Holy moly is there a lot to talk about! I suppose that's what happens when you don't blog for nearly 2 months! I left you with Owen the toothless Chihuahua in Orlando and I hope if you haven't already befriended him you'll go back to my Jan 2 post and do that now! Surf Expo back in early January was quite a bit different that what it normally is and I hope reflects an, I believe, much needed shake-up or shift in the surf industry. The absence of Volcom was probably the most notable thing about Surf Expo. When a company like Volcom doesn't come to one of the most important surf industry events of the year you have to wonder if adjustments are going to be made. I've been none too pleased for several years now about the pre booking dates that are being imposed on us, the core shops, in order to satisfy the needs of the big box stores like PacSun and the large national department stores as some of the larger surf brands have continued to increase their presence in the mainstream middle America retail stores. Just last night my brother and I wrote 2 orders for Fall 2011! It's still February - we haven't opened for spring yet and already our reps are sweating because fall orders are "late"?? We used to go to Surf Expo in January and put in our orders for Summer - totally reasonable - but now they're looking for Fall orders to be in to them by the end of January to satisfy their non-surfing mega giant retail. Lame. Anyway our response is to take a look at some smaller brands who are closer to the roots of what the sport & culture is - it's not going to be an all at once thing and the industry giants still will be represented but I really hope that if all the smaller shops, like us, are taking a similar approach it will send a message to the big boys that the PacSun's of the world exist because we paved the way for them.
Anyway I was in Orlando visiting my friend, Claudia, and doing the New Years warm weather thing and then moving over to International Drive/Orange County Convention Center for Surf Expo where my brother was supposed to meet me for the long Expo weekend. A few days before I get a call from Kevin back in North Carolina telling me that he's in bed sick and that if he doesn't get better soon he's not going to be able to fly down. Needless to say he doesn't get better so I end up doing Expo alone. Not the end of the world because there are plenty of people around that I know and I have no problem meeting people so socially I'm fine. The issue is that this show generates a lot of paper and "stuff". I end up with my backpack FULL every day and that gets heavy for 1 person not to mention trying to haul everything back home on the plane - I'll get back to that. I met with a bunch of our existing reps and spent a lot of time just poking around looking for new & interesting things. It's amazing all the different types of products relevant to the surf industry: Surfboards, bodyboards, skimboards, skateboards, clothing, shoes, watches, sunglasses, waterproof cameras, retail software, sunscreen, health products, energy drinks, energy bars, energy supplements, books, magazines, etc, etc, etc and they're all represented at this huge show incredibly under 1 massive roof. The nighttime social networking (read partying!) is not far removed from a college party and in many instances makes a college party look like Sunday Tea with the Red Hat Society ladies. I'll run into a rep and stand and chat with him in a bar while a 6' bikini clad model comes by with shots of some kind of promotional tequila/rocket fuel energy drink combination followed by another rep friend with an armful of beers. Then the band will start up and the under 21's who snuck in start a mosh pit just as we're all getting into a good discussion about how PacSun and Hollister are ruining the industry.The next morning I'm meeting the same guys in the, by comparison, mellow environment of Surf Expo and we are all looking at each other thinking how nice it would be if the ringing in our ears would stop and people would quit talking about tequila. Meanwhile the 6' model comes out in a fresh bikini for her day job and snickers an all knowing crooked grin in our direction. This is my job people!
Without giving anything away I saw some really great stuff at Surf Expo and am excited about the 2011 season. The night before my last full day I sat down with all the stuff I had accumulated at the show and started packing up my bags so I'd be ready to head to the airport for my 6am flight out the following day. I weeded out a lot of stuff that we didn't need and threw a lot in the trash (a total waste of paper by the way - we need to start doing this digitally people and I know how to get it done!!) but it became quickly obvious that there was no way I was getting everything I needed into my bags to carry home. After a mini panic I went to the trusty iPhone and found the nearest post office - gathered up everything and shipped it home - crisis averted. With Surf Expo over I fly back to DC on January 9th (I was staying with my Dad after Christmas and went to Florida from there) and make it back with plenty of time to catch the football games and relax on the couch after an exciting 10 days in Orlando.
