Just North of La Conchita...

It's always fun when Dane paddles out..

2012-02-09T18:20:00.000-08:00

Wasting away in La Conchita Ville

2012-01-25T13:49:00.000-08:00

Aaron "Arson" Ernst was absolutely killing it!

Let's see.. Picking up where I left off in December. I did manage to hang in there last month with $1.81 to spare. Unfortunately exactly nine days after I got some cash, the day before new year eve, the van just died.. The only good news was it died right at the bottom of the offramp at Bates Rd. (just north of here) With a help of couple fisherman I got it parked under the bridge, locked it up, and I went surfing, just like every other day in December. Three hours later it actually started but didn't sound great. I know it's hard to believe but, despite my rugged good looks, and neck beard, I really don't no shit about cars. But it did start, just barely, and I made a run for home. I even caught a lucky break and made the left turn into LC without stopping, limped down SurfSide, and it died in the driveway. Now I love my van, but after a week of denial, anger, bargaining, and depression, I finally accepted I was going to have to tow it in.

Tuesday Afternoon

So for the past month I've haven't had a car. It's sorta, kinda, pretty cool. I am very lucky to be within walking and biking distance to not just one, but two world class surf spots. It even got me think about getting an electric bike after seeing how much money I'm saving not buying gas. Riding your bike to Rincon is one thing, but going all the way into Carp is a bit much, Especially after surfing three hours.. Especially when you have 30 lbs of groceries on your back. (Yeah those beer bottles are not light) Especially if you bought a bottle of wine too. Unfortunately.. I think I'm looking at about 2K to get the van back to life, so the electric bike may have to wait. Well it's one or the other I guess. But I can't get to El Cap on the electric bike which was where I would have been heading last weekend, so yea, van, bike, van... The van is most likely gonna win out here.

Dane..Too bad I missed the first part of this turn...

Last weekend... Biggest swell of the year this far with the Goleta Buoy hitting 10' @ 17 seconds, and yep, I do keep track... probably ocd or something like it. It was solid, some old guys said eight foot sets. I saw the reef way, way, way outside Stanley's breaking on the sets. But I was sick as a dog and had been for a few days. So silver cloud, golden lining, something like that. I decided to break out the camera and went down to shoot some surfing. Turned out to be pretty fun, so I rode my bike down there again yesterday. Here ya go.. Yeah 2012.. No car... Sick as a dog for the biggest swell of the year... Ok, it's not the end of the world, it's Tuesday afternoon in the cove with Dane, Pat, Lakey, Arson, and the crew. Music by Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham.. Enjoy the full screen option for maximum viewing pleasure.

LC on Ten Dollars a Week - Two hundred forty-three dollars, and eighty-one cents later...

2011-12-15T15:00:00.000-08:00

Good news for the one percent

It's Thursday, December 15, 2011, and I still have about five days to go. I have spent $243.81 since my last confession. Add that to the $77.73 from the first four days, and you'll see I ran out of money and fell into the red about $71.54 ago. Prescriptions, expensive dog food, emergency shower repairs for your daughter, it all adds up. Not to mention the beer and wine. The good news is I managed a 7 day surfing streak for free. Fifteen hours worth. Sure it included paddling the sup from LC to the north and back one day, and yesterday was nothing to write home about but.. I don't know? Can you write about glassy perfectly shaped waist high lefts with no one out? I just did. Well.. It is certainly no reason to stay out of the water especially after being dry three days straight earlier in the week.

Obviously not the same day

The rest of the days were average. (average waves, not spending) But an average wave at that spot just north of here is still pretty dang good. And average waves this winter, are starting to look better than ever. One day I paddled out into head high sets with just a friend and a sup guy out. Normally that sup kook would have pissed me off but something special was happening here. It didn't last long, but the best part of that session was paddling back out after we'd caught the first few waves of the set, and watching 3 or 4 more roll though unridden. Sweet. Won't forget about that for a while. I remember being very nervous sitting out there wondering what was going to go wrong. Instant crowd? More sups? Get hit in the head with my board again? Southwind? Yep, fucking southwind! Seriously, I would have gladly taken another sup... It only lasted for about 40 minutes before the wind turned south but I stayed out another hour knowing that the southwind looks offshore from LC...

99 cents worth of xmas lights

Anyway... I made about $100 in dog sitting money, so over-budget yes, but still not completely broke, though I had to turn down a chance to see "X" tonight. I guess that is the cost of freedom. Financial freedom. I did manage an excellent surf and birthday lunch with a couple friends (not my birthday, Kims) Saw a movie about the haole royalty of Hawaii, drank plenty of good beer and cheap red wine, food made slowly, saw both daughters, got a free student edition of Photoshop, a handmade coffee mug, and took a trip to the 99 cent store, where I made the mistake buying only 99 cents worth of xmas lights instead of the $1.98 I needed. Also if you live around here you might have noticed, it's been pretty dang cold prompting me to go out and by two pair of polar fleece sweats for a mere $4.31 for the Carpinteria Thrift Store, along with at least one bundle of wood from the bag-less Albertsons. Only one pair of the sweats worked out so if anyone needs a sweet pair of medium Patagonia sweats hit me up. Two bucks.. Just kidding you can have them.

Blurry pelican sunset with dogs.. No Charge

LC on Ten Dollars a Day - The Weekend

2011-12-04T17:28:00.001-08:00

Ahhhh...

Picking up where I left off on day two. "Over budget, no problem, don't need much tomorrow." Well, on day three, it turns out I needed gas. $15.00 worth, and a few more groceries... Umm, ok wine. $10.81 So there ya have it. Three days, $27.90 over budget. I know what you're thinking, there goes the dog sitting safety cushion money, and hey, "How much gas can you buy for $15.00 anyway?" Not much. But it does bring the needle on the fuel gauge out of the red zone about a quarter inch. 4.2 gallons to be exact. That's roughly 75 miles worth of gas give or take. Probably take. Maybe five or six trips into town if I'm lucky.

Now you're thinking, "That's not too great on the gas mileage is it Don? You pseudo plastic-bag hating eco-warrior kook." Sadly it's not, 15 mpg to 20 mpg tops.¹ However, even if did go down to Longo Toyota in El Monte² and pay cash for a new Prius today, it will take me 23 years to justify the savings.³ I'm not even sure if they designed the Prius to last 23 years, we'll see about that. All I know is the Syncro is going to be 25 years old next year, it's sleeps up to four humans and two dogs, and you can cook a pretty good dinner in it. Plus all pseudo hippy, plastic-bag hating, tree loving people drive Volkswagen Vans, old diesel Mercedes, or Volvo Wagons so I am keeping it.

Local Goods

So I am over budget thus far, but what can you do in LC for $10.00 a day anyway? Obviously nothing, so far it's running closer to $20.00 a day, and I still have a big dog food purchase coming up that will set me back another $38.00. To be clear, I am the 1% of the 10% behind the other 89% that doesn't feed their dog supermarket dog food. But really what can you do? Start the day with Coffee. Good coffee, made with love. My ex showed me the beauty of good coffee, freshly ground, and made slowly using ancient European methods. In my case it's the stove top espresso maker. One cup at a time and share. Sadly I usually I end up with Starbucks or Peets beans, but if you really want some good beans try Local Goods on Orcas Island. Anyway the point is to take your time, and make your coffee slowly, with love. In fact the whole secret to the $10.00 a day method is to stretch everything out, enjoy every minute no matter how dull, and most importantly, go places where you can't spend money.

The good news is in LC, there's no place to spend your money except the fruit stand, so you're in pretty good shape if you don't leave town. Otherwise the beach or long salt water therapy sessions are good options. If you've ever been to LC, then you might know beach access is pretty funky. It involves either walking across the freeway, dangerous yes, but absolutely legal. I've seen in done, but have yet to try it myself. The only other way is though a drainage tunnel near the middle of town that runs under the freeway. The tunnel is just about four feet high, and six feet wide, and offers great acoustics, but it's not for everyone. More than a few of my guests have taken a pass on going the the beach. (Yes... We are in the middle of getting a real pedestrian underpass, the first thirty feet are already in place, and they expect to start up again in the spring for a possible summer opening. Personally, I think it's coming at a pretty high price, and I am not just taking about money.)

LC Grom Conner.. 4' Tunnel.. No Problem

There are lot of ways the local's negotiate the four foot tall tunnel. Low tricycles, skateboards, and other interesting homemade craft. And for some of the mini-groms it's a non-issue. Myself... I use the duck and run method, the faster I get through the better. That method has served me well the last couple years but recently resulted in a slight concussion and whiplash a few weeks ago when I forgot about the low overhang as you make the transition from the new tunnel, to the old tunnel. Ouch.. More like F#%K! It literally knocked me on my ass. I can still feel the whiplash injuries too. Once you hit the beach, and hopefully not your head, you'll emerge onto two miles of deserted beach. Hunting for Magic Seaglass, and long walks with your four footed friends, your lovers, or both are an excellent ways to avoid spending money. The sounds of US 101 seem to disappear as you look out towards 'anyapax,⁴ and limiw,⁵ two of the four channel islands on the horizon. To the north is the Queen of the Coast, to the south, Punta Gorda. Either way you walk it's not likely you'll run into anyone but fisherman this time of year.
.

Shuku

Today though we have a special trip planned. We're going whale watching at shuku.⁶ It's a peaceful morning, sunny, but a bit chilly in the water, and even colder in the air. The waves are clean with an occasional chest high zipper coming through. It's Sunday, but there's only a half a dozen people enjoying the morning, most whom I know by name. My friend saw it first and frankly I didn't believe her, I don't think she did either, but sure enough, poofe, there she blows.. Only twenty yards away, beautiful, perfect, and free, but going the wrong direction I think. Or maybe just swimming back to say hi, as my friend said. I've seen whales round the corner more than a few times but this only the second time I've seen one close up and personal from the water. It was impressive, and of course free of charge.

So yeah. I am running a little over budget, but had good weekend none the less. A few uncrowded waves, Tiger wins for the first time in two years, and we're having enchilada style baked chicken, with a salad, and a cheap red wine for dinner. A welcome relief from last nights grilled ahi with wasabi butter debacle. Nothing worse than worrying if you ate bad fish before you go to bed.

Weekend Spending... Sheesh. $25.64 cents over budget for the weekend $37.73 over budget after four days.
Gas $15.00
Groceries $ 30.64
Sunny day, fun waves, and whale watching with friends... Priceless.

Welcome to La Conchita

1 Downhill with the wind.^↩

2 MSRP: $27,859.00 Tax: $2,716.25 Title and License: $478.12 Total Out the Door: $31,053.37^↩

3 Based on the above Prius III model with navigation, Driving 10,000 miles per year and averaging 50 mpg with gas set at $3.75 vs 1984 Syncro Transporter Westfalia Full Camper Edition with Subaru 2.2 mid nineties engine, Driving 10,000 miles per year averaging 17 mpg, and gas set at $3.75. Your mileage may vary. Syncro, annual gas bill $2083. Prius wow.. $750. Savings per year. $1333.. Nice. $31,053 (Cost new Prius) divided by $1333(saving per year) equals 23 years. Your math may vary but you still can't make a good cup of coffee in it. If you have to buy a new car I guess the Prius is a eco-friendy choice, or is it?^↩

4 Chumash word for Anacapa Island, said to mean mirage, ever changing, deception. Also known as Eneepah. True. It really does look like a mirage some days, check it out, it vibrates.^↩

5 Chumash word for Santa Cruz Island^↩

6 Chumash Village loacated at the mouth of a creek just north of here.^↩

LC on Ten Dollars a Day - Day Two

2011-12-03T03:43:00.001-08:00

Almost stayed on budget for day two. The surf looked pretty small from here, but definitely worth a closer look. So with the dogs loaded in the van I headed out about 7:30. I wish I could trust those two to hang out on the beach and not cause any trouble, but I don't. I also feel pretty guilty if I just leave 'em in the van, and head straight into the water, so I don't. Not much seaglass lately, but there have been an unusually large number of dead loons on the beach, both here, and in La Conchita too.. I don't know what's up with that but I can assure you Riley is not responsible.

An hour later I'm paddling out in some fun waist to chest high waves with light offshores and another refreshingly light crowd. Conditions were near perfect even though the swell dropped. Combine it with yesterday and it could have been all-time especially with the light crowds. Went straight to town today(save gas) My mission.. Pick up two bars of wax from Rincon Designs, and a few groceries from Von's. I always try to get people to buy me wax for my birthday, but that was way back in May so it was time to break down, or continue to slip all over the place with summer wax. Wax is now outrageously priced at $1.75 a bar. Maybe I do need to make that trip down to John's...

Across the street Von's is still killing seals, and birds, and turtles, with their useless plastic bags, that hold only 1 item, so I normally don't shop there. But in an effort to save gas, I put my canvas bag over my head and walked in to pick up a few things. By the way the Carpinteria Albertson's 100% Bagless Program looks like a 100% success to me. One of only two stores to go completely bagless in California on April 27th, 2011. No paper, no plastic, and guess what, the place is as crowded as ever, and most importantly people are bringing their own bags. A lot of them who would have never ever brought their own bags, never ever ever, and now its second nature. The point is we don't need to wait for a law to pass to ban those plastic bags, because there no law stating you have to use them in the first place!!! Waiting for the government to tell you whether you should or shouldn't use plastic bags, seems like a waste of time to me. Those guys are just one disappointment after another ( the government) I'll let you in a little tip too Von's, and all you other seal killing, bird chocking, plastic polluting monsters. It's rumored that Albertson's is saving 60K to 100k a year by getting rid of bags, so take that to your 1% and do the right thing!

Pulled Pork sandwiches on a French Roll for lunch, and Spicy Seafood Pasta, for dinner with a bottle of Firefly Ridge Cab $5.99 at Von's (plastic bag monsters) The finals of the World Cup of Surfing from Sunset Beach were sick with John John Florence winning convincingly and prompting me to put him on my Fantasy Surfer Team for Pipe at the ridiculously low price of 3,000,000.

Day two spending.
Surf Wax - $3.77..Groceries - $10.81.. Total Day 2 - 14.58
Total to Date - $32.09 Yep.. $12.09 Over budget, no problem don't need much tomorrow.

Big Bad Bag Man

LC on Ten Dollars a Day - Day One

2011-12-02T06:42:00.000-08:00

Here’s the deal I had an unexpected Van repair in mid November running $300. That along with the cash put aside for the rent, bills, etc, left me only $250 till my next check on the 21st. Yep, my checks aren't that big, do the math. There was a time when my car payment alone was $600 a month, but not anymore. So anyway $250.. That’s a little over $10 a day, and maybe, I might pick up a little extra dog sitting money, still it’s not much. Wish I had bought a fishing license earlier in the year. Haha. Trust me, I’m not in the 1%. I am in the 10%, behind the other 89%, so I am usually pretty broke anyway. Not really a big deal, I don't even expect to have to go to Coinstar to cash my change in, but it's good to know I can. No worries, it's the life I've chosen, less money, more surf. Still three weeks will be an extra long stretch. Today.. I just need beer. That’s gonna run me more than $10 so not a great start. To be clear I am in the 1%, of the 10%, in back of the 89%, that only drinks decent beer, and not 40 ounce Malt Liquors or Coors Light.

Thanks to Riley and Wilson I scored some unexpected surf today, and it was pretty fun too. Sure the wind was going everywhere from light offshore, to glassy, to hard south, and every direction in between, but if you stayed out long enough you got some good ones for sure! Not bad considering the rest of so cal had 50mph winds. I guess no one expected it since I never saw more than 6 people in the water and it didn't cost a thing! Except a little gas (4 mile round trip) I should have combined my trip to town with the surf trip so as to save some gas, but I had business in town today and had to go back and get my wallet, check book, etc..(9 mile round trip)

By the time I returned there was a power outage going on, bummer, and that wasn’t restored till sometime after 6:00 (yeah, pretty close ruining my newly purchased food in the freezer) Luckily I keep a huge bag of ice in there and everything looks good. So yeah… No power.. No internet.. And even worse, no live coverage of the Van’s World Cup of Surfing from 8’to 12’ Sunset Beach. So I read the new Surfer cover to and thoroughly enjoyed it. $12 for a year of Surfer is hard to pass up isn’t it? Plus they throw in 12 issues of Surfing to boot, how do they do it? The power outage probably saves a couple bucks for next month so I am thinking.. Maybe they should have one everyday. Force people into reading or taking a nap!

I settled on a twelve pack of Red Hook ESB at $13.99 today for change of pace from my Firestone or Sierra Nevada routine, add some Snack Mix @ $1.00, and some red chili flakes for 79 cents found in the Mexican spice section in a little plastic bag. (That is a sweet deal compared to the bottled ones in the Spice section so you might want to make note if you like spicy seafood pasta as much as I do.) With CRV and tax that comes to $17.51

For dinner I went with a pasta dish cooked tonight cooked under the candlelight. Chicken Cappelini tossed in my own Mexi-Marinara sauce, and garnished with Avocado, Sour Cream and 4 types of cheese.. Wine.. A cheap ass cab from Fresh and Easy in Ventura.

No need to go on vacation with sunrises like this.

Don't get me started on the Cormorants

2011-10-24T14:46:00.000-07:00

I know these California Seabirds in the photo above look poised but trust me, the two on the wire are precariously close to falling off, and the one on the pole ain't doin' much better. Periodically I find myself in need of leaving the sanctuary here in La Conchita and the nearby town just north of here in search of some waves in the big city to the south. Sometimes I stay on the 101 and zip on by mostly sub par conditions, and sometimes I get off at Seacliff and hit the old Pacific Coast Highway. If you get off on old PCH yourself be sure to check out the Cormorants of Solimar just north of the Solimar Beach Enclave. They hang out on a telephone pole and wire and out of the 40 different species of Cormorants they seem to be the only ones to do so.

I don't know if you pay much attention to the seabirds around here but my dog Riley does and the Cormorant is one of the most spastic seabirds out of the water I have ever seen. There are small jets that can take off faster than a Cormorant off the beach. In the water they are a different story, sleek, agile and very productive fish hunters for sure. But how these Cormorants of Solimar can balance on that wire, or actually get into flight before they hit the ground is beyond me... Next time you drive by make sure to have a laugh as they weeble, wobble, but don't fall down. Actually there used to be seven of them but only three this morning so maybe...

Yep.. The other four fell off already...

Santa Barbara Dancing Art.. May 21, 2011

2011-05-22T13:15:00.000-07:00

My step daughter and her beautiful mom were nice enough to invite me to the Santa Barbara Dancing Arts year end recital last night. Had a great time enjoying dancing, trying to shoot photos in the darkness from my seat, and especially the the Charburger Combo.. Big thanks to directors Steve Lovelace and Alana Tillim for doing such great work with the kids. Here are a few highlights from the show.

The rare bird. Keep it on the dl..

2011-03-20T11:46:00.000-07:00

Tuesday.. Lots of surf this week but funky winds and currents at home so I have been heading up the coast at least three out of the last five days. The rare bird was looking in great form on Wednesday. It also looked a little bit too crowded even though I was dieing to surf there. Keep it on the down low?? How about everyone leave your cell phones at home instead. So.. I drove up a bit further and scored a different kind of bird. Pretty fun and near perfection in terms of surface conditions. 3 people out and they were really spread out. Super fun but not what I drove up for.

Wednesday saw the swell drop but the funky winds continue around home base. Still just enough fun to keep me out there for a couple hours. I thought about heading north again but with the drop in the swell just didn't seem worth it.

Thursday, March 17th. The swell is back up and I make plan to head north without even thinking.. This time crowd was looking good as I arrived. For about an hour it was pretty easy to get waves and I had a quite few nice little cover ups but no ridiculously deep shallow sand sucking barrels that were coming up, as the tide was going down. The place just turned on as the tide started to drop and I saw plenty of reasons to call this the best spot on the coast (If you like really fast hollow long makable barrels) Unfortunately it quickly turned into one of the most crowded days I've seen. Not a single wave, big or small, went unridden.. The Slide Show is about a hour later after I got out. The tide and bottomed out and it seemed a bit smaller. Still a lot of great surfing going on. Check out Brandon Smith switch foot barrel, that was pretty cool. But if you could have seen what my eyes saw during the dropping tide.. Perfection.. Sick.. Music: Rodeo Clowns... GLove, with Jack Johnson..

Friday the swell was down again, but I was hooked so I headed back up the coast again. This time to no crowds but that damn south wind followed me up there. Damn south wind, damn you all to hell. Still wasn't too bad with a 1/2 dozen people in the water. And when the wind switched onshore it even cleaned up a bit had it to ourselves till the Low Tide Crew Arrived.

Saturday.. Back at home and going over the falls at overhead Rincon. I was so used to just bouncing off the bottom and popping right up I forgot what it was like to get dragged under water for 50 yds.. Well it's raining today.. Horrible southeast winds and weather. Still you know that it is probably working somewhere..

Battle of the Saints.. February 26th, 2011

2011-02-28T12:11:00.000-08:00

Santa Barbara's own Brawlin' Betties Roller Derby Team kicked off the season in front of a standing room only crowd that included Matt Damon, and the Mayor. Under the threat of snow, and rain the Mission City Brawlin' Betties flat out killed the visiting Santa Cruz Derby Girls by a score of 202 to 40, holding Santa Cruz to only 2 point in the second half. It was a blowout but since it was my first derby I had to keep asking Kim what was going on the whole time anyway. Ok I get it now. Full contact pro flat track roller derby. They are hot, sexy, and can kick your ass. Can't wait for the next bout...

Check out the slide show...

Locals Only aka.. The day surfline missed it..

2011-02-18T11:09:00.000-08:00

It's easy to get good shots of the pros with their colored wetsuits, and ridiculous talent. But we do have a lot of locals that rip Rincon day in, and day out. Here's a pro free session from December 8th which I think was the day there were only 25 people out stretching from the cove to the Indicator at 8:00 when I paddled out. I'm pretty sure Surfline had the swell coming in on the 9th. Surprise. Waves were pushing double overhead with some thick barrels through the rivermouth section all morning. I didn't get one this day but there were a lot of rides going to the freeway. This session is from a few hours later. The word got out and it got a little sectiony but still plenty of fun for everyone there..

02/17/11 - Kelly Slater Session

2011-02-17T19:41:00.000-08:00

Been a while since I wrote and I am not going to start today. Just needed to check to see if this embeddable slideshow works. Long story short. I had two long waves.. Outside Indicator to the call box on Tues.. That's over a mile right there. Add a dozen good waves past the rivermouth it's safe to say I surfed a more than a couple miles that day. That should keep me going for a few days but I am already starting to worry about summer.Other than that. I do most of my writing on the darkside. Lots of personal problems and uncertainty. Salt water therapy is keeping me going. Had a chance to shoot some photos of Slater today so after this long preamble.. Chek out the slideshow.

It was pretty flat for over weekend and into last Monday. How flat? Flat enough for me to break out the Sup. That’s pretty dang flat. Fortunately things picked up as soon as Sally Fitzgibbons and the Roxy Girls moved in to a house on the Queen of the Coast. Tuesday brought some fun, glassy, overhead surf, to the Indicator for the 8:00am to 12:00noon shift. With only the Roxy Girls, and a very light local crowd in the water for most of the morning, I think everybody’s wave counts were pretty high. Personally I had not one, but two waves, from outside Indicator all the way though to the freeway. I remember surfing pass not one, but both Heathers on last wave. Two waves to the freeway and it was only 10:30.That’s about a mile of surfing right there, and a lot of walking. Tack on a least a dozen other good waves that went past the rivermouth, and well, I was pretty surfed out and clocked out early.

Adhering strictly to my surf first, shoot later, philosophy, I was back at the point around 1:00pm. Got some good shots of Sally, and some of the local crew in beautiful glassy conditions. The wind picked up about 2:30pm and I was out of there just in time for my 3:00pm siesta. How come siestas haven’t caught on in this country anyway?

If Tuesday had light crowds, then Wednesday was empty. High tide, pouring rain, and some texture, seems to deter a lot of people. It also helps that you can’t really see what’s going on around the corner at the rivermouth. That’s why it pays off to have a dog. Riley’s always willing run down there and check it with me. Conditions were a far cry from Tuesday. But hey, still plenty of head high sets to go around, and pretty much no one out but the Roxy Crew.

