Sessions 8093~96 Get Your Mind Some Excercise

WavLOG

Days 93~96

The primary reason why I surf is stay being healthy and that's the key importance for me. Whatever the means you got available to do so, I think you should do it. Surfing requires you to be fit, especially in paddling out and negotiating through waves, it requires quite a bit of muscle work. 

But it is also often forgotten that your mental health is just as important, and surfing provides ample opportunities to both nature and challenge us mentally.

One of the things I have realized lately is facing the ocean and the wild nature in front of us. I was talking to a local buddy of mine a lineup this weekend about this, and how scared I was the first time I went out at the same spot, and gradually I have been able to  build myself up to the challenge, and I am not as scared as used be, and I was thinking about how valuable that experience has been. It really gave me additional boost in confidence in other situations.

I think that it is important for most of us to experience this kind of a situation, as it will open up our minds a bit more to realize our very own existence with respect to the whole universe and also knowing how the very basic foundations of body and mind would react to it. In coming to terms with where the fear arise from and how we can be prepared to deal with them, I think we can provide ourselves a kind of mental exercise.

Day 93: Thursday was fun at LM with some nice right peaks perfect size and level of steepness for me to practice taking off and staying high on the wave right at the take-off.

Day 94: Friday, it got a bit smaller than thursday at LM, but continued to practice more take-offs and wave spotting. Ren has requested that I'd the party wave on the outside, so I took out my Walden Magic 9. I caught some fun waves until sets started come all in one big line and closed out the whole beach.

Day 95: Saturday the wave power continued to dwindle but the wind situation was quite good so more local spots opened up. I opened up the north-end of a local beach on Saturday. But as soon as people found out that I was "ripping" out there, dozen more showed up. I should pretend like I am having a bad time when people are on the cliff scoping things out :-)   Continued to surf on Walden Magic

Day 96: Sunday was quite flat all in local HMB locations so I drove a bit further south. I was almost ready to give up and ready to head home and I noticed a local prominent surfer friend getting out. He told me that this is only the name of game today. Glad I want out with the Takayama 7'2 Egg and also I double boarded with my trusty JC Ugly Stick 6'4 (with 5 inch vector fins in the back!). The Egg worked out quite good, had some fun and a couple of significantly long rides on about chest high waves. I don't know what about it was today but we were all pig-dogging our boards to keep the board in a trim. I guess because it felt like these small beach breaks were going to close out behind us any moment. It was a kind of bit fun to paddle through fresh-water lagoon to get to the beach.

Session 8092 Giving Up Donuts and Coffee After A Session

WavLOG

Day 92 (T-8) Giving Up Donuts and Coffee After A Session

First, the session this morning was on a fun side but I must say that I should have gotten out with a longboard. But that's life.

So today's topic is all about Google AdWords.

As you know I have put up some Google Ads to let people know about the StokeMaster.COM web site. I tend to do things for the "heck of it," and I almost always end up learning things or two after the fact. Right now, I am not so much interested in attracting the users to the site but what it tells me is that what people are interested in, and whatever the terms the people are interested in, Google would ask for more money per click. For example, if you were to use the keyword "soul surfing" that is a $5.00 keyword for a site which isn't much about Bethany Hamilton.

What about Bethany Hamilton got to do with a $5.00 click? Well, she "wrote" a book called "Soul Surfing." The book is a big seller and thus everyone wants a piece of action regarding her incident and the book and such. I happen to think that my web site has some element of "soul surfing" in it so I would very much like to "feel" that soul surfing is a relevant keyword to my site. But the real world is a much much tougher place than that. So right now, if I want people to click an and get to my site based on a search "soul surfing" I must pay $5.00 or more. I actually think that's quite fair, and it is interesting. It is even interesting to the point that what the general public think of "soul surfing" is about Bethany Hamilton, and I am not sure if I can agree with that or not.