The next thing on the agenda is my trip to New Zealand on January 13th! The 10th I spend doing laundry and mentally laying out what I need to take and still get for my trip and I hang out with my dad and just kind of chill. Tuesday Morning the 11th I wake up with a little sore throat - nothing that would concern me normally but I'm about to fly half way around the world in 2 days so I AM a little concerned but I decide to get done what I need to do and see how the days goes. A light raincoat and a New Zealand plug adapter are the top things on my list and a quick trip over to the Annapolis mall takes care of that & my dad joins me so we have lunch & a nice father/son afternoon. My throat isn't any worse but it's still there and I tell dad that I think I'm going to go to the doctor when we get back to the house just to be sure. I normally don't go to the doctor unless I feel it's absolutely necessary so my intuition must have been kicking in because a strep throat test comes back positive (insert expletive laden panic thoughts here!) I tell the doctor that I'm supposed to be flying out at 8am in 2 days for New Zealand and he tells me that it shouldn't be a problem because I've obviously caught it early and he's going to give me a good strong antibiotic to knock it out - I want to kiss the guy but then he'd probably get strep too and that's no good! Thursday morning the 13th comes along and my throat is feeling better just a minor tickle at this point but now my head is stuffed up and I'm blowing my nose like mad. Has anyone ever flown with congested sinuses? I have before and I can tell you that the pain is akin to having people standing on either side of you taking turns firing nail guns into your temples, forehead, and eyes. Forget strep throat I've got some serious flying ahead of me (20 + hours worth!) and that's going to be Medieval style torture if I don't get this pressure thing under control. Fortunately CVS is just a 5 minute drive from my dad's house and on the way to the airport so I grab a couple different decongestants, a huge bottle of water, a couple bottles of grapefruit juice and a multivitamin and, looking like a total hypochondriac, I head off to the airport hydrating and popping pills. By the time I get to the airport my eyes have receded back into their sockets and my head is feeling much more air travel worthy but I'm still a little nervous simply because I don't ever want to feel that sinus pressure/air travel pain combo again in my life. The first leg of my journey is a 5 hour flight to Las Vegas and fortunately my cocktail of hydration and drugs is doing its job - life is good. From Vegas I'm supposed to have a 3 hour layover before flying to San Francisco but that turns into a 5 hour layover (this will be important later). My flight to San Francisco finally leaves and what was supposed to be a 3 hour layover in San Francisco is now only a 1 1/2 hour layover made even better because my ticket to Auckland, New Zealand is in Business Class so I have access to the Air New Zealand lounge where I get a snack, and geek it up on my iPhone a bit before boarding the plane for the 13 hour flight to Auckland. I'm not going to post a photo of the seat I had because that would just be obnoxious - if you're interested Google Air New Zealand Business Premiere Seat. I have to say up front that I didn't pay to fly in Business - I had a ton of frequent flyer miles so I used them for this trip to New Zealand and when I booked it Business was the only seat available that I could use my ff miles. This was the most incredible "seat" on a plane ever. It lay completely flat so when you wanted to go to sleep you pushed a button and the seat transformed into a bed and there was a pad provided that you roll out to sleep on and a blanket and real pillow to sleep on. The food and entertainment system were incredible and they even gave you a little gift pack with a toothbrush, toothpaste, face soap, & other things to make you more comfortable - an absolutely unreal travel experience and especially nice since I wasn't feeling 100%.
Remember I said that my layover & delay in Vegas would be important later? When I arrived in Auckland and was waiting for my bag I realized after a bit that I was the only person standing around the baggage carousel and didn't have my bag. Apparently because of the delay in Vegas my bag didn't make it on to the flight to Auckland so I did all the song & dance with the luggage folks so they'd get my bag to me and proceeded on through customs. I had a ton of time to kill in the Auckland airport until my last flight to Gisborne and fortunately I was again permitted access to the Air New Zealand lounge because I had flown in on Business class. The lounge was a Godsend because I was tired and hungry and the lounge had food and comfy couches on which to sleep as well as a good wifi connection - if only they had a change of clothes for me. My flight to Gisborne was on a small prop plane with 1 seat on either side of the isle - a far sight from my last flight but the short trip in the middle of the afternoon was awesome. The view of the lush, green, mountainous landscape from the plane was fantastic & I would have been happy to just fly around for another hour just for the view.