Thursday morning the view from La Conchita was a good one. Waves definitely jumped back up. It looked like it was well overhead on the sets from my vantage point about two miles away. Conditions were glassy but a little warblely. That might be my own word but warble is a word so hmm, I’m adding to my dictionary. But it had a warble to it for sure. I was thinking good size swell, good direction, dropping tide, and possibly get away from the warble. So I made plans to do a little office work then head to that other famed point about 40 minutes north of here. You know the one that cost $10.00 for a parking spot. That’s when my surf day came off the tracks.

It’s always a questionable move to drive past uncrowded overhead Rincon, even with a warble, thinking you might score good waves at that other point. But I have had a few of my “best waves ever” there. So I have this craving. Maybe it’s just a very hard to fill addiction. But I love that place. So drive by a warblely Rincon is exactly what I did. Forty minutes later I pulled into the lot at the other point. There was a slight texture to the water coming in from the south as I headed up. Hmm, well, it still looked fun so I suited up. Turns out it was the most consistent, head high, to slightly overhead surf, I have ever had the pleasure of seeing there. Only a dozen guys spread out across the point. Unfortunately, the south wind picked up, and turned it into big mess right before my eyes. I paddled out anyway like I always do, and every once in a while there was a wave that would slightly resemble the normal magic that goes on here. Truthfully though, I was almost in tears, as I paddled over wave, after wave, after wave, that would have been barreling my ass off, on any other day. It really was a crying shame.

I took a quick look at Deveraux but that was more of the same. Drat, foiled again! As I headed home I got a tip from my friend David that Slater was paddling out in the cove. That sounded pretty fun but as I past Rincon en route to get my camera, Rincon was looking pretty fun for surfing too. There was some south wind on it but it still looked ripple and not too crowded. Then it became a question of surf or shoot. Really I was pretty surfed out from the last couple days so… I quickly drowned my Gaviota Coast sorrows in a Firestone DBA, grabbed my camera headed back to the point. Come to think if it. I had never seen Slater surf in person so this would be a treat. As soon as I stepped onto the sand at the cove, there he was ripping the hell out of what looked like perfect south wind conditions. I was lucky I already had my camera out because he really didn’t catch many waves when I was there. Maybe half a dozen or so… Sally on the other hand, she’s a wave catching machine. I think she’s on the shoulder paddling back out in every shot I got. That’s pretty funny. Looked like a good session out there for everyone, pros, locals, and visitors alike. Hardly any snaking going on and that is always a pleasure to see, especially in the cove.

Kelly, Sally, and Frank Curren, along Aaron Ernst were the stand outs. Pat Curren had some good ones too, but my lens can’t seem to focus correctly whenever he gets a good one. Sometimes shooting photos is just as good as being out there so… All and all it turned out to be a great surf day. Stoked! Don’t miss those shots of Slater’s experiential fin set up. I didn’t see him ride that board but he has got serious Cheyne Horan stuff going on there…

Ok so here's the slide show. Music: Shuku Power by The Upbeat. Carpinteria's and Santa Barbara's Premier Ska & Reggae Band.. Shuku by the way is the name of the Chumash Village at the Rivermouth. Ok. Here's the slideshow.

10.10.10

2010-10-10T04:35:00.000-07:00

View from the porch.. I think I'll stay awhile.

10.10.10... Nothing too scary with that. I don't even hear too many people talking about it. In binary code it is the number 42. Sally Fitzgibbions tweeted that this morning so I thought I would toss it in. For me it marks the one year anniversary of moving to La Conchita. LC as it's called by the locals.

Excerpt from the novel.. The Innocents..

The '66 Bonneville eased out of Rincon Park and turned south, Wil nudged on the pedal conjuring up a throaty exhaust. He still had the hots for the car, virtually stolen from a widow during the gas crunch. The Bonnie had style; it went like a white bat. It's also carried a 9'6"longboard in a partition he'd punched through the back seat. To improve it's handling he'd replaced the suspension and steering. Other than that, the car was mint.

Wil rested his arm on the open window, to his left, La Conchita appealed to some inner sense. It was so unexpected: half a mile long, scrunched against the coastal cliffs, a vest pocket community not even on most road maps. North-bound drivers escaping LA for the red tiled splendors of Santa Barbara another 15 minutes up the road rarely caught two blinks of it in the rearview. Which suited him fine.

Like most locals, he dug the closeness of it. People co-existed.. like the mobile homes, beach shacks, stucco houses, redwood decks. Roses grew next to cactus, fuchsias next to Spanish bayonet. And up the street at the north end, bananas, the fruit tree-ripening in bright blue bags. La Conchita itself hadn't grown much, though. Laid out in 1924, it waited for the movies stars and city folk to come, some made it as far as Mussel Shoals. After a while the coast highway brought others: oil workers, smugglers, retirees, surfers, all attracted by cheap lots, and two miles of sloping beach - Richard Barre

Wil Hardesty pretty much nailed it in his 1995 description of LC. The banana's are unfortunately gone, and there are probably more nurses than smugglers these days though. It was late '94 when I first took a look at a house for sale on Vista del Rincon. Theresa quickly shut that idea down? The first slide happened about 3 months later when I was at the Ski Industries trade show in Vegas. I clearly remember the watching it on the news along side Chuck Barfoot, snowboard pioneer, and long time LC resident. Well..Chuck on is on the front row and so am I so I think we have more to worry about with the global warming and melting polar ice caps.. lol.

It was Jenny, Julia, and my daughter Kalie who brought me to La Conchita a year ago to this day. Well.. Long story short. That didn't quite pan out. So it was Jenny, Julia, and Kalie who left me and Riley here by ourselves. Thank you. I found some super neighbors to share the house and the rest is history. Technically my lease is up today, and I am now month to month but.. I remember the weekend we moved in. Had the first rain of the season. Three days later the surf came up, and it didn't stop till mid June.

Driving home last night on the way back from the Carp just in time to catch the sunset, there was a big ol dolphin show going on. Dolphins stretched from the curve all the way to the middle of town. Jumping, playing, racing, generally flying all over the place, speaking to me once again.. Yes.. I think I will stay awhile..

Bobby.. Some of the biggest LC Beach Break I've seen.

Kim's Sup Part Two or.. More time well spent..

2010-09-14T22:59:00.001-07:00

About week later I decided I really didn’t pull a muscle but maybe cracked my rib. That’s what it feels like anyway. Don’t worry… it only hurts when I paddle real hard. So.. Over the weekend I tried to paddle casually into a few over at the left. Pretty small but I could have surfed bigger without much more pain so no worries. Wait. Before I go way off tangent and end up with a third part to this stand up paddle confession story of mine, I have to say one thing. You can’t just tell me you are a shortboarder, or a longboarder, or a supper, or a sponger, a kneeboarder, or a kite boarder or, I just surf when it’s good, or blah, blah, blah. Just surf. One of everything please..Thanks! I still plan on getting on a surf mat and on a kneeboard this winter. If you only have love for your own race, then you only leave space to discriminate.. which only creates hate, which can only make you irate. Except those spongers. Fuck those guys…. Just kidding… and the kiteboarders…. Kidding..

So here’s the story I was trying to tell you about yesterday. It goes like this. Riley was taking me on his morning walk up at Bates. We hooked up with Feta and Lou on the way back. I notice some fins heading in the same direction, at the same time my brother Mike calls and gives me the up to date surf report from Venturah.. Actually he hasn’t arrived in the VTA yet but it’s not happening in Hueneme. Which by the way is the Chumash word for “halfway” or “resting place” Halfway to where? Glad you asked. Halfway between Malibu and Rincon of course. Google it. Sorry. No. .I made that up but it sounds good yes? It is the however the only deep water port between LA and San Francisco. So I headed home waiting to hear something on the surf, and wondering if I should forget about it, and go cut the dolphins off in LC for a photo shoot. Sometimes I wish someone would just tell me what to do and where to go. Kidding.. Surf report came back negative but too late to cut off the dolphins. So now what? I need a new plan.

I decided to grab my Camera , load the SUP, head south, and cut them off for some photos around Hobson’s, then maybe drive a bit further and launch the SUP. Making the left into La Conchita is a piece of cake but heading south is a pain in the ass, at least in the Westy. I try to not let the f-bombs fly as I merge into the southbound traffic. I am sure most of those drivers missed the sign and flashing lights two miles back that said “END FREEWAY - CROSS TRAFFIC AHEAD” I know the dolphins are not too far ahead of me so I start scanning. As soon as I am safely in the slow lane, I look over, and there they are. Heading north! It could be a different group so I keep heading south. Past Hobson’s. Past Crap Reef. Past Pitas. Pass Mondo’s (where I briefly thought about paddling out on Kim’s Sup) Pass Solimar ( where I wish the waves were a little better so I could paddle out on Kim’s Sup without a crowd) Sheesh.. See how quickly this story is getting away from me. Stop!

There are no fins to be seen down this way so I turn around and head north thinking briefly again about paddling out on Kim’s Sup as I pass by Mondos . Stop! I need a new plan. I will rush back to LC and shoot some photos of the northbound group I passed on the way down. As soon as I pulled the u-turn and parked, there they were, about 100 yards north of me.. I briefly thought about running them down. Nevermind ! New plan!!! Forget the photos today go to the cove and cut them off on the SUP. So I did. Finally a plan that I could live with. Not that cove.. the good cove.

No waves and no one in the parking lot. Good. Perfect. I don’t surf the cove much anyway but I don’t really want to be caught with an 11’ SUP on my head. As soon as I hit the beach I saw them. At least two fins about 200 yards south of the cove. Sweet.. I hit the water and the conditions were perfect. Glassy, foggy of course, 10’-20’ visibility in the water, and two fins only 100 yards away. So I paddle on out thinking wow this is great and a bit unnerving at the same time. I have been surfing with these guys for years. I have been on the same wave. I have had them pass by within a few feet. I have had to duck dive right in front of six of them, heading full speed, straight at me. But that was just them passing me by. This time I was going to try to hang out with them for a while. I soon as I got pretty close I stopped and sat down for a while. There were two of them. Big ones with big unique fins but neither that I knew by name. They didn’t seem to be going anywhere or maybe I just stopped them. The three of us all kind of hung around in the same area for quite a while, and it crossed mind that if I fell in, they might ram my already cracked rib. Ouch.. They would get pretty close sometimes.. maybe 10’ -15’ and then they would disappear . Occasionally they would come up to the surface and just stay there. I see that behavior a lot now that I have been watching them. This time I was sure they checking me out. Then they both disappeared. So I headed north to towards the cove to see if they would catch up with me when.. poo’fe.. That is the sound they make when they surface. Kind of a soft poof. I don’t know something like that. Anyway it’s the sound of more fins coming up from the south.

Note to self. It’s way easier to count dolphins from this angle especially with the clear water. Six in this group, and without a doubt I know some of these ones but, not by name. This group appeared a lot less freaky than the two bigger ones. They were on a slow but steady trip up the coast. I let them come up to me and then started to paddle in front of them hoping they would pass me. Nope. So I stopped again and just let them cruise by me. Two up front, the other four bringing up the rear. The water is so clear I can see the bottom, the fish, the eel grass, and a lot of sand if you know what I mean. Super good waves coming is what I mean.

I just kind of fell in line naturally behind these guys and followed them into the cove, on up the point, all the way to indicator. I can’t really explain how cool it was. I was right there with them and they didn’t seem to mind a bit. I could see the four below me so clearly it was like slow motion. They’d surface right in front of me, poo’fe.. And for a brief moment in time I was part of this pod. Pretty cool. They never tried to speed away, change directions, or ram into my ribs. In fact I had to slow down a couple times. Pretty freaking cool. Once I hit Indicator I decided to turn back and leave them alone. I didn’t want to wear out my welcome but was looking forward to another encounter. Plus there was somebody out surfing the left and I didn’t want to be spotted on the sup.. Ha..

I wasn’t even to the rivermouth when two more fins popped up. Took a seat and there was qunt’aw (lighting). Pretty much the first dolphin I named and the first dolphin I have seen and recognized from the water. I would like to think he or she was cruising along with ox’kon (thunder) but ox’kon does not have that distinctive of a fin and I didn’t have a camera. But where there’s lighting there’s usually thunder..

Lighting and Thunder..

Time well spent.. or Kim's Sup part one.

2010-09-13T20:48:00.000-07:00

So when I started this little Dolphins of the Rincon thing I figured it would be fun to actually know some of the dolphins that cruise by everyday while I was out surfing, or walking on the beach, or just sitting on the porch. So far I have cataloged about 75 fins.. Some of quality on the photos makes a second ID questionable but hey, even the worst one was identified by Mark up at Okeanis. Mark and Daniela have been a huge help by the way.

I don’t have anyone down south that I am sharing info with at this time. However based on the amount of fins spotted down here, which have also been spotted up in Monterey, I would say it’s a safe bet that some of these fins definitely make it in to Baja Norte. What does this all mean.. hmm... They are getting better waves than me lately. But not last Monday. Labor Day brought the first decent waves of the season to the Rincon and I was stoked! I heard a few people complaining.. Why... Hey it was pretty good! Quite a few that came through that day were really good. I surfed close to 6 hours and was happy to be back home. 6 Hours.. That should show you how desperate I have become.. Funny thing. Not one dolphin the entire time I was out. I am sure that at least two cruised through between sessions when I went home to take a nap…

Wake up!! Riley was ready to go. Do something. Anything.. Just hurry up. So we took a bike ride down to the pier to see how the waves were looking. Not epic... but there were a few guys out and I am sure they were stoked to be back home too. Two dolphins came through the Cliffhouse section, passed by the rocks all the way to the call box. Actually I don’t know if there is a callbox there but this was the best dolphin wave of the season. I could see both of them clearly building speed though the first section riding inside the wave like only they can do, past the rocks which are kind of sketchy for dolphins and people, then they both burst out simultaneously doing two perfect airs in a row, then two alternating airs before doing their flyaway twisting kick outs at the end.. One of them rode about 20 yards further before doing his flyaway twisting kick out getting pretty dang close to the freeway in my opinion. What did I get out of this little 20 second encounter? I think they were saying Don. There’s three hours of light left and this swell is dropping fast, so you better get on it. So I did. Moving along...

My friend Kim loaned me her SUP (Stand up Paddle Board) for a few days. I know. I hate these things as much as the next guy but, this one is kind of a cruiser, and while, you can catch waves on it. I’m not planning to catch any.. just cruise. blah.. blah.. Well you know. . Ok. hmm. Then.... Anytime in the water is time well spent. I know Kim got this one for paddling around on flat days hoping to get out there and hang out with the “Dolphins of the Goodland” Personally I have been secretly wanting one of these for the same reason for quite some time now.

Tuesday.. There was still some surf to be had but, I had this new toy so.. Yea.. Hopefully run into some friends.. Dolphins that is. First off it’s not as easy as it looks. There is the width of 30 inches and a ridiculous length of 11 feet to consider. Try getting that through the hobbit tunnel of La Conchita or into your car without being seen. This is a super nice Jimmy Lewis board but must have come out before they put those nifty little built in handles. Somehow I came up with an ingenious carrying system that even MacGyver would have been proud of. Using the leash and the paddle, I made it through the tunnel and to the beach. Easy Peasy. There was actually surf that day in LC but, luckily no one on the beach, and no one to notice me paddle out. The steep beach break waves looked kind of fun and like certain death on the sup. Anyway I am out here to cruise around and look for some dolphin’s right? Ha.. I didn’t see any dolphins so I cruised on down to the pier where I might be able to catch some waves…

There was a lone surfer out at the beach break just north of the pier so I stayed way offshore to insure he did not see my face. I had paddled this thing around once before on really smooth water but other than that, this is my first time on the sup. It’s weird paddling around with your stance straight ahead. Weird standing out in the middle of the ocean. Weird trying to get through the pier on such a huge craft with the current sucking in and out. Weird this tall paddle. Just weird. So I get by the pier and no one is out. Good. High tide and not really enough swell . Good. I was heading to where I saw the dolphins catch that wave the day before, and that is where I was heading the minute I left the house. Stop!!!

I know what you’re thinking… a thousand sunsets, dolphins, heart shape stones, magic sea glass, stupid love song covers, and now a SUP.. WTF.. That is why I started shooting portraits of raptors and have a small but powerful collection of skull shape rocks. It’s harder than it looks those SUPS. My first wave.. A knee high but treacherous take off over the previously mentioned rock section. Shifting to a surf stance was easier than I thought given how off balance I am on that thing the rest of the time. Dig the paddle in and glide. Fun! Second wave.. Might be chest high. It’s hard to get this thing turned around and going. Which side do I favor when I am catching a wave? I favored my right side and dug really hard to get in this one then.. tweak… snap.. crackle.. I pulled something and instantly forget about the trampoline injury that was bothering me but I did catch the wave. Fun! Fun! Ouch!! I should have headed back after that but no one was out, and I wanted to get a few more. It was really hard to catch anything without putting any pressure on my right side but I managed a few more. Fun ! Fun! Fun! Ouch.. I was planning to tell a different story but the preamble turned into a preramble so that is the end of Kim’s Sup part one.. Or.. Time well spent.

The Old Rincon Creek Brick Quarry - Part 2

2010-08-08T09:39:00.000-07:00

So hmmm.. Part Two. I knew I could dig up some more information on this subject if I was just patient. Well.. um. First we have to back up the first paragraph of Part One. I take that all back. Oops.. The Brick Factory was not 6-8 miles up the creek as it was related to me by, surf ski friend, Barron. According to David, who maintains a small file on the factory over at the Carpinteria Historical Museum, the factory was much closer to the rivermouth than that. That also confirms what another long time Carp local, beachcomber, and brick collector had told me.

The factory which operated under the name of Carpinteria Clay Products Company was located on what is now the L.L. Brenter Ranch. That puts the site about a 10th of mile up the creek from the railroad track. This of course makes my foray into the upper part of the creek, which resulted in the worst case of poison oak I have ever had, or seen for that matter, and subsequent scarring, completely unnecessary. Nice..

Carpinteria Clay Products Company operated in the 1920’s using native yellow adobe clay dug on site, hence the unique color of these bricks. The production machinery cost $37,000. They also manufactured tiles and in 1922 made the claim “our product is much superior to the tile that is made near Los Angeles" I have no trouble believing them on that one. I found both tiles and bricks in abundance after this winters consistent surf, and sand rearrangement.

I also took a quick drive around Carp and found two chimneys using these original bricks. One was painted but the other is still in its natural state. On a side note: When I first began thinking of moving down to La Conchita I found one of these bricks in the back yard of one of the houses I was looking at. (used in construction, not from the creek) Sly’s Restaurant on Linden Street is also reputed to be built of these bricks as well. However there are far too many layers of paint on those to really tell.

The Carpinteria Clay Products factory closed presumably around the start of the great depression, and reopened again in 1931 under the name, Montecito Clay Products Co. This time with an expanded product line which I assume included all the other colors of bricks that come out of the creek. I have had at least one person tell me “it’s just the yellow ones” Hmmm.. The yellow ones may be the original Rincon bricks but I can assure you that the pinks, oranges, beige, and multicolor bricks have all come out of that creek.

There is no information as to when Montecito Clay Products closed but, in 1960 they began construction on the double lane divided highway that was to be cut though Rincon. The factory was buried under the debris from cutting the highway and the terracing of the hillside. One idea is they tossed imperfect bricks into the creek and eventually washed out in all their glory. If that were the case I would assume they would have all washed out long ago. My guess is they are still buried and when the creek really gets going, like 2005, 1995, it uncovers a few more. Maybe the creek had to cut a new path right through the buried factory. I don’t know but the long time collectors say they come out every time we get one of those really, really, wet years.

No bricks came out of there this year. My collection has been built entirely on littoral drift and the non-stop wave action we had this winter. Speaking of littoral drift.. The furthest south I have even found one is Stables at C-Street in Ventura. That is a good 15 miles to the south at least. I am sure some have made it as far as the Mugu Submarine Canyon never to be seen again. Actually my ex-wife found that one for me at C-Street. Ouch. Dang it.. Thought I could get through a whole blog. Someone save me..

When you see Santa Clara Rivermouth doing this..

It time to go looking for bricks!!

Field notes from Dolphins of the Rincon.

2010-08-04T19:42:00.000-07:00

8:15 am - Getting a late start so lets get started. There have been a lot of fins this past week so I spent the early morning posting new fin id shots and.. Yeah! I finally saw the same dolphins twice. Earlier in July I ran across that huge pod, which I will now call a herd (Pods may combine for several minutes or hours to form larger social groups called "herds" ) Anyway.. I came across some fins about 7:00 am on the 1st of August at Indicator. Of course didn't have my camera. I was down for a quick walk with Riley who got a cut on one of his pads last week. I was trying hard to keep him out of the water and test out the new waterproof/sandproof bandage design I came up with. He had this super nice bandage job courtesy of Animal Medical Clinic in Carp that I didn't want to mess up so I wrapped it in a plastic bag and threw a sock on over it. It would have worked if he just stayed out of the water. Oh well. So here come the fins heading south. I was over the waterproof bandage experiment so I figured I would head them off down in the LC. Riley was like hey, "no way we just got here" Even though he is smarter and more handsome than me.. I tricked him into getting back in the van and we headed home. Grab the Canon and got on the beach by 7:23. The surf was minimal so they were coming in quite close and a got a few good shots. This was a good size pod of about 7-9 dolphins and I called them Riley's Pod. Turns out 3 of the fins are from the Solimar herd back on the 19th July. After cataloging over 50 fins.. Finally a match. I guess that's a good thing. More dolphins than you can count..

8:26 am - After months of anticipation, and thanks to David over at the Carpinteria Historical Museum I am proud to announce I will finally be writing part two of the Old Rincon Creek Brick Quarry Anyway I went to the cove to get a few shots of one of the bigger stockpiles of bricks i have seen. Mission accomplished. Not quite. Riley still insisted on taking a walk so we headed around Indicator and up the coast..

8:53 am - I saw it exactly the same time as Riley which is too late. I made a run for it but Riley had it and was off down the beach. California Brown Pelican. This is quite a conundrum. On the one hand I don't like the leash laws but, sick and injured birds are no match for most dogs.. Curtis excluded. About a hundred yards down the beach we ran into Debbie and her dog which was enough distraction for me to get the pelican. Surprisingly he was looking good as far as injuries go. Riley had him by the scruff of the neck so no blood, no broken wings, didn't even really lose any feathers to speak of. But he was still sick so I figured I should get him to June's seabird rescue in SB before another dog came along. With the help of Debbie, I got the bird back to Lou's in the upper parking lot. Lou made a call to our local seabird care expert Connie, and a couple hours later he was looking pretty good and heading to June's.

Disclaimer: Dogs are Dogs. I don't like seeing any animals getting hit by a dog, cat, or car for that matter. I worked for a few years at the SB Wildlife Network for those exact reasons. In the case of birds that don't fly away when they see a dog coming.. Well.. They are usually pretty sick or injured already. In this case the pelican was lucky that Riley didn't get him, and lucky that he ended up getting the fluids and nourishment he is going to need survive. So if I twist it enough I could say Riley did him a favor.. but really.. bad dog.

9:33 am - Of course while all this is going on I caught some fins heading south out of the corner of my eye. Sheesh.. Walking on the beach is a full time job.. lol. There is probably enough time for a bowl of cereal before cutting them off in LC. I came out of the tunnel and there they were.

9:43 am - Haven't had a chance to do the fin id's yet but there were about 6-7 in this pod with another 2 following close behind (about 200 yards) I followed them for about 10 minutes down the beach then headed back to Rincon to check up on the Pelican.. Lot's of other sightings this week. A couple surfing down in Oxnard Shores.. A few more along Bates. See you out there tomorrow with the Dolphins of the Rincon..

Wednesday 6/30/2010 - POD Dolphin Research Boat Trip #2

2010-07-01T20:24:00.000-07:00

This was my first boat trip, and the first time I got to meet anyone from the POD team. I have been doing my own research for a little over month but have just started to dig in lately. I have made a number of fin id's on my own and hope to get some matches on this trip. Anyway.. On board today are Lindsay Griffin, Lindsey Eltinge, Pod Director Dr Toni Frohoff, Captain Jim Klein, and myself, Don Jayne. What a boat. The FINADDICT is a 38' Radon Sportfisher. The boat is fully equipped to say the least and highly recommended. I didn't even know they made a Radon this size. Ok well.. Off we go.

