I was supposed to surf yesterday morning, but it was too cold. I stayed in bed, nice, warm, cozy. It's been really really cold lately. But, as with everything in life, it's all relative. Can you imagine being one of these lunatics...surfing in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, in Lake Michigan? Freezing. Plus their waves, sorry to say it, are pretty weak. Once you put that in perspective, waking up and getting out of bed in 40ish degree weather to go surf perfect head high California waves seems a heck of a lot more appealing...I'll try not to be so lazy next time.
The Sheboygan WI surf crew (whose most famous member is w/o a doubt Chicken Joe, winner of the prestigious Big Z surf invitational, and also Surfing Mags #1 "Most interesting surfer of 2007"):
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Session 9 - January 29 - Dunes
January 29, 8 - 8:30, Dunes State Beach, 6'8 Taylor
It had been way too long since my last surf, so Manabu and I just decided to go for it this morning. Our original destination Linda Mar was actually completely closed, which was unfortunate. Something about oil being found on the beach is what Manabu said, although I'm sure there was a lot of other unsavory things/crap floating in the water as well...but Oil, that's bad. I wonder where it came from and hope it is nothing too serious. So, we figured we'd keep on driving and maybe go to Montara. Montara was big and messy. We actually got out and suited up there, thinking we'd go anyways, but upon further inspection it just wasn't looking good, so we bailed on it, and drove further. Maybe the jetty will work, we thought. So, drove to the Jetty. And it wasn't working either. Small mixed up completely punchless surf coming through in a complete mess. OK, this isn't looking good, so last shot we'll go to Dunes and just get wet. Pulled into Dunes, it wasn't really working either, but at this point it was go time no matter what, so we went in. Water was brown and kind of stinky, and surf just wasn't doing it. No shape at all. Caught a couple whitewater reforms, one actually presented me with a little bit of something, but it was a lost session from the start. Stayed out for about 40 minutes and headed in, already very much looking forward to a warm clean shower back at work.
I used my new 6'8 Taylor. Bummer of a session to break it in with, couldn't get much of a feel for the board but I think it'll be good. Easy to duckdive at least!
Hoping to surf tomorrow at SC, although just got word this oil situation might have even made it's way down there as well...will have to wait and see what I can find out. What a mess!
Update! Now with pictures. Manabu has a little wrist cam thing he plays around with, took a few during our session, so now our forgettable junky surf experience will be immortalized in imagery for all eternity! Hooray!
This session was actually reminiscent of many India sessions. Outside of some magical moments, I saw similar junk washing machine conditions in far too many of my efforts to surf over there...plus the water was the same shade of brown. (Although quite a bit warmer I will add)
And this last one is a nice shot of my butt. Hello! It does illustrate something I think is sad but true, I'm still kind of kooky looking on my initial popup. I get up way bent over completely at the waist. I need to do a better job POPPING up, getting my feet centered underneath me and body weight balanced, not this bent over 90 degree angle butt-sticking out business evidenced here. Something to work on! (Add it to the list...)
Thanks for the pics Manabu! (Taken from M's own surf weblog)
It had been way too long since my last surf, so Manabu and I just decided to go for it this morning. Our original destination Linda Mar was actually completely closed, which was unfortunate. Something about oil being found on the beach is what Manabu said, although I'm sure there was a lot of other unsavory things/crap floating in the water as well...but Oil, that's bad. I wonder where it came from and hope it is nothing too serious. So, we figured we'd keep on driving and maybe go to Montara. Montara was big and messy. We actually got out and suited up there, thinking we'd go anyways, but upon further inspection it just wasn't looking good, so we bailed on it, and drove further. Maybe the jetty will work, we thought. So, drove to the Jetty. And it wasn't working either. Small mixed up completely punchless surf coming through in a complete mess. OK, this isn't looking good, so last shot we'll go to Dunes and just get wet. Pulled into Dunes, it wasn't really working either, but at this point it was go time no matter what, so we went in. Water was brown and kind of stinky, and surf just wasn't doing it. No shape at all. Caught a couple whitewater reforms, one actually presented me with a little bit of something, but it was a lost session from the start. Stayed out for about 40 minutes and headed in, already very much looking forward to a warm clean shower back at work.
I used my new 6'8 Taylor. Bummer of a session to break it in with, couldn't get much of a feel for the board but I think it'll be good. Easy to duckdive at least!
Hoping to surf tomorrow at SC, although just got word this oil situation might have even made it's way down there as well...will have to wait and see what I can find out. What a mess!
Update! Now with pictures. Manabu has a little wrist cam thing he plays around with, took a few during our session, so now our forgettable junky surf experience will be immortalized in imagery for all eternity! Hooray!
This session was actually reminiscent of many India sessions. Outside of some magical moments, I saw similar junk washing machine conditions in far too many of my efforts to surf over there...plus the water was the same shade of brown. (Although quite a bit warmer I will add)
And this last one is a nice shot of my butt. Hello! It does illustrate something I think is sad but true, I'm still kind of kooky looking on my initial popup. I get up way bent over completely at the waist. I need to do a better job POPPING up, getting my feet centered underneath me and body weight balanced, not this bent over 90 degree angle butt-sticking out business evidenced here. Something to work on! (Add it to the list...)Thanks for the pics Manabu! (Taken from M's own surf weblog)
Monday, January 28, 2008
No restraint
It's just way too easy to embed YouTube clips here on this blog. This clip doesn't really have anything special about it, I don't know who it is or where it is (UPDATE: I'm pretty sure it's Andy Irons), but it is some pretty nice surfing and all I have to do is copy and paste a link to put it in here...I can't help myself!
Thanks to niceness, one of the original surf blogs, where I took this clip from.
Thanks to niceness, one of the original surf blogs, where I took this clip from.
Weekend (NO) surf recap
Another lost weekend...what's up with that? It didn't stop raining all weekend, and the ocean was a complete bacteria-full mess. Unsurfable.
Friday night I drove down to Paul Nguyen's place in south San Jose for a poker game. He's an old time G buddy, quite a life. 9 guys, we played 2 tourneys, I was out like 5th or so in game 1, and finished 2nd in game two. Of course, just my luck, tournament 2 they decided would be a 'winner takes all', so I walked away with nothing for all my troubles. I lost with a pair of 3's to his pair of 4s. Board was A-3-4. Knew he didn't have the Ace but didn't figure he had the 4. Bummer -- we were pretty close in chips. I played decent although I did get lucky to actually win one A-9 hand I misplayed by not betting enough, at least according to coach Andy Chan, who gives excellent lessons in how to play emotional ultra aggressive NL poker.
Saturday slept in and drove over to SC w/ Selin around 1 or so. Raining. We hung out at home, had HUGE burritos for dinner, and went and watched 'Untraceable,' the latest psycho killer movie to be filmed in Portland, every psycho killers favorite place to live! (Mr. Brooks, The Hunted) 'Untraceable' was a good movie, creepy. But creepy good in a way I can watch, I didn't jump out of my seat too much which is good as Selin gets angry at me when I do. Then we went home and watched ANOTHER movie, we love movies! 'Gladiator' on the home theater. Maximus! Maximus! Maximus! I was Entertained!
Sunday woke up to more pouring rain. I put on raincoat and went for a walk. Were actually 5 crazies surfing the hook, but it wasn't any good and I didn't want to mess with it. Hung out at home some more, vacuumed, and dropped Selin off downtown. I went and drove around, checked west side spots, went to the Arrow shop and Rip Curl outlet, and then we drove back to Mt View last night instead of doing the morning traffic.
