Free Republic

WORCESTER, Mass., May 5 (UPI) -- A Massachusetts man who was drinking during a Saturday afternoon pub crawl in Boston was allegedly found “surfing” on top of an MBTA commuter train while wearing a sombrero and poncho that night. The train's engineer stopped the train between Southborough and Ashland after being told someone was on top of the train while it was traveling 40 mph.

Could you give up the internet for Lent - or even for good? Following various reports about companies stealing information and complaints about oversharing on social media, a web hosting firm has created a nine-step guide on how to disappear from the web completely. It includes deactivating accounts, removing links from search results and how to remove yourself from various lists - and for people who'd rather just stay hidden than disappear, the guide also gives tips on how to use the internet anonymously. 'Social media has made everyone’s life an open book - one that’s open a bit too...

Both the sport and culture of surfing are increasingly at risk due to the effects of climate change. Quite simply, surfing is reliant on healthy oceans and coasts. So as climate change drives fundamental changes — sea-level rise, ocean warming and acidification — the result could be a great readjusting, and potential loss, of the world’s surf communities. Chad Nelsen-Wanker, environmental director for the Surfrider Foundation, a grassroots network of surfers in eighteen countries around the globe, explains that the world’s surf spots are very sensitive to change. While surfers are often the most attuned to the conditions that impact...

Reunion Island is known for its world-class waves, pristine swimming beaches and, in recent years, shark attacks that are tarnishing the image of this idyllic Indian Ocean paradise. Now, in the aftermath of a fatal attack on a 15-year-old girl earlier this month (the second deadly attack in three months and fifth since 2011), the French-controlled island has embarked on an extreme plan in the hope of ending the bloodshed—or at least making locals and visitors feel safer. Surfer magazine reported Monday that the government has banned swimming and surfing in all but the island’s shallow lagoon through October 1....

Wailuku, Maui (HawaiiNewsNow) - A 58-year-old man visiting from Marina Del Rey, California was bitten by a shark Tuesday morning, in waters fronting 110 Ka'anapali Shores Place, officials say. The incident was reported at around 8:30 a.m. Surfers were evacuated from the water and the beach is closed for a mile in both directions from the area where the shark bite took place. Maui officials say the victim suffered two deep lacerations on the right thigh, above the knee. Video

Three Israeli surfers went to the aid of eight children struggling in the waters off Hawaii on Saturday, Channel 2 television reported, after huge waves began surging toward the coast. The three - Tzvika Elias, Yair Naftali and Gabi Liptz - were hailed as heroes by the children’s parents. “We had gone to a remote beach half an hour from Honolulu,” 30-year-old Elias, who lives in New York, told Channel 2. “The waves there were high, huge breakers about four meters high, and as the minutes past, the waves got stronger and even higher.” Elias and his friends then saw...

Garrett McNamara of Hawaii rode a giant wave in Nazaré, Portugal yesterday. It was claimed to be 100 feet high, although the Guinness Book of World Records has not yet confirmed the measurement (the official measurement is usually smaller than initial estimates). Nazaré has unusual conditions for making huge waves … an undersea trench narrows right before the shore, shooting the sea up to the sky at the last minute.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California – A shark that bit and killed a surfer off of California's central coast probably was a great white and may have mistaken the boarder for prey, experts said Wednesday. "Most shark attacks in California are caused by great whites. There's no other species that regularly occurs off of California that could inflict that kind of injury," said Andrew Nosal, a marine biologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla.

I’m standing on the sand of La Jolla Shores on Friday morning. Out in the water, a blind man stands up on his surf board, and for a moment I feel like I actually might burst into tears. A guy who can’t see has shown me that anything is possible. Derek Rabelo does not stay up long on this first ride of the day. No one would have. The wind is mild. The water is glassy, its waist-high waves more crumbling than crashing. But these few seconds are enough to confirm for me that too much time is spent focused...

On an outer Tahitian reef break known as Teahupo’o, Laird Hamilton road a wave so massive, so powerful, it redefined what big wave riders thought was possible. There may be more ways of pronouncing Teahupo’o than there are letters in the English alphabet. Two of the most common are Chee-yow-po and Cho-poo. No matter how it is pronounced, when there’s large surf, Teahupo’o’s reef break is one of the most dangerous that can be surfed. Unlike most of the world’s big wave spots that break as cresting waves in deep water, Teahupo’o is just a huge mass moving forward as...

Amazing video of Gabriel Medina surfing Pipeline. Just turned 18, has been on the pro circut for only a couple months and he has already won a couple of tournaments (even beating Kelly Slater in SF). Don't let the bikini clad girls distract you from a look at one of the next great stars of surfing. Medina is amazing.

Video of Garrett McNamara. from Haleiwa, Oahu has surfed what is considered to be the biggest wave ever. The Hawaiian big wave rider caught the huge monster in Praia do Norte, Nazaré, Portugal, during the ZON North Canyon Project 2011.

part ii saturday stokehow my son spends his saturdays...in his own words. (this is a follow-up to two-year-old stoke which is below...surfing with his father...if you haven't seen part i, it is definitely worth the watch before part ii) This is from Chet (the father)He was 2 1/2 when I shot this (part i). He's a giant kid for his age though and as fearless as they come. Most people think he's four because of his size and coordination. The water housing muffles just about all the audio, unfortunately. But yes, he squeals with delight the entire time... Jim Caldwell...

Great video of father and two year old son surfing on a Saturday. They are just having a blast.

Alex Wade had always wanted to surf off Hawaii's north shore. But then he saw the size of the breaks at the Banzai Pipeline.Dave Rastovich, 33, is a professional surfer for the Billabong team. As happens every December, "Rasta" is at Billabong's house on the north shore of the Hawaiian island of Oahu. He's there to bag some serious water time at the many breaks along what is known as "the seven-mile miracle", a series of world-class waves stretching from the hippie town of Haleiwa on the south-west of the north shore to Sunset Beach towards the north-eastern point. Rasta...

This may be the first nonpolitical post I've made but this was just too cool not to share: Despite the fact that one wrong move could put Garrett into an early watery grave, crushed by mega tons of water, he appeared to calm and in control, even as he traversed down the most dangerous part of the wave to set a new world record, surfing a 90 foot wave!

Three years ago, Quentin Derrick was eating clams at a beach-side restaurant in Da Nang. As he gazed east at the South China Sea, he couldn't believe what was rolling in....

Kelly Slater this week won a major surf competition in large waves at a notoriously treacherous venue in Tahiti. But the buzz around the Billabong Pro still is mostly about what transpired during an off day in the middle of the event, when more than a dozen tow surfers took over in gargantuan surf and participated in what some observers described as the most incredible and intense big-wave session ever recorded.

There are dogs who play ball, dogs who chase cats and dogs who catch Frisbees. But near San Diego there is Ricochet, a 3-year-old golden retriever who catches waves and captures hearts. Ricochet helps teach disabled people how to surf by acting as a canine co-pilot. "She stabilizes the board," said Sabine Becker, who was born with no arms. "Somehow, she does it so we're not off balance. She is just standing there and just surfs with us." Surfing isn't even Ricochet's first career. From birth, she was trained to be a service dog, a companion to someone who needed...

Been noticing something of late, (the last six months). I'm noticing links to anti-administration articles posted on popular web news sites seem to take an inordinate amount of time to load. Sometimes they don't . May be my hardware/software....but could be something else, too...Could be purely subjective I suppose, but a "no connect" "unresponsive program" message isn't imaginary. >PS