait Shack" (pictured here), which should provide an idea of the content.

 

Sad report of a downturn in the striper population affecting the Northeast (Kennebec, ME). At least three tournaments, one bait shop and a guiding business have gone under. Last year, 28 anglers caught two fish. Three years ago, 12 anglers caught 193 fish.

 

October fishing forecast for Chokoloskee, Everglades City, and the Everglades National Park. The writer expects a stellar month for slot size Redfish.

 

First part of a series called "Getting Started in Kayak Fishing." This installment simply describes the types of kayaks. We'll have to await further installments, but the site provides links to additional articles about kayak fishing, including "Why Kayak Fishing?"

 

Now you can look great on or off the water. We use the latest technical and high performance fabrics available to keep you cool and protected in the sun. Best of all, you'll even feel comfortable wearing our fresh new designs to your favorite restaurant. ShoreThing apparel is built to last and is easy on your wallet.

 

Stand Up Paddleboard News

The North Carolina Surf to Sound Challenge will take place at Wrightsville Beach, NC, Saturday, November 19. Elite paddlers will launche with a Le Mans style beach start, then traverse the open Atlantic and Masonboro Inlet straits. Intermediate paddlers will participate in a flat water competition. They will embark from the sound side beach and traverse canals and deepwater channels for approximately four miles encircling Harbor Island. Both races will launch from the Blockade Runner Beach Resort. Visit here for registration.

 

The Stand Up Paddle film "That First Glide" has been released on DVD. The film by Mike Waltze is now available on DVD. It was shot on locations including Hawaii, Fiji and Tahiti. The film stars Laird Hamilton, Gerry Lopez, Dave Kalama, Kai Lenny, Brian Keaulana, Robby Naish, Chuck Patterson, Alyssa Waltz, and Jenifer Parsons. The page includes a link to the movie trailer.

 

Kim Kardashion in Stand Up Paddle magazine cover. A sure sign that Stand Up Paddle is growing very quickly: celebrities eager to pose. The latest report shows Kim Kardashian on the cover of People magazine with a paddle. The report also includes a slide show of additional celebrity shots such as Jennifer Anistaon, Mathew McConaughey and Rihanna.

 

A View of Maui from the Ocean: The Maui News ran a picture of a local resident paddling off shore of Maui.

 

Shore Thing's SUP Collection looks great on or off the water. Our apparel will protect you from the elements without restricting movement.

 

Fishing News

Brave anglers rewarded with big hauls - a Florida fishing report.

 

Tuna catch in Westport, Washington, with pictures, by Team Defiance.

 

Fishing report for the Northeast coast.

 

Big king mackerel are back in Virginia Beach and the fishing is great. A report from Saltwater Sportman. The fish had abandoned Virginia in the mid-nineties, but returned four years ago following the return of their food sources.

 

Over 3,100 fishing citations have been earned so far in the 2011 Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament. Report provides current tournament standings. See also: Tournament details.

 

Northlake, a little village at the farthest end of eastern Prince Edward Island, hosts the Canada International Tuna Cup held every September. There are 14 teams this year, the most ever. The Tournament's reputation suffered over the years when the fish just stopped coming to the Gulf. This year however, fishers say the tuna are coming up to the boats to feed.

 

The Texas AgriLife Extension Service nature tourism program is offering a new online marketing platform, guide training and certification program for Texas fishing guides and coastal tourism service providers. AgriLife Extension will be expanding its Market Maker online market and marketing platform as a free service to connect fishing guides and other tourism providers with customers. See also a current Texas Gulf Coast fishing report.

 

North Carolina Biologists Say Hurricane Irene has Caused Widespread and Significant Fish Kills. Studies document fish kills in North Carolina coastal rivers due to low dissolved oxygen following Hurricane Irene.

 

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, a British film comedy, is in competition at the Toronto International Film Festival. Ewan McGregor stars as a fisheries scientist who finds himself saddled with the task of introducing salmon fishing to the Highlands of Yemen. Academy award nominated director Lasse Hallström adapts this charming British comedy from Paul Torday’s novel.