9:45 - We are heading out. I had seen at least 3 pods down my way along the Rincon so off we went. I kind of wanted to go the other way towards the Ranch... Maybe another day. Samy's Camera was cool enough to loan Lindsay a Canon D40 with the same lens I use. EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L. Brooks graduate, Lindsey was in the cabin giving Lindsay some last minute photography tips. I should have been in there myself. I don’t know what I was doing but I heard the word “RAW” and I knew that word locks up my computer every time, so I went outside. I am really stoked, and grateful to be aboard with this crew. Our mission today. Try to get some good shots which can be used later for Dorsal Fin Identification. Easier said than done.

10:00 - We are already on our first pod. Just off the Biltmore and Coral Casino in Montecito. Good job Jim. I am going to have to start writing some notes down because my mental notes are starting to get a bit fuzzy. I think there were about 5 in this group and, I don’t know about the girls but, I really ended up with nothing from this pod. Timing and luck is everything in this game... Oh!! and a fast autofocus! Composition and all your other photo skills don't really mean a thing. Just looking for a clean detailed profile shot of the Dorsal Fin. Well. My first thought was. This was way easier from the beach. Anyway as far as I can remember these guys did come in close a few times. You know.. I thought I had my timing down with all the surf shots I have been getting but these guys are underwater and kind of unpredictable most of the time. They zipped around us for a bit, a little curious, might have been feeding, and then continued heading north. By 10:15 we are heading south. One thing I really like about Toni is her concern for the dolphins’ well being, and we are trying to be as non-invasive as possible, so if it seems like the dolphins are tired of us, we will head out…

10:45 - Passing by Santa Claus Lane. You can tell its summer because the surf camps are set up wall to wall on this tiny stretch of beach. No fins though.

11:00 - We are already in Rincon Bay according to Jim... I call it Bates Beach and the Carpinteria Bluffs. Really I call it my backyard and I spend a ridiculous amount of time walking in both directions with Riley looking for magic sea glass. Still no dolphins, but there is a big male sea lion surrounded by a bevy of beautiful sea lionesses, so break the cameras out! Apparently the polyamorous lifestyle is quite popular off the coast. More on that one later. Well I just saw a pretty good size pod of 8-12 here on Monday but, today it is as flat as a lake so maybe that explains it. We head pass Indicator and into the cove.

11:17 - We are passing my house and the sleepy seaside town of La Conchita del Mar. I can almost see Riley lying on a very sandy couch because there was no time to give him a rinse this morning.

11:30 – I’m hungry as we are rounding Arco Island and passing by my one my favorite spots for lunch. “The Shoals at the Cliffhouse Inn” Some Dolphins’ thought it would be a good idea for me to get married here and swam by and gave us their blessing right during our ceremony. I guess they only blessed us for 3 years.. What do those practical jokers know about monogamy anyway? Seriously.. I knew that dolphins were among the only animals besides us that have sex for pure enjoyment, but I always thought they mated for life. I used that line in many an argument. “look at those dolphins they can stay together, so can we” Ok now. Well that’s out the window... Thanks for clueing me on to that Lindsay. By 11:45 we are passing Hobson’s and turning around. No fins. Time for lunch.

12:47 – We needed to get some new profile shots for our facebook pages so Lindsay, Toni, and I pretend to spot some dolphins of the coast of Sandyland and the Carpinteria Salt Marsh. Got some good ones!

1:11 – We are back in the dolphin research business. Just off the northern end of Summerland in front of the cool secret house you can’t see from the freeway is another small pod of 3 -4. Ok. Whatever you see, there is probably 1 or 2 more. From an early check on the photo one of these guy’s looks like a dolphin I nicked named Simon Anderson. Not only the inventor of the Thruster and, grizzled veteran of the ASP tour but, also one of my first fin ID shots. I will have to do more work on that but, right now I am having huge problems with my database. This is pretty cool, and the whole idea behind this project, great. Get to know you local dolphins.. Got a few good fin id’s from these guys and by the time we hit Sharks Cove...

1:48 – I will call them the Gumby Pod because someone painted a cool little Gumby on the seawall at Sharks. Well... This was the most entertaining group of the day. Jumping, spinning, flying, bumping into each other, and popping up all over the place. There were 4 of them and they looked to be having plenty of fun. Almost always staying pretty close together but at one point 2 of them swam way behind us and came back trying to trick us in to believing there were 6. Those practical jokers. I could hear them laughing when they went by but.. I did get a few good shots. Well these guys and girls were up to something without question. We stayed with them till about 2:30 all the way to Hammonds. There was even a little sea lion trying to get in on the action jumping and porpoising all over the place. Nice..

2:39 – We are in the harbor. Perfect day but I did miss an opportunity to have my shark photo published by the Independent. Maybe I should get an IPhone. Naaaaa..

Two Months

2010-06-22T22:27:00.000-07:00

It's been exactly two months since my last post and I have had plenty of thoughts and plenty to say over that time but.. as always I feel a bit censored by myself. This time is no different but I thought I would touch on a few of things. One. The Lakers won. Thank god. That was close. I don't think I could take another disappointment. Two. My daughter Sara has graduated from Oxnard High School. Congratulations Sara. You rule! Three. My wife and I have decided to call it quits. That was decided weeks ago.. Really back in February. No really back in April of last year.. but today she decided to get the paperwork and make it official. Exactly 3 years and 1 day after we first made our official agreement. Caught me off guard for sure. And I did not like the way this ended. Should have been better after all we enjoyed. Anyway this also marks my first post with no photos. I am that close to deleting the entire 3 year catalog. If it wasn't for the hydro therapy who knows? On the bright side I can change my match.com profile relationship status from "currently separated" to "divorced" as if that is any more appealing. lol..In closing this is all I have to say.. ok I will try to quit wallowing soon.

They are out there... Closer than you think!

2010-04-22T05:32:00.000-07:00

So.. The great thing about walking on the beach is how much things change everyday. New sand, new stones, new logs, no sand, huge waves, driftwood, baby seals, etcetera, etcetera.. Warning. This is my second post about shark attacks so if you are squeamish or a non believer you might want to skip it. This is all speculation on my part anyway but, that has never stopped me before.

Yesterday during my daily morning walk with Riley we almost immediately came across a baby seal. Actually a baby sea lion. You can tell by the ears, and the fact that they speak. This one was saying "get this stupid, though quite handsome, dog out of my face" "don't you know there is a law that says you need to stay back 150 feet from all marine mammals" Stupid Riley no matter how many times I tell him this simple rule.. He forgets! That's why I always carry his leash even though there is no one else on the beach for miles. Well.. with Riley secured, I took a good look at the seal and while small he seemed to be pretty healthy. So I let him be. Just like they will tell you to do when you call the marine mammal rescue line.

A few weeks back I came across 3 medium sized seals on the beach. 3 is a lot for any one day, so I call a few people, and the mammal rescue even returns my call. It is determined, that they were in fact, baby elephant seals. They are pretty big for pups, super cute, and have these huge round heads. They don't look anything like the adults. Anyway they looked like they were on their deathbed to me. Turns out they were just dead tired. They come in to sleep after their first long trek from the islands (75 miles I am told) By the time I came back later in the day to shoot a couple photos using my EF100-400mmL series lens and staying at least 150 feet back.. they were gone. So back to our new baby seal. Here comes the sad part..

I continue my walk down the beach and about 500 yards to the north there is a dead adult seal rolling back and forth in the surf. Dead seals are not that uncommon on the coast but, this one is fresh, and and has a pretty huge chunk of flesh taken out near his rear flippers. As you will see in the pictures it is a pretty round chunk, and there are also a couple of deep incisions (tooth) Immediately I am thinking this is probably the mother and was a victim of some toothy creature, making our new favorite baby seal an orphan.

Here's where my speculation comes in. Mother and baby are swimming in the nearby waters possibly in the shark zone about 3-4 miles north of here, yes Carpinteria.. at the harbor seal rookery/sanctuary. This is where the violent attack occurred back in March of 2006. Two baby seals had there heads bit right off by a toothy creature known as "whitey" There were witnesses to the this attack and it made front page news in the Coastal View. This is the same stretch of coast that my friend Billy and his wife were on SUP's paddling from Indicator to the Pier one beautiful morning. She had "whitey" do a pass by on her. Just rose to the surface, looked straight at her, and went back down.. Yikes! Anyway back to the seals. Harbor seals do not have ears and do not speak so they hired some volunteers from seal watch to speak on their behalf. Seal watch volunteers are located on the bluffs just above the rookery. Stay back! They use signs so they don't have to yell and scare the seals.. Wait.. they don't hear. Actually the signs are for the people that don't hear. Anyway.. Unless your dog is right in their face stay back..

More speculation. The wound is not debilitating so mom and baby manage to get away from said toothy creature. Unfortunately, the wound is near some major arteries so she eventually bleeds out and they both land on the beach in LC. At this point I am pretty convinced our baby seal is likely an orphan. Hopefully he has learned enough to feed and fend for himself. Lots of seals (sea lions) nearby. Surely one can help him. But he needed to get back to the water. It was low tide and quite far away. I thought I come back at high tide without Riley and convince him to get back in. Anyway.. He decided not to wait for high tide and casually slid off the rock and walked on down to waters edge and went in..

Side note: I use to work for the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network and love wild animals with a passion. We used to rescue everything from mice to coyotes. It is a great feeling to nurse one back to health and be there for the release. Most of what we dealt were animals in distress as a result of people, cars, dogs, cats, etc. I support that 100%. But if you have a naturally occurring death or circumstance, I think you need to take a step back and let nature take it's course. imo..I did a number of unnecessary rescues of these animals too. Only to have them put to sleep. I really believe they should have been left for the vultures, crows, opossums, other carrion eaters, if you know what I mean. From what I know.. The Marine Mammal Rescue which is separate from the Wildlife Rescue, will only get involved if it's is endangered by humans. They may move it to a quieter location or something. They may also get involved for research with some sick animals at times as well. Aside from that, they tend to let nature take it's course. Which is fine by me. God speed baby seal...

A simple drive. self help books.. therapy... or something..

2010-04-11T06:37:00.000-07:00

This one is just about some personal reflection. Skip it if you are looking for something funny or informative.. Like bricks, or Banana Growers. Otherwise bare with me while I just write down some stuff for no reason. The seasons are changing and the surf up here is starting to wind down. I missed some good wind swell while I was up in Mammoth over Easter and since I have been back. I had one pretty nice day at indicator, and another average day sitting inside a bit.. the rivermouth. 2 surfs in one week. maybe it was 3.. That is still about 4 short! This definitely is a problem. The surf feeds my soul..

Getting waves in the summer means driving. Now that I live in LC.. It is about 5 minutes closer to Oxnard or Ventura. That is about as far south as I like to go. And of course there is "the left" Not to mention some small usually crappy, waves in front of the house. Those can be a blast some times. Now that I live downstairs I can't see the surf in front of the house so I could be missing it right now! When I lived in Oxnard I would make the occasional trip to the Malibu area but.. otherwise I have a mental block which ends in Port Humneme. I love Jalama but it is a drive, gas is expensive, camp spots are hard to get, and face it, it's hit or miss there. Anyway pray for some continued west swell to bring me through spring and into summer. Please.

Really that's not why I am writing. It's been a little over two weeks since the huge fight with me wife that left us both hurt, and injured, and ready to finally give up. I've been going through a series of revelations ever since. Revelation 1 Wow.. I am really hurt by everything "I said" in the middle of the fight. The things she said were painful as well but what I said, was the most damaging to me. My wife is really sick of the fighting and ready to move on and maybe I should be too. But still there is something there. We both know. And that something is good, and fun, and playful. But really I want her to depend on me for anything. Something she has given up on..

Revelation 2 This occurred to me when I was en route to Mammoth with my my daughters. They had a horoscope book and Sara was flipping through reading excepts on relationships, and general personality traits. Now while I have always believed you can hear whatever you want in those things and fit them into your life there is always some truth to these things. There is no doubt that I am stubborn as a bull! That is just fucking great! What am I supposed to do with that gift? Most of the time this just a huge personality flaw. Anyway.. combine that with some Bipolar Disorder and I can act quite childish at times. So.. it may appear to the casual observer that I am in fact a jerk!

Take for example one of my trips to Mammoth this year.. I let every one know as we hit the road.. We will be stopping in Mohave.. and Bishop.. for gas. Maybe dinner in Bishop. "It would be better if you just grab some food at the AMPM" I just want to get there, have a glass of wine, and wind down from what is a long trip with 6 people and a dog in the Syncro. But.. the restless passengers are getting hungry way earlier than that. This is when that stupid bull starts to rise above. I end up with all this anger, and frustration, because things are not going according to my plan. Practically ready to throw a tantrum. I stop anyway in Lone Pine for some Pizza but, I am being such a jerk, to my wife, and all the kids, mine, hers, J's friend. Arrrggg.. Told them I didn't want a pizza and ordered a sandwich instead as my final desperate childish act. That will teach them..

Wtf.. I couldn't give up my dream plan to enjoy a nice dinner with my family??? Madness! I really just wanted to say. I am so happy everyone is here on this trip with me and I love you all. But I was too mad.. Too Stubborn. So who's to blame. The stars! Them for not adhering to the plan, or me for not being flexible and just happy to be there.. I can't see anyone to blame but myself. I am just glad my wife let that outburst go and we ended up having a great trip. Revelation 3 I make myself mad. I thought they were making me mad. Duh..

So I began reading the Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz I have gotten through the first three, and number one is really the basis for the the other three so I will dwell on that for a moment. No wait! I will tell you the four agreements first.

1) Be impeccable with your word

2) Don't take anything personally

3) Don't make assumptions

4) Always do your best

"Be impeccable with your word" The definition of impeccable is: without sin, flawless, etc.. I thought I was being impeccable but, when I looked deeper I see I wasn't. I was throwing out so much poison in the form of words, carelessly, or intentionally, it didn't matter. Agreements were being made, by both parties. Accepted to be true. So now they are. I don't know how to fix this. Whats done is done but, I am sorry. Only today matters. People don't realize the power of their words or see the harm that can be caused with speaking carelessly, thoughtlessly or aggressively. I didn't. Man I speak so carelessly, and thoughtlessly, that I don't even remember what I said half the time. I can't even pinpoint when the conversation went from friendly banter to whatever it was that upset my wife, my kids, or my friends. Aggressively?? Look out! I am going to let that f- bomb fly and worse. Most of us are aware that screaming at someone may be upsetting to them, but subtle little digs at them, or gossip behind their backs, can hurt others more than we realize, and in hurting them, we hurt ourselves. It is those little digs that put a lot of poison into my relationship. Revelation 4 Words hurt more than I realized and I need to be a bit more thoughtful with what I want to say..

Anyway.. Just acknowledging these things has somehow brought a new lightness to my personality or being. I feel it. And it feels good. This is a good way to be. Nothing has really changed.

Bananas..

2010-03-26T05:45:00.000-07:00

I promise to get back to the bricks soon. It hasn't been a great couple of weeks for me.. Just floating around in relationship limbo. Then I just had the worst fight of my life with my wife. Not that I didn't believe in what I was fighting for, I did, but, the way I fought it was.. Painful. Hurtful.. To both if us. In the end I think I hurt myself the most. I know I did. In the end it's like the song. Nobody right.. Nobody wrong.. Most of us are just trying to get heard..

I know what you are thinking. That doesn't have anything to do with bananas. You are right. So my friend John told me recently.. "You got to be grateful" Followed up quickly by "don't you hate that" you know "people telling you to be grateful" So.. yeah.. I do hate that. But still.. You got to be grateful. Even in the midst of the worst of it. There is always something good going on. Hopefully.. Got to be hopeful I guess too. So.. What am I grateful for this week. Well.. the surf just keeps coming like it has for the last 6 months. It was the flatest I had seen all winter over the weekend but, still fun enough for for a longboard go out with Kalie in front of the house..

I was definitely grateful that by Monday things were getting back to normal. Some punchy head high windswell at Indicator going overhead on a few of the sets. Tuesday (the day of the worst fight of my life with my wife) Well.. Tuesday brought super clean conditions in the morning. A nice sized wind swell comboing up with a south squeaking through islands. It was so pretty out there. All green and blue.. Crisp and clean with some pretty nice looking barrels rolling in. Maybe a bit peaky for Rincon but some of them would line up perfectly. I had such a good time I couldn't believe I was in the worst fight of my life with my wife. (name withheld by request) Wednesday. The south took over a bit and made for a few incredible left hand barrels, though they were few and far between. The right had that south swell sectiony thing going. It's like a beach break really but, you are at Rincon, so if you are going fast enough, it's possible to connect about 10 of those beach break waves together, and end up half way to the cove before you know it. Thursday. Yesterday.. Another west swell. Long intervals so it was a bit inconsistent, and windy, but going overhead and plenty of fun to say the least.. So.. yeah. You got to be grateful.. and hopeful. And yes.. the bananas.

We moved in here in October of last year. See post previous post: "Right smack in the middle of La Conchita" So hopeful.. I was. Anyway my house is literally about 25 feet from the entrance of Doug Richardson's old Seaside Banana Plantation. So we transplanted about a half a dozen banana trees from our old house in SB to the new house in the LC. I have to point out, at this point the lawn was dead, the only palm tree was dead, this yard was dead! So these bananas trees all green and lush were a huge improvement. I planted them on the north end of the yard about 25 feet from the Banana Plantation. Then.. They started dying. Leaf's turning brown, Riley running into them knocking them off.. One by one they were dying a slow death. I felt like the laughing stock of La Conchita. I mean bananas grow like weed here in the LC. Oops. I mean weeds. Mine were looking pretty sad. Some were down to just a stock, trunk, I don't know what to call it but not a single leaf. Sad. But I was hopeful..

Here's a nice healthy grove on SurfSide

So I brought over a Pygmy banana tree I had growing at the trailer in Carp. This thing was beautiful. "I will show this town I am no banana killer" It died faster than the others. Banana killer!!! Or just a bad time to plant bananas I guess. But what about that infamous La Conchita micro climate? Bad time to plant bananas. I looked around the town at the established bananas and they were holding up pretty well. I heard Doug, owner of the Seaside Banana Plantation, used to put sheets over his puppy's on cold nights. Someone else told me to do that also but, it was too late for mine. Can't put a sheet over a dead banana tree. Too sad.. So I suffered the torment and shame, of looking at dying bananas, 25 feet from the former site of the only successful Banana Plantation in the United States just hoping.. they'd come back. Got to be hopeful.

Then.. Just in the last two weeks new leafs started sprouting out of all of them. I even have one with bananas starting to drop down that on that flower stock thingy. Whatever you call that. So I am grateful.. and hopeful... Thanks John.

Turning over a New Leaf.. Have a great day!

2010 Rincon Classic "Killing it Edition"

2010-03-17T05:35:00.000-07:00

After 4 weeks of delay the Classic finally got underway this past Saturday. Unfortunately after week, after week, after week, after month, after month, after over four months of consistent often perfect surf.. I awoke Saturday morning to the dreaded south wind and 2' slop. I was pretty excited to go shoot some photos so I went on down there and had a look. Good turn out, warm weather, and some of those guys can turn blown out, white capped, south wind water.. into wine.. That is for sure. I lasted about 15 minutes took 4 photos, then went home to drink beer and cry about my wife moving out. The good news is I found some great tenants to move in upstairs. So "I" wont be moving out anytime soon.. And I can still see the 'con from the front yard. Life is good in the LC..

Sunday morning was looking nice as I glanced out the window. Glassy conditions, a bit more swell in the water, and shaping up to be another sunny and warm day. I looked at my watch.. and I was an hour late. Just kidding. Haven't had a watch in years. I didn't know what heats were running at what times anyway, so I figured I would just hang out till I get some good shots or run out space on my card (wannabe photographers only carry 1 card and usually a 3/4 charged battery)

Like I said.. Yesterday wasn't that great surf wise, or in terms of emotional stability, so when I pulled up and saw a few fun looking peaks coming into Indicator. Hmmm.. Well. You know. Surf first.. Shoot later. Luckily for the competitors, Indicator wasn't quite lining up into the Rivermouth Section, or I would have won the event right then and there. lol. By the way the water is freakin' freezing up here.

The surf felt great and with a clear head, frozen feet, and ice cold hands, I grabbed my camera and set up camp on the north side of the creek in Santa Barbara County. Most everyone else was set up in Ventura County. Anyway.. This contest is really about the locals and there are a million divisions for just about everyone. I am sorry to have missed most of the regular folks and mere mortals but.. I stumbled into some of the Mens and Bud Light Pro heats and they were lighting it up.. Check it out the full session at.. EppicSurf

A big thank you to everyone at SurfHappens for making it happen! Defending champ Kilian Garland took down the top spot again in the Bud Light Pro, with Spencer Regan nailing down first in the Mens 18 and up. For full coverage and complete results check out.. Santa Barbara Surfer

First Place Bud Light Mens Pro.. Kilian Garland

My First Shoot

2010-03-12T14:35:00.001-08:00

Not much up here for waves to shoot in the last week or two. I managed to get in a few fun surf sessions myself but, haven't shot a single surf photo since the 28th of February. I just noticed my rating has plummeted right off the page. So I thought I would put this up. This session was two days after Christmas.. two days after I got my 50D.. I just had the kit lens EF 28-135mm so I couldn't really get any close ups but, I will tell you this.. It was near perfection out there.. All day. Anyway it was a lot of fun and I was stoked enough to go out and buy a EF 100-400MM L a few weeks later. Still I like some of these shots with the smaller lens. Wide line up shots look cool. It's not all about the logos..

Rincon Classic is a go for this weekend March 13 -14 so maybe I'll see you there.. Hope there's waves.

Don

The Old Rincon Creek Brick Quarry - Part 1

2010-03-09T05:05:00.000-08:00

I have searched and searched but I can not find a thing about these bricks on the web. Well.. There was a PDF file mentioning Benotite and something about a brick quarry at the mouth Rincon Creek. You had to pay for the article and that is frankly against my internet policy regarding information. So I will tell you what I know, and probably make some stuff up if I have to. I well tell you this. Facts or no facts this will be the most comprehensive piece useless information ever written about the subject. Please if you know anything about the subject feel free to school me in the comments. Our journey starts way further up the creek on a private road off Gobernador Canyon Rd It's here somewhere around 6-8 miles up the creek that the brick quarry stood. This was confirmed by Barron a long time resident of the Rincon Point enclave.

Now.. When I say private that's means I drove up there, and couldn't find any access points to the creek so I let it go. Well.. Not quite. Last summer desperate to find the source, and subsequently more bricks, I entered the creek at the only access point I could find. This creek does flow year round but it was a mere trickle this summer. Lined with massive amounts of poison oak on both sides, only an idiot would attempt to enter the creek dressed in shorts. So I jumped right in. In my 47 years I have had Poison Oak only one other time, but it was just a few weeks before this incident. Anyway.. I was armed with plenty of Mugwort, an old Chumash remedy which grows conveniently next to most poison oak groves. Well the creek was a bust, no bricks, and lots of private ranches lining the creek with plenty of dogs. Normally this would not have stopped me but, I brought my dog Riley along so and there was just too much barking. I came away with the worst case posion oak I have ever seen. Seriously.. I have permanent scaring.

By the way. Thanks to the California Constitution. It is legal to enter any creek, river, within 30 feet of a public bridge crossing regardless of of whether the creek flows through private property. I learned this from Kayaking days. The right to navigate the rivers and streams of California, including Rincon Creek, is guaranteed to the citizens by the State Constitution (Article 10, §4), which states:

No individual, partnership, or corporation, claiming or possessing the frontage or tidal lands of a harbor, bay, inlet, estuary, or other navigable water in this State, shall be permitted to exclude the right of way to such water whenever it is required for any public purpose, nor to destroy or obstruct the free navigation of such water; and the Legislature shall enact such laws as will give the most liberal construction to this provision, so that access to the navigable waters of this State shall be always obtainable for the people thereof.

The state retains ownership of navigable rivers and streams, and retains the power to regulate boating activities. This public right supercedes the rights of neighboring landowners, including situations in which waters flow through private property.

