Holiday Gear Guide: Surf
Dec 08 2006 / Los Angeles, CA
Go Pro Digital Hero Camera
Need an easier way to shoot photos during your most challenging physical activities, like surfing, skiing and biking? You need some sort of hero to help you with this task… That’s where the Digital Hero wrist camera comes in handy. The shock-proof/ waterproof case protects the camera against elements that would ordinary destroy an average camera. The Hero straps comfortably to your wrist to shoot photo and video on the fly! A wonderful gift for any action sports athlete.
Digital Hero Sport Wrist Camera $79.95
First you learn to swim, then…
If you’re worried your surf buddy is wilting into a weakling while waiting on the waves or the weather, then it’s time to break out some board shorts together and paddle on out on the trusty old… fitness ball. The new workout DVD from Scott Adams and the SurfStronger team will help any surfer get their bad self beach-ready with 45 minutes of flexibility, power, and core strength training, and might just help out on the mountain or at the skate park while you wait for the winds to change.
Why don’t you do right?
More than any material object money can buy, the surfers on your shopping list want to be able to enjoy those beloved waves and beaches for a long time to come. Hook ‘em up with the holiday gift membership package from the Surfrider Foundation. The package includes a limited edition T-shirt and some other schwag for you to wrap up and put under the tree, as well as a subscription to Making Waves and a one-year membership in the one organization every surf/skate/snow/wake/kite board rider in the world needs to belong to.
Surfrider Foundation Holiday Gift Membership, $49. Click here for more information>
Education: The gift that keeps on giving
What kind of budget are you working with? For a mere $2,420 per person, the two of you could be living it up down in Nosara, Costa Rica for six days and seven nights – airfare and just about everything else included – at the Safari Surf School. You get two group surfing classes each day, private instruction, a full body massage to help with the hurt, and breakfast and dinner to fuel the stoke, plus memories to last a lifetime. Did we mention free drinks? Surf’s up.
Safari Surf School’s Blue Marlin Package (Double), $2420.00 per person. Click here for more information>
Vacation, all she ever wanted 
Now that you’ve sold her on the surf holiday – you mentioned the massage and free drinks, right? – your wahine will need something stylish for packing all those teensy weensy bikinis you want her to wear. The Roxy X3 Luggage set comes with a backpack, a 21” roller, and a duffle bag she can pack empty then use for hauling souvenirs on the way back.
Roxy X3 Luggage Set, $120. Go to Roxy.com for more information>
Masters of the Surfiverse
If your special surfing someone thinks the Super Bowl is in December, you can help them celebrate 35 years of the Pipeline Masters contest at Hawaii’s Banzai Pipeline this holiday season with this big barrel: Stacey Peralta follows up his Dogtown and Riding Giants documentaries with Pipeline Masters, chronicling the tubular contest and its masters, from Jeff Hakman (1971) to Andy Irons (2005). Go for the combo pack, which comes bundled with a coffee table tome full of photos and facts for fanatics.
VANS Pipeline Masters Specialty Pack, $74.99. Click here for more information>
The Journey is the Destination 
No surf fan can afford to miss Sipping Jet Streams, the visually stunning 16mm film which pairs director Taylor Steele with Transworld Surf photograper Dustin Humphrey for a two-year journey around the world. The DVD also features a must-have making-of doc and director commentary track. Surfline is offering a limited edition combo set, which also includes a hefty hardcover book with 300 pages of Humphrey’s stills and diary notes, plus a signed print suitable for framing. The book and DVD are available separately, but the combo set is gift gold.
Sipping Jet Streams Limited Edition Combo Set (DVD and book), $129.95. Click here to buy it now>
Channel surfing
If the surfer on your gift list doesn’t get Fuel TV, the Discovery Channel, Showtime, and HBO, now would be a perfect time for a premium upgrade or a switch in cable service providers: Fuel TV has all the action sports bases covered with shows like Quiksilver’s Boarding Pass, and the Discovery Channel will get the adrenaline pumping with Stunt Junkies and the annual Shark Week. Showtime HD is now running the Teton Gravity Research series RE: Evolution of Sports, and HBO gave a green light to John from Cincinatti, an 11-episode surf drama from David Milch (the foul-mouthed genius behind Deadwood and NYPD Blue) and Ken Nunn (author of surf-noir novels Tapping the Source, Tijuana Straits, and The Dogs of Winter).
Premium Cable Package, check with your local provider for price.
Sending prayers to God (and His sharks) 
Teenage surfer Bethany Hamilton might tell you that losing an arm in a 2003 shark attack was the best thing that ever happened to her: The event helped bring her closer to God and closer to surfing, and her book about the experience – Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board – is now being made into a film. This year she released Devotions for the Soul Surfer: Daily Thoughts to Charge Your Life, a companion volume that will help somebody on your list put the Christ back into Christmas.
Soul Surfer and Devotions for the Soul Surfer combo pack from Amazon.com, $24.13. Check it out on Amazon.com>
