New developments are always in the making, that's what makes life so fascinating. But to make them come through action is required. For example, my intention is to build a surf structure to repair and shape boards and to build it to my specifications. I want a steel pipe frame structure, like the pipe used on chain link fences. It won't cost more than $500 to fully construct and enclose but different opportunities keep manifesting and the sturcture has yet to be built.
I had the opportunity, for example, last weekend to go on a surf in my newly fixed car with a friend, my dog and another friend in his car, his dog and his dad from the bay area. we went to santa barbara and caught some surf. the surf wasn't great and we chickened out at jalama. it was big and rolly there, sets breaking out the back and it looked fun but i don't think i had the right boards for that. plus i pulled a muscle in my side while stretching our 2nd night there tyhat has been healing really well with the workouts and stretching i've been doing. work hasn't been affecting it at all which is really good, it's pretty superficial but needs to be monitored so it goes away before i charge hard again. but the 'highlight' of the trip had to be getting sprayed by a skunk with my dog the first night there. luckily we weren't too close to it, but it got my car and my friend's car pretty bad. the smell is finally going away and i didn't notice it at all in my car today, which reminds me. i drove to santa barabara and back today so i could buy a surfboard i saw yesterday, or rather last evening, on CraigsList. It's a model called "the biscuit", a 5 foot 6 inch long fat little stick that looks like a dinner roll. it's the smallest board by 8 inches that i've ever had fun on and the only reason i know is because of the board demos Channel Islands Surfboards runs up the coast in the summers. The last 3 times they've come I rode this board with these dimensions and I loved it, so I've been waiting for a chance. The guy who sold it to me said he got 5 or 6 other replies in the 16 hours he had the board on the net, so it was a pretty high demand little piece.
The board is 5' 6" long, 20" wide in the center and 2 3/4" thick in the thickest part. It came with fins, and there are some small scratches and dings, some uniform yellowing over the board from age, $222. I thought it was $250 so that's what I handed him, didn't feel like haggling...not for this board!...and he says he listed it for $225, so i look in my wallet and I am $3 short but he's in a late model import sedan so he's frying bigger fish than this. I drove to the CI (Channel Islands) store near the harbor and looked at their boards. I tell you, you could go in there with $500 and walk out with planty of change and a sick, repeat, SICK, board. They not only have their main selection but they had a small room with sale boards of some sort, $500 down to $350 I saw. The new boards in the store are $660, pretty much. The spankingest newiest models are $745 (!). I paid $440 for my first board in january 2002, an 8' rusty shortboard. so all in all i got a fair deal on the exact board of my choice. without the dings it probably would be more like $300, and fixing them myself saves the scrilla.
But I had to use some saved cash to pull off this preemptive acquisition to the quiver. It puts me back a bit in getting this surf shack built but it's a very important board, this particular size and shape. I feel like it will make small surf sessions more rewarding and it is the beginning of a quest by myself to start finding ways to expand my own performance envelope to use the engineering parlance. The commitment to surfing can only take a person so far. It should be something that is pushed by the other things in life as well as drags them futher along behind it in to the higher levels of practice. Dialing in the equipment; wetsuits, boards, transportation, this is what it's about right now. Derek Ho says on Hawaiian Surf Stories that if you're not on the right equipment, you're not having fun. Ain't that the truth. If you're not performing at the level you wish on a given day, you either need to reexamine your own commitment or the design of your experience visavis your wave riding technology.
I wish I could give you some ilustrative representation but i don't have a camera or a scanner, so use your imaginations! peace!
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Another week gone by...
let's see...I surfed last sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday, friday, and sunday, today, 6 out of 7 days. maybe i didn't surf monday, it's hard to remember, i need to buy a calendar and a pocket planner to keep track.
Tuesday, Wednesday Friday and today I managed true dawn patrol, being at the beach by first light, waiting for the light to improve then paddling out. It's nice cause I'm home and beat by 11am. However, on Friday I was in the water for 7 hours (almost). It was that good and I brought two boards for the conditions. My leash came loose with the bigger board later in the day and it ended up on the rocks but with only a small ding through the glass in the nose, nothing that can't be fixed easily.
But most importantly, several realizations. On Wednesday, a session before work, I felt like I reached a plateau, like I've put enough work in to get myself to where I am being a better surfer in the wave sizes I'm comfortable in...but this plateau. It presents me with a threshold of sorts. My ambition, what I think about and feel is right, is to ride bigger waves and to ride better the waves I'm already comfortable in, to keep progressing, in essence. Now the work and focus that is going to have to go into this next step is going to be as important and as challenging as all the work it took me to get here. I'm going to have to start pushing my comfort zone, looking at more appropriate equipment for riding at size and commit to ongoing fitness and diet. Studying more progressive surfers, bigger waves and getting the whole repair/shaping thing going for myself are the keys to open these locked doors. Staying stoked and getting in the water as often as possible are the only barriers to any of this, really.
I'm getting some materials online, most notably The Boomer's Bible, a wonderful piece of Bible-inspired, punk-anarchist-humorist-urbanite-...whatever. I'ts cool and i can load up my order with other things I'd like (surf vids, some history). Just a little something to give me inspiration and to spend some hard earned cash on, give me a sense of novelty in my multimedia.
In other news, I'm rapidly approaching a time where I can purchase my surf shack. I'm looking at creativeshelters.com because they have a sick design-a-structure software tool that gives you measurements, parts, optional accessories, check it out if you want to put up a steel frame (pipes and fittings) tarp structure. I don't want to piece it out, I'd rather just buy the whole damn thing after saving and slap it up so I can fix all these damn boards. I swear, every board in the house needs something. It'll be good practice to get back in the swing to fix boards professionally again. In one of my daydreams today I imagined being a glasser/sander. Not exactly the glamourous position but what am I really going for here? A poem to leave you with until next week...
