OUT OF AFRICA

The decent board getting souvenired by some SA groms. © Joli

Sometime things just don’t fall into place. Went to J-Bay about five days early to make sure boards would arrive and even went for the two small board bags to make sure my chances of getting one would be better. I got one, but the one with most of my boards never arrived and no one could find it. I was looking on the bright side and was happy to at least have a couple of boards.

Getting into the swing of things back home.

I went for a couple of free surfs and one of the boards I had worked good so was amping. Then went out for my heat and caught the best wave I have ever caught at J-Bay and blew the wave and broke my good board.

My other board was pretty crap, I rode it against Mick C, got smoked, and went home with my tail between my legs. The one good thing was I was able to make my daughter’s cowgirl birthday party, which rocked the barn.

Peace,

Damo.

FROM MANAGUA TO PORT ELIZABETH

The coastline in Nicaragua is as amazing as the waves are.

Well, been surfing a lot lately which is a great thing. I was hanging in California and had some really fun waves then went down to Nicaragua with Timmy Reyes and we had a great time. Just have really been enjoying being in the water.

There are certainly some crazy line-ups in Central America

Looking forward to J-Bay, leave on Saturday with most of the guys in the US. South Africa is a neat place and look forward to getting down there but not really looking forward to the flight it is one of the longest one we have all year.

Worth the long flight.

Peace,

Damo

CENTRAL AMERICA CALLING

Just got back from Fiji and the waves were good when we first got
there but went downhill pretty quick.

The last day at Cloudbreak. © Gallegos

Amped to go do some surfing. There’s some south swell coming to Central America so I’m going to tryand get on some trips and do a lot of surfing - really feel like I haven’t surfed that much lately and want to get all surfed out.

Peace,

Damo

TAHITI WIPEOUT

Well, don’t know where to start, but basically hadn’t had good waves in a while and was amping to get barrelled. So, during our break, was looking on the map for the best place to get that fix.

Tahiti looked like the best bet so was going there for 3 days then coming back home. The second day I was there was just what I was looking for - 6-8 feet no
wind and perfect swell direction.

Editor’s note: Damien’s had a bittersweet relationship with Teahupoo in the past. In the 2005 final he had to pull out midway after a dislocated shoulder (pictured). In 2007, he won the thing.
© JOLI

Got out in the water at about 7am and was planning on surfing all day. It came to about 3pm and took off on this stupid wave and broke my board and got washed in to the lagoon so was pretty mad at my self. Came back out pretty bummed at myself and then ended up doing something even dumber …

Don’t really know exactly what I was thinking except probably should have done
anything but what I did; hesitated on this wave, thought I could get out of it, got sucked over the falls, went straight into reef, knew I hit hard and knew that something had happened.

Hit my head pretty hard so was just trying to stay with it until I got out of the impact zone. Went to hospital to make sure everything was okay, and it was, besides some broken bones.

I took the next flight out and went and saw Dr. Kramer who said I fractured three parts of my scapula but I wouldn’t need surgery which I was really happy with.

Felt like things could have been way worse and in hindsight maybe shouldn’t have stayed out so long because was getting pretty tired, and not thinking properly isn’t good out there.

Peace,

Damo.

Return To Oz

Gold Coast secret spot. © Joli

Just got back to the States after almost two months in Oz. Had a great time and got some pretty fun waves. The Goldy was good but think the place is too crowded now. Think it could well be the most crowded place in the world!

At the Superbank, space in the water was at such a premium, my brother and Kelly were forced to hit the same lips at the same time. © Joli

After the comp I went to Sydney and had a great old time with the family and caught all sorts of waves … thought it was pretty funny that I was going to the largest city in Australia to escape the Goldy crowds.

It was mostly warm at Bells, there were only a couple of chilly and blustery days (like this shot) the whole time we were there. ©Dusty Springfield

After a week there we went down to Melbourne for the next comp and didn’t totally know what to expect since we were there really early in the year and heard there hadn’t been waves for a while down there. To our surprise, just as we arrived, the weather started changing and the waves were pretty fun the whole time we were down there. Wasn’t too cold either.

Had a great time in Oz, always love spending time down there, it’s a great country and I feel blessed to go there every year.

Peace,

Damo

Jetting to Puerto Rico Tonight

We’ll be hoping for some tropical-type bombs like this one when we get down there.
© Joli

Heading to Puerto Rico tonight. First surf trip in a while, pretty excited. Only will be there for a couple of days because there is a WQS contest in my hometown of Florida and will be doing that.

We’re taking WPS film guy Dustin Miller with us to Puerto Rico, that’s Dustin on the left.
© fleshprofitsnothing.com

Not really too much to talk about except had a great Christmas with the
family and have been surfing a lot which is always a good thing. Let
you know how Puerto Rico goes and sure there will be heaps of video pieces up
on the site about the trip very soon.

peace,

damo

Damien Hobgood’s Gone Fishin’

Here is a photo of one of the red fish.

First of all I just want to say congrats to Mick Fanning, he is such a great champion and we’re proud to have him as the ASP World Champion. Well, while everyone was down in Brazil I was back home fishing non-stop, I fully had the itch. This time of year is so good for fishing in Florida and I am usually not around to take advantage of it. One evening we went to Sebastien Inlet with some friends and caught a bunch of big reds, a snook, and then lost a few huge tarpon. The seas were a bit rough but the action was non-stop. My knee is feeling really good but I still have not surfed on it, I’ve just been rehabbing it and trying to get it really strong for Hawaii.

Peace

Damo

My mates scored a hatful too.

DAMIEN HOBGOOD’S ALL GOOD

Well have not written in so long because not much has been going on until now. I finally got the x-rays back and the bone is pretty much healed back together but I’m taking it real easy because of what happened last time It healed back. I’ve got the go ahead to walk and it feels good but I probably won’t start training on it until November.
Then if everything feels a 100% I’ll try to go over to Hawaii in December and do the Pipe contest. Anon sunglasses flew me over to Australia for an event they did and to hang with the team and crew from Anon so that was a treat since I haven’t been doing much. I’ll hang here for a few days then back to the States where I’m hoping to get the go ahead to do some serious rehab on the legs?

Peace

Damo

CAMP X-RAY

 

Okay, so as you know I re-injured myself. My knee cap had supposedly healed up and when a bone heals up it usually won’t come apart again especially in the same place … Well mine did.

With a chomping swell hitting Hossegor, you want all your bones working.

Had been surfing for about a week and went out, did this turn and felt something weird in my knee like the same thing had just happened. So I went and got an x-ray again and, sure enough, the bone had just barely pulled off again.

So was basically at square one again, which means have to let the bone heal and then get back into it slowly. I was pushing it a bit to be ready for Lower Trestles since I already had two bad results and obviously just pushed it a bit to hard.

Hopefully the bone heals up fast but you don’t really know, could take a while.

peace

damo

KNEED FOR SPEED

New Knee Cap & New Bill Johnson Shooters

A fun refuge for the last week. ©: thegoodsshop.com

Just got the go-ahead from the doctor! Bone is fully healed back together. Although it’s been straight for about a month so moving it is really stiff but should be all good in a week. Had some atrophy so need to build the muscles back up around the knee.

Going to pick up 5 new Teqoph surfboards today so will get those stickered up and start getting back into the game.

The past couple of weeks I was hanging poolside in Florida trying to stay cool. Has been really hot on the East Coast but that is pretty typical. Waves have been really bad in Florida which was a good thing for me. Hung out at the shop talking crap with my friends.

Savanna is walking now and is such a funny little girl.

Peace.
Damo.