So, unfortunately, my surf tally remains stuck at a measly 8. Sun is out today so maybe tomorrow will be a go somewhere -- we'll see. I need it!
Friday night I drove down to Paul Nguyen's place in south San Jose for a poker game. He's an old time G buddy, quite a life. 9 guys, we played 2 tourneys, I was out like 5th or so in game 1, and finished 2nd in game two. Of course, just my luck, tournament 2 they decided would be a 'winner takes all', so I walked away with nothing for all my troubles. I lost with a pair of 3's to his pair of 4s. Board was A-3-4. Knew he didn't have the Ace but didn't figure he had the 4. Bummer -- we were pretty close in chips. I played decent although I did get lucky to actually win one A-9 hand I misplayed by not betting enough, at least according to coach Andy Chan, who gives excellent lessons in how to play emotional ultra aggressive NL poker.
Saturday slept in and drove over to SC w/ Selin around 1 or so. Raining. We hung out at home, had HUGE burritos for dinner, and went and watched 'Untraceable,' the latest psycho killer movie to be filmed in Portland, every psycho killers favorite place to live! (Mr. Brooks, The Hunted) 'Untraceable' was a good movie, creepy. But creepy good in a way I can watch, I didn't jump out of my seat too much which is good as Selin gets angry at me when I do. Then we went home and watched ANOTHER movie, we love movies! 'Gladiator' on the home theater. Maximus! Maximus! Maximus! I was Entertained!
Sunday woke up to more pouring rain. I put on raincoat and went for a walk. Were actually 5 crazies surfing the hook, but it wasn't any good and I didn't want to mess with it. Hung out at home some more, vacuumed, and dropped Selin off downtown. I went and drove around, checked west side spots, went to the Arrow shop and Rip Curl outlet, and then we drove back to Mt View last night instead of doing the morning traffic.
So, unfortunately, my surf tally remains stuck at a measly 8. Sun is out today so maybe tomorrow will be a go somewhere -- we'll see. I need it!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
+140
My surfboard selling empire is off to a good start. Yesterday I sold this board, a 6'6 Lost semigun pintail that I snagged off Craigslist a few weeks ago.
My price: $200
Sale price: $340
Plus I kept the new leash that came with the board too -- forgot I had left it in Santa Cruz so sold it without. So, + $140 and a new leash, not too shabby.
Even at $340, this board is still pretty much a steal for the right person. I just knew I probably wouldn't surf it much -- it's really a semigun pintail shape, made for some pretty hollow heavy surf which I don't get into much. It's probably only been used about 3 times -- in brand new condition. I took the wax off and shined it up, nice, clean sparkling white board. The guy who bought it from me just moved to the Mt View area from Inner Sunset OB. He said he wasn't really digging the south bay scene, too much of a drive to get to a surf, but that this would make a great OB board for him. Which is certainly right. I hope he gets some good use out of it. I did!
Learning is good
Things I just learned in my few minute Gmail conversation with sister Madeleine.
- Harvard students are hardly ever actually in class. She just finished a 2 week christmas vacation, and now she has another full week off before 2nd semester classes start. Live it up, sis.
- "layed" is not a word. I had to correct Maddy on this one. Like me, she too spent the entire day in bed...in her words: Madeleine: well i layed in bed all day tooo cuz i'm done with school. This one is tricky, but the correct usage would actually be " well I lay in bed all day too cuz I'm done with school and I'm a lazy bum." Sure sounds funny though. Nobody would actually say that. But there ya go. This website breaks it down pretty well for more explanation.
- The plural of 'cul de sac' is 'culs de sac.' Interesting. Crazy French words.
- Mom knows everything. Everything. Of course I know everything too, so I already knew this. But Maddy had to be reminded.
36 million!?!?!
Spending an entire sick day at home in bed = lots of YouTube clips. This clip is some pretty amazing guitar playing, but forget that, check out the number of views it has:
36,360,521. Yes 36 MILLION views! Plus one more for me today. Some guy wearing a hat playing guitar in what looks like his bedroom. 36 million views. Now that is amazing.
A little quick research shows that this is only the 10th most viewed alltime YouTube clip...the #1 video is this guy's "evolution of dance" clip, which is pretty good but I got a little tired of watching after a few minutes and hence only gets a link. 72,488,525 views!!!
36,360,521. Yes 36 MILLION views! Plus one more for me today. Some guy wearing a hat playing guitar in what looks like his bedroom. 36 million views. Now that is amazing.
A little quick research shows that this is only the 10th most viewed alltime YouTube clip...the #1 video is this guy's "evolution of dance" clip, which is pretty good but I got a little tired of watching after a few minutes and hence only gets a link. 72,488,525 views!!!
siccle cell
Stayed home from work today. Night before last I really started feeling pretty terrible, hardly slept at all that night, went to work yesterday but only cuz I had some meetings and calls I had to do, made it through those until 4:30 and then was outta there. Selin took care of me, brought me chicken noodle soup and some biscuits, tylenol, all that good stuff...it's good to be well cared for, thanks sweetie. Slept a little better last night but still feeling bad, so took the day off. Stayed in bed til 2:30, finally got up and moved all the way to the couch. Made some more chicken noodle soup and now I'm trying to find something good on TV. Feeling better though.
More importantly this sickness has put me even further behind pace to meet my 150 session goal. That goal is looking harder and harder to achieve with each passing day! I'll give it some more time and hopefully I can gain some ground somewhere.
More importantly this sickness has put me even further behind pace to meet my 150 session goal. That goal is looking harder and harder to achieve with each passing day! I'll give it some more time and hopefully I can gain some ground somewhere.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
awesome
This is awesome:
If I ever had a baseball card, I'd want to do that too. Surf's up Tim Flannery, you rule, bro!!!
Image courtesy of JoeSportsFan.com's "Worthless Card Collection" which has kept me very entertained for the past 5 minutes.
In other news, our work cube was just shocked w/ the news that Heath Ledger has died. We had a sad moment about this, my favorite Heath Ledger movie is "10 Things I Hate About You."
If I ever had a baseball card, I'd want to do that too. Surf's up Tim Flannery, you rule, bro!!!
Image courtesy of JoeSportsFan.com's "Worthless Card Collection" which has kept me very entertained for the past 5 minutes.
In other news, our work cube was just shocked w/ the news that Heath Ledger has died. We had a sad moment about this, my favorite Heath Ledger movie is "10 Things I Hate About You."
"And you went to Harvard!?" Get ready Maddy
In honor of prodigy little sister the Harvard student, I give you the following link: which is Conan O'Brien's commencement speech to the Harvard class of 2000. I didn't know Conan went to Harvard. But this was pretty funny.
Maddy doesn't read my blog (does anybody? Other than me? Probably not, unless they surf, and spend a lot of time on the internet), but if she did, I'd tell her to read this post.
Maddy doesn't read my blog (does anybody? Other than me? Probably not, unless they surf, and spend a lot of time on the internet), but if she did, I'd tell her to read this post.
Session 8 - January 20 - 2nd Peak
Jan 20, 2nd Peak, 2-4 pm - 7'6 Kingfish
Quick update on this one, as work is calling my name -- that red light on my phone is staring at me, indicating I have a message to check -- red light of doom...
