Random Thoughts

There is something so beautiful about being in the curl while riding an overhead wave.  From the curl that forms above our head to the tug of power grabbing on to our leashes, helping us stay within the most powerful part of the wave.  Plenty of this was going on during the last south swell.  There are always these mental snapshots that stay with me for weeks upon months after great sessions.  One of those moments remain from a year ago last winter when I claimed this epic overhead wave at Sewers.  Pure glass and tranquility while the sun shined through that hollow piece of heaven.  And during the last swell, an epic wave from "First" that took me past the "Cove" will be put on the top shelf of my Hippocampus for years to come.  From what I seen to what I heard, to how it felt, the visceral re-experiencing of that moment will keep me from experiencing Nirvana for lifetimes to come.

While we are on the subject of moments that we will hold on to for a lifetime, Swayze got a gash on his fore head so deep that he needed 12 stitches to put it back together.  Yeah, a scar may form there, and every time he looks in the mirror, he'll probably remember that moment as he went head first off the cliffs of a four foot wave at Beacon's in Encinitas.  But then again, anytime he meets a cute girl and she asks "How did you get that scar?"  he can always reply "Surfing." 

I don't know if your like me, but when I see a full moon forming over a week, I try to get as much sleep as possible.  During the span of the full moon cycle, I will be up all night watching taped recordings of Conan O'Brien and Fresh Prince of Bel Air.  But the negative tides that the full moon brings is the trade off.

This sticker reminded of some bad etiquette that produced some uncomfortable heckling in Santa Cruz during the last swell.  A lot of hollering and splashing of water was going down as people dropped in on each other endlessly that day.  I didn't understand why there was so much bad etiquette going down as the conductor was providing endless mountains of water for everybody to enjoy.  One guy just couldn't control his rudder as he paddled into everybody's wave, especially into waves that "the crew" were on.  I ran into another "Beach" guy who was down for the day, and we discussed this matter during lulls.  He brought up a good point that went something like this, "There aren't much waves during spring and summer and when there are, imagine the whole world trying to play in your backyard and you have to get in line to play on your own swing".  I guess I understood it before, but now I got it.  But damn, I felt a lot of empathy for all those getting ran out of the water that day.

Olas de Liso

Su-weet-ness

I took this one a few weeks ago.  You wouldn't have guessed that this was Linda Mar during spring.  The three photos were stitched up by my buddy Johnny. 

Ventura

C Street

Earlier this week, I conducted a training on the neurobiology of trauma.  I'm neither a nuerobiologist nor a doctor, but I am a brain geek, been working in the field for double digit years and as a somewhat odd hobby, do a lot of research on this fascinating thing that's in between our ears.  And since I have years of experience in working with trauma patients, I was asked to share my views on the subject.  But one thing that I am not is a public speaker.  My hands start to sweat, my heart beats faster, my voice gets a little louder and things around me get a little faster.  That's what us brain geeks call "fight or flight" mode.  Fight or flight is activated by external threatening stimuli that pushes the  blood in our brain into this part called the"amygdala".  Basically we go into survival mode.  Both our mind and body become more vigilant and aware, ready to either strike or run on a moments notice. I train adults and children how to move from the amygdala to their frontal cortex, which is the creative and solution focused area of our brain that helps us make rational and creative decisions.

Why am I providing a brain training on my blog?  Well for one thing, when the surf get's big, my mind and body want to go into fight or flight.  Public speaking makes me want to do that also.  Hence, being out when it's big is somewhat similar to me speaking in front of a 100 pair of eyes.  Or more specifically, making the drop on a big wave.

As I was moving towards the stage, I envisioned myself paddling into a monster.  Once I opened my mouth and words started jumping out through my chest, I thought of popping up.  Then I went for the gusto, starting off the training with a joke.  "I sure hope people will get it and laugh... " I said to myself. I related that to free falling down the face, hoping that I'll make it down without my nose grinding the flats and sending me hurling to oblivion.  Then I said the joke. I saw smiles, and then I heard laughter.  And then I saw engaged eyes.  I made the drop, made a clean bottom turn and now I was safe and flowing down the line.  Did the training go smooth from there?  Yeah, here and there, but I did make the "sections" and ended the training like ending a wave at it's tail end, in the shallows, and with a big smile.

Enough of deep thoughts and back to surfing.  A couple of us Kiwis decided to head south for something different.  Being that one of us is from Ventura, we decided to head there for the weekend.  We had it all planned out, where we were going to surf, tides, and Google maps on hand.  But what we didn't plan for was a huge burning fire that closed The One (or what they call it down south: The "PCH") from Ventura and all the way down to Malibu.  Yeah, all the spots we planned to check out were down that stretch of the PCH.  Yeah.  Bummer.  But we had fun anyways.

