Pre-Swirl

Pack It Up, Pack It In!

When push comes to shove, how many boards can you get in your vehicle? During our recent run of fire evacuations, I found out. 5 Longboards on top and 10 shortboards inside. That left one old Merrick in the Garage.

NO SAND

Never quite understood this one:

EN FUEGO!

The winds that held this wave up are the very same that are still ravishing a city. 12 hours after this pic was probably taken (Sunday), we were awoken at 2am with Firetrucks going over the hill. 30 minutes later the Sheriff was on the Bullhorn outside the door. We got back into our house 15 hours later. Spent the night and next morning, then were evacuated a second time due to a different fire on the other side of our house. Luckily they knocked that one back and we were back home within a few hours. This was a good lesson. My wife has been bugging me for a few years about having a plan, a list, and the essentials ready to go. She was right. DAMNIT!




Twin Oaks. We live just over the hill. With the wind blowing as hard as it was from the fire toward us on Sunday Night/Monday Morning, I can see why they got us out quickly.

Chasing Birds

Last Saturday we woke up to a little rain. Instead of packing up the clan and heading down to the reef, we went up to Oceanside for some breakfast at the Harbor. After breakfast we went over to the beach side and let the kids burn off some energy. It ended up being a great time. The beach was empty and the cloud patterns were amazing. The boys found quite a flock of birds, and well, you know the rest of the story.

All Busted Up

I've for some reason had a run of bad luck when it comes to dings over the last few years. I've probably spent more money on Ding Repair in the last 2 years then in the prior 20. My last collision occured during my third session on my new Hynson Black Knight Quad. Guy took off in front of me and caught a rail on his bottom turn and, well, I came up with this ding. The corner section had to be removed, built back up, then glassed, painted, glossed. 3 weeks later I had my new board back. Thanks guy.



Pavel Speeddialer - I waited over a year for this board. Third day out on an overhead wave, went off the top and was bottom turning for another when, whammo, something happened and I was no longer on my board. Came up and a surf canoe (the sitdown surfboards, like they use at boneyards), was sitting a few feet away. It seems the guy got caught inside on the set and lost his board. Leash snapped and I got taken out by the stray board. Never even saw the thing.



My good old faithful Sashimi. I always loved this model. Too bad I don't love CI anymore. Hadn't ridden it in a while and decided to have it retro-fit with FCS to make it a quad. Second time riding it after the retro-fit, I was motoring down the line and did what I thought was a really nice floater. Problem was, there happened to be a guy on a log who took off in front of me way down the line. Well when I went up for the floater, I was thinkin, "No way I'm catching him." The wave closed out on him and he cut back, I didn't realize I covered so much ground and my nose came right down on his deck. Pretty much broke the nose off 4" from the tip. Only thing holding it together was the deck glass. Here is a pic after the repair.

I Love My Wife

Where else can you find a women that is willing to try and make two SUP's fall while going down the line?

SURFS UP!

SURFS UP! was just released on DVD 3 days ago. The boys (3 and 5) were pissed that I took thier normal pirate movie out so we could watch it. They complained through the whole first half. "Take it out, I don't like it." By the end they were jumping off the couch (droppin in) then carving turns around the kitchen island. I had to con them into going to bed last night with, "If you go to bed now, we'll get up and watch the surfing movie before school." Sadly, it worked.

Confessions of a Novice Shaper

I was perusing the net last night and came across this guys blog in NYC. Been working on my own little project lately which sparked a good deal of interest in his adventure. I spent a good hour going through every entry. You see, someday, I too would like to shape all my own boards. I don't think I got the balls he does though. Just went out and rented himself a garage in the city, spent a good $1000 on tools and set-up, then months of waiting for everything to arrive. All before he ever made a single pass with a planer. Good on ya.

http://noviceshaper.blogspot.com










His first finished board, shaped it, glassed it, did it all, TOUCHE'