In my ongoing quest to never surf the same board more than 3 times in a row I took out the ol' 7'6 ET Surf Kingfish Sunday afternoon. Paddled out at 38th but very quickly made my way over to the much more consistent and much more better 2nd peak. Again, not too crowded, and on this board, I can really catch a lot of waves. So I surfed my way over to that section picking off a couple fun ones on the way as they came to me -- got to love winter time, when those chest high waves can come through uncontested for, knowing there's another one coming not too long behind it...waves that 15 people would be paddling like mad for in the summer going unnoticed. So got a few of those to warm up. Then paddled out to furthest out 2nd peak and waited for some good ones. Got one good one, went back out. I'm pretty courteous with my positioning and don't sit inside of somebody if they've been waiting longer, probably more so than I need to be, but it's annoying when people paddle right around you and take your wave. So I was doing that and a wave peaked up in front of me and this other guy who had position on me, he turned to start going for it but then saw me and said you go, go, so, Go i went! Thanks buddy! It was a great wave. It's fun out there because it's like every wave I get is an opportunity to be the best wave of my life. I have so many more options in my surfing than ever before, it's really captivating, addicting...after getting a good one like that I'm frothing (to use a surf term) for more, non stop. Feed the beast!
OK that red light is still staring at me, time to get to work. Rainy cold weather started yesterday MLK day, waste of a solid Monday off work unfortunately as surf was crap as well. And is supposed to remain rainy and junky all week, but will do what I can to get a surf in when best possible.
Oh also got a new board this weekend! (New to me). 6'8 Taylor! It is awesome. Although I haven't surfed it yet, but it sure looks awesome in my living room. I'm a surfboard detective always sniffing out the best deals! (a broke surfboard detective! I aim to sell a board or 2 this week.)
UPDATE! Added a picture of the new board. Board just feels good -- I'm excited to use it. Bought it from a maybe 50 year old SC local who knows Pat Taylor and had it shaped...got a new one shaped with same dims and hence selling this one. 6'8 x 20.5 x 2 5/8. It's been used, but used carefully -- still in awesome shape, a great deal at $180...guy said it was his favorite board on recent Indo trips, hopefully some of that barrel mojo will rub off on little ol' me!
Quick update on this one, as work is calling my name -- that red light on my phone is staring at me, indicating I have a message to check -- red light of doom...
In my ongoing quest to never surf the same board more than 3 times in a row I took out the ol' 7'6 ET Surf Kingfish Sunday afternoon. Paddled out at 38th but very quickly made my way over to the much more consistent and much more better 2nd peak. Again, not too crowded, and on this board, I can really catch a lot of waves. So I surfed my way over to that section picking off a couple fun ones on the way as they came to me -- got to love winter time, when those chest high waves can come through uncontested for, knowing there's another one coming not too long behind it...waves that 15 people would be paddling like mad for in the summer going unnoticed. So got a few of those to warm up. Then paddled out to furthest out 2nd peak and waited for some good ones. Got one good one, went back out. I'm pretty courteous with my positioning and don't sit inside of somebody if they've been waiting longer, probably more so than I need to be, but it's annoying when people paddle right around you and take your wave. So I was doing that and a wave peaked up in front of me and this other guy who had position on me, he turned to start going for it but then saw me and said you go, go, so, Go i went! Thanks buddy! It was a great wave. It's fun out there because it's like every wave I get is an opportunity to be the best wave of my life. I have so many more options in my surfing than ever before, it's really captivating, addicting...after getting a good one like that I'm frothing (to use a surf term) for more, non stop. Feed the beast!
OK that red light is still staring at me, time to get to work. Rainy cold weather started yesterday MLK day, waste of a solid Monday off work unfortunately as surf was crap as well. And is supposed to remain rainy and junky all week, but will do what I can to get a surf in when best possible.
Oh also got a new board this weekend! (New to me). 6'8 Taylor! It is awesome. Although I haven't surfed it yet, but it sure looks awesome in my living room. I'm a surfboard detective always sniffing out the best deals! (a broke surfboard detective! I aim to sell a board or 2 this week.)
UPDATE! Added a picture of the new board. Board just feels good -- I'm excited to use it. Bought it from a maybe 50 year old SC local who knows Pat Taylor and had it shaped...got a new one shaped with same dims and hence selling this one. 6'8 x 20.5 x 2 5/8. It's been used, but used carefully -- still in awesome shape, a great deal at $180...guy said it was his favorite board on recent Indo trips, hopefully some of that barrel mojo will rub off on little ol' me!
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Session 7 - January 19 - Sewers, 2nd Peak
Jan 19, 3:00-4:30, PP, 6'2 KG
Crowd wasn't too bad so I decided to take the fish out for it's maiden session amongst the PP masses. Turned into a pretty decent session, waves are just so nice out there. Said it before but I'll say it again, if only there were some lefts...
Got off to a less than stellar start when I dropped in on a guy on my very first wave. Not the best way to introduce myself to the small crowd out at a pretty competitive peak...I really didn't think the guy was going for this wave, but he did took off way behind the peak and must've worked around the section, completely didn't see him. I was quick to apologize, and he didn't say anything about it, just gave me the evil eye. Beats getting screamed at at least. But after that I did a lot better. Really wasn't too crowded so got a good # of waves, some good ones. Wiped out on a couple, I tend to bury the nose on that board once I'm up and trying to turn up the wave face. Still learning on this one...but did manage some nice open walled up fast waves and a few top turns on a very low tide. I found a little spot where I could sit out of the way a bit but still catch a lot. Good times!
Crowd wasn't too bad so I decided to take the fish out for it's maiden session amongst the PP masses. Turned into a pretty decent session, waves are just so nice out there. Said it before but I'll say it again, if only there were some lefts...
Got off to a less than stellar start when I dropped in on a guy on my very first wave. Not the best way to introduce myself to the small crowd out at a pretty competitive peak...I really didn't think the guy was going for this wave, but he did took off way behind the peak and must've worked around the section, completely didn't see him. I was quick to apologize, and he didn't say anything about it, just gave me the evil eye. Beats getting screamed at at least. But after that I did a lot better. Really wasn't too crowded so got a good # of waves, some good ones. Wiped out on a couple, I tend to bury the nose on that board once I'm up and trying to turn up the wave face. Still learning on this one...but did manage some nice open walled up fast waves and a few top turns on a very low tide. I found a little spot where I could sit out of the way a bit but still catch a lot. Good times!
Friday, January 18, 2008
bottle cap quotes 2
Another one from my Honest Tea bottlecap:
If we don't change the direction we are headed, we will end up where we are going.
-Chinese proverb
What direction am I headed?
If we don't change the direction we are headed, we will end up where we are going.
-Chinese proverb
What direction am I headed?
session 6 - January 18 - Linda Mar
Jan 18, 7:15-9:20, central LM, 6'2 KG Fish
Well, session turned out not any better than yesterdays, in fact I'd even call it worse, for some reason the wave shape was just pretty poor this morning. What we benefited in less closing out this morning was offset by overall general mushiness, and anything that wasn't complete mush was a close out, so it was a bit of a frustrating session. I'm not good enough on the 6'2 to make the most of those conditions -- plus I don't think thats really where a fish like that excels anyways. But excuses excuses -- the one good wave I should have got I completely wiped out on. Was a head high or so right very early in the session, in fact first wave of the day, that I caught, got up, and completely ate it as I was trying to cut back up the face of the wave. Just got a little overeager I guess, need to be smoother on that little board.
Met Paul, Colin, and Ramin all from work out there, but didn't really see them at all during the session, as I surfed all over the beach from the bathrooms to north of the bathrooms to taco bell. Was as crowded as I've seen LM on a weekday dawn patrol, actually pretty packed out there, which combined with the general poor conditions made for a disappointing session.