As we descended into Gisborne we circled out over the Pacific Ocean on our approach and I could see the surf hitting the beach - my friend Euan had been telling me that they were expecting a swell around the same time I was arriving.
I met Euan a few years ago in Costa Rica - we were both by ourselves and ended up sharing a room in Rancho Grande in Playa Hermosa. Euan was living and working in London at the time and we just kept in touch - this past year he contacted me because a surf shop in his hometown of Gisborne, New Zealand was for sale, he was considering buying it and just wanted to pick my brain about surf shop ownership. He ended up buying the shop and moving back to New Zealand and was nice enough to host me for my trip. So Euan picked me up at the airport in Gisborne and tells me that there's swell hitting all over and that we're going over to his shop then we're going to go get a surf. I tell him about my bag being lost so he grabs a wetsuit from the shop and we head over to his family's house in Wainui. Euan has only been back in New Zealand for a year so he's been staying with his parents, Carnie and Ivan, while he looks for a place of his own and I knew that their place was beachfront but nothing more. When we got to the house it was gorgeous - right in the middle of Wainui beach and, while I was expecting to be in a spare bedroom or on a couch, they have a guest apartment for me to stay in with a view out over the ocean that I literally don't even need to get out of bed to check the surf. I'm stoked to say the least!
My first surf is just a few minutes drive up the road at Centers in Makorori. The waves are head high to a pinch overhead and peeling down the rock reef - nothing better for clogged sinuses than clean right handers! A couple of duck dives later I'm sitting in the lineup of maybe half a dozen guys and another minute later a set comes right to me and I stroke into a clean open faced green wall, pump off the bottom & do a couple of mellow easy turns and pop off the back and paddle back out - surf trips don't start much better than this even if your luggage is lost!
I can't possibly recount every day and every surf session because I was there for 25 days and it would take forever and I'm sure no one wants to read all that detail anyway. Suffice to say I surfed a lot of really spectacular waves: Chalet, North Makorori, Wainui, and Tuamotu Island. The Island I surfed twice and on consecutive days very early in my trip. It's close enough to shore that you can paddle out but far enough that it's a bitch to paddle out! The first time out there I went with on of Euan's employees, Smudge. Heading out it was low tide - you park in the lot at Sponge Bay, jump the fence into a cowfield then walk a short trail down the bluff to a rocky beach, a short walk along the shoreline then into the water and you can wade most of the way over to the island but it takes forever because you have to wear shoes and be careful about placing your feet so you don't twist an ankle. Some parts are deep enough that you paddle then you walk again until you get all the way to the shore on the island. Again it's pretty rocky and you're on the wrong side of the island so you have to walk around the island and stash your shoes and then you're finally ready to paddle out. Like I said, it's a bitch but he waves are totally worth it - perfectly peeling lefthanders that break into a channel and allow you to paddle back out without having to duck dive at all unless a larger set comes through. Coming back the tide had come in so there was no wading and we had to paddle the whole way. After surfing for a couple hours the 35 minute paddle back made my shoulders feel like freshly ground beef. The second time I went out there was with Euan the following morning and we took a different approach. We went down to the sandy beach of Sponge Bay with standup paddleboards and put our shortboards on the front and paddled over to the island. This was an overall longer route but on the SUP's it only took 10 or 15 minutes to get over to the island and once there we tied the SUP's up to a crayfish pot buoy outside the lineup then paddled into the wave zone on the shortboards. This time we were the only 2 out and even though the waves weren't quite as good as the previous day and not as consistent, they did come in 2 wave sets so we'd each catch one then paddle back out together - a great session.
