Japan is amazing.  It’s probably the best trip I’ve ever been on.  Everything is so different, yet not so different to be totally overwhelming.  It’s like I’ve gone to another planet where they have everything we do, except it’s all done differently.  For example, they have amazing public restroom facilities all over.  However, most of the toilets have heated seats and a small electronic control panel that allows you to use a bidet (in a couple different forms apparently) and also an electronic “flushing noise” which is just a recording of a flushing sound.  I don’t know WHY they have that…I guess they have shy bladders or something.  It’s just so strange.

Another difference is of course the language.  I don’t know a lick of Japanese…aside from a few words such as “arrigato” which means thank you.  The Japanese people have completely blown me away…they are the most POLITE people I’ve ever encountered.  When you walk into a hotel they are falling over themselves to take your bags.  A bellhop will show you to your room.  They make sure they tell you EVERYTHING about the hotel and the surroundings.  Basically they make Americans look like rude pigs.

Everyone wears awesome uniforms – from the hotel staff to the people cleaning the restrooms.

They LOVE their cellphones…I’ve nearly been run over by people who are charging along staring down at their cellphone.

They also love beer – it’s cheaper than buying a Coke at a restaurant, and you can buy beer from vending machines.

The public transportation is amazing – punctual to the second and affordable and clean.  Oh yeah – did I mention – everything is super clean here.

I have so much more to write about, but I have to end it here for now.  But I will definitely post more about my trip.

“Real isn’t how you are made,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.’

Does it hurt?’ asked the Rabbit.

Sometimes,’ said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. ‘When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.’

Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,’ he asked, ‘or bit by bit?’

It doesn’t happen all at once,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

last night at San Onofre state beach

margaux at cardiff

out to sea

singlefin

naptime

chasing flocks

….

The Finals - THEY SPELLED MY NAME RIGHT!!!!!! WOW

Another weekend, another surf contest!

This one was a sanctioned longboard club contest. There are longboard clubs all up and down the California coast – Pacific Beach Surf club, Windansea surf club, Cardiff surf club, Swami’s Surfing Association, Malibu Surfing Association, Long Beach Surf Club…etc. You get the idea haha.

Anyway, these clubs get together and hold contests. It’s generally longboard, but they have shortboard heats and stand up paddle heats too.

Otis, a guy I met out surfing in Cardiff, recruited me to do some contests for the Cardiff Surf Club. I was flattered that he asked me, and so I told him I’d do the first one that I could (a couple I couldn’t attend since I was either busy or in NY). So that was this one.

I was sent the heat sheets a few days ago, and was dismayed to see that I was almost entering the Roxy Pro – two very very good professional surfers in my heat – a 2 time world champ and a runner up to the world champ.  Greaaat.  Haha.  Make it easy for me.  Well, Jen was traveling I think so she withdrew, but Kaitlin was still in the contest. The funny thing is, my two longboards were Kaitin’s boards. I bought them off our mutual friend Max. I had never met Kaitlin, but out in the water she was like “did you get that board from a guy?” I was like “Yeah Max.” She said “That’s my board!” So I said “are you Kaitlin?” It was so funny. Anyway….as far as the contest went, I did well in the first heat considering the people I was up against. I managed to get a clean noseride on an insider, and I think that’s what propelled me over the other girl, Nicole, to give me 3rd place. She placed ahead of me in the Summer Longboard Classic in June, so I was stoked to do a little better this time.

The final was tough, but there were still some good waves rolling through. I managed to pull a clean noseride and finish the wave through to the inside, and that was my best wave in the heat. Got a couple other waves, a couple sunk noserides. I’ve only been longboarding for about a year, so I’m pretty stoked on my results. I mean, these other girls have years and years of experience over me.

The contest jerseys they give you to wear in the water are ridiculously oversized (I guess to accomodate the big guys…everyone has to share). I nearly drowned in mine when I lost my board. First of all, I fell off and the shirt came over my face, and then trying to swim in it was like trying to swim in a bathrobe. I wasn’t going very fast.

There are a million little flies on the beach too for some reason, and as I was running to get in the water for my first heat I inhaled one. Yes. Inhaled. It went in my windpipe. I coughed it up. It was DISGUSTING. So I was surfing my first heat coughing up pieces of fly. Yeah, not optimal.

Overall a nice day at the beach. Taking a break now and having some food while I wait for the results/awards ceremony. I’ll come back and post the results.

——

UPDATE – So I got 4th place overall. I’m actually really happy with this. The girls that placed above me are really good, so hats off to them. I’m stoked to even be in the same contest since, again, I’ve only been longboarding a year. It’s an improvement over the longboard contest I entered back in June, where I got 6th place overall. So, movin on up!

First Round