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?

Progression Acheived

Big News Y'all.

After years of being known for my straight-ahead surfing (like literally straight ahead, I don't really do that many turns) I've finally broken through to a new level of ultra-radical performance.

Yesterday I pulled off a sick barrel roll at Taraval in that juicy, ludicrously over-hyped west swell.

Some of you might doubt the veracity of this claim. Luckily, I have a photo to prove I'm on the level (or totally not on the level, as I'm upside down in the tube instead!)

I had the camera mounted mid-board for this shot, with the lens pointed out, so I'm standing behind the camera. I've found it's easier to complete standing barrel rolls using a narrow stance with your weight on the tail.

TiltShift Surf

I've miniaturized some of my favorite surf spots so they can now conveniently fit in your pocket.

Kelly's Cove:


Nias, Sumatra:

Chile:



Ireland:

VFWs:

Mundaka:


Not only did I sorta steal this idea from Makoto, but I've now spammed you with 3 consecutive posts, brimming full of unnecessary photos. Take that Gio! I have beaten you at your own game.

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.

Is it Cold Where You Dream?

Ones and zeroes. A date with binary implications - 1/01, a date approached with too few hours of sleep, skies too gray, hands too cold.

Another visit to the well at Puerto Ortega. Finding some workmanlike comfort in dutifully bottling moments, even though I know I'm the only one who will enjoy the results. Fitting enough - I've always been unapologetic when it comes to my selfish side.

In the end we do what we want to do.

Second session: light is better, tide is better, crowd lighter, the myth of warmth.

Gray goes to gold.

More results here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/19681447@N03/sets/72157612033559534/

Video! I feel so in touch with the younger generation... bloggin my first youtube vid. Sigh.

Yes, I know this is getting ridiculous and all these photos look the same.

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.

Faces of Death

Makoto and I woke up the day after Christmas with a strange realization: we had no plans, no obligations, and no responsibilities today. Translation: no excuses handy to save us from driving for surf.

So we somewhat reluctantly drove down to surf Steamer Lane with 100 other members of the "tribe." As you know, surfers come in all shapes, sizes, and ability levels in Santa Cruz, and they're all thrown into the same big Melting Pot of a lineup.

Normally, the most experienced (and angriest) surfers gravitate to the outside, while farther inside the competition is much less fierce. My usual strategy is to take advantage of the kooks surfing Indicators. Let those old walruses fight over mushy sleigh rides at Middle Peak - I prefer the long, walled up waves at Indicators.

The best moment of my session came on a gem of a wave - one of those speed walls you occasionally see at low tide but never seem to catch. This time, I actually caught it, and even more bizarrely, after a couple whacks of the top, this wave actually started to barrel. Everyone knows I NEVER get barreled backside, cause I suck. But this time I greatly benefited from a mistake (nearly fell coming down from lipper, setting me up behind pit) and I actually pulled in. One big problem: I'm flying down the line grabbing rail, with no line to take but the right one, and there's some poor kook chick on a funboard caught inside in front of me. I wasn't about to change my line (as noted, extremely rare for me to get a wave this good at the lane, let alone pull in on it) so I kept gunning right towards her.

What does she do? Well, instead of paddling like hell, she literally froze up, put her hands in her hair, and started screaming at the top of her lungs like Janet Leigh in Psycho, with this look of pure, undiluted terror on her face.

I'm not exaggerating here - this chick could have starred in any horror movie. The fear on her face was unbelievable, and her scream was equally blood curdling.
I missed her by an inch, linked the wave to Cowells, and I cant's help but laugh every time I remember her face.

Ghosts of Christmas Past

I'll take Thanksgiving over Christmas any day. Bigger surf and smaller commercialism.

All the same, I have some pretty awesome memories of being a grom and being really stoked on Christmas - like 1987 here when I got my first subscription to a surf magazine. (Also note awesome Christmas Card I made on the window behind me).

Who could have imagined that 20 years down the line I'd be involved in bullshit like this?


Click here for CJ Hobgood's interview of my boring ass:
http://www.blog.thegoodss.com/
By far the best thing about the interview is that CJ gave proper respect to Haley:


Loved CJ's caption: "Haley does more tricks than some of the dudes on tour."

Anyway Christmas is about much more than material goods and insulting pro surfers - so mostly I'm stoked to have some good memories of Christmases Past with friends, family, dogs, and surf.
Here's a handful of shots from a trip exactly 10 years ago - Shayne, Sander, John B and I all came up to Norcal and had a good break from the dreaded monotony of La Jolla. Might have been the first time Shayne met Makoto - looks like him and Vasco came and surfed RCA with us from the pics.



Shayne had just got a sate-of-the-art new camera and we took a ton of surf shots. I remember looking through that stack a million times back in socal - it seemed like paradise and all I wanted was to move back home and surf my brains out. Well, 10 years later and we've all surfed a bunch of good sessions together over the years up here, often over Christmas break, even as many of us have gotten sidetracked in other places and phases.
We also have picked up some good new team members along the way... Here's to the ghosts of Christmas Past and the ghosts that we've yet to accumulate.