Retrospect...

Hard to believe this pic is from exactly one week ago today... we were drinking beers at the beach w/ 75F temps, completely surfed-out.

Today the beach is mess, so lets talk a little more about last week...

There are several shots that AP took that are amazing, and really need an audience. So, we've done some editing on a few shots and pulled together the best of the best. You'll be able to tell that the camera likes the barrel shots... we are calling this our 'greatest hits' collection... some nice waves and a few guys were really killing it (Brian or Ben recognize yourselves or any of your buddies in these?).

Click on the below shot and tell me your opinion... is this guy claiming, or is he just trying to keep his balance? Eitherway, you don't see too many standup barrels like this around here... Enjoy.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/byana/67333365/in/set-1453277/

Back to normal, sort of...

Well, looks like things are headed back to normal around here. Last night heavy condensation coated the car and house as the onshore flow returned, bringing cooler temps. The waves have dropped off completely and it really isn't even surfable. Funny thing is that there were several hearty souls out trying to force one last day of surf. The most telling moment came when AP commented, "hey it looks like Pacifica out there"... in other words, knee-high waves with bunches of surfers catching them and going straight.


The next 6 weeks are going to be crazy, we have trips to Italy, NYC, and Brazil, family is visiting, and a huge product launch at work. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it together...

Thanks OB for a great week of surf!!

One for the record books...

How about these past 5 days? This has got to be the best stretch of weather and surfing conditions for years!! I haven't been around that long, but in my 5 years here, this is by far the best I've ever witnessed. Anyway, lucky enough for Matt, he showed up on the very first day and left the last day. Not that I killed it or anything, but even I managed to score a fewe during this stretch. These pics were taken today by my lovely wife... I suck at surfing, but these photos make it look like I might know a little bit about what I'm doing. Go figure. There is a link below with a few others, mostly of me so if you want to see ripping surfers, you won't find it here...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/byana/sets/1417736/

Not bad...

Pretty fun out there this AM... had Gassle and a few pals from OR along. Sort of had to choose if you wanted to sit in the pack on the main peak that was working or hunt and peck in other parts of the beach w/ less crowd. We opted for the later and didn't get REALLY great waves, but got quite a few nice ones and no hassles from drop-ins.


For all the times we complain about surfing here, it only takes a few days like this to make you forget. Here are some pics that AP took...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pradoteeple/sets/1393493/

WTF..?? Offshores!!!!

Check this out... 10mph EAST wind!! Thats offshore... oh yeah, did I mention that its sunny and 74F outside? Get it...

Mulligan

Wasn't Woody Allen the guy who has that quote...'90% of success is just showing up'? I'm sure the quote has some good applications in life, but probably not so much for surfing. Saturday ended up peaking around 13' @ 16 secs, which is a hair smaller than the big day that Joe and Rob killed it on 10/23.

So I showed up and had a pretty successful paddle out.. but from here it gets a little confusing, for some reason I managed to convince myself that I'd get my share of bombs by hanging on the shoulder. The results of my strategy are well documented in the video... anyway, BIG thanks to AP for waking up at 5:15am and driving down w/ me and to Rob for doing his very best (unsuccessfully) to drag me out to the main peak. Nothing left but to take a mulligan on this one and see you guys out there next time.
JT

Friday glide

Hey don't these guys have jobs?!! Nothing like cutting work a little early on a Friday to get in a little surf.




Here's Betto on a nice forehand... we paddled out a little too far north, so didn't manage to get any of the bigger ones, but these were fun.











And finally JT, once again the camera didn't fully capture how much I killed it out there today... somehow in photos I always look like a flailing, stiff, 40 year old... wait a minute, uh never mind.













more pics here... http://www.flickr.com/photos/pradoteeple/sets/1346410/

Swell approacheth

10 years ago I used to be into whitewater kayaking up in Oregon. It was a great way to experience the outdoors and have fun w/ good friends. Photo to the left is me on the White Salmon River... must be at least 12 years ago. We started out doing pretty mellow rivers, but it was only a matter of time before we began pushing ourselves into more and more challenging runs. Of course it depends on your skill level, and its not like we were cheating death on a regular basis or anything, but we were running class IV rapids pretty regularly. Anyway, when we would come up on a difficult rapid, usually we'd pull off, scout it, then get back in the boat and run it.


