I get to go to Minnesota for a week

This is Stoney Point. It might be better in Minnesota than in Leucadia this week. Check out the waves!!

This whole job thing continues to plague my surfing

Gone till November

I couldn't get the Wyclef Jean version

Jake Gray Style

David's son will be the next ripper. At 7 years old he is showing potential of bigger things.

I like this pic

Stats are out Lucas is #7 in San Diego

Click on picture to see

Friday was Good!

So should I feel guilty surfing on Friday? Let's see:
NO! Look at this!

Friday was not supposed to be good. If you believe the reports. I decided to go at the last minute and when I pulled up to the parking lot it was full. I saw David's truck (Kodak Fever), Chris Miller's truck (he is good luck for waves with me) Eds Bike (he will surf anything) Of course that is what people say when they see my vehicle.

There was an unfortunate picture on google earth of my truck in the Grandview parking lot. It kind of says you surf too much. I have tried to summon up some guilt, but I kinda am proud that a snapshot of my life was surfing.

This picture of the glassy lefts summarized our day.




Chris was getting all the best waves this day. David put this into black and white pretty cool.



Here is Chris again. Everytime the sets came he was right there. Even when he tried to give you one it still came to him.




This was my last wave. I wish you could have seen this guys face. I seem to get a look of terror anytime I get close to someone I don't know when I am surfing. It is a 'don't let this giant guy kill me!' look.




We watched Ed get this one from the take off. When we watched this wave we mused that we do get good waves at our little spot. The conversation was that if we just showed these pictures to someone and told them we went to West Oz for vacation and got this spot with no one out they would say what an insane trip!

That's all. I will get to Saturdays competition blog later...long story....great expectations meets Puerto Escondido. stay tuned.

Contest at Pipeline;....er....Ocean Beach

The YMCA contest was slated as a 'Novice Contest for Surfers getting ready for competition'.



It was a beautiful day. Sunny and warm. The wave report for the contest was 1-3 foot and glassy.........



Lucas and Logan were excited for their contest. Like Sarah Palin going to Sachs with her shiny new RNC credit card! We got up early and drove down to Ocean Beach. Unfortunately when we pulled up it resembled more pipeline than small San Diego. Yes this photo is Puerto Escondido. But put yourself at Logan's size 4'6" 75lbs and you get the picture.



To add insult to injury here is one of the kids he surfed against. There were 12 year old kids getting tubed and doing airs!



Here is Hale psyching up for his heat. He did well and got into the finals. I saw him at Cardiff today and he said the finals were sketchy. But he was a champ and coached Logan.

Here are some of the parents wondering if they should have their kids go out?

Here is Logan getting ready for his heat.

Here is Jerry getting Logan ready for his heat. He stepped up and paddled out getting 3 waves in the 4-8 foot faces. The surfers were very good.

Here is Lucas in his heat taking off on head high pounders. He did great. The put him in a heat with a pro surfer and a few adults so it was stacked against him but he carried himself well in the big surf earning respect from the beach.

Lucas again.

So after the contest we went to Cardiff and got a fun afternoon session.

I can get good pictures but I can't take them

So David reminded me that I can't take surf pictures. I thought I better blog on it now that I am a blogger with at least 3 followers.

David's Friend Chad got this picture of Jake and Lucas from the water at Cardiff.



Back in 1978 I was in Hawaii at Off the Wall with my friend Terry Callahan. It was head high and good. Terry had a water camera and got a movie of me killing it. He then made the mistake of giving me the camera. Terry preceded to get the wave of the day; off the lip, tube and huge cutback. When he rushed to the store to get the movies developed my waves looked like a surf movie. His waves were a study of the horizon and the deck of my surfboard. We teenagers so he reacted rather poorly. I got a black eye. He broke his hand.


But I never learned. Back in 1994 in the summer The Wall was going off. David had a water camera and Dean, David , Ed and someone else was out. They were going for tubes. It was awesome. David get completly tubed. In fact everyone went for the complete tube and got worked. 'Kodak Fever' was rampant that day. I was in the water for three hours taking shots of the guys going for close out tubes and then getting obliterated!

David goes running to the store to have the pictures developed and yes you know the story. It became a scene from Shelly's Frankenstien. The Surfers (as I remeber it maybe a slight exaggeration) were coming at me in a towns riot with torches and pitchforks.

The final straw was that Ed took a movie of me with a soundtrack. 'Big Sunday' it was called. I can't figure out how to post it sorry. But it was epic.

Then a few days later the waves were pumping but I had an ear infection. Ed gave me his camera. Ed was ripping! But when the movies came out all he saw was the ants on the ground next to me. The insult to injury was me singing to myself songs from 'Guys and Dolls'.

The moral is don't give me the camera!

David Gray's pics are still coming from 'surf day'

Matt got tubed on this one, David got the end of his perfect wave.




14 Years ago I could surf better than Ed....Really








t was a great day. This was my best wave although I almost ran over Bobby Bethard.

Chris Miller is my Longboard surfing idol. I surfed one of the best days of my life with him in Mexico on lefts that went forever.

Thats all for tonight. There is a contest on Saturday at Ocean Beach so I will move back to kid competition.

I surfed today

Wednesday October 23

David Gray had his camera out and I had to surf. Here is a beautiful picture of Lucas at sunset at Cardif

I surfed today after Matt called and said the waves were good. I had no choice just look at the water.

In the light of our economic turn it seemed like every surfer I ever met was down surfing today. A conversation with unnamed sources went like this "I tell people I am a semi-professional surfer and that is why I surf all the time." The response was- "I don't tell people I have become a pro surfer but I think I am becoming an amature executive!"

Still turning hard at 253lbs

Update Tuesday

WE WON! Yes Diegueno won against all nine schools competing in this first contest!!!!

Here is the official email from the ISF:

The Interscholastic Surfing Federation launched its first of five events for San Diego Middle Schools on Saturday, October 18, 2008. The event took place at Oceanside Harbor South Jetty. The surfers and their families were treated to the perfection of our Southern California weather and surf. Light offshore winds in the cool morning turning to warm summer like conditions with surf ranging from 2 to 3 foot with 4 foot sets and excellent conditions. Team Results:

. 1.Diegueno 209

2. Earl Warren 181
3. Valley 176
4. Correia 163
5. Oak Crest 119
6. Carmel Valley 111
7. Aviara Oaks 102
8. Coronado 91.5
9. Calavera/St. Pats 85.5

Here is a good picture from Lucas entering the water in round two on the left with Hale coming in. Courtesy of his Mom.

This is the best picture we were able to take from Lucas surfing in round two. We were too busy cheering to take a decent picture.

Next contest is on November 8th in La Jolla

Yesterday was Lucas' First Surfing Competition

Yesterday Lucas entered his first surfing competition.
He was very excited.
As you can see, Lucas triumphed at the Oceanside contest.

He was: 2nd in his First Heat
3rd in the SemiFinals
4th In the Reprocharge Final

Very exciting day. The competition included Nine middle schools from the area and there was very competitive Longboarding. In his his first contest he advanced to the third round! We were all so proud of him.

Lucas getting coaching from Coach Shocken (Also his History teacher.)

Lucas surfing near the end of the wave.

Lucas with teammates after a good run.

Lucas is enjoying getting more coaching from this year's excellent coaching staff.





More coaching and teammates.


It was a beautiful day at the beach.

Everyone was excited. I was so proud of Lucas.





Here is a nice picture of Logan and Uncle Tony.

Logan also enjoyed surfing yesterday.