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American singer, actor Frankie Avalon celebrates 78 today.

Boats and helicopters have joined the search for the chief executive of sportswear maker Quiksilver, after his empty boat was found washed ashore in south-west France. The port authority of the Atlantic beach town of Capbreton said the search was launched after Pierre Agnes' empty boat was found washed up Tuesday in nearby Hossegor. Maritime authorities said two boats and three helicopters are involved in the search. The area is known for intense, sometimes dangerous waves that are prized by surfers.

Bruce Brown, longtime surf filmmaker and director of the seminal “Endless Summer” just passed at 80 years old. Drew Kampion wrote the following for our Surfing A-Z entry on Brown: Prior to 1964, the media saw surfers as rebellious thugs, and Hollywood made them out to be a bunch of idiots. Filmmaker Bruce Brown single-handedly changed that with The Endless Summer. It portrayed the wave as a kind of Holy Grail and surfers as knights on a quest. In one stroke, he replaced Hollywood's buffoonery with the popular mythology that endures today.

An autopsy report showed the teen was knocked unconscious by the large wave and drowned after being pulled into the rough shallows, the outlet reported. After the teen was knocked off his board, other surfers tried to pull him from the churning waters and started to perform CPR. ... “Zander was such a good, funny kid. He was always joking, and he just loved surfing. He was so jovial, such a joy to be around. I just can’t believe he’s gone...." Burke said the teen spoke his last words to a friend as he was riding the swell. “I just...

The fate of the Titans of Mavericks surf contest hangs in the balance, and the fight over event ownership is still making big waves. The current owner of the five-year contest permit, Cartel Management of Los Angeles, is involved in a public battle over the contest's legal rights with its presumed partner Mavericks Invitational Inc. (MII). MII ran previous contests and its board is made up of event founder Jeff Clark, along with Cassandra Clark and Brian Overfelt.

A weekend shark sighting temporarily closed the ocean off of a stretch of Huntington Beach, and a surfing dog may have had a close encounter with a shark. During a photo shoot with Sugar the Surfing Dog in Huntington Beach, an image was taken that shows what appears to be a 9 to 10-foot-long shark in the wave next to her. Source: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Surfing-Dog-Shark-Scare__Los-Angeles-410271715.html#ixzz4VVD1py1c Follow us: @NBCLA on Twitter | NBCLA on Facebook

When Costco created the Wavestorm surfboard, I don't think this is what they had in mind. Two thrill-seekers jumped into a raging Aptos Creek with Wavestorm foam surfboards during the brunt of Sunday's Pineapple Express storm. Onlookers recorded the dangerous spectacle on video. -- WATCH HERE. Tree trunks were among massive amounts of debris being swept down the raging river as the two men jumped into the water. They were tossed off their boards by the power of the river multiple times, and struggled to climb back on. One man managed to stand on his board for a few seconds...

One-armed surfer Bethany Hamilton of the US yesterday sealed third place in the Fiji Women’s Pro after beating some of the world’s best to make the semi-finals. Hamilton, whose left arm was bitten off in a shark attack in 2003, entered the event at Tavarua, Fiji, as a wild-card rated as having little chance of making an impact. However, the 26-year-old from Hawaii reached the final four with an incredible giant-killing run.

For decades, a group of territorial surfers in Palos Verdes — the so-called Bay Boys of Lunada Bay — has been operating very much like a street gang, authorities and locals say. They are accused of staking out turf on a public beach and in the waves, and intimidating and assaulting people who dare to try to access that turf. Tires have been reported slashed, rocks hurled at visitors, death threats leveled. Pretty nasty stuff. The Bay Boys even have a sort-of clubhouse, an unpermitted structure built on the beach where gang members can hang out and survey the domain...

The Titans of Mavericks competition is known for being difficult to watch in person, with surfers being as far out as a half-mile from the beach. This year, it is even tougher to watch near the water, due to the beach being closed to the public and no arranged festival for spectators. Thick morning fog did help much either. Red Bull TV is offering more comprehensive viewer experience. Those interested can see the options below. Streaming devices: Apple TV has a pre-installed channel for Red Bull TV. On Roku players, Amazon Fire, Chromecast and Nexus Player, there is a free,...