Plus to make matters worse I ran out of gas on 280 on the way to work. Scary place to run out of gas and be pulled over on the shoulder, cars go like 100 mph on that road. Well 100 is exaggerating, but 80 is very normal. Selin came to my rescue with a gas can and I made it to the nearest gas station -- thank you sweetie! All part of the new car research process though -- now I know exactly how far I can go with one bar left on my gas tank meter.
3 day weekend coming up, will be spending it in Santa Cruz. Hopefully get in several sessions to get me back on pace towards 150. See ya!
Well, session turned out not any better than yesterdays, in fact I'd even call it worse, for some reason the wave shape was just pretty poor this morning. What we benefited in less closing out this morning was offset by overall general mushiness, and anything that wasn't complete mush was a close out, so it was a bit of a frustrating session. I'm not good enough on the 6'2 to make the most of those conditions -- plus I don't think thats really where a fish like that excels anyways. But excuses excuses -- the one good wave I should have got I completely wiped out on. Was a head high or so right very early in the session, in fact first wave of the day, that I caught, got up, and completely ate it as I was trying to cut back up the face of the wave. Just got a little overeager I guess, need to be smoother on that little board.
Met Paul, Colin, and Ramin all from work out there, but didn't really see them at all during the session, as I surfed all over the beach from the bathrooms to north of the bathrooms to taco bell. Was as crowded as I've seen LM on a weekday dawn patrol, actually pretty packed out there, which combined with the general poor conditions made for a disappointing session.
Plus to make matters worse I ran out of gas on 280 on the way to work. Scary place to run out of gas and be pulled over on the shoulder, cars go like 100 mph on that road. Well 100 is exaggerating, but 80 is very normal. Selin came to my rescue with a gas can and I made it to the nearest gas station -- thank you sweetie! All part of the new car research process though -- now I know exactly how far I can go with one bar left on my gas tank meter.
3 day weekend coming up, will be spending it in Santa Cruz. Hopefully get in several sessions to get me back on pace towards 150. See ya!
Thursday, January 17, 2008
but...he's....!!!
Coworker sent me this today -- pretty hilarious.
Erik Weihenmayer is a famous mountain climber. He's climbed all of the seven summits, including Everest. He also gave a great keynote speech at a sales conference a few years back, amazing guy. But, as this newscaster points out, that's only half of the story, he's also...
Gay! hahaha, that cracks me up every time. Talk about blowing it!
Erik Weihenmayer is a famous mountain climber. He's climbed all of the seven summits, including Everest. He also gave a great keynote speech at a sales conference a few years back, amazing guy. But, as this newscaster points out, that's only half of the story, he's also...
Gay! hahaha, that cracks me up every time. Talk about blowing it!
Session 5 - January 17 - Linda Mar
Jan 17, 7:30-9:20, central LM, 6'2 KG Fish
Lots of closing out, lots of duck-diving. Rather unfortunate unmemorable session, other than for my eyes, which are still red and stinging from all the underwater time. Plus it was sunny out, so squinting. But that beats grey and rainy so I should never complain about nice clear blue sunny skies.
I had optimistic hopes for this morning driving over Sharp Park Road, that first sweeping view of the ocean is always an exciting moment. Stacked up lines of clean organized swell greeted me over the horizon...generally this means a good session is on hand. Unfortunately this weekend's swell must have done a number on the LM sandbars, so it was nothing more than one big beach of closeouts. Really was a lot of closeouts. Ripper saying "it's nothing but closeouts" closeouts. This guy was pretty good, wonder where he came from, was making the closeouts into barrels and when possible look as good as they coulda been made look. Anyways you get the picture I assume. Closeouts.
I caught a fewwaves closeouts but nothing really notable. I got very tired from paddling. There's a nice little rip to help get out though that we were utilizing, w/o that though it was a heckuva paddle. Wasn't really that big or anything, but just no escape anywhere from the walls of foam. I'm a serviceable duck-diver but definitely no standout in that category.
Going out tomorrow morning with Colin and Ramin and Paul from work, so hopefully things improve a bit. Still, always a good start to the day!
Update: I'm finishing this post an hour later after getting lunch. It's now 1:15 and my eyes are still red and stinging. I'm not stoned I promise!
Lots of closing out, lots of duck-diving. Rather unfortunate unmemorable session, other than for my eyes, which are still red and stinging from all the underwater time. Plus it was sunny out, so squinting. But that beats grey and rainy so I should never complain about nice clear blue sunny skies.
I had optimistic hopes for this morning driving over Sharp Park Road, that first sweeping view of the ocean is always an exciting moment. Stacked up lines of clean organized swell greeted me over the horizon...generally this means a good session is on hand. Unfortunately this weekend's swell must have done a number on the LM sandbars, so it was nothing more than one big beach of closeouts. Really was a lot of closeouts. Ripper saying "it's nothing but closeouts" closeouts. This guy was pretty good, wonder where he came from, was making the closeouts into barrels and when possible look as good as they coulda been made look. Anyways you get the picture I assume. Closeouts.
I caught a few
Going out tomorrow morning with Colin and Ramin and Paul from work, so hopefully things improve a bit. Still, always a good start to the day!
Update: I'm finishing this post an hour later after getting lunch. It's now 1:15 and my eyes are still red and stinging. I'm not stoned I promise!
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
by the numbers
days in a year: 365
days into 2008: 15
surf sessions: 4
average # of days per session: 3.75
required average # of days per session to meet 150 session goal: 2.4333
average # of days already behind pace: 1.3167
projected total # of sessions at current pace: 97.333
So I already have some catching up to do. I figure I'll gain some ground over weekends by getting in some double sessions, and I'm gonna get out there tomorrow and Thurs. But Las Vegas weekends don't help in meeting surfing goals. Las Vegas doesn't really help in meeting any kind of goals, for that matter, unless your goal is to lose sleep. And money.
days into 2008: 15
surf sessions: 4
average # of days per session: 3.75
required average # of days per session to meet 150 session goal: 2.4333
average # of days already behind pace: 1.3167
projected total # of sessions at current pace: 97.333
So I already have some catching up to do. I figure I'll gain some ground over weekends by getting in some double sessions, and I'm gonna get out there tomorrow and Thurs. But Las Vegas weekends don't help in meeting surfing goals. Las Vegas doesn't really help in meeting any kind of goals, for that matter, unless your goal is to lose sleep. And money.
Monday, January 14, 2008
bottle cap quotes
This quote was on the cap of my Honest Tea drink this morning. Which I drank because I'm exhausted and caffeine really does a number on my system, I'm wide awake now.
When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail.
-Abraham Maslow
I liked that quote.
Workday 1 post vegas -- strugglin'!!
When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail.
-Abraham Maslow
I liked that quote.
Workday 1 post vegas -- strugglin'!!
Friday, January 11, 2008
Friday bullets
A few update worthy things this morning.
- Mavericks! Contest is happening on Saturday. Lots of news/buzz around this event this year, more than I've ever seen before. Will be a madhouse out there Saturday as people try to go watch. They're encouraging people to stay home and watch the webcast or to go to AT&T park for the viewing party, to minimize the impact on the coast as hundreds of thousands of people trample down to Pillar Point.
- Monterey County Herald: Autopsy finds surfer high on meth at time of death near Pebble Beach. That is pretty insane, and also pretty sad. Not the way you would want to be remembered by.
