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April 28, 2005
glassy butter rollers
surf this morning was epic. paddled out about 530am into the light blue/ green ocean. so quiet out there with just the sounds of the surf peeling along the break. its that kind of morning when you paddle in the water & its like butter. your hands just slip in & out as the board glides along the lake like conditions.
the waves were so sweet. head high & glassy on the big breaks w/ the smaller break glassy & chest high. perfect nose riding faces w/ ever so sweet bottom turns & a little finger dragging on the wall. reminds me of the same feeling of dragging your finger through frosting or fresh mtn powder. lots of folks happy this morning with a stoked grin from ear to ear.
to add to the flavor, last night we watched the movie "sprout". which i highly recommend as a surf flick to be seen. great music with some soulful surfing, all shot in 16mm film.
oh yeah one more thing. check out this photo i came across the other day. i beleive this is from down under where this year they have had plenty of shark attacks. needless to say this photo freaaaaaaaks me out.
Posted by Single Fin at 12:22 PM | Comments (1)
April 27, 2005
the lion king has retired
after many many years in the saddle the "lion king" has decided to step down & retire from the professional circuit. over the years his flashy style & unique personality has come to be expected from him. i always found myself wondering what fashion getup or gimmick he has for the next race.
he's a love him or hate him type of rider. one thing is for sure his 189 wins & many 2nd, 3rd places finishes will leave a strong impression on italian cycling.
Posted by Single Fin at 07:42 PM | Comments (52)
April 25, 2005
post weekend report
lots of surfing this weekend. last friday was nice....waves were ripping. of course friday's bring out the crowds during the dawn patrol session. by the time we hit the lineup at 6am there was already 20 people out. by 7am there was 45 people sitting at 3's. what a damn circus that was. nothing like dropping in on a 2 foot over head wave & having 3 guys drop in on you while you bob & weave through the crowds. waaaaay to dicey after seeing 2-3 people slam into each other.
its hard to be stoked when all you want to do is tell certain surfers "if you can't surf well, stay @ the breaks that you can handle until you graduate on into the bigger stuff. your only going to hurt yourself, your pride & other people by the results of bad decisions." aaaarrgh!
anyhow, several of us decided to bail & paddle over to "paradise" to surf a lesser populated wave. had a fun time w/ a much more aloha style line up.
sunday morning & this morning were pretty chill. trade winds are still in town @ about 15-20mph, yet this morning was cool though. paddled out under the full moon of the western sky w/ the sun coming up over the east & a faint rainbow over the cliffs. pretty stoked to be in the water to see that.
after these last coupla swells its hard not to eagerly await the next. which keeps me thinking that us merry band of surfers live off & feed off of storms. mother natures aggression taken hold in the form of winds & motion. for example, right now most of us here on the island are wanting to have more storms happen off of the aleutians islands & new zealand. this will bring us good waves here on the southern shores. yet for the people there it brings rains & windy overcasted winters.
such is the trade off's i suppose when the weather was bunk here last month.
Posted by Single Fin at 12:34 PM | Comments (1292)
April 21, 2005
surf's up
nice waves this morning. dropped the board in the water at 530am. paddled out to the break @ 3's & beleive it or not i was the 5th person in the line up. that would mean somebody paddled out @ 5am in the pitch black just to get out w/ nobody around & surf clean 6 footers in the dark. i guess this is how you tell the summer swells are on the way. people are showing their true dedication for the search of good waves.
this mornings session was head high on the larger sets w/ some cranking speed to boot. inside was playful & glassy walls about chest high. on the outside of course you had to wait a little while but it was worth it. swell is picking up today through saturday, suppose to be 2-4 hawaiian style. or regular size for you folks is 4-8feet. dawn patrol might be epic friday morning!!
Posted by Single Fin at 04:44 PM | Comments (937)
dawn patrol photo's
diamond head crew after a dawn patrol session
ye having a little morning sunshine w/ her yoga
Posted by Single Fin at 04:30 PM | Comments (420)
April 19, 2005
plowing foam
after a coupla brew's the bishman & i have determined that its time to make our own surf board. we've both always wanted to shape our own board so what a better situation then now. kind of like the same feeling one has when building up their own bike just from the naked frame. anyhow, we have some idea of what we are getting into. not to mention lots of people have given us some backseat advice & encouragement. as in anything in life until you jump into the deep end of the pool....you have no clue as to what the hell is going on. so for now we're armed with some ambition, ingenuity, a coupla cases of beer to assist basic w/ engineering, a few good local resources, the internet, some basic mechanical tools & a heavy dose of old fashion passion to surf.
this spring we'll be converting our downstairs storage area into a make shift shaping room. the hopes are to have this prototype in the water by summer? maybe? sorta?
we determined that we have tons of ideas we could make. which in a way is super funny since we ideally just want it to float and lack skills to refine the sweet ideas of a retro board. maybe a second set of ambitious goals could be to carve & not break. i'll take 2 of the 3 with the hopes it rides a set or 2 before falling apart.
i think we need to name it? anybody got an idea? if the name sticks i'll send you a chunk of foam from the board as a token of design influence. :-}
Posted by Single Fin at 02:29 PM | Comments (1)
April 18, 2005
strange days ahead
whoa! is all i can say today about the news for american cycling. tyler is busted & gets a 2yr suspension. then to top it off lance announced today he's retiring on 7/23/05, the day after the the tour de france.
the big shocker of course is tyler's news. i mean c'mon....WTF? i'm @ a loss for words. part of me says i hope he feels the guilt every time he gets on the saddle to ride. another part of me feels like asking the question about the true nature of the testing practices that are established.
however, the latter of the 2 is losing at the moment.
as for lance, thanks for all the years of sportsmanship & i'm looking forward to the tour this year.
