Winter in San Diego… not a bad place to be. The full sequence is posted up at hydrodynamica, photos taken by Patrick Trefz. Check them out.

Ever wondered what it looks like to get burned by a sponger while you’re stuck in the barrel? Mark Mathews posted this sequence up on his website Chasing Chalk. He has the full play-by-play and more shots there.

It’s rubber month over at mesurf’s online mag. The have a couple good articles up already with more to come.

• Evolution of wetsuits
• The ECO wetsuit lines
• Wetsuit design
• The innovation of the chest zip
• What GBS means
• How to choose the right fitting wetsuit
• And much  more…

Mid month they’re dropping a large independent wetsuit guide, looking at 11 of the top wetsuits in the market for 2010.

I got a chance to talk with Ryan Moss about the clip he put together with Nat Young for Innersection. Ryan is currently on Maui hanging out with Ian Walsh and covering Ian’s Menehune Surf Contest.

How would you describe Nat? It seems like a lot of people don’t know much about him.

Hmm, Nat Young. Young. Freckled face, amazing backhand, absolute heckler, and super quiet until you get to know him. Once you do pretty much anything goes. He’s actually really witty. He’s the reason why everyone calls me Spock and Nate Lawerence Shrek. He’s energetic and never wants to stop surfing. He’s pretty much super stoked to surf all day every day. And if he’s not surfing, he’s playing Call of Duty.

What lead to the decision to make a section with Nat?

Nat and I became friends a couple winters ago. I first met him in Hawaii and convinced him and Peter Mel’s family to go to this remote wedge reef / sand bar wave. Nat needed no convincing and like I said, he was super stoked to surf all day, every day. After that, we made a piece for Surfline, surfing around home, and that was our first time really working together. Over the past couple years, I have been building my career working with Fox Clothing and Chris Drummy but still found time to shoot with Nat.

This winter we heard the rumors of this new Taylor Steele project. We both had our own projects going on and didn’t really give it much thought. We got back from Hawaii and I was trying to spend time with my family because it seems I never get to do much of that these days. But then the Innersection website launched and Nat came to show me. I thought about it for a second and said game on. The first day we shot together was for the harbor mouth section. I felt we had a good foundation from that point. Nat was leaving to Oz, giving us about 2 weeks to film and edit the rest.

Did you have any visions for the section before you started filming?

Hah, no, I had no vision. I kind of stumble and fumble my way through each project I do. There is no real formula to any of the process. It’s just pure madness. Everything seems to work out in the end though, which is nice.

How did the editing process go?

Nat was really involved, from picking the waves to selecting the music. I had a song picked, but Rosie (Nat’s mom) found another. My song got vetoed and now that I look back, I’m glad it did, it would have been too boring. When I first heard Rosie’s song, I knew it was going to be an editor’s nightmare. I had to cut up the song into the three segments and I have no music editing background so that was a mess. I think I did a C- job of it, but it worked.

We knew we were missing something halfway through the edit so we turned to Nike 6.0 and Lucas Wimer. They bailed us out by giving us the Bali waves. I can’t thank them enough. Between them and Kieran Horn of O’Neill, all this became a reality for both me and Nat. They helped promote and market the whole thing as well.

Now that you have some more time, are you planning on busting out something on a whole new level? And win the $100,000 of course.

Oh gawd, yeah I don’t know. I told everyone in the beginning when Nathan Myers interviewed me that I can’t film or edit so we’re really relying on Nat’s surfing ability to pull us through. That’s still 100% true. I don’t really know what I have up my sleeve. I will say though, after talking with Mike Losness and Zac Brown, the sky pretty much is the limit. I’m not joking on that one. Basically I want some really good surfing mixed with a bit more personality and humor.

I loved the song you used, but apparently everyone else hated it. Did you think it was going to be such a controversial subject?

When I heard the song I knew people were either going to love it or hate it. But what are you going to tell your surfer and his mom who both love it? I lied and gave them full assurance that the song was good. I may have been at Hooters and 5 big beers deep when I told them that. I may have also had three more after to ease my nerves about the song.

There were complaints about the quality of waves in the section. Do you think the final section will have a lot of Santa Cruz footage?

Honestly, probably maybe? Actually I’m 100% sure it’s going to be 1/2ft waves with 3/4ft airs, all wharf footage. *laughs* No, we have some trips lined up already. I would like to include some footage from home but I think some new places in the southern region are going to dominate the section.

There was big drama about view counts, vote begging, and the whole process being a popularity contest. How’d it all work out for you and how stressful were those two weeks?

Two most stressful weeks of my life. I was checking the ratings and feedback every day to make sure we were still in it. I told all my friends, family, frat brothers from college, went door to door, threw a St. Patty’s day party. Anything to get votes. At one point I felt it had become too much of a popularity contest and not a contest about the product that was being presented on screen. I think Nathan and Taylor did a good job at sorting it all out and made the right calls.

There were times I’d read something from one of the experts… and shit I’d wish I never got involved. I also was in Florida shooting and editing a major marketing video for DNA energy drink. It was to be presented to all their investors, distributors, and what not. You think I felt that pressure come down on me? Hell yeah I did. I remember I couldn’t sleep and my girlfriend hated me. *laughs* Not really, she was super supportive. Towards the end, I found myself trying to do anything to keep my mind off of all of it.

Any other sections make a big impression for you?

I was blown away by Tom Aiello’s section with Mike Losness. I thought that whole idea and the way it was executed was insane. All the sections were great in their own way.

Thanks Ryan. If anyone hasn’t already, check out the section on Innersection.TV

RYOBI has partnered with the ad agency BMF Sydney to come up with this clever set of advertisements for their power tools. Someone over there gets it.

-JY- over at Liquid Playground has been on fire, getting some ridiculously gorgeous photos in Socal. Check them out liquidplayground.blogspot.com

Yeah, you want to surf perfect Pipe? Nic Muscroft over at MOBORUSH shows what that wonderful reef will do to your board alone, just on the paddle out. Watch those fingers on the duck dives.

The Daily Bread blog out of Newport Beach posts up epic images from every little bump of a swell to come through. Gets you stoked to to go surf for sure. Check them out.

Aaron Lieber’s first film, The Pursuit, was the sickest movie I saw last year, and he’s hard at work on The Pursuit II. Here’s a sneak peak at some of the footage, Torrey Meister going big.

Surf photographer Kyle Sparks has a couple new shots from some surf sessions he’s been scoring. Check out his work at kylesparks.com