Rememberance of Things Past

Pleasure Point 2010

"this unremembered state which brought with it no logical proof of its existence, but only the sense that it was a happy" This is my man Proust

About 35 years ago I was a kid surfing Pleasure Point. It was fun and all I can think of are the good times we had there. It had me thinking of a young Marcel, drinking some tea his mom brought to him in his made up town of Combray. Now Proust spent his whole life living with mom and was openly gay although not sucessfully gay. He was sick most of his life but wrote beautifully. I couldn't read it in French only English but still cool.

Anyway he completely trips out on the tea. The tea as he drinks it brings some reality to his exitance and memory. Although it gets weaker ever time he drinks it. He tries to hold the memory and make it real but the tea becomes weaker as he tries. All he can reason is that his sense of memory is happiness.

Well I won't prented to understand Marcel, but I did like reading it. Like a good song that you couldn't really get the lyrics to.

But, I went back to Pleasure Point this summer and surfed it with about five of my friends and my youngest son.

It was awesome. We had it on a small day so there really wasn't any crowd. Just us remembering fun times and trying to hold on to memories that were just out of reach. The more we tried to look backwards, we realized that we had this incredible day together. My Kid was stoked and ripping. We planned this reunion for about a month and brought together a good crew of the my freinds growing up. We laughed surfed, came in and surfed again. And like Marcel, we couldn't put a hard reality to what it was that was good all we knew was that we were happy.

The First Rule of Fight Club

FREINDS DON'T LET FREINDS SURF GRANDVIEW

I saw this on a bumper sticker today. I wanted to get a picture but missed it.

This one I have mixed feeling about. After surfing here for fifteen years we have seen an influx of crowds. From Main Peak to The Wall to Roundhouse the crowd seems to follow.

Do we do the localism thing and pretend that we have a secret spot? Or do we wave the white flag. Grandview is on the Surfline Camera in High Definition. The secret is out. The war is over and the only thing keeping us from complete crowd frenzy is the limit of the parking lot.

Ceremony

Compare and contrast, Joy Division's classic Ceremony

Radio Head Cover


New Order


Joy Division


Ok, if you are a purest you go for the Joy Division version. If you are from my college years you go with New Order, but really, the best version is the Radio Head cover. It is interesting and real. Joy Division was stoned, and had the Nazi thing going with their name. New order was all synthetic. Radio Head nailed it.

No Country for Old Men

My Valentines day gift from my wife was 'go surfing!'

In a cruel irony of events, my spot Grandview was about two feet too big to ride. But with the sun out and a free pass I had to paddle out.

On my way down the stairs I was greeted by four snapped surfboards! I got out got a wave and then paddling back out on Lucas' board I was met by a monster set. Then you are forced with the question of trying to paddle out and make it through before it breaks or do you let the wave break then duck dive. This is me trying to remember Bonga Perkins interview on Duck Diving big waves with a longboard. If you duck dive and the wave hits the back of the board you will paddle in with two boards.

Like the algebra problem you try to calculate when a piece of ice get stuck in your throat, I tried to figure it out, only to have the set break in front of me. I went under and did a few flips holding on to the board for dear life when I noticed that I forgot to take a breath before I went under.

It was time to go home. Do I feel defeated...no. As always, it is always better to paddle out even when all you have is a war story.

From Incenced to Outraged to Perplexed in 3 minutes

I can still count on Logan, he hasn't abandoned me.

So I am picking up Logan from Swamis a few days ago and ran into some of the High School Team.

Stage 1 INCENCED

SDA Team kids - "Why isn't Lucas surfing in the ISF contest this weekend, I can't believe they didn't put him on the roster!" They are beside themselves thinking that he has been taken off or lost his slot in the team roster. Anger, and teenage angst ensue.

Me - "He has to go to to a debate tournament this weekend"

He got his invite to the Stanford University Invitational cool stuff for debate nerds. It is a national tournament with a bid for the Tournament of Champions and if Lucas does well he can get a partial scholarship for debate camp this summer ( a whole other story ).


Stage 2 OUTRAGE

SDA Team kids - "Your kidding us! You have always been cool now your making go to some debate thing!!!? They are mad now and it is building.



Stage 3 PERPLEXED

Me- "His choice guys" I had to explain that this was his choice. The horse has left the barn. Being ego-centric it was hard for me to get around the fact that he has chosen debate as his passion over surfing. Yes, I said it. I am that shallow. Surfing I understand, the need to surf, the feeling and how you do it, but he has taken his path.

SDA Team kids- "Aaahhhh What!?"

Logan and I shrugged our shoulders. Tonight he gets on a plane for Northern California armed with 100 hours of prep, his notes, laptop and a cough that sounds like the beginning stages of pneumonia.


Can I talk him out of it?

Not a chance. He has self actualized and found his place. It will rain anyway this weekend. The contests will be rained out. But the hardware paradigm has shifted, he will trade any of his giant cool surf trophy's for the smaller hardware given to winners at the debate tournaments. He brought home a third place from his last tournament like it was the Hope Diamond.
Time to embrace it and understand what the hell they are saying about Hegemony, Fem K, Blocks, Bio-Power and Theory.

The Rock Showed Swell

The many faces of huge Ventura. If you started out at the top of the point you would end up about a half mile away at the Pier.

As the wind changed Ventura looked perfect and then gnarly all in ten minutes.

Some of the sets were big. Scary big, but if you had the position you could go on forever.

Cutback


Jason Schecter is my new hero going for an off the top floater reentry on a wave that started double overhead. He made it and won the heat, the contest and scored the highest wave score of the contest at 9.43.

After each wave you needed to run back to the line up. The heats barely afforded two waves. The no leash Cardiff Crew had to strap on what they had. Lucas' old soft board leash lasted about one 12 foot set.

With 8 minutes on the clock it was an interesting run back to try to get out for another wave. He put back on his leash event though it was broken maybe to feel like there was some measure of safety.

Big and perfect, a wild ride had by all

Tofino

Canada surf trip this summer looks interesting

Surfing

There’s no wonder Tofino is Canada’s surf capital. Home to the aptly named Long Beach and a host of others, the waves keep rolling in along miles of sandy beaches—35km of surf-able beach break to be exact—leaving plenty of room for all boarders, from absolute surf beginners to seasoned waveriders.

The water is a cool, yet fairly constant 10°C/50°F, making surfing a year-round activity in Tofino, with some of the best rides being caught during the winter when the surf is definitely up! Neoprene is the order of the day with wetsuits, booties, gloves and a hood recommended if you want to spend quality time in the water.

Get started with Tofino surf schools, offering lessons and surf camps, where certified instructors share their knowledge of proper surfing technique, ocean safety, and surf etiquette. Visit our surf shops for surf gear rentals – they’re also the best place for advice on current conditions and where to ride the next epic wave during your stay.