This is Getting Ridiculous

Just finished my 7th session of the HypeSwell at still-grunting, hucking outer bars.
This run of surf has pushed my body and my ever-patient significant other to the limit, but emotionally I'm feeling quite good right now, thank you.

I'm now sponsored by Advil due to the fact I've been surfing for hours a day, obsessively, since Thanksgiving (or 1991 depending upon who you talk to).

It's hard to stay away when you rock up in the morning and it looks like this:


Did a bit of GoPro photo-whoring on what was supposed to be the "worst" day of the swell and got a few hook-ups. The wide-angle causes Costanza-style shrinkage to the waves, but the light was cool at least.




I also got my first-ever non-nepotism induced surf shot published, as SurferMag ran Adam Warmington's unidentified shot of me on "my" trusty 7'8".

Maybe Advil will send a photo incentive?

Hot Rear End Action

Session 2 with the GoPro tailmount yielded some passable results.
My surfing strategies have evolved into a peculiar eccentric mix these last few weeks with all my normal surf bros out of the game. For one thing, I've become one of those old creepy guys who wears a 5/4 and then drives home in his 5/4 to avoid exposing himself to the cold. I've also begun pouring a bit of my post-sesh hot water supply into my booties before I put them on. (Those of you who have smelled my booties in all their glorious funk know that the US Military is missing out on a strong legal torture alternative by not serving this bootie-water to detainees as a truth serum.)

The other big change to the routine has been my obsessive use of the board cam. In order to get tailmount shots I have to tread water holding my board, then tap the shutter on the tail when I see a good peak coming. Then I paddle like mad. I've found that I can eliminate a lot of spray-issues by pulling in with a higher line and then drifting down the face in the barrel with a more neutral line so less spray comes off the rail. I'm still seeking a good, clean hook up in a deep barrel.

This one comes close except for the spray issues (and my ass got in the way of the lipline... as usual.)




The next poll will be on whether I should be allowed to post GoPro shots anymore.

What Friends Are For

Some of my favorite things in the universe include:
1)Norcal left barrels
2)Shooting artsy pretentious photos
3)Getting photo-slut shots of me surfing
4)Beating Sander at any competitive endeavor, which always hilariously makes him even more bitter than he normally is.

Today I had the rare pleasure of accomplishing all these favorite things in one millisecond.

The surf was pretty bad, so I figured it was a good day to try out the GoPro tailmount (a concept I had shamelessly stolen from Sander - see here)

Surfing with the camera on the tail was actually easier than having it on the nose. But I encountered a major problem with spray, meaning almost all my photos came out looking like this, at best:


However, I did luck into a few hook-ups, including this ultra-clean toilet squat on my first wave:


And this somewhat spray-marred barrel on my last wave:




I sent Sander some of the shots a couple minutes ago and his reaction was predictable, competitive, classic, Sander: "You Bastard! You stole my idea and got a barrel shot before I did! Argh! First the French and now you!"

Almost as good as beating Sander in backgammon.

Water Wars

Welcome to yet another installment of Water Wars, in which we all post photos of liquid each day.
I decided to point the camera away from myself today and see what kind of results I got. The surf shots were pretty boring, but I got a couple cool empty wave shots while getting worked. With the wide angle lens, you have to be VERY close to a wave to get the shot, so most of these I took on the head.
And if you're thinking I have too much time on my hands... you're probably right.