The Bay Area got its Super Bowl fix -- now it will get its Super Bowl of big-wave surfing, too. The Titans of Mavericks was greenlighted for Friday, meaning 24 of the world's most fearless watermen will take to the ocean off Pillar Point Harbor near Half Moon Bay and put on their own adrenaline-soaked, El Nino-fueled spectacle. It will mark the first year under new ownership for the event, which wasn't able to stage a contest last year because the perfect day with the desired minimum 40-foot wave faces and clean conditions never materialized. As for Friday's conditions, Mark...

Kim again? North Korea leader backs surfing to revive ailing tourism industry NORTH KOREA leader Kim Jong-un is forever looking for ways to expand his country's rather narrow cultural agenda. By Harry Kemble / Published 12th September 2015 His latest brainwave is to turn his backward state into a surfing haven. Tourism fell by 40% last year in North Korea – and it is hoped the water sport will help boost figures. Despot Kim has reportedly given permission for a surfing camp to be held on the east coast – and a group of 20 surfers are on their way....

Fanning, who escaped the incident uninjured, was knocked off of his surfboard at the beginning of his heat when he realized a shark was attacking. Following expert guidance, Fanning punched the shark to scare it off. “It kept coming at my board and I was kicking and screaming. I just saw fins. I didn’t see teeth,” he said, according to a Australian news outlet. “I was waiting for the teeth to come at me. I punched it in the back.”

Long-time Huntington Beach surfer Gary Sahagen had a prediction about how the world record attempt to get the most people riding one wave would go down. "It's either going to be spectacular, or a spectacle," Sahagen said, before joining 66 other surfers crammed onto a 42-foot board on the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier. Turns out, it was a lot of both.

The first time Dave Sweet went surfing, in 1945, he was 16 and his wooden board weighed more than he did. A decade later, he was launching a revolution that would turn those bulky boards into relics. Sweet, who played a pioneering role in introducing the foam surfboard that transformed the sport and helped propel it into the mainstream, died of renal failure May 18 at the Veterans Affairs West Los Angeles Medical Center, said his son, Greg Sweet. He was 86. The development and marketing of the foam surfboard has often been credited to Orange County surf entrepreneurs Hobie...

A large storm hundreds of miles to the south, typically not seen until midsummer, is expected to create the potentially dangerous conditions along the coast, according to lifeguard Capt. Jon Mitchell. ... The biggest swells are expected to hit south-facing beaches Sunday and Monday before tapering off Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

In an article chock full of "could" and computer model projections, the San Jose Mercury News speculates in the headline, "Climate change may flatten Santa Cruz's famed surfing waves." Key word is "may" since it also may not. However, this doesn't prevent reporter James Urton from engaging in extreme conjecture about surf conditions in a century while computer model projections are often unable to correctly project the weather for the next day. Let us now join Urton in the midst of his Chicken Little mode concerning the future of Santa Cruz surfing:

A House Democrat from Hawaii didn’t attend a hearing on veterans’ access to healthcare back in August because she was being profiled for an article and video profile about surfing by Yahoo News. According to the Honolulu Civil Beat, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) originally told the paper that she missed the August 19 hearing because she was “delayed in another meeting.” But the paper later realized the hearing and her surfing interview were on the same day. When asked again, her office acknowledged that Gabbard was hoping to attend both the surf profile and the hearing, but said the Yahoo crew...

The North Korean government is now offering surfing tours to the country’s east coast, the state media has announced. Three resorts on North Korea’s 1,550 mile-long eastern coastline are open for tourists: Songdowon, Lake Sijung and Majon, according to the Pyongyang Times. “The first surfing tour ran between July 28 and August 6,” the newspaper reported. “American surfers said they had a very good time in the resort with fascinating scenery and a refreshing environment,” it added. …

Family and friends remembered the 15-year-old Florida teen who lost his battle with brain cancer earlier this yearA paddle-out at La Jolla Shores Sunday celebrated a 15-year-old brain cancer victim and the surfing dog who made him feel "normal for a day," his mother said. Last year, Florida teenager Caleb Acosta was diagnosed with a Stage 4 brain tumor, prompting rounds of surgery, radiation and physical therapy. During the difficult treatments, Caleb heard of the San Diego-based dog “Ricochet” that surfs with people with disabilities, special needs and other disorders. It became Caleb’s dream to take to the waves with...