Spiders

Selin showed this to me just now, and we had quite a laugh over it. Pretty funny.

"Broke man tries paying bill with a picture of a spider"

Maybe it was just particularly funny to us having spent so much time working in email customer service. Can't say I ever had anyone try to settle any bills with pictures of spiders though. I'd say worth at least a $50 credit, in my opinion...pretty good spider. 

Sessions 171 and 172 - Nov 22 & 23 - OB and SC

Sat Nov 22, 8:30-12, OB, Ramin's 6'10

Sun Nov 23, afternoon, Cowell's, 9'8 Junod

Wow, talk about two distinctly different sessions...

SATURDAY*

SUNDAY*

* Pictures are not actual representations of the day's surf (they're just what a quick Google Images search could find on the interwebs), but I think they illustrate the contrast quite well. 

So, Saturday morning, went up to OB and met Ramin and friends. Had a pretty epic fall OB session on Ramin's borrowed 6'10, classic fall conditions, light offshore, head high to 2x OH sets, lefts, rights, just an all in all great session. Nice to surf some waves with some solid size, I want some more. 

Sunday, was in SC, and in town was a different story altogether. Took it easy in the morning, no surf, around noon headed over to check out a sale on the west side and drove past Cowell's and it actually looked kind of fun, in a nearly empty super mellow super calm way. Went home and got the longboard and strapped it on and cruised on over and...the maybe 10 people who were out there at noon had seriously multiplied into 100...crazy! I think every beginning surfer in northern california converges on that spot on a sunny weekend afternoon low tide. So it was a bit of a zoo and was even more mellow than I had anticipated, so I paddled from Cowell's over to the Lane, good exercise. Was windblown and real slop out there but at least some waves, so I hogged my share on the 9'8 yacht and then paddled back to Cowell's and went home. 

In other news I am now completely up-to-date on all my past sessions...was operating from pretty far behind for a while there. Nice!

UPDATE: I forgot our Saturday afternoon/evening session (or should I say session attempt) which was pretty much a mess, our morning glass and offshores had been completely replaced and it was victory at sea conditions out there. Still a good exercise on the paddle and was nice to have everybody out there, including everybody's inspiration Josh on the 8'0 funboard, who dug deep and made it outside. (Way outside). 

Session 170 - Nov 16 - WC

Sun Nov 16, morning, 6'2 KG Fish

Swell had dropped some more, so grabbed the fishy and headed back to Saturday morning's spot. Smaller, but clean, and still fun, and...I surfed a bit better, and didn't even get yelled at! Surfed and enjoyed a nice sunny morning and some good company, even though Joel was lame and studied on the beach instead of surfing.  UPDATE! Joel has corrected me, he DID surf, but he surfed earlier that morning when I was still sleeping off my hangover from a rare Saturday night out on the town to celebrate Selin's friends April's birthday. Apologies for my error, Horace always tries to report the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth!! 

Session 169 - Nov 15 - SC Beachy

Sat Nov 15, evening, 6'2 KG Fish

Ramin was hanging in SC for the weekend so after our marathon surf and a burrito and some R&R we made our way down to the local beachbreak for a quick hour or so session before the quickly setting sun. Surf was pretty small everywhere else, but was hitting this spot pretty decent, and as such there were some pros/rippers on it, pretty incredible...rather than enter the fray I hung on a secondary but not as good peak and had my choice of 3 foot shorebreak closeouts. Could've probably gotten some at the main peak, but, didn't want to risk getting yelled at 2 times in one day. (really does a number on a man's confidence!). 

Session 168 - Nov 16 - WC

Sat Nov 16, morning, 6'6 Quad

MARATHON! This was a long time ago so I'm gonna be quick w/ this session report. Surf was good to actually really good, clean, fun, not TOO crowded. MY surfing, on the other hand, was a complete disaster...ultra-regress kook mode! I certainly wasn't aided that on my 2nd wave or so, I accidentally dropped in on a dude (It looked like he was going right, promise) and he was none too kind about it. Proceeded to berate and yell and even splash water at me for what seemed like an eternity. (But was probably more like 15 seconds). Yes, I dropped in on him and messed up his wave, sorry man, my bad. Guess I deserved to get scolded. (Nevermind it was a chest high at best insider that slipped through and was closing out in front of both of us anyways, maybe the guy was gonna bust an air over that section). But wow, calm down buddy! I dropped in and as soon as I noticed he was behind me I pulled out. Granted, the damage had already been done, but it was an honest mistake. Guy really got angry though. 

Anyways set the tone for rest of my session because I was definitely off. Let's not dwell on this any longer. Sound good? We surfed for about 5 hours or so, and I eventually started getting positive thoughts back in my head, but it was a rough start. MOVING ON!