To tell you the very honest truth, I don't know what "soul surfing" is, and I am sure that there will be many different ways of looking at it. To me, a true soul surfer won't be blogging like me. I think that someone like that won't even have an email address or an web access, and it is a rare occasion that I'd be even get a chance to be surfing with this person.

Then, I am also very confused now. My religious teaching tells me that I ought to basically document and share my experience with others, and that's how I can live forever. Then on the other hands, I should not really boost myself to the point to induce some form of envy or lust in other peoples minds.

What does it got to do with giving up my Donuts and Coffee after a session. Well my routine after a down patrol at Linda Mar is to go to Happy Donuts, get a coffee and donuts. That's usually about $3.00 a shot, plus some friendly grief I get from the owner couple. It usually got to do with my appearance like the length of my hair or what I am waring, or not buying enough donuts etc. Today my Google AdWords budget is 60 cents a day. Mind you, I have some very high quality keywords (over a year of hard work on it), I can get 2-3 clicks out of this meager budget, but if I were to give up my coffee and donuts after each DP session, I can have up to 10 or 20 clicks from users to come to my site, with that I can vector the users to visit my StokeStore and get them to buy $200 Nixon watch which I can get a handsome commission from Amazon! What's wrong with that?

Session 8082-84: You Got To Be "In" For the Upside!

WavLOG

Day 82-84

Perhaps you are all new to the stock markets, and if you have not been and if you ever will, you will hear from other colleagues telling you to the effect that "You have to be in it to catch the upside." I am now going to talk about the surfing, and surf condition and how well you do in them.

The key message here is that whether it is investing, your career or surfing if you are looking for the great opportunity, you have to always be in a lookout and the only way really you can do it is to be there all the time. For surfing, you do have to get out both on bad conditions and bad conditions, and even more bad condition days and then occasionally you run into a great condition day; all by yourself. You just cannot simply expect show up only on up days ignore all bad days. Even if you were able to, I think that the gain is probably modest.

I believe that this really goes for anything you are passionate about. You got to live through bad days and then you get to see and live the glorious days, of which, I also warn you that are very far and few in between.

So don't be so F greedy. Show up at the beach as many days as you can. Paddle out with me on poor days, fair days, and occasionally good days, and share every moment of it with me!

I will see you out there!

Day 83 (Friday): The wind has eased even more this morning and also the choppy waves. The overall swell size also has decreased a bit, making it smooth paddle out and nice rides especially for long boarders. I should have brought my Egg board! But I only loaded short boards as I had to put carry other loads a few days prior.

Day 84 (Saturday): The swell sizes were dwindling but the morning winds were small, and I enjoyed surfing at the "M" spot both with my Walden magic and also my Ugly Stik in the inside. It is always nice to have a long session where you can switch a board in the mid session and try them out!

Session 8063-65: Technical Notes on Speed

WavLOG

Day 63, 65

This past week was so windy that it was not really possible to surf locally in Half Moon Bay, at least that was my decision. Actually even under these circumstances it looked somewhat surfable at the the Jetty especially at the tail end of the wind-spell on THU and FRI. Nonetheless, I decided not go get out.

Last week I was at Kinokuniya Bookstore in Saratoga and bought a book with a DVD entitled "Surfin' Speed-Up Bible for Shortboarder." This book is in Japanese and so is the video so if you don't read Japanese and then I'd say don't rush and get it (instead come to my StokeMaster Core Meetings and I can narrate as we share watching this video) As you may know one of the things that I feel keenly about polishing is the speed aspect of my surfing technique. Now that I have more paddling power and more consistent flick-up, it is time for me to seriously work on the speed technique.

Anyhow, there were a few points out of the video I found that was very useful in my situation.

• The most painfully felt aspect is executing the turn #1 as the top turn, stay on the top part of the wave and continue on.
• The importance of using the rails and bottom of the board for the glide.

I've touched off and on about on contest day, the waves look so much better no matter which location we go to. This is mainly because people who know how to really surf know how to catch waves. Again, I must stress this important fact. It is really not your surfboards that do this, but it really is the technical skills and strength of the surfer.

One of the things they know how to do well is to stay on top part of the wave especially on mushy small waves; and that's more than 80% of the waves I (like to) surf. This I actually knew it all along but somehow it did not sink in to my head until now after watching the slow-mo analysis of the steps.

Another approach is to take more of a straight down then bottom turn approach. That was basically the mode I was using and polishing most of the time, and I can usually have significantly longer rides than most people in an weekend lineups, but I could not make them consistently because I still do not have the skill to stay on top of the wave.

After that it is standard ups and downs with rail switch-backs to gain more speed.

Well that's all right now, but be aware that I will gain more speed this year and write about it as I find out some fine points in doing so.

See you out there everyone and say hi if you see me!

Session 63 (Sunday): With the remaining NW swells, I headed to LM in the afternoon when the tide was coming in. It was a good call. I caught a great deal of waves even among long boarders and bunch of other short boarders in the mix. It was definitely a fun day. Started to work on the top turn, but sure it is not easy. After the session a Stokemaster member Bernie was out in the parking and recognized me from the fins of the Takayama board I posted. It is always great to see the people who hang around on the StokeMaster.COM site!

Session 64 (Monday): Back to the same spot. There was a one good surfer who was nailing lot of waves and he had the speed and staying on top of the wave. I watched him for a while and it was quite educational to get a demonstration of how to get the speed.

Session 65 (Thursday): There was no wave but as a part of trying to become a stronger surfer, we have decided to paddle for an hour. I always wondered about the buoy that is floating just about in front direction of the Milamar beach, and we paddled out there from the Jetty. It was a long paddle but game me enough excercise to go there and back. It was a yellow buoy made of mainly foams with PP2 written on it.

Session 8032 - Never on a zero tide!

WavLOG

Day 32

This week the tide and the time has been conspiring against me. This morning I had to go out while at zero tide time, and it was just really bad. I did not catch a wave. About the only thing I got out of this morning was duck diving practice.

This is a kind of a day that when you paddle out for a bit, the tail fin starts to scrape the sand and you know you hit the sand bar, and when you stand, it is only ankle deep, and you are several hundred yards away from the shore!

Under this situation the waves would not take shape, all close out and that's about it.

I am still thankful that I got today's exercise, but it is always nice to catch at least a couple of waves.

Looking at the NOAA WaveWatch forecasts, there will be some south swells hitting us soon. I hope they will bring back some fun this weekend.

Session 8028: Waxing

WavLOG

Day 28

Waxing Issue

The strong winds going for the past few days have caused the water temperture to drop close to 50F measured at local buoys. 50F is definitely on the cold side. The coldest I have surfed was at 48F, and 48 is significantly colder feeling with my toes and finger tips starting to tignle.

Another thing I have been noticing is that the when I was taking off on past few sessions there were some times the board slipped under myself and missed on otherwise ridable waves. That was what happend in the pervious session a lot.

So from now on, I will comb the surface well and another things I am going to do is to switch to SexWax Purple instead of Green, and this morning I actually had a couple of really great long rights on my 7'2 Egg. Wish you were there to see me do that. Even the condition was still a bit on a messy side there really were some nice waves that came through a few times.

Session 8023: The First Day of Spring Surfing (for me)

WavLOG

Day 23

This morning was definitely Spring like in terms of the weather, the temperture in the air, and the return of the sight of "regular, familiar" local faces at the beach. From this time of the year on until late October is going to like this as the day getting longer, more variety of people out in the water. This morning was suffring from a bit of mess from the prevailing winds out in the ocean, and getting out at the "northern" part of the beach was a bit tough, unless you ride the rip out, in which case it was just easy.

With not having been out for a while, I can feel that my paddling strength is starting to suffer and probably supplementing that with in-house excercise is starting to be a daily legimen.

You can see that it is a bit of mess to get out there.

I don't know why this picture looks a bit distorted, but hey it is taken on a cheap wrist cam. What can you expect?

I always see one or two people cleaning up this beach every time I am there regardless of the weather. I always give a bit of hand to pick up some stuff near myself. When days gets nicer, unfortunately, there will be more trash. When the fog will return in no time and we will begin to have relatively cleaner beach again!

Session 8017

WavLOG

Day 17

I was not expecting much this morning, but it turned out to be fun. It was also a bit warmer this morning and even the water did not feel icy like in the past few sessions. One thing that is really helpful is that I lightly jog to the spot and that will get my warm blood circulating to the skin. I will definitely try this again tomorrow as the condition would be similar as this morning (hopefully, that is).

Session 8004: Better Quality

WavLOG

Day 4
Better Quality Yet!

Yesterday I wrote about the rapidly changing weather and conditions. This morning is a perfect example that demonstrates that point. Winter brings some frequent offshore conditions as low pressure systems pass by in the ocean. Typically in the summer, a high pressure system sits right in the Pacific and with the inland heating up, it will move a lot of air onshore. We usually need to wait until the winter season to see frequent offshore conditions. To be honest with you though I don't like any wind on the surf. Offshore condition is "text book" recommended situation as we know, but sometimes, the winds are so strong that the waves simply do not break easily so we often need to paddle like hell to catch waves. And also if I am on a bigger longer board, the wind just blows the board upwards and that makes it even worse.

Of course, that's coming from a unskilled surfer like myself. There were a plenty of surfers who can pull off great rides at any imaginable conditions. My goal, of course, is to become one of them.

Well, so here is a picture of what it looked like this morning. Sometimes fairly large sets came through that was definitely taller than myself, and when that happens it just keep happening for 3 or 4 waves.

Lately I have been having a bit of problems after the flick up. That is the board is slipping away from me. I don't know what has changed. I did not have this when I was in So Cal mid December. I really had a blast and very long satisfying rides on my quad at the Trestles. So

I think I know the cause which is that I am not committing my weight forward fast enough. But I don't know the root cause of this. One thing is that I am definitely trying harder than ever to catch waves, and as a result this could be the start of being able to go a bit deeper in take off. I surely hope so.

I have uploaded more pictures in today's forum entry of January 08 Journal at the StokeFORUM Members section (link). You got to be logged in as a StokeMaster member to see it, but hope you join the StokeMaster and continue further discussions and get out together sometime!

Session 8003: The After Mass of The Storm at Linda Mar

The WavLOG
Day 3
The After Mass of The Storm at Linda Mar

Winter surfing in Northern California often is a fight with the rapidly changing nature. With the weather system moving fast, often 35-45 mph plus, these systems can move close to 1000 miles a day that can dump record rain and wind gusts one day and move on, giving a nice, clear and calm day after.

We just had a record breaking storm on Friday last week, that knocked down power lines in many of our communities. In Half Moon Bay area, where I live, the power was down for 7-8 hours on Friday in the whole town. The whole town outage is actually a good news. If this was a tree-down in a neighbor, and only a dozen homes were to be affected, it could be a low-priority fix taking 2-3 days to get the power restored. Power loss is one thing but it would be a pisser when we start to spoil food in the fridge. We suffer this just about every single year. Thank god, we have gas cooking, we were able to continue cooking.

With the strong winds almost anything that could be knocked down went down. Just about every big wide road signs were down on the highway, and we witnessed a Wells Fargo sign tipped over too at Half Moon Bay branch. This storm was especially worse because the winds were southerly most of the time and most of our roads run N-S direction so the signs were hit direct by the winds.

Back to surfing though, finally the storm has left us and we had a small window of opportunity today to get out with the 11 ft 12 sec WNW swells and practically no winds. Looks like in just a few days we will be back to raw messy huge waves and winds again!

This picture is our famous "world's most beautiful Taco Bell" in Linda Mar, Pacifica. You can see the only remaining part of the signage is the word Bell.




Look at the amount of debris on the parking lot. It is showing the dramatic spill of the water into the lot. The lot was muddy all over.

However, the waves were back to "normal" with up to my shoulder level, on a very mushy side and many long boarders were having fun. I had a couple of rides on that's on a "Fun" scale this morning on my quad short board.

See You Out There!

Session 7156: Are You Looking For The End? Not!

My wife and I do not get to eat dinner together often these days because she is out to school two nights a week, and with her new novel just came out, she is busy giving talk to writers groups and signing books etc.

So I often eat alone, and when I do that I really don't feel like cooking just for myself, so I go out, and when I do, I'd be at the "bar seating." I have lately though finding this an interesting way to spend time alone to just listen into what various people talk.

Tonight, I was sitting next to two young women who were engaged in talking about their future men. I am going to bore you with the details, but the gist of the conversation was to finding the right men, at right suburb with a nice house and a golden retriever. I am going to be blunt and honest with you. But to me, that's basically is talking about the end; it might as well be the same thing as picking hospital, funeral home and the plot you are going to go. The conversation did not extend much beyond the golden retriever bit. The whole summary of the story was to basically find the end, and they'd want that end to last forever. And that's as I know it is the death. I know that basically that's what most people want, just wanting to arrive a comfortable, constant place.

And that brings to the sport of surfing, which is almost completely opposite. In this sport, there actually is not the ultimate comfortable place. We might attain that temporarily but then when we achieve that level, we'd want to get out of that and go for more, say bigger waves, other places, other buddies... whatever... Things are in a constant change, and we beg for these changes. It certainly is not a very comfortable stuff. A mere 5-second hold down can make us really appreciate that we can breath the air, and a wipe-out from a big break can really invigorate us that we actually are alive. Catching an overhead break (or even smaller), and riding it if you luckily caught it requires us to be fully awake, paying attention for the every moment. And when it is going to end? The only thing I know is that some day I will catch the last wave, but then I don't know exactly when that will be. I just keep on paddling for it as long as possible.

And I think that makes the surfers realize some important stuff in life. We should all appreciate what we have accepted as our life challenge!

Sessions 7154-7155: Surfing is Still Hard!

I was in a restroom at a restaurant on the other night and on the wall was some advertisement matrix that included an ad for "Extreme Adventures" outfit. There were many outdoor sports listed from Bungee Jumping, Sky Diving, (Indoor) Rock Climbing, Balloon Rides... But I've noticed that there was no surfing included in this.

Would this be an omission or not? I probably should call the outfit and ask why. But I can guess fairly well the reason why.

The most of the stuff listed in the ad can be done by an average person without much physical training and at least one would experience the sport in one morning or afternoon. It is possible to get that "instant gratification" people want.

For getting an instant gratification, I think surfing is so much more difficult to achieve. First of all, a lot of people do not want to get in the water. It is probably advisable that a person getting a lesson should be able to swim a bit so that on the first wipe-out the person won't be drawn. Plus, the condition is now always "beginner" quality and no outfit can guarantee that condition ahead of time.

And to be able to surf reasonably as a beginner would take about 3 months of two-day weekend sessions, that's 24 sessions.

Beyond that one would need to modify their life style and have some commitment to the sport.

Speaking of that, I have met many people who have transformed their lives. I know many people from the early days of my surfing who have since moved to Santa Cruz, doing the hard commute over the "17." Some people bought a condo or rented an apartment.

I do not have that luxury of surfing in Santa Cruz all the time but I have made a commitment to make myself be able to surf these "crappy" local beach breaks, by going for them as many days as possible. It is still taking a lot of time, but lately the effort is starting to pay back. I am now starting to get a most out of these situations. Now I am starting to find this sort of "fun challenge" to go find and be able to surf; like identifying the best shoulder spots, staying inside between big sets, finding & paddling out into rips, riding reforms, and equipped myself with more powerful take-off technique to out do these waves.

So if you are on the same journey as us, I hope you will stay committed, and be thankful that this sport requires a huge commitment to be good. The occasional rewards of catching some long and nice rides, when they come, they are so much more meaningful to us.

Sessions

Saturday Linda Mar session was actually fun for me with a strong offshore wind, balmy "Santa Ana" like condition. While the waves were mostly closed out, there were a few gems hidden in these waves that allowed me to take some long rides.

Sunday Jetty session was a "reminder" session that I can still practice a lot more to catch more of these peaks that this spot is famous for. With less crowd, I can catch more, but I need a lot more confidence here to make sure I don't get into trouble. Neverheless, I feel I am "moving up" out there. Took out the Rocky 5'6 board which was siting in my garage for most of the summer.

Session 7151: I Have An Illegal Watch Now!

We all know that there are fake Rolex and such that are highly illegal in the US. If the customs official determines that your watch on the wrist is a fake, then they can confiscate it. They can because it is a violation of the law.

This morning, I was enjoying a morning session, looking at watch and saying "hey, I must have gotten here early. I got one more hour of surf."

Well, as it turns out I ended up showing at work hour late. Because my watch decided to adjust itself this weekend. And it is because the law is now different as for when the DST changes back to the standard time starting this year.

Up to now, I did not realize that this was done automatically in my watch, but according to other web sites, many tide watches sold to the surfing market do adjust according to its programming.

So strictly speaking I now own a watch that violates the current law of the US!

You might be careful though too because your surfing merchants may hand you the obsolete watches which is not programmed according to the new law. I would imagine there are thousands of these obsolete watches out there.

Sessions 7145-7

I almost always carry two surf boards. These days, I carry the Takayama Egg, that's 7'2 in length. Then depending on my mood and my guess to what's out there I would pick a 5'6, 6'4 or 6'5 quad fin board. Lately I am carrying the 6'5 quad board. To be honest I think the 5'6 is a bit challenging for me, but it is something I should take out often to see if I am ready to use that one more regularly.

When I get to the beach, I would first scope out the beach for the location, the size and the directions of the break, as well as where the water has ripped open for a nice, or could be a dangerous, channel out, then I pick one of the two boards.

It is a hard decision though. I always feel like I would regret not taking the other board, if I did not. But I tend to take the longer Egg most of the times, because I know it would be easier to catch waves.

Short boarding is really really hard. It just take so much more energy to be successful, and I must admit when I am in a lineup with a bunch of surfers, there always are a few surfers that just got so much more energy to out paddle into the waves; sometimes, I am very amazed how they could get into the waves even on shorter potato chip boards. I must remind you that I have taken a longer board, and I am still “behind” some surfers on these regards. So

So to compensate for the lack of my arm muscles, I tend to look for a sweeter spot where the wave is just about to break and get me a bit of push. This works well when it happens, but that also require a constant adjustment, and here again, some surfers would show up from “nowhere”, and be there on the spot before I can get to it. It is again, one of the amazing stuff some people can pull off.

Not only that before I try to get to the next bump those who took my first wave away is already back at it!

Coming back to my car, I was glad I did not take the shorter board, but I always would wish that I could surf as well as some of these best surfers with the shorter board.

I am not so frustrated by all of that, but it just continues to tell me that I still have a long way to go. What has changed to me lately is though, I know I am getting much closer there this year.

Session 7145: I went back to the JT, a day after the Stoke 10 session in SC. Total mess and junk. It was so difficult to negotiate any shoulders.

Session 7146: DP in Pacifica was on fun side but still a bit of close-outs.

Session 7147: DP in Pacifica again with ME. Fun to share A-frame with you. You go right and I go left! Nice and clean with shoulder level A poppers + nice and balmy Indian summer morning.

Only 147 sessions so far this year, it looks like I would not make 200 sessions this year!

Session 7141 - How Heavy is the Water?

I often go and stock some mineral waters and beverages in the office.

Have you experienced how heavy is a 24-bottle pack of water? It is really heavy. If you stuck three of these packs it would be a bit of work to carry them up stairs. And what is the amount of water are you talking about with respect to surf. The amount of the water that I carried is just a tiny fraction of the water even in a very small wave condition.

But come to think of this, us surfers are dealing with a huge amount of water, and just experiencing how heavy a pack of drinking water makes me really appreciate the power of the waves and what kind of power we are dealing with.

And it is almost unfathomable that this kind of wave activity is going around the world non-stop every day, and has been for millions of years.

Where all that energy come from? It comes from the Sun and it is just a very tiny fraction of the energy the Sun puts out.

StokeREPORT

This morning, I exprienced a bit different surfing.

After a while I was in the lineup, the rain started to pour. Each of the rain drop formed little pearl-like bead on the surface of the water.

Then the sky has projected a nice full rainbow over the Pacific.

Under the rainbow were a couple of dolphins going in and out of the water.

I am so blessed being a surfer!

Session 7136

The part that took this long to get to is to more consistently and quickly be up on the board. But, finally after close to 4 years of trial and error, things are coming together as one.

I am starting to enjoy the sport at a different level than before, that is to mean I actually enjoy the ride and not struggling so much with anything that happens before that point. Things are starting to work more consistently and cohesively, and as a result I feel like I can more confidently focus on the "job at hand."

I was, for a long time, wondering if this would ever happen.

But I think it is starting to.

Sessions 7134, 7135 A Day in My Surf Life Style

A Day in My Surf Life Style

Yesterday we got together after a gig (so to speak) with our long friend Jocelyn and Dane, and a question of what my "day" looks like. So I think that's something to write about.

5:30 AM The CD alarm starts. I picked a music that come in gradually like Brian Eno or other "environmental" music stuff. I leave the musing running, but will get up by 5:45 or so.

6:00 AM (not going to write what I do here).

6:05 AM Check the computer to see if there is no customer issue that cropped up over night. If something happens then I must do a Plan B. On this post I will write only about Plan A.

Continue checking the web, make sure that StokeMaster.COM site is up and running then check my StokeConsole for the local condition (note I do not rely on Surfline or any other forecasting web sites.) I make a basic determination of where I will hit at this time.

6:15 AM I get in the shower, wash my hair and then shave.

6:30 AM If I am going to places close by, I just get in the wet suits with the torso dangling. Otherwise I will put on a T-shirts and board shorts.

6:35 AM Fill up the water jug with warm water. Load the car with the rest of the stuff. Board stays in the car every day.

6:40 AM: Leave the hose. I don't eat the breakfast. Continue with wave checking and coordinate morning session with local buddies via cell while I drive.

7:00 AM: Arrive at the beach.

7:10 AM: At the shore, doing a warm up exercise.

7:15 AM: Paddling out

8:45 AM: Catch the last wave of the day.

8:50 AM: Wash the salt off and change to the street clothes.

9:00 AM: Grab Coffee + Donut or a Pastry Off to work. But usually take care of phone calls stuff while I drive.

6:30 PM: Start to wrap up day's work. Write the WavLOG. Check system status and such before leaving the office. Check 511.org traffic report until the RT 92 turns from Red to Yellow.

7:00 PM: If the traffic status on 92 is Yellow then I will go, otherwise I will stay in the office and do more work until the traffic dies down.

7:30 PM: Arrive at home. Rinse the wet stuff, hang them up. I have the second pair of wetsuits and such. I have a washing machine right next to the washing basin, so I usually throw the wet stuff in there and put them through a spin cycle. It really works well.

7:45 PM: Dinner and relaxing evening.... If Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmare is on I watch it with my wife. Otherwise I am back on computer doing something, or pay bills or do things.

11:00 PM: Pack tomorrow's street clothes in the duffel bag. Then load it in the car. Then go to bed.

Session 7134 Friday Pre-Work

Thursday I did a short board, but Friday morning was a bit smaller so I decided to take the Egg out. I would say, yeah, I like the egg in the morning.

Saturday, No Session

Got a slow start, went to the beach, but having been small, I decided to take an hour nap in the car. Sometimes that's as fun and relaxing as surfing.

Session 7135

A very special local spot, surfed with Cynthia and Stevo. But breaking small, and I had a lot of fun waves.

Sessions 7107A,B - 7108, 7109, 7110

Sun 7107 A, B El Porto.

Work got Busy and also busy preparing for KKC contest for the weekend.

Mon, Tue 7109-7110 LM
Wed 7111
Thu 7112
Fri 7113

Session 7094: Walden Mini Magic Riding Impressions

Finally the summer-like wind swell condition has settled in this past week or so on our area. I like this type of condition because waves can still be challenging for my skill level and at the same time it is not as threatening like when there is south 20 seconds class swells. Summer swells are easier to handle when I mess up, whereas longer period swells can really pull you down!

It was nice, sunny and not much wind at the shore, and Jocelyn, who has been a devoted StokeMaster member offered me to ride her Mini Magic.

It is a 6'8 length board. Not much longer than what I usually ride which is between 6'4 and 6'5. But Mini Magic is a mini-long board. I also have the full Walden Magic 9'0 so it was even more interesting to try this one out.

The condition was about shoulder level, summer mushier beach beak in a popular beach in Northern San Mateo county, and it was very crowded with even a surf competition going at the middle of the beach.

Jocelyn also asked me to help her learn how to duck dive so I handed her my Xanadu Rockhold 5'6 model board and we paddled out. Initially I could not duck dive the Mini Magic, as the nose was so full of the area and foam, but after 4th or 5th paddle back, I got a hang of it and I could perfectly duck dive through it. It does require a bit more effort in the initial front push. The back push is just about as easy (or hard) as my other "more conventional" short boards.

Taking off on this board was significantly easier than on my short boards, and I actually ended up scoring quite a few waves both from the outside and inside, one time the wave was closing on in faster but I made it and so it was good there as well. Taking off on this board does really feel like you are on a long board, mainly from that glidy feeling you get. Once the board starts going, it is actually going, as you get that feeling of the paddling resistance suddenly gone. It is a nice feeling that I know I am going to catch the wave. Whereas, on my short boards, I sometimes need to make sure that they are going, by adding a bit more paddling strokes, and push the front of the board down.

I have caught both lefts and rights, and it was really fun to ride this board. The turning does need some getting used to, and like the Haut Egg 7'6 egg board that I tried before, it does seem to require a bit more weight towards the front to maintain the speed. It was a bit confusing at first as the board did not feel "loose" enough to turn, it does require more long board style turning with more dramatic weight shifting. Or at least that's what I think was happening.

The board comes with 3 fins. But like all of my long boards, I would take the sides off, put a longer fin in the middle and give it another shot.

Session 7077

Fog has lifted off at the beach, and the local wind was almost none. Enjoyable.

Thoughts of The Day:

This morning, I have been contemplating about whether blogging every session, or blogging about sessions in of it serve any purposes. It occurs to me often that some people may take this as myself just showing off how often I get to surf, or how well I am getting at surfing.

Then I remembered of a movie scene from a long time ago, it was about someone appearing on "PBS" show and while the person is getting the "make up" for the show, the beautician told him "It's a PBS show, nobody is watching." So that's probably the situation I am in. It is actually more for my own satisfaction than for the others and so it really does not matter. So I might as well continue on.

As usual with most any sessions, if I go out, I usually feel very good afterwards. Hope, if anyone is reading this, you also feel good when you get out.