- Vegas! I'm going to Vegas tonight. Staying with Noah before he moves to Vegas East, Macau. Andy and Joel are flying down from PDX, meet them at the airport and Noah's picking us up. Should be a fun visit and send off for Mr. Acres.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
whoa
Apparently this guy was on ESPN last night, as his team played UNC. That woulda been better to watch than Warriors-Blazers!
7 Feet 7 and 360 Pounds, With Bigger Feet Than Shaq’s
Better yet, Check out this DUNK! Throw it down big man!Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Warriors schwarmiors
Blazers flat out stomped the Warriors tonight. While I'm happy with the end result, I was actually a bit depressed in the game itself -- because it was never even close. Blazers came out gunning on all cylinders and Warriors didn't have a chance. And one thing that's struck me about the Warriors is if things aren't going well, often times they seem to quit a little bit. Baron Davis and SJax are a sight to behold when they're on...but when they're off, like tonight, they can sort of seem like crybabies. Blazers definitely had them crying tonight. Blazers 109, Warriors 91.
(the game was such a letdown, I only drank 2 of the Pacifico 6-pack I purposely stopped at Safeway on the way home to pick up. One beer a half? Yeah that's a stinker. Or I'm old. Or...both?)
(the game was such a letdown, I only drank 2 of the Pacifico 6-pack I purposely stopped at Safeway on the way home to pick up. One beer a half? Yeah that's a stinker. Or I'm old. Or...both?)
Session 4 - January 9 - Linda Mar
Jan 9, 7:20-8:35, north end LM, 8'10 Vernor -----> 4'5 Vernors
OK now that the mourning has passed for my broken board, I'll get down to posting this session report. It was a good session. Colin B and Ramin from work were out as well -- I was supposed to meet them at 7 in the parking lot but was a little late so they called and paddled out without me. I found them in the water, which was easy as there were only about 3 people total out at 7:20 (including them). We went out similar to same spot I was at yesterday. Conditions were good again, swell had picked up some and wind was down, so it wasn't as nice as yesterday, ie it was more of the normal closing out you expect from big LM, but there were still quite a few VERY nice waves to be had. I thought I was going to be in for a relatively easy paddle out, but the ocean thought otherwise, and it turned into about at least 10 duckdives and some heavy paddling to get outside. I was making the paddle with Ramin who had caught a wave as I was coming out, he's a nice guy and will hopefully make a good morning surf buddy. Colin as well when he gets down to LM, he goes to OB in the mornings a lot when conditions allow. Plus he always surfs such a small board (5'10 today) I dont know how he does it. I'd say he'd catch more waves with a few extra inches and float under him, but he gets by. My first wave was a good one, as was the case w/ that spot yesterday nice lefts being served up. Nice drop, good face, up to the top of the wave and back down again. Not much of a cutback as it's a pretty fast moving wave and I'm not the fastest moving surfer, plus I was longboarding. There were two guys getting some pretty nice cutbacks and some barrels too by the end (right before my board broke I saw a guy get totally shacked). I followed up that wave with another good one that I wiped out on (I'll blame it on Ramin, he was inside. And not really in the way, but I'll pretend he was), followed by several more good lefts. I'm definitely much more comfortable than I used to be, these waves had pretty solid size, overhead easy. On one I knew I was behind the peak but I took off anyways, thinking maybe I can be cool and backdoor this thing, but I couldn't -- it really wasn't much of a section in front of me, more like an entire close out. But I would've never tried that before, so I'll count it as progress.
The sad ending to my session started out with me turning and taking an early wave in what turned out to be a monster set. I was a little bit late on it, but stuck the drop and actually wound up in a big barrel, biggest of my life, straight stand up, no laying/crouching/pigdogging or nothing, this was a legit standup barrel/(closeout) that I might have had a chance to make it out of (i can't tell when I'm in it -- I'm not to the point where I really have much awareness about what I'm doing when I'm in these barrel situations. It's not like the thought process is in my head: "if I do this or this, I'll be able to get out of that little opening there." It's more like "crap there is water coming around me everywhere whoa this is awesome I'm in a barrel" and then boom I'm underwater and getting tossed around), but I didn't. I felt the water dumping all over me and wiped out...leaving me directly in the impact zone with many more waves on the horizon. I scrambled to gather my (still in tact) board and got on to paddle outside, only to be greeted by a monster of a straight up and down face coming right at me. I thought OK paddle like hell and I'll be able to get over this thing so I tried, but last minute was too late, so as recorded earlier, ditched the board and that was that. Came up and it was broke in half. I let the rest of the waves sweep me in to shore swimming and got out and collected the second half and gathered my thoughts. The guy I had actually seen get completely barreled came in pretty much right after me, turns out he had actually broken his board too, but only the tip of the nose -- he was really good and it was also a 6'something shortie not an 8'10 like mine. That made me feel better though, less kooky if this guy is breaking his board also, not just me. He was supportive of my situation, said that yeah, these waves people can often underestimate them, they can pack some punch on days like today. Good to have some re-assurance and support in that moment.
Alright I'm heading out now, dinner and then it's GAMETIME baby. Blazers Warriors. It's Blazermania time! OH ps sorry I duplicated some stuff from my RIP post above, but it was worthy of it. I don't break boards that often.
OK now that the mourning has passed for my broken board, I'll get down to posting this session report. It was a good session. Colin B and Ramin from work were out as well -- I was supposed to meet them at 7 in the parking lot but was a little late so they called and paddled out without me. I found them in the water, which was easy as there were only about 3 people total out at 7:20 (including them). We went out similar to same spot I was at yesterday. Conditions were good again, swell had picked up some and wind was down, so it wasn't as nice as yesterday, ie it was more of the normal closing out you expect from big LM, but there were still quite a few VERY nice waves to be had. I thought I was going to be in for a relatively easy paddle out, but the ocean thought otherwise, and it turned into about at least 10 duckdives and some heavy paddling to get outside. I was making the paddle with Ramin who had caught a wave as I was coming out, he's a nice guy and will hopefully make a good morning surf buddy. Colin as well when he gets down to LM, he goes to OB in the mornings a lot when conditions allow. Plus he always surfs such a small board (5'10 today) I dont know how he does it. I'd say he'd catch more waves with a few extra inches and float under him, but he gets by. My first wave was a good one, as was the case w/ that spot yesterday nice lefts being served up. Nice drop, good face, up to the top of the wave and back down again. Not much of a cutback as it's a pretty fast moving wave and I'm not the fastest moving surfer, plus I was longboarding. There were two guys getting some pretty nice cutbacks and some barrels too by the end (right before my board broke I saw a guy get totally shacked). I followed up that wave with another good one that I wiped out on (I'll blame it on Ramin, he was inside. And not really in the way, but I'll pretend he was), followed by several more good lefts. I'm definitely much more comfortable than I used to be, these waves had pretty solid size, overhead easy. On one I knew I was behind the peak but I took off anyways, thinking maybe I can be cool and backdoor this thing, but I couldn't -- it really wasn't much of a section in front of me, more like an entire close out. But I would've never tried that before, so I'll count it as progress.