Way off on a tangent there. Sorry. Back to the bricks. I first learned of the bricks in 2005. We had those torrential rains to start off the year eventually causing the hillside here in La Conchita to slide, killing 10 people. We have had a lot of rain this year but, nothing even close to that. Well over 40 inches of rain fell over the course of a week or so. Thats over 26 feet of snow for you winter bound folks. Even more on Rincon Mountain. Two trash barrels according to Jessica. That is a lot of rain. That is the kind of rain you need for Santa Clara Rivermouth to do it's thing and form it's perfect V shape sand point. Long hollow rights or lefts, take your pick. And.. That is the kind of rain it takes to get these bricks out of Rincon Creek.

I was living in Carp during the slide, and the freeway was closed for about a week, so I rode my bike down to Rincon and there was a freaking huge pile of sand, rocks, and debris standing about 10 feet high and at least 100 feet wide at the mouth of the creek extending way out in the break. And the bricks.. Wow. I didn't really think much about them at the time. Cool colors I thought. But people were collecting them by the tons. Wheel Barrels, wagons, you name it. Actually I don't know who all was collecting them. My friend Wayne from Carpinteria is by far the biggest collector. I saw another huge stash in the mobile home park behind mine. There is a cool looking wall and walkway someone built right on the point. More on that in part two. I don't know why I didn't start collecting them.. This is kind of thing is right up my alley. Wow this is going long. Sorry.

Anyway last April, shortly after I moved out of Jenny's house in SB, and back home to Carp.. Just north of here.. I started finding a few bricks here and there on my morning walks at the point. I was hooked. Unfortunately the point has been pretty pick over and no bricks have been released since 2005. So finding even like one a day is nearly impossible. This is about the time I started to fix up the backyard and I wanted those bricks sooo bad. Just enough for a little walkway, patio or something. Had to have some. Wayne was not giving any up. No one. Period. But he did predict a rainy winter.. I needed them now! So I settled on a small round meditative patio, using a mix of creek bricks and some new bricks from a Masonry yard in SB. More on that in Part Two..

Flash forward to this winter. It has been pretty much non stop surf! Most of it has been pretty big but also really consistent! Lots of literal drift going on. Best winter since '69 some say. We have lost at least 6-10 of sand from the beach here in La Conchita. This has unearthed a gold mine of bricks that have been buried deep, deep, in the sand since 2005.

Thousands driving by every day oblivious to the gold mine of bricks for the taking.

Anyway the inspiration for this story was a walk on the beach waiting for a sunset that would never come. I decided to shoot these bricks in there natural state. So for the first time, I stopped picking them up, and just looked. The bricks get pretty cobbled and broken up making the trip down the creek, but after 5 years in the sand and sea these are even more cobbled. Large small, round, flat, square, broken it doesn't matter. I collect them all. Why...This kind of thing is right up my alley!

Not easy to get shots of these guys in the wild. You have to sneak up on them. This one almost got away..

When your time is up.. it's up.

2010-02-27T10:05:00.000-08:00

I am not a news reporter but this is happening right in front of my house so I felt I had to comment on it. I was heading back from town. Carp that is.. After spending the night at my house, where my complicated, yet beautiful wife now resides. Yes.. It's complicated.. So after a rainy walk on the bluffs with Riley I am heading home.. La Conchita that is.. Just as I round the corner at Rincon I can see the Amtrak Surfliner is stopped dead on the tracks. Right in front of my house. It's still here. Probably be here all day.

Ok.. They only stop these things when something bad happens. So my thoughts immediately focus on my daughter who was out last night as well. Kalie is an awesome driver, but I am her dad, and this is dangerous stretch of highway.. not Freeway! So I get an ill feeling anytime I even see the traffic slow down. I will never stop worrying about her. Cars are freaking dangerous. Especially in the rain.

Anyway I get closer and finally I can see a white suv facing south, pretty well crumpled up, and stuck to the southbound Pacific Surfliner 768. First train of the day I think. There are several CHP on the scene, and some fire, but no ambulance. This all must have just happened as there was hardly any traffic backed up, and I made the turn into La Conchita with no problem. I pulled in the driveway, grabbed my camera and went down to take some shots. Feeling kind of guilty, or unsettled, or something, since I despise bad news, and the news in general, but like I said this is right in front of my house. Passengers are looking right at me in my fish bowl windows while I type this one out.

Well there are a few neighbors gathered around and the best information I have is this. The guy lost control of his vehicle, flipped and rolled, then flew off the highway and landed backwards on the train track. I don't know how long he sat there, not long is my guess, but he was promptly hit by the train. The train came to a stop basically right in front of my house, and according to witnesses, the driver got out of the vehicle walked north about 4 train cars and died right in front of my house. On the tracks in front of my house. Gnarly.. Send yours prayers and blessings to his family.. and drive carefully!

Ok.. The train just pulled away and some new information came of it. Judging by the debris on the track, it looks like the vehicle was hit about 20 yards north of my house and was pushed about not more than 150-200 yards. I don't know how fast a train going 60 miles an hour can stop? I don't think that fast. It must have seen the vehicle and made an attempt to slow down. Just a guess. That means the driver may have gotten out before he was hit by the train. All just speculation on my part..

Tuesday Afternoon Glass

2010-02-24T07:48:00.000-08:00

The greatest thing about this winter has been the "in-between swell days" I surfed Indicator on this particular morning. Only a handful of guys out a 9:00 am. Plenty of chest and head high waves with more than a few sets going over "my" head. The crowd filled in a bit but, never even got to a what I would call a "stage 1 alert" By the way.. One of you guys might have got a nice water shot of me on my last wave. Light Blue.. Andrieni Hull.. Kind of balding.. but only if you shoot me from the shore. Well if you are out there? Please post. In any case it's great how one good session can change your outlook on life. At least for a while.

I was in such a good mood I decided to go down and shoot some afternoon glass. This was my first chance to try out my new Slik Pro Pdo 381CF "The CF stands for "carbon fiber" and when ever I can afford "carbon fiber" I buy it - $99.99 @ Samys Camera" I found myself a nice rock just a bit south of the Rivermouth, at a section I think Bobby Martinez once called the slingshot. I call it the section where you need to be going really, really fast, if you have any plans to go all the way to the Call Box.

Well I wish I knew everyone's names but I don't. Sorry. Local Shaper Wayne Rich was in the cove. Tom Curren's kids were out and ripping again. I had a some really good shots of his youngest kid?? see I don't even know his name. Unfortunately that stupid $1200 lens focused in on some rocks for the whole wave. A lot of other rippers out.. names.. sorry. Even the girl from Esau's whose name I do know, I have blanked on. So if you recognize yourself, or anyone else let me know. I will write it down this time. Thanks!

The MonoPod review. Very light weight. No problem there. It felt kind of awkward at first but I think some of my shots did come out a bit crisper. I still had to fix the horizon on nearly every shot, but there was an definite improvement in that area. I was shooting kind of low to the ground, so I did end up with a number of out of focus shots. Didn't have that kind of problem when I was a hand held wannabe. But I did get some really crisp pictures of rocks.. Overall I enjoyed it and will use it again. Two Thumbs up! Wait! It almost fell over.. I guess one thumb up then.. Maybe I could think about a tripod someday...

3:00 AM.. An El Cap Story.

2010-02-22T03:56:00.001-08:00

Woke up at 3:00 am today. Not good. I can't really sleep anymore. If I make it to 5:00 it's a miracle. I am frozen in fear, time, indecision, something.. I really can't fathom having to start over again.. and maybe we don't have to. But maybe I should. Jeez.. this is some bad writing. It has been a bad week I guess. Business is bad. This separation seems bad. My decision making is bad. I am getting a bad headache just sitting here.. or is it the just wine. Oh yeah the drinking.. Bad.

I am trying to recall the week but, it just seems bad. It's true, there was some surf. 4 sessions to be exact. (I know what you are thinking.. I should get out more.. But that's the average) Unfortunately.. Most of the joy has been yanked out of that. It is true that while in the act of riding a wave, I can still manage a peaceful zen like state. Or depending on the size and shape of the wave, and taking into account my positioning, and or probability of making the wave, I may even achieve the state of, Oh shit! Why did I take off on this! Even missing the first wave of the set, turning around, only to see the 4 more bigger waves bearing down on your position is better than all the crap I have going on in my head today. But as soon as you kick out, or pop back up to the surface, your reality smacks you right in the head.

Not a care in the world for this guy..

I might point out that these acts of blissful unawareness are short. 5, 10, 15, 2, seconds? Even a 200 yard ride from Indicator lefts past the Rivermouth might only be 25 seconds at best? I don't even know. Luckily time slows down out there. You can almost make it stop in the barrel. Still. Whats a good session? 20, 30, waves.. That's probably high but, I have been catching a lot of waves. 10 waves an hour would seem like a pretty good return on your investment. Lets say at Rincon where most of the waves are pretty long you net an average of 10, 12 second rides. That's one hundred and twenty seconds of actual "zen like peace" 2 minutes of bliss for an hour. Maybe some dolphins show up and catch a few, or it's big and consistent and you are constantly dodging the bigger sets. I will add another 10 minutes of distraction for that. Almost 15 minutes of blissful ignorance. They were right. It is a complete waste of time. They say that about golf and fishing too. But still a surf that was only 50% satisfying, will still be 50% more satisfying than doing nothing.. I guess.

This might not be bliss, but it is certainly a distraction.

I certainly don't know where I am going with this but, yes, I am in a depressive cycle. Brought on from one or more new difficult situations I am currently mishandling or over reacting to.. Don't worry. I have many years of experience at this depression stuff, and have found some ways to cope. Now.. I am going to get serious here in case anyone who actually reads this finds themselves spiraling down.. Like me.

1)Go outside and take a walk. Luckily I have my dog Riley. So there is no way he is giving up his morning walk no matter how sorry I feel for myself. If you don't have a dog, go adopt one.. maybe.

2)Keep doing the things you enjoy even though joy seems to have been sucked out of them. There's that bumper sticker "A bad day of surfing beats a good day of work" It's kind of like that. It can be hard to sit out there on a slow day and think about your ills but, in the end you will glad you did. I noticed they have those bumper stickers for golf, and fishing too. So I guess, if you don't surf, golf, or fish... well... hmm.. God be with you..

3)I came up with this one. "Be nice to strangers" You know despite the fact we live in a world where most of us hardly know the neighbors. I have found most people to be pretty cool. This method worked great during what I guess you could our 6 month trial separation.(April-October) I will definitely be using it again now that we have entered our official separation. Having a dog works great for this too. Ceta, Feta, Missy, all had great owners to talk too. The old couple sharing coffee at Bates every morning. Supermarket Checkout People. I guess it make me feel I am not alone.

4) Write a song. Write 2 songs. Write 10. Make them so sad. Sing then so loud that it makes you cry. Ok.. That probably won't help but.. How do you think all these songs get written?

A view to die for..

Those are a few things that help me out, but still today, the my universe is off balance. The moral of the story is this. Out of the 4 surf sessions this week.. Monday really sucked, the waves were good. Still going overhead but, because I was hungover from Valentines Day and couldn't even stay in the water, I felt like throwing up. That Monday ended up being a complete "my life is falling apart day" Glad it is over. There was a nice uncrowded "in between swells" day at Indicator which was fun but, I still had a lot of distractions going on in my head. Saturday.. Decent size swell at the pier. No hangover but just not really feeling it. I did get caught inside many time so that's something. A cleansing if you will..

Yesterday (yes rainy and super windy) I had a craving to catch El Cap again. The buoys looked semi promising but, the drive up was looking pretty grim. Cove.. not too big, Sharks.. not even anyone out. Hey, ya know what! It turned out to be pretty good with some head high waves rolling through, and probably the least crowded I have surfed the place. Being the magical place that it is, all my troubles were erased for the entire session. But they're back.. Point being.. who knows? Maybe if I hadn't surfed those other days I wouldn't have gone yesterday. Maybe there is no point.. Sorry.

V-Day at the 'Con

2010-02-17T21:14:00.001-08:00

Well if you have read any of my blogs lately.. I might have mentioned that my wife just moved out last week disrupting what was otherwise a near perfect lifestyle, and sending it into complete chaos. So.. Valentines.. blah... ah.. Well.. At least it was a great weekend for surf! Staying with my "Surf first.. Shoot later" theme I got out earlier in the day. Both Saturday and Sunday were very good to me, and by using my vast local knowledge and secret techniques, I scored quite a few fun ones without too much of a crowd. After a nap.. I headed back to the pier.

Saturday afternoon at the pier was kinda like the sessions at the end of January. I think the swell was a bit smaller this weekend but, the tide drained way out, and the wind came up a bit again, and it wasn't quite the same flawless dredging barrel I am used to. But I think I got a few cool shots anyhow. My personal favorite even though the quality isn't great.. Sorry too dark. Dark and cavernous really. But this unknown guy is just shacked, backside, no rail grab, just charging, right in front of the rock. It's the second to the last shot. I don't really remember if he made it out. Hope so.

Sunday.. Ah.. sweet valentines day. Blah... This was a full on "Stage V Crowd Alert" Both lots full. Cars parking under the freeway. Cars parking on Bates. I was think of riding my bike there but, that whole bike riding on the freeway thing is kind of gnarly. So I was stoked to find any parking spot. The good thing about my "Surf First.. Shoot Later" program in SB is.. it's often times way better in the afternoon. Judging by the crowd of photographers with $6000 lens' on the beach.. It must have been pretty good.

There was a full on "Stage V Photographer Alert" going on. I managed to sneek by all those guys and I found myself a nice little rock to sit on, pulled my Canon 50D/EF 100-400L out of my Tamrac Velocity 8X camera bag and thought "Man this thing is heavy" I'm pretty new to this whole surf photography thing, and DSR's in general but.. I really like to move around a lot, shoot different angles, and like to blend in with the scenery. So the idea of a tripod, wow.. besides being highly conspicuous, it also looks to be quite cumbersome. Now Dianne tells me she use to do some hand-held shooting then started to develop Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. So real or imagined I am stating to develop a case of that too. Did I mention besides being psychosomatic, my wife moved out? I pulled a beer out of my Tamrac Velocity 8X Camera Bag which not only fits my camera, lens, and hood perfectly but.. keeps one beer perfectly chilled. I should probably go out and buy a monopod tomorrow..

Anyway. Rincon is by far my favorite daily wave but I usually stay far, far, away on anything over a stage 3 crowd (that would be pretty much every advertised swell that occurs on the weekend) So it was pretty cool just to go there hangout, see some real good surfing, shoot some photos, have a beer, and not worry about fighting that crowd. There was a lot of great surfing going down amongst the pros, locals, and visitors, alike but I have to give the unofficial V-day trophy to Bobby Martinez. His turns are just about ten times more impressive than anyone else in the water period. But that's just me and I didn't see Tom out there, just his kids. Hope everyone had a good time. Now go home. Just kidding..

IT'S COMPLICATED

2010-02-11T06:59:00.000-08:00

I doubt anyone noticed but, I had to change my relationship status from "married" to "it's complicated" this week. After not quite 4 months down here in La Conchita, Jenny, and Julia, moved out. Really after a just couple weeks down here they were already trying to figure how to get back to SB and the Valerio house. Problem is they gave up that house to her sister in law and the guest house is still being rented to UCSB Student, Rose.. Ironically they moved into the trailer. See previous post: FOR SALE - BY OWNER - RINCON SURF PARADISE 2 + 1 $119,000

Now I need to point out. While I have always had a love affair with La Conchita and once tried to talk with no success, Theresa, my first wife, and mother of my children, into a buying a house here. up on Vista del Rincon. (back row but.. that house is still here) That was right before the first big slide. I should say the first big slide reported on by the current mass media. Another deadly slide took place about a quarter mile north of here in 1909 killing 6 people. According to Shamin? Shaman? Shamin is a 35 year resident of La Conchita and has this to add to the 1909 slide. Another 75 Chinese railroad workers not mentioned were also killed in this slide. After losing his house in the 2005 Slide he set up camp on the beach right across the freeway from the 1909 slide. Nice place. Had a stage and everything. Unlike the 2005 slide the bodies were never removed and their spirits are heard from frequently down that way... I haven't quite figured out if Shamin, is actually Shaman, but talking to him sometimes I get the feeling he is "The Shaman" Either way he's a super nice guy and one of the many people who have made me feel quite at home here in the LC. Anyway.. The place has been sliding throughout time. They say these are the fastest growing coastal mountains in the World, United States, California, well I forget.

Back to the point I was trying make in that last paragraph. That is.. It was Jenny who became obsessed with moving to La Conchita over the summer. I have no idea what possessed her but she would not leave the idea alone. To the point we were looking at buying houses here in the late summer (I have to point out we were not even living together at the time) Always the voice of reason I tried to point out the obvious.

1. Some people think it's crazy to live in an area prone to mudslides. I say it's crazy to even get up in the morning. Cars accidents, Black Mold, H1N1, Fires, Floods, Snowstorms, I'll take my chances here. At least on the front row.

2. It's like an island here. The old gas station/store has been closed since the owner committed suicide a few years back, so you can't even go grab beer, ice cream, or a Rincon burger. You need to go to the town.. just north of here if you follow my blog. If you don't drive you are pretty much stuck. Not the greatest set up for my 14 year step daughter Julia. But you can ride your bike to town on the freeway, or walk to the cliffhouse for a delicious lunch. Note: Someone looks to be reopening the Gas Station so.. that will be sweet!

3. Drugs.. Fuck that. There are drugs everywhere. There is the fact that we are on an island, and if you don't surf, like taking long walks on uncrowded beaches, fish, and collect Rincon Creek bricks. There is not much to do. Drugs could be an option. Of course a lot of kids seem bored these days no matter where they live. I guess there was a big pot bust here last week.. But pot come on.

4.1 The Freeway: This is the big one! It poses all sorts of problems here. First and foremost is the left turns against oncoming traffic. Vehicles small, large, and huge, are hurtling themselves at 75 mph on one of the busiest freeways in the world. I saw my first accident about a week ago. No local residents were involved but a truck apparently did some fancy air maneuvers eventually landing on its side. I heard no one was seriously hurt. This would be a good time to point out that THIS IS NOT A TECHNICALLY A FREEWAY. Yes kids.. About a 1/2 mile before Mussel Shoals to the south. And just as you pass Rincon from the north. You are not on the freeway anymore. There is busy cross traffic at two intersections, bikes, pedestrians, and cars parked along the road.

4.2 On any given Saturday or Sunday during the summer with everyone, I mean everyone heading to Santa Barbara, you would have an easier time walking across the top of cars than actually making the left turn. All that said. it's a matter of timing. Learning to time the speed of oncoming cars and what's makeable, learning the best time to leave, not caring about the time you will lose by going continuing south to the Sea Cliff off ramp and turning around. Or heading north to the u-turn or Bates Rd if you need to go south. If you have been drinking.. take the long way home!!!

4.3 Then there's getting to the beach. That's easy you just have to be flexible. The tunnel is only about 4' tall..

4.4 Oh yeah. It's loud and runs nonstop.. Till about 2am. Of course.. I can see Rincon from bed and it's about 2 minutes away on this same freeway..

So.. This wasn't really working out for Jenny... or Julia.. and now they are gone. To be fair. It's not just La Conchita, we just can't seem to live together. Too much fighting. Too much fighting over the exact same thing over, and over, and over again. Money (she makes twice as much as me, nearly 3 times. We use to have a joint account. Now everything is separate. And I am paying for half of everything. Cool.. now we can fight over who ate whose last avocado, grapefruit, turkey, whatever. That is dysfunctional and just plain lame. They sell freakin' Avocados 10 for a dollar just down the street. That's not counting the locals discount. ha.. My grapefruits’ on the other hand were like a buck each! That's something to complain about. lol..

We haven't been on a nice trip together since last May and then she takes off to go see friends in Hawaii with Julia. No big deal. I don't have that kind of money. That's why I try to live someplace where I can vacation year round from the comfort of my own home. This place is like a paradise we could enjoy ourselves right here. Christ I can see the place we were married from my bedroom balcony. But still.. We really need to try and get away, sorry trips to Mammoth don't count! My love language is sharing quality time. And to be honest my love tank is bone dry. Shot full of holes and leaking. I know her's is too.. But I gues I don't know how to fill it. If it's not money, it's the kids, or the fact that I choose not to work as much. It is hard to have a step family period. There is so much more but.. I think we still love each other. well.. hmm.. I don't know.. It's complicated..

"they say you got to choose your side.. and when it's done. nobody right.. nobody wrong"

Eppic Surf

2010-02-09T08:40:00.000-08:00

Eppic Surf Session: La Conchito Escondio... January 21th, 2010

January 21, 2010

2010-01-22T17:42:00.000-08:00

Right smack dab in the middle of La Conchita

2009-10-10T05:35:00.001-07:00

Well. Well.. Well... It has been some time since I wrote anything here. Perhaps there is just too much going on in my life, Maybe there is not enough. Maybe "too much is not enough" Maybe I was getting too self conscious with so many relatives, friends, wives, kids, reading this that I couldn't let the words flow. Well here is something new. Maybe I will write more. Maybe this it, I am just up way too early with nothing to do, nervous about the move, and how heavy everything is. Why do they make that furniture sooo heavy? Anyway...

Today I am moving to La Conchita ( just south of here if you are following the blog) I know what you are saying. "Didn't you move to Santa Barbara (About 15 minutes North of La Conchita) a little over two years ago to live with your beautiful wife Jenny" As seen in the my last post "POST 48" Yes that is true but.. I moved out about 6 months ago back to the trailer in Carp (Yes.. Just North of La Conchita) as seen in the previous post "FOR SALE - BY OWNER - RINCON SURF PARADISE 2 + 1 $119,000" Maybe I will go into the detail of that move some other time but, in the end it all comes down to money! Of course there is the fact that I am difficult, Sara is difficult, Jenny is impaitent, Julia like to get in the middle, and Kalie keeps it too herself...

Anyway living separatly was going nowhere fast (never was a official separation, just living separately) Yeah right! Ever try to date your own wife? At first it seemed like it had some potential. And there was the Big Sur trip, then up to SF for the Oyster Festival with SpearHead and Poor Man's Whiskey for my birthday. Jenny does the best birthdays =) That led to the Poor Man's Whiskey Rafting trip on the American River. So really maybe "we stand a chance" Really.. I just assume be married and live together. So we are moving to La Conchita, the Little SeaShell, or Punta as the maps call it. Nearby Punta Gorda has some great surf I hear. Of course out my bedroom window I have a full view of the Queen of the Coast. From the tip of Indicator all the way into the Cove. Please don't call me. I will just tell you "you should been here yesterday"

Hmmm.. Maybe this will work.. Maybe my next post will be "FOR SALE - BY OWNER - RINCON SURF PARADISE 2 + 1 $99,000"

Post Number 48

2007-07-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

Wow...... It has been along time since I sat down and wrote. Let's see.. Other than the plea to try and sell my trailer in April, I really haven't said a word since I announced my engagement way back when. So.. here's something...

Bad cold. That lasted at least four months and was originally diagnosed as COPD. I already forgot what the "C" and the "O" stand for. Possibly.. Chronic and Obstructed. But the PD stands for Pulmonary Disease! Freak out!!! First symptoms of.. Take your choice, chronic bronchitis or emphysema. Long story short. Don't have it. Went to the best Pulmonary Specialist in town and ran a million tests and came up with nothing. Dolphin Lungs he said explaining why the lungs looked swollen or larger than they should. Good news except I still panic in any wave over... double overhead. Dolphin lungs or not. The cold finally ended with an intense inner ear infection and a 20 day run of antibiotics. Needless to say this did keep me out of the water quite a bit but..

Just about the time my birthday rolled around in May. My beautiful wife, Jenny (not a wife yet as of May 14) pulled off the best birthday surprise of all time. She told me we had to go somewhere (couple days before my birthday) to get my present/surprise. So I am thinking what the heck? Plus we had too be there at a certain time?? So I think about this for a couple days and don't really come up with much. My best guess is we are heading out to GoWesty in Los Osos to get a new awning for the the Syncro. This would be very nice, as I obviously need one. We had talked about doing some wine tasting out here but, Why the specific time? Plus she had to get back so it didn't seem quite right. So the day comes and we head out taking the 154 over the Santa Ynez Mountains, out past Paradise Road... Basically on the way to her Mom's in Santa Ynez.

