I remember having one bit of surf footage to watch on TV back in 1977.  It was an 10 second clip of some long haired local boy going left at Rocky Point on a hideous burnt orange surfboard during an Aloha Airlines commercial (remember them?).  It was off a Beta L- 750 tape (remember those?) that was stuck for years in my Sony Betamax VCR (oh never mind).  Surfing-anything on TV was so painfully rare back in the day that even this paltry morsel kept me stoked, and I replayed it a million times, studying the guy’s technique down to the microbes before the tape eventually blew up and was spit out the front of my VCR.  It’s funny now, but I remember being completely devastated at the time.

   

Back then, surfing on TV was not much more than a pipe dream.  Other than the rare Duke Classic or Pipeline Masters shown on ABC Wide World of Sports, there wasn’t a lot of attention being paid to the slowly maturing sport.  Fred Hemmings and Randy Rarick were the pioneering visionaries who held surfing’s torch proudly in the mid-70's and tried their best to sell their events to sponsors, major networks, and their large television audiences.  I was lucky enough to catch the 1982 Sunkist World Cup of Surfing on my shiny new VHS player and felt like I’d struck the motherload of surf footage … 30 minutes …Eureka!  These were the infant days of pro surfing and the sport's long and winding road to respectability, at least as perceived by the general public. Resigned to seeing the OP Pro once a year, I maintained my little boy dreams of one day, being able to watch surfing on TV anytime I wanted.

Fast forward to 2009 and the dream has become reality via a fortunate sequence of events and lots of persistence.  After becoming friendly with Randy Rarick, we shared our vision for live surfing events on TV.  The resource benefits we offered each other were obvious, but it was a simple "OK, go do it" from my boss that got the fire (and us) stoked. Voila!  Oceanic SURF Channel was born. 

We managed to organize provisioning in less than a week and quietly sent our first live televised surf feed (2009 Reef Hawaiian Pro) to cable customers in Hawaii.  It was an auspicious debut, the buzz within the surfing community immediate. Energized by the positive feedback, we powered on through the remainder of the Triple Crown.  I’ve had few better moments than to see the gratified stoke in Randy’s gait that first day we went live on TV. The man has worked so hard, for so long, and with such pride for surfing, and I’m honored to have been a small part of his long term master plan.

2010 started with a couple of regional pro events, the Triple Crown again, as well as our first overseas feed; the Hurley Pro from Lower Trestles. 2011 served as our first foray into international ASP World Title tour live event broadcasts, thanks to the stoke and generosity of the the surf industry's heavyweight brands, and we also invited our Southern California systems to join in on the excitement.  We hope to bring you many more surf programs and live world tour and local events, as well as the lifestyle pieces and special features to give more rounded surfing content.

Initially, the vision for the channel was one that served Hawaii, Hawaiian surfing and surfers, and those within our customer base who had an interest in all three.  I'd hoped that it would provide a catch-all for all that was local wave-riding and culture, a kind of electronic emollient if you will, that would link the threads between all the different mindsets and factions in Hawaiian surfing.  We’d shape, reshape, and present the model to other divisions, cable carriers, and networks … sort of a bolt-on contingency to Fred and Randy's original drive for respectability in the world of sport.  Well, in my naivety, I discovered in short order that things don't work that easily.  With all the litigation, brand impressioning, and money grabs, I’ve had to move carefully between all the interests. 

But somewhere in the midst of the political tangle, the greater good of surfing lies waiting to liberated.  I’d like to think that our little channel, while still a very modest endeavor, can be counted amongst the first few purposeful strides out of the mire. Whether it's still here in 10 more years or 10 more months depends directly on surfing. In the eyes of Time Warner cable viewers, a pretty heady programming precedent was set in 2011, and we hope to up the ante a bit in 2012.
Here's a list of the 2012 ASP World Tour schedule (Men's, Women's, Primes) that was recently issued, along with the tentative Hawaii Regionals;

2012 ASP World Men’s Title Series:

Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast – Australia (February 25 – March 7, 2012)
Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach – Australia (April 3 – 14, 2012)
Billabong Rio Pro – Brazil (May 9 – 20, 2012)
Volcom Pro Fiji – Fiji (June 3 – 16, 2012)
Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay – South Africa (July 11 – 22, 2012)
Billabong Pro Teahupoo – Tahiti (August 16 – 27, 2012)
Quiksilver Pro New York – USA (September 2 – 14, 2012)
Hurley Pro at Trestles – USA (September 15 – 23, 2012)
Quiksilver Pro France – France (September 26 – October 6, 2012)
Rip Curl Pro Portugal – Portugal (October 7 – 17, 2012)
Billabong Pipe Masters – Hawaii (December 8 – 20, 2012)