The sad ending to my session started out with me turning and taking an early wave in what turned out to be a monster set. I was a little bit late on it, but stuck the drop and actually wound up in a big barrel, biggest of my life, straight stand up, no laying/crouching/pigdogging or nothing, this was a legit standup barrel/(closeout) that I might have had a chance to make it out of (i can't tell when I'm in it -- I'm not to the point where I really have much awareness about what I'm doing when I'm in these barrel situations. It's not like the thought process is in my head: "if I do this or this, I'll be able to get out of that little opening there." It's more like "crap there is water coming around me everywhere whoa this is awesome I'm in a barrel" and then boom I'm underwater and getting tossed around), but I didn't. I felt the water dumping all over me and wiped out...leaving me directly in the impact zone with many more waves on the horizon. I scrambled to gather my (still in tact) board and got on to paddle outside, only to be greeted by a monster of a straight up and down face coming right at me. I thought OK paddle like hell and I'll be able to get over this thing so I tried, but last minute was too late, so as recorded earlier, ditched the board and that was that. Came up and it was broke in half. I let the rest of the waves sweep me in to shore swimming and got out and collected the second half and gathered my thoughts. The guy I had actually seen get completely barreled came in pretty much right after me, turns out he had actually broken his board too, but only the tip of the nose -- he was really good and it was also a 6'something shortie not an 8'10 like mine. That made me feel better though, less kooky if this guy is breaking his board also, not just me. He was supportive of my situation, said that yeah, these waves people can often underestimate them, they can pack some punch on days like today. Good to have some re-assurance and support in that moment.
Alright I'm heading out now, dinner and then it's GAMETIME baby. Blazers Warriors. It's Blazermania time! OH ps sorry I duplicated some stuff from my RIP post above, but it was worthy of it. I don't break boards that often.
Genius
These guys really thought this one through:
Corpse Wheeled to Check-Cashing Store Leads to 2 Arrests
Thanks to Bill Middleton for the link.
Corpse Wheeled to Check-Cashing Store Leads to 2 Arrests
Thanks to Bill Middleton for the link.
RIP to an old friend
This morning saw the sad end of a board that has been with me since the beginning: my 8'10 Vernor broke in half this morning. At Linda Mar (of all places!). That board has been with me from the very beginning, it's always been a favorite, both sentimentally and because it's also simply a damn good board, that thing really flies. I remember when I first bought it from a guy over in Capitola. He didn't like it, as it's sort of a prototype board -- pretty much a shortboard disguised as a longboard. It's really thin, not very wide, swallow tail thruster, and has a decent amount of rocker. Definitely a performance longboard. I now know it was far from the ideal first board for beginner me, but I was none the wiser at the time and I made it work. I remember the first session on it out at Cowell's, catching waves and going straight to the beach, wobbling all around. I remember progressing on it from there, taking it out at new more challenging spots, I remember Joel riding it at 4 Mile and getting yelled at "go back to LA hasellhoff" by some loony on the rocks, I remember starting to dial it in, one magical session at LM a few years ago where I was really on fire for myself at the time, feeling invincible and making all kinds of late (again for me at the time) drops, really starting to feel that boards potential...and the many more sessions to follow, flying down the line on that thing. And I'll remember this morning's session as well, well overhead and as hollow as LM gets. I'd caught several really fun waves, was feeling pretty good. The demise came about as I had just taken probably the first wave of what turned out to be a huge set, I took off a little late and actually got a real big barrel, I didnt make it out and so was stuck right in the impact zone. Board was still OK at that point, I got back on and started scratching for the outside, only to be met by a real macker breaking top to bottom right in front of me. I paddled like hell thinking I could maybe get over it, but at the last second I knew I was too late. I remember thinking crap what do I do now, so I did what I should probably never do, ditched the board very last second and went underwater. Exactly what happened in the following several seconds I'll never know, but when I came back up for air, I was greeted by the sight of my trusty old friend, crumpled into two halves. I remember the feeling when I saw it, definite sadness. At this point the two halves were still being held together by fiberglass laminate, but many more waves were still to come as I got swept to shore, and along the way the two pieces came completely separated. I picked up the nose half where it had washed to shore a little south of us and placed the broken warrior to rest in the sand.
It's a pretty bad break, and the laminate got ripped off along the whole length of the board, so the nose (deck) is blank foam now...I don't know if it'll be repairable, or worth it, but I'll look into it. Maybe it will live to ride another day. Or maybe I'll salvage it and reshape the tail half into a little mini-board for my kids to rip on one day. But for now, I'll just mourn the loss for what it is: the likely end of my very first surfboard. You will be missed.
It's a pretty bad break, and the laminate got ripped off along the whole length of the board, so the nose (deck) is blank foam now...I don't know if it'll be repairable, or worth it, but I'll look into it. Maybe it will live to ride another day. Or maybe I'll salvage it and reshape the tail half into a little mini-board for my kids to rip on one day. But for now, I'll just mourn the loss for what it is: the likely end of my very first surfboard. You will be missed.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Must-see-NBA
tomorrow night, don't miss it: Blazers vs Warriors. 7:30 PM, from the Rose Garden.
FSN Bay Area shows all the Warriors games here, so I try to watch them when I can. They're a fun team to watch and are firmly my 2nd favorite team, but no-one can come close to the Blazers. Especially when they're on fire like they are now. Now I'm no fairweather fan, I stuck w/ the Blazers through many dark days, so it's all the sweeter now that they've won 16 of their last 17 including 13 in a row and everybody loves them. Youngest team in the NBA. Team players, class act citizens, and doing all of this with big bad Oden on the bench. It's a good time to be a Blazer fan.
Warriors just came off a great OT win against San Antonio that I watched last night and they'll be pumped to beat the upstart Blazers. Yep this game definitely warrants full undivided attention and a couple beers. Go Blazers!
FSN Bay Area shows all the Warriors games here, so I try to watch them when I can. They're a fun team to watch and are firmly my 2nd favorite team, but no-one can come close to the Blazers. Especially when they're on fire like they are now. Now I'm no fairweather fan, I stuck w/ the Blazers through many dark days, so it's all the sweeter now that they've won 16 of their last 17 including 13 in a row and everybody loves them. Youngest team in the NBA. Team players, class act citizens, and doing all of this with big bad Oden on the bench. It's a good time to be a Blazer fan.
Warriors just came off a great OT win against San Antonio that I watched last night and they'll be pumped to beat the upstart Blazers. Yep this game definitely warrants full undivided attention and a couple beers. Go Blazers!
Session 3 - January 8 - Linda Mar
January 8, 7:30 - 9:15, North end LM, 8'10 Vernor
Man this day is going slow.
But to the surf! Had a great DP session this morning at LM. Had a hunch conditions might be good despite the bad reports and it paid off, conditions were about as good as LM gets out there. I tried to get some surf@ people to come join (it's the surfing email alias here at work, there's about 60 subscribers or so. It gets posted to every now and then, I'm trying to revive it a bit) but didn't have any takers, but in the interest of saving time here's the session report I emailed them after:
Post surf update - was actually surprisingly good out there at Linda Mar this morning. Very good actually! Where were all you guys? :)
From 7:30 to about 9 was actually about as good as LM gets, at least in my humble opinion...strong offshore wind, frequent head high sets on the north end of the beach, no crowd. Shared nice walled up left after left with about 5 or so people sitting around me, goofy footer paradise (besides the 50 ° water). One guy had one of those little wrist cameras and was taking pictures, but every time he had me lined up I'd wipe out...too much pressure!! :) A little after 9 the wind really started blowing, so I called it good and headed in. Almost got blown over on the walk back to the car, very quick very cold wetsuit change, heater to full blast, and on my way.
Fun stuff. See you next time!? (tomorrow?)