Let me point out now that what I really need is a new surfboard. I have been riding my "vaquero" for almost 4 years, and while still almost always my board of choice.. It is getting soft, and I am suspicious at times.. Now the "vaquero" is shaped by Marc Andreini, who I have never met, but who has completely change my life as far as surfing waves go. The "vaquero" is a "hull design".. What? Think late sixties and early seventies, George Greenough. Kind of a reverse concave.. hmmm... it's a hull really. And really, really fast, at least in the neighborhood around me which includes, Rincon, and 23 other righthand points. I would like to go on about the "vaquero" but, I am heading to Mexico tomorrow, so must move along. Mine is green, and about 7'0". Of course it is a single fin with a 9" high aspect flex fin that allows for turns that spring. They sell them at the Beach House here in SB, right where State St meets the beach...

So we continue on past, Lake Cachuma, countless ranches, and then she says "wait what was the name of that road" We are in the middle of nowhere as far a birthday gifts go. So she gets on her phone and makes a call to a message which I can't quite make out. Then says to look for "Amour Ranch Road" Okay... I got it! We are going on a Hot Air Balloon ride. Not a surfboard, or an awning, but pretty cool. I have seen them float over this region before. Still.. She had to get back?? Just a ploy I guessed. Now she starts asking me what do I think it is? Well... I just figured it out so, I couldn't give it away. So I say.. I thought we were going to GoWesty. Or maybe the wine tasting. Then how I wanted the surfboard.. How I thought maybe, we were going up to get a board personally from Marc Andreni. But he lives way north of here.. Just then we pull onto Amour Ranch Road. I seen a cowboy with a surfboard blank lying across the back. So I pull up to these Vaquero's de los Olas.. Just grinning... Marc pulls out this beautiful blue vaquero out of his van and say's "this must be yours" Well there is a lot more to the story than that but... I was 100% certain I was getting married to the right woman on June 21st, 2007. That's another story but here are some pics... things are good here in Santa Barbara..

Summer Solstice 2007

FOR SALE - BY OWNER - RINCON SURF PARADISE 2 + 1 $119,000

2007-04-30T10:05:00.000-07:00

This is the perfect set up for the single surfer, or very small family who needs to live near Rincon. I hate to sell this place but, I'm getting married, and moving to town. I not giving up my position at Indicator but, I will have to drive 15 minutes further now. Arrg...

Anyway... This is an all ages park. I have lived here by myself mostly, for the past five years. My kids are up here more often than not, so it is very livable for a minimalist family of three. The second bedroom is really what I would call a "half bedroom" or maybe an "Alcove" The wall was removed to give it more space. Great for traveling surf bros that might stop by, or a kid or two. You might think Rincon is too crowded? A lot of days it is.. But... a lot of days IT IS NOT! When you live two minutes from there, I guaranty you are going to catch it good. Yes I said Guaranteed!!! Did I say how great Carp is? Best town in America. You can get anywhere on your bike in about ten minutes, usually faster than jumping in your car. There are only "3" street lights in the whole town!!! I usually only deal with one. Santa Barbara is great but... I really do hate to leave Carp...

About the place... Nestled in a well maintained park, right next to Carpinteria Creek. My place is on a dead end lane, so it is pretty quiet, and has some nice views of Rincon Mountain, and the Santa Ynez Range. The creeks is right there, along with a bike path, which is also short cut under the freeway to the market. Farmers Market is on Thursday. The closest surf spot is TarPits. About 5 minutes by bike. That is also the closest beach at the State Park (camping), also there is Jelly Bowls the summer hang out for locals. You could walk it in 15 minutes but why? Bikes are fun! You are also right near the Northern, Southern California's only seal rookery. Sick Oxnard Barrels are about 25 minutes to the south, Ventura is about 15 minutes with surf spots all the way down. El Capitan, is about 35 minutes north, with about 20 right hand points in between... The space rent is running me about $575 per month right now but I don't know how they do it when new owners come in. Should be about the same though...

This is an old single wide. Classic... 1969 It's old school, made of aluminum,and of course, paneling inside. This is some of the nicest paneling going though. Take a look at some other old single wides, and you will see what I mean. There are not many of these single wides left. This means you usually are going to have to pay around $200,000 to get anything. We did look at the option of putting in a new doublewide in here but... to tell you the truth, those things have no style what so ever. I would rather live in a Yurt. My place is a wider than average single wide, with a nice extension, and raised ceilings in the living room. The porch is nice and roomy, far superior to any of the new double wide options... The kitchen is pretty roomy, but I am running my business out of it so no photo's yet. I am painting the bathroom as well. The living room is comfortable and quite livable. The bedrooms are small and really made for sleeping or napping. People... Please stop working so hard and take a nap! The carport is great and keeps my Westy nice and clean. It is also perfect for your 22' Foot Outrigger. Where am I going to put that?

You will need new carpet. It has a small yard... Some other repairs are inevitable. I will gladly pay for all of that, if possible, through escrow... Email me for more a slide show if you like.. If you have your own agent great. I need someone to put all the legal details together.

Last detail for now... I am getting Married on the Summer Solstice in June, so the place will not be ready for move in till early July!

BREAKING IT DOWN...

2007-02-03T08:47:00.000-08:00

Some complained my last post was a bit unclear, confusing, muddled, hard to read between the lines. So I will try to clear things up a bit. A double overhead wave is basically, just how it sounds. About twice the size off the average human, about 10'-12' from the top of the lip to the trough, or bottom of the wave. Yes, I'm getting married. You could also call a wave this size, about 6'. The only valid reasoning on this, would be that the open ocean swell which creates a wave this size, would be about 6'. Depending on wave period (distance between wave peaks), the period also plays a huge affect on the size as the swell finally hits the shore. it may very well jack into a 12' wave face, maybe bigger, and often smaller. It will be a small intimate affair at the beach, of course. Another cool reason for calling a 12' wave, 6', would be, when someone asks you how big it is, you could say " It's about six foot, pretty fun" Then they can paddle out, and get completely worked by six foot waves, they go in thinking they are wimpy and out of shape. The Hawaiians use this technique the best by calling everything "3 feet, maybe 4', brah" Yes, we do have a tentative date picked out, but I can't tell you now. Most people are using the knee, waist, chest, head, overhead, overhead++, double overhead, etc... Wave height systems which of course has it's flaws. Yesterday in the Goleta, I had it in the Overhead to Overhead++ range which is just about perfect for me. I am super happy to be getting married to my best friend, lover, soul mate, camper, surfer girl, nurse, massage therapist, on and on.. oh... and did I mention she learned to snowboard in about 3 days. The point is when it hits solid double overhead.. it is all business... If you would like to know more about the surf try this. Wetsand.. do not support Wave cams!

SWEET SUNRISE...

2007-01-31T10:48:00.000-08:00

Along long, long, time ago, on a small organic farm, far, faraway, in Eastern Washington.. There was a little girl. She called herself... Sunrise Over the years, many roads were taken, many paths were crossed, a wrong turn here, a wrong turn there, then a butterfly flapped it's wings, halfway across the world, and... we almost met. Almost... she surfed the Cove, and I at Indicator. I new she drove a brown Westy' much like mine, and she new I drove a red one. What she didn't know was, there was an upper parking lot at Rincon. So on we went, close, but I never even saw her van.

Till one Wednesday, December 21st, 2005. Typical of most Wedensdays that fall on the Winter Solstice... The waves were huge! Of course we missed each other again that day. She going south to Rincon to watch the some nuts, skilled professionals, and local kamakazes, take off on the triple overhead lines marching around the little corner by the sea. La Rincon del Mar.. Waking up early to see just how big it was going to be, I went out to the bluffs here in Carp, and watched a wave feather and break way outside Venaco's Pier. No boats coming in or out out of there today, and no way I am getting in the water anywhere near here. So I took off to the north, to find something. Something maybe, in the double overhead range. They say the difference between an overhead wave, and a double overhead wave, is like the difference between pleasure, and business. Not being much of a business man these days, I can't even imagine the difference between double overhead and triple overhead...

When the ocean gets this big, things change... Houses wash away, land is rearranged, and large boulders are moved around like rubber ducks in the bath tub. If you paddle on out there for awhile, you will change too. At the very least, you are going to come in with a very clear head. To the point... "She's surfs, and drives a WestFalia? I would have to be an idiot to not go out with her" So it was on, December 27th, 2005... Giving up on a meeting at Rincon, as the surf continued to pound, we choose the slightly more protected waters of Campus Point in Goleta, well.. on the UCSB campus. I got there a little early, definitely nervous, but hey it was just a meet for a surf, no worries mate' A brown Westy' finally pulls up.. This cute woman with blue eyes, long beautiful hair, an awesome body, and two dogs jumps out of the only Brown Westy' I could see in either direction. And I thought to myself... "She loves dogs, drives a WestFalia, and Surfs.. I am definitely going to marry this woman"

Sunset.. December 27, 2005 The end of a great day,
and the start of something even greater...

A LETTER TO SURFLINE!

2007-01-11T08:30:00.000-08:00

WTF... What's with all the new reports?? el cap, the shores, come on... Give us a fucking break. You don't even check these sites out in person anyway so, why are they listed? It's fucking misleading and a travesty. Is this to impress the sheep with your full coastal coverage? Or.. just to make things even more crowded, so you can make even more money selling expensive trips to uncrowded locations around the world. Which btw are becoming even more crowded as well. Fuck you, you money grubbing corporate sheep herders...

don

just north of la conchita...

ps..

I have nothing against your forecasts. Forecasts, swell direction, technical info is great. So are a lot of the other things on your site. Surf news, Local Knowledge, bring it on, Photo's... Just get rid of all the cams, and individual spot reporting, and have some class. There are enough cell phones to get the word out..

Click here to send your own letter...

FreeSurfReport

THE SUMMER OF '76 - BAHNE 30"

2006-12-21T09:27:00.001-08:00

I am remember this clearly... for the most part. I was up on a family vacation in Mammoth Lakes, CA. Duel purpose trip actually. Little bit of the summer vacation but, more importantly we had just bought the family condo. Here, check out the condo cam for a live update...
By the way. The kids and I, as well as Jenny, and Julia are heading there this Saturday, to spend Christmas in the snow.. I get mixed feelings from people on this one. On one hand... Hey! I want my own new traditions. On the other hand, my Parents, Grandma, and all others involved seem to have their own traditions, which usually involve heading to my Mom's in the morning for gifts, Locks & Bagels, then on to Grandma Kathy's for the BEST MACARONI IN THE WORLD.. I am not kidding, it's the best. Not to mention my beautiful girlfriend, Jenny, and her family traditions. Ok.. I am getting way off track here but bare with me, and quite possibly I will be able to "loop back" ( my new writing term learned from Allan C Weisbecker, my new writing guru) I guess "looping" is highly frowned upon by "idiot editors" and other people in publishing, that "don't actually do any writing" I may loop back to Allan's new book, "Can't you get along with anyone?" but hopefully not in this blog which has gone uncontrollably off the rails. This of course would be a double loop back, which is best reserve for roller coasters, and not early morning blogs.

Looping back to Christmas, and then on with the story, I swear… We are living in the most perfect location in So Cal, if not the world, most of the year so... I want to go to the snow for Christmas. That is simple enough. Although, with the advent of the new Driftwood Christmas Trees, and the likely Christmas Swell… I will stay around next year. (That was almost going in the direction of a triple loop, and it is only 8:30 in the morning) Why Mammoth? The kids don't get off all the time for school these days to go skiing, like I used too so.. Got to hit it for the holidays.. Ok now, here we go..

Back to the summer of '76. The big bi-centennial. Despite the mass genocide we perpetuated on the Native Americans, and recent Vietnam war, not too many people wanted us dead. It was a good 200 years.. The US was a pretty cool place, and quite possibly worth celebrating. So comes the Mammoth Lakes, 4th of July Parade, down Main St.. Starting up at Whiskey Creek, moving on down the slight incline on Main, pass the little hole in the wall ski shop known as The Cornice. (RIP) Then on past Andersen’s Pea Soup Restaurant. (RIP) Yes! Hap Pea & Pea Wee, both lived in Mammoth at one time serving up the finest split pee soup known to man. Oh well, that's gone too. So is the one in Carlsbad, and possibly to one way up north on Interstate 5. Well if you do happen to visit Andersen’s in Buellton. Take a look at the place mats and you will see Mammoth Lakes clearly on the road map. (Don’t forget to head over to the Hitching Post for dinner and a bottle of the Corkdancer, or Highliner, Pinot Noir’s , quite good, and made famous in the movie Sideways) I won’t be looping back to Buellton anytime soon, so this is more of a “Sideways Note”

The parade continued on past Safeway, now Von's, and in a different location all together, and was replace by Thrifty's which as you may know is now Rite Aid. What's this have to do with skateboarding? Good Question.. We sat somewhere in-between Whiskey Creek, and Andersen’s Pee Soup, on the right side on the road for the up- coming parade. Basically it was going like any small town parade . Some floats, mayors, city council, maybe the McCoy’s, the fire dept, ya know... Wait. What's this? Some early skateboard team ( Possibly Hobie, but definitely a team, noted by the matching uniforms... gag) I was a 14 year old, sheltered valley kid, and had never seen anything so cool... My life plans took a direct hit that day, and no longer did it seem I was going to become a wide receiver for the Los Angeles Rams. This was it. I checked out a small contest they threw in the Cornice parking lot, then went into the Cornice Sports Shop and just drooled over this 30" Bahne they had on display. I had to have that board! Well, my folks didn't see it that way, and it took some time but eventually I was able to procure one from my future arch nemesis, Val Surf... They were after all, the Skateboard Capital of the World. It's was weeks later, but finally, I had in my hands... A Bahne 30" Fiberglass deck, complete with Chicago Trucks, and Cadillac Wheels, just like this one…

This board looked great in the store but, no kicktail, and not really what I was after I think. So I took it to Big Bear with my friend Kenny, who also witnessed the Mammoth Skate Demo, and his folks, Ken & Kitsy, who was fortunately a nurse, for some high speed downhilling.. more on that later...

Note: Since I am now blogging in three locations... I have decided to make this my main blog in which I will repost any other blogs, I might be doing over at the Green Sector Underground, or donjayne music, or anywhere else... Thanks!

More notes and numbers.. I have just past 500 feedback points for RinconRaxWorks. Since only about 50% of the people leave feedback that's not easy. Today as I write this I am at 509 positive feedback points... 100% Positive. See this eBay thing is a piece 'o cake compare to having a store. I guess thats the worry. Also "Reckless Love" has now surpassed 300 Plays, which is definitely, a gold record I think! haha

Happy Holidays to all and have fun. "There is much to think about but, nothing to worry about" - Sara Jayne

OVER HERE... LOOK! - ANOTHER BLOG

2006-11-01T10:26:00.000-08:00

I had a visit from Mr Sean Cliver, last Friday, to shoot some photo's for another book he's working on. I am quite sure most of you are unaware who Sean is, so check out his site right now. disposable - the book..

At any rate, I have been wanting to put my own collection up on the web ever since the shop closed and my collection ended up tucked away in my closet, or worse, sold off for cash. ouch! So... this was the perfect time to, shoot along with Sean while everything was out. Skateboards that is. Most of my Snowboards are locked in a shed, I have lost the key for. It's just one of those weeks. Oh well.. I did manage to shoot most of my skates and they are now posted here. the greensector... underground... Sorry Trav, for stepping on your name but... we are underground.. and you can't find us! btw.. The Green Sector Underground, was the original name for the swap meet biz which lasted two weeks before my head exploded from all the success! This would also be a good time to credit Mr. Vince Kitchen, for pulling that name, Green Sector 27, out of thin air... More on that some day. Something about.. Red Sector A! Santa Cruz and fungus...

Well... I have grand delusions of re-releasing some of the old t-shirts and stuff, and hopefully reconnecting with a lot of the old friends & customers, from the halcyon days of my retail carreer, I loved so much, sometimes.. Ha. If nothing else this is where you can now publicly view, the Green Sector Skate, Snow, and Surf Museum. Plus you don't miss the my new blog detailing one misguided boy's journey from, bright starry eyed 8 year old, with a Hobie Super Surfer and a skinned knee, to highly successful yuppie snowboard shop guy, to surfing recluse, ensconced in an aluminum trailer, about 2 minutes from the Queen of the Coast, with a beautiful woman 15 minutes to the north, and two beautiful daugthers a half hour to the south. No wonder all the oil blew out the back of my van. Criky!! To the east to the west. to the nosrth and south. Oh... this going to take years...

A long, long, time ago... My Grampa Bob had this really cool Hobie Super Surfer hanging up on the wall in his garage. I couldn't help but notice it. He was a carpenter and had ton's of woodworking equipment in the garage. This board is still in my collection. It's missing the sticker, and the Super Surfer Wheels but, If you look closely, you can see the hole he drilled in there to hang it on the wall... But he didn't build this. This was something else. Something very cool, I thought. I was probably in second or third grade, making me... Hmmm about 8, I guess.

VANARU UPDATE???

2006-11-01T08:38:00.000-08:00

Well... I guess I should update you a bit on the Subie 2.2 Conversion... It is faster! Much faster!! It is fun to drive... more funner.. ha... It acts and feel like a normal car, and it even get a bit better gas mileage. All of the oil came out yesterday, and spewed all over the back end of the van... Waaahahhaaa. I should end this blog right now, here, before I cry, but no... I am going on. I don't know what happened yet, and almost don't want to hear. I can only hope it has something to do with the oil pump they resealed a couple weeks ago.

When I signed up for this deal.. I was under the impression that these were used engines that Seth at Mastercraft, took apart, looked at, said there's nothing to fix here, and closed them up. Actually, what he said was... The engines they have been rebuilding, have looked really good inside, and we can throw one of these used ones in with for "X" amount of money, and thats - how I can do this conversion for "X" amount of money. Well... that is still sounding pretty good to me. Because these subie engines are pretty reliable, and you can get three low mileage engines for the price of one rebuild. About 450,000 miles according to Seth... Not to mention, the first used one they put in for someone else, has been rolling along great I understand. Ok... That's all I can say about it for now.

I did enjoy a nice little trip out to Jalama a couple weeks ago, the heater was still malfunctioning at that point, but the engine was running well. It was great to go back there, and we are heading there this weekend for Sara's 14th Birthday, and some Jalama Burgers. We may have to take Jenny's, stand by Westy... but it is all good! Btw... I now know how Jalama's premier surf spot, Tarantula's, got it's name, and it not the fact that it gets big, hairy, and has sharp fangs...

SAYING GOODBYE TO THE WASSER BOXER...

2006-08-30T07:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the day. I have made the decision to go with the Subaru's Legacy 2.2 Liter Engine, in my beloved Syncro Westy. Seth down at H&R on Haley, now Mastercraft Motors, will be doing the work. Seth has been working on both my vans for years, is the best, most honest mechanic I have ever known, and the preeminent Subaru Conversion Specialist in the country... Sunday afternoon, the alternator went down. No biggie, unless your engine is on the way out, and you are thinking, conversion! I called too see how much for alternator and, Seth made me an offer on Subie, I couldn't refuse. I feel a little torn by parting with the old German Wasser Boxer engine, in favor of the more polished construction of the Japanese 2.2 Liter Boxer, by Subaru. My WBX has lasted a remarkable 180,000+ miles, and was not really done yet. Most recently it was the alternator. It seemed set to go another 10,000 or more but was showing signs. More leaks, Loss of Power, Loudy, loudy, Louder!!! So before I threw more money to the beast and it's impending doom, something jogged free in my head, and I had a sudden peace come over me, and knew this was the time...

180,000 is quite a long run for the 2.1 WBX. My former Westy was out at 132,000, Which seems quite a popular number. Jenny's, a 1985 with the 1.9 WBX was out at 162,000. So anyway I was quite proud of the my WBX. (Hey this one didn't even have Vanagon Syndrome) Well.. it just made it's final trip/ adventure up to Grass Valley, down an extremely hot Highway 49 through Gold Country, out to Yosemite before heading over Tioga Pass. The highest route over the sierra's before ending in Mammoth. It got us where we needed to go. Ah yes.. Quite slowly some times, in second gear to be sure. See Kalie’s Sweet Sixteen Blog for more on that trip. This really wasn't an easy decision to make because... I really like VW's!

There are lots of options out there for the under powered 6000 lb beast. VW's Syncro Transporter with Westfalia full Camper Conversion. Here' would be a good time to mention. This is not just a camper. It's my daily driver. Despite living only 2 miles from Rincon, it seems I drive a million miles a year. Kids in Oxnard, Jenny in SB, a few trips a years, and I easily do 20,000 miles a year... Well, there a lot of choices, to be sure, on the conversions. But, really there were only three I was thinking about.

1. The VW 2.0 TDI

2. The Subaru 2.2 Legacy

3. Another 2.1 WBX

Well... the TDI is my dream engine. It's German and stays in the VW family. I like the higher miles per gallon, better torque, the possibility of running veggie oil. I don't know much else because I have never really seen one. Or heard it run... Louder.. Loudy… Loudy? Well anyway,it's expensive, realitivly speaking, and the cleanest work on those seems to be coming from David Marshall's Fast Forward Shop, out of Vancouver BC, I think. I am not sure I could even have made it that far. Ok I don't have that kind of money anyway... Not to mention possible the Smog Hassle with CARB. (California Air Regulatory Board or something like that) I have heard everything from, You can't put a diesel in a gas power vehicle in California at all. Period. To.. lot's of hassle and paperwork. Yet... I have also heard it's as simple has filling out a "change of motive" form at the DMV stating this vehicle now runs on diesel.

As far as getting a new WBX. I was pretty certain this was the way to go for me. I am not too worried about speed. The WBX does fine on flat roads and downhill. Mine actually used to pull the San Marcos Pass at 50 mph, which is not bad. It pulled grapevine about the same. Anything steeper though and you were shifting between 2nd and 3rd way more than necessary.. It even seemed fine off-road with the low granny gear I thought hey, not to shabby! Possibly a new WBX by Go Westy, in Los Osos, who seem to be making some great engines, from the original WBX but… The best of those, are also pricey and worse, require premium gasoline, Ouch. Oh come on the Wbx... it is really slow, and I could use a little extra power off-road for sure...

Ok... Why the Subie. Well... Like I said, Seth, has been my mechanic since I had the 2wd Westy, and started dreaming of owning a Syncro. He always had a few in the shop, and I was awestruck by how such an ingenious vehicle could ever me made. Four wheel drive, Air lock Differential, These things can do some fairly serious wheeling, in you don't tip them over. .. When you get there. Pop the top, crack open, an ice cold beer out of the frig, hahe, and whip up some dinner. Take a nap, go to sleep, whatever. You can't beat them, they are the best vehicle ever made, and I am never selling mine. They turn on the dime, are fun to drive, carry just about anything you would ever want, and you can whip up some tea, at a moments notice. Not to mention. It is a great daily driver, and far cooler the those freakin, mini vans. Hehahe.. But, why the Subie… I will let Seth explain

Seth Hatfield on the Subaru Conversion

Here it is... Looks better than factory.
Click on it, to check out Seth's Shop!

There are about eight million more viewpoints, counterpoints, and pointless ramble out there... Get on the Yahoo Syncro list, and you will see what in mean, it is definitely ,a very sensitive issue. And I don't think there is a definitive answer really. But, hey Seth is my mechanic... He has people coming in from all over the country to get the Subie Conversion. Man, I am right down the road. Subie! That is my final answer. Take this thing to Mastercraft Motors on Haley…

On a side note… It’s not by coincidence, I just put some very expensive Vintage Skateboards up on eBay. With some more to follow… Maybe some Snow Stuff too.

RinconRaxWorks

RANDOM ALASKA...

2006-08-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

The fishing was great!
I love this pic of me reeling in this one..

We are heading to are final destination, Vancouver, and should arrive tommorow morning. I thought this is a good time to touch on some random pictures and thoughts...

Coffee... It grinds and makes a great fresh cup of coffee every time. Lattes, Cap's Esspresso, you name it. It got me by but… There is no subsitute for Jen’s stove top esspresso maker, which makes a hella strong cup, and is then knocked down a bit with some milk and honey. Seen here aboard the glamorous, SS Westy.

We really didn't see a lot of wildlife. For that I recommend, Paradise Road, in SB. We did see a few humpbacks, a couple goats, and this Bald Eagle. No Killer Whales... But maybe today...

