Moving to VW

Wow, its been almost a year since I started Everyonesurfs, and now its moving North! I've moved from Ken Grody Ford in Carlsbad back to McKenna VW in Huntington Beach. I started selling cars here 6 years ago and its nice to come back. I'll miss the guys I worked with at Ford, but look forward to a future with VW. VW has great stuff going on, including some clean diesel technology that will be bio-diesel compatible!

I'm going to re-aquaint myself with my favorite spots in north OC, Newport, Bolsa, Cliffs. I'll definitely be out as much as possible once my schedule settles down!

Shark Attack in Solana Beach

This morning after surfing in Oceanside my buddy noticed a police suv running up the beach.  Turns out they were getting everyone out of the water because of the great white attack in Solana beach.  One of my co-workers used to skin dive for lobsters with the victim and knew him very well.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends in this tragic time.

My wife already worries about me surfing in the mornings.  Every morning when i kiss her goodby she says "Be careful, don't dive in headfirst and surf where there are other people."  No she says she's adding "And dont sit with your feet in the water for sharks to bite."  No matter how slim the chances, she still worries.  I guess it means she loves me.

Non-surfers read!

From Transworld...

"Russell Brand has vowed never to surf again.

The comedian tried his luck on the waves recently while in Hawaii promoting his new film Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

But Russell, 32, says the experience was far from what he expected.

'I looked ridiculous,' he tells Hello! 'It was like watching a cow smoking a pipe.

'I was so frightened. You look at the ocean and think: "Right, let's stand on that." But walking on water is bizarre and macabre.' "

Halleluia! One less actor on the gidget craze!

Earth Day 2008

"This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls."

With all the doom and gloom about the environment over the last few years, I found this quote by John Muir to be very encouraging.

Sunny Sunday

Yesterday my beautiful pregnant wife and I went ot the beach to enjoy the perfect weather and small clean waves. A 45 minute wait to get into the parking area was well worth it. I broke out the longboard for some super-fun small wave shredding, well maybe not shredding but cruising is a good word. She hung out on the beach and read pregnancy books and I surfed until the rocks decided they didn't like my feet and took a nice chunk out of me. There was a guy out wearing booties and all I did was think about making fun of him for wearing booties on such a warm day and I got godsmacked for it. I apologise to the surf gods and mr bootie wearing guy, and also to the girl I snaked the wave from, I thought you going going left not right. I'm a kook.

My beautiful Hawaiian princess in full sun gear

Cruising, the guy behind me was trying to take off fin-forward. I did that once a couple years ago and the fin caught and wrenched my bad shoulder badly enough that I never want to try that again.

After I got my due for making fun of the guy in booties I sat on the beach and watched for a while.

Sign of Things to Come

My wife and I are watching our 8-month old niece Kaila for the weekend so her parents can get some much-needed time together. Apparently her wake-up time is 5am sharp every day, which is fine considering thats when I like to get up anyways. The issue is thats when I like to get up so I can get a short surf before I have to be at work. My wife is not a morning person, and she works to hard for me to make her stay up with the baby while I bail to go surfing. We had a nice morning, took the dogs for a walk with Kaila and she went back to sleep at 8, right when I leave to go to work.

We're expecting our baby in October (stoked!) and this is good practice. Here's my quandry: Currently I can get in the water 1-2 days a week before work, when I have to leave to be at work before my lovely wife gets up anyways, no time together missed. When we have the baby, she'll be staying home, but will still be plenty tired if she has to get up super early every morning and then have to watch the baby all day as well. I have three options if I want to get in the water when our baby comes along. I won't compromise my limited family time to surf no matter how much surfing means to me, so I have to explore other ways to get my surf on. Here are my options.

1. I'll have a nice sit-down with the Munchkin (our baby's name until we find out if we're having a Levi or a Serena) and we'll work out a nice compromised schedule where he/she can agree to wake up no later than 4am and be back to sleep by 5. Or wake up no earlier than 8am.

2. I start my own business (in the works) and do well enough that I can make my own schedule and surf whenever I want during the day. (My current job is sales so I have to be in the office all day, thus lunchtime surf breaks and leaving early to catch an evening session are not options for me.)

3. Win the lottery, buy a house on the beach and do whatever the heck we want, whenever we want.

These are the 3 options I've come up with so far. Any other ideas from you more experienced wave-riding dads?

Playing with my new Camera

Suit, Tie, and Wetsuit

The Office, the wetsuit is hanging up outside

I had a customer the other day who noticed the surfboard in my office and mentioned what he thought was a funny story. He'd been at his beach house here in Carlsbad and had seen a surfer come runnning out of the water, quickly rinse off, throw on a shirt and tie, and drive away. My customer didn't surf himself, and though it was rather amusing that a surfer would have a shirt and tie sort of job. I almost thought he'd seen me, but I was at a different spot that morning. Southern California is one of the few spots, though they are growing, where a large portion of the professional white-collar work force actually surfs. Seriously or not, it does seem that everyone really does surf in some way here. Many people still think of surfers as beach bums and kids like its the 60's. I never thought I was the only one who did quick 2wavesandout sessions before work, but in the 6 years I've been here and even more often now that I have a family and mortage to worry about I've been the only one I see running out of the water as fast as I ran to it. Usually since I made myself late by waiting for that one more good wave to ride to the beach.

Molly

Molly approves of me going surfing on my day off but she's not happy about the lack of attention.