I'm going to be a Dad!

Yep! My Beautiful wife surprised me this weekend standing under a ceiling full of blue and pink ballooons! We're going to have a beautiful hawaiian/native american future soul-surfer around Oct 1st!

Real Waterman

Story here, originally from wetsand.

The term "Waterman" is really getting thrown around a lot lately, especially in non-establishment surf mags like Water and Surfers Journal. There's a few real waterman in the surfing world, Joe Bark is real, several Hawaiians, Laird Hamilton would have to be legit in spite of his helping start the SUP craze. How many surfers do we know that wouldn't think twice about reaching into a 9'+ mako shark to help pull a guys leg out?

I'm sure most of you have watched shows like "Deadliest Catch". When I see that and stories like this, it gives me a whole new meaning of what a true waterman is. We normally think of someone who surfs, tows, and paddles. What about the men and women who's lives are 100% in tune with the ocean, both physically, emotionally, and economically? Laird might reach into a sharks mouth to save someone else, but would he jump in a big boat and go haul in crab pots in sub-zero temperatures and 40ft swells?

Its Been a Long Time...

I haven't been in the water in weeks, which really struck home when I took a quick detour past the beach on my way to work. Some lucky guy pulling into a perfect little head-high barrel. Its slow season at work, which in sales means you work twice as much and twice as hard for the same results. One more month and business will start picking up! I hope the waves stay good.

One a brighter note, my job does lead to meeting some cool people. I was lucky to be able to help out a couple good guys last week, here some picks of them from Reef's website.

The Governator Strikes again

Our governor has announced his support of the 241 toll road extension through San Onofre State Park. This coming right behind his plan to close many other state parks. I'm not so much an environmentalist as I am a conservationist, this is a shame. I would be one of the main benefactors of the toll road extension, I live right where the current 241 ends and drive to Carlsbad every day for work, it would save me about 20 minutes every day, and about $5 in gas every day. I almost never have a situation with traffic, why do we need another toll road?

1000 Hits!!!

I just realized I've had 1000 hits now! Thanks to everyone whos takes time out of their otherwise worthwhile day to look at my blog. Hopefully its worth it.

Irresponsible Politics

Our Governor is trying to balance the budget by closing some of our parks, and reducing life guard coverage at many beaches, including a couple of my favorite and most-used surf spots. With the over-developement of Southern California, every park and protected area we can get away to, away from the concrete and car exhaust, is worth far more than the almost insignificant $13 million in reported savings. I hope they dont increase the price for the annual passes also. When I moved here 6 years ago, it was about $30, now is what, $120? I can understand the need to reduce spending, but theres a lot of other places that need cuts that will save a significant amount of money compared to this.

More info here

Edit: I was reading Warbles and got to thinking. As long as they dont cut off all access, that would be pretty nice! I can walk accross the sand without watching for broken glass and other trash left over from the crowds! Fewer pasty-white tourists to dodge. Dare I hope that the surf schools will go away too? looks like the beaches will all stay open though, just with fewer lifeguards.

Sliding Liberia

Sliding Liberia is a movie coming soon documenting a trip through war-torn Liberia. With Dan Malloy, and cinematography by the man behind two of my favorite all-time films Shelter and Brokedown Melody, this is sure to be a surf film with far more substance than most films the "industry" produces. Read about it at The Cleanest Line.

Tubus-Eternus Art

Having a fine art degree not only explains why I sell cars to pay the bills now, but also why I love browsing surfer/artist blogs. Going through surfysurfys links led me to Tubus-Eternus. I really like the basic black and white art. I can't understand a word he says but the artwork and photos are great.

(living in SoCal, the last one is my favorite)

New Year, New Direction

Happy New Year! I've been absent due to visiting family for the last couple weeks. My time away from work and blogging has given me time to think about why I blog and what I blog about. If you've seen my first post, my original goal was to say something meaningful about the state of surf culture. I wanted to make an attempt at least to some journalistic quality. It sort of evolved into a daily, "hey this is cool!" posting for the sake of posting, not because I had something worthwhile to put up.

For Christmas I got "Let My People Go Surfing" by Yvon Chouinard, the founder and owner if Patagonia. Throughout the book, there's an emphasis of quality as opposed to quantity, meaning vs volume. As I've read I've realized in my little microcosm of the world-wide-web isn't really doing anything that inspires action or thought beyond the next I'm-bored-at-work-and-surfing-the-internet mouse click. I'm not trying to be a professional journalist, I just want Everyone Surfs to be a destination for people to come to where they get something out of their time here.

I enjoy posting little nonsense posts, but I want this to be a little more meaningful than the latest funny YouTube clip. This year I'm going to try (emphasis on try) to post less often but post something that will stick with readers beyond the next keystroke. Hopefully Everyone Surfs 2.0 will be a destination that anyone, wave-slider or not, can read and leave with a greater sense of what Surfing really is, why we do it, and what it means to truly be a Surfer.

I hope I'm not biting off more than I can chew!

Edit: I'm not going to get all serious or anything, I just looked back at my last couple months of posts and though "this is the best I can write down?"