There is nothing quite like landing in the middle of a misty glacial lake, hopping out and hanging ten on the pontoons. I can just imagine going to all these back country lakes, fishing, hiking. Maybe checking all the surf spots too. This is the best way to get around Alaska.

Everyone says it just rains here all the time. This day in Ketchikan was really the only day it rained. Sara... lovely with here polka dot umbrella..

Of course we had a pool, shuffle board, paddle tennis, and ping pong.. The the tender getting us to shore in Ketchikan, and Sitka. Oh yeah... The wildlife parks, Museums, Rings, and things, the Train Ride to the Klondike, Stunning scenery everywhere you look, food, food, and more food..

The Beaver. Our ship is in the background.

FLOATPLANES IN TONGASS...

2006-07-31T22:18:00.000-07:00

Big… That’s what Alaska is. It is fucking huge. It is impossible to capture in a photo. No matter how you line up your shot, it comes up short. There is just too much. The fish are big. The bears are big. The Moose are big. The water is deep, and the whole freakin state is half the size of the US. (I think) Really… I wished I ended that whole big thing,a whole lot bigger than that. Because, it is big. Today, our port of call was Ketchikan… The Salmon capital of the world. It was named by one of the early founders. You ketch ‘em, we’ll kan ‘em. Salmon, that is. According to local bus driver legend….

So… Today was pretty fun.. I was actually having my best day of the trip, till the time my dad made a comment about Bloodlines, Native Americans, and Europeons, and I got up, and walked way from dinner. I love my Mom and Dad, and I would probably be a homeless pyscho bum without them, but there is no way, no how... Oh well, whatever, never mind forget it! Anyway, before that, my Dad, Kalie, and I, took a great excursion aboard the Beaver... Floatplanes, second to only the Otter. Really, I don’t know which one we were on but, this was the small one. It is a great feeling being aboard one of these pricey yet, floaty toys. Being a water person, I don’t know why I would fly any other way. We flew an Ama (one pontoon off the water, banking, while taking off) on the take off out of this lake.. Unbeleivable!

The taxi out, and take off were smooth as butter. In what locals would call October weather. If you were a local you would know what I was talking about, if not, that means… Rainier and windier than usual. Which means… considering it rains 13 - 16 FEET a year, it wasn’t the best day for flying. Really, it wasn’t that bad compared to the year La Conchita slid as far as I am concerned. Either of those years.

Our destination is the Misty Fjords. Now if you have been paying attention, a fjord is a deep granite valley cut by glaciers and filled with water. Kind of like Yosemite, but filled with water. I don’t know what the deepest ones are, but I hear 1200 to 1500 feet deep all the time out here. The Misty’s are filled with both sea level ocean water and higher elevation lakes. This is what I mean by BIG! I was taking in up to three elevations of fresh water, waterfalls, and connecting streams, along with a big deep fjord of sea water all in one view. This all took place in the TongAss National Forest. Anyway… None of the pictures can really show what it is all about, and next time I come up here will be in the much slower, yet trusty, Westy. But have a look anyway.. Btw, click on the pictures for a full view…

I know My Mom and Dad read this from time to time so… I will take this time to publicly thank them for this trip. While we are completely different, I had a great time, I still love you, and wish you another 45 years of happy marriage. Jenny, I love you, wish you were here, or I can’t wait to get back! This is our last port of call before Vancouver and I hope to find you the appropriate gift. Shaq, Kobe, Fish, Fox… Wait that’s the book I’m reading. Ok… Charlie. I really think you really belong up here flying Beavers and Otters into the Misty Fjords of Ketchikan. When I think of Alaska, I always think of you ,and your family canoeing down the Yukon when we were kids….

CAPITAL CITY!

2006-07-29T22:53:00.000-07:00

It was freakin hot! (Over 80) In the capital city of Alaska today.... Guess_______ I can't escape the heat! Hint... It starts with a J. Speaking of J, I would like to play a game of scrable with Jenny today, or play anything really. That's it. It is way to hot. Just like California. Except for a ton of Salomon jumping all over the freakin' place. J_____ is a small town with about a 100 jewelery shops. Reminds me of Big Bear Lake except with whales, and the float planes. Oh Okay... It's better than that. I just miss Jen... Ok. More tommorrow from aboard the Seven Seas Mariner. MATU UTU... Take me to the South Pacfic. Ok, I am whipped. But... since when was that a bad thing? Bye!

SITKA!!!

2006-07-28T23:29:00.000-07:00

On the way to Whittier.... AK

Hey… First off, I really, really, really, miss my better half , Jenny I love you! Whaahha. It’s hard to explain what goes on in ones head when I am are here to have fun on the trip of " a life time" Yet, a huge chunk of me is missing. Oh well. I love my kids and... Today my parents were remarried by the Captain of the ship. Phillipe?? It should have been me. Haha.. Not really. Ok, Really Reckless... YES! I do! Just came back from the fanciest restaurant aboard the ship, so I might, be slurring my writing a bit here. Ahhhhhh… grgr. The wedding was pretty informal despite the informal attire, which in fact, if quite formal in my opinion. Finally got to break out the Volcom Blazer today though, because my Dad had an excellent pair of Callaway slacks that matched perfectly! Four!!! I have a Big Bertha so this fits in fine with my way of life.

It is 10:36 PM tonight and still light, of course. I’m down her in the Library/Game Room/Internet café/Coffee machine deluxe center. Just push a button and you coffee dreams come true. For me it’s a Cappuccino and a shot of espresso… Despite cabin fever, excess food and excess drink, it has been pretty fun. Yesterday we closed in on the Hubbard Glacier. It made huge thundering sounds as it calved into itself and the see. An awesome site for sure but, many years ago it extended out another 35 miles down the fjord and stood about 2000 feet tall. Can you please go around and turn off your lights… Thanks you! That’s easy for me to say as I sit upon the grand mariner or grand opulence or… whatever this is… The ship of so much excess that they don’t even use 50% of the silverware, or dishes at your table. I guess, in a way it is self contained so maybe I could let that go…. Maybe…

The weather was freakin unbelievable today. It probably hit seventy, easy… The water is 57 degrees and tempting. Coming off my high jumping escapades I was thinking sixth floor easy.. But you can’t leave the boat without them swiping your card, sop…. Oh well. It’s beautiful… I wish I was getting married myself. Oooppppss. No, really, I do! Trees, islands, whales, salmon, puffins, and even the grandest, most regal of birds, the Bald Eagle! Really… America’s bird, just kicking it at the harbor entrance. Almost unreal looking that bird. But alas. This is the perfect day for salmon fishing and it was great… Four hours or fishing bliss with just Kalie, Mike, Captain Marcellus, and myself. ( he didn’t look like a Marcellus) Marc… took us to his killer hot spot, and we were hooking up in a matter of seconds. Both Mike and I losing fish simultaneously on cue. I lost the first Silver of the day. We only kept the Silvers, the Pinks are going back. Never saw a King all day. Everyone had a great time and we had the boat to ourselves. Cost of each of the fish we are sending home. Well at least $200 each. Yummy! Canoeing on the Mendahal glacier tomorrow. Bye… Love you Jen!!!! It’s dark.. As it gets. Blog Time 11:14

Sitka... Free Faliin'

PDX...

2006-07-25T13:21:00.000-07:00

Hey folks.. Here I am in Portland again. Hi LaLa... It was a fairly uneventful flight from Santa Barbara. But always kinda cool to fly out SB, over Campus Point where I met by my "Sweet Sunrise", up towards Naples, El Cap, and part of the Ranch, before turning inland. Well, we only have three hours here to kill, but I plan to head up the Columbia River and do some salomon fishing with nets before I get out of here and head to Anchorage. With Kalie at the helm we made great time heading up river. She is sixteen now and quite capable of handling the big boats. Just about 20 clicks up the river and we will be at the chutes. I don't know really how far is a click? Really I don't know where the heck these chutes are. But, I remember fondly getting a keg of great beer at Deschutes Brewery.. Hi John... somewhere near Mount Bachlor many years ago on a K2 trip to the Mount Baily Cat Skiing Operation. I just flew over the area earlier and took note, as well as nearby Crater Lake which was stunningly blue today not to mention countless volcanos... No rain in Portland today.

Here's Mike and I at "the chutes" catching salomon with nets.
A great way to spend the day near Portland, Oregon.

Ok... thats that, from PDX.. Off to Anchorage and the cruise of a lifetime, without the love of my life. Whaahaa... Ok to be fair and not whiny, I do have my lovely daughters Kalie and Sara, not to mention my very handsome brother, Mike! We will be hooking up with Mom and Dad in AK shortly. So it should be nice. Especially getting out of that heat! Don't forget the new Spearhead Record is out today. I downloaded it this morning and it's great. Buy it! I heard most of the songs at the festival, so it sends me back to just a little over a week ago in Grass Valley. Hi Jen, and Julia.. Miss you... Unfortunately, due to a flaw in the family vacation plans. They weren't able to make this trip because it was planned too far in advance. Really though.. The day I met her, I felt I should advise my Mom we would need an extra berth or two... Really I was thinking about some more exotic plans in the South Pacific. Well, soon I think. Hopeless. Reckless....

She is my sweet sunrise...
When I look in her eyes..
No way No how..
I'd ever say good bye...

THE SWEET SIXTEEN TOUR...

2006-07-20T10:26:00.000-07:00

Ok.. I have not written a thing since April??? That is ridiculous. I just don't have the words and thoughts flowing out of my brain at a constant rate these days. None of the turmoil, stress, depression, etc... that leads to great writing, or thinking. Well that's not exactly true. Oh well,whatever nevermind... Here we are in Mammoth today, July 20th, 2006. They just closed the lifts on July 4th, 16 days ago, and today is Kalie's 16th Birthday. SIXTEEN!!! No way... Sixteen!!! Man, I was already a complete nightmare screw up, for my parents by age 16.

Well anyway... 16 years ago I watched, as Theresa gave birth to Kalie Anne Jayne, pretty early in the morning I remember. After a long, long, long, labor. Kalie came out with a great big lump on the side of her head from the long journey. A bunch of blood settle in there during the hard push into this world, my first of many scares as a parent. Juandice set in and... I am sure all you parents know the feeling of... Oh my god, I have a little brand new baby here, now what. There really aren't any lessons in being a parent, but all of the sudden, you are, and eventually everything comes together quite naturally... Well obviously there is a hell of a lot more to it than that. Colds, Gymnastics, Dance, School, Open Houses, More Dance, More, School, More Colds, Joy, Sadness, Family Vacations, Birthdays, More Joy, Divorce.... Arrrrggrgg.. Probably the hardest thing for any kid, or parent for that matter to go through. But it really hard on the kids. Just ask them...

But today we are winding down our latest family vacation. Kalie’s sweet sixteen tour. It has been great trip, with Kalie, Julia, Jenny, the love of my life, Curtis the Dog, and myself. Unfortunately, Sara didn't join us on this trip due to being the tender age of THIRTEEN!!! We are all huge Michael Franti & Spearhead fans. So we planned this little trip around the World Music Festival in Grass Valley. (yes it was hot!) But, pretty nicely laid out, with lots of grass, tall pines, and shade. Plenty of good music flowing from 6 stages, but we all came for Spearhead, who were closing on Saturday night.

More than ten years have past since I first saw Spearhead at the Mangey Moose in Jackson Hole. They were great then, and I still have the original "Home" CD from my Ride Care Package. They are even better now. On the second song Kalie looks over at me and say's this is the coolest. It was... We had great seats but, no one sat the whole time anyway. Michael Franti, and Spearhead, probably make the most thoughtful, important music, that you can dance to period, and they definitely connected with the audience on this night! If you haven't heard of them.. You are not alone... They played a bunch of new songs off the new album, "Yell Fire!" the rest seemed to be off "Everyone deserves music" The album and his DVD, "I am not alone" - A musician's search for the cost of war, in war torn Iraq. Both will be released on the 25th. Check the permanent link on my sidebar... I haven’t seen the movie yet... Unfortunately we missed the LA screening, and a solo acoustic performance on the 18th while lurking somewhere near Yosemite... BTW, Michael Franti is one of the nicest performers I have met, staying way late to sign autographs, and take pictures for his fans. Incredible show!

The rest of the trip has been great. After an extremely hot, I mean, eye ball popping heat, drive through the gold country. My beloved Westy and crew arrived safely at Rainbow Pools. One on the top ten swimming holes in California. Number one on my list. I was here once before, and completely wimped out on the large jump. This year was my redemption. Hey, it even looks big in the picture! In fact, everyone pushed thier limits at the hole, with Jenny matching me on the big jump, and the Kids hitting the big water slide drop. Ahhoowooowooo! We camped nearby at the Sweetwater Camp, and would wake every morning, and run over for some eye opening 25' plus leaps into the crystal clear water of the Tuolumne River, before heading into Yosemite.

Yosemite was awesome as always... Water is still running strong this season and all the falls were firing. I forced everyone on the hike to Vernal Falls for a serious uphill work out, up many stairs and on through the mist. Next day we headed out through Yosemite's high country, through he great domes and meadows, and up an over Tioga Pass. This is a really beautiful part of Yosemite you don't want to miss. We didn't see our bear though, until we hit the town of Mammoth Lakes... Well that's it from Mammoth Lakes where we are just, plain relaxing. Happy Birthday Kalie!!!

ONE OF THOSE DAYS!!!

2006-04-17T16:40:00.000-07:00

My Endodontist had a big pitcure window looking out into a nice garden.. But, I saw this one for Free...

I have a toothache. Waaahaha. So far it has cost me $180.00 to find out it "might" be cracked and I might just need to pull it! Waaahahaha!! Here is what pisses me off. I finally feel I had a good dentist. Close... Just ride my bike over. Five minute walk. Nice guy. Older. Old school. Surfs. Has Surfer Mag's in the waiting room. So I get a toothache, and I call him pretty much right away!. Never lectures me, or make me feel, like I am not responsible enough to own teeth. He is great!

So I go in thinking, cool.. just another root canal. $1200 or so and the pain will be gone! NO... This tooth is special. And needs a specialist.. and a fucking special consulting fee.. So my dentist who is cool, and I still like, as of right now... Sends me to Ventura Endodontics to see D. Longweill DDS MS. MS??? Money Sucker!!! Endodontist: Dentist who just does root canals!!! boycott!!!Nevermind!

Now back in Carp... Dr Conti, my dentist, says there may be a crack and it might not be saveble anyway. ($30.00) He did a miracle job on two teeth in '04. But... this is a back molar and, too hard to root out??? "Root out" is my own root canal lingo. I'm drinking red wine but, haven't had a vicodin since 11pm last night. Yet, I am sill begining to ramble. Haven't even mentioned my daughter or ex-wife yet. It's just one of those days..

Back down to Ventura, roughly, 15 minutes South of La Conchita. Dr Longwill is explaining that it might be cracked. But, he can't tell. ($150.00) Same thing as Dr Conti, in Carp, says.($30.00) OK.. I can understand that it might be impossible to tell if it is cracked, and therefore, unfixable. I can understand that it would cost $200 too start digging in there, and actually find out if its cracked or not, before deciding whether to do the root canal.

What I CAN'T UNDERSTAND is... Why it took 180 fucking dollar$$$ to find this out. Just start digging! Now, if I want to find out if the tooth is still saveable. I still need another $200... If you are not counting, that is $380, to see if it can be saved. Otherwise... Pull it out?? Cost: Unknown

Why couldn't this "root canal specialist" just open the fucking tooth up and look at it right away for two hundred fucking dollars and tell me if if was cracked in the first place!

Instead it cost one hundred and fifty dollars to tell me.. it will cost two hundred dollars to see if we can fix it!!!

I feel like I just got fucked in the canal...

Ok.. Elsewhere.

My daughter still hates me, and my ex-wife still thinks I am the worst parent in the world.. Waaahahaha

PLUS JUST IN! MAMMOTH Avalanches, Volcanos, Death, oh boy!!

This is a pretty huge fracture!!!

OH WELL... NEVERMIND - Dr Longwill just called me back and said he would apply the $150 to any further work. Yeah! Forget about the boycott, they are great!!! Highly recommended. YeP!

Concert Review..
X
April 15th Canyon Club.. Sorta near the LA scene

"The most important band to emerge from the L.A. punk scene" - Every One

"I'm glad we're still alive 25 years later, because I never expected to be, to be perfectly honest."
- John Doe

"I am so glad I finally saw them after waiting 25 years, because to be perfectly honest, I thought I would be all grown up by now." - Don Jayne

This woman makes the best coffee in the world!!!

MORE ON THE 101 MESS!!!

2006-03-23T08:20:00.000-08:00

I was heading south this morning, towards Ventura.. Everything was completely backed-up going north as usual. Poor suckers. Maybe, if they just staggered their work hours that would help. Opps, that won't work.. State Law says everyone shall live at least thirty miles from their place of employment, and such employment shall begin between 8:00am and 9:00am.. Anyway, I was flying along getting dang close to 60, top speed for this slight climb up to Rincon, in the westy. Rounding Rincon, I found these guys just stopping right in the middle of the road??? WTF people? I know this is the section of the highway, which is not a freeway, but, please folks, at least pull all the way to the side, before jumping out and throwing on your wettie.

Something wierd about La Conchita today but, I think I see a good one coming in a Indicator!

SHARK ATTACK!!!

2006-03-18T07:45:00.000-08:00

It's really hard to come up with a better title than that...

On Thursday, March, 16th, after driving the kids to school, in Oxnard, therefore, getting a good look at the 'con in both directions. I made the call. “Mike, Rincon’s looking good, not too many people out” “Or at least pretty good.. Head high, with plus sets, and probably better than it looks.” His response.. "What about the sharks??" WhaT? "How close is that Seal Sanctuary to Rincon?" he asks. I answer in one word... "Close" I still wanted to surf with the added thrill of being really close to a Big Shark, but unfortunately… I had an emergency plumbing call, and went to Jenny's to try and fix her clogged up sink instead. Plumbing is dirty work. Not to be confused with the pleasure of fixing her fence which I rather enjoy... After two hours of dirty plumbing work, I decided, I would still, really, rather fix her fence, any day!

On March, 9th, according to Carpinteria City Officials.. Not to mention a Seal Watch Volunteer, and New Carp Local via Lake Tahoe, Vic Hypes, who both witnessed the brutal attacks, yes plural, Two Harbor Seals were killed by at least one GREAT WHITE SHARK! The volunteer I spoke to, said she had been seeing larger dolphins swimming through the line up, hmm.. well, seal sanctuary actually, at least the day, if not a couple days before. Not regular looking dolphins, she said, but darker, bigger, scarier looking dolphins, which were probably just BIG SHARKS pretending to be dolphins, knowing full well, that anyone who saw them, would never think twice about their dolphin costumes, since everyone knows.. Big sharks always stay way north of Point Conception..

It's also a bit unnerving that the attacks took place at 10:55am and 11:20am! These times fall right in the middle of the “Gentleman’s Hour” at the Indicator. A time where the dawn patrol has left for work, kids are at school, and the heavy drinkers are still asleep. A time when the seemingly unemployed, like myself, show up and check the surf almost daily. A time when you can get the occasional head high day with a half a dozen people out. I only mention the time because... Basic Shark Attack 101 states to worry about shark attacks at Dusk and Dawn.. Not right smack in the middle of the Gentleman’s Hour!!

Sidenote: The sanctuary is also home to a seldom surfed break just south of the pier smack dab in the middle of the attack zone. Check out my Archives for BIG WEDNESDAY and you can see the Buoy in Question. Even worse... The Sanctuary is just a stones throw from Jelly Bowls and Tar Pits in the State Park.. Anyway, this shark was too close for comfort. Period. I guess if I had seen this shark from the bluffs myself, my story would be even more scary and descriptive....

Here's a description of the attack by Vic, taken from the Carp's Local Paper, The Coastal View. "A bunch of birds took off out of the water, making a bunch of noise.. I turned and saw blood in the water and a shark fin." "I yelled SharK! Shark!" and most of the seals took off for the beach.. The attack took place at one of the buoys, which were put in place last year, warning to stay out of the protected sanctuary. Of course, sharks don't read, so this doesn't apply..

Sidenote 2: I have heard that they killed a great white already, though I don't have confirmation of this, since I just quit getting the News Press. I also prefer to write without checking all the facts out first and make corrections later. So… this is how I heard it! But, for the record, I am definitely against killing the shark, unless it is during hand or head in mouth combat! Of course Amity, and Carpinteria City officials didn't see it this way. Signs were erected, shark fins were spray painted on billboards... Wait, we don't have any billboards.. With the upcoming Summer Tourist season coming, something had to be done to save "The World's Safest Beach"

Vic took off on his bike to City Hall and reported the attack to Sheriff Brody.. By the time Vic returned to the Bluffs... The second attack had occurred.. Retired Dept of Fish and Game Biologist, Bob Lea said "Great White" A zoologist from the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History confirmed it. This was the work of a FIFTEEN FOOT GREAT WHITE! The identity was made though the bite marks on the remains of one on the headless seals that washed up on the beach.

This Is No Boating Accident!

I hate to sensationalize something as gruesome as a shark attack. But, according to a seal watch volunteer, I interviewed, this shark violently bit the heads off these Harbor Seals. Something they apparently don't do with Sea Lions??? Anyway, this shark or sharks swam by, really, really, close too home. In fact, from where I am sitting right now, in my comfy bed. This Shark was only about a mile from me. I paddle my skinny, flimsy, carbon fiber, outrigger right through there sometimes. You can see the attack location from the place, I surf more than anywhere these days, Rincon's Indicator. I can easily jog from the attack location up to the Indicator, so I estimate it to be only about two miles from Rincon. Unfortunately, I was in Mammoth during the time of the attack, so that nagging question of mine.. Just how close have I been to a Great White Shark will remain, for now, unanswered…

CHECK IT - NEW CONDO CAM

2006-03-11T08:12:00.000-08:00

It's Bluebird For Sure...

Good morning blog world.. The weather here in Mammoth today is looking like absolutly perfect bluebird conditions.. No kidding, I don't no where the storm is but, it is not here! Got about 8" of fresh on the ground in town and more than a foot, I would guess on the Mountain.... Here's the link to the new CONDO CAM This thing is aimed right at the my condo and you can see me hitting the slopes bright and early... like before 10:00 today. HaHA. Really, it is so perfect over here, I think we are heading to June, to avoid the masses... Listening to the weather right now and they are calling for more tonight, but, it looks pretty blue out there right now!

FIX THE 101? I SAY NO WAY!!!

2006-03-10T06:51:00.000-08:00

DISCLAIMER: I have done absolutely no research on anything written below but believe it to be accurate, and true, to the best of my knowledge. So feel free comment on my lack of fact checking, and off the cuff commentary. Thank You!

What makes them think that they can even fix the 101, anyhow? And, why do they think that Santa Barbara, Montecito, and Carpinteria, should put the money up for it? The best four or five days of my life was when the 101 was closed last year. The people who absolutely had to get to SB, took boats. (light bulbs goes off above head) Three lanes is not going to do anything... Anything at all...

Here's what three lanes is going to do for you... "Ahhhhhh 3 lines hmmm finally moving huuhh.. "why don't I just get a job back in Ventura or Oxnard and ride my bike to work" yes, hmmm, oooh, this is great were moving now... screeccchchhch!!!! ah, oh, that was close! What the hell? Oh... I forgot, we are converging back to two lanes now." Repeat several more times before getting to SB.

THAT IS THE PROBLEM VOLKS! (German for Folks, and the preferred method of slow travel worldwide) It's not how many lanes you have, It is how many convergences into less lanes you have, that kills the flow of traffic...

They have six lanes and more, down in LA and, the OC, plus a Carpool Lane.. and you know what? They are all stopped right now.. 7:00am on a Friday! Trying to converge into five lanes. They are all stopped, and in all directions. East, West, North, South, Up, Down, and Sideways.. Of course there are quite a few smart souls taking a little more time to get there but... enjoying the morning paper and a good cup of coffee on the metro rail. Smart!

LA, the OC... Down there.. really, there is no hope. Sorry, you are all going to have to start walking again soon. There is no water for boats, the metro rail really only works for some people who work and live in the right location. My only sugggestion here is that if you have to go through there, leave after midnight!

