The following is some notes on a quick roadtrip/adventure to points south:
Salinas, i totally understand why Steinbeck fled.
pismo beach is depressing. lots of sand but no personality. what do people do there? how does one end up homeless on the central coast of california? how can there be so many crackers?
I was incredibly disappointed with this, my first encounter with pismo beach. Bruno and Luccabella also expressed their discontentment with this not so lovely seaside town by leaving small mounds of mushy shit on their boardwalk. how can a coastal "enclave" lack so much personality? there was nothing unique about this burg and i likened it to someone dropping a no name shit town like colton on the coast.
avila beach, same shit, more upper class, more lily white. i think i'd only visit if i had a house there and even then i'd rent it out to suckers.
The trip to santa barbara was worth the time. worth the drive. Arriving late wednesday night after multiple stops up the coast wondering if each place was worth getting to know. The miles finally stopped adding up there. impressive waves. nice, clean shape and not closing out. I had no idea that while i've been suffering with 12 ft close outs in HMB a mere 200 and some miles south was a spot with surf that did not snap boards like popsicle sticks.
We luckily found state st. and went for a stroll, letting the pups out for a stretch at the local hippie mobbed park.the place was insanely packed for a wednesday night. All the stores crawling with consumers, not crazed either, people gazing at clothes and useless crap they'll never set eyes on again once its makes it home. It was actually relaxing.
SB is rather stale and tasteless, much like the rest of the country, having no unique flavor, but the architecture and style left behind by the spanish imperialist endures. The large thick off white arches at the front of the buildings, the brown painted wood framed windows facing the ocean gives one a feeling that they are in a place unlike where they came from. Its that charm that captivates the tourist and keeps him there.
While driving late at night looking for chocolate flavored cigars we of course became lost. this was a reoccuring aspect of the trip. A turn off from the road would lead to another turn off which would lead to a dead end road in an unknown town. But this time we ended up in the Mexican part of town and I of course felt instantly at ease in a place where most would feel around to make sure their wallet was still in their back pocket. The street was dotted with Mexican restaurants, markets and businesses, one of which sold pinatas. In one of the many "neighborhood" liquor stores we were able to find the shining jewel of flavored cigars, Swisher Sweets Chocolate.
Oddly enough, this neighborhood was stuck between the cradle of commercialism that is State St. and neighborhood that looked like the La Jolla of Santa Barbara.
Leadbetter beach. nice point/reef break. easy waves, gentle take off, shitty surfer named KC. one month out of practice, fat from holiday gluttony and on a 6 foot one inch surfboard named "sweet prince".
I never once caught something that could be called a "ride" but i didnt care much. i was a bit disappointed in myself but no matter. It was a beautiful day and i was out. There were four other people out at that wave i was at. The only one worst than me was the kid learning to surf for the first time.
I remember El Cap differently. cold, cloudy, a small, gutless shorebreak. i was a part of a handfull of misfit boy scouts not interested practical jokes or much else really. one of the guys brought along a couple homemade skim boards made of plywood. We waxed up the boards with some shitty sexwax left over from waxing a curb up. that was as close as i ever got to surfing for the next 15 years.
My return was with my wife and 2 pups. i didnt even remember seeing a point when i was there as a kid and here it was 3 wave sets breaking cleanly from the tip of the point on down. I totally dont remember it how it really is. for some reason i remember a low cliff. Who knows. It is a beautiful spot however I prefer Manresa. You cant beat the nice wide beach, tall sand cliff and the eaucalytus grove begging for a match.
The point was littered with neoprene soldiers, I counted 23 which i suppose was not very much since there were reports of 80 fuckers just days before during the monster swell. sitting eating lunch at the edge of the park one could watch the surfers battle it out for every wave. Seana asked, "you dont want to go out?" i said "no" there was no way i could compete for waves out there. these guys drive by that spot everyday waiting for it break, they're rabid. I'd get run over like a bad traffic crash.
2006/01/01
2005/11/08
the new and blue
Surfed a new spot. The drive over was pretty dismal. I wasnt excited to go to the jetty but i thought, "i gotta get wet, gotta relax and enjoy the surf" the recent shark attack was on my mind but it was in such deep water that i figured the area was chill.
Checked out d's first and it was decent. A few local folks around. then i checked out the jetty and it seemed every kook from LM was there. It was packed. boards flying everywhere. sheer madness and there was no way i was gonna get myself caught up in that bullshit.
Next i went to small creek mouth that was off the hook. semi clean breaking and really fun.
Checked out d's first and it was decent. A few local folks around. then i checked out the jetty and it seemed every kook from LM was there. It was packed. boards flying everywhere. sheer madness and there was no way i was gonna get myself caught up in that bullshit.
Next i went to small creek mouth that was off the hook. semi clean breaking and really fun.
