Clips of the Week- There's no place like home

If you haven't noticed, there's quite a bit of action sports athletes that call north county San Diego home. From snowboard icon Shaun White, to skateboard icon Tony Hawk, to homegrown surf legend Rob Machado (shown above in one of my all time favorite surf films 'Drifting' with opening song by Ben Harper in case you care), it's not unusual to run into one of sport's elite at Gepetto's or Just Peachy. So what's the draw? Great beach towns of course. And most everyone likes the surf. So much so that other well name surf pros have left good surf in their respective countries and moved here.

 
Like Gold Coast transplant Josh Kerr. A fan of Fish 101 as well as sponsored by them. I was watching the first contest of the year, the Quiksilver Pro back in early 2013, and as Josh was running down the beach to paddle out for his heat, I could see a big Fish 101 sticker on his board. Kind of cool to see props for a local restaurant half way around the world.


Of course birds of a feather flock together so Josh asked his world tour buddy Jordy Smith to move in down the street. So now the big South African and Kerrzy hang out at Fish 101 on the weekends. As well as terrorize Ponto on big swells. Not exactly like Jordy's beloved J-Bay but we have enough surf spots around town to keep him occupied when he's not on tour.

Saw Damien Hobgood and his family down at Cardiff this past summer. Class act that kid. Or was it his twin brother CJ I ran into? Anyway, Damien was one of the first transplants to call north county home and he's lived here a number of years now. I've seen some epic sessions go down with Damien and good friend Taylor Knox in the reefs around town. Like watching a Taylor Steele video for free.

Speaking of Bonehead, Taylor Knox is one of my all-time favorites. I remember seeing him surfing Oceanside back in the late 80's and was floored how much power this kid had. Well he's something like 55 now and he still surfs better than 99% of the pros on tour.

And last but not least is Julian Wilson. Ok- that's a little bit of me stretching the truth- Julian doesn't own a house here, but his brother does, and Julian hangs out here a good portion of the year. Maybe the next time Julian is in town, I should set up an impromptu surf contest at good Swami's. Imagine seeing just Julian, Rob, Damien, Jordy, Knox, and Kerr out at the fabled point tearing the place apart. Way more fun than watching a bunch of 60 year old goons making a mockery of the place on their SUP's on an 8' swell.