The Pursuit Of Paradise

How Chinese food is going to change my life.

2012-01-29T10:59:00.000-05:00

For maximum effect of this blog post scroll to the bottom and start the YouTube video for the sound and let it play quietly in the background while you read!

Really? Sweet! So now what? Do I make a list? Is there someplace I go to redeem this like a coupon? Do I go sit out in the desert smoke peyote and wait for my power animal to deliver me a message?

Fortune cookies are the best - they just have a way of uplifting your spirits even if for only a minute. They also have a way of making you think about things - they do for me at least. I mean I'm not talking about massive deep introspection life soul searching or anything serious like that just more like thought of the day type stuff. This particular fortune cookie got me thinking about astrology of all things - something I've never really believed in. A couple of weeks ago I was with some friends and a book about relationships between people of different astrological signs came off a shelf while we were working our way through a couple bottles of wine. We had fun with it and I glossed over it but as it was being read aloud it described some things about me (a Gemini) that were pretty dead on and I was intrigued. One evening when I was at home not doing anything constructive I did some internetting on my astrological sign just to see what it said and if it described me at all. I have to admit, again, that there were a lot of "the Gemini is...", "the Gemini feels...", " the Gemini desires..." points that I could pretty easily relate to and see in myself. Kind of creepy actually especially when you don't generally subscribe to those sorts of beliefs. I looked at is as keeping an open mind and just a lighthearted way to spend some time in an evening other than watching TV. This isn't meant to mean that I'm now reading my daily horoscope and walking around saying things like "Oh Saturn's moon is in the shadow of Uranus so I can't eat cheese right now" or anything like that.

Hearts desire? Sure my heart has desires just like everyone else. Some I already have, am grateful for and desire not to lose. Then there are those just sitting there waiting for the planets to align.

I'm going for a run :)

- Drew

Life Lessons I Learned From My Passport

2012-01-20T21:50:00.004-05:00

My Passport, a bunch of coins and paper money from various countries, beer labels from various countries, my camera, sunglasses, a surfboard fin, a stone from the beach in New Zealand, and a scrap of paper with the phone number and email address of Dave who owns a little surf shop in Nicaragua

There's something that people do a lot that really burns me up. Before I get into it too much though I want to make it clear that I both understand and respect (as well as HAVE) commitments and having responsibilities. So please don't tell me I don't understand
I don't know if I hate it or if it bothers me or if it makes me feel bad for people or maybe a combination of all of the above when people say "I wish I could do that" or "I can't do that" or "I can't afford that". Now if your wish is to go stay in the Playboy Fantasy Penthouse in Las Vegas for a month and your job is waiting tables at Ruby Tuesday (I can use that as an example because I waited tables at Ruby Tuesday) you'd better save every nickel and not do anything with your money! Really what I'm talking about is in reference to when I take a trip somewhere and when I get back and people ask me about it. I tell an abbreviated highlighted account of my trip and invariably it's met with "I wish I could do something like that". My response to that comment is just about always "well then do it!" Then I hear the "I can't because..."
When I was like 6 or 7 years old my mom put my brother, Kevin, and I in the car (a 1974 Chevy Nova) and DROVE us from Northern Virginia to Veracruz, Mexico. Why in the hell would a sane smart woman do such a thing? Well simple, because she wanted to go, she wanted to take us, and she couldn't afford to fly us all there. We stayed in cheap hotels on the way, crashed with people she knew along the way, ate dry Cheerios from plastic baggies in the car. When we got to Mexico we stayed with family members and family friends. I don't honestly remember much from that trip because I was so young but I do remember climbing the Aztec pyramid of the Sun and being in Mexico City and walking through an art museum, playing in a fountain in Veracruz to get some relief from the Mexican summer heat, playing soccer in the street with my long lost cousins, and smacking at a piñata at a birthday party for someone that I didn't know and I'm sure didn't know me. The point is that my mom wanted to go and she didn't have the means to do it the "safe" way so she went the way she could manage and even now 30 years later I remember the trip and I remember it being fun. That's not to say that there weren't problems. We got a flat tire in the desert in the shadow of a really gnarly mountain range. Mom knew how to change a tire so it started off as not a big deal but she made the mistake of not putting something solid under the car jack and the partially jacked car shifted on the jack and jammed the jack so there was nothing she could do to reset the jack. I remember my little brother being asleep in the back seat of the car and my mom