Body of missing ballooning priest found

The body of Father Adelir Antonia de Carli was found by a tugboat off the coast of Brazil recently. DNA testing has confirmed the identity of the body. It's a sad end to a stunt we reported about earlier. RIP Father Adelir.

Sailboat capsizes near the Golden Gate Bridge

screengrab from CBS5News

Wingit, a Corsair F-27 Trimaran, capsized and three crew members were rescued near the Golden Gate bridge this afternoon. There is some interesting footage of the rescue on the local CBS affiliate's web site.
Good news is that nobody was reportedly hurt.
The trimaran is owned by Ray Wells and is raced out of Alameda. They've won several races over the years and are out on the bay a lot. We've seen them out many times.

It's pretty unusual for a multihull boat to go over, but when it does, it stays that way. It's unclear from the video what happened but the retractable keel is not showing. It may have broken off or is more likely back up inside the hull.

The boat is a popular trailerable trimaran that has foldable amas (outriggers).
For more about the boat and it's racing history check out the Bay Area Multihull Associations website

Surfer's mother sues gang over his beating death

photo by Peter King (from surfer magazine)

This is an update to the Emory Kauanui story we covered earlier. The San Diego Union Tribune is reporting that Emory's mother is suing the members of the "Bird Rock Bandits" gang for wrongful death. In other words, for beating him to death in front of his home last May.
She is also after the owner of the "The Brew House" bar where the altercation began.
BTW We're not very supportive of suing a bar over a fight. Hopefully that part will be thrown out.

Most of the gang members have made deals with the prosecutor but Seth Cravens still stands to be tried on murder charges.

We're pretty sick of surf culture being sullied by people like these guys who don't really even surf. We know that Emory wasn't the nicest guy out on the break either.

In California and Hawaii we have a really big problem with violent and otherwise just bad behavior by a small number of truly nasty surfers and their friends. This is both out on the waves and back on land. Just a few haters have ruined a lot of otherwise great times out on the waves for a lot of laid back and kind people.
If you have any stories, tell em here...

Pirate fishing ship wrecks on famed Bali surf break

photo by Jon/Uluwatuphoto

Some amazing photos from Surfline showing the wreck of the 115 ft Taiwanese ship Ho Tsai Fa BJ4699 against the reef at Padang Padang in Bali.

Greenpeace reported that the ship is an illegal longliner and had been chased for months around the coast of Java.
Greenpeace has a video of the ship on youtube.

Local surfers and environmentalists tried to tow the ship off the reef during a recent high tide but were unable to get enough local cooperation to make it work. Sadly, the ship is probably going to be in the surf break for many years to come.
The World Surfing Championship in Bali has already been canceled due to the wreck.

The break seems surfable but the ensuing mess from fuel and oil has ruined things for quite a while.
Perhaps the only silver lining is that the ship is no longer illegally fishing and the catch was still frozen when it landed, providing the local village with all the fish they could stand for a while.
Let's hope the ship breaks up soon or heads up higher onto the reef where it won't mess up this world class break.

Adventure Racing Athletes to search for Steve Fossett

Update: the racers covered 100 sq kilometers but didn't find the plane. It will help to know that area was covered but the mystery goes on.

We've been away

We've been traveling all over the very smokey west coast of the USA doing all kinds of summer sports instead of working and writing. Here are some links to some Biggest Room-worthy stories while we catch up...
Shark leaps from water just yards from surfers

Unofficial Mount Rainier speed record setSurfer paddles up to molten lava

Surfer paddles up to molten lava

Climber injured on Rainier

photo via www.alpinedave.com/mt_rainier/rainier.html

Mitchell Bell was climbing with a party of 5 up the Kautz Glacier route on Rainier when he fell into a crevasse and was injured yesterday afternoon. His group summoned the help of guides from Alpine Ascents International. He was airlifted off the mountain this morning with a Chinook helicopter. He reportedly suffered some broken teeth and broken ribs. Link

Trip Report - Rainier Climb

Greetings.
I've been off the computer and up in Rainier National Park for the past week. A team of climbers that I met on the John Muir Trail last year summited Rainier via the Emmons Glacier Route on Wed, June 25. I was supposed to be with them but got pretty sick during the previous week and had to bail at a the parking lot. It was a smart move as it turned out to be pneumonia!
Feeling *much* better after buying $150 worth of antibiotics.
Here are some pictures of the trip. I'll post some more once the guys post their actual climbing pictures.
I'm going to try again. Either later this year or early next. Stand by...