Extreme Exposure: Dale Webster ends surfing streak, WSL title race, more
Welcome to another edition of Extreme Exposure, a weekly column bringing you the best photography and news from the world of action and outdoor sports. This week, Dale Webster’s incredible surfing streak ends, Candice Appleby continues her dominance in competitive paddling and more.
End of an Era
There’s dedication to a craft—and then there’s Dale Webster. Last week, Webster ended his streak of surfing for consecutive days ended at 14,641. If you’re counting at home, that’s a little over 40 years. Every day since Sept. 3, 1975, the Sanoma County, Calif. resident has surfed a minimum of three waves a day. Whether he faced gale force winds or ideal conditions, Webster was in the ocean. He suited up when he passed a kidney stone, when his daughter was born and even made it out to the ocean when his wife succumbed to cancer.
And he even held out when he knew the end was imminent. In May, his doctors informed him he’d need surgery for another kidney stone, but he told SURFER magazine several years ago that he’d continue to surf through the Sept. 3rd date to complete 40 years. And Webster isn’t one to take commitment lightly. But he won’t be starting another streak anytime soon. The 66-year-old is excited to do other things. “I want to travel again,” he says. “The furthest I’ve been away in the past 40 years was Lake Tahoe. I don’t want to have to drive to the beach through a flood; I don’t want take my board out of my car during a gale or battle the ocean during a storm. I don’t have to do that stuff any more, I’ve done it.”
Dominance Reigns
The sport of competitive stand-up paddling is anything but old. And in its first decade of existence, Candice Appleby has dominated the sport. The 30-year-old ocean athlete from San Clemente, Calif. has a had a stranglehold on the sport’s most important event, winning the Battle of the Paddle six times, considered by many to be stand-up paddling’s world championship. But earlier this year, sponsors pulled the plug on the massive contest held each year in Dana Point, Calif. at Doheny State Beach.
The event was picked up and renamed the Pacific Paddle Games and while the moniker and organizational structure may have changed, Appleby’s dominance has remained. This weekend she won both the surf race and distance categories at the PPG to once again walk away with the overall prize at the sport’s most important event. “I’ve worked extremely hard,” she told SI.com. “And I do it to set an example. I have a lot of young girls watching what I’m doing. And we don’t have a sport without the next generation.”
From Barrels to Aerials
What started off as a big-wave surfing contest in Hosseger, France has turned into a high performance showdown between the sport’s best. The World Surf League’s Quicksilver Pro and Roxy Pro France should wrap up sometime this week. But the world title chase has come into laser focus. Especially on the women’s side where Carissa Moore took the lead back from Courtney Conlogue. The two have swapped positions at the top of the leader board at the last four contests dating back to the U.S. Open this summer. Conlogue was knocked out in the fourth round in France, meaning the world title will be decided at the Maui Pro in November. Moore will face Tatiana Weston-Webb in the semifinals.
The men saw massive conditions to open the Quiksilver Pro last week and six of the top ten surfers in the world remain in the contest as it moves into quarterfinal action this week. As the conditions have gotten smaller, the men took to the air. That’s when Gabriel Medina pulled this off:
