Surf Thoughts

Aloha All,

Below are some surf thoughts.

Sometimes theres  a lot  swirling around in my head. Other times, often in the middle of the night 2-3am, I get single thoughts,  or realizations, that stand out.

As soon as I open my computer to write the thoughts down, I immedialty get temptations to check my email or write down a list of what I need to do, and in doing so, begin to bury that beautiful thought.

So let me get straight to it.

I feel like we’re all so lucky to be alive. Most of us are so blessed and we’re walking aounnd bored or jaded, or complaining about something or other.

In the Hawaii Surf Scene we’ll be surfing the most beautiful waves and often everyone this vibe like it’s no big deal. Meanwhile we’re surfing literally the most consistent, radical and diverse surf conditions in the world. With Waves somewhere on the island every day-some waves providing rides over a hundred yards.

I am thankful for:

 my beautiful wife, and  beautiful two sons.

My ability to surf - The aspect that I don’t have to think anymore, only do what I can. It’s plenty enough to be able to surf  safe and slide behind a curtain of water every now and then.

I am thankful for realizing that

You can only surf whatever is happening to the wave. You cannot surf what you think the wave will do, but only what the wave is actually doing in that moment. 

Once you see how the wave is transforming before your eyes, you can begin to understand how it is breaking and make adjustments to your movement while the wave make’s it’s adjustments right before your eyes. While it flows its movements,

Your body and board must flow with it, and after a while you understand that there are many different ways to flow with a wave, many different lines you can carve successfully. Some take more radical curvy lines. While  others go straight on a straight diagonal. I prefer the wavy lines riding as many sections of the wave as I can Surf every morsel- the bottom of wave, the top, and the very top off the for a floater, the inside of the barrel, up and down and all around.

I think time is best experienced slowly, savoring an appreciating every  morsal of millisecond where 3 -4 seconds is detailed memorable experience.

Most of the time we fly by hours of time without consciousness or steady breath.

Slowed down time often occurs when we are experiencing  a dangerous accident- where our senses are heightened, like on Sunday evening I went over the falls backwards and it seemed like a solid 3-4 seconds before I hit the water.

Or when I slid out on a hairpin turn fliying down a hill on amoped on  the Amalfi Coast, Italy on my way back from Positano to Sorrento. I slid about 20-30 feet on my chest and pelvis. I thought I scraped off my private parts. When I got up I stuck my hand in my pants and everything was still there. I escaped that accident with only a few scratches. But I remember every millisecond the slide. I thougth, “Oh you’re a cool guy now aren’t you?” Your mean to your brother and father, what a jerk you are!!! You deserve this!!! I had a whole sequence of thoughts as I slid on my chest.

Boy that was a little Tangent eh?

But slowed down time also happens during extreme moments of joy, like when surfing a wave.

Last night I got barreled and I can still remember how I looked down the line and saw a surfer drop in too deep and how he didn’t make the section, and how it cleared up for me to take on the shoulder. As I bottom turned I remember the sight of the lip beginning to throw horizontally over my head, and how I made the choice to turn up the wave and go underneath its curtain, just before it water falled behind me and created a tube.and how I shot out clean in front of a bunch of people I knew. I was stoked or elated.

If we can experience most of our day more slowly and savor every millisecond of life, the more fulfilling it can be. There is nothing like the feeling of gratitude.

The feeling of extreme thankfulness for life. It makes us a humble and more compassionate towards other’s misfortune.

I am thankful for life. 

Covid-19 March 28, 2020 Surf Journal

Aloha All,
Its been way too long since I've written in this blog.
I need to practice writing so I'll just go for it.

Friday after work (I'll try to save you the details of my day job)
I came home around 4:30pm desperate to surf.
I called my friend to get the surf report of the waves in front of his house.
He said it was on.
My son Hayden joined me.


The spot we would go to has a few if not a lot of gnarly reef heads in certain areas, so I drew him a diagram of the reef of where not to go.

When we got there, we paddled out to find our friends in the water.
The waves were  a little  unruly and all over the place, with a little wind factor.
 Head High waves would jack up from little mounds. It was hard to figure out where you were in the ocean since there were waves all over the place, difficult to see which one to ride then you'd take off on a wave only to find yourself headed strait for the reef patch.

A set was approaching from the distance. In no time it was 20 ft away. Hayden says "Oh no dad! What do I do? and I said, I don't know" I paddled away from him so we wouldn't crash into each other. Later he said the wave made him do a back flip underwater and held him down longer than usual. He said at first he kept trying to swim up, but then he gave up because he didn't want to waste his energy, and I said good, that's a good thing to experience- exactly the right thing to do in that situation.

He took off on the next wave and rode it well safely.

He paddled back out, and another wave came which we both took off on.
He rode it on his knees and was headed directly towards the reef patch with no escape.
Thankfully, he rode high on the wave which took him over the reef.
All my friends were scared for him.
I was afraid too.
He rode straight over it and was deposited in the middle of reef heads.
He somehow paddled out of the danger zone unharmed.
We went home. Ate dinner and Crashed.

Today is Saturday and Hayden asked if he could surf Queens with his friends.
So that's what we did. We ate breakfast then picked up Reed and headed to Waikiki.
His friend Mars would meet us in the water.
With all the Covid-19 Park Closures, we parked over by Publics and paddled to Queens from Walls. We went around the buoys and avoided the boogie boarders.
There was Reed, Hayden, Marisa, Cruz and Myself.
We all rode long boards and Cruz rode with me with his floats on my Yellow board.
It was a gorgeous sunny day, and a beautiful 300 yard paddle in clear light blue water.
I was happy that my wife Marisa joined us.

Hayden caught some long ones from outside, all the way into Baby Queens. Possilby the longest wave I've ever seen him ride. He pushed his mom into a wave and made her happy.
I'm a proud dad.
I caught some fun ones too.
Johnny the Ripper was out, Connie and his blond girlfriend ( I forget her name), Lala and Poey. They were ripping as usual - everyone riding the nose and catching epic rights.
Cade, James from publics and his daughters and a bunch of others we knew were out.

Afterwards, I rallied up the boys to paddle back to Walls.
Hayden was getting hungry for Mack and Cheese.

We showered up and found Marisa by the minivan with Kate, Reeds Mom.
The boys walked the dog for a 20 minutes then busted out the skateboards and skated on the sidewalk for another 30 min.
We left and wend to the grocery store to pick up Pasta shells for Mac and Cheese and some Ice Cream. When we got back to the house, the kids did arts and crafts while Marisa and I prepared some Pepperoni frozen pizza, mac and cheese, and green beans and mushrooms.

Reeds parents came by to pick him up and we sat for about an hour drinking a couple of beers and a bottle of white wine, while the kids skated around the neighborhood.
Mars, Reed, Cade and Hayden. Then they left.  Mars stuck around a little longer and skated in front of the house until his mom came.

But now my son has played Fortnight until 11:30pm and is having a temper tantrum.
So. I've decided to take it away indefinitely.

Being a dad is one of the toughest things to do for me.
I'm hoping he just stayed up too late and was totally exhausted.
It's 11:30 pm.
Time for me to crash too..