2005/10/30
5.7@12&4.5nRising:310
I ended up at the hook about 630 this morning. some decent sets but there was already at least a dozen longboarders on the main peak and 3 guys at the peak further east. It was the first time i surfed that spot. I really liked it and i was wondering where sharks was from that spot. I rarely surf the eastside. So anyways i sat inside in between the two packs and i picked off the short rides that no one else got.
Its a wierd place, the surfers there were not particularly good but they all acted as if they should be on the wct. heavy attitudes. The waves were nice tho. I think i could get a lot better if i surfed those kinds of waves rather than the usual super fast close outs that SMC beaches dish up. I definately plan on going back most likely super early tho.
Its a wierd place, the surfers there were not particularly good but they all acted as if they should be on the wct. heavy attitudes. The waves were nice tho. I think i could get a lot better if i surfed those kinds of waves rather than the usual super fast close outs that SMC beaches dish up. I definately plan on going back most likely super early tho.
2005/10/21
0034 just right and super good
I had a great weekend of surf. 6.6 @ 14 seconds coming from somewhere nw. lm was excellent while most other places were closed out and ugly. The jetty which normally grooms unruly swells was small and disorganized. But the offshores has LM as perfect as i've ever seen it.
The jetty the day before was beautiful, providing excellent lefts and rights. some great speedy rights which were ruling.
I needed these days off. too much work and not enough of anything else ruins life. this happens too often. I'll have to keep up on this shit.
The jetty the day before was beautiful, providing excellent lefts and rights. some great speedy rights which were ruling.
I needed these days off. too much work and not enough of anything else ruins life. this happens too often. I'll have to keep up on this shit.
2005/07/31
0031: glad you werent here.
friday 3pm and i ran out. the work recently has kept up at a pace thats been difficult to keep up with. more responsibility means more people with the eye out over you. dont slip, they'll know. but the weather had been decent and the prospects good for a decent evening.
I was glad to ditch the pager.
the wait for M was unbearable. I wanted to get to LM before it got too late and the lady would change her mind. Even left before i'd heard the word from M just to make sure there'd be some rides in my near future. the brief stop for tea was in order then the trip to the beach was made. 40 minutes. a terribly long time and terribly boring drive.
Amazingly the small conditions made for excellent shape and a carvable face on a pretty decent wave. The experience and countless trips to the area breaks have allowed me to call the right spot for the right conditions. we had great 3 footers and the occasianal 4 foot that would simply kill. Just two of us paddled out in front of the taco bell and sat out far to the left of a crowd of salty fuckers. pretty much alone, we didnt have to wait long till the set came in and it was fantastic. the sets were spaced just right and we didnt have to hardly wait 5 minutes before a decent wave would roll in. beautiful carvable faces, the hog performed to perfection. going up the face and dropping some wait on the tail to whip its fat ass down the line. The drop ins were picture perfect, keeping the nose from digging and pulling the bottom turn for a decent trim. Wave after wave this happened. unreal. it was a real treat and a nice change from recent sessions of endless paddling and endless burns.
The next morning i headed to the reef break with high hopes of clean faces and magazine photo conditions. Instead it looked like LM on a shitty small day. A small crowd had already formed and it looked dumpy and closed out. Hardly worth jumping in for. I drove up and the spots all looked promising but for some reason or another i didnt feel comfortable going in. I ended up a decent hidden sand bar fishing for perch. casting off of 40 min allows a person to get pretty bored but i was really entertained staring at the waves rolling in. most about 4 ft and the occasional head high set wave was making me wish M had woken up so i'd be out on the water instead of futily tossing plastic worms out into the rips. The hike up to the car is a bitch. A vicious steep ravine bordering on canyon, alone it spooked me. I'd jump after hearing birds jump from bush to bush. I kept thinking i'd get bit by some fucking snake and hope poor bastard driving by would be nice enough to suck the poison out! but by the car there were some people who where getting ready to make the trip back down for a couple of rides.
fantastic. speedy waves pushing in with nice faces. my second wave was classic. a nice head high peeler that i made a picture perfect drop on and pulled a nice bottom turn on. I was heading down the line and i realized i gotta take advantage of my luck and go up the face for one carve. I pushed out on the tail and then dug in, raced up the face and pushed out one more time for a drop back in, one more bottom turn and i was good. just headed down the line smiling.
This went on for a while. when i surf shittier waves i try to get the most of them, push for as many carves as possible but this wave was different. the environment was something out of a nature mag. sitting out you see nothing but open ocean. Riding the wave is dreamlike. you drop in and turn and just kind of stare at the water in front. I almost lose myself in it all.
I was glad to ditch the pager.
the wait for M was unbearable. I wanted to get to LM before it got too late and the lady would change her mind. Even left before i'd heard the word from M just to make sure there'd be some rides in my near future. the brief stop for tea was in order then the trip to the beach was made. 40 minutes. a terribly long time and terribly boring drive.