So that pretty much sums it up. It was actually really fun. The wind was blowing really hard and holding the waves open real nice, I was glad to have the 8'10 to help me get into em as some people were struggling a bit on the shortboards. Waves were fun, got some good rides, all lefts. But yeah that guy with the camera tried to get me twice (I had caught a real good wave right in front of him when he was paddling out, so I think he was trying to recapture that) and both times I had real kooky takeoffs, didn't fall outright but certainly wasn't pretty. Good waves too! That was a disappointment but oh well, I'll stick it next time. When there are no cameras around. Cameras who needs em anyways, I do it for the SOUL. Brah.
We're on for tomorrow again and two guys from work are joining me, (Colin and Ramin) so hopefully conditions hold up. Hope for the best, but at least I'm on my way to my 150 goal!
UPDATE: Manabu from Stokemaster was out there with me this morning, and he took a few photos after going in. From the looks of it, he took the photos down near the middle of the beach, as usual was smaller down there, but it gives you an idea what things looked like this morning (ie Nice.). Gotta love a strong offshore. Thanks for the pics M!
Man this day is going slow.
But to the surf! Had a great DP session this morning at LM. Had a hunch conditions might be good despite the bad reports and it paid off, conditions were about as good as LM gets out there. I tried to get some surf@ people to come join (it's the surfing email alias here at work, there's about 60 subscribers or so. It gets posted to every now and then, I'm trying to revive it a bit) but didn't have any takers, but in the interest of saving time here's the session report I emailed them after:
Post surf update - was actually surprisingly good out there at Linda Mar this morning. Very good actually! Where were all you guys? :)
From 7:30 to about 9 was actually about as good as LM gets, at least in my humble opinion...strong offshore wind, frequent head high sets on the north end of the beach, no crowd. Shared nice walled up left after left with about 5 or so people sitting around me, goofy footer paradise (besides the 50 ° water). One guy had one of those little wrist cameras and was taking pictures, but every time he had me lined up I'd wipe out...too much pressure!! :) A little after 9 the wind really started blowing, so I called it good and headed in. Almost got blown over on the walk back to the car, very quick very cold wetsuit change, heater to full blast, and on my way.
Fun stuff. See you next time!? (tomorrow?)
So that pretty much sums it up. It was actually really fun. The wind was blowing really hard and holding the waves open real nice, I was glad to have the 8'10 to help me get into em as some people were struggling a bit on the shortboards. Waves were fun, got some good rides, all lefts. But yeah that guy with the camera tried to get me twice (I had caught a real good wave right in front of him when he was paddling out, so I think he was trying to recapture that) and both times I had real kooky takeoffs, didn't fall outright but certainly wasn't pretty. Good waves too! That was a disappointment but oh well, I'll stick it next time. When there are no cameras around. Cameras who needs em anyways, I do it for the SOUL. Brah.
We're on for tomorrow again and two guys from work are joining me, (Colin and Ramin) so hopefully conditions hold up. Hope for the best, but at least I'm on my way to my 150 goal!
UPDATE: Manabu from Stokemaster was out there with me this morning, and he took a few photos after going in. From the looks of it, he took the photos down near the middle of the beach, as usual was smaller down there, but it gives you an idea what things looked like this morning (ie Nice.). Gotta love a strong offshore. Thanks for the pics M!
Monday, January 7, 2008
Session 2 - January 6 - Indicators & on
January 6, 2 to 3:30, Lane, Brewer 7'0
Finally got 2008 surf session #2 yesterday! After the huge storm, things calmed down a bit on Sunday and a window of opportunity opened up. Still pretty stormy and messy conditions out there, but definitely doable and swell wasn't too huge. Most of PP was a mess (only 2 guys out) and Hook wasn't much better, so I drove all over and checked a lot of spots...saw the biggest group (maybe 8 or so rippers) out at some spot I also don't know the name of a little bit west of 26th ave beach break, where it was peaking up semi consistent off some rock points. Didn't look all that fun to me so kept going. Best spot turned out to be Steamer Lane (well really more like Indicators all the way to outside Cowells) and there were about 15 or so guys out there. I say out there but it was really more like a revolving door of a lineup as there was a heck of a current pushing you towards Cowells so staying in any sort of lineup was pretty much impossible -- you had to paddle like hell to stay in any kind of position. So what happens is most people (including myself) just give up on any kind of lineup altogether, and just go with the flow catching waves (or one really long wave in my case) along the way taking you all the way back to that middle staircase or Cowell's. You then get out there and walk back to Steamers and repeat the process all over again. I did this twice. Pretty tiring, but fun, conditions far from great but still very worthwhile. Got one long wave as mentioned above that held up practically all the way to (way) outside cowells. Most guys probably woulda pulled out of it to start paddling back but I chose to keep going, why not, I like long waves. Got a few turns and am trying to cutback with more speed and force. Good to be out there.
Finally got 2008 surf session #2 yesterday! After the huge storm, things calmed down a bit on Sunday and a window of opportunity opened up. Still pretty stormy and messy conditions out there, but definitely doable and swell wasn't too huge. Most of PP was a mess (only 2 guys out) and Hook wasn't much better, so I drove all over and checked a lot of spots...saw the biggest group (maybe 8 or so rippers) out at some spot I also don't know the name of a little bit west of 26th ave beach break, where it was peaking up semi consistent off some rock points. Didn't look all that fun to me so kept going. Best spot turned out to be Steamer Lane (well really more like Indicators all the way to outside Cowells) and there were about 15 or so guys out there. I say out there but it was really more like a revolving door of a lineup as there was a heck of a current pushing you towards Cowells so staying in any sort of lineup was pretty much impossible -- you had to paddle like hell to stay in any kind of position. So what happens is most people (including myself) just give up on any kind of lineup altogether, and just go with the flow catching waves (or one really long wave in my case) along the way taking you all the way back to that middle staircase or Cowell's. You then get out there and walk back to Steamers and repeat the process all over again. I did this twice. Pretty tiring, but fun, conditions far from great but still very worthwhile. Got one long wave as mentioned above that held up practically all the way to (way) outside cowells. Most guys probably woulda pulled out of it to start paddling back but I chose to keep going, why not, I like long waves. Got a few turns and am trying to cutback with more speed and force. Good to be out there.
so this is what 28 feels like
I went to the gym and lifted weights Friday after work, for probably the first time in a good 6 months or so (lifting weights. I've been to the gym a few times in that span). Besides being noticeably weaker than I can ever recall -- I struggled a bit getting 10 reps on bench press with 2 45 lb plates (although I was doing this with no rest at all from whatever other exercise I was cycling in there in between sets, important distinction) -- I have never been this sore in my life. I am really a pretty pitiful sight, ask Selin she was having a grand old time torturing (she called it massaging) me all weekend, trying to get me to straighten my arms completely, which I am unable to do without extreme pain. Anyways it is good to be a little bit sore, but this is pretty ridiculous...I'm starting to get a little better though. But it isn't easy to even get dressed in the morning. Or reach the remote control on the coffee table. Simple things, become quite daunting. I dropped my phone this morning and it fell down into a little cranny behind the electric fireplace and I was quite upset because getting it out of there with an unstraightenable arm was no easy task. Guess I've got to ease myself back into weightlifting a little more these days than I used to.
Unrelated, this morning I found a fantastic new blog, very entertaining reading. http://toomuchrodbenson.com/page0/page0.html. It's written by a D-League NBA player Rod Benson, and from as far as I can tell in reading it for the last 20 minutes he updates it A LOT. (He has a lot of time on his hands). It's pretty funny stuff though, at least what I've read so far. Here's a small sample to get you started.