Posted by Single Fin at 05:13 PM | Comments (3)
kokua festival
good solid weekend. surf swell backed off a bit but we still hit "tongs & rice bowls" in the morning saturday. was a little mushy w/ some better potential to peak later in the day once the tides changed from high to low. yet the waves are still mad fun in the morning sun. after about 2 hours the bishman & i were bonking out & craving a big fat breakfast w/ some hot coffee. spent the rest of the afternoon tooling around w/ da bikes & other household chores. tucked in my pocket though was a pair of tixs to hit the "kokua festival" that night. the show was to benefit that brings together environmental organizations, eco-friendly businesses, musicians, artists, teachers, & community leaders to promote environmental awareness in hawaii. an eclectic mix of live music w/ a few local artists (Kaukahi, Johnny Cruz) as well as G.Love, Jackson Brown, Ozamatli & Jack Johnson. a tasty treat of great tunes, grinds from local organic growers, bevs & earth-friendly products.
so ye & i packed the scoot up & headed down. figuring we would score easy parking & dodge the traffic w/ a little stealth riding of the scoot amongst the ever so massive presence of trucks & suvs that the locals looooove so much.
twas a great show under the stars amidst the warm tropical air & back drop of diamond head crater.
we thought the highlight of the night was Ozamatli. those guys are damn talented & get the party shaken. when we thought the set was over, the next thing we knew there was a congo line was going through the crowd of thousands.
no mic's & just the band taking all the instruments they could individually carry into the sea of people. they stopped here & there briefly, before parking the entire band about one blanket from our little spot. front row pit dancing & shaking was had for the next 10 minutes. they finished with the "hokie poke" w/ about a few thousand people playing along. (1 2 3)
it was hard for any other band to compete with the after effects of jumping into the crowd for a jam session like that. the other bands we great though. of course jack was jack....mellow, chill, happy & all the aloha you could expect from the local boy style he carries.
nothing like laying under the stars/ moon & just relaxing to great live music.
Posted by Single Fin at 12:46 AM | Comments (3)
April 13, 2005
loving it! {surf report (part4) }
more southern swell action allllllll weeeeeek loooong!
between ye & the new roomies, i now have plenty of surfing co-pilots to play in the waves. so the bishman & i decided to hit some left handers today over at "tongs". since he's a goofy footer it was a nice welcome for him since we've been going right all week.
stoked to see the bishman taking on the challenge. a month or 2 ago he was at tongs & had a bad crash where his board flew up in the air. then it came down & stuck a fin into his calf. OUCH! needless to say he bleed & then needed some stiches.
no bad luck though this morning. nice left handers were had by all during the session. some great shoulder high sets came in towards the end that made the stoke that much better. i walked away w/ a new found love for going backside. the motion is so much fun & the view is much better when you're facing the shore.
Posted by Single Fin at 04:18 PM | Comments (2)
April 12, 2005
surf report (part3)
up & at'um this morning at 5am. daaawn paaatrol. hit the water 545am while it was still a twilight cobalt blue. hit the break w/ nobody on the scene except the Bishman & myself. nice waves to be had, a pretty sunrise & lots of morning chit chat w/ the locals. even walked to the nose a couple times, got worked a few times, dragged the fingers a few times on the wall.
the sprinkles on top this morning were hitting the local coffee house for some hot java, tossing on a decent aloha shirt, kissing the queen ye & scooting to work w/ sand still caked on the toes.
Posted by Single Fin at 01:57 PM | Comments (1)
surf report (part2)
drove around the island last saturday in search of surf. something great about cruzing in a VW vanagon that just seeps out the feeling of a good road trip. ended up checking out chun's for a mid-day session. weather was HOT, sunny with gusty trades. i say "gusty" again as a point of reference for the next sections in the upcoming story.
