Hard not to be inspired by this...

Feels like "Go Forth" meets The Streets, with amazing, amazing waves and camera work. Check out the moment when he touches the dolphin...

Cold Bites

After almost a month without surf, the ocean finally showed a faint pulse. It was unorganized, warbly, shifty and colder than a coal miner's crack, but if you feed a starving man a grain of rice, he'll swear it tastes just like caviar.

Thanks to OS for the picture.

One Beach, Many Faces

Finally made it back out again in Oregon on Saturday. It was really cool because my wife and el nino joined me (along with the rest of Portland). The air was incredibly warm, the waves were decent, and the water wasn't really that crowded. What I did realize is that after surfing in Mexico and sparingly in small surf before that, I'm really no longer in "Oregon surf shape."

Duckdove about 10 waves on the paddle out and got a crazy icecream headache (and I was wearing a 5 mil with hoodie). My arms burned like hell and my lungs screamed. It took like ten minutes to get the heart rate back down again so I could catch some waves. When I did finally snag a few, my pop-up was kind of off. I think I was still tired.

After spending about 2 hours at the south part of the cove, I went in and checked on the family. From the beach I could see that the north side was looking much cleaner and nobody was riding this one peak that was groomed by the offshore wind. I spent the next hour down there and had a much better time.

Afterward, a cool cat named Jed who I'd met at the Sissyfish Movie Night walked up and handed me the CD of his band, The Pink Widower. Check out "Let Me See" on the link. I'm digging it. Maybe an official Sissyfish music review to come?

Hopefully this weekend will give us some more gems with that hint of autumn. I've been doing push-ups and pull-ups all week to get ready.

That Fall Feeling

The report said 62 degrees. Tried to surf sans booties and was denied; the water gave my feet an instant ice cream toe-ache. I guess there was an arctic upwelling of some kind. I grabbed booties, but was stuck with my hole-riddled 4/3 wetsuit. Had to duck maybe 10 waves on the paddle out and yelled at the top of my lungs after the third dive, my eyes bugging out of my head. But that didn't bother anybody. OS and I were the only two guys out.

Astonishingly, the next beach up had a gaggle of people flailing around. When I checked it half hour before, I stopped counting after tallying 60 soft toppers, spongers and kayakers all seeming to get in each other's way, despite the size of the beach and the variety of peaks. I got back to the ranger's gate quick enough to grab a refund and headed south, to where I was currently, ducking waves and marveling at the size and frigidity of the a-frames.

It was tiring to get to the outside. It reminded me of the paddles when fall starts to turn to winter and one wonders if he'll ever make it (and even considers turning around after that ninth wave over the head that turns you sideways, making you feel like you've made no ground). But I made it.

Waves were steep and wedgey and surprisingly easy to catch on my 2+1. The board seemed to be made for these waves. I started to figure out that if I crouched low on the drop, I would stick in the pocket and trim high and tight for the duration of the ride. I wouldn't outrun the curl and I wouldn't get swallowed up. I'd just stay tucked in. Like I'm about to do tonight, in an attempt to get rid of this sore throat I picked up from the freezing sea.

The Fall - Totally Wired