Claudian (c. 370-408), Roman poet
Tuesday, Wednesday Friday and today I managed true dawn patrol, being at the beach by first light, waiting for the light to improve then paddling out. It's nice cause I'm home and beat by 11am. However, on Friday I was in the water for 7 hours (almost). It was that good and I brought two boards for the conditions. My leash came loose with the bigger board later in the day and it ended up on the rocks but with only a small ding through the glass in the nose, nothing that can't be fixed easily.
But most importantly, several realizations. On Wednesday, a session before work, I felt like I reached a plateau, like I've put enough work in to get myself to where I am being a better surfer in the wave sizes I'm comfortable in...but this plateau. It presents me with a threshold of sorts. My ambition, what I think about and feel is right, is to ride bigger waves and to ride better the waves I'm already comfortable in, to keep progressing, in essence. Now the work and focus that is going to have to go into this next step is going to be as important and as challenging as all the work it took me to get here. I'm going to have to start pushing my comfort zone, looking at more appropriate equipment for riding at size and commit to ongoing fitness and diet. Studying more progressive surfers, bigger waves and getting the whole repair/shaping thing going for myself are the keys to open these locked doors. Staying stoked and getting in the water as often as possible are the only barriers to any of this, really.
I'm getting some materials online, most notably The Boomer's Bible, a wonderful piece of Bible-inspired, punk-anarchist-humorist-urbanite-...whatever. I'ts cool and i can load up my order with other things I'd like (surf vids, some history). Just a little something to give me inspiration and to spend some hard earned cash on, give me a sense of novelty in my multimedia.
In other news, I'm rapidly approaching a time where I can purchase my surf shack. I'm looking at creativeshelters.com because they have a sick design-a-structure software tool that gives you measurements, parts, optional accessories, check it out if you want to put up a steel frame (pipes and fittings) tarp structure. I don't want to piece it out, I'd rather just buy the whole damn thing after saving and slap it up so I can fix all these damn boards. I swear, every board in the house needs something. It'll be good practice to get back in the swing to fix boards professionally again. In one of my daydreams today I imagined being a glasser/sander. Not exactly the glamourous position but what am I really going for here? A poem to leave you with until next week...
Far off, unknown, beyond the range of thought,
scarce reached by gods, the years' rough haggard mother,
stands a primeval Cave in whose vast breast,
is Time's cradle and womb. A Serpent encloses,
the Cave, consuming all things with slow power,
and green scales always glinting. Its mouth devours,
the backbent tail as with mute motion it traces,
its beginning. At the entrance Nature sits,
the threshold-guardian, aged and yet lovely,
and round her gather and flit on every side Spirits.
A Venerable Man writes down immutable laws.
He fixes the number of stars in every constellation,
makes some of them move and others hang at rest.
So all things live or die by predetermined laws...
When the Sun rested on the cave's wide threshold,
Nature ran in her might to meet him; the Old Man bent
grey hairs to the proud rays. [1]
scarce reached by gods, the years' rough haggard mother,
stands a primeval Cave in whose vast breast,
is Time's cradle and womb. A Serpent encloses,
the Cave, consuming all things with slow power,
and green scales always glinting. Its mouth devours,
the backbent tail as with mute motion it traces,
its beginning. At the entrance Nature sits,
the threshold-guardian, aged and yet lovely,
and round her gather and flit on every side Spirits.
A Venerable Man writes down immutable laws.
He fixes the number of stars in every constellation,
makes some of them move and others hang at rest.
So all things live or die by predetermined laws...
When the Sun rested on the cave's wide threshold,
Nature ran in her might to meet him; the Old Man bent
grey hairs to the proud rays. [1]
Claudian (c. 370-408), Roman poet
Claudian, full name Claudius Claudianus (c. 370-408), Roman poet.
This passage ends the second book of his poem, On the Consulship of Stilicho
(accessed 1/9/10) http://survive2012.com/index.php/2012-the-year-of-the-dragon.html
Monday, January 3, 2011
Surfin' the gnar
These top three are just of the conditions this morning from the beach. I might be in them somewhere but who knows.
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| Above and next 5 pictures are of a nice cutback and set up for the next section |
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| Above and all below pictures are of me at the end of one of my rides. Nice day! |
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Grand Opening!
Hey everybody! Just started this thing up here. started up here this thing, I mean. Try to please the Grammar-heads. My intention is to use this blog to record, assist, and present my ideas so I can have a vehicle to channel my passions, wild as they are.
I suppose it bears no purpose to fully introduce myself now...no sense in making this seem like a job interview or a personals post on CraigsList, which is like the lead into a joke...what's the same between them? something about being depressing and prostitution...I was never good at making the funnies in classicist form. Just on the go, quips, jibes, shit that I think won't get me in too much trouble although... Why the hell am I talking about this.
Ah, so I guess things will present themselves as long as I keep up on the postings. Which depends on how well I use the possibility of this tool, so please, sit back, relax, and wait for the future.
I suppose it bears no purpose to fully introduce myself now...no sense in making this seem like a job interview or a personals post on CraigsList, which is like the lead into a joke...what's the same between them? something about being depressing and prostitution...I was never good at making the funnies in classicist form. Just on the go, quips, jibes, shit that I think won't get me in too much trouble although... Why the hell am I talking about this.
Ah, so I guess things will present themselves as long as I keep up on the postings. Which depends on how well I use the possibility of this tool, so please, sit back, relax, and wait for the future.
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