My best bud Anton Maglic whlist growing in the beach ghetto

O.G. Anton ready for action Venice Beach style as a Jr. Lifegaurd

He posted this awesome pic, so I had to post it.

As Summer ends the storm approaches

The last stand of summer at Malibu

"Before all else, be armed" ....Niccolo Machiavelli

It started last Saturday when I found myself at a Speech and Debate Tournament. I was sitting and listening to two of the smartest kids I ever heard going at each other. They were debating the merits of standardized testing. Then I got a text....

Kid .........."Dad cn u tke me srfing?" it was kid number two who was not at the Tourney.
Me......."No still at S-D, you need to run 2 miles before surf for xcountry"
Kid......."Gotta surf for team strting Tues"

I just realized I hit some kind of critical mass one week into the new school year. My mind was racing, I have overbooked, overachievers.......in no particular order:

(the boys)
Speech and Debate
High School Surf Team
Surf Coaching
Cross Country
Middle School Surf Team
WSA
a slight thread of sanity

(the twin girls)
Water Polo
Youth and Government
Dance Team
Sweet 16 Birthday Party

The war has started again. The books and activities v my sanity. Nicco tells me to be armed. I am not sure which arms I should take, but real Coca Cola and Milkshakes are not high on my Doctors list right now. But I stand ready for the battle armed with Aleve and high end tequila. The reality is that I am excited for them and love the action. And this year I promise that I won't be such a stage mother.

However, Right now I will state my position of living vicariously through them.......

EVERY.SINGLE. DAY.

Quote of the Day

As heard in the line up

"Shouldn't you old guys be Golfing, drinking in a bar somewhere or Antiquing"

It was funny. It didn't hit me for a while that he was talking about me. Maybe I should be antiquing somewhere or drinking in a bar. Golf ....never. But the answer is no. I was not mad when I realized this kid wanted me antiquing. The younger kids sit in the line up but don't know where the take off spot is. They never look in for houses or trees or other landmarks. The line up is the line up. It takes time to get it.

I spent several years surfing Stockton Avenue in Santa Cruz. The take off spot was about the size of my computer screen. But in all the years the pecking order persisted. I was no closer to having a prime spot at 35 years old than I was at 15. It is the way it is. I was just as irked back then that the older guys would get the waves.

River Surfing

Alex Gray in Wyoming

The Most Interesting Man in the World

I have been enjoying the Dos Equis commercials.

“The Doer Alone Learneth.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

Fred


School started for High School and Middle School this week. The kids think that they have lost the battle of Time v Summer. Not even close. They won long ago when surfing became something you can do with a small inconvenience of homework.

We live near the beach. I have some simple rules for the pursuit of happiness. Keep your grades up and surf you will. Our sport has been gentrified into a respectable extracurricular activity. I am for it.

However the perfection of looking back shows me how much I missed. When I was a teen trying to be cool and having only surfing to talk and think about. There was a whole world I missed.

If I had a do over I would take the time to enjoy school. Learn something, join silly clubs, make friends with interesting (not always cool) people. Debate government policy and challenge math problems in textbooks that are wrong with great fervor. I would read all of the classics and even try to understand the science of the ocean I spent so much of my life on top of.

Time is on their side. They have High School and College, they are ahead in a race running in real time..... don't pause

But Fred is right it's up to them........