Wednesday, March 21, 2012

PauHana Adventure Paddling... stay tuned.

Wow- just talked to Todd at PauHana and found out that the guy got wacked by two or three different diseases from his paddle trip into the equatorial tropics (what the hell is wood rash poisoning?). Evidently, team PauHana has some cool stuff brewing and it's obvious they'll suffer to get the goods (dude, double pneumonia... are you kidding me?). Here's a shot of a project/quest/race they're involved with- I'm sure you'll be hearing more about it soon (at least I'm keeping my fingers crossed):



Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Forehand schwack, check. Backhand schwack, check: Ted Robinson and Peter Brouillet and the 1,2 combo

Just got an email from my shaper Tim Stamps... seems like he's been getting back up to speed too, chilling out down under- where it's summer. Anyway, he passed along these killer photos from pro snapper Peter Brouille of Ted Robinson just killing it on his Stamps Ninja Bump. By the way, I've been riding a slightly larger version than the one Ted is on and I can attest to the board's killer nature... loving that board right now. Check out the shots. 

I dig the how clean the water is coming off the swallow tail here. More than anything speed is life when you want to really hit the lip cleanly and you can tell Ted's blazed a speedy little line right into this rebound. Smack! Photo: Brouillet


Anybody can hit the lip on their forehand- punching it on your backside is another story. Good backside surfer is the telltale of the truly talented surfer. Take notes and check out how far back on the pad Ted's foot is... get the foot back and the turn becomes a little bit more manageable. Photo: Brouillet


Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Diversions: Dirt Surfing

Well- at least that's what I call it. Dirt surfing is trail riding. My "surf" spots? California's killer deserts and OHV areas. I've mentioned this before but the whole moto thing is new to me. I've been learning a lot about riding and being safe and when the weather has been cold (a lot lately) and the surf crap (right, Jon Kinley?) I've been heading out over the hills to get in some dirt surfing sessions. 

Racking up... with a DRZ400s instead of a 9'0 Stamps... kind of the same feeling, kind of the same anticipation, a lot of the same excitement.

Surprise #1: Riding moto trails is pretty technical- it takes skill to ride smoothly (kind of like developing your style in surfing- you don't want to look like a barney). 

Cool to do with my brother Mike- he lives in Santa Cruz, Ca so to Jawbone OHV area it's about five hours for him and four hours for me- a nice half-way spot for two brothers to have fun and catch up on life. And rip around on cool motos- check out his RAD KTM 400 EXC.


Surprise #2: Trail riding for a day will leave you worn out. Riding motos is physical and by the end of the day, I'm ready to pass out. After a couple cold ones around the camp fire, of course. 

You can get wayyyy back out into the desert- and it's is beautiful. I'm a slow, boring rider- I just like to get out and site-see. Kind of like cruising a 12' stando down the coast, just taking it all in and feeling it. Cool stuff.


Linking turns, cutback after cutback. Mind surfing the dirt.


Surprise #3: California has some beautiful spots to ride- it's nice to get off the coast for a little bit and range out. Dirt surfing is like stand up- you're free to go off and explore. Freedom. Love it. 


And then there are the cool little watering holes... Jawbone Store.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Hiatus

Been awhile since I've sat down and gave you a shot of what's been going on in my paddle life. Took a little break. You can kind of blame it on mainland Mexico. Once you've been surfing down there in the middle of winter, you don't feel very fired up to jump right back into your normal, 54 degree Fahrenheit, surfing life. 

A good sign. A drying wetsuit hanging outside my bedroom door, sunshine and light winds- time to get back into the groove of surfing things.

I guess you could also say I just needed a little time-out from paddling. I don't know about you but in anything I do, I reach a saturation point where it all starts to feel the same. I'd go for a surf, the waves would be kind of blah and I'd find myself getting stale, every turn kind of a mirror of the ten before it. When that starts happening I know it's time to back off and find new inspiration. 

Same thing happened to me here. I'd write a piece, post a pic... but the excitement and joy wasn't quite there. Don't be too gnarly on me- there have been over a thousand posts put up onto this site... almost all of them penned by yours truly. But, same story, I needed to take a little vacation for the site- get re-energized, refueled. 

Which is what happened today. Let me set the stage: sunny, high tide, building little southern hemi blip of a swell- just enough to put little crumbly, right and left wedges up onto the beach. Sometimes you just know in your guts that YOU ARE OUT THERE. There's no weighing the options, no teeter tottering back and forth about that lawn you have to mow... you don't even hesitate, you just react. Well, that was me. Nasty cold and all, I just bolted home. Grabbed the 9'0 x 29" Stamps Ninja Bump that I "borrowed/stole" from my buddy Steve and paddled out. Jeez did it feel good out there. 

Very small, really clean- dang fun.


The board was the perfect choice, more of a longboard shape with all the Tim Stamps double barrel, hyper-turbodrive, bottom contours... kind of like a log on steroids wrapped in a K-car, I'm-just-here-to-get-the-groceries skin. You know, a board with that hot librarian kind of look. I surfed ten waves, carving bottom turns that zanged off the fin flex, stalling for the pocket and cross stepping it up to the nose. It felt like coming home. 

And thus the wettie, slowly drying in the court yard. Swinging in the wind. My surfing flag of victory. I'm definitely back.