Amazingly the small conditions made for excellent shape and a carvable face on a pretty decent wave. The experience and countless trips to the area breaks have allowed me to call the right spot for the right conditions. we had great 3 footers and the occasianal 4 foot that would simply kill. Just two of us paddled out in front of the taco bell and sat out far to the left of a crowd of salty fuckers. pretty much alone, we didnt have to wait long till the set came in and it was fantastic. the sets were spaced just right and we didnt have to hardly wait 5 minutes before a decent wave would roll in. beautiful carvable faces, the hog performed to perfection. going up the face and dropping some wait on the tail to whip its fat ass down the line. The drop ins were picture perfect, keeping the nose from digging and pulling the bottom turn for a decent trim. Wave after wave this happened. unreal. it was a real treat and a nice change from recent sessions of endless paddling and endless burns.
The next morning i headed to the reef break with high hopes of clean faces and magazine photo conditions. Instead it looked like LM on a shitty small day. A small crowd had already formed and it looked dumpy and closed out. Hardly worth jumping in for. I drove up and the spots all looked promising but for some reason or another i didnt feel comfortable going in. I ended up a decent hidden sand bar fishing for perch. casting off of 40 min allows a person to get pretty bored but i was really entertained staring at the waves rolling in. most about 4 ft and the occasional head high set wave was making me wish M had woken up so i'd be out on the water instead of futily tossing plastic worms out into the rips. The hike up to the car is a bitch. A vicious steep ravine bordering on canyon, alone it spooked me. I'd jump after hearing birds jump from bush to bush. I kept thinking i'd get bit by some fucking snake and hope poor bastard driving by would be nice enough to suck the poison out! but by the car there were some people who where getting ready to make the trip back down for a couple of rides.
fantastic. speedy waves pushing in with nice faces. my second wave was classic. a nice head high peeler that i made a picture perfect drop on and pulled a nice bottom turn on. I was heading down the line and i realized i gotta take advantage of my luck and go up the face for one carve. I pushed out on the tail and then dug in, raced up the face and pushed out one more time for a drop back in, one more bottom turn and i was good. just headed down the line smiling.
This went on for a while. when i surf shittier waves i try to get the most of them, push for as many carves as possible but this wave was different. the environment was something out of a nature mag. sitting out you see nothing but open ocean. Riding the wave is dreamlike. you drop in and turn and just kind of stare at the water in front. I almost lose myself in it all.
2005/05/10
0030: titties are fun
endless documentation leads to a shitload of nothing. Sunny day yesterday afternoon and junky conditions. local windswell coming in at about 6 ft@8sec from who gives a shit what direction. I'll tell you, in conditions like that, its not worth getting down to the nitty gritty details. It was small, lumpy but still fun. i dont mind the small waves, i just dont like how its one after another after a fucking nother. it makes the rip a hell hole and getting out super shitty. but again, it was still fun. the prince is starting to do me right. i dinged it. repaired it and slapped a sticker over the ding. still works fine. sometimes i stress that it might've taken on water but it still rides and feels the same. my next shorty will be very similiar, maybe a a couple inches longer. but i'm diggin this one. The rest of the week is supposed to be pretty shitty, really small and not much love coming our way. socal conditions i guess.
So anyways, i'm a carving and slashing machine! Yeaaaahhhh! ...whatever
can you tell how shitty it was from the pics??? hehehe, camera phones are funky, you can say its an artsy impressionist pic or a pic from a piece of shit camera phone.
well, sun's come out. waves are small. time to climb.
So anyways, i'm a carving and slashing machine! Yeaaaahhhh! ...whatever
can you tell how shitty it was from the pics??? hehehe, camera phones are funky, you can say its an artsy impressionist pic or a pic from a piece of shit camera phone.
well, sun's come out. waves are small. time to climb.
2005/05/09
0028: humble mumble
early morning sessions kill me evertime. i'd rather sleep in all honesty but i also enjoy the company of others when surfing new spots so sometimes i need to bite the bullet and wake up. I'd hate to paddle out alone, get eaten then never be heard from again. We headed for parts south. which i was happy to go since i really dig the beaches down there. all the spots were small and not much was hitting till we got to by pescadero. what looked like nice mushy gentle waves with a violent beach break. timing is everything for these bitches. wait for the flat spell then run in and start paddling. I made out ok, no worries there and then i just waited. It was a nice morning but i was dog tired and sleepy. The waves were nice actually, a bit wierd tho as they seemed to be walling up quickly and thats not what it looked like from the beach. I dunno, maybe i was just pussin out but it was spooky. I caught quite a few bitchen rides tho. I was amazed by how racy and fast the rides were. it was great, super carvable and fast. I was a friends 7'0 and i was able to whip that thing in any direction. super sweet.
