like night and day

5-18-12 and 5-19-12, Fri and Sat

Last week was rough. I had just quit my sham of a job the Friday before. Long story short, they were breaking the law by over utilizing the PT Aides. I told them to change, they denied knowing they were breaking the law but agreed to change and I because I didn't want to be in the middle of all that, I left. I am the PT Super Hero, swooping in to get the bad guys, and then getting the heck out of there. 

I didn't know what my next move was, but I knew it meant starting my job search over again. Did I want to go back to my old part-time jobs? Should I use this as an opportunity to look into a whole different setting? I've been scarred by the small ortho clinic, and I'm not too keen on going back, unless they are really good. 

So in addition to job applications, that whole week I spent each morning going on surfline and reloading the surf cam's every 30 secs. I was willing the waves to get better after each click, to see if it was worth it to drive my butt out there to surf, and each day I weaseled out of going surfing. It also made me seriously consider buying a surfline premium membership. 

So FINALLY at the end of the week the waves looked rideable, there were people out at Porto and I was more motivated to go. Well, the waves were deceiving. I got in around 9ish. I jumped in and the waves were a lot bigger than they looked from shore. I was on my long board, and boy was it hard to get over those waves. It was so consistent because of the wind swell that there wasn't any let up. I made it out with not too much trouble, and got a wave almost immediately. I was stoked, this wasn't going to be that bad after all! However, I took the wave almost to shore, and for some reason, I just couldn't make it back out to the line up. The waves were just too powerful and I wasn't able to hold onto my board when turtle rolling. This was one of those days where a nice potato chip board would be perfect. So I decided to get out to rest and time going out this time. Of course, right when I got back in, the waves starting going again, and I was stuck for a good 15 mins of struggle. I got out, chilled a lil bit and tried for the third time...and well it ended the same way. So that was the that, a good sign to just call it quits. I sat on the beach a little longer, watching the good surfers, and longing to be like them. Ah well, at least I tried. 

I ended up changing and since there was still 1 hr left on my meter, I jogged down to 26th from Porto to see how it was down there. I ended up chatting to Glen who got swept south by the current all the way to the 2nd lifeguard tower from 26th. He was walking more north so when he got carried back to 26th, that would be the sign to get out. 

Saturday:  I went with my friend Olivia who's a beginner. She learned on a foamie at UCSD and this was her first time on a real board. She was borrowing my dad's 9'2". We went to 26th this time, because the crowd would be thinner and the waves smaller than Porto. The conditions were nice and glassy, but the waves were all crashing on the inside. We gave it a benefit of the doubt and jumped in. This time there were nice lulls, so getting out was easy peasy. The only problem was the waves just weren't breaking, so there was a lot of fruitless paddling. Olivia caught one white water wave, and was stoked! I'm glad she at least stood up today, with these conditions. I saw Roy and Don and they were catching the inside waves, that were fast and breaking right on the sand. They were ripping as usual and somehow made it unscathed.

I got one good wave and tried to bail before the sand, but got caught in the sand storm anyways. There was sand all up in my hair and even inside my wetsuit! Good times overall, glad Olivia made it out.

Oahu adventures

Oahu was great, I'm so ready to move there. Right before the trip, I caught "the best wave of my life" at lowers trestles. Well...I caught those same "best waves" over and over and over again on this trip...heaven.

Fransauce recommended I try Pops, which is right in front of the Royal Hawaiian, the pink hotel. There were long lines of waves just coming in over and over again, with plenty of room to play. I don't think I made it to the actual pops, which was maybe another 100 yards out from where I was, but it was still super fun. Our hotel was more east, toward the end of the strip, and we could see a nice surf spot right off our balcony. That place was good, but it was harder to catch a wave because it was more concentrated at the peak, with REALLY good long boarders. I heard one of the locals say there was a pro long boarder in the mix.  I had a frustrating time there, but Christina stayed more on the inside and said she had a great time picking off the smaller waves.