The most standout surf I had was on Thursday the 27th of January though and right out front of the house in Wainui. We were expecting a swell and got up early to find it hitting at 6-8 feet with 10 foot plus sets. Euan had the day off of work so it was particularly great for him because prior to my arrival there hadn't been any swell in weeks. We surfed a morning session with a friend, Zoe, from up the street then took a break and had a nice big breakfast and were sitting on the lawn watching the waves continue to roll in and digesting when we realized that the wind was still offshore with no sign of it shifting. We suited back up and went out for another session for a few more hours until it was time to break for lunch. Another friend, Sophie, joined us for our 3rd and 4th sessions of the day and we all finally collapsed in the back yard with some beers barely able to lift our arms, sunburned, exhausted, and all with huge smiles on our faces. The wind never switched and the swell was perfect all day - it was a tripmaker of a day and one I will never forget. The entire trip for that matter was unforgettable, I made a lot of great new friends, relaxed, surfed, spent a lot of time on a bicycle riding around and was even able to help Euan at his shop, Blitz, a little - I cannot wait to go back to New Zealand and highly recommend you go visit as well.
Circadian Dysrhythmia
1. Disruption to the body's biological clock caused by a sudden shift in daily rhythm.
Synonyms: jet lag
Now I've been to Europe and have experienced let lag but the jet lag I had when I got back to DC and over the next almost week was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. Completely exhausted but unable to sleep, sleeping for a few hours in the middle of the day, wide awake at 3 & 4 am - just wrecked. I spent a few days at my dad's house then drove down to my mom's house in Virginia where my brother and his family were also visiting and then finally made it back to North Carolina on Valentines Day for a dentist appointment in Kitty Hawk before making the last little drive down Hatteras Island. Pretty much as soon as I got back and after unpacking my bags (which thankfully made it back with me from New Zealand!) I started taking apart my bathroom. I've had a remodeling project in mind and decided to get right to it. Andy gave me a call on my first full day back and we went for a surf in Avon - quite shocking to get back in a heavy wetsuit with hood, gloves, booties but we caught a few decent waves and it's always good to surf with my buddy back home! My brother came over with his reciprocating saw and we cut the shower out of the bathroom and got the rest of the old paneling down then my mom came came down with some odds & ends and I got hard to work rebuilding the bathroom. With my brother's help we got the new shower installed then we hung new underpinning under the entire house and were fortunate to have good weather for the outdoor work. Everything was done in just about a week and it's looking great!
The Orange County Convention Center
Anyway I was in Orlando visiting my friend, Claudia, and doing the New Years warm weather thing and then moving over to International Drive/Orange County Convention Center for Surf Expo where my brother was supposed to meet me for the long Expo weekend. A few days before I get a call from Kevin back in North Carolina telling me that he's in bed sick and that if he doesn't get better soon he's not going to be able to fly down. Needless to say he doesn't get better so I end up doing Expo alone. Not the end of the world because there are plenty of people around that I know and I have no problem meeting people so socially I'm fine. The issue is that this show generates a lot of paper and "stuff". I end up with my backpack FULL every day and that gets heavy for 1 person not to mention trying to haul everything back home on the plane - I'll get back to that. I met with a bunch of our existing reps and spent a lot of time just poking around looking for new & interesting things. It's amazing all the different types of products relevant to the surf industry: Surfboards, bodyboards, skimboards, skateboards, clothing, shoes, watches, sunglasses, waterproof cameras, retail software, sunscreen, health products, energy drinks, energy bars, energy supplements, books, magazines, etc, etc, etc and they're all represented at this huge show incredibly under 1 massive roof. The nighttime social networking (read partying!) is not far removed from a college party and in many instances makes a college party look like Sunday Tea with the Red Hat Society ladies. I'll run into a rep and stand and chat with him in a bar while a 6' bikini clad model comes by with shots of some kind of promotional tequila/rocket fuel energy drink combination followed by another rep friend with an armful of beers. Then the band will start up and the under 21's who snuck in start a mosh pit just as we're all getting into a good discussion about how PacSun and Hollister are ruining the industry.The next morning I'm meeting the same guys in the, by comparison, mellow environment of Surf Expo and we are all looking at each other thinking how nice it would be if the ringing in our ears would stop and people would quit talking about tequila. Meanwhile the 6' model comes out in a fresh bikini for her day job and snickers an all knowing crooked grin in our direction. This is my job people!
