The magical soul of surfing

This is the most moving surfing film I've ever seen. It features truly beautiful footage of big, incredibly powerful, nearly-unridable waves and a "you are there" experience alongside the venturesome people surfing them. Watch it again and again, and feel slow-motion explosions as amazing rides eventually start to come apart in the teeth of monumental ocean force. Wow. And wow again. And maybe even one more final last wow.

Note: this video moved, here's a working version:


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Ocean hammered by CO2 rise off US west coast

Bad news for an Oregon ocean guy...new studies show that CO2 impacts are already bad and expected to continue hitting hard in the Pacific Ocean off the US west coast and Puget Sound (near Seattle).

First, oysters have been having trouble reproducing in the region due to CO2-driven ocean acidification. As a result, "the state of Washington classified the entire Puget Sound as “waters of concern” because of ocean acidification’s threat to local shellfish and fish resources. This means the data show that ocean acidification is threatening the region’s ability to support fish and shellfish" according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

Now comes news that this region is also at great risk for harm from CO2-driven ocean warming because of low natural temperature variation.

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Grey whale visit while diving

No, it wasn't me, but I wish it was. Watch this short video from RIPproductions9 and imagine it was you!

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Swim (and fly) like a dolphin

Oh my, I want one of these really much!!

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Dam removal becoming a new possibility

Personal reflection on freeing the White Salmon River in Washington:

"I can't believe I am living long enough to see it actually happen," said Phyllis Clausen, 87, of Vancouver, Wash., who with other citizen activists has fought for restoration of the White Salmon as a free flowing river since joining the "Friends of the White Salmon":http://friendsofthewhitesalmon.org/, a non-profit citizens' conservation group, in 1976. "We kept working on things for the river, and it just became our obsession," she said.

What she centers on as she talks about the long campaign that will be rewarded with a boom on Oct. 26, when the dam is breached, was the power of persistence. It wasn't any one letter or hearing or action that got the job done, she said, but just staying with it, even when it seemed hopeless.

Phyllis Clausen and Friends of the White Salmon fought for restoration and dam removal on the White Salmon for decades, even when it seemed hopeless. Photo courtesy, Phyllis Clausen

"Situations change over many years, and what seemed impossible at early times might become possible, just because situations surrounding the issue change. That occurs slowly, but if you are tuned in to take advantage of those moments, like the moment when the dam came up for re-licensing, then you may be able to accomplish something," Clausen said.

"It took a number of people, and it certainly wasn't just me. I felt, it was that this river was so important to so many people, I think it for a lot of us, it's a home, really, and it has the same beauty to us. I could go down and sit there on a cliff side with my feet dangling and eat a picnic lunch and watch dippers down in the water and birds flying all around there, and I would remember that, long after I left."

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