OH, SHEEEIT...SPRING IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER

Need I say more? The "house" going off.

STEP-MOTHERS DEAD

I was going to post a picture of the actual death, but that might freak out the reader. (If there are readers). I was up at the house my dad owned, where she lived after his death. I used to refer to her as my dad's widow. We had a lot of troubles, her spending, complete disregard for peoples respect, condescending, manipulative, etc... I had made my peace with her over the last year and we began to discuss how she was going to die soon, she knew it and wanted to make sure that things were taken care of..they were, and she died on Friday. (a little woo-hoo). SO, the real fun begins of cleaning out all her shit that she thought defined her, which was really all the stuff my dad did, it's what she had done for years. A person told me years ago to, "watch your back around her." I have. Sorry back to the find, I lived in Oregon for about 4 years, some of the best surf of my life. (No, actually it's the worst surf, make sure you never go there). This box comes crashing down and something breaks, doesn't really faze me, cause if I haven't seen it in this long, oh well. What fell out of the box was a beer mug from the Rotary Club (where I was a bartender to make some extra coin), and this picture. Non surfers wonder why surfers can stare at a picture like this for hours... This picture brought back the memories of the Brookings Surf Club- Bix, Jon, Bill, Hansens.. Driving into the lot and seeing tourists looking at a perfect three days of this and nobody wanting to sit on the beach and catch some on film. I finally got a few shots from Steve, who had hurt his ankle on a solid off the top...wahhhhh, "hey take my picture." One picture brings back a few memories stuffed away in a box of 1983.

DUDE, WHERE'S YOUR BOARD?

Went to go pick up my new Cooperfish Pig (I'll post some pics later), drove up to Ventura and took the scenic route back..Stopped at Zuma and this shit was going off. Nobody in the water except a few kids riding Softops. Two twin blond Frankenstein looking kids had it to themselves. New board on top of the car, no wax...f-ck.

CHOW- then some soba.

Things are starting to settle down a little bit, I got to surf this weekend, which was nice..I feel like when I lie in bed starting at the ceiling, that i'm missing something happening at the beach. Nothing happened, though.

THE DESERT

Had to go to Palm Springs over the last few days, moms is really sick. Have a feeling I'll be spending quite a bit of time out there, or we'll have to more her back for treatment. I woke up selfishly, pissed that I couldn't surf, this sunrise made me think, "Could a sunrise like this every morning make me happy." The answer- Fuck NO. This illness has been around a long time, my brother and I have been tending to what we thought was just my mom being needy. Seems like she has known for a long time there was something there, but wanted to keep it from me and my brother, to not be a burden. The key is not being a burden, while trying to keep burdensome shit from people. Otherwise you just look like an asshole.

NEW YEAR

So far.. it's the same shit with a different date. Things are already looking grim for the upcoming months. It's baffling that I can't get a break. My family is healthy, happy, and I got a raise. My mom is really sick, and my step-mother wont die. They both require almost the same care. FUUUCK.. Hopefully soon this blog will be about good shit, stories and waves...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS..

It's been awhile since I've posted, lots of shit happening. Some good, some bad..but, those are stories for another time. I've been looking through old family photos and I had to post this one. It's my mom and dad in happy times. They divorced..but this looks like they were having fun. Central Park NYC-1960.

ENDLESS SUMMER

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The Coast Guard kicks ass...

Im just looking through my old photos, came across the shots of the Chetco River. It was the calmest bar on the north coast. This day topped out at 25'. The boat is 45' so that looks like easily like 25'-30' face. We used to take the boat out, sit it in the surf line and let it roll over. That was the longest 6 seconds of my life. This was one of the happiest times of my life because I would work 10 hours during the day, then have off the afternoons to surf with another Malibu person that got stationed there. We had some of the best surf in Brooking history (according to the locals). I look at this picture often, imagine going right, bottom turn under the screw.