The thing that used to really get to me was the 'butterflies' you get when you are back in your boat, have you spray skirt sealed, helmet on and ready to shove off. While you are sitting there, a measure of how difficult the rapid was, had to do with how many deep breaths you need to take to get your nerve up... one deep breath, ok, two deep breaths, pretty serious, three deep breaths, do I belong here? The pic here is of my buddy Grant (I wasn't on this trip) but clearly the tricky thing here is to make sure you clear the spout enough so you don't get pulled back behind the curtain... looks easier than it is I'm sure. I wonder how many deep breaths he took? Maybe none, who knows.


Fast forward 10 years, completely different sport, but if you have an idea about how swell size and periods work (bouy data), you can see that we have a monster swell approaching for Saturday. This thing should result in 18 - 20 foot faces... Mavericks will be producing 30 foot waves, helicopters will be buzzing the coast, wave-ski and surf-tow crews will be cruising the coastline, etc. The butterflies are back & I may need a few deep breaths before the AM paddle out.

SF Native

Samba is one of the few in the Sunset who can claim to be a SF native. Most who live here in the Sunset are Chinese, followed by Russian, then American transplants. I'm not sure at what point Samba stopped being a cat and started being a member of our family, guess it was probably somewhere between when we picked her up from the shelter and when we got home. When we let her out of her cardboard box, she didn't run and hide under the bed, didn't shake with fear, or anything else that you might expect of a cat going thru relocation... she jumped up on my chair walked up my arm and said hello.

AP thinks Samba likes me more than her, but I'm not so sure. I think it just seems like that because AP is home most of the time with Samba and when I leave for work and come home, she (Samba, not AP) follows me around the house for the rest of the evening. I think Samba and AP get along just fine.

Generations

Chet Helms. After my morning surf on Sunday, AP and I decided to have breakfast down at our favorite organic cafe Feel Real (4001 Judah). This place is amazing, besides tasting great, the food just bursts with nourishment and all things good. Over breakfast I noticed in the Guardian that later in the afternoon there would be an event in GG park that was some sort of 'tribal stomp'... and then there was something else that had to do with commemorating some guy named Chet Helms (photo on left is him) who just passed away (he was only 62). Since it was just a few blocks away in speedway meadow, we decided to go check it out. What an interesting experience. I don't think either of us really fully understood what the whole thing was about, but apparently this guy Chet Helms was some sort of activist who organized several of the biggest and most impactful demonstrations / music events in the 60s in SF area. To learn more about Chet helms, go tho the Chet Helms profile (published by the SF Cronicle), what we learned was that Chet was the real deal, a SF original and one of the people who had a huge influence on the development of the whole 60s movement. The weight of the event really started to hit us when we had a closer look at the profile of the crowd... and it was a BIG crowd.

Think original hippie... average age in the crowd was easily in the 50s with tons of people who were well into their 60s, all clad in funky tie dye, glitter, and general 60s style hippie clothes.


The really inspiring thing was that they not only showed up, they were dancing, partying, and having a great time! We were sitting on the grass while these 60+ year old hippies were smoking weed, drinking beers, and enjoying the hell out of the day! At one point this guy with a thick gray beard, tie dye, etc., comes along with this giant conch shell and started blowing it in front of us, generating this low vibration you could feel all the way to your bones!

Grace Slick was on stage singing 'free your head' or whatever the name of that famous song is, the sun was shining, and everywhere you looked were old hippies getting their groove on. It got me thinking... I hope there is some sort of common element to my and AP's lives that will allow us to reunite with like minded souls in our sunset years.