The Soup Review [SURFING]

Poster for this years big wave contest with last years event winner Dan Connell. Courtesy of Mike Balzer

After a freakishly warm early November, finally neoprene was the answer as water temps dipped into the low 60s.  With cold water comes winter swell and the beginning of the South Bay’s Big Wave contest time period, December 1st. Drop Zone had the pleasure of seeking out all of the finalists from last years event for an up-coming article in the December issue. These seekers of the Bastions of Bomboras are as eclectic as ever as each surfer is completely different in almost every way. The street team’s rusty station wagon hit the PCH asphalt from Playa Del Rey to an undisclosed Bay in profiling madness all for the love of surf story.

This week also included the first real swell of the winter season as the Drop Zone email box is overloaded with hot shots of the locals at places we have the responsibility of not naming and will not name. Best advice, figure it out yourself.

Happy Birthday to Mr. Mike Purpus who is 64 years young as of Nov. 25th and surfs like and is as enthusiastic as a 25-year-old. Drop Zone wouldn’t be anything with out “Puka Purp.” One thing I can say about our South Bay surf legend is he not only can out surf your legend (directed at other surf areas in South California) but is a bigger piece of work.
North Beach with the rare gem finding the right spot on an almost non-existent sand bar. Photo by Candace Stalder of stalderart.com
Shaper Mark Brog of Brog Soul Performance Surfboards getting ready for a winter gun fight with the newest addition to the sales floor. Dimensions are 6’8″x18 3/4″x2 1/2″ soulperformance.com
The “Tiger Beat,” Josh Gilberts used to only get excited for December because it’s closer to Christmas and Santa delivering the El Segundo native a Red Ryder BB Gun. No longer a cub, Gilberts’ hopes christmas comes early in the form of cavernous barrels to shoot this gun through. “You’ll shoot your eye out!” Photo courtesy of Gilberts.
Powered by Wayne Okamoto shapes of Oakfoils Surfboards, Chris Wells is the hardest working surfer in the South Bay by punching the clock (or lip), putting the time in, and getting the shots. Drop Zone looks forward to profiling him in the next coming issue. Photo of CivicCouch.com
For the December issue, Drop Zone is doing a lengthy feature on legendary shaper Mr. Pat Ryan. A shaper of every possible design, here’s him loading the Drop Zone street team automobile for a morning photo shoot. The Drop Zone rusty wagon had to make multiple trips.
Local Longboard sensation, Shawn O’Brien, has been riding Mr. Pat boards for almost 15 years and loves to stop by and discuss the latest design. Mr. Pat loves to reminisce about a night of basketball just down the street at the Cypress Park courts where the duo went 5 and 0 sweeping all the competition.
It seems that Brad Jacobson of CivicCouch.com has a fastpass on catching all the right shots. Thanksgiving maybe be over, but Noah Collins is still getting stuffed like a turkey.
Duck, Duck, Goose. Photo
No caption necessary. Photo
Noah Collins getting critical and hitting the last loop on the rollercoaster. Photo
What to say about longboarder Mark Evans…Drop Zone had a lengthy conversation with Mr. Evans in preparation for the December issue. A break-out star in the longboard scene of the late 90s and mentored by some of the South Bay greats, Evans later discovered his disease of addiction and got caught up in that scene only to come clean and become a better person. Drop Zone would also like to congratulate his recent engagement to his lovely lady, Shannon.
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