Swirly Wirly

If your into the Swirls, or are looking for some ideas, there is a pretty amazing thread over at Swaylocks with lots of Swirl Porn.

http://www.swaylocks.com/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=340779;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;guest=14806232

Fins Fins Fins Fins Fins

Can't say enough about the Fins Marlin Bacon is makin over at Fins 101. I presently have em on four boards and someday hope to have all my boards outfitted with em. They are extremely light and reduce the tail weight of your board significantly. Plus have an added "Pop" when surfing. They are kinda on the expensive side, but the craftsmanship and performance definitely warrant the price. I don't know a single person that has any complaints after surfing them. You can see more at: http://101fins.com/index.html

The David Eggers Story

Us kids of the Eighty's knew him all too well. The Child Prodigy. Especially those of us who surfed around San Diego. We watched him in awe, hoping that someday he would bring an ASP Championship home to San Diego. He set the bar as an amateur, then turned pro at 16. He quit the tour at the end of his first year Pro then went into the underground La Jolla seen. Most of us hoped the best for him, but rumors soured, and unless you were one of the people he was running with, you never got the real story. You always heard it was bad, but always wondered. Luckily, the latest edition of The Surfers Journal ran a story on David, and gives all us outsiders a small glimpse into Davids life. I wish the best for him, and hope that someday he gets back to surfing, and becomes stoked like a grom again, without the pressures of the past.

SHAME ON YOU SSA!

Swami's Surfing Association had their annual coalition contest at Cardiff Reef last weekend. They've had the contest at Cardiff for many years. 2 years ago, one of the coalition reps from another club was walking around the parking lot with a beer in hand (which isn't permitted) right before the coalition meeting. He was busted by a State Park Ranger. This not so bright person got a little mouthy with the ranger and caused quite a rucous. Well last year the permit fee mysteriously went up quite significantly. Most likely as a result of the violation the prior year. SSA had been on great terms with the State Parks due to helping to maintain the area, and were getting quite significantly reduced permits. Not any longer. So last year SSA was forced to move the contest to D-Street in Encinitas. As expected the contest was a flop. Who wants to surf D-Street on a Longboard and pay $80 entry fee to do it. So, Swami's solution this year was to have Global Surf Industries sponsor the event. Now, what's wrong with that you say? GSI is a huge importer of chinese/thailand made pe/pu surfboards that are presently trying to undercut the local shapers. Thats all I'm going to say about that. With a little research you can find numerous rants on-line about chinese/thailand imports. So Swami's, a club that has been around for many years and has been supported by countless local board manufacturers through the good and bad times, have basically stabbed em all in the back, so they could have a weekend in the sun. Shame on you Swami's.

My August Project

One nice summer July day, while digging holes in the sand with my 3 kids, one of my friends walked up to me and pointed out that a guy just came out of the water, stuffed an old board into the trashcan, and walked away. When I see boards left laying around broken and battered the first thing I always do is go check the fins. Often the idiot will leave perfectly good fins in the board when throwing it away. So, after about a 1/2 hour, didn't want to seem too anxious, I walked over to the trashcan and took a look. The fin was useless, but in my mindseye, I saw something in that old delaminated board. So, I stripped as much glass off the thing as I could and strapped it to the roof of my truck and took it home. The foam was then cut down to about 6'8" and put up in the rafters to let it dry out for 3 weeks. I never shaped a surfboard, so this was my first attempt. I was always very wary of ruining a perfectly good blank. Plus, I mainly do office type work and my tool schools maxed out in 8th grade shop. Sure I can cut a piece of wood, but, my main worry is that I'm pretty impatient when it comes to projects. I usually start off strong and am very detail oriented for the first 80%, but then somehow lose focus during the most important last 20%. Here are a few pics of the beginning and the finished product. To see the entire step-by-step process you can click on "My August Project" above or cut and paste the URL below:

http://forum.surfermag.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=1265540&page=0&vc=1&PHPSESSID=#Post1265540