2012 ASP Women’s World Title Series:

Roxy Pro Gold Coast – Australia (February 25 – March 7, 2012)
Rip Curl Women’s Pro Bells Beach – Australia (April 3 – 9, 2012)
Subaru Pro Women’s Surf Festival – New Zealand (April 11 – 15, 2012)
Commonwealth Bank Beachley Classic – Australia (April 18 – 23, 2012)
Billabong Rio Pro – Brazil (May 9 – 20, 2012)
Roxy Pro Biarritz – France (July 9 – 15, 2012)
Nike US Open of Surfing – USA (July 30 – August 5, 2012)

2012 ASP Prime Series:

Hang Loose Pro – Brazil (February 7 – 12, 2012)
Telstra Drug Aware Pro – Australia (March 19 – 25, 2012)
Nike Lowers Pro – USA (April 30 – May 5, 2012)
Saquarema Surf Pro International – Brazil (May 21 – 27, 2012)
Mr Price Pro Ballito – South Africa (July 2 – 9, 2012)
Nike US Open of Surfing – USA (July 30 – August 5, 2012)
Billabong Azores Island Pro – Portugal (October 19 – 24, 2012)
Super Surf International – Brazil (October 27 – November 1, 2012)
S B Reef Hawaiian Pro – Hawaii (November 14 – 25, 2012)
Vans World Cup – Hawaii (November 26 – December 6, 2012)

2012 ASP Hawaii Regional events:

Sunset Open – Sunset Beach
Volcom Pipe Pro _ Ehukai Beach
Ala Moana Pro – Magic Island
Duke’s Oceanfest - Kuhio Beach
HIC Pro – Sunset Beach

We’re already in negotiations with the promoters and will bring as many events and programs to you in 2012.

Many viewers have written in with their feedback and we're both appreciative and mindful of all the suggestions, complaints, and Aloha. Keep them coming in as they keep us motivated and on our toes. 

Complaints have ranged from, “I can’t stand the commentators!” to “Why don’t you show more Women’s events?” to “Those surfer interviews are dumb!” to “Could you PLEASE stop showing girls in skimpy bikinis?  It’s very sexist” to “You need to focus more on Native Hawaiian surfers”.

From the suggestion box came, “Show some Stand Up Paddle surfing!”, “Show some bodyboarding!”, “Show some bodysurfing”, and “Show more girls in bikinis!”

Kudos we receive are great and sometimes hilarious, “Finally, somebody gets it!”, “Thanks for televising Hawaii events”, ”It’s about time REAL surfing gets exposure”, “Thank you for showcasing our sport!”, “I don’t even surf, but I love watching”, “My wife has threatened to leave me because all I do is watch Channel 250 all day”, and “Our family lives and breathes Oceanic SURF Channel 24/7”.  I’m not so sure the last two are good, as obsessions are rarely healthy for you. 

But if it has to be surf channel, then so be it!☺ 

There’ve been so many people involved in making Oceanic SURF Channel a success over the last three years, and not enough space here for me to name them, but without the support of the following key individuals, Oceanic SURF Channel may never have gotten off the ground:

• Norman Santos: Oceanic Time Warner Cable - Vice President of Operations
• Randy Rarick: ASP Hawaii/Vans Triple Crown - Executive Director
• David Stanfield: Vans Triple Crown – Broadcast Anchor
• Vernon Kato: Oceanic Time Warner Cable - Manager-Multi Media Systems
• La’akea Wigen: Oceanic Time Warner Cable - Media Systems Engineer
• You, the viewers!  Thanks to our many stoked cable customers for supporting the channel and the greatest sport on Earth!

  

Coming up on Oceanic SURF Channel in December

• Surfing’s biggest night happens Tuesday, December 6th at the 2011 Surfer Poll Awards.  Oceanic SURF Channel will broadcast this special evening live and in 1080iHD from the beautiful Turtle Bay Resort Ballroom on Oahu’s North Shore!  See all of the world’s best surfers and cinematographers recognized for their achievements in one place, on one stage.  Show starts at 7pm HST!
   
• Vertical drops, scary wipeouts, deep tubes, and the top surfers on planet get spit out of the barrel and right into your living room!  You can see it all live when Oceanic SURF Channel presents the 2011 Billabong Pipeline Masters, December 8th – 20th, from the famed Banzai Pipeline.  Don’t miss this, the last ASP World Tour event of the year!