Another great spot was Hale'iwa, on the north shore. We came here the day I flew in, for a nice sunset sesh. There were tons of groms tearing it up on the inside, and then the older kids and some of the older locals were catching the bigger sets. It was a mix of long and short boards, with these perfect forming waves, once again. I liked this place because the locals were nice, and it wasn't too shallow so I wasn't so afraid of the reef when wiping out. I caught a few good ones, and we stayed til almost sunset.

Hale'iwa

The best part of the trip was meeting up with my old middle school friend, B-Sauce, who KK and ex-house mate, Fransauce, helped reconnect us with. B-Sauce lives in this awesome house nicknamed "The Dojo," with a view of Diamond Head and the water. It had that great old school Japanese feel, with the rice paper windows and curtains at the doorways. B-sauce was great, super funny and an all around SUPER chill guy. He showed us this great hiking trail, that was just as good as the Diamond Head trail, but less crowded and with more shade. We went to Sandy Beach, a famous body surfing place, where we were flabbergasted on the size and power of the waves, crashing right on the sand. It seemed crowded, and it was a weekday, and tons of guys were getting pounded into what looked like right in the sand. Crazy is all I can say.

view on the hike of the east side of the island

B-sauce took us another day to surf at Diamond head. It was a long, narrow and steep hike down, which was interesting with a 8'6" long board and just flip flops. B-sauce had his body board and flipper, and Christina with her 7'2" NSP. Just getting in the water was a trip, there were a lot of rocks and the waves were crashing right on them, so there wasn't a nice calm place to get in. So after struggling with that we got out to the line up. It was a long paddle and kinda choppy, it kinda reminded me of Porto, just because of all the waves breaking and the consistency. It was pretty difficult getting back to the line up if caught on the inside. The current was pretty strong as well, so let's just say, there was a lot of paddling that went on. I caught maybe one memorable wave, and ate it bad the rest of the times. Christina and I also got yelled at by a local because we were in another guy's way trying to avoid getting caught in the wave. I yelled back, and paddled away quickly.

Korean cold noodle dish...which i frequently dream of

One of B-Sauces friends, who is a long boarder and a girl, said she likes to surf at a place called rockpiles. So Christina and I decided to check the place out. It was right off the harbor at Waikiki and it was true to it's name, it was rocky! As we were getting ready i decided to ask a guy in the parking lot about the break. He let us know to paddle straight out, and the better surfers were toward the left and the heirarchy went pretty much down as you went to the right. Right before he got in the water, he said, "Oh yea, watch out for sea urchins, they're right in the shallow area." O.O wow, I'm glad you remembered that little point. The paddle out went pretty smoothly, it was just LONG. I had christina's board with her go-pro attached this time, so i was excited to hopefully get some good waves recorded. It was an evening sesh, but there were still lots of people out, I'm guessing the after work crowd. There were a lot of good surfers out, so in the beginning I didn't catch many. Christina caught an inside wave, but it turned out to be a bad idea because it got really shallow and she scraped up herself on the rocks...and this was after her "bloody walls" incident...that is a whole separate story in itself. So she went back to shore after that. I stayed out for another hour or so and got some really good rides in there! The crowd was thinning out and I was trying to follow the other surfers on where to place myself at the peak of the wave.

catching a nice one at Rock Piles

The last surf spot I checked out, while Christina wanted to take it easy, was on the Northeast corner of the island. It was called Malaekahana State Rec Area. There were cabins on the beach that you could rent, which seemed really cool. I met a surf instructor in the parking lot who convinced me to go out. It was super fun here, I even almost ran over a turtle on my board. Good times. There was barely anyone in the water, so it was paradise. The waves were a little choppy but I caught a lot right to shore.

Malaekahana

I surfed pretty much everyday, hiked a few spots, and ate some really great ahi poke and seafood. I enjoyed the spam musabi at the abc stores and gas stations, and the fresh pineapple and other fruits. All in all it was fun in paradise, I can't wait to come back. Aloha!

Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay

Farmer's market booty

Pipeline

Ahi Poke

  

San Diego Wave House Trip 2/25-2/26

So I haven't written in a pretty long time, and I have had one request to keep writing! (Hi Surfing Grandma!). The last real surf session I had was I think the San Diego trip to the Wave House. Geez that was a long time ago. Actually, I did go the weekend afterwards to 26th and remember it not being too memorable, a small and frustrating day probably. The weather was beautiful though and I got to catch up with Christina that day. That was maybe 3 weeks ago. Since then I've been either busy with family stuff or catching up with old friends, plus there has been a very meager swell recently!

San Diego on a whole was great fun. I love my surf crew and any time spent with them will always be enjoyable. The Wave House on the other hand was an hour of being beat up and spit out by a man made barrel of death. Okay, I'm being a little dramatic, but I really had maybe a max of 2 secs on the body board and then in I went into the washing machine. Poor Khang was seriously injured by the thing. He landed feet first after going over the top of the wave, causing his knees to buckle inwards. He reported hearing 2 pops and intense pain in his knee. No Bueno. His knee swelled up immediately, another no bueno sign.  He couldn't put any weight on it so the rest of the weekend he was helped by the rest of us to get around. My PT diagnosis is a triple triad: Torn ACL, MCL and meniscus. I await to hear back from him on the MRI results.

Not an accurate representation of us. This was a guy that went after us.

That night we had dinner in Encinatas, and celebrated Francis's birthday. fun fun.

     

I decided to braid Dias's hair with help from Nicole

The next day we all felt the effects of our beat up session. With any movement such as turning in bed, picking up my covers, and sitting down, I felt my abs, biceps, triceps, back and neck scream in soreness. Oh it was bad, the worst soreness I've ever felt. The rest of the guys tried the stand up "surfing" portion of the wave house, and they all had whiplash type symptoms after countless of falls going backwards, with their head bouncing off the ground. Good call I stayed with the body board. We surfed at D Street in Encinitas. What a gorgeous and sweet area. We parked in the neighborhood and oh how I would love to live here, or at least have a summer home. The waves looked fun, not too big and scary and lots of surfers were out right in front of the stairs. I had my long board, as usual these days, and paddled out with difficulty. With every stroke I felt the burn in my arms. I knew I wouldn't last too long this morning. My one and only wave turned out to be pretty fun. It seemed pretty big, the drop was smooth and there was no one in my way. I was right at the peak and was able to bottom turn my board back to the top, which is usually an accident if it ever happens. I knew this would be one of my few waves so i made the most of it and rode it to shore. Big mistake because it was a pain in the butt paddling back to the line up. I was tired, and it took forever! I didn't last much longer and paddled back in when I had enough. I hung out with Nicole who was huddled on the beach taking pictures of us.

We ate at the famous Swami's Cafe afterwards. It was a zoo, and pretty confusing being a first timer. You order first and then stalk a table that looks almost finished to sit at. The waiters then have to search for you, wandering around frantically calling your name. Doesn't seem too efficient to me. We didn't want to have to deal with that since we had such a giant group so instead, we ate, or more like scarfed, our food in the parking lot, after a long wait and a morning of surf. Great food though, I wish I had gotten the Acai bowl, but at least I got a taste.

Expect future posts from San O and Hawaii! Can't wait!!!!

Superbowl Sunday Surfin'. Plus: Some Great News

I haven't surfed since last weekend, and well, being with no set schedule you tend to wake up whenever you feel like it. So waking up early did not happen this morning. I got up around 9:30 and I got a call from Allison if I was down to surf. Great news, especially since I was already not motivated from my late wake up. We decide to meet near 15th, because of the free parking at the Library. I took a little longer getting down there, so I found her and her boyfriend and friend on the beach already. The waves were super closed out. Pretty unrideable/suicidal. So what do we do? We caught the white water. I had my long board, and man it was fun! I was catching wave after wave, and it was a great opportunity to work on my pop-up. The current was pretty strong, but not too bad since we were so close to shore. I was able to catch some waves that reformed and there was a nice shoulder to work off of.

