vol. 22, no. 145, Oct. 23-30, 2008

ON THE COVER: The Indy‘s de facto surf editor and self-proclaimed “weather junky” Ethan Stewart has been tracking waves on the Internet for 15 years. So when Santa Barbara’s surfing community started seriously connecting via the Web over the past couple years, he was watchingand taking notes. For this week’s surf issue, Stewart “Internets the surf” to bring you a review of S.B.surf-related sites, which starts here. During his research, Stewart actually found a picture of himself surfing, which was “completely unexpected.” Such surprises aside, the Cape Cod native remains happily Luddite-like. “I don’t like the Internet. I think it makes us weak,” he said. “Surfing is appealing because it puts you in tune with nature, and the Internet allows you to cheat that. It’s a degree of separation from the experience of life.” Not missing that experience, clearly, is surfer Brandon Smith slipping into the curl on this week’s cover photograph, “You Are Too Deep,” shot by good friend and emerging filmmaker Morgan Maassen.