Rip Curl announced that their annual Search event will be held in Peniche, Portugal, this year, which is home to Supertubes, a powerful A-frame barrel that is well exposed to any activity in the Atlantic. By choosing a relatively consistent break, the odds are this European event will get some solid surf, especially since Rip Curl has changed the timing of the event to coincide with Portugal's best swell window, which is in the Fall. By making this move, the Rip Curl Search event will now be the second to last stop on tour. That means if the title hasn't sewn up the title yet, there's a good chance he, or his rivals, will have a good shot at it by then.

The annual Rip Curl Search event is the ASP's only roaming contest, and thus, the source of a great angst for competitors, organizers and of course, locals in each region who are profoundly impacted by the world showing up on their doorstep each year. The Search event scored flawless Mainland Mexico in its first year out, much to the dismay of longtime travelers to Barra De La Cruz, who have seen crowds explode ever since.

This is the fifth year of the event, with its previous stops in Reunion Island, Mainland Mexico, Chile and Bali. Two years ago there was a lot of talk about holding the event at Gnarloo, in Western Australia, but after watching what happened in Mexico in 2006, locals banded together to make sure they could keep their sacred break off the global radar. Rip Curl moved the event to Chile that year, which, frankly, was the one time the waves didn't really measure up to Search standards.

With Portugal on the schedule now, there are two ASP world tour events slated for breaks called "Supertubes". The first in in South Africa, for the Billabong Pro, which takes place next month. Time will tell which break ends up more deserving of the title, but Mick Fanning seems interested on weighing in. "I had a chat to my mate Tiago Pires [Portugal's first ASP World Tour surfer] and he told me the waves in his area are world class."

The Southern California grom circuit kicked into high gear last week as the western regional of Rip Curl's grom search went down in Huntington Beach. The hottest young surfers on the west coast and Hawaii lit up the shifty peaks of 9th Street in HB, which was firing thanks to an early season combo swell. As reported earlier, Taylor Thorne, Colin Moran, Kanoa Igarashi and Lakey Peterson took top honors after some hard fought battles.

Rip Curl's Grom Search does live up to its billing. It's by far one of the best events to seek and find the surfers of the future. Last weeks winners were but a sliver of the talent on hand which we're all likely to be hearing about in the near future. Each division is stacked, but what's most surprising these days is just how much talent resides in the 12 and under division, which, frankly, the Hawaiians have a major grip on right now, as proven in Huntington as three of the four finaalists call paradise home. Kanoa Igarashi, Kalani David and Landon McNamara were all gunning for the win over the lone Californian, Jacob Davis.




Of course the 16 and 14 and under divisions were pretty damn impressive as well, with the move of the event belonging to Malibu's Andrew Jacobson, who pulled a ridiculous aerial reverse. The move earned him the "H20 Overdrive Maneuver of the Event" which was good for an extra $100 cash. This week, they're all heading down to Lower Trestles for the NSSA Nationals, which got underway Tuesday in glassy 3-foot conditions. The fireworks show will be going all week.

Nationals will be followed up next week with the Nike 6.0 Pier Presssure Pro Junior. The 4-grade event is the biggest Pro Junior event of the season in North America, and will feature the likes of Kai Barger, Dillon Perillo, Nat Young, Kolohe Andino and Andrew Doheny to name a few. Naturally, the scouts will be out in force taking notes.

Every surf perv's favorite surfer, Alana Blanchard, is featured in the latest issue of Rolling Stone, and of course she's in her signature tiny bikini bottoms. She says in the article that she doesn't think their that small, and I agree with her. She could probably go a little smaller. I don't want to write too much about this though, she is from Hanalei, which means she has some wolves that keep an eye on her.

Let's not forget, though, that she is on the Women's WCT tour, which in case you don't know is the big leagues. She's like the Anna Kournikova of surfing. Or maybe not, I don't know how good Kornikova does on the court, but I do know Blanchard throws tail in the water. The pundits love her bottom turns.