2005/05/03
0027: Why yes that was me busting that wicked cutback
My friends brother lives in hawaii and surfs as well. Something i was told he said makes a lot of sense. "how do you expect to get good surfing these crappy waves" and the guy is totally right. You wont get really good surfing linda mar and the jump from places like that to Montara is pretty drastic. Yesterday and actually this last weekend was quite a breakthrough for me. This last weekend i was at cowell's. I kind of dont like the place but its a good time tho every now and then and i like surfing there with my wife. But i was really surfing the place well, carving on the hog and really riding the wave. yesterday was LM in the late afternoon. The waves were small and pretty shitty except for a couple of rides. I was out on the sweet prince and i got one wave in particular where i got set up relatively quickly and the wave just lined up pretty nicely in front of me. Seeing this i did a small frontside carve to get some speed and go back down the small face, then i went up for a frontside cutback. Shit, it probably looked like a gimp surfing a 2x4 but for me, hell, it was sweet.
anyways, the swell was small about 3 feet at 13 sec. I dont know where it was coming from and i kind of dont care. The jetty should;ve been nice and i'd like to hit it soon. Also looking forward to summer surfing montara and san gregorio.
The Hog jr. needs to be repaired again, which kind of sucks. maybe today i'll work on it a bit more but i need some damn sawhorses. AAAANNNDD, my backyard doesnt get any light. So the temp is always pretty low, which means i need a damn thermometer back there so i know when its safe to work on him.
anyways, the swell was small about 3 feet at 13 sec. I dont know where it was coming from and i kind of dont care. The jetty should;ve been nice and i'd like to hit it soon. Also looking forward to summer surfing montara and san gregorio.
The Hog jr. needs to be repaired again, which kind of sucks. maybe today i'll work on it a bit more but i need some damn sawhorses. AAAANNNDD, my backyard doesnt get any light. So the temp is always pretty low, which means i need a damn thermometer back there so i know when its safe to work on him.
2005/04/29
been skating for years bitches!
So today i started taking glucosamine. Old skaters swear by it. I may no longer skate but i surf and its still hell on the knees. They hurt sometimes when i walk, sometimes when i run, at times when i ride the bike, when i surf, skate, shit, relax, drink beer...etc.
so you get the picture. Its a wierd realization/admittal that my body is not the same as it was even 5 years ago. Not yet 30 and i already need "Joint Support" (hehehehe). I'm not saddened by it tho. I've earned it. I've skated some bitchin spots and loved every minute. This new admission and self medication has got me thinking maybe i should start skating again. I'll grab myelf a shifty longboard and just enjoy the ride.
The surf should be decent this week as well. Got the low low tide hitting in the morning and we got the south swell which should rule the jetty in the evening hours. A whole day of angry surfing, maybe some chill surfing, maybe a little drinking, eating and loving as well.
Skate to hell!
so you get the picture. Its a wierd realization/admittal that my body is not the same as it was even 5 years ago. Not yet 30 and i already need "Joint Support" (hehehehe). I'm not saddened by it tho. I've earned it. I've skated some bitchin spots and loved every minute. This new admission and self medication has got me thinking maybe i should start skating again. I'll grab myelf a shifty longboard and just enjoy the ride.
The surf should be decent this week as well. Got the low low tide hitting in the morning and we got the south swell which should rule the jetty in the evening hours. A whole day of angry surfing, maybe some chill surfing, maybe a little drinking, eating and loving as well.
Skate to hell!
2005/04/27
0026: surfing race battles
Yesterday i went out. it was rather nice, i didnt get to the beach till pretty late. around 7 and i was in the water shortly after. the waves were tiny. some pealers, mostly mush crap all up and down the beach. Its not like it was better in one spot vs another but anyways. the swell was pushing maybe 3 or 4 ft at around 13 seconds from 300 deg. AND the tide was around 3ft. i took the prince out. it was pretty good to me. i'm getting the hang of it and popping up much faster than when i first got it. I caught a few nice ones and one in particular which was a great drop in with a killer racy down the line to a cutback. good times. the sun went down and only one other person out. cant complain. pretty sweet.
So In LA there are race riots at some schools. stupid we;re fighting eachother for nothing. kids too young to really even be making any money selling drugs. Someone needs to break it down to them and show them they're all in the same boat. they're all struggling for no reason. Just going to school to learn to be better workers for the corporations, fighting eachother only to end up making someone else rich.
So In LA there are race riots at some schools. stupid we;re fighting eachother for nothing. kids too young to really even be making any money selling drugs. Someone needs to break it down to them and show them they're all in the same boat. they're all struggling for no reason. Just going to school to learn to be better workers for the corporations, fighting eachother only to end up making someone else rich.
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