This young lady could really cross step.  Great long boarder for sure.

We hit up California Street (natives call it "C" street) and found chest high, hollow and peeling waves with about 5 knots of offshore winds.  We immediately suited up, without booties that is, and hit the surf.  We headed to the most northern point in front of a small dog racing stadium and paddled out.  I would love to say that I got some great waves, but for some reason, I was always lined up with a hollow lip, and it would just throw me over.  I would make the pop up, but I just wasn't fast enough that morning to get my board turned to make it down the line.  I saw a couple of the Kiwis catch some fast ones, especially Manav, who brought his Hess with him.  But as the morning hours passed, the waves got smaller and lulls got longer.  What we were experiencing was the tail end of this south swell.  We missed it by a day.  Darn.

C Street is a really accessible break.  With one free parking lot, and another lot next two it that costs $2 per day, both just a few steps away from the beach, it's pretty surfer friendly.  I surfed there a year back when I made my way up from Baja Mexico to San Francisco.  Freddie, a buddy that I met at Rincon, took me on a whirl wind surf trip around Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties.  During that trip, I didn't get much waves.  I was a real down to earth kook, just watching in amazement at how well people surfed in Southern California.  C Street is sort of a cobble stone break with sand.  Presently, out there as somewhat of a seasoned surfer now, I can see how this break can get hollow if a big south was to push it's energy on it.  And C street is home to some great surfers.  Most notably, Dane Reynolds who resides somewhere in Ventura County.

One thing that I appreciated during our paddle outs was how easy it was.  I think there was a 45 minute period where I paddled out, caught three waves and didn't get my hair wet.  Manav tried to go through the whole session without getting his hair wet, but that failed after he tried to make it out of a small chest high barrel.  Can't blame him.   

But with the sun shining, palm trees swaying and smooth sidewalks, both Manav and Amal decided to enjoy this trip skateboarding.  I am not a skateboarder, but I had a camera, and taking photos and video's of these Kiwis was pretty fun.  Both guys spent the majority of their times trying to clear our homemade roadblocks, successful on most, but taking a spill on one.  After a few attempts, they even had a crowd watching.  

Representing the Bay!

After the pavement sessions we decided to take a ride out to the FCD Patagonia shop and check out stuff we can't afford.  One person we spent time with down in Ventura called it "Pata-Guchi", which isn't far off from the truth.  Shit's pretty expensive, but they had an interesting collection of surf boards and accessories.  What caught my interest was the quiver of hand planes they had in the shop.  The hand planes even had FCS fin plugs attached to their nose so one could attach a GoPro and a capture their epic belly ride.  Pretty cool if you ask me.

After 10 minutes of browsing around at their collection, I found my way to the back of the store which was the shaping bay.  I sticked my head through the door to take a peak but one of the clerks quickly approached me.  I was ready to reply to anything the clerk would say with something like "It wasn't me!" but instead the clerk politely greeted me and offered me a tour of the shaping bay.  I was totally surprised and stoked at the same time.  I grabbed my other two buddies and for about ten minutes, the clerk walked us around the bay, showing us different sections of the board shaping process, which ended with Fletcher's sanding bay.  According to the clerk, each board that FCD creates is personally shaped by either Fletcher or his partner (forgot his name).

Three Kiwi Hippies and Kohl Christensen

After a ten minute tour, a tall guy and a one man camera crew came walking in.  I recognized the tall guy as I had watched a few of his surfing videos before.  After trying to figure out his name for a second, one of my buddies was able to name him.  It was Kohl Christensen.  I had watched his Patagonia video a few months before when he surfed the Easter Islands.  He told us that he was stopping by to give some spec changes to Fletcher Chouinard while making his way to San Clemente for the XXL awards.  After taking a picture of him with the crew I said thanks and that "I posted your video on Facebook a few weeks ago".  What a kook I am.


Above is the video that I saw Kohl in a few months back. The store clerk told us that we missed Dan Malloy who stopped in earlier.  Bummer.

If you have a free weekend and live in California, take a trip out to Ventura.  It still has a "town" feel that is similar to Santa Cruz.  The surf is fun, the water is warmer then up north and the downtown has a lot of great shops and small eateries without the crowds and flash.  It's a pretty humble place.  Plus, it's affordable.  I'll probably hit up Ventura again this year in the summer when the south swells start to kick up.  I'll probably even stay their in the winter, as Rincon is only about a fifteen to twenty minute drive with a bunch of fun breaks inbetween.  Hopefully, a fire won't get in our way the next time down.  And maybe we'll get a swell where I can make a big drop.

 

Linda Mar Sights

Today was a good day... as you can see.

