I settled in for what I'd hoped was a nice informative read written by the magazine's Assistant Editor, Brian King, but by the time I finished, left me wanting more. Don't get me wrong, it's a very good article for what it is about the current surf club scene with a bit of history thrown in, I just wished Mr. King had ventured farther a field to talk with more representatives from the various clubs to get a fuller representation and present a wider spectrum of material.

For starters, every photo presented (12 of 'em) was from this year's "Gathering of the Tribes" contest held January 5th and 6th at Church and sponsored by the Doheny Longboard Surfing Association. I would have preferred a sampling of photos from each of the seven Coalition Tournaments held this past year in order to give the reader a broader perspective of the various spots the events take place. Each has a unique character and flavor worth sampling, from the Memorial Weekend Classic at Steamer Lane in the North, to the San Miguel Invitational down in Baja to the South. A simple phone call to each of the seven sponsoring clubs would have yielded a cornucopia of excellent images, all gladly supplied. The section on the history of the Windansea Surf Club and their rivalry with the Malibu club at Malibu's own break could have been an excellent opportunity to show at least one historic photo from that time period, though nary a photo appeared. It seems to me a great opportunity squandered.

As a member of the Pacific Beach Surf Club, I feel a wee bit slighted. You could say that I have a dog in this fight, and of course, you'd be right. There was no mention of my club, nor much from any of the other 45 clubs listed on the Coalition of Surfing Club's website (http://www.surfclubs.org/ ), save for a quote here and there from a sprinkling of club officers. At the very least, a sidebar listing all the clubs in the Coalition would have been helpful, including the URL of each club's web address.

Question: Does this boil down to just plain sour grapes on my part, or do I have a point? Is the article fine as written and presented visually, or would you have liked to seen more too?

See you in the lineup!