Blog Profile / Confessions of a Novice Surfer

Aaaaaaah...

Today marked the opening session of my pre-work surf season - the time of year when there's enough light to hit it early and still have plenty of time to get to work. And it was good! 2-4ft clean, peaky windswell and probably a little SW thrown in the mix. Show More Summary

Posting for the Postyness of it

I sort of wish this blog was limited to 140 characters. I'd actually keep it active if that were the case. This morning a couple of guys were talking to me about CONS in the lineup and I had mixed feelings. On the one hand, I'm completely comfortable and OK with not having posted since December of last year. Show More Summary

The Donkeyfication of the Morning

I pulled the swingshift this morning since my wife has LA Marathon training early and I got the kids. I biked down to Porto around 10:45am. There were still a few fun ones rolling through and it was pretty clean for the late morning....Show More Summary

Search Phrase Roundup: Volume XI

It was a co-worker who reminded me that I haven't been giving the old blog much attention as of late. After 8 years I've kind of lost my ability to be prolific and, to a much larger extent, my wit. But hey...shit happens. Anyway, I thought I'd throw something out there since I haven't posted anything in a while. Show More Summary

Dear Sir...

Dear Sir Whom I've Never Seen Before This Morning, Perhaps you didn't hear me on that A-Frame this morning when I yelled "which way ya goin'?" hoping to just split the thing with you. You may not have noticed, but your non-response left a perfectly good right go unridden. Show More Summary

Parental Stoke

I’ve been patiently waiting for my youngest to show any kind of interest in ocean activities outside of playing with her Barbies at the water’s edge. As surfers, I think we all want our kids to follow in our footsteps so that they can not only share in the stoke, but also share in a mutual bonding experience with their parent(s). Show More Summary

Expectations

I need to lower my expectations more often. Most of the forecasts, including the one site that is specific to El Porto, concluded that the homebreak would be left with nothing to surf over the weekend. If Friday was any indication, the...Show More Summary

Big Fat Tail

I stopped by Surf Concepts the other day (big mistake!) and ended up walking out with an epoxy White Diamond with a 5-fin set up. It was used but didn't have a scratch on it. It even came with a thruster set of fins (although I have about 4 different fin configs I could throw on there already). Show More Summary

The Shuffle

Just a friendly reminder that these guys are showing up now: When you enter/exit the water, shuffle or drag your feet lest ye be barbed in the foot. This sucks for me because I'm one of those surfers who likes to walk the board out as far as possible before paddling to the lineup.

The Motherland

Due to logistics revolving around my inability to ride my motorcycle to work for a couple more days, I chose to go surf Venice Pier this morning since it would be about 5 miles closer to work after a session. I really should've researched...Show More Summary

Week's Worth of Wrap Up

After 6 days straight of surfing I'm giving myself a much-needed break for a day or so. It doesn't look like there's much going on any way. I capped off this run by trunking it yesterday at Shit Pipe on the little crappy Softop kid's board I found a couple of years ago. Show More Summary

Chopes Anyone?

Teahupoo on a "small" day. Any takers?

All This Light And Nothing

I get up with the roosters these days since there's enough light to surf at like 5:30am. But that doesn't really accomplish much if there isn't anything to surf or, as has been the past couple of days, the conditions don't deliver as anticipated. I spocked it Monday and eventually went home and back to bed. Show More Summary

Peter Party

Over the course of the last couple of years -and outside of the many Dan's I've encountered- I've discovered that El Porto hosts a plethora of people named "Peter". I thought I'd take a moment to give them all a shout out. In no particular...Show More Summary

Holy Crap! A Post!

This week was the Season Opener to my pre-work sessions. There's enough light now that I can get in an hour session and still have plenty of time to meander my way to my cubicle wherein I will sit on my ass for 9 hours. It also coincides with the worst time of year to surf so it's almost a non-event. Show More Summary

Those Nutty Scots

Thursday will be 4ft Hawaiian.

Humpty Dumper

This past weekend delivered some pretty good size with occasional overhead sets. Seriously...there was one wave that jacked up inside where the guy riding it could have legitimately claimed a stand up barrel had he not dodged it at the...Show More Summary

Interesting Morning

For whatever reason there was this nasty, stringy brown stuff floating around in the water. I have no idea what it was but it was disgusting. I still surfed, though, because it's hypocritical to complain about nastiness when we as surfers piss our wetsuits. Show More Summary

Kissed By The Lip

Nice Run

If I did the math correctly -which, based on how well I'm able to help my 7th grade daughter with her homework, is probably a far fetched notion- I've had 15 sessions the past 21 days. That's a lot of surf for a working man during Winter...Show More Summary