Hot Summer Nights

Beacon's Beach Sunset

Well I arrived back in Encinitas on Tuesday.  It’s been a whirlwind of unpacking and getting myself back into the mode of being here.  It was kind of hard for me to leave home and get on that plane to come here.  People couldn’t understand why I wasn’t ecstatic to be leaving for CA, but the truth is that it has always been very hard for me to make big changes like that, especially total changes of scenery.  I hate leaving people.  It was extremely hard to leave CA and come to NY in the summer, even though I’m glad now that I did.  My plan is to do summer in NY again next year, and I’m sure it will be very difficult to leave.  Only one person really understood where I was coming from, and I was glad to have her empathy.

Anyway, enough about my moping around.  It’s really nice to be leaving the NY weather and getting some sun here in CA.  The palm trees never cease to amaze me, and I’ve already seen a few dolphins out in the lineup at Grandview.

I surfed for a few hours today and the waves were beautiful, clear, and blue.  They weren’t big, but that’s ok.  I had some fun rides.  I rode my Merrick Flyer because during my last session I somehow collided with some donkey and the nose of his board punched a hole in the bottom of mine.  Now it has to dry out before I can take it to Ding King for repair.  When that happened yesterday it took all my willpower not to get REALLY mad.  I mean, I was pretty upset, but I could tell that I was about to spiral down into being really angry and in a bad mood.  I mean, that can happen when your pristine, new board gets a hole put in it.

I’m getting ready for Halloween.  I’m going to be a flapper.  Let me tell you – the scariest thing you can do this Halloween is to go to Party City the day before Halloween.  It is like a ZOO, with kids running around throwing plastic scythes, begging their parent’s for candy, and shrieking like banshees.

Meanwhile, it was interesting to be checked out by a banana at the supermarket and have my purchases bagged by a bottle of ketchup.

And in case you were curious, those aren’t my groceries on the belt.  I don’t normally buy 5 bottles of wine and a box of cheerios.

Well that’s it for now.  I really want to turn this more into a photo blog, so look for that in the near future!

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.

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.