A short but sweet session, Allison had to head back pretty early, she was hosting a baby shower and had to bake! eek! I later had a super bowl party to attend to. The party was fun, good food, fun people, and one guy that was a die hard Giants fan. He was fun (to make fun of) and crazy intense. We played this grid game which coincided with the points of the game. It's awesome because you're rooting for both sides of the game, hoping the final score will be your box. Here's a pic to explain it better.

Our initials are in the boxes, the numbers were later randomized after all our names were in. So it was 50 cents a box, and the final score was Giants 21 to Patriots 17...so the person with Giants number 1 and Patriots number 7 was.....me! I love super bowl sunday :)

Lastly, after the game Silverton got a text from our friend Joanne. Our results were up for our board exam! I was sooo nervous entering my info on the site, but low and behold, I passed! and so did Silverton! Such a great feeling. All this work...finally paid off. Now I'm officially a PT. Now to get a job!

Venice pier 1/28/12

I've been studying for the PT board exams all month, and I decided I needed to go surfing the Saturday before the exam just for sanity's sake. I decided to stay local but a surf competition was going on at 26th. Matt and Francis were going to be down at HB, but the rest of the gang was going to be at Venice, a place we rarely go to. I knew it was going to be closed out because I was just there the day before studying at the Cow's End, but I wanted to hang with the gang, so I decided to make it out. I expected good sized waves so I took Pinky with me. Christina finally got to take out her new 6 foot Zippy fish, which has a beautiful blue swirly pattern on it. I parked in the residential area and I spotted Christina doing perfect yoga poses on the beach. We chit chat and scan the water for the guys. We're unsure where they are but we start paddling to a group that we think are them but it turns out who we thought were Khang and Dais were actually 2 girls with long black hair :P. However, we soon spotted the gang closer to the pier. As we got there, the guys were all exchanging each other's boards, trying them all out. Good day to do that because the lulls were long enough and the waves were a lot smaller than I had anticipated.

I had a frustrating session with Pinky, as I have been each time taking her out. It's just such a small board, maybe it's too small for me. When I tried paddling for any wave, it felt like I was going nowhere. I dunno, I think I'm just not used to it still. Christina had a great time on her new fish. She was catching a lot of waves that I lot of us were surprised she'd catch. Dais was also catching a bunch when he was on the Zippi board. However, my Zippi inspired 5'6" just wasn't cutting it today I guess.  Ah well. It was a beautiful sunny morning, and I'm so happy I went out before my big exam date to clear the nerves.

A nice little right, the day before.

Surf surf surf! 1/8-1/14

I've been slacking on my postings, but frankly my surf sessions have not been too spectacular.  In the last week I've surfed a total of 4 times! ZOMG! Since i'm pretty much a full time study-er, I've been able to take a lil more time off for the fun stuff :)

Sunday, 1/8/12. 26th. This was after the tumultuous Dockweiler day, but this time I went to 26th street with da guys again. The waves were slightly smaller and I was able to make it out to the line up no problem. The waves were breaking funky, close to shore and fast. I think the tide was high. I brought the fish again, so it was kind of like starting from the beginning, so I wasn't expecting much today, just time to practice. The best thing about my small board is I can duck dive! What a nice break from turtle rolling a long board, oy. This session was most memorable because I made a new friend. Her name's Allison, and she paddled in with Dais, Khang and DK. They met in the parking lot so I thought at first they knew each other already. But turned out they had just met! Anyways she turned out to be cool, she long boards mostly and surfs around 26th, porto, the cove and she just discovered topanga a few days before. I told her about Sunset and how I was thinking about going the next day. So we exchanged info and planned on going! yay new friends.

