Surf Roots Thursdays presented by Astars....

Alpinestars has just signed on as a sponsor for a new Southern California concert series called Surf Roots Thursdays. Here are a few flyers, with dates, times, and locations of the upcoming shows. Check them out if you are around, If not tune into the live Webcasts to see what you are missing out on. I am planning on being at one or two of the shows, so I will hopefully see you there!!!!

Go Pro footage from Hurricane Earl

Hurricane Danielle- Jesse Heilman getting barreled in Hatteras, NC from Robert Snow on Vimeo.

Here are a few clips from my recent Hurricane chasing mission up the coast to Hatteras with my brother and Robert Snow. This is Rob's most recent experiment shooting with the Go Pro camera with it attached to his still cameras water housing. Makes for some cool footage as well as good little web edits like this one. Check it out.

DailyStoke Interview: Shootin’ the Sh!t with Jesse Heilman

I am not really sure who came up with the questions, but I thought it was one of the more interesting interviews I have done in a while.

The crew at dailystoke.com is always on the scene catching up with the guys on tour, and we recently had the great pleasure to catch up with Jesse Heilman, who ripped his way up and down the East Coast to lead in the WAPSS rankings as of this writing. Read on to hear how Jesse is so good that he can shred on any board you give him (even Taj’s), what it’s like to compete, why you will be wearing his sick new Able Planet headphones later this year, and finally we talk stuff that really matters, like meat pies. Read on kids…

dailystoke.com: So we saw you in this Alpine Stars print ad where you are staring at your board, were you thinking (a) “I love you, will you love me back?”, (b) “dear board, you shall not break on me”, or (c) “when this is over, we are going to…”

Jesse: Ha, actually I was contemplating stealing that board from one of my Alpinestars teammates Nathaniel Curran. This board was not even shaped for him, and just so happened to be my perfect dimensions. That was towards the end of our trip in El Salvador and I was down to my last board, so this little board was looking pretty inviting. Ha.

dailystoke.com: More seriously, what do you like about the new A-Stars N-1 shorts?

Jesse: I have been super impressed with the whole line of new Alpinestars trunks. The N-1 trunks are definitely one of my favorites, just the right amount of stretch, and perfect length. Before going to El Salvador to test drive the new surf trunks, I can’t remember the last time I was able to surf 8+ hours a day for 10 days straight without ever getting baggy rash. I know the quality of surf trunks has drastically improved over the past few years, and I am psyched to be representing the new line from Alpinestars.
Read the rest of the interview here at Dailystoke.com

Hurricane Earl Part III

Here is another Pre-Print article that Eastern Surf Magazine ran on the latest storm to pass through the Atlantic, Hurricane Earl. The feature is called the Earl of stoke part III and can be found here at ESM's website. Thanks to the boys over at ESM for including me in this feature, my shot was from a bombing day at the lighthouse in OBX. The waves were super punchy and fun this day, and Rob Snow, Markus, and I nailed some killer shots, which I am sure will be running in the upcoming Hurricane issues of the mags.

Barrels in California???

Jesse Heilman- Barreled in California.... from jesse Heilman on Vimeo.

Here is a little vimeo clip of a recent session I had out in California during the ASR/Sacred Craft Tradeshow. Hands down the best barrels of my life in cali without even having to get wet or have to paddle in. Have to throw a shout out to Jeff Weatherall for nailing these clips on his Iphone (even though you did get lipped in the head on that last wave....haha) and of course the little SD groms who were the sole reason why that tarp was even barreling..ha

Bliss Magazine write up!!

"Four flew over El Cuco's nest." The title from a recent write up in Bliss Magazine, on the Astars Team trip to El Salvador that we took a few months back. Pretty cool little article, featuring a few good photos of each of us. Here are a few screen shots of the article. If you want to read the whole thing or have a look at the rest of the mag, check out the online version at Blissmag.com.

Astars Catalog 2011

While at the surf expo this past weekend I was scrolling through the spring 2011 catalog and came across a few really cool photos I had mixed in the new range of gear. The shot that I really like was from El Salvador and is the first main page in the catalog. I remember the day we got this shot, and it was pouring down rain so badly that we decided to not shoot and no one really wanted to surf. The waves were still pumping, so Jeff and I were out there. Geoff the Astars Photog was sitting on the porch of the house under the balcony just hanging out when he snapped this shot through the palm trees. Somehow I am perfectly framed by the shadows of the palm trees and the rain clouds, or at least I thought so.haha

Surfer/Racer, and not the other way around!!

Alpinestars at Surfercross from Alpinestars USA on Vimeo.

Thats right, most of you don't know, but I am a "Slashie" dabbling in many other sports besides surfing. So when fellow Alpinestars team rider Jeff Weatherall mentioned competing in this years Surfercross, I had to get in. Little did I know it was a pretty serious event held at a track that was not groomed for amateurs. Before the week of the event I had only ever ridden a dirtbike one other time in my life, but that was with X-games gold medalist Ashley Fiolek, so I figured I would be alright. Jeff and I decided to put a few days in at the track before hand, so I could get use to the bike and see if I would actually be able to go through with it. Come raceday we realize we have been training on a different track that was much more mellow. When we pulled up to Star West raceway, we BOTH (Jeff probably won't admit it/tough guy syndrome) were a little nervous. ha This video from Alpinestars Frontline blog tells the rest of the story, but I just wanted to give a shout out to my Pro Racer/partner during the event Michael Sleeter. He murdered it on the track! We held strong in the first moto finishing in the middle of the pack, but it all went down hill when Jeff crashed Ronnie Renner's 250F that we were sharing throughout the event, and I had to hop on Sleeter's 450.haha, Don't worry man, I will be back next year with a couple more laps under my belt this time.

Shark Session

This past weekend the remainder of swell from Hurricane Earl cleaned up and offered a couple days of killer surf close to home. The only problem was that the big surf pushed in a huge number of baitfish enticing a lot more shark activity than normal. I have lived here my whole life, and I know how sharky the surf gets this time of year, but this was just ridiculous. Throughout my few sessions I witnessed easily over a hundred sharks destroying bait pods in and out of the lineup. There were bull sharks, lemons, black tips, etc... eating everything from mullett to large tarpon. During my short afternoon session at the inlet, there were 3 bites, and probably a dozen close calls. Check out this photo I found on one of the surf sites, if you look in the foreground of the shot you can see a tarpons tail kicking out in the middle of a pod of bait.

New Shot On SurferMag!!!

Check out this shot from my past adventure of Hurricane chasing up in Hatteras, North Carolina. These trips are some of my favorites, and there isn't a better time of year to be an East Coast surfer than hurricane season. Thought this photo was really cool, especially since I showed up at this secluded beach with my brother and Photog Robert Snow, to find Matt Lusk already shooting in the water with a slew of other East Coast pros. Normally photographers get all protective of who and where they are shooting, but Lusk still went out of his way to nail shots of us, even though we pretty much poached his spot.

Free Wallpapers and Screen savers from Astars

Check out the new wallpapers and screensavers that Alpinestar's has just released. If you feel like having my photo plastered on your desktop feel free to download your copy here on Astars Frontline site. There are several other layouts to choose from including other athletes like Ryan Guettler, Nathaniel Curren, Jeff Weatherall, and Kyle Loza. But clearly mine is the coolest.....ha