so anyhow, chuns as a surf spot is a great north shore longboard wave. we ended up paddling out about 1130am. i knew it was going to be a good session when i noticed a big fat turtle swimming beneath me on the way out. the waves were sweet stuff, a bit of sideshore wind but all in all pushing the right way to have the sun on your face & the wind at your back. only bummer was when i was dropping in on this nice wave & a gust came up off the face & blew me back. sent me off the tail of the board & launched my board straight in the air. by the way, #1 rule is never let go of your board. yet in this case i was caught off guard & the board sailed through the air. the bummer was that it landed on this chick right in the back. man....i felt bad. said i was sorry a bunch of times. couple local guys were giving me the stink eye look like i did it intentional or something. _uck them. i felt bad enough that i couldn't control mother natures wind gusts. not to mention the board blew back off the 6 foot face drop & threw a 195 lbs guy off the board. so i really wasn't into dealing w/ retard attitudes of a local: "me man, you hurt girl, me must act tough to show sympathy to cute girl, good cop bad cop routine". so to defuse any possible miscommunication, i quickly explained the situation & everybody was quiet about the issue. from there we focused the attention on the gal to make sure she was ok. she was alright as far as we could read & i think the shock was more of a factor. if it would have been my fault entirely, trust me...there was enough local boys in the water that day to come on over & let me know.
motto i learned: if you (or anybody) makes a mistake in the north shore waves you better be ready to handle/deal w/ the good & the bad. this includes the chunky reef that lays less then 3-5 feet below you as you surf waves, the crowds, currents & hold downs. people get really hurt & die every season up there.
the gal said she was ok & never lost her temper. which indicated to me she knew i was not at fault. i still feel bad about it though...
this in fact brought up many many thoughts the rest of the afternoon about the chances one takes when surfing.
good waves & good lessons that day.
Posted by Single Fin at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)
surf report (part1)
sunday morning came around & we headed out to surf 3's. great dawn patrol session with a really long paddle to & from the break. nothing like seeing the sun cracking over the lush green mtn.'s wrapping the sleeping city's sky line in a warm morning hug.
to make it a full weekend the boys ( both corey's) decided to head out monday morning @ the crack of dawn. paddling out to cliffs under the pink morning twilight to a relatively uncrowded break. surfing the leftovers from the southern swell that had pushed through over the weekend.
the ladies decided they didn't want to surf & opted for an early morning run & yoga session atop the localy maintainted diamond head surfers garden.
another day in paradise!
Posted by Single Fin at 12:59 PM | Comments (69)
April 08, 2005
soviet propaganda
forgot about this one i came across a while back. since i'm on a russian kick lately, check out these soviet propaganda era anti-alcohol posters.
more here: "soviet art"
Posted by Single Fin at 02:26 PM | Comments (0)
April 06, 2005
options..options...options..
hail the coffee house/cafe finder. was buzzing around my usual suspect sites this morning & tripped over this one. check it out.
not sure about you folks, but i like hitting java cafe's. kind of like hitting your local hole in the wall bars. some just seem to suit you the right way, others are a hit & run grab your cup & go type of place. then there is the ones with a solid vibe that seem to suit your fancy while you tool around the local newspaper or zine of choice.
go here to "the delocator" & enter a zip code & bam you have options
Posted by Single Fin at 01:14 PM | Comments (0)
April 05, 2005
retro conversion van
(a typical van during the before look)
thanks to "kevs news" for hooking me up with the idea of a kit van build out to an already existing cute little work horse van from subaru. funky to start exploring the idea & the design features involved in a mocked up original with new or adjusted characteristics of the old skool idea. the possibilities are endless. all these vans you'll see are in japan & various regions in asia since that's where the distribution of the original van was. adding more fuel to the fire of the daydream is the couple that just moved in from vancouver, bc bought a 1983 VW weekender van. time load up the boards, pack the coolers, layer up the suntan lotion, wax da boards.....& off to the beach we go. out here on the islands you really don't need alot of muscle in the surf vans, just some sun a spot of petro & a good swell.
(not your typical van after the mods)
mini VW 1
mini VW 2
mini VW 3
mini VW 4
mini VW 5
mini VW 6
mini VW 7
mini VW 8
mini VW 9
Posted by Single Fin at 07:34 PM | Comments (0)
April 04, 2005
spring cleaning
lots happening around this past weekend & finally we are on the tail end of the moving thing. all situated with only some odds & ends left to be handled. trade winds have started to back off as well, so finally able to get back into the surf more often. maybe it's a sign that we needed to get some things done for the clinic before we could play this spring. needless to say the week off from the outdoors was good for more of the organization of our lives. not so much a good thing to handle the stress related to it though. that's ok though, got a good ride in saturday & some surfing in this morning so it's all good.
also had a chance to chill with the new roomies once they got square in the new space. had a little session to start the house off on a new vibe. something we do to drive away bad/trapped negative energy and allow a new flow of positivity into the house. so the 4 of us saged & salt watered the house. then for dinner we cranked out some pretty decent shrimp/tofu phad thai and a special little vietnamese chicken/cabbage salad called "goi ga".
new friends & good food is always a nice thing
check out the pics from this weekends 1 year old baby b-day parties. lately she has been getting several invitations to attend these little bebe's b-day bashes. of course she helped deliver them so it's extra special to see them growing up.
Posted by Single Fin at 05:43 PM | Comments (1)
April 01, 2005
stoked!
yeah, check out this photo someone snapped of me this morning surfing mansions.
Posted by Single Fin at 12:52 PM | Comments (3)