Monday 1/9/12. Sunset. The plan was to surf sunset when the tide was low, around 3pm. Silverton was up visiting and he agreed to try surfing! He's tried once before a while back, but did pretty well that first time. The plan was for him to borrow my dad's long board, a 9'2", and use my old wetsuit. He's only a few inches taller than me and the wetsuit was pretty stretched out so I thought it wouldn't be a problem.  Turned out that Allison lives in Hermosa, and driving up and back to Sunset in Malibu would be in the peak of traffic, so we opted to re-schedule. So silverton and I arrive at Sunset, the waves are teeensy and it looked like negative tide. Not the greatest conditinos, but there was one little break that looked rideable, and there were only a few SUPs out. More room for silverton to practice, perfect!  Well, we get into our wetsuits, and I didn't account for silverton's shoulders to be too big for the suit. I had to force the zipper closed and velcro the neck on quick before the zipper would shoot down again. I should have taken that as a sign, but we came this far, he'll work around the fact his arms were slightly stuck in abduction . We're in the water and I instantly caught a nice small wave into shore. We are the only people at this peak, the SUP's decided to trek a little south, it was glorious! Another wave was coming toward us, and silverton was in position. I called out, "Paddle! Paddle hard!" He paddles, i don't see him pop up, but he rides the wave on his stomach for a little while. He paddles back to me eventually, slowly and with only his right arm. I asked him what was wrong and he said he paddled hard, but on the 2nd or 3rd paddle, he suddenly felt a pop in his shoulder, and not a good pop. He said because the wetsuit was so tight it didn't allow him to get a full stroke motion, his shoulder blades were too restricted. He paddled, over-using the shoulder joint, which ended up straining his muscle. Mann....what a giant BUMMER! Note to self: don't try and paddle when you don't have full range of motion of your shoulder joint. As PT's, we probably should have seen this coming, but now we know. So he went in right after that. I felt really bad, we had just gotten in! As he went to the car, I stayed in to catch a few more waves. A few more surfers joined me out there, a couple newbies and a couple really good surfers. I caught a few nice ones, but the tide was so low, I had to ditch the wave early so I wouldn't wreck my fins on the rocks. A hard lesson to learn, and a bad intro to surfing for Silverton. If he agrees to try again, we're definitely finding a wetsuit that fits.

Thursday 1/12/12. 26th. I met up with Allison this time, and ran into Khang and DK in the water. I brought out the long board, because the report said it was 2-3, but the sets seemed a lot bigger and I just remember being caught in a rip for a good amount of the time out. I remember it was pretty frustrating, and I didn't catch one wave this day. Khang and DK left pretty soon after I got there, and Allison introduced me to her friend Akiko. She's a petite Japanese surfer mom, who rips! She was riding a Lost, 6' quad fin, thruster, I think, and was really good. Allison came to the beach with her boyfriend, who also surfs, but he had to leave early for work, so I agreed to give her a ride home. We had breakfast burritos at that mexican joint down the ways...i forget the name but it was some prime post surf grub. Dropped off Allison at her nice (and affordable) apt only blocks from the beach, and headed home. On my way I picked up new double D-Ring surf racks, that don't whistle when I'm on the free-way! Yee-Haw! more travel surf for me!

