Mindsurfing for the 9-5 Part 4

Black n' White Pipe
Black n' White Blacks

Mindsurfing for the 9-5 Part 3

Back to the mindsurfing! Its the last few days of the month so its time to grind out some sales at work.

Peaky Beach-Breaky goodness

Mmmmmm

Missed it

I pretty much missed it this last week. I got out for a while Sunday and Tuesday, but no barrels. Picture stolen from here.

SoCal Burning and Firing

Its kinda hard to be as stoked about conditions like this....

When its caused the the same conditions causing this.

Priorities

Only two? Actually one more in the bed and the Pavel in the Jeep in front

One guy, five boards, excelent priorities

Fire Everywhere

Another fire (12 now?) started up this morning in San Marcos.
The smoke going out to sea.

Stolen Steve Lis Fish

This beautiful and rare original Steve Lis Fish was stolen from a fellow surfblogger Born to Lose. Click here to find out more.

No Mindsurfing Today!

Made it out to Oceanside today. I got a call this morning from a friend telling me it was going off. My rockin wife suggested we go down and I surf for a bit. It was a 1-3 feet overhead and beautiful! I didn't do much since I was on my much-neglected shortboard, not nearly as much volume as I'm used to!

Clean peaky fun

I did take a few on the head, but it wasn't to bad

I live up in Foothill Ranch, about 5 miles away (at this point) from the fires. We were going to church until we saw huge brushfires only a couple hundred feet off the toll road. Our prayers go out to all the people who've lost their homes.

This is only about 4 miles from our house

Mindsurfing for the 9-5 Part 2

The long walk in, or out

If only that that yellow house on the right was mine....

Mindsurfing for the 9-5 Part 1

Every average joe surfer needs to keep his spirits up while he's sitting at his desk for 8+ hours. I've done my share of mindsurfing in pictures from various sources. Its a bit of an escape to insert yourself into a great photo. These pictures are just a small part of several years of browsing misc. online surf mags, blogs, and websites....

"Yeah, I got barreled at work today."

"The crowd on shore was cheering me on..."

Help Midget

Well-known shaper, ASP judge & local surfing icon Midget Smith was recently diagnosed with cancer and is currently undergoing chemotherapy. Midget beat the disease 22 years ago & has been unable to obtain medical insurance since. With his ongoing treatments the medical bills are stacking up. Midget has touched the lives of many in & out of the water and this is our chance to give a little something back.

On October 27th there will be a benefit party at Duke’s Grill located at 204 S. El Camino Real in San Clemente............

See the rest here.

Sacred Craft

Sacred Craft surfboard expo! This was an amazing collection of surf-craft from Grain Surfboards to Lost's Placebo pop-outs. It was really cool to see how crowded the Grain booth was, since I've been following that company for a couple years. Interest in their boards just gets bigger and bigger. Hopefully one day soon I'll be able to get one or two (or three). Danny Hess' booth was equally impressive. This was the first time I've seen his boards in person and was very impressed, Which isn't saying much since I'm such a novice, but hey, I liked them! The craftsmanship is incredible. From Robert August to Patterson, Patagonis to EZ Foam, everything shaper-related was there to drool over. Next year I'm going to set aside more time...

The Grain booth was a crowd favorite

My beautiful Hawaiian princess and her brother came along. I was loving the Tyler Warren art on this board.

Stripes!

The Biofoam booth was neat

Rich Harbour Passing out surf-wisdom

One of my favorites, Patagonia

My personal muse, Wilbur Kookmeyer

Danny Hess' boards really impressed me. Now I've got another board on my wish list!

Grain Demo

Grain Surfboards did a demo at Cardiff Reef this Friday morning. Its towards the end of their west coast tour.
The way they make these boards is amazing. Every one is an individual work of art.

Dream

Surfboard Show

Sacred Craft Surfboard Expo is coming this weekend. Del Mar fairgrounds in San Diego. I'll be working Saturday of course but Sunday morning bright and early!

Work...

Small, glassey, and fun looking this morning while I was driving to work. Didn't get out though. Maybe tomorrow morning if the wind doesn't blow everything out. The Southern California grind doesn't lend itself to paddling out on a daily basis. At least not when you're paying a mortage with a 100% commission job. I can't complain though. I have a good life, I just need to work a little harder now so I can play a little harder later. I don't want to have to put in this kind of hours when rugrats come along in the future.

Coming from surfing daily and working at surf shops for years, I kinda feel like a kook now. I'm that guy in the suit going to work where at one time I'd be "sick" and taking the day off when the surf was good. Its still feels weird when its firing and I drive by to work without a second thought, well maybe a second thought, and a third, but I do end up at work. Yeah, I'm a surfer.....

Surfing-Riding The Wave-Trailer

San-O

Even with its normal crowds, San Onofre is one of my favorite spots. I never go on weekends though. Early-morning weekday trips are the best. Relativly small crowds even when its perfect. Its easy to sit a little away from the main peak and pick off some fun lefts. A mellow vibe and mellow waves makes the spot I'll choose over the best wave with crowds of people any day of the week.

Everyone Surfs

For my birthday, my wife bought me Chasing the Lotus-The Lost Reels of Weaver and Wills. (http://www.wetsand.com/shop) This is a compilation of footage from filmmakers Greg Weaver and Spyder Wills as they documented the beginning of surf travel and exploration. For starters, its a great flick, but more importantly, it show what surfing was like years ago. Before chartered luxury surf trips, before Quiksilver, and Volcom (ZQK and VLCM) were listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and before PacSun and Tillys were selling boardshorts in Wisconsin strip malls.

All us "surfers" like to think of surfing as a primal release, a way of getting in tune with nature and away from all the goings-on in the normal world. Is it really getting back to nature when we drive our leather and chrome-clad suvs with our fresh new Channel Islands board, wearing our rainbow sandals and Hollister tee shirts to a beach break with 100 people just like us in the water? Maybe if we get a $1000 twin-fin fish and don't shave for a couple days we'll have the soul needed to really connect with what surfing is about. That or a 11' plank with a glassed-on wood fin at San Onofre with a straw hat and ukulele in hand. Chasing the Lotus shows us what it was like to be the first, to be an explorer, to really see and experience firsthand what all of us do our best to buy off the shelves.

Where did we come from? Where is surfing going? Is the economy going to continue to drive the expansion of a made-in-China cash cow or will this turn into the Hula-Hoop and disappear but for the few die-hard souls who would still be in the water if no leash or wetsuit had ever been invented? This blog is just one kooks comments on a pastime he loves. I'm not a pro surfer, I don't know people in the industry, I'm not really even that good at it. I just like uncrowded breaks, getting that great ride, and getting out in the water whenever I can squeeze in time between the more important family, and more necessary career.

Welcome to Everyone Surfs.

Danny

Edit: This is not a rant. I just find it funny how it seems like everyone wearing Volcom and Billabong claims to be a surfer no matter how much or whether they actually surf.