Hot Summer Nights

I’m kinda getting the travel bug again.  As if it’s not enough that I’m going to be spending the Winter in San Diego!  The thing is, I get a little depressed when making changes – such as picking up and leaving.  I’m going back to California on the 27th, and while I’m really excited about that I’m also sad to be leaving here.  I mean, it’s kinda silly in a way because it’s just going to be getting colder, greyer, and more boring here as we stretch into the colder months.  But still, that’s just the way I am.  I’ve always been that way.

Anyway, my method of coping with the slight depression is to make plans and goals for things that I really want to do.  Right now that means I’m thinking of some places I want to travel to.

One of my big goals is to surf the Mentawai’s in Indonesia.  So recently I’ve been reading and browsing the Kandui surf resort website, drooling over the pictures and videos.

The waves range from user-friendly to advanced.  I was looking at the different waves and it’s not like you have to surf deadly double overhead grinders into dry reef.  Some of the waves just look like perfect, head high peelers in crystal clear blue water.

I’d love to go to Bali too.  Last night I was talking to Katherine, and I had no idea she did so much traveling in that part of the world.  She traveled and surfed in the early 90′s when she was my age, and she did it alone.  She went to Australia and Bali and the Indonesian islands a bunch of times.  I was so stoked to be talking to her, and it was so weird because I had just been thinking up all these crazy ideas about doing some traveling on my own.

I mean, I really would love to travel with friends, but life doesn’t always allow people to simply take off for two weeks and blow money on a surf trip.  So, if I can’t latch on to some trips with people this year, then I might consider taking a trip on my own at some point.  Maybe not Bali right away, but somewhere.  Caribbean, Costa Rica, wherever.  I also want to work on my surfing a bit more.  I’ve made a lot of progress the past half year, so I’m stoked on that.  If I’m going to these places I want to be able to surf and know that I know what I’m doing if I want to take on more challenging waves.

The thought of traveling right now is appealing because I want to live life and do as much as I can before I potentially settle down with a family or whatever.  And there’s no rush for that.  I really want to have a family, but right now I’m free as a bird and I want to take advantage.  Plus, when you get older it’s harder to surf hard without fearing injury too much.  That’s just a fact of life as you get older.

I want to take risks and have stories to tell.  I don’t want to just live my life in a safe little bubble.  Some of the people I respect most are those who get out there and experience the world.  People who have crazy stories and misadventures in the far corners of the world.  My favorite story to tell people now is about our trip to Mexico and how we had to search in the countryside to find the Ranch, this out of the way surf spot.  It was 4 girls in the rental car, 4 boards stacked on the car, and our directions led us to this dirt road in the middle of the woods.  I was freaking out, thinking of all sorts of scary scenarios – like getting killed by drug lords and nobody knowing for days.  Anyway, the directions said “take the fork that looks more traveled.”  So, every time we got to a fork we would sit there scratching our heads.  “Which one looks more traveled??”  Finally we made it out and into a clearing overlooking an absolutely beautiful point break in the middle of unspoiled wilderness.   I mean, it is one of the experiences I will remember my entire life.

Anyway, that’s my plan so far.  Nothing’s set in stone.  I want to get to CA first and then see where I want to go from there.  Gotta get back into surfing shape anyway since I have barely been surfing more than a handfull of times in the past month.

The weather here is AWFUL right now.  Basically it’s 43 degrees with blowing horizontal rain.  This is more suited to a Michigan December than a Long Island mid-October.  What a rip off this year has been, weather-wise.  I at least got to escape the “June Of Torrential Rain” that Long Island had this year, tomato famine and all.  However, when I got here in July it took a week or two to really get summery.  Then labor day it was like someone flipped a switch.  It was crisp and cool.  We had a few warm days but not many.  And NOW, it looks like FALL has taken a hiatus and dropped us right into the lap of winter.  Boy am I glad I’m taking off for California in like 10 days.

Not to mention the surf has been awful.  Usually September and October are full of nice sunny days with light winds and some clean waist-chest high waves.  I think I can count on one hand how many days of good clean waves we’ve had since Labor day.

The escape to California is on!

I have to admit, it was kind of nice to get that feeling of the season change since I’ll soon be in San Diego, the place of the eternal 70 degree forecast.