No words needed.

Mental Health Daze

As of April 11, 2013 I have been officially surfing for two years.  It seems like it was yesterday I pulled up to this garage sale in the East Bay, saw this funky looking nine foot NSP board with racing stripes starting on the tail and ending at the nose.  I asked the old man how much for the board, "Eighty dollars," Replied the old man.  "I got fifty on me?"  Hoping he would bite.  "It's yours!"  Said the old man with a look in his eye's as if he knew this would be a life altering event.  "Suuu-weeet!  Now, how do I put this in my car?" 

I didn't get to surf on the April 11th to commemorate my anniversary with the sea, but according to my meticulous, at times O.C.D. like records I did surf on Wednesday April 10th.  What I have written down reads "Surfed three hours (underlined).  Surfed w/ Manav, Amal, Tanji & Johnny @ Linda Mar.  It was good for an hour".  I think I wrote about this day previously, which means it was a memorable session.  As for my very first board that I bought at that life changing garage sale, I gave it to Swayze who just started surfing.  Swayze lives in San Diego and claims that his home break is "Hillcrest". When he's not surfing Hillcrest he has been snaking the young and old at Tormaline and La Jolla Shores. 

 Swayze sent me this after a session at Tormaline. 

Earlier this week, I decided to take a "Mental Health Day".  I don't know how it works in other industries, but in my line of work, we are pretty much pressed to practice what is called "Self Care".  The thing about it is that a lot of us are so devoted to our work and the communities that we work in, that we usually say the hell with ourselves and keep pushing onward.   My boss has been pushing me to take a "Mental Health Day" for the last few weeks, and finally told me, "If you come in tomorrow, I'm writing you up."  

Mental Health Daze on Noriega.

It wasn't a bad day to take off.  It had to be seventy plus degrees out, blue skies and the surf was clean.  Amal and I rolled down to Ocean Beach, parked, ran up the hill and found that The Great Highway was closed.  Usually when the Great Highway is closed, you can bet the surf is chopped up to shit.  They close the Great Highway due to sand being blown by onshore winds from the dunes and the beach on to the Highway.  All that equals out to crappy surf.  But as we crossed the now pedestrian only Highway, we got a quick glimpse of the surf, and by God, it was clean, peaky and uncrowded.  Within two seconds, we ran back to the car, suited up and jumped in (yeah, it was that fast).  Since it was uncrowded, bright and clean, I decided to take out the GoPro.  Here is a video of our session:  




Mental Health Daze from Kookingitup on Vimeo.

I been going for broke lately on every wave that I get.  I been working on isolating two moves, making a clean bottom turn and hitting the lip.  I say "hitting the lip" because once I get up to the top of the wave, I don't know what's going to happen usually.  Sometimes I'll be able to snap off the top and come steaming down for another drop and bottom turn, other times I just shoot down sideways on the face.  But on this day, I almost pulled off a clean floater.  I actually landed the damn thing, but couldn't hold it as the lip hit my board on the flats and forced me to lose my balance. Amal saw it and told me that I should have pushed my tail to turn my nose down the face for another drop.  But after watching a bunch of Andy Iron videos, I want to complete a floater.  I was so in the right place, but I should have put more pressure on my tail to lift my nose.  My nose got stuck under the lip, which made it hard for me to land it.  Next time...

The one and only pedestrian only Highway in the United States of America...  but don't quote me.

This "going for broke" thing has cost me many good rides.  I've seen on video long, pealing shoulders that I f'up by trying to be too fancy.  I know I could make those waves easily if I just cruised, but I really want my surfing to progress, and if that means missing out on some long waves here and there, so be it.  But if I can nail these two moves, the rides will be so much more fun.

Caught this on with the GoPro.

As for the GoPro, the good thing about wearing it out there is I can really evaluate where I was on the wave, if the right decision was made and what I could have done differently.  It's really helped my surfing tremendously. But yeah, it feels weird having a camera on my head for two hours.  Everybody either looks at me and looks away as if I have something hanging from my nose, or they chat with me, asking me questions about the strap I use to keep the camera stable.  But in the end, after I caught a bunch of guys in the lineup ripping, everybody ends up giving me their emails so I can send them a link to the video. 

Amal and Joe sharing a wave. 

The waves were great on that day.  O.B. has this magic window where things will clean up, the peaks get steep and the rides can get nice and long.  We landed within that magic window on that day and caught a handful of tasty peaks, fast drops and in Amal's case, long, fun rides.

Amal going left.