LADIES & GENTLEMEN, May I present the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

That's not really the president, it's my dad and his dad, my grandfather, chilling after a longboard session at Malibu. Looking closely at my dad, he has a little Obama going on..

THIS IS WHAT I DREAM OF,

This ain't what I got. I'll show you that later.

LOCALS ONLY

We've been coming here so long, the pigeons have started to like us again. There was a period a few years back that freaked them out, we'd had enough of the shit and feathers, started to wringing their necks, popping them with one twist. Alls good now, though. They watch our cars when we're in the water.

OP WATERCOLORS

Nothing interesting this last week, except for the water color..when the sun finally came out.

FINALLY

This weekend was perfect..except Sunday, which sucked. Or, actually blew..way to hard to surf and have any fun. THe other two days of the Memorial weekend was great to be back. I actually had one of those thoughts that I would like to do a nice fading cutback and hit the rebound and ride it all the way in..none of that one turn shit.. The first wave I caught was the best of the day, I was ready to get out.. Kevin O got a piece of the final turn on his little camera. That's it. Made my day.

IDLE TIME

So, I was asked by my Dr. to not surf for four weeks so when I go in he can see if the area around my disc is less inflamed..I go in Thursday. My surgery is scheduled for 27May, but I may chicken out, because it's been feeling pretty good. Anyway, I've not had much to say, other than the shitstorm created by my stepmother has taken all my free time. All peace and security that my dad had created is gone. No we have to step in and clean up. So, the picture above is one I found lately, wish it was who my dad had chosen to marry..she looks like she means business. Can't remember which Pointer Sister that is. My jewish dad, with his tough guy mustache..

WHAT I FEARED..

So went to the surgeon this week, following a complete seize of my back. It happened with a crippling, down to the floor, not moving event. I've had these before, but this was out of the blue, actually feeling pretty good. I figure it would come on the heels after a shitty go out with close outs at the spot.. So the prognosis- L3, L4 compressed and bulging, L5 gone with the nerve being crunched by the L5-S1, which means Disc replacement. Apparently, they go through the stomach..Not sure how I'm feeling about that.

Before & After

Not much to say, this is a good wave though. not sure how the dismount would go. Unbearable to think that it really washed in and devastated an entire prefecture.

HE GOT THE POINT..

I had to post this..especially after reading SurfSisters last post.. I was surfing this particular beach for a number of years, actually living there too. I would get out of the water and walk home.

There was this guy, in the left part of the picture (not the kid on the boogieboard- I would never intentionally run over a person on a boogieboard), who was not happy that I was getting so many waves. Everytime I turned around, he would turn around and try to paddle, even the ones that he was way out of position..Im sure you all know the type... Anyway, you can see in the picture he is not paddling forward, he is intentionally backing up, to try to fuck me up..that only happened once.

AND ANOTHER THING...

No wonder Ansel Adams got so many beautiful pictures, I mean how can you not? He would've loved the Hipstamatic camera on the iphone.

WHEN I'M NOT SURFING...

Had a family vacation to Yosemite over the New Year. It was one of those I was dreading, thoughts of crowded Disneyland, witing in lines to look at stuff and eating cold food. Then nthe strangest thing happened as we were driving up the Grapevine, it got really dark and cold..rainy. We heard news on the radio that the Grapvine was closed, yet we already passed through. So we beat that one, but as we were approaching the hotel, which is in Fish Camp, the CHP motioned us over to put on chains. I was only a mile from the hotel, but I was in a rental, so I didn't dare fuck that up. As I got up from under the car, I could see this line about a mile long of people putting on chains behind us. I asked the CHP what was going on, he told me that there had been a 17 car pile up and the highway was closed. I asked if anyone was hurt, he said no, just people that were not familiar with snow conditions. I muttered to myself, "Fukin sweet!" I knew that the park would be empty for at least a day. It snowed all night- 4 feet, and the park was empty all week..not sure why, but when was the last time you went to Yosemite and there was no one there?