Here's a good theme for a LA based reality show. Let's take people stuck in traffic going north, and have them trade jobs with the people stuck in traffic going south.. Watch how much happier everyone gets as they spend more time at home with the wife and kids, those special pets, or just doing something they like... How will they use those two, three, extra hours a day?? And.. if you don't like the wife and kids, well... maybe you are really better off stuck in traffic, so quit complaining.

Alien Casinos as seen from the 101 below Rincon..

Back to our little stretch of heaven along the 101... The problem seems to be one-sided. Meaning... Most of the time, only one side of the highway is f#&ked up! Solution # 1... Always plan your trips to go in the opposite direction of traffic... This would be a good time to point out that between Ventura and Santa Barbara, is at least one section, where, IT IS NOT A FREEWAY!!! This means... You have people stopping to surf, check the surf, getting out car to surf. You have the residents, and visitors, of the beautiful communities of La Conchita, and Mussel Shoals, needing to make turns into their enclaves. So... Next time you are driving north into SB take note of the sign that says "END FREEWAY" and kindly slow down, hang up the phone, and watch for cross traffic and parked cars...

Why am I even reporting on this you might ask?? I am sick of these FIX 101 Stickers!!! Even though I barely work, at all, consider myself to be semi-retired, I travel this 101 from Oxnard to SB pretty much daily. My kids live in the "NARD", and my girlfriend, Jenny, lives on the Westside. You really didn't think I was going to make it through a whole blog without mentioning Jenny... Come on.. I know when all peak traffic periods are, and I really do my best, to avoid them. If I do get caught in one of these traffic jams.. I slow down and check out just how cool it is to live in beautiful Santa Barbara. I check out the birds and trees and rocks and things. Na NaNaNaNA NA... I think about how lucky I was to find such a perfect girlfriend, like Jenny.. What makes her so perfect??? I could tell you, but then I would have to shoot you!

Photograghed going 60 on the 101 in Carpinteria, I love this Highway!
Leave the 101 alone...

Anyway... Fixing the 101 is a complete waste of time and resources.. An unecessary destruction of one of the most beautiful sections of highways in California. Ripping out trees, please... I noticed them coming right up to the back of some peoples houses just north of Carp. WTF?

As far as I can tell we are fixing it for the citizens of Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo, etc.. I honestly don't believe three lanes is going to fix anything, and is more likely to cause more stoppages until they can get it to be three lanes all the way with no convergences.

Here are some of my Ideas...

Stop work on the 101, and quit tearing up peoples houses and trees.. Thank You.

There are a lot of jobs, probably more, in "Ventura County" Get one there, and spend more free time at home, in the water, or with the kids...

I noticed that there is a train track that runs all along the 101 from Camarillo to Goleta. I notice it 'cuz.. It is is plain sight, and I can hear it every night. (I don't even need a light bulb going off in my head for this) WTF People? Why doesn't a metro system already exist?? Downtown SB is an easy walk from the train station, so that would work for an awful lot of people.. The more adventurous could bring bikes or take a taxi the rest of the way to work. We don't need everyone off the Highway, just some..

OK... Sunday summer afternoon traffic. I have no idea what to do about that but, you are going to need a whole lot more than three lanes.

Personally I would take the Ferry.. Get out on the ocean early, check the surf, and wind conditions... You may just decide, that the day would be far more productive spent in the water with friends. Now... a car ferry, that would be fun! I would think far cheaper than the third lane plan.. I am sure they sell used ferries somewhere in Seattle... I just went to fix101.org and I couldn't find any numbers as to how much? (Charlie says somewhere around $500 Million Dollars!!!) Not to mention, how long this is all going to take but... I am sure we will be "COMPLETELY OUT OF OIL" before they begin their We need to add a forth lane NOW! Campaign begins...

Now.. this is stuck!!!

SLOW-MOTION...

2006-02-02T05:47:00.000-08:00

Being in love doesn't seem to do anything for my writing skills?? This is an ominously blank page! I really can't think of a single thing to say. Even there... I was just about to have something, and it was swept away by thoughts of my beautiful Jenny... Wait, should I say, "My", of course, I am not holding back... completly reckless.. Hopeless really.. I was really into this blogging thing too. Useless information use to just flow from my head without thinking.. I turned off the autoplay of the rainmaker podcast, but, if you would like some music, scroll down to "silly love songs" and hit play! After a silly love song from me, there's some great music from Michael Franti and Spearhead, Ben Harper, and, Part One from Jack Johnson Live from the Dodge Theater in Phoenix, AZ... Nevermind I turned autoplay back on.. Too quiet. Here's one for Jenny, followed by Ben Harper, Steal My Kisses, and G-Love.. Don't steal music, it's only 99 cents at iTunes or make a donation to Kokua or Kaili Falk... Oh.. It's ok to steal my song. Hahahe...

Well the surf has still been great. Nothing like Big Wednesday, or some of the other days.. But, lots, and lots, of good days. It's always head-high or better it seems. The water along with the air temperature has gotten cold.. But, the surf keeps coming in.. There hasn't been much rain, so the water has been fairly clean too. Although I think, like Buzzy was saying yesterday, only half jokingly, most of us have built immunities to all the crap that comes down the creeks and rivers, and we are all probably developing webbed hands and scales. That would be great, but I am really hoping to breath underwater soon!

I have had pretty much, all the "best waves of my life" this winter.. And a few occasions where, slow-motion, was in full effect. It's a longstanding fact that time slows down in the tube.. As it turns out, I have not had that many great tube rides, because the slow-motion effect has not really turned on with the intensity of my one ride at El Capitan. This particular best wave ever occured the day after Big Wednesday, Pretty Big Thursday. Pretty Big Thursday, was still pretty big... too big at Rincon, and most spots south of La Conchita. At least for me, and most mortals. But just right, everywhere from Carpinteria, on up to my favorite spot in the whole wide world, El Capitan. There is something really good about that place.. Except for the crowd.. Ugg.. El Cap is Gnarly. It breaks fast and close to the rocks. Which aren't really rocks, they are huge boulders. But, they are rounded off into perfectly shaped large boulders... When it is big enough, the boulders are not really a factor. On the smaller days though.. they are right there, you couldn't straighten out if you wanted to.

Maybe, it is the fact that I use to camp here when I was a kid, way before I knew anything about surfing, and pretty much nothing about the beach at all. We would always camp at El Capitan Ranch, which back then, was just dirt camping. None of the deluxe tents and cabins that are offered today. But it was great... there was a big pond for fishing, camp stores, jiffy pop, smores, we even spent an Easter there looking for eggs and baskets. Camping and going to Mammoth are pretty much my fondest memories growing up. The beach is a ways from El Capitan Ranch, so bike are a must! On one noteworthy year I had my sidehack:

side·car

1. A one-wheeled car for a single passenger, attached to the side of a motorcycle.
2. A cocktail combining brandy, an orange-flavored liqueur, and lemon juice.

I wasn't aware of the drink, but that could slow things down a bit too.. Anyway... The sidecar in question was a BMX (Bicycle Moto-Cross) sidehack designed and built by my friend, Tony Torelli. My parents and his still hang out all the time but, I haven't seen Tony since a wedding many years ago. Ok.. I think I have found my rhythm of rambling thoughts now... The bicycle and motocross version of the sidecar is called a sidehack.. Instead of a nice comfy seat and windshield in an enclosed cocoon.. You have basically, a open platform, and handles which allow you to shift your weight around to avoid flipping the dam thing over!

The person in charge of shifting the weight around to avoid flipping the dam thing over, is called the "monkey". The sidehack is a great source for slow-motion wipeouts and accidents. So, even if you have never had the slow-motion tube riding effect you can really get the same effect, perhaps without the pleasure element, unless pain and pleasure work as one for you , with a good high speed, over the handlebars, wipeout.

Car accidents, though not recommended, offer another option for the slowing down of time.. If you prefer cars, the safer bet is an accidental slide on a safe piece of icy road, with no oncoming traffic. I had a good one of these coming out of Mammoth when I was about 18. One car coming in the opposite direction right at me, began to fishtail towards me and my little Subaru, "el tiberon". Knowing better... I panicked and hit the brakes.. and started my own inspired slide into oncoming traffic. Things were moving slow. Really slow... Swish, swash, swhoosh, I don't know... what sound do cars make when fishtailing back and forth across the road, heading right towards each other on ice? Actually, I think it seemed to be deathly quiet. Silence, I think is one of the common components to the Slow-Motion phenomena. Well, we finally met and he swooshed, and I swished at the right time and missed each other by inches, probably feet, but while waves, and fish grow bigger over time... Danger and near death experiences get more perilous, I guess. We were so happy to miss each other, we careened into snow banks on or own side of the roads. Having my trust 4WD Suby I backed right out, and headed on home. Since then, I am the most cautious driver in the snow and ice ever, so don't get behind me... I did incur one more 360 degree slide coming down from the main lodge on a day with out much snow on the road. Just enough for a clean, perfect, 360 slide, around a shady corner of the road. That one pretty felt good.

Ok... So the sidehack... My monkey was, Kenny Mueller. He was pretty good but there is no avoiding a wipeout on these things, go around a corner just a little too fast, the sidehack wheel starts lifting, and poof, you are floating, dreamily, through the air.. Hitting the ground always ends the slow-motion effect, but not until you have come to a complete stop. I think that our minds slow these incidents down so we can relive them time, and time again! It's great!

So back to El Cap, My wave... Like I said it was crowded, as always. It barely ever breaks. So if it's on, I suspect that there are a lot of people who have had their best waves at El Cap and, just don't want to miss it. I am sitting just inside the first pack of surfers at Picnic tables. Catching a few good ones now and again. Just patiently waiting for people to fall, or get the waves that swing wide. All of the sudden the wind drops off a little, and the conditions improve to really, really good, within minutes. Right away, a few guys are getting some sick barrels off picnic tables and flying past me presumably getting shacked again at the second barrel section before speeding into the third and final barrel to the inside...

Anyway here comes my wave. It's one of the swinging wide sets that miss the picnic table section completly, and sets up just before the second barrel. It's coming right at me and there is no one in position but me, and everyone salivating to the inside of me. El Cap breaks steep and fast, but I pulled right into this one, it's overhead, and ahead of me is the second barrel section.. Well the wave actually jacks up bigger and begins to throw out, clic- clak... clik- clak, I am just standing there. There really is no place to go at El Cap. If you straighten out, you are practically right into the rocks.. and getting pounded between the rocks and the rest of the set, which regardless of size, breaks hard! So, I just stay put, hardly even tuck, and it just throws out right over me.. I could see people paddling up the face ahead of me, my brother, I could see everything so clearly... clic- clak... clik- clak.. and I'm out, now flying at full speed into the inside section, there was no barrel there, but just full El Cap speed, a few hoots, and the best ride of my life over in about 20 secs..

Disclaimer: This is a report of the actual event. The size is approximate but not exaggerated. I hope in thirty years it will jump up to a size comparable with Chuck Barfoot's "best wave ever" session there with Tom Sims in the 70's. God it was huge. I can't even imagine how big the rest of the coast was that day! Chuck's story is great and I would love to retell it, but, it involves a series of sound effects, and hand jesters, that I can't convey over the blog. There was a rumor of some super eight film footage from that day, but it never turned up, so much like everybodys best wave, it is pretty much tucked away in the slow motion memory bank of our minds, to be relived time, and time again.. I included a few pic's from a much smaller day back a couple of weeks ago...

This is the same day Michelle Housego lost her life surfing poles at Campus Point.. I didn't know her, but, people who did, have written some very beautiful things about her, so check it out, and perhaps make a donation to her daughter.. I don't know.. This is not a blog for bad news, but she seemed like a really good person whose memory will continue to touch people forever.. So that's not bad at all!!!

Memories of Michelle

Expensive Camping...

SILLY LOVE SONGS...

2006-01-25T10:58:00.000-08:00

You think the world would have had enough of silly love songs... I look around me, and I see it isn't so - Paul McCartney

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - The Dalai Lama

This seems like really good advice.. So keeping with the Dalai Lama's sage advice, I have used this reckless abandon approach, and accidently fallen completely in love with this absolutly perfect woman. Who's going to argue with Paul McCartney?? So, Jenny, who btw, is quite reckless in the kitchen, this Reckless Love Song is for you.. Now, I am not going to sit here and say my singing or playing is all that great but, I loved writing this song, and it feels really good to sing... and that's what counts! Who really knows what I'm thinking, but there only so many words that rhyme with life.

However... Love Kamakaze and Keepin' it Natural by Michael Franti are really great songs.. So stay tuned..

Regular bloggers... I will try to get back to my usual rambling blogging as soon as possible.

2006-01-17T19:59:00.000-08:00

LOVE KAMIKAZE...

Michael Franti... The lost sex singles album..

2006-01-10T19:29:00.000-08:00

JUST TAKE A MOMENT...

I just happened to visit La Conchita today checking on a rental for a friend.. I realized that it is the one year anniversary of the Slide.. I was surfing Rincon a few days after the slide, and it had just really begun to clear up down here. There was a beautiful rainbow that came out and just came straight down in the middle of La Conchita. It was pretty magnificent... and some sort sign from above.. a good sign!

I hope everyone takes that the right way,

don

Music By Ben Harper... In the Lords arms

You could steal the download at my podcast station.. Buy it at iTunes, or make a Donation to La Conchita.. Or just do what feels right to you..

iTunes

La Conchita

2006-01-06T09:34:00.000-08:00

JACK JOHNSON LIVE FROM PHEONIX, ARIZONA

Welcome to my first Podcast...

Just south of La Conchita... presents a Rainmaker Podcast.. Wait is Pheonix north or south? Oh, I don't know I guess it's east of La Conchita..

Part one of Jack Johnson recorded live at the Dodge Theatre, August 5th, 2005..

Playlist:
Never Know
Taylor
Dreams Be Dreams
Banana Pancakes
Do You Remember
Flake
Sitting, Waiting, Wishing (incl. Just What I Needed)
Cookie Jar
Symbol on My Driveway
Rodeo Clowns

An excellent taping by Steve Fevre...

The Band
Jack Johnson - Guitars and Vocals
Merlo - Bass
Adam Topal - Drums and Percussion
Zach Gill (ALO) - Organ and Accordian

Guests
Dan Lebowitz (ALO) - Guitar on "Constellations & Breakdown"
Matt Costa Vocals and Guitar on "The Two of Us"

Best heard through headphones... The show will start after the Ben Harper Song...

Kokua Hawaii Foundation

Heal the Bay

Surfrider Foundation

Free... Go here if you want the free download..

Subscribe to the Rainmaker Podcasting Network...

Don...

Sorry about that introduction,I can sing that song a little better, just not at 9:00 am. I don't know what I was thinking, sorry.

2006-01-03T17:12:00.000-08:00

SUBJECT: SURF FORECAST(Tue) NW BARING DOWN ON COAST...

It is big again today and, it's suppose to even bigger tomorrow. It's still not as big as Big Wednesday, but then tomorrow will be Wednesday again, so who knows?? Here are some pics of Pitas Point in Ventura County. That is Chris Malloy in the photo getting set to paddle out. Of course, as usual the pictures don't do it justice as far as the size or power.. Plus, Chris is a world famous pro surfer who surfs waves way, way, bigger than this anyway...

However... it was refreshing to see him just get completely worked over, paddling out there.. The difference is when he gets worked, he comes up, and paddles even harder, kind of like the energizer bunny, he just keeps going, and going, and going, until he's outside. When I get worked, I think, fuck, do I really even want to get out there? I then drift swiftly with the current south until maybe there is a lull in the action, and I make it. That is exactly what happened to the guy paddling out right before Chris. Jumped off the rocks, made a good solid effort, to get out, and quickly disappeared with the current, out of sight to the south.

Well, Chris seemed to make it out pretty easily, and did not get swept quickly to the south but, he was paddling his ass off!!! Paddling your ass off sounds like a great idea, and is often the only option available but, the problem with paddling your ass off is... You run out of breath. Now, I quit smoking, One year, three months, three days, 20 hours, 27 minutes and 48 seconds. I have avoided smoking 15175 cigarettes, and have saved $3,756.18, have no idea where the money is, and still run out of breath...

Some of you may know exactly what I mean but, if you don't, picture this.. Imagine someone is chasing you... Now run as fast as you possibly can, keep running, now swallow some salt water, ok, keep running, faster.. are you out of breath yet?? good, keep running... OK, here's the wave.. now try to push yourself, and that piece of high price flotation equipment, underneath a fifteen foot tall wall of churning, spinning, explosive, frothing, water and foam...

Did you make it? Of course not. You were blown completely off your board, thus losing your only connection with, which way is up, relaxx.. Wait a bit, and it will release you as you crawl through air, foam, and water, to the surface. Did your leash break? No.. Too bad, otherwise you could have proudly swam in towards the rocks and get the hell out of there. It didn't break so.. quick get on your board and... START PADDLING YOUR ASS OFF!!!

So, there were only two guys out at Pitas when I was there. Not counting the two guys who were swept quickly to the south, out of site. Lot's of cool looking surfer dudes were checking it out, and then sheepishly driving away. Pussies!! It is too bad I did not have my board in the van, or I would have paddled out there for sure.

Instead, I ended up at Miramar Beach today, a place known for it's small longboardingish style waves. It was freaking pretty big there! Sorry Mike... I called my brother and told him it looked just.. OK. So he shined it. But as soon as I got out there, I was catching the best waves I've had since, hmmm, last week. It doesn't break with the power of Pitas, but it did have plenty of good sized, overhead sets rolling through, a friendly crowd, and the by far the best waves I have ever surfed there...

2006-01-02T17:43:00.000-08:00

WELCOME TO OXNARD...

*Surf Quiz*
Are you A short boarder or long boarder?	Any board will do...
Are you Goofy or Regular?	Regular
Which way do you prefer to surf, left or right?	Right hand points..
What has been your perfect surf day so far?	December 22, 2005 El Capitan
Do you surf alone or use the buddy system?	Your always alone anyway...
What kind of board do you have?	16 to choose from..
Surf Station or Blue Sky?	What?? Blue Sky..
Where do you usually surf?	Rincon Del Mar
Whats more scary, sharks or dolphins?	White Sharks
Whats the main question you ask in the line-up?	How's it going?
What kind of wax do you use?	SexWax
Would you rather be in double overhead water goin on 10ft waves or thigh high water on 1 ft waves?	Any wave will do...
Do you like winter or summer surfing better?	Winter
Do you rock your wetty?	Yes
Do you like wearing your wetty?	Yes
Do you wear a swim suit or baggies with it?	No
Have you ever not worn a swim suit or baggies with your wetty?	What???
Who is one sufer you would like to meet and get lessons from?	Greenough
Where would you rather go, Hawaii or California?	Hawaii but,I like it right here just fine..
Have you ever seen a shark in the line-up?	Not a big one
Have you ever started your own line-up?	Yes
Do you dream about surfing?	Sometimes
What would be your dream board?	I would like another 7'0 Vaquero please
Have you ever competed?	No
Do you like competing or free surf better?	Free
Where would you most like to surf when you get older?	I am old
Do you want to go pro?	Golf? I guess I should start playing
How much do you surf ever week?	3-6 days
What would be your PERFECT day of surfing be like?	Overhead El Capitan with just a few friends...
CREATE YOUR OWN! - or - GET PAID TO TAKE SURVEYS!

2006-01-01T11:18:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEARS...

Tashi Delek! Good Fortunes and Happiness,

When I was up in Portland, I had the chance to meet a Tibetan by the name of Jampa Nyendak Lathsang.. I have kind of been following the Dali Lama and generally find his views and a lot of eastern views, refreshing compared to that of western "red" states way of thinking. Anyway.. Kalie has recently become involved with Students for a Free Tibet, so when Laura told me of a Tibetan Gift Shop, I knew I had to go. I did find some great gifts for Kalie, and I came home with a really nice knit beanie from Nepal and these New Years Prayer Flags...

Well.. I had a nice New Years Eve and dinner with the Tebo family. Greg, Julie, and the kids, Samantha, Dustin, and Annie, and Greg's Dad, and Mom. These are my old neighbors in Oxnard Shores, and even though my kids still live aboout ten minutes from them, they rarely get together. But, for some reason we always seem to make it on New Years and the Fourth of July??? It was great to see everyone. But, I cut out about 10:00 to beat the drunks and the cops, went home and probably fell asleep around 11:00. So... I guess I woke up this New Years Day, feeling a little lonely, and sad. Yes, I still have my cat, Clyde, but he really doesn't like to be touched on the paws, ouch! Then I remembered the prayer flags...

Not really knowing what the proper rituals are, I just figured I would go ahead and wing it.. So I put on my Tibetan Incantations CD, another cool gift from JNL Tibetan Gift Shop. I didn't have any incense but, I like the smell burning sage better anyway, and hung up the flags in pretty much to only place they would fit in my humble abode. So, I am going to take about fifteen minutes right now, and mediatate to the rain and music.. You can do the same if you would like...

Ok.. I made a little tea, and I'm back. I hope you had a good meditation! So, anyway the prayer flags hang directy above my couch, and below my favorite surfboard, so that's probably a good thing? Hmmm.. the music has switched to some mellow Hawaiian music but, that's another culture I can relate to just fine, so I think I'll let it play...

The flags are up and flying... now what???

The flags from left to right are in a sequence of Blue for Sky, White for Cloud, Red for Fire, Green for Water, Yellow for Earth. Then, repeating again two more times, with a Special Blank Turquoise Flag on the very end. More on that one later. On each flag the line in Tibetan says, "Wish you a very Happy New Year"

Now the first thing to consider is, this is not the Tibetan New Year! Opps.. Secondly, there are days when you "should not" hang prayer flags. Fortunatly, this is not one of them. Another good thing for do it yourself prayer flag hangers, is the offering ends with the practitioners asking the deities to forgive them for any mistakes in the performance of the ritual, such as improperly or incompletely reciting the words of the text. So that's helpful also when you are winging it...

First New Years Flag, Blue with White Ink
The first flag has "Tagye Bhumsug" It is the 8 Tibetan auspicious symbols in "Bhumpa" The Great Treasure Vase. It stands for prosperity, luck and harmony. At the sides are the "7 Jewels of Royal Power" symbols in circular border, forming a V shape. Below the artwork is short prayer...

"May each day come unveil new reasons to explore many a brighter horizon, and the various joys of life"

Second New Years Flag, White with Black Ink
The second flag has "Doyon Nyenga" The Five Qualities of Enjoyment represent characteristics which, when they come into contact with our senses, give rise to craving.

1. Mirror is a symbol for visual form,
2. Lute for sound,
3. Incense Burner - for smell,
4. Fruit for taste and
5. Silk for touch.

In offering these qualities, one meditates on their nature and the intention of abandoning craving. It symbolizes the fulfillment of all wishes, brings happiness, prosperity and good fortune. At the sides are the 7 jewels of royal power symbols in circular border, forming a V shape. Below the artwork is short prayer and wish...

"May this New Years be of possibilities as endless as the sky... and a chance to meet new challenges in everything you try"

Third New Years Flag, Red with Gold Ink
The flag contains 2 horses facing each other with the flaming jewel in the center. The horses represent transformation of misfortune to good fortune, from baleful portents to auspicious signs and from poverty to prosperity. The "flaming jewel" symbolizes wealth and unfolding power and possibility. Below the art work is a very short prayer and wish, which reads...

"Wishing you a very happy and prosperous New Year (LOSAR) and may your luck and fortune prosper."

Fourth New Years Flag, Green with White Ink
The fourth flag also has... "Tagye Bhumsug" and the 7 Jewels of Royal Power Symbols. It is similar to the 1st Flag but the wishes and prayers are different...

"Hope this New Year brings the brightest moments for you, along with peace, contentment, and the best of everything, to last the whole year through"

Fifth New Year Flag, Yellow with Black Ink
The fifth flag like the second has "Doyon Nyenga" The Five Qualities of Enjoyment represent characteristics which, when they come into contact with our senses, give rise to craving. It is simalar to the second flag with this different prayer and wish...

"Just like the petals of a beautiful flower, may special joys of contentment unfold for you, day after day, not only at New Years, but always"

The Last New Years Flag... Turquoise with Silver Ink
The flag contains the 4 dignities in the four corners. The tiger roams in the forest and symbolizes the "wood" or "air" element (in a sense a dynamic energy that makes a tree grow). The snow lion ranges on the mountains and symbolizes the "earth" element. The garuda (khyung) soars high in the sky with flames emanating from its horns symbolizing the "fire" element. The dragon as per legends lives in the sea and symbolizes the "water" element.