I know I complain a lot about spring.  But spring came through for us.  Maybe she's taking a deep breath or something, or maybe she is taking lunch break.  I don't know.  But she lent us some pretty good waves that day.  I have to say, for being a smallish day, those peaks were pretty beautiful.  In between getting some tasty burritos at La Playa Taqueria, we tried to pull a second session, which was a bad decision.  The magic window had ceased and high tide was building making those small waves all mushy.  Everybody complains about the paddle out at Ocean Beach, but as high tide rises and all that water fills back into the bay and the current gets all confused, paddling back in can take the longest!  I think it took me about twenty minutes to paddle back in.  "Catch some white wash," you might say, but it was too small for even whitewater to happen.  But you know what, I'm gonna stop complaining.  O.B. and spring came together to provide us with a fun day of surf.  And a well needed mental health day.

Dedicated to Captain Zero.

If you haven't read "In Search of Captain Zero" by Allan Weisbecker, well you know, read it.  I saw this video a few months ago and every time I watch it, it stirs up my imagination of Allan cruising to the "end of the road", Mexico and beyond. 

Mexico Logging in December- Regressing Forward from Cyrus Sutton on Vimeo.

Getting Out Of My Head

Lately I've been trying to get out of my head.  April has been long and extremely difficult.  From work to changes that come with spring and life, I long for the winter days when I could head down to the beach, paddle into size able, clean waves and forget about it all for a few hours.  Spring has all but taken that away.  Now when I look out at the surf, all I see is whitecaps and 15 hour gusts throwing sand in my eyes.  Yeah, I have my board and suit in my car, but looking at all that gnarly foam for some reason has been getting under my skin lately.  I bumped into a buddy the other day at Linda Mar while I was taking The Kid out again for another lesson.  My buddy tried three times to get me out.  I had my suit on but my board was in the car and for some odd reason, I forgot my leash.  My buddy even had an extra leash in his car.  "Nah, I'm good man, besides, I gotta watch the kid" I told him.  He looked at me, shrugged his shoulders, stuck on his hood and paddled out.  For some odd reason, I still don't regret not paddling out with him.  I was pretty content, and pretty cold.  Damn onshores...

However, I paddled out a few days prior to that meeting.  Things were looking like slop, but I told myself that if I made it to the beach, I was paddling out no matter what.  I pulled up to the south lot of Linda Mar, checked out the surf and just told myself "fuck it."  I stuck on my wetsuit, grabbed The Sunset, did a couple of warm up stretches and paddled out with my buddy Amal, just a bit south of the Taco Bell.  By the time we made it to the outside, I ducked dived about 50 times.  No lie.  It was just one sloppy white water after another.  It had to be @ 7 seconds or something, the waves and the wash were about 4 yards apart.  The Good news is that it wasn't as windy as predicted, the water felt like it was around 58 degrees, I was wearing no booties and if it weren't for the short period intervals, the outside would have been considered glassy... kinda.

Once we got out there, for some odd reason, Linda Mar was trying to produce some decent peaks.  Within 15 minutes, I think I had around 5 waves.  No face time, but some fun drops.  The waves had some slope to it, nothing steep, which made it easy and fun.  Then after a couple of waves, I ran into Manav and Tanji.  It was good to see them.  We gave each other fist bumps, and talked about life and everything else in between.  It's always great to run into buddies unexpectedly, especially when the surf sucks.  But for some reason, the surf didn't suck. 

For about an hour and a half that evening, the waves were good.  Linda Mar offered me probably the funnest right I've had all year at that beach.  I caught it way outside and practically rode the wave into the creek.  I built up a lot of speed going down the line and gave it a right hook of a snap once it sectioned.  I caught another pretty sizeable, sloped out wave earlier, and had another pretty good snap of the section.  It wasn't to bad at all, considering it was spring at Linda Mar 

After we got out, Vanessa, another good friend was in the parking lot.  I haven't seen her in a while, and it's always great to catch up with her.  We all ended up eating burritos down the street, talking story, having some laughs and discussing our upcoming annual Trestles trip that's coming up in a few months.  And I also met another cool lady surfer, Kate, who's coming to Trestles too.

Maybe things aren't that bad and I'm just stressing out on a Sunday evening because of the week to come and what happened during the end of last week.  It's hard to get out of this bolo head of mine.  I'm just lucky to have a bunch of good friends, a surf board and big blue next door.  If those three things can't get me out of my head, nothing ever will.
 

Oh and one more thing...  I took The Kid out surfing again and he solo paddled into his very first, real, non-white wash wave!  I was so stoked for him.  He paddled into the peak, glided for a second, stood up, made the drop and went left for about two seconds of face time.  He raised his hands in the air, looked at me and we both yelled for joy!  So stoked for him!  I just want to thank Dan and the folks at Sonlight Surf Shop for setting The Kid up.  Dan and Robin are always really helpful and encouraging.  Great job Kid!