Saturday 1/14/12. 26th. CLOSED OUT! Man was today closed out. It was so deceiving! On my way over the waves looked soooo nice. The conditions were prime, super glassy with a slight off shore breeze. Well, I guess it had something to do with the swell direction, but man was it just walled. However, there were some little shoulders here and there, but you had to be choosy, or else you'd get screwed. I found Khang, DK, and Dais, and apparently had just missed Klaude. I think he went in as I was paddling out. Allison left for Kauai that morning with her boyfriend, lucky duck! Christina was out sick still, she's been struggling with a cold for the last few weeks. Matt was on a roadtrip up to Santa Cruz, hopefully finding some sweet point breaks up there. Oh, and I heard Francis was there earlier, but me being the late riser, had missed him too. Anyways, to the waves. Frustrating to say the least, however I caught 2 standouts. The first one was a drop and 2 seconds of face time before I ditched my board landing straight into the closed out wave. I could've gone straight but these 2 foamboarders riding the white water were right in my way and they almost got hit by my board. It's fine if you're going to practice out here, but do it closer to the sand and not where you can get run over! The second one was after chatting with long boarder local man, Glen. He had just got a really nice long wave and said the rising tide was helping improve the shape. So I took this as a good pep talk, and I got the next wave coming in and rode it all the way to shore, going right and then doubling back going left. I figured this is going to be my one good ride of the day, I'll make the most of it. Well, I was right. The paddle back to the line up was hard, it wore me out, and soon after I got stuck in a set right at the impact zone. I was held under water a little longer than I liked, with my leash wrapped around my foot. Two more waves crashed on me and well, that was enough for me. Man was it cold this morning too. The breeze just chilled me to the bone, and even with booties I started to loose feeling in my feet toward the end of the sesh. I was shivering and it was a bitch taking off my wetsuit with numb fingers. Winter seems to have finally hit. Goodbye freak summer weather, you were nice.

And just because:

:D :D :D :D :D :D 

First big winter swell, 1/7/12

Not the best depiction of 26th, but a nice left hander.

I decided to take my chances, and see what the surf was like today. The media has been blowing this swell out of proportions, scaring me a little to go in the water. I rode with some of the crew this morning, Khang, Dais, and DK. We headed out to 26th first but Klaude, who was already there, informed us it was big but really closed out. He was still feeling under the weather today, so came out to just see the waves. We got there and took a look. The waves didn't seem too bad at first...there were some shoulders and we saw a few good waves being caught. We waited some more, and in came those outside sets, making a thunder slapping boom. They were complete close outs that I would much rather not be caught in.

Dockweiler, LA Times, 1/6/12

After hanging out with Klaude, Bruce, and other locals and figuring out what to do, we decided to check out Dockweiler, because it looked pretty good on our way over, plus there was a nice picture of a guy on a wave there in the LA Times this morning, haha.

 We parked up on the highway, and the waves seemed a little more tame, and less consistent here. It didn't look great, but it didn't look terrible either. Our other option was to check out PV for the first time. I was eager to try it out, but it was a long distance away, it was brand new territory and according to our FB wave reporter, Josh, it wasn't supposed to get good until noon. So we opted to stay. We got in by the jetty near the little park east of the highway. This was my first time surfing at Dockweiler. The big difference here was the big jets flying overhead. They were so loud! Kinda ruins the whole peacefulness of the ocean, one of the great parts of surfing. Other than that, the waves were pretty closed out and powerful. I opted to stay in the white water. Even though I knew I could make it to the lineup, the waves didn't have much face to them and I knew I'd probably not catch any. Instead, I was able to ride the white water in, and even stood up on my fish board a few times. If I brought my long board down it would've been a lot easier to stand up, but I still had fun.  I think one of the funnest parts was I was in prime position to watch the rest of the guys catch (or try to catch) waves. The wipe out of the day goes to DK.

He had multiple fanstastic ouch factor wipeouts. The best was when he pulled out of a wave last minute, but a little too late. I saw his board get caught in the wave, and then he followed it, into the heart of the impact zone. Ouch...he got worked.  Khang and Dais caught a few quick waves, some about head high I'd say.

DK's friend Rodney was out with us too, though I didn't see him go for any waves. I think he used to surf and is now getting back into it.
I took a few breaks, sitting on the sand, soaking up the warm sun rays, enjoying this lovely January Saturday. Something I loved? watching those little sand piper birds with the teeny tiny legs, running back and forth on the sand trying to eat up little sandcrabs, or something. So cute :) Wish I had my camera for a close up of those birds.

The swell's peak was supposed to be yesterday, so maybe tomorrow will be a little more tame. Mahalo guys, peace!