If you're going...to San Francisco...

Before you put that flower in your hair, you might want to watch this: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/18/bill-oreilly-smears-san-f_n_144734.html

(Couldn't find a way to post the video directly)

Watched it yet? 

How ridiculous is that? Fox news! Fair and balanced!

(Thanks Jason Min for the gchat status message -- lots of good stuff in those gchat status messages lately...)

gettin' $erious

Don't often post about anything economic here on this blog (don't often post about anything other than surfing, actually)...but this I found interesting.

You might have to click on it to get it big enough to see. (update: clicking on the image doesn't appear to actually do anything. Go to the site here instead.) My (optimistic) interpretation: bad times now (wow, really?)...but it can only get better. Right? 

Thanks to Bill for the gchat status message link, and to the original site here.

Shifting gears, I was supposed to get up and surf this morning but I didn't. My phone alarm didn't go off. It was supposed to turn itself on (I had to turn it off, low battery, no charger) but I must've not set that up right. Stupid phone. Figures. Surf actually looks pretty good.

WEEKEND!

Sessions 166 and 167 - Nov 11, Nov 12 - LM

Tues Nov 11, Wed Nov 12, DP, 6'6 quad

Linda Mar. Dawn Patrol. Waves. Kind of cold, but, Sunny. Wednesday better than Tuesday. Or was it the other way around? It's been a while, and LM dawn patrols have this funny way of blending into obscurity. Let's say Wednesday was better, that sounds about right. Ramin was with me Tuesday, sorry man, shoulda been there Wednesday.

Session 165 - Nov 9 - Hook

Sunday Nov 9, evening, 6'2 KS fishy

Yep, Santa Cruz, sorry to have doubted you. All that's keeping you now from moving higher is...about 20 degrees of water temperature, and about 2000 professional surfers. I've ranted about this before but the surf talent level in SC is so off the charts ridiculous...a lowly valley tranny like me...very quickly get delegated to scrap status.

But when those scraps are as delicious as they were on this particular evening, I can live with that. When the Hook is firing there are few places like it, nonstop perfection, was sweating in my 5/4/3, just a nonstop paddle/wave/paddle conveyor belt. As I said earlier was in full-on junkyard dog mode, keeping an eye on every wave as paddling out ready to pick up the scraps as some sponsored pro buried a rail on his mach speed cutback or botched the 360 air or whatever ridiculous maneuver was on display...I could pick up the leftovers and maybe throw a few drops of spray of my own. Humbling, but I'm not one to concern myself over trivial matters...stay outta the way, pick up what you can, and do your best...that's my philosophy.

Anyways heck of a session, welcome home.

Session 164 - Sun Nov 9 - 38th

Sunday Nov 9, midmorning afternoon sometime, 7'6 kingfish

On our way home from PR, Selin asked me where I'd rank PR on my all-time surf destination list. I was still pretty high on the week's many memorable waves, so I wound up ranking it pretty darn high...in fact actually my #2 of all time -- behind only Costa Rica. (I've scored some sweet LEFTS in Costa Rica). If I recall correctly, my quick list was Costa Rica, PR, Hawaii, Santa Cruz (home sweet home), Baja Mex, El Salvador, Mainland Mex...something like that. (India was an honorable mention for the sake of novelty...unfortunately the waves there were overwhelmingly mediocre at best...but for sheer novelty sake...tough to match surfing in front of an entire village of awestruck onlookers).

Point being, I don't think Santa Cruz was happy about it's low ranking...and decided to do something about it...something like non-stop head high to slightly overhead long racing rights, and considering it was Sunday...not even an out of control crowd.

Session 1 on the Kingfish was just a quick hitter...paddled on out with Thomas for a quick one...after catching a couple at 38th the draw of the bigger better waves on the horizon over at 2nd proved too tempting to resist, so battled the current and made my way over...quickly was rewarded for my effort in the form of a head high or so ride nearly all the way back to 38th. Paddled back over and repeated again, a few more times...wound up getting out at the stairs between 38th and the Hook. Lots of current going that day.

The real gem of a session didn't come together til' later that day...

Sessions 157-163 - Tues Oct 28 - Mon Nov 3 - Sandy Beach, Dogmans, Domes, Marias, Indicators, Wilderness

All day Every day, 6'8 CI Flyer for days 1 and 2, sick 6'7 Byrne stingerfish for all the rest

We'll just let the pictures do the talking. 

Sadly though, I don't have THAT many surf pictures...Selin prefers reading her book to searching the lineup for me in the camera view finder, and I prefer surfing to taking photos. Plus, I don't have an uber powerful megazoom supercamera. Plus, my "waterproof" camera broke a few months ago. Maybe one day I'll get one of those mega uber cameras -- they are pretty sweet -- but until then...we'll work with what I've got.

