By Mike Madriaga On the morning of January 15, Carol Niotta and her Yorkie, Pebbles, walked out on their La Jolla home’s balcony to check if the tsunami emergency alert at 7:03 am, affected the surf scene below. “No lifeguards were on duty,” she said to me on January 30. “One woman was down at […]
By Mike Madriaga On February 4, lifeguard M. DeRieux, spotted a young boy as he “slipped off of his boogie board in a rip current directly off of the Mission Beach main tower,” reported the Lifeguards of San Diego Instagram page. “DeRieux [then] ran into the water with his can and fins while yelling to […]
By Mike Madriaga North County athletes are sendin’ it from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games — including Bryce Wettstein, Jordyn Barratt, Cory Juneau, and Heimana Reynolds. Per their Olympic Games’ profiles, Bryce Wettstein, who is 17, was born and still resides in Encinitas; Barratt is 22 and dwells in Oceanside; Juneau, 22, was born in […]
By Mike Madriaga If you want to fish, you have to be west of the checkered flag,” blared a voice from the PA speaker above us, “there’s also no fishing on the south side of the [Imperial Beach] Pier at this time.” “There’s nobody even surfing down there,” yelled fisherman Nick Cline, “not even swimmers, […]
By Mike Madriaga On December 13, a Wendi and Steve posted on Facebook that Skate San Diego “is closing” and “we are liquidating everything”; the two posted photos of a large stereo system, “thousands of” roller skate and rollerblade wheels, and fixtures. I called the skating rink, which is located at Denny Way west of […]
Dan Mann of Coronado handcrafts high caliber surfboards— some are made from another man’s trash. “I have two ‘trash boards’ on order and I am working to try and refine the process.” The last trash board he posted on his Instagram account in August sold for “a lot.” He explains, “it’s made from a broken […]
By Mike Madriaga On the week of September 6-9, Coronado’s Dan Mann and some of his buddies from Firewire Surfboards, trekked up to Lemoore to meet with World Surf League champion Kelly Slater, and their mutual friends. Pro-surfers from all over congregated here at the Surf Ranch, a 500-yard wave pool visualized by Slater. It’s […]
On August 26, former skateboard champion Tony Hawk busted out his 360-degree loop to give a few young skateboarders a chance to demo it by his headquarters in Vista. The loop resembles that of a roller coaster, but the difference is that the skateboarders fall straight down if they cannot make it around the 16-foot-tall […]
Mike’s covered the Surf Diego beat in the San Diego Reader since 2018. It’s a weekly section that features surfers and boogie boarders of all ages and skillsets. Name: Paloma Aguirre Bacalski Age: 40 From: Imperial Beach Location: Imperial Beach Pier Occupation: Coastal and marine director for Wildcoast Paloma Aguirre Bacalski was one of about 12 that paddled out in honor of […]