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.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
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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