Is it time to go back?

Session ???? - Vacation Recap

WAY behind on the session posts. Once I hit that 150 mark just kind of lost the motivation to keep track. 

There's been quite a few. 

PR was an awesome trip. The surf gods smiled upon me, and granted me solid, fun swell the duration of our surfing portion of the vacation...went flat the day we left and headed for the rainforest, with not much on the forecast horizon either. Good timing -- the deserted rainforest waterfalls and empty carribean style white sand beaches were calling -- but, as always, it's certainly a heck of a lot easier to leave behind a little piece of surf paradise when you don't have to look at perfect waves peeling in your rear view mirror.  

Not gonna delve into every individual session detail, but, I got some great surf. Thinking back to it now -- wow -- great trip. Livin' the LIFE. We stayed the first two nights in a real nice guest house, I'd recommend it, but it was sort of perched in the middle of the hill -- a bit of a walk down the hill to some beach breaks, and a real quick drive to the better, more protected reef breaks around the corner. It worked, but, when you're as surf-spoiled as I am, you don't want to have to drive to surf. 

So, we cruised down to the beach and scoped out our options beachfront. And, whatta ya know, a few phone calls later we were unpacking our bags in just about the most incredible, epic, surf house/mansion/villa/just plain ridonkulous living arrangement imaginable...this pristine, private, secluded 6 bedroom or so house, with pool, hot tub, hammocks, manicured grounds, outdoor showers...everything...right in front of an epic surf spot, right on the beach. Casa por Fin Dogmans, look it up. It normally gets rented out as a whole villa, but luckily for us a group of ladies from Texas/Wisconsin/somewhere cold were renting out 5 of the 6 rooms, leaving us with a supersweet little side studio unit. Everything we could ever need: Awesome little pad, kitchen, nice comfy bed, internet, and satellite TV -- EVEN WITH THE NBA DIRECT TICKET. Yes, can you believe that -- I had NBA Direct Ticket and a warm, rippable perfect head high wave 50 feet outside my front door. Can life get any better? 

(Oh yeah, it can...the Texas/Wisconsin/somewhere cold ladies were paying the taxes and cleaning fees...meaning our little studio was even more of a steal of a deal than the discounted rate we already negotiated. SCORE.)

So, anyways, we spent I think 5 days and 5 nights there. I surfed at least twice a day. Wake up, throw on boardies, walk out the door. Rinse, Rest, Repeat. 

Tough life. 

the land of the beautiful sunset

At least that's what the guy in the supermercado parking lot told me...

He might've been on to something. :)

I'll post more photos, eventually...

Good.

End of a snarky era: Gawker shuts down Valleywag

Good, I hope this is true, Valleywag was giving responsible blogs (like this one) a bad name. I for one won't miss it.

(More) Filler

Sam Cassell Returns To Home Planet Following Clippers' Playoff Elimination

(courtesy of The Onion and Jeff R for emailing these pics (1 , 2) of Greg Oden which, while funny, did not actually make me laugh like the one above of Alien Sam Cassell did.)

Mike Tyson Punchout

I haven't watched this yet, but, I think I can say with quite a bit of confidence that it will be an entertaining way to waste 8 4 minutes of your time. 

CENSORSHIP UPDATE!!!!!!!!: So, Joel and I watched the original clip tonight. And, I had forgotten that Iron Mike has quite the potty mouth on him. Quickly deemed not appropriate for a family blog such as Horace so, I've replaced it with a far more family safe Iron Mike memory...from a more innocent time...(before he went completely crazy.)

Actually, seriously though -- while some of those quotes are absolutely nonsensical, and elicit a laugh or two -- it's also actually kind of disheartening...that is one confused dude...he said it best himself:

"they never gonna forget about me...your great grandkids are gonna say, wow, wasn't that a bizarre individual..." 

Well, you got the bizarre part right.

paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatience

Wow, lots of competition of late...some new young upstarts doing some good blogosphere stuff lately...Colin on top of it, Ramin just joining the party, Luttrell as always with a novel of a post every now and then...good stuff.

But if these kids think they can just step in just like that and take away the undisputed heavyweight championship belt as Best Original Surf Blog Ever...well they got another thing comin'! There can only be ONE!!!!

Which is all just another way of saying, I will try to do some posts this week, maybe tonight while I watch MNF (and Kurt Warner lead me to fantasy football victory).  (UPDATE: I have now been informed I will be watching 'Gossip Girl' tonight, not MNF. My mistake.)

Had a sweet trip to Puerto Rico with some pics to share, and wow, what a welcome home I got last night...Santa Cruz showing me that hey, it can stand and deliver waves just as good as anywhere else all the way across the continent. Good to be home. 

sarang heyo!