Jen Hudak is one of freeskiing's most driven athletes. Whether she's in a contest setting or charging in the backcountry, Hudak always strives to do her best. She's been a competitor in the X Games since 2004, won the overall AFP Title in 2010 and was tapped for the first-ever U.S Freeskiing National Team in 2011.

These are all factoids you should already know, but did you have any clue that Jen is semi-addicted to her iPhone, she's a former theatre geek, or that she has four tattoos?

If you didn't know any of that, than you most definitely didn't know any of this as Jen Hudak checks in with our latest installment of 20 Things You Don't Know about Me.

Take it away, Jen!

1. I have a problem with dogs... in that, I want to hug all of them. Sometimes it takes a long time to get from A to B on foot, too many dogs to say hi to.

2. My iPhone is my world. Without it I would be lost. (Not literally, I actually have a great sense of direction).

3. When I was in high school I was friendly with all different groups of people- theatre kids, nerds, jocks, "cool" kids... I think it has helped me get along in this sport and in life. People of all different walks are incredible- there is something to be learned from everyone.

4. I love photography- in particular, iPhoneography. Follow me on Instagram @jenhudak It's the best place to share photos of all the beauty in the world.

5. I surfed for the first time 2 summers ago and look forward to a long life of that sport in the future... finding time to be at the ocean- that's the hard part!

6. I'm from the East Coast and I'm very proud to be. I like being a fast-paced East Coaster in a slow-coast place.

7. I was an all-state lacrosse player in High School and almost went to Dartmouth to play and study instead of being a skier. Glad I picked skiing.

8. Theater was a big passion of mine growing up. I'd love to return to the stage at some point.

9. The human mind is a fascinating thing. I am studying Psychology and Business at the University of Utah and hope to merge the two fields into one after my ski career concludes.

10. I believe that fear controls us. Anytime uncertainty presents itself I go towards the fear. We regret the things we've never done more than any mistakes we might
make.

11. Laughter and happiness are the best healers.

12. Mountain biking is my favorite cross-training- although I've been known to spend a lot of time at the gym... I'm very happy there.

13. I play by the rules. Always. I hold myself to a higher standard than I hold others. When people think I'm cutting corners or cheating I get VERY offended.

14. Hard-work is a universal language.

15. Skim lattes are my favorite apres-ski treat.

16. My thumbs look like toes. People find them funny. I think they're cute.

17. I know a lot about human anatomy because I've injured most of my anataomy.

18. I have 4 tattoos. Sometimes I love them, sometimes I wish I had none. Everything inlife is temporary... except for tattoos.

19. I've had my nose pierced since I was 16. I used a friend's ID to get it done. People ask me why I still have it, and I say "because I love it." Should I have any other reason?

20. I scar really badly... I form gross raised keloid scars when I get cut. I should probably stop falling.

*Bonus* I love my family and my friends. There is nothing more important than surrounding yourself with great people that bring out the best in you. I feel blessed.

Thanks Jen!

National Geographic's annual Adventurers of the Year nominees are in and it's time to vote for the next Adventurer(s) to win the prestigious award. For the past seven years, Nat Geo has searched the globe to find Adventurers selected for his or her extraordinary achievement in exploration, conservation, and adventure sports.

Among the 2012 nominees are action sports superstars Travis Rice, Carissa Moore, and Danny MacAskill.

With the release of the highly anticipated film Art of Flight Rice's willingness and ability to push the limits of backcountry snowboarding is on display for all. Big Mountain Snowboarding has gained a lot of attention in the past several months with Rice leading the way. Rice has developed into one of the best all-around snowboarders in the world: He is equally capable of showing up at X Games to win slope style gold as he is in pioneering a first descent in the remote Darwin Range on the tip of South America.
Check out his Adventure of the Year Interview


In only her second year on tour the 19-year-old Hawaiian Carissa Moore became the youngest person ever to win the world title of Surfing stopping Steph Gilmore's consecutive title streak. Later this month Moore will be the first woman in the modern era to compete in the Men's Triple Crown of Surfing in Hawaii.
Check out her Adventure of the Year Interview


Danny MacAskill brought the sport of urban trail riding to the mainstream in the way of a viral video which was viewed over 27 million times. This year MacAskill released the short film Industrial Revolutions--which featured him riding through Scotland's abandoned factories, leaping between train cars, and riding across two-inch beams suspended 15 feet above concrete. The short was a hit once again bringing urban trail riding to the mainstream making MacAskill a household name.
Check out his Adventure of the Year Interview


The complete list of nominees includes seasoned world wanderer Alastair Humphreys, Climber Cory Richards, Hiker Jennifer Pharr Davis, Kayakers Jon Turk and Erik Boomer, Mountaineer Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, Skier Nick Waggoner, and Lakpa Tsheri Sherpa and Sano Babu Sunuwar.

