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..
