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!

Mr Glass?

AKA Greg Oden?

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-35-117/David-Thorpe--Trouble-Signs-for-Greg-Oden.html?post=true

Henry Abbott, who writes the TrueHoop blog, is a longtime Blazer fan. I'm a longtime fan of his blog, which got scooped up by ESPN a year or two ago. Fellow Blogger makin' it big!

I'm still working out the details on my Surfline.com contract.

(Although I will say this: I checked the TrueHoop blog more often in the pre-ESPN days. Something about selling out and going corporate? I really can't say the style has changed all that much, his posting has always been quite professional, but maybe just a little bit different in the spirit and essence of a true blog? Maybe?)

FREEDOM!

Quick visit to Hahhhhvahd to see the little sis, starring role in some extremely avant-garde theater: MNEMONIC. They give everybody an eye mask and a leaf upon entrance...Beauty and the Beast it is most certainly not.

But with an open mind it was a well-done performance, thanks in no small part by the female (or is it male?) lead: "played wonderfully by Madeliene Bennett, '11." (So says the Harvard Voice) (I couldn't agree more)

Below are a few snaps from the Freedom Trail, which is a fun tourist activity for a nice Boston day -- which we were fortunate to enjoy on our late Oct. visit. The best is Selin (pretending to) proclaim the Declaration of Independence at the Old State House...the same spot it was first proclaimed at 1:00 PM back in 1776. (To jubilant crowds, nonetheless!)

We've since moved on to a much more tropical, much more beachy, and much more intermittently internet-connected locale...more to come at some point, when I feel like waiting 15 minutes for 5 pictures to upload. 

Goodnight from paradise*!

*Just one of many.

Session 156 - Oct 22 - LM

Wed Oct 22, 7-8:45, 6'8 Taylor

Snuck out of a work training for 30 minutes to get this one in...was in all day trainings Tuesday and Wednesday. Had a good to real good surf forecast for this morning so...made it a surf training instead of 'selling beyond the click.' OK, in my defense, I did have a call at 9:30 so I was going to have to be late for training anyways. It was good to get in the water, refreshing, revitalizing, and...the call went well -- even without the 30 extra minutes of additional KQC preparation. (Thats Key Questions and Concerns, for those of you not in the know)