Surf Expo Shenanigans
The massive crowd at the All '80's Skate Jam with Tony Hawk, Christian Hosoi & more
Without giving anything away I saw some really great stuff at Surf Expo and am excited about the 2011 season. The night before my last full day I sat down with all the stuff I had accumulated at the show and started packing up my bags so I'd be ready to head to the airport for my 6am flight out the following day. I weeded out a lot of stuff that we didn't need and threw a lot in the trash (a total waste of paper by the way - we need to start doing this digitally people and I know how to get it done!!) but it became quickly obvious that there was no way I was getting everything I needed into my bags to carry home. After a mini panic I went to the trusty iPhone and found the nearest post office - gathered up everything and shipped it home - crisis averted. With Surf Expo over I fly back to DC on January 9th (I was staying with my Dad after Christmas and went to Florida from there) and make it back with plenty of time to catch the football games and relax on the couch after an exciting 10 days in Orlando.
The next thing on the agenda is my trip to New Zealand on January 13th! The 10th I spend doing laundry and mentally laying out what I need to take and still get for my trip and I hang out with my dad and just kind of chill. Tuesday Morning the 11th I wake up with a little sore throat - nothing that would concern me normally but I'm about to fly half way around the world in 2 days so I AM a little concerned but I decide to get done what I need to do and see how the days goes. A light raincoat and a New Zealand plug adapter are the top things on my list and a quick trip over to the Annapolis mall takes care of that & my dad joins me so we have lunch & a nice father/son afternoon. My throat isn't any worse but it's still there and I tell dad that I think I'm going to go to the doctor when we get back to the house just to be sure. I normally don't go to the doctor unless I feel it's absolutely necessary so my intuition must have been kicking in because a strep throat test comes back positive (insert expletive laden panic thoughts here!) I tell the doctor that I'm supposed to be flying out at 8am in 2 days for New Zealand and he tells me that it shouldn't be a problem because I've obviously caught it early and he's going to give me a good strong antibiotic to knock it out - I want to kiss the guy but then he'd probably get strep too and that's no good! Thursday morning the 13th comes along and my throat is feeling better just a minor tickle at this point but now my head is stuffed up and I'm blowing my nose like mad. Has anyone ever flown with congested sinuses? I have before and I can tell you that the pain is akin to having people standing on either side of you taking turns firing nail guns into your temples, forehead, and eyes. Forget strep throat I've got some serious flying ahead of me (20 + hours worth!) and that's going to be Medieval style torture if I don't get this pressure thing under control. Fortunately CVS is just a 5 minute drive from my dad's house and on the way to the airport so I grab a couple different decongestants, a huge bottle of water, a couple bottles of grapefruit juice and a multivitamin and, looking like a total hypochondriac, I head off to the airport hydrating and popping pills. By the time I get to the airport my eyes have receded back into their sockets and my head is feeling much more air travel worthy but I'm still a little nervous simply because I don't ever want to feel that sinus pressure/air travel pain combo again in my life. The first leg of my journey is a 5 hour flight to Las Vegas and fortunately my cocktail of hydration and drugs is doing its job - life is good. From Vegas I'm supposed to have a 3 hour layover before flying to San Francisco but that turns into a 5 hour layover (this will be important later). My flight to San Francisco finally leaves and what was supposed to be a 3 hour layover in San Francisco is now only a 1 1/2 hour layover made even better because my ticket to Auckland, New Zealand is in Business Class so I have access to the Air New Zealand lounge where I get a snack, and geek it up on my iPhone a bit before boarding the plane for the 13 hour flight to Auckland. I'm not going to post a photo of the seat I had because that would just be obnoxious - if you're interested Google Air New Zealand Business Premiere Seat. I have to say up front that I didn't pay to fly in Business - I had a ton of frequent flyer miles so I used them for this trip to New Zealand and when I booked it Business was the only seat available that I could use my ff miles. This was the most incredible "seat" on a plane ever. It lay completely flat so when you wanted to go to sleep you pushed a button and the seat transformed into a bed and there was a pad provided that you roll out to sleep on and a blanket and real pillow to sleep on. The food and entertainment system were incredible and they even gave you a little gift pack with a toothbrush, toothpaste, face soap, & other things to make you more comfortable - an absolutely unreal travel experience and especially nice since I wasn't feeling 100%.