The list is staked with deserving adventures so head over to Nat Geo, do you homework and vote for this years Adventure of the Year.

*Editor's note: In light of the recent ASP drama, I enlisted the brain of a good friend of mine, Ben Perreira, who having worked behind the scenes in the surf industry, including the 'rebel tour', has quite the expert perspective on the subject. These words are his:

Brodie Carr had the unfortunate task of taking the reins of the ASP after a period of tremendous luck on the part of professional surfing. Kelly was back in the competitive sphere, Andy Irons was challenging and beating him for world titles, and the Aussie depth chart looked like that coming out of Brazil today. Contests were held in epic conditions at epic locations and were broadcast - via the Interwebs!

One has to doubt Brodie would have guessed that over the next six years he'd take a shellacking by fans and surfers alike for questionable event locations, then fumble the mathematical football at the goalline before resigning following a secret ASP Board meeting at a hotel in San Francisco.

For all of the critics of the ASP, few seem to offer alternatives. After all, the ASP was just following the evolution of the sport from the old barrel-carve-float to alley oop-gouge-barrel-air reverse. KellySlater could barely do airs in 2005 (love ya, KS!) and today he is one of the best and most consistent aerialists on tour. The "beachbreak tour" has created some of the most exciting events in memory, especially with reefbreak events like Teahupo'o mixed in. The ASP has also done a great job of expanding the sport into new territories by sanctioning events in Mexico, China, Peru and Italy.

Going forward the ASP has a chance to right the path of theship under the guise of a new CEO. Making the ASP function more like a professional governing body will lead to greater outside recognition and foster a more transparent, democratic process of determining wave locations, competitive formats, and judging criteria.

Here's where we can start:

Control the webcasts
Change in the eyes of fans starts with the webcasts. They should be centralized and feature the same neutral and respected commentators at every event. The ASP should have a dedicated team to market and present the webcast, leaving the event sponsor the opportunity to brand the feed of the webcast and physical event site. Does MetLife Stadium get to take over ESPN because the Jets are on Monday Night Football? Of course not. Brands sponsor the content, but they don't control the platform.

In this legitimacy is where latent value lies for event sponsors. Having to locate our browsers to http://www.live.ripcurl.com/index.php?Search2011LiveControl is hardly the way to build an audience. A destination website (asplive.com is available) with a simple user interface will allow fans to bookmark and return to a site for content at any time, on any device, from anywhere in the world.

The rising tide lifts all boats, they say. If the brands wish to attain greater legitimacy outside - and inland of - Orange County, Coolagatta, Florianopolis and Hossegor, they must allow the ASP to display a credible, unified media platform.

Maintain a balance of reefbreak, pointbreak and beachbreak locations.
Fans and surfers will always complain about event locations. The locations will have to be flexible enough to accommodate current surfing trends while acknowledging surfing's heritage. Non-surf fans will always be more impressed with Nathan Fletcher's beast of awave at Teahupo'o than by Jordy's fierce carves and tweaked airs, but who gives a shit? Core fans and participants in any sport will always recognize the subtleties that exist therein more than outsiders will.

Slice and dice event sponsorship inventory
One of the attacks on the "Rebel Tour" format was that it didn't provide a clear path from junior pro contests to World Title super stardom. This issue was a legitimate concern that may have proven the final straw leading to its dissolution, but what about the control exhibited by the brand oligarchy that dominates ASP events today? Likewise, there is no "clear path" to sponsor or co-sponsor an ASP event because the rights inventory is relatively flat. That is, there are few sponsorship options for an incoming brand aside from dropping a couple million dollars on a World Tour event.

Centralizing the control of media distribution within the ASP and creating new sponsorship units will help solve this issue and will bring in outside brands.

For example, a brand like Vita Coco would likely be interested in further activating its surf marketing strategy by sponsoring the beach interviews for all World Tour events. Currently, because title sponsors own sponsorship rights, Vita Coco would have to go to each brand individually to negotiate sponsorship rights. This would be quite an expensive practice, not to mention a risk to content delivery given the lack of central (ASP) media ownership.

Going forward the only plausible way for an outside brand to sponsor surf events should be by going directly to the governing body and purchasing a custom, full-year package covering allevents. This affords a brand the repeated exposure it needs to get its message to the audience.

The purpose of this piece is not to knock the ASP or the top brands in the sport. It's quite the opposite, actually. The brands have contributed to our enjoyment of surfing by sponsoring exciting athletes, which leads to free pre-shred content for us to froth to. They have sponsored events that have been risky (NY and SF), exciting and innovative. The problem is that the ASP will not grow professional surfing beyond its current size if the brands continue to control all of its activities. Opening the doors to more brands, inside and outside of the surf industry, creates more value and legitimacy for those that sponsor World Tour events.

