Hey I know that dude!!!

Back to the having work interfere with my surfing, I was in Vacaville today. Yes high school Spanish buffs it means 'Cow Town' and there really is a place that proudly bares the name. It is about 20 miles west of Sacramento.

I was in a new facility. They are are huge company that 'develops gene therapy medicine for serious illness' (read 'octomom').

During my tour of the facility with the operations manager, he said Dr. Important Guy might be available for a few minutes. I was OK with meeting Dr. Important Guy. I being a sales guy like to meet the important guys. This is one of those facilities where they take away your cell phone and do a check on your drivers license to make sure you are not some spy (corporate or biological.)

Anyway the operations manager who was a nice older man with real pride was showing me the new facility brought me to Dr. Important Guy. It was surreal.

Me....."Sidewinder!!!!!"

Sidewinder......"Fosters Freeze"

Me......What are you doing here

Sidewinder......."Research and development...."

Me.....(I am now in the weird moment where the guy who surfed with you 27 years ago is now some important research guru at a huge company and I am baffled) "That's cool"

'That's cool ' is all I could come up with. The poor operations manager was about as nervous as you can get around your bosses bosses boss. I am in shock that 'Sidewinder' is not in jail or some psych facility. He was out there back when I knew him several decades ago. He would always have some trippy government conspiracy story to scare us with. We thought he was a bum and was crazy (in a good way).

When we used to surf at Davenport we met this guy who was doing a sideways bellyboarding thing. We of course named him 'Sidewinder'. We went into his palatial office and I learned the whole story. When we met him he just had suffered a back injury falling down some stairs. He was working on his PHD at UC Santa Cruz and loved the ocean and became another surf junky. His 'sidewinding' was good therapy and now he can stand up and surf. He quickly emailed me this picture of him longboarding.



This picture says it all about our sport, the true democracy of it and how powerful it stays with you. After all in most meetings you meet someone that you haven't seen in 30 years and they are gracious and all. But in surfing first things first LOOK AT THE PICTURES OF ME SURFING I CAN SURF!!!!!!!

Top 3 surfing friendly jobs I have had

As I left the house this morning around 6:30 with blackberry, laptop and various mapquest print outs, I had to do that drive up to Orange County when the waves are good. Not that I am complaining (in this economy you need to be happy to have somewhere to go with your blackberry and laptop). But it did look good. You could see those little glimpses of surf off the 5 in Camp Pendleton. It was glassy and there where some waves with just a touch of offshore.

I started thinking about jobs that I had in younger days when I could surf a bit more.

So Chris Miller told me about one of his college jobs:

"I had the best college job as a "bellman" at the Miramar Resort in Montecito (next to Miramar Point and Hammonds Reef). We got/had to ride beach cruisers to assist clients. One night, I get a call for 3 bottles of "your best champagne" to a beach front suite. Knock on the door and Jan Micheal Vincent invites me in. He's hammered!! as it's his post-wedding bash. Insisted I party with them.... so I did!"

Well that is hard to beat but it brought to mind my 3 favorite jobs for being a crazed surfer:

1) College Student; Undergrad San Diego State University 1980

Major- Business Administration /Minor- Pub Consumption

Strengths: College Student

Weakness: Eventuality of graduation

Opportunities: I lived right on the beach by the Mission Beach jetty.

Threats: Quantitative Business Analysis Class

Pay: not bad see my Wetsuit Post

2) Dish Machine Operator (DMO) El Camino Hospital Mt. View CA 1978

Strengths- Hours were 2pm to 10pm during the summer. All my freinds worked there.

Weakness-Dishes were kinda gross

Opportunities- You had an hour between 2-3 to eat and it was good food while you were on the clock.

Threats- Every once in a while a hypodermic needle would come down on the tray. End of summer

Pay-The pay scale got out of sorts with the Nurses union and we were making about nine dollars an hour which was a fortune back then. The work day started at 2pm and they had free food. So for one summer we surfed all day, went to work at 2pm and ate until 3pm then worked to 10pm.

3) Territory Sales Representative Guinness Import Company 1987

After my Minor in Pub Consumption I was ready for this job. Before they decided to promote me several times proving the Peter Principle ("In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence." Dr. Lawrence Peter)

Stengths- Beer what else can I say.

Weakness- Beer before I understood moderation

Opportunities-Expense Report

Threats-Promotion

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