...........SOJOURN...........

Heaven on Earth = A full day surfing head-high waves followed by sitting in a hot tub, beer in hand, looking through the window at my wife and baby. Hanging out with my wife, baby boy, and best friends, drinking good wine, watching football in the afternoon, even playing a little Guitar Hero...

We spent the whole holiday weekend at the beach. It was my first time back in the water in three months. Saturday was really disheartening, surf-wise -- I couldn't even make the paddle out and had to forfeit, belly in, and run to the rip. When I finally did, the waves were doo-doo anyway. I got skunked and seriously questioned whether I would be able to keep surfing if my conditioning was this bad.

Sunday was redemption. Big, bowly lefts (and even a few powerful rights). I was a glutton because I had a whole peak to myself, and I'd just cruise back to the rip after each ride, again and again. My final wave was an outside bomb; I heard OS hooting, after which he said it looked about head-and-a-half high.

Monday was freezing. Waist-high peelers that petered out pretty quick. Only 4 guys in the water at 9am and one managed to get my way. I tried to fade down below him and clipped the tail of his board. My Skip Frye Flex Fin left a long gash from rail to stringer on his board... His tail left a new 12-inch long channel down the middle of mine.

It was an amazing weekend though, and one the whole family plans on replicating soon and often!




Pictures are all from the day we're now calling "Super-Bowly Sunday" (two weeks early).

Foghat - Slow Ride (Guitar Hero Version)

Better Luck Next Time

Deep North, not exactly corduroy...













Gee's first surf trip since moving back from LA
and he already looks like an Oregon crusty.













Maybe if I shoot the picture at just the right
moment, it'll look inviting... nope.













Five of us piled in the Econoline and guess
who had to ride in the carseat? There's something
poetic/just plain silly about the fact that this is
where I ended up sitting on my first surf trip since
becoming a dad. Hazing ritual? Maybe. But it was
pretty comfy and felt safer than sitting on a stack
of boards in the back of the cargo van.

Long story short, we didn't even get wet. We had
a few beers and huffed some salty air though.
And that was good.

I can pretty much guarantee that next time will be better...

Slim Gaillard - Laguna

TACKLEBUSTED!

There once was a contest at Nelscott Reef,
The lack of local invitees caused quite a beef,
2008 came in like lion,
Nelscott's green light was flyin',
But the "big names" bailed for Mavericks...
GOOD GRIEF!

Rumor has it that the contest isn't even happening this weekend now. Can anybody confirm that? I was planning on checking it out tomorrow. Here's a pic I snapped at last year's event...

Decades Gone By

Does anybody remember the old Surfer Magazine interviews in the 1980s that asked people like Tom Curren and Martin Potter what their favorite music was? I distinctively recall Neil Young's Harvest and David Bowie's Alladin Sane among the lists. Of course, as a 15-year-old kid who just discovered Duran Duran, those picks fell on ears that were either deaf or full of day-glo Zinka.

Last weekend I downloaded the whole album Decade (Young's, not Duran Duran's) and I feel like I just uncovered a rare jewel. A lot of the songs are familiar, as they would be to any child of the '70s, but many are as fresh and relevant as anything Pitchfork reviewed last year. Everything old is new again. At least to me.

Neil Young - A Man Needs a Maid
Emily Haines - A Maid Needs a Maid