Unrelated, this morning I found a fantastic new blog, very entertaining reading. http://toomuchrodbenson.com/page0/page0.html. It's written by a D-League NBA player Rod Benson, and from as far as I can tell in reading it for the last 20 minutes he updates it A LOT. (He has a lot of time on his hands). It's pretty funny stuff though, at least what I've read so far. Here's a small sample to get you started.
Friday, January 4, 2008
storms a' here
Yes, definitely no surf session #2 this morning. Not a CHANCE. Storm was/is a doozy, actually seems to be living up to the hype which is not always the case (or maybe that is just the case with surf forecasts. They're always hyping the next swell to be the biggest since .... and it inevitably falls short. My theory is it's just to get more people to visit the websites/webcams so they can charge more for ads). Anyways wind was howling all night and really blowing like crazy this morning, ocean as expected a complete mess, NO chance of getting in there, no thank you please very much staying INSIDE on this one. I lost power this morning while I was in the shower, making me one of the 29,000 Santa Cruzans w/o it this morning (395,000 across the entire bay area). (More storm news here). The drive over the hill was not as bad as it could have been, but definitely had to be careful as there are big puddles of standing water all over, hydroplaning central. I was afraid the Yaris was going to blow away on some of these wind gusts, but it held strong and actually I was quite pleased with it's performance. Storm is supposed to be peaking right about now, then calm down some, and another one is following right behind it...so it'll be a wet and windy weekend. That means (lots of) movienight(s)!!!! yes! (if the power is on that is)
Oh yes my little fence also blew down by the parking spot. It'll be easy to fix though, just a little small bamboo type fence that I just need to resecure and tie up again. Hopefully there are not more casualties since, because that wind was really blowing out there. I moved a few things and reinforced a few things this morning so hopefully that was good...hopefully the roof of my surfboard shack is still on as that is not exactly the most stormproof bit of construction labor (ie I built it myself)
update: I fixed the fence Sunday and made it better than ever in the process, it now stands practically straight up and is more secured. Also the nice little blossoming tree in the corner of my yard blew over. Not completely, but it was displaced quite a bit. I tied it to the fence to straighten it back up, so hopefully that works out as that is a pretty tree. Much prettier than the huge thornbush that threatens to take over the entire yard if it's not trimmed soon. I need some clippers. Oh and also the board shed roof was firmly in place and all boards and surf items undisturbed. Victory!
Oh yes my little fence also blew down by the parking spot. It'll be easy to fix though, just a little small bamboo type fence that I just need to resecure and tie up again. Hopefully there are not more casualties since, because that wind was really blowing out there. I moved a few things and reinforced a few things this morning so hopefully that was good...hopefully the roof of my surfboard shack is still on as that is not exactly the most stormproof bit of construction labor (ie I built it myself)
update: I fixed the fence Sunday and made it better than ever in the process, it now stands practically straight up and is more secured. Also the nice little blossoming tree in the corner of my yard blew over. Not completely, but it was displaced quite a bit. I tied it to the fence to straighten it back up, so hopefully that works out as that is a pretty tree. Much prettier than the huge thornbush that threatens to take over the entire yard if it's not trimmed soon. I need some clippers. Oh and also the board shed roof was firmly in place and all boards and surf items undisturbed. Victory!
Thursday, January 3, 2008
storms a brewin'
news is telling me some serious stormage is on its way to SC today and tomorrow, so surf session #2 of 2008 which was hopefully planned for tomorrow morning is likely gonna have to wait...but you never know. These Californians don't know nothin' about no storms...a little rain and everybody is running for the hills. But this one could be interesting, "It appears to be one of the most powerful storms in the past two years" so they say. We'll see.
Session 1 - January 1 - PP
January 1, afternoon, PP, 6'9 Randy French
Already wrote about this quickly 2 posts ago, but to recap. Went out at a spot I don't know the name of but it's one of those little inside coves around first peak at PP. I wonder what it is called, will have to figure that out. Surf was really small and really hardly breaking anywhere at all, but occasionally (and I mean very occasionally) a little waist high or so set came through. I caught 3 waves. None of them were any good. And as already stated as well, I dinged the nose of the leaf (the 6'9 Randy French surftech w/ the monster fin) on the paddle out. Probably that was the best set of the day, and I had to duckdive about the only wave that needed to be duckdived all session, and in pushing the nose under I hit reef/rock down below and put a nice ding on the nose. Bleh, what a start! But again I'm overdue for a repair session anyways.
OK, so 2008 is off and runnin', (dings and poor first sessions aside) it feels like it's gonna be a good year to me!!!! Best year ever!
Already wrote about this quickly 2 posts ago, but to recap. Went out at a spot I don't know the name of but it's one of those little inside coves around first peak at PP. I wonder what it is called, will have to figure that out. Surf was really small and really hardly breaking anywhere at all, but occasionally (and I mean very occasionally) a little waist high or so set came through. I caught 3 waves. None of them were any good. And as already stated as well, I dinged the nose of the leaf (the 6'9 Randy French surftech w/ the monster fin) on the paddle out. Probably that was the best set of the day, and I had to duckdive about the only wave that needed to be duckdived all session, and in pushing the nose under I hit reef/rock down below and put a nice ding on the nose. Bleh, what a start! But again I'm overdue for a repair session anyways.
OK, so 2008 is off and runnin', (dings and poor first sessions aside) it feels like it's gonna be a good year to me!!!! Best year ever!
2008 Surf Sessions
Manabu from Stokemaster (who has been mentioned before, he really gets a lot of credit for inspiring this whole blog thing) logs almost every one of his surf sessions on his own wavlog blog. One year he had more than 260 sessions. That is a lot of sessions. But it strikes me as being somewhat fun to have a log of all your sessions in a year, so I'm going to try and follow in his example again here, and log my 2008 sessions. Will be fun to see how many I get and also to be able to look back at them as I continue my progression towards WCT fame and fortune and surf superstar status.
Plus, why not make a goal: at least 150 sessions in 2008. That's 3 a week. Piece o' cake.
Plus, why not make a goal: at least 150 sessions in 2008. That's 3 a week. Piece o' cake.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Happy new year
Happy 2008! Today I'm back at work, yay. So exciting! :(
Yesterday I dinged the leaf surfboard. very shallow and rocky, dinged it on my very first duckdive on the way out. Surfed anyways, will have to let it dry out and do some repair. That's OK, I'm overdue for a repair session anyways, a few boards could use some attention. So, that's on the agenda for next free sunny day.
Other than that good to be back in CA. Was beautiful and warm and sunny yesterday, like 60something sunny, tshirt and flipflop sunny. Oregon was great but Oregon was cold...but good to be there for a while and see family and friends. Think I can convince them all to move to California? Might be a bit of a challenge to get them all into a single 2 bedroom condo though...dang CA property values...
Yesterday I dinged the leaf surfboard. very shallow and rocky, dinged it on my very first duckdive on the way out. Surfed anyways, will have to let it dry out and do some repair. That's OK, I'm overdue for a repair session anyways, a few boards could use some attention. So, that's on the agenda for next free sunny day.
Other than that good to be back in CA. Was beautiful and warm and sunny yesterday, like 60something sunny, tshirt and flipflop sunny. Oregon was great but Oregon was cold...but good to be there for a while and see family and friends. Think I can convince them all to move to California? Might be a bit of a challenge to get them all into a single 2 bedroom condo though...dang CA property values...
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