The last flag is a special blank flag to be filled with your own prayers and wishes for the New Year.. Here is mine...

"May we all be blessed with childrens eyes.. to see the beauty, wonder, and amazement, occuring in our everday lives. Free of judgement, and open to all the possibilities of the world"

If you would like to leave your own wishes or prayers in the comments, that would be awesome... Otherwise, everyone have a great new year!!!

don...

If you would like to learn more about the 7 Jewels of Royal Power, or why I didn't have to take my Flags down check out:

History of Tibetan Prayer Flags

2005-12-30T06:50:00.000-08:00

PODCAST FOR THE PEACEFUL...

It just gets better. Here's some free live music from Spearhead coming weekly, from the "Love is da Shit", A Spearhead Fansite.. This site seems to be fully suported by Michael Franti and Spearhead, in fact the concert seems to be playing on the Official Spearhead Site. Here ya go... Live from Portland Oregon lol...

Some more new music... For me anyway, I know Kalie doesn't like him..

Jason Mraz Hmmm... Acoustic, funky, reggae, jazzy, hip hop, smooth, flowing, singer, songwriter, from San Diego. I like it. Or maybe... I am gay. lol. Here's a couple of reviews from the iTunes site.

Blew me away. Five Stars. I had no Idea this album was going to be this good - Rosh

Hand in his Pockets. Five Stars. Fantastic album "The Remedy" is the obvious favorite, "Too much food", and "No stopping us" are upbeat, but "Curbside Prophet is my favorite.. Even better on the live album. - M

The Greatest Cd of All time. Five Stars Jason Mraz has a amazing voice and all of his songs make me feel good - Bnditlkebeck

Jason. One Star. I can safely say that any guy who buys this cd is "Not Straight"-Import T

Refreshing new sound. Five Stars. I guess if you were in a pissed off mood, or a homophobe, you might not like it.Even though Jason doesn't seem to by gay? Not that there's anything wrong with that. If I'm feeling pissed off, and homophobic like that, personally I go with Marshall Mathers... This is really just good, flowing, feelgood, music. Curbside Prophet is also my current favorite.. Oh, btw, this is nothing new, It came out in 2002. Personally, I have been living in my basement musically, until I got the iPod - Don

iTunes..

2005-12-29T16:59:00.000-08:00

iPod...

I don't know how I went all this time without an iPod but, Santa Claus finally brought me one this year. Now, I don't know what I was thinking??? I mean, put all you songs onto one small little device? Why would you want to do that? Please... Excuse me for being a complete idiot for all this time. This is one of the best inventions ever. It pretty much eliminates the need for bringing your cd's anywhere. It pretty much eliminates the need for cds period. Though, I am sure that cd quality is a bit better than this iPod to fm stereo converter thingy. It does sound good enough and I have way more music. I can put together custom playlists. Shuffle whatever, it is freakin great!

I have even been buying songs off iTunes, 99 cents ea, Ten bucks for an album, so come on why steal? There seems to be a lot of exclusive cuts on iTunes also. I bought a really good acoustic version of U2's "Stuck in the Moment" Plus, I have been checking out a lot of new music, that I never would have heard otherwise. If you just want the one good song off the album, good on ya, that's the only one you need to buy ka-ching, 99 cents. There is a flaw in that line of thinking , because you probably are going to miss some really good songs if you don't buy the whole album... ka-ching $9.90

The enviormental impact seems huge. You don't need cds. No cases, No paper, No discs, No shipping, No gas, for delivery, No Planes... Think how much oil and trees could be saved by getting rid of cds. I can't beleive Apple is not using that advertising angle... We really need to start saving oil for important stuff like, surfboards, snowboards, skateboard wheels, and sunglasses.

If you really look into the future. We shouldn't be using paper for anything except art, and paper airplanes. Everything else bills, school work, whatever, should just be stored digitally. I know this seems crazy coming from me, because I think technology sucks. But hey... maybe these computors are alright. Spreading music and peace, around the globe. Saving oil and trees.. Ok, that's that! Look at this smile, another happy iPod customer...

The surf still continues to roll in... Nothing like Big Wednesday, like they promised, but mostly overhead, everyday, for quite a while. I have surfed 6 out of the last 8 days. There were plenty of waves those days too but, I am getting surfed out. Rincon has been super crowded with all the down southers, everyday. The only day I surfed there was Christmas and it was good!!! Except for this ego shattering event. I got a really nice set wave, well overhead, superfast, very hard to make actually, and my board is just made for that... So I was just flying along, superfast, ok?, carving nice stylish turns off the botton, staying low, carving off the top, it's a good long wave, 200 yds at least... Then I pass these kids and I hear one yell "do something" That fucking little punk! So, like I said, I was going superfast, and I just went for a superfast, hardcarving, roundhouse, cutback, hopeing to throw up a ton of spray, and just fell right off. Anyway... I used to try to rip the wave to pieces, and I even bought a little 6'4" fish this summer for "ripping and tearing" but...these days, as with much of my life, less is more. And as lame as it sounds, I just like to be "one with the wave". Plus, those little punks were sitting on the inside anyway.. just hoping fo a wave small enough to come in.

Here's the Veneco Pier today, for comparisons sake. Today the surf is a couple feet over head at Little rincon, and up at Rincon, there were probably a few DOH sets coming in at Indicator/Rivermouth area. So as you can see, It must have been pretty huge at Rincon last Wednesday... BTW... You can click on any of the pictures for a full size image.

BIG WEDNESDAY

2005-12-23T08:24:00.001-08:00

I try not to pay much attention to the online surf reports and forecasts but, when you get email saying it's going to massive it's hard to overlook and I start to get panicky. Ok... Fuck Surfline, reporting on every fucking break than can get their hands on is just plain wrong. This is all you really need to know courtesy of Wetsand:

December 15th SUBJECT: Surf Forecast (Thu) Weekend surf outlook, and holiday NW on radar

I was heading to Mammoth thinking, oh shit it's going to be big when I get back.

December 16th SUBJECT: Surf Forecast (Fri) Models upgrade NW for 21st to massive

Now right off the bat, Wetsand doesn't even send emails on Friday so you know something is up. The word massive is very rarely used as well. Significant usually means it's going to be pretty big.

December 18th SUBJECT: Surf Forecast (Sun) NW now, much bigger westerly swell Wed.

How does it get bigger than massive??

December 20th SUBJECT: Surf Forecast (Tue) Big WNW tomorrow, NW 25th-26th, massive NW on radar for the 27th-28th

Another Massive swell for the 27th and 28th.. Is big, bigger than massive?? Or is massively big, the biggest. I have seen it bigger once on, Jan. 30th 1998. That was massively huge. I saw it pretty darn massive but really clean and organized last year...

Here's Wetsand..

Today (Tuesday) our latest WNW swell has backed off a bit, but there’s still plenty of heavy surf in the waters along the California coast. Tomorrow, surf will get much, much bigger—dangerously so for most areas. Another hefty WNW swell is due in NCal on Christmas, SoCal the day after. Then it looks like we’re in for a very big swell to hit us on the 27th into the 28th.

Much, much, bigger, dangerously bigger... A very big swell hitting on the 27th and 28th. Where does very big fit in here??? Normally I don't cuss this much but, I think it is going to be fucking big. When I finally hit the coast coming back from Mammoth, it was dark, but there was a heavy mist in the air...

Veneco's pier in Carp, Nobodys coming in from the oil platforms today...

Now... when I say I get panicky, I mean not in a good way. More like, great, it's going to be too big. Where am I going to surf? I know I have to get out in the water, or it does some kind of psychological damage. And, I know I don't need any more of that. I pretty much tend to max out at just a little overhead. I have been out in much, much, bigger, that's where I get my fear.. I would say things are a bit better since I quit smoking... One year, two months, three weeks, one day, 11 hours, 54 minutes and 27 seconds. 14800 cigarettes not smoked, saving $3,663.43... So now I feel like I probably won't drown. But, getting caught inside and taking one directly on the head is still a real fear for me. I have just never really become use to it. So I try to surf, mainly paddle, very carefully.. Sure, Hawaii gets bigger and is more powerful, but there are great channels, warm water, and its tend to be a bit more organized. When it gets big here, it's always a bit stormy, and almost impossible to get out.. So.. you are pretty much going to take a lot right on the head, guaranteed just getting out.

I love surfing, I have pretty much built my life around it. But, still there is something a little unnatural about being right in the impact zone, taking a deep breath, duck diving as deep as you can, then just getting absolutely violently blown to smithereens?? Now, you never know if it's going to be a successful duck dive or not. Sometimes it looks pretty grim and you just pop right out the back. Sometimes you pop right out the back, then you get this slow tug backwards and then... sucked right back into the caldron. Then, there are the ones that just blow you right off your board, scare the fuck out of you, as you just rag doll.. at this point, things are completely out of your hands..

For me this is really screwed because, I wear contacts, and I can't open my eyes without losing them. You really can't tell if you are upside down, or right side up, unless you bounce off the bottom. At least when you open your eyes you can usually see light, and swim for that. If I really get blasted, my eyes just pop open in pure panic, relaxxx... That might be the end of my session, but at least I see the light.. Now if you are lucky, you get rag dolled in towards shore, and out of the impact zone. You can pretty much relax and as you get pushed away from most of the danger. Unless... there are big rocks, or a pier, or some other impending doom. Other times it just pushes you straight down, then right back up in the same spot, and you can do it all over again, while your tired and all out of breath….

This is precisely why I moved to Carp. Most winter days, you have Rincon, Little Rincon, Pitas… If it gets a little bigger, Hammonds and Miramar are fun. Those are all pretty close by. But when the word massive turns up. You can just head up to the Gaviota coast… Now.. you can tell just how big it is down in Ventura, and Rincon, by the amount of people fleeing to the Gaivota coast. Judging by the crowds, it was pretty big and massive. El Cap, and spots I don’t even know the names of start to fire.. On Wednesday, I would put these spots in the neighborhood of “big” Mike and I selected one such spot just north of El Cap.. This spot looked like the smallest of the big. You can never really tell how big it is, until you get out there of course, especially when your checking it out from a bluff. If you time your paddle correctly you can find out right away how big it is. That’s what I did.. And just narrowly pushed under a couple of set waves and made it out. “it’s bigger than it looks” says Mike..

Now, I like that the wave height guidelines have been change to knee high, waist high ,chest high, head high, overhead, double overhead , right on up to ridiculously over head. But… now people downsize that too. It’s fairly simple. If it’s twice as big as you are tall, it’s double overhead. When you are lying down on your stomach it is bigger than that. So.. here at the spot, I’m calling it Overhead to Double Overhead with Plus Sets.. On a lot of these big Wednesdays I don’t paddle ou, just go watch the real insane surfers at the biggest spot possible, but this looks doable and it felt really good to get out there. I probably only caught about a dozen waves and, passed on those plus sets, including one that just came perfectly at me.. Missed a really good double overhead one, that I really did want badly, by not paddling hard enough. And caught mostly the overhead to few feet overhead waves. Here are a couple pics of my last wave in on a just slightly overhead one.. Now, Ok.. I catch waves this size all the time, I love this size, even a bit bigger, just not when there are big double overhead plus sets lurking about. Usually you try to pick off one of these small ones, miss it turn around and there's the plus set coming straight at you... You never get the good ones on film. Meanwhile back down at Rincon, people are getting serious. I don’t know how big they were calling it. I stopped on the freeway on my way down to the 'nard later in the day.. It was hard to even see people out there. For those guys, It was probably just over head. To me it was way too far overhead.

The swell dropped a bit yesterday, and I surfed the best El Cap I have had the pleasure of being a part of. Despite the crowd, it was great. I can now see what Shaun Tomson was talking about 25 years ago when he said El Cap was one of the best waves he had ever surf. I was like? What? I use to camp there as a kid... Since then I have been trying to get it good, and not too crowded.. I have only surfed El Cap, about five or six times, all on smaller days, but it gave me a good feel for the place. So when this perfect wave came right to me, I turned and went and got one on the best barrels of my life. One that I would really have love to seen myself. One that even Mike, who never says much anyway, said, nice barrel. One that I really wish I had a picture of. So I could say, see it is not a complete waste on time. haha.. Surfers don’t talk much usually, except to all the pretty women, now in the lineup. So when a couple other guys paddle by and said nice, pretty, sick… I knew I got my Christmas present early.

That pretty much sums it up and I think there is a lot of swell still on the way. AAOOOOOWWOOHOOO..
Mele Kalikimaka from just north of conchita...
And, a Haouli Makahiki Hou...

2005-12-20T08:45:00.000-08:00

Mammoth Wrap Up...

The final official tally on the storm was 37" That’s over two feet at the condo, and 3-4 feet up on the hill in my unofficial report… Pretty good way to start the Christmas Vacation , considering it was pretty dry when we arrived on Friday.

It was sooo windy yesterday that they never opened the top, which is just as well, because we can’t seem to get out of here before 11:00am anyway. Today it probably will open, in fact, maybe it is already open, so naturally we are leaving. I did enjoy a few good powdery turns with Mike on Sunday, during the height of blizzard off chair 25, Lincoln Mountain. Lots of deep powder on chair 7 too. Haha. Really!! This is where we spent most of the time teaching Ashley. On day three, I think she was finally feeling it. This is in part due to Sara taking over as head instructor. Sara has had so much instruction from, Mike, Kalie, Andrea, and me over the past four years, she probably is the most qualified. It appears that Sara finally has her own snowboarding act together.. and was really having fun. WOW! Now if everyone can just get to the same level, someday... someday I hope it's soon.. lol Anyway, with the instructing job taken over by Sara… Kalie and I took off to take some runs on chair 16 until the very high winds shut it down. Kalie is pushing it more and more each time, taking a few jumps, with nice style. She was also good enough to stick with her friend Ashley most of the time. I think that they had more fun just checking out the boys in the lodge. Well I'm sure of that!

Finally a new restuarant in the Village... The Sand Dollar, a much needed Quality Sushi bar and Restaurant. While being on the expensive side,it was really good!!! Lots of expensive specialty rolls, sashimi, and couple beers, and $240 later we were out of there. Yummmmmm… My favorite, Albacore Tataki, Super Yum! The girls favorite, The Waterboy. I have never seen three girls drink so much water. They even resorted to dumping water into different glasses, just to see that waterboy. ..

Oh well, that is it from Mammoth Lakes , California, about 350 miles north of La Conchita.. Merry Christmas too all..

2005-12-18T08:44:00.000-08:00

It's freakin' dumping...

I have been enjoying a lot of cold weather lately.. After spending a week in the "freezing ass" Portland area with the beautful Laura Smith, and her equally beautiful and charming daughter, Sophia. Now... I don't really mind the cold, but with out snow?? It's a stretch for us Santa Barbara types. So, I can see certainly what Laura is complaining about. Its cold and not that sunny! There are quite of few Oregonians, or Californians with Oregonian Beards, walking around in shorts, and t-shirts, sort of oblivious, or just stubborn?? But, I pretty much had my winter jacket on anytime I went outside. The cold is fine but, it seems with such cold, you could have a good amount of snow on the ground? Nope, just cold.

Here I go again, I swear it was just going to be a weather report, but here's a couple of more things abount the Oregon trip... Laura's house is very warm and inviting and I don't know why I would ever want to leave... But, we did get out and about. I think we hit all the major areas of Portland plus Fred Meyer's. "Everything from fruit to tires" It is a really cool city... I mean cold. ha. No, I enjoyed it very much and would consider it the best big city I've been too. I guess I liked New Orleans a lot too, the food, restuarants, and epecially the sauces, are the best hands down. I don't like big cities very much to begin with but here's my top five...

5. Denver, A mile high.., a major hub for flights everywhere, close to good skiing. Let's not forget John Elway and the Broncos. My own experience is limited too... Many, many, hours at the new Denver Airport. It's the nicest airport I've been to. I have driven though Denver to get to the Skiing. Breck, A Basin, and a number of others are only about an hour away.. I love how it does really snow, and snow hard in Denver, and that's great for the rental car insurance business.. Let's see, I also stayed overnight once at the Airport Comfort Inn, courtesy of United Airlines, after a long delayed flight out of Jackson Hole. I am sure Denver has many great cultural sites, and wonderful things to do. Overall, I like the idea of Denver, but really only know the airport, and it is really far from the Beach!

4. Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Site of the '88 Olympics. I have driven through Calgary a number of times going to Banff Springs, Lake Louise, Sunshine Village, and the Awesome Canadian Rockies, for a couple early snowboard contests. Banff, due to the moose who walk down main street, and the Banff Springs Hotel/Castle, would be high on my the list of small towns. Calgary is great because during the Hockey Playoff's there is not a single business in town that does not have "GO FLAMES" in the window. It doesn't matter if they have a chance or not they love their team. I was there on my honeymoon and they were facing the LA Kings, I think this is the first year for Gretsky.. The Kings lost, maybe the Flames went on to win the Stanley Cup, I don't remember, but it was cool to be up there with all that energy. So I like Calgary.. I have been to Olympic Park and "The Snoboard Shop" (That might have been the "First" snowboard shop in the world!)

3. New Orleans, French Quarter. Come on... It is basically Disneyland for adults. Cart's serving bloody marys on the street, walk up beer and hurricane vendors every where. VooDoo, Sex Shops, Music, Music, Music.... Food, Emeril, Food, Sauces, Oysters Rockefeller, oh my gosh, the food is sooo fucking good. Lets not forget the beads, women taking thier tops off everywhere, aligator heads, and live gators.. I hope that they can put that city back together. I heard that one bar in the french quarter never even closed through out the whole hurricane situation. So, that is comforting..

2. Honolulu, Please... 72 degrees in the air 72 degrees in the water.. Waikiki, the birthplace of modern surfing and still a really cool place to be. Even with all the tourists. Right when you get off the plane in Honolulu, you can smell Hawaii. hmmmm good. Sure the North Shore and the outer islands are much more peacful, and that's where you will find me. But, I don't really like big towns, remember? Oh yeah, The Outriggers....

1. I already mentioned Portland... I guess the big draw there obviously is Laura and Sophia. I also loved the coast there. Driving endlessly through large meadows and big pines, and icy roads. Till you finally see a sign. Cannon Beach, 4 miles. You think, wow, we're still in the ice and trees... Sign, Cannon Beach, 1 mile. Really??? We are still in the ice and trees.. Finally you drop down to sea leval and the smell of the ocean just hits you.. Aaahhhha... And it actually feels warm.

Hmmmmm. I could live here!

Ok, here's the point! It is freakin dumping here in Mammoth. Started up last night. Mike called for three inches. I said over a foot.. Ha.. It is still coming down hard at 10:00 am and looking kinda harsh out there. Over a foot, here at the condo, and easily double that up on the mountain. I don't mind the cold when its snowing like this.. That's what all my expensive Snowboard Crap is for! The picture on top is from earlier this morning, and I'd say there is another 4" to 6" out there already...

2005-12-10T13:25:00.000-08:00

I notice I had a bunch of pictures of Kalie lately.. Here's one of my favorites of Sara. Kalie and Sara take pretty good pictures of themselves too. Check out Pirate SAra... or I decided on Kalie.. Oh well, that's it's from the great northwest.

2005-12-03T14:48:00.000-08:00

Me.. Burton Backhill, Near Mt. Baldy 1979

In 1984... I opened what would become the first snowboard shop in Southern California.. “Green Sector…So Cal’s Leading Edge” There were a couple shops around me that sold some boards before us, namely Kennedy Surfboards, and Val Surf. These were surf shops and surf/ski shops. The other ski shops were complete dicks. Based on their early short-sightedness they should have never been allow to sell snowboards. Example: Back in the day, there were no snowboard boots. We would get old Sorel’s, (mostly an after ski boot) take the felt liner’s out, and put in a old ski boot liner. This worked out great, and really it is the same basic concept used in today’s boots. So in an effort to get some real snowboard boots, put together for my store.. Went to every ski shop in town.. Including Val Surf.. Well.. all the hardcore skiers just laughed us right out of their stores and to the goodwill.. lol.

Anyway… I bought my first snowboard from Kennedy Surfboards, who was like my mentor in opening my shop, and how I wanted it to feel, yes shops have feelings. He also shaped a number of boards for me when I was a kid. He was stoked.. Charlie and I bought the snowboards, and Kennedy put some our early snowboard pics up on the wall, which was a pretty big deal, for a 16 year old… Glen Kennedy, I just had a surf with him a few months ago in Ventura 28 years after I first stepped into his store. Kennedy Surfboards, still one on the only shops that sell ,and shape their own boards exclusively. The only other one I can think of off hand is Rincon Designs, shapes and designs by Matt Moore, right here in my home town of Carpinteria, California. Though, there are still are a few of the Old School shops out there.

Sorry… that’s a little off track.. But this is back before any ski areas allowed snowboards.. When I open the store in ‘84 there were exactly 4 Ski Areas in California to snowboard. But before that, here’s how it happened. This was probably ’80 or so.. Ski Sunrise in Wrightwood, California.. We didn’t even know if we could go, but it’s one of those ski areas where you start at the top, and ride down to the lifts. There was a lot of fresh snow that day for Southern California… We had old boards with out steel edges, just fins. So we just charged it, there was a perfect, kind of gully, kind of pipe, kind of snake run, to the right… And in that moment I just had the best run of my life. Well, we had great runs in the backcountry around Mt Pinos, that featured, road drops and lots of hiking, but, we were about to just hop on a lift and do it again, again, and again… So, we get to the bottom, hmmmm, walked over to the lift, and asked if we could ride up. They said, “I don’t see why not???” Well, that was the start of the snowboard revolution, for me. With lifts, everyone would want to do it.. Hiking for your turns is great ,and rewarding , and the purest form of the sport/lifestyle but, not for everyone.

So… 1984, The boards still look like surfboards, but finally have steel edges. You can snowboard at Ski Sunrise and Mountain High in So Cal.. In the Tahoe Area, you had Donner Ski Ranch and Boreal/Soda Spring… That’s it. Perfect time to open a snowboard shop.. Really! Our early customers came from all over California most of those went on to make something of themselves in the industry.. Things obliviously got going from there, and the snowboard industry pretty much went huge in the ‘early nineties. For my store the peak years were the mid nineties, we could do no wrong. It had to happen though. ..With this much money being made the Big Guys had to get in on it. Big Five, Sport Chalets, Garts, you name it, even freakin Costco. Plus don't forget about all the ski shops that laughed us out of their store in the early ‘80’s. They like $nowboarding now, too.

Do I seem bitter??? Well I was... I felt my store losing it’s soul, spent more time surfing, and hanging out with the kids, and hating the snowboard industry. I will say however, that all the cat-skiing trips that K2 took me on, and the Heli-Skiing in the North Cascades of Washington, courtesy of Lib Tech, were the highlights of my snowboarding carrer. You can’t beat unlimited powder , with just your friends around. I sold Green Sector, in 2000, down shifted, semi-retired, and now love snowboarding more than ever.. I really like retail and selling cool stuff to people, people, who love to just get out there and enjoy life.. So I just started up the eBay thing… It’s really cool. Get to meet a lot of interesting people via email, all over the world, and I come back from surfing and, hey stuff has sold. How cool is that???

RinconRaxWorks...

New and Used , Quality Sports Racks to carry all your toys, plus Surf, Skate, and Snow Toys for your roof racks, some vintage skate and snow stuff when available, and some other random goods. Visit my store if you have a chance. It is my goal to maintain the highest standards, great customer service, quality products, and hopefully some soul. If that’s possible on eBay…

Chuck Barfoot , one of the true pioneers of snowboard design… Well, he’s just south of here, in La Conchita.. And for all the latest in snowboard gear check out my friends at Seattle Snowboard Connection... If your looking for a good party, greensector.com

Attn:

This is a repost of my eBay "me" page and, I might just decide it's a little to personal, or maybe even too bitter for eBay, so here it is for the permanent record. It's actually quite short and I am holding a lot back. I could probably write for the next year about the rise and fall of Green Sector. Well you probably haven't heard the last of it..

RinconRaxWorks

Green Sector 2005

Seattle Snowboard Connection

The end of an era.. Green Sector 1984 to 2003 rip..