Remember I said that my layover & delay in Vegas would be important later? When I arrived in Auckland and was waiting for my bag I realized after a bit that I was the only person standing around the baggage carousel and didn't have my bag. Apparently because of the delay in Vegas my bag didn't make it on to the flight to Auckland so I did all the song & dance with the luggage folks so they'd get my bag to me and proceeded on through customs. I had a ton of time to kill in the Auckland airport until my last flight to Gisborne and fortunately I was again permitted access to the Air New Zealand lounge because I had flown in on Business class. The lounge was a Godsend because I was tired and hungry and the lounge had food and comfy couches on which to sleep as well as a good wifi connection - if only they had a change of clothes for me. My flight to Gisborne was on a small prop plane with 1 seat on either side of the isle - a far sight from my last flight but the short trip in the middle of the afternoon was awesome. The view of the lush, green, mountainous landscape from the plane was fantastic & I would have been happy to just fly around for another hour just for the view.
As we descended into Gisborne we circled out over the Pacific Ocean on our approach and I could see the surf hitting the beach - my friend Euan had been telling me that they were expecting a swell around the same time I was arriving.I met Euan a few years ago in Costa Rica - we were both by ourselves and ended up sharing a room in Rancho Grande in Playa Hermosa. Euan was living and working in London at the time and we just kept in touch - this past year he contacted me because a surf shop in his hometown of Gisborne, New Zealand was for sale, he was considering buying it and just wanted to pick my brain about surf shop ownership. He ended up buying the shop and moving back to New Zealand and was nice enough to host me for my trip. So Euan picked me up at the airport in Gisborne and tells me that there's swell hitting all over and that we're going over to his shop then we're going to go get a surf. I tell him about my bag being lost so he grabs a wetsuit from the shop and we head over to his family's house in Wainui. Euan has only been back in New Zealand for a year so he's been staying with his parents, Carnie and Ivan, while he looks for a place of his own and I knew that their place was beachfront but nothing more. When we got to the house it was gorgeous - right in the middle of Wainui beach and, while I was expecting to be in a spare bedroom or on a couch, they have a guest apartment for me to stay in with a view out over the ocean that I literally don't even need to get out of bed to check the surf. I'm stoked to say the least!
Seriously? I'm staying here??
And that's my view huh? That'll do I suppose
My first surf is just a few minutes drive up the road at Centers in Makorori. The waves are head high to a pinch overhead and peeling down the rock reef - nothing better for clogged sinuses than clean right handers! A couple of duck dives later I'm sitting in the lineup of maybe half a dozen guys and another minute later a set comes right to me and I stroke into a clean open faced green wall, pump off the bottom & do a couple of mellow easy turns and pop off the back and paddle back out - surf trips don't start much better than this even if your luggage is lost!I can't possibly recount every day and every surf session because I was there for 25 days and it would take forever and I'm sure no one wants to read all that detail anyway. Suffice to say I surfed a lot of really spectacular waves: Chalet, North Makorori, Wainui, and Tuamotu Island. The Island I surfed twice and on consecutive days very early in my trip. It's close enough to shore that you can paddle out but far enough that it's a bitch to paddle out! The first time out there I went with on of Euan's employees, Smudge. Heading out it was low tide - you park in the lot at Sponge Bay, jump the fence into a cowfield then walk a short trail down the bluff to a rocky beach, a short walk along the shoreline then into the water and you can wade most of the way over to the island but it takes forever because you have to wear shoes and be careful about placing your feet so you don't twist an ankle. Some parts are deep enough that you paddle then you walk again until you get all the way to the shore on the island. Again it's pretty rocky and you're on the wrong side of the island so you have to walk around the island and stash your shoes and then you're finally ready to paddle out. Like I said, it's a bitch but he waves are totally worth it - perfectly peeling lefthanders that break into a channel and allow you to paddle back out without having to duck dive at all unless a larger set comes through. Coming back the tide had come in so there was no wading and we had to paddle the whole way. After surfing for a couple hours the 35 minute paddle back made my shoulders feel like freshly ground beef. The second time I went out there was with Euan the following morning and we took a different approach. We went down to the sandy beach of Sponge Bay with standup paddleboards and put our shortboards on the front and paddled over to the island. This was an overall longer route but on the SUP's it only took 10 or 15 minutes to get over to the island and once there we tied the SUP's up to a crayfish pot buoy outside the lineup then paddled into the wave zone on the shortboards. This time we were the only 2 out and even though the waves weren't quite as good as the previous day and not as consistent, they did come in 2 wave sets so we'd each catch one then paddle back out together - a great session.
