Surfing Contests, Practice and Skills Improvement

Sunset over Its, 2/11/16.

Today is the Titans of Mavericks surf contest up in Half Moon Bay and it is nothing short of amazing to watch the waves these guys ride.

More so since I've become more and more of a surfer as I've progressed through my SUP evolution from flat water cruising and exploration to a mostly dedicated SUP surfer. I can't lie, its still really nice and a different kind of fun to go touring without worrying about swell, other people and everything else.

Something I am thinking about and realizing more and more is that I need to practice my in the water skills more. Not my on the water skills, I'm pretty good at catching waves, steering through crowds of people (though I will almost always seek to find emptier spots since my envelope to catch a wave is substantially larger than a surfer's, also a source of their gripiness about SUP's in general). In the last week, I've had a couple of getoffs that have resulted in my board becoming a weapon and smashing into me.

The first was when I tumbled forward off the wave and the board came down on top of my shoulders with the initial hit concentrating on the left side. Aside from some tenderness when I touch it, there's been no problems from that one. The other was from a fairly short outing yesterday where I got tumbled and my board bashed me in the chest. Again, no immediate harm or pain, just a little wind knocked out and then complicated by getting caught in the wash zone for a couple of minutes.

We have another three day weekend ahead and good weather on tap. We'll be getting some new booties first but then we will be spending a good chunk of time making sure they work!

Oh and here's a short video I shot with my chest mounted cam over the weekend. This will give you a decent idea of what its like to strap on a leash and head out into the surf on a big SUP!

Living in Paradise Means Lots of Paradisaical Photos

Here are some recent photos I've taken in the Santa Cruz area. Most have been tarted up in Snapseed or by Google's Auto-Awesome.

We had our first really wet weekend of the year with heavy rain most of Saturday morning and then another storm on Sunday morning. It made for good indoor playtime, we played video games, Lego, Minecraft, watched movies and ate party food!

Also, the three SUPers in the harbor? That's my buddy, Sean and his daughter (her first time!) along with Trudi, the lady who owns the SUP Shack.

The boys had almost no complaints about the weekend and I got out yesterday morning to take some photos of the storm and enjoy a little chaos!

Damn, Nature, You're STUNNING!

Seacliff in Aptos, California 10/22/14 Composite HDR

Presented, more or less, without comment.

And then there was this

Took this last night towards the end of a bike ride around town and out along West Cliff.

Some of the Reasons Why I Love Santa Cruz

All of these are mine except the last one. Its easy to take a gorgeous picture when you have a gorgeous model with some many beautiful angles and poses.

Cowell's and the wharf.

Today in Santa Cruz looking at the wharf from the other side of town.

Found an iOS app that takes photos and planetizes them for you.

This pano makes the river look way bigger than it is.

Not mine but wow-freakin'-wee!

Cycling outside the bike lane

When is it OK for bicyclists to leave the bike lane?

The following rule of the road for cyclists comes from California Vehicle Code section 21208 (a).

According to the code, whenever a bike lane is present, cyclists traveling slower than the normal speed of traffic should remain in the bike lane except when:

* Overtaking and passing another bicycle, vehicle, or pedestrian within the lane or about to enter the lane if the overtaking and passing cannot be done safely within the lane.
* Preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.
* It?s necessary to leave the bicycle lane to avoid debris or other hazardous conditions.
* Approaching a place where a right turn is authorized.

The law also provides that no cyclist shall leave a bicycle lane until the movement can be made with reasonable safety.

Read the full law online at www.dmv.ca.gov.

Short Tour Wrap Before Bed

Grady and I, along with thousands of others, braved the cold, wind and rain today to enjoy the Amgen Tour of California as it made its way from Sausalito down to Santa Cruz. Fearing missing the excitement, we got out onto Empire Grade above UCSC by around 11:30 this morning.

And waited. It rained for an hour or so. Then stopped and we waited some more. And then it rained some more.

Every once in a while an Amgen festooned vehicle would come tearing by, lights flashing, horn honking and everyone along our little stretch of the road, all twenty or thirty of us, would get up, get ready and then get disappointed.

The cyclists ended up starting to come through at about a quarter to two. We were smart and I'd turned the Escape around to face the oncoming riders so that we could effectively camp out in the back hatch with it open to avoid most of the rain. And Grady and I played games together, ate snacks, told jokes and took pictures of other stuff while we waited. Grady also had fun kicking gravel into the rain runoff, so much so that he's probably ruined his new(ish) shoes.

When the cyclists did come ripping through, they were proceeded by support cars, police cars, motorcycle cops and photographers on the backs of other motorcycles. And they blazed through even though we were at the top of a pretty good sized hill.

As they tore by, I snapped pictures, shot video from a tripod on the deck in the back of the car and made sure Grady didn't go wandering out into traffic. I had both my big-boy camera, the Canon XTi, and my new SX110. I think I may have ended up opting for the 110 to replace my SD1100 because of today and the desire to zoom in.

Either way, I got some good photos, including Lance!, shot some good video footage and had a good time spending so much time alone with Grady.

My favorite (and recorded) moment occurred after the first big peleton can ripping through with all of its support cars and excitement. Grady appears on the far right of the video, watching, smiling and digging it. After the last car goes by, he turns towards the camera and says, not once but twice, "That was awesome, poppa!"

And it was awesome.

Here's my photo set from the day. I'll probably add a few more as we move forward. I'm currently working on getting the videos converted into a more usable format.

We Took a Drive

Yesterday was my last official full day of holiday break and the weatherman had said it was going to be stormy up north. So we went south towards Monterey, Carmel and Big Sur. Its pretty ridiculous to live so close to such an amazingly awesome place and to not visit as often as possible.

We stopped just a few times to take some pictures but I did get a few that I'll keep. The throwaway shot above is one.

This is another, from one of the many turnoffs and pullouts on the road. Its a neat and very smart idea to have so many turnouts to make it so easy to pull off andreally take in the splendor. Words don't really convey it, pictures hint at it but the totality and sheer majesty of the whole place is beyond the scope of any lens. Not that people shouldn't try, of course.

One of the really unusual and kind of neat sensations I had was at one of the vista points. I stood up on the edge of a cliff some two or three hundred feet up from the water and felt warm air rushing up the cliff face contrasted with the colder air that had settled into the shadier dirt of the overlook. The warm sea air smelled fresh and, very faintly, like faraway places.

In fact,the whole ride was pretty good fun, until Sully got car sick and ejected cookies all over himself and his car seat. That was a bit of a downer for everyone. But we learned alot for our next trip down, which will likely be an overnighter, maybe even with Nande too.