I am optimistic that the ASP will use a changing of the guard to make positive changes. Surf fans will forget about the mathematical error just as we forgot about the "cutoff-gate" once Medina, Pupo and Florence came in with guns a-blazing. The solutions are relatively simple; every other sport's governing body has implemented them. The ball is in your court, ASP.

With the winter storm season approaching and big north swells on the way, it's time for Clark Little to go to work -- in what might be the world's most unusual job for an artist.

Little, a former botanical gardens supervisor and big-wave surfer from Hawaii, has gained fame as an artist photographing monstrous waves at Oahu's Waimea Bay -- from the inside, looking out.

His specialty is Waimea's violent shore-pound, but the "Shorebreak Art of Clark Little" reflects the surreal beauty of the waves, not their violent nature. No two waves are alike; each reveals different shapes, colors and patterns, and Little, by placing himself within them -- as tumultuous as that can be -- is able to capture the essence of the waves' beauty.

"I've always enjoyed getting thrashed around," he says of his topsy-turvy livelihood.

Little's unique subject matter and special talent are making him famous. Last year his work was displayed in the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. He was named winner in the "Oceans" category of the prestigious Winland Smith Rice International Awards.

He has opened two galleries, one in Haleiwa near his home on Oahu, and more recently in Laguna Beach, Calif. He has appeared on major network morning shows and his art has graced the pages of numerous nature publications.

More recently, in these hard times, his colorful and inspirational work has been requested for display in churches for Sunday sermons, according to his publicist. Fortune 500 companies have signed licensing agreements with Little and so has legendary big-wave surfer Laird Hamilton, who is using a Little image for packaging his new line of coffee.

"It's all still a little hard to believe," said Little, who is known by friends as the "accidental artist" because of the manner by which he became a photographer.

His career began when his wife, Sandy, brought home a store-bought photo of a wave four years ago.

"I said, 'What are you doing buying photos of waves? I'm a surfer. Stop spending money and I'll go out and shoot my own," Little recalled.

As a surfer at fabled Waimea Bay, Little was known for riding giant offshore waves through a deep-water channel, where they flattened out, until they reformed close to the beach. He'd then tuck beneath their heaving lips as they crashed thunderously close to and sometimes even onto the sand.

This shorebreak was where Little produced, with a cheap waterproof camera, a photo for the wall of his home. He discovered he had a knack for photography and has since honed his craft with top-line equipment. That shorebreak is now his primary studio.

"Surfing was pushed aside," he said. "Once in a blue moon I still go out but I can spend four hours shooting and not even thinking about surfing. It's still just thinking about getting that perfect wave, but as a photographer."

Little lives for the north swells that winter storms deliver. He waits for the shorebreak waves to measure 8-15 feet. He either treads water in this zone, wearing swim fins, or he runs along the waterline and tucks beneath the hurtling lips of water, shooting rapid-fire sequences with a trigger-activated hand-held camera.

His images portray the shorebreak's powerful dynamics -- the sucking up of sand and water; a thorough churning that stirs up food for turtles and other critters of the surf zone -- but in an artful depiction.

He acknowledges that his is a dangerous profession; many times he has been sucked upward and hurtled onto the beach. But he says he would not trade this career for any other.

"I'm still rambunctious, ambitious and having a blast," he explained. "I have two kids and a beautiful wife. I'm lucky enough to do this and I'm going to make the most of it and keep enjoying life."

-- Images are courtesy of Clark Little and protected by copyright laws

Most internet users have an attention span per page of under a minute, and considering the mountain of surf porn that I have to show you, I think it's best if we just get right into it, no fore-play.

The preferred means of transportation while island hopping through Indonesia is the motorbike, not to be confused with the motorboat, which has nothing to do with boats or traveling.



LNF: Alex Smith in SUMBAWA! from Lastnamefirst.tv on Vimeo.


How come all the Innersection entries are from guys? I doubt I'm the only one that would like to see Alana's inner section.



Fall Qualifiers from INNERSECTION on Vimeo.


This clip reminds me of the scene in Endless Summer 2 when Pat O'connel surfs the French Beachies with Curren, but keeps getting distracted by French boobies. Except Marc Lacomare here does airs.



Fun at Home from French Connexion on Vimeo.

Cali kids Alex Gray and Android Doheny trade hot chicks for dingos in West Oz.



Mitch Crews kinda sounds like Tom Cruise. He should run with that.



Mitch!!! from LEAF on Vimeo.

Did you know it's literally impossible to get arrested for public indecency in San Francisco?



In any relationship, when things begin to get stale, it's important to experiment a little, you know, spice things up. Here we have Maui Boys Meola and Layer turning some new tricks..



Secrets/Lanes from albee layer on Vimeo.


Considering you won't be seeing this stretch of coastline in any mags or videos for 2 years, you can consider this video the break-up-sex.