The Island
The most standout surf I had was on Thursday the 27th of January though and right out front of the house in Wainui. We were expecting a swell and got up early to find it hitting at 6-8 feet with 10 foot plus sets. Euan had the day off of work so it was particularly great for him because prior to my arrival there hadn't been any swell in weeks. We surfed a morning session with a friend, Zoe, from up the street then took a break and had a nice big breakfast and were sitting on the lawn watching the waves continue to roll in and digesting when we realized that the wind was still offshore with no sign of it shifting. We suited back up and went out for another session for a few more hours until it was time to break for lunch. Another friend, Sophie, joined us for our 3rd and 4th sessions of the day and we all finally collapsed in the back yard with some beers barely able to lift our arms, sunburned, exhausted, and all with huge smiles on our faces. The wind never switched and the swell was perfect all day - it was a tripmaker of a day and one I will never forget. The entire trip for that matter was unforgettable, I made a lot of great new friends, relaxed, surfed, spent a lot of time on a bicycle riding around and was even able to help Euan at his shop, Blitz, a little - I cannot wait to go back to New Zealand and highly recommend you go visit as well.Jan 27 at Sunrise
Midday
Done!
Circadian Dysrhythmia
1. Disruption to the body's biological clock caused by a sudden shift in daily rhythm.
Synonyms: jet lag
Now I've been to Europe and have experienced let lag but the jet lag I had when I got back to DC and over the next almost week was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. Completely exhausted but unable to sleep, sleeping for a few hours in the middle of the day, wide awake at 3 & 4 am - just wrecked. I spent a few days at my dad's house then drove down to my mom's house in Virginia where my brother and his family were also visiting and then finally made it back to North Carolina on Valentines Day for a dentist appointment in Kitty Hawk before making the last little drive down Hatteras Island. Pretty much as soon as I got back and after unpacking my bags (which thankfully made it back with me from New Zealand!) I started taking apart my bathroom. I've had a remodeling project in mind and decided to get right to it. Andy gave me a call on my first full day back and we went for a surf in Avon - quite shocking to get back in a heavy wetsuit with hood, gloves, booties but we caught a few decent waves and it's always good to surf with my buddy back home! My brother came over with his reciprocating saw and we cut the shower out of the bathroom and got the rest of the old paneling down then my mom came came down with some odds & ends and I got hard to work rebuilding the bathroom. With my brother's help we got the new shower installed then we hung new underpinning under the entire house and were fortunate to have good weather for the outdoor work. Everything was done in just about a week and it's looking great!
So now what? Well I've got a couple of weeks until the shop opens and my brother and I just have a couple of things to do so I'd like to run out and have a couple of options but am hanging on to hear from different people about their schedules etc before I make any p
lans.
This has been a mammoth of a post and if you've read all the way through I'm impressed!
This has been a mammoth of a post and if you've read all the way through I'm impressed!
I've been thinking a lot here recently about all the different forms of social media and how they relate to both business and my personal life. I use Facebook on a daily basis, have a Twitter account that I use sparingly, am building a new website for the shop in easily updatable form, a blog obviously, a Flickr account and a new iPhone 4 with lots of apps so I have all the pieces to be more active and I hope to be so.I know that it'll be a lot easier on me if I do regular small updates rather than a once every 2-3 month novel but I just need to DO IT!! Ugg I hate to admit it but I might need some help with this - any suggestions?! Thanks for hanging in there and I look forward to seeing and hearing from everyone soon.
- Drew
- Drew
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