To Typhoon Lagoon

This is Central Florida, home of many surfers. Everyone in the world has heard of Kelly Slater, 11 times ASP World Champion. No one else has ever won it more than four times, and Mark Richards of Australia holds that honor. I know some Brazilians who say the whole thing is rigged. They consider themselves the best surfers in the world, but rarely get out the preliminary rounds of major contests.

I don't know about that.. In my opinion,Brazilians trash around too much and try to force maneuvers on the wave where they don't belong. Maybe they need to hire a publicist like Kelly’s Mom did when he became amateur champion. I can’t say it won him any contests, but it secured him a role on Bay Watch with the Hoff and the ladies..

I have provided a link to Kelly's web site in case you would like to know more about him.

The Hobgood twins, CJ and Damien are always in the running on the pro surfing tour and CJ was the World Champ a few years back. Damien is just as good. Back in the day, when people mentioned the “twins from Satellite Beach”, I thought they meant the Nelson brothers. They would often perform circus clown antics on the biggest days, passing each other back and forth, and hurling insults at each other and the crowd as they effortlessly shredded the wave to pieces.

There are a few hundred surfers in the same league around here. It seems odd. The waves are rarely of the quality that you would think would produce champion professional surfers. There are a wide range of conditions surfers face. It is rarely "perfect". The dedicated surfers learn to generate speed and pack in maneuvers on the disorganized, unpredictable, undulating swells. They have to improvise and respond in the span of a heartbeat.

There are radical foreign destinations (Puerto Escondido, Mexico) and respectable, consistent wave havens (Central America) within easy reach of almost any pocket book. The true disciple of the sport (life style) will work, scrimp, and forgo draining relationships in order to spend six to eight weeks (at varying intervals) a year in a bungalow on a semi-deserted beach. One must sacrifice in order to achieve. My mother jokingly called it "total commitment to nothing".

When you watch embedded videos from YouTube, it is always best to click on the YouTube logo on the lower right corner of the player.and view them in in full screen mode. If your computer is less than three years old and has 2 or more gigs of ram, it will be worth it. Computer screens are high resolution and so are most of the YouTube videos. On this Hub, I have featured a couple of videos from Pure Ocean TV. They have state of the art equipment and their format is wide screen. Their 1080pi videos don't look right on the 740pi box that they are embedded in on the page. They will fill your scren perfectly. Besides, no self respecting surfer would be happy without the "total mind blowing experience".

Central Florida has its share of fun waves. For kids growing up here, it is a groms (pre-puberty) paradise. Waves from spot to spot vary in shape and intensity. If you are under five feet tall and weigh less than a hundred pounds, you will be able to “rip” almost every day. I always have a blast watching the NSSA (National Scholastic Surfing Association) contests. It is a sure cure for clinical depression. If the waves get overhead, the youngsters are dwarfed. By the time they get to be teenagers, they can handle any wave in the world. As a matter of fact, when they travel to a spot where the waves are perfect, they expend exuberant excess energy packing in three times the movesof the best local surfers, who take the place for granted.

You have to watch this all the way through, or I will come looking for you. You will see some nice young kids with amazing ability. They are not all boys, either. You will also see that you can have yourcake, and eat it, too!

The waves in central Florida are usually small and mushy. If it gets any size to it at all, it becomes difficult to paddle out through the relentless parade of spilling waves that push endless walls of oxygen robbing, turbulent white water before them. Even the least accomplished surfers have highly developed endurance. On a big day, they may as well just call surfing around here “paddling” . . . that is what you will be doing 90% of the time. Once you claw and fight your way out through the gauntlet of crashing breakers, you don’t get much rest. If you stop for a short breather, you may find yourself swept a half mile down the beach from the powerful side current.

On the twelve or so very best days of the year, it can be as good as an average day at any of the best spots in the world. However, the waves are extremely shifty from the irregular sand or coquina rock bottom. On their first time here, many of the best surfers in the world end up lashing out in pure frustration by becoming completely exhausted before riding any good waves. Part of the frustration is from seeing the local kids catching one after the other like it was a day at Typhoon Lagoon.

Take a moment to peruse these. Be styling on your warm vacation!

Just a nice, typical, fun day at the end of the home road.

The boys at Pure ocean TV were trying out the new intro annimation that I designed and executed for them. Everyone liked the transition from the beach to the water to the live action. How about you? The video was shot on an ordinary day at the end of the street. The weather was nice as usual, and so was the scenery. At the end of the first clip, they added footage (footy") from Monster Hole, an outside reef on the south side of Sebastian Inlet. It is the same day. They took their Zodiac inflatable boat with them and shot from the water. On a big day at this spot, it gets "Island Style"! Careful how you act there . . . you might get run over by a local, like a guy in this segment.

Speaking of Typhoon Lagoon . . . it is an option! Sometimes it gets flat and stays flat for a long time. While that makes for good fishing from the beach, the mundane malady makes many surfers mindlessly murmur in malaise, “Maybe we should go to Typhoon Lagoon.”

Typhoon Lagoon is the wave park at the Disney resort. You can rent the place in the evening after the park is closed for $1,200 or so. You get 100 waves for the money and you have the place all to yourself. You have to stay sharp and get in position. If you miss a wave, sorry about your luck, there are no do overs. The boys got together with some buddies to split the cost.

They can set the wave to break a few different ways and the boys opted for maximum power after sharing a few that broke both ways. The machine is capable of throwing out a bigger wave, but the pool can’t handle it. If you notice in the video, the steps are positioned in exactly the wrong place. They interfere and break up the wave’s energy at the most critical time. It is a little lesson on how irregular shapes disperse wave action better than sea walls. You will hear more about this in the future. When I was their age, we would have gone to the van for our tools and removed the steps. Enjoy the fantasy dream world at the Disney resort!

I am proud of the crew. These guys are used to surfing little waves. They take what the wave gives them and don't over-surf the break like most people (even top pros) do. It is only a minute and a half long, but it really captures the essence of the session. Don't forget to go full screen.

For information on how to rent the wave pool for your "Private 100 Wave Surf Event", if you are over 18 years of age, call (407) WDW-SURF or (407) 939-7873. Have parent or guardian permission to call if you are under age 18.