Meanwhile…I have the travel bug again.  I have this crazy idea to go to some pretty exotic places, like Bali.  More on that soon.  It’s late, and I’m tired!

Today I was pretty bored, (thanks to LAKE ATLANTIC and no waves…) and it was a relatively nice fall day out, so I decided to take the good ol’ Jeep out on the sand.  I love how you can drive on the beach around here in the Hamptons.  I worry that one day you won’t be allowed to (or there just won’t be enough beach left).

Some of the beaches have gotten really small lately.  It’s just cyclical erosion as they tend to come back within a few weeks.  But it’s a gradual loss, and as someone said “we’re living on a giant sugar cube.”

Anyway, driving on the beach is really thrilling to me.  It really gets my adrenaline going, and the only reason for this is that I’m so scared I’m going to get stuck!  Seriously, my heart is literally pounding the entire time, haha.  I’m sure I’ll get used to it at some point and I won’t get so scared.  The sand around here can be pretty soft, so it’s easy to get dug in if you’re in the wrong spot.

I have to air down my tires a bit as well, so it’s a little inconvenient if I have to drive a long distance later as I’d have to go right to the air pump and fill up.  But just driving around town I can leave them a little low…I dropped them to 25 PSI from 33.

Anyway, there’s something fun about taking your car out on the beach and just driving around.  I went out at a bunch of different beaches– Sagg Main, The Cut, and Peter’s Pond.  Thanks to erosion it’s kind of sketchy to drive all the way down the coast because the beach gets kind of steep and there are small dropoffs and the erosion causes small cliffs to form.  Forget it…if you started falling down that little cliff the car would probably roll over!

Sagg Main Beach

It was good practice today, and I didn’t get stuck at all.  Didn’t even come close.  I just have to be a bit more brave.  I have a shovel and a tow strap, so it’s not like it’s the end of the world.  There’s always someone driving on the beach.  Well, maybe not way down by Peter’s Pond, where you might not see someone come by for hours.

The last time I drove on the beach I really did start getting stuck…I was almost up to the frame, but the reason was that somehow my 4 wheel drive didn’t engage, and I went halfway down the entrace in two wheel drive!  Yeah that’s really great.  Finally put it in a different 4 wheel gear and it got out very easily.

Tomorrow morning I’m going to do my surf check by driving onto the beach.  Should be fun!!!   I just wish the beaches weren’t so shot and I could just cruise down the coast.  Oh well, maybe next year.

Well, I guess I’ve been pretty bad about updating this blog!!!  Here’s a few things that I’ve been doing:

I just put a down payment on another car.  The first car I was going to get ended up having a bad transmission so the dealer couldn’t sell me the car.  Well, I guess it’s good I didn’t get a car with a bad tranny but it was just annoying that it had to be broken at all.  So I found another Jeep.  It’s nice – it’s a Grand Cherokee Laredo, in Silver.  It looks very nice.  Only bad thing is that it has a large scratch on the passenger side.  It almost looks like it got keyed.  Oh well, I just need a car.

This whole car business has been a thorn in my side.  It’s basically all I have been doing the past two weeks, and it has been hard to get my life going.  I can’t get beach stickers because I don’t have the car I’m going to put them on, and basically all my excess time has been spent looking for cars.

On a brighter note I went surfing at Ditch Plains today.  There were some good waves – about chest – head high.  I forgot how fun Ditch can be on the right days.  I also forgot how slow the takeoff is.  I’m used to fast waves from California and the other places I traveled to this winter.  At ditch I felt like I had all this time to pop to my feet.  I felt like my popups were smooth, and technically I surfed really well.  I was hitting my cutbacks and overall felt REALLY in control of my board.  It’s cool to go away and surf in California for 6 months and come back much better than when you left.

I would really like to post more in this blog, so stay tuned!

Meghan left to go back to NY today, and I have one more week here in California.  I can’t believe I’ll have been here for 6 months.  Twice as long as I intended at first!  It’s been super fun here, but I’m definitely excited to go home.

Meghan and I had dinner last night and we were just talking about Montauk and surfing the whole time.  I definitely can’t wait to get back to Long Island for the summer and fall.  It’s a really cool place, and I think that obviously it’s important to me because it’s home.

