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!

Looking at the World

I live in one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. This is not by accident, this is by choice. I could live in Podunk, Iowa for a third of the expenses I have here but well less than a third the quality of life. And what is the point of that?

I took this series of shots last week at the midpoint of a ride after work. This is the view looking back towards the Boardwalk from the cliff between Seabright and Main beaches in Santa Cruz.

It is one of my favorite places anywhere and I love that it is a mere 3 miles by bike path away from my house.

Another shot from about the same time, maybe even the same evening stopover. For some reason I really like the bird dominating the frame, the gulls love this spot too because of the hard winds. They get to fly all matrix-style with hovering, flying backwards and doing wicked wingovers, even the big ol' pelicans get into it!







Another recent shot from down near the river mouth. Took this yesterday afternoon while out riding bikes with my boys (tail wind out and head wind back does NOT make for a happy boy!).

We are in the final stretch of the school year which is good and bad. Looking at summer activities and things to do is fun.

And there are always the projects, the side projects, design projects, websites, parodies and all the other things we do to keep ourselves too busy! But more on those as they gel up more.

What Life Should Be Like

Like this

And like this (taken 2/21/14)

Not like this (taken 2/21/14)

Any questions?

A California Kind of Sunday

There are moments, minutes and hours that, for me, pull together all of the various threads of my life and gather them into one neat bundle. After a busy Saturday with my boys including working on the deck, setting up the tent in the backyard and having a campfire complete with S'mores for the family, Sunday was a bit more low key to start with.

Water and Delicate Electronics are a Bad Mixture

And not in the bad is good kind of way.

I arrived at my afternoon school site to a rather aggravated and worried teacher pal. He explained that he came back to his classroom to find his laptop sitting in a puddle of spilled water.

One of his students had accidentally knocked over a bottle of water near the machine and didn't bother to tell him or try to clean it up. So the laptop sat in the water for a little while.

Needless to say (but I'm saying it anyway), the teacher was deeply peeved and worried that the years of work in his machine were gone. I let him know that, even if the machine was fried, he stood a pretty good chance of recovering his data off the hard drive. Plus, since the liquid was water and not a sticky soda or something, he stood a decent chance of not having even destroyed his machine.

But we won't know for a couple of day as the laptop is now on its side in front of a fan with paper towels underneath it.

What's the lesson? Keep food and liquids as far away from your electronics as possible. Or keep the bottle tops screwed on tight.

Fire Boat

Fire Boat
Originally uploaded by fenriq.

Seeing this fire boat was the highlight of Grady's afternoon out on Fisherman's Wharf but he really enjoyed just about all of it. We got to see a submarine up close and he exclaimed "That boat goes underwater!" We also got to the the liberty ship already in my photostream, a big cargo ship, a ferryboat docking and a high speed ferry boat ripping it up as it made its way across the bay.

Fabulous Day at the Beach

We had a blast out on the beach the other day. We have been working through a wicked heat spell right now which makes the beach a real possibility even though that water splashing over Graydon is really, really cold!

He had his best time ever at the beach. He would chase the waves back and forth, would scream in delight when a wave would bash over him and he loved it when I'd rocket him up above a breaking wave.

And, oh yeah, he slept like a rock!

And I got a whole bunch of fun photos too. Man, I really need a full sized DSLR to start to really leverage the photo opportunities. Hard to justify dropping a big chunk of change right now though.