The thing about surfing on the east end, as opposed to California, is that the surf community is so small.  Everyone knows everyone.  I kind of like that.  I love going to check the surf and seeing people I know.  I love paddling out in Montauk and being with friends.

It’s cool because in Montauk, it’s such a small community that if someone sees you catch a great ride  they’ll compliment you, and even tell their friends, etc.

We might have been looking through rose colored glasses a bit, but the thing about California that I’m not crazy about is that if you just venture out around here in San Diego you’ll likely be surrounded by strangers.  It’s definitely a different vibe.  Now, I’ve come to know familiar faces, especially the Grandview crew, but it’s still kinda different.

Either way, I’m stoked to be going home.  Not sure when I’m going to come back to California though.  Probably October.  Maybe mid-October.  I know I’m not going to want to leave while things are still fun back home.  However, I know I’m coming back to California for sure.  I just don’t think I can live in NY full time.  Well, I will see where life takes me this time!

I was just thinking about this yesterday – I’m pretty happy that since I’ve been out to California I have NOT turned my back on the surf because I was scared.  I used to do this when I was scared of the waves and didn’t feel like I was able to handle the conditions.  However, since I’ve been in California I’ve surfed some pretty decent sized waves and I’ve been totally fine.  There have been days where I was a little nervous, but never fearful.

When I started surfing I would get all suited up, get down to the water, and then get totally psyched out and not paddle out.  That was totally demoralizing.  I actually did that last fall when we had a fairly decent sized hurricane swell.  I know now that I would now be able to paddle out into those waves confidently.

It’s pretty cool.  I guess it also speaks to the fact that the California Winter season has been very sub-par.  I don’t think the waves ever got above 6-7 feet here this year.

The California surf spots are also a bit easier to surf when it’s big because they don’t DUMP in heavy shorebreak like they do on Long Island.  I’m not saying that I’ll never turn tail again, but I’m stoked on the fact that I’m getting so much more confident in the water.

In two weeks I’ll be heading to Hawaii with Val for a week to hit up the South Shore.  I’m getting excited – last time I went to Hawaii (two months ago) it wasn’t really a surf trip.  I did surf and I did bring my board, but it wasn’t really about surfing.  This time all we’re going to do is surf.  Well, not all, but that will be the primary focus.  Then on July 10 I’ll be back home in NY to soak up some Hamptons sunshine.

I did not have a very good day today.  I feel like a lot of things are going wrong and leaving to go back to NY is both welcome and coming at a bad time.  Also my affiliate stats were messed up this morning causing me a lot of stress.

In order to try to burn off some of my frustration and anger I decided to go surf a sunset session.  I surfed for about an hour and a half, and the waves were surprisingly very fun.  It was crowded but I got my share of waves.  I also had a technique epiphany about paddling to catch a wave.  I subtly put more weight forward and it totally helped as far as being able to get into the wave correctly.  It was a very subtle feeling and I’m surprised it has eluded me for so long!  I had some bad advice I think, about arching your back, but instead you should put your weight forward.  It helped so much and I was really happy with the way I surfed for once.  I feel like I have hit a skill plateau lately and haven’t been getting any better, but tonight I feel like I’m getting back to where I want to be and I’ll progress.

I can’t wait to get back home.  I am pretty homesick!

Sorry for the lack of posts!  Memorial day weekend was long, but fun.  We kicked it off by going to a concert in Solana Beach.  We saw M83, an electronic/pop group.  I was so excited to see them because I had been listening to them since last spring.  It’s always fun to see a group you’re familiar with.

We went surfing several times, and hung out on the beach, went out to a few parties and clubs.  So yeah, pretty darn busy!

I’m currently reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.  As far as I’m concerned, C.S. Lewis is a genius.  Everything I’ve read from him makes so much sense, rings so true, and is so sensitive, caring, and balanced.  I’ve read “Screwtape Letters,” which was so good it hurt – in a good way.  It just opens up your eyes to things that you just don’t really think about normally.  You just find yourself putting the book down after you finish a section and staring off into space as you absorb the weight of what you just read.

Anyway, the first part of Mere Christianity deals with thinking logically about how the morality of our human race came about.  Lewis makes a great argument, and it reminds me of my days in philosophy class.  (I’m actually starting to think that taking that philosophy 101 class in Michigan as a credit filler was a great, great addition to my education.  It’s always those random classes that are the best ones it seems…).  Basically he argues that humans have this curious idea that there is a way they should behave, and that they do not behave this way (all the time).

This law of human nature seems to have come from something outside the universe.  CS Lewis was an atheist before he became a Christian.  In the second part of the book he writes:

My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust.  But how had I got this idea of just and unjust?  A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a stright line.

I mean, it’s pretty smart thinking.  I don’t normally think about the basic concepts of Christianity…the logic behind it all.  I really think that all Christians should go back and read C.S. Lewis so they can screw their heads on straight again.  One of my biggest problems with Christianity are all the loudmouth Christians out there making clowns of themselves and Christianity.

Being sick sucks!  I started coming down with a cold on Thursday.  Went surfing and realized that…I couldn’t surf.  I was such a kook…blew two takeoffs and ended up riding the waves on my stomach, and got chucked over the falls on another wave.  Couldn’t figure out why my arms weren’t working…until later in the day when my throat started hurting I started to realize I was getting sick.  Yesterday I was pretty much immobile, and today I’m just staying in again.

It’s just a cold but I am super stuffed, and I have a big headache and body aches.  No fever though, which is good I guess.

Michelle stopped by for lunch and brought me some chicken soup and chips and guac from La Especial Norte, which is a cool traditional Mexican place.  It was nice to have some social contact because I’ve been cooped up.

I also took some Advil Cold & Sinus, which is a wonder drug.  It helps soooooo much.

Other than how much it sucks being sick, it’s a good chance to sit around and catch up on reading.  I’m finishing Twilight so I can watch the movie.  It’s such a quick read, and it’s really basic (written for pre-teens I guess) so it’s perfect for my half-functioning brain right now.

I passed Ponto on my way to Rite Aid to buy my Advil and it looked like it was firing.  Sucks…wish I were surfing.

I haven’t really been updating this thing…so here’s a quick and dirty update…

Went up to Whistler with Bid (aka Alicia Bidwell) and her friends.  I could NOT believe how beautiful British Columbia is, and Vancouver, and the drive up on the Sea To Sky highway (coolest name for a road ever).  And then the mountain itself…the view from the peak was incredible.  We were above the clouds and the treeline, and it felt like I was on another planet.  Truly an experience I will never forget.

Sometimes I’m kinda glad I didn’t travel much up until about a year ago.  I think I’m appreciating the variety of the world so much more, and I don’t take it for granted.

The surf here has not been too great.   Very small and weak, and it’s frustrating.  Had a few fun sessions on Quadzilla, and last night some dolphins swam VERY close to me, I’m talking like 8 feet away.  It really startled me!  They were also surfing.  I love how dolphins play around.  They ride waves just like surfers.  Last night was a surprise session…almost too many fun waist high waves and only me and a couple other people.  Then it kinda turned off and got crowded.  Them’s the breaks.

I don’t know how the Californians do it…afternoon sessions are torture because you’re looking straight west at the sun.  On Long Island we’re facing primarily South/Southeast, so we don’t really have that problem.

I surfed Swami’s yesterday, and I’m over it.  Yeah, wasn’t the best day there since the waves were weak and small, but on a shortboard it’s just an exercise in frustration.  Too many people in such a small area.  I’ll take a beachbreak any day.

Two weeks ago I spent a few days visiting with Betty and Evelyn in Santa Barbara.  We surfed the iconic Rincon, and the talent level there is unbelievable.  Kelly Slater was there, and I was in the lineup 5 feet away from him.  I didn’t talk to him, but it was neat to share the lineup with such a living legend.  He has the most beautiful green eyes…you have to see them in person.

I’m going to Oahu on March 19th!  I am sooooo stoked.  I want to surf, but I’m a little worried because I keep hearing all about how much power is in the waves in Hawaii, and how it’s a whole different surfing animal altogether.  However, we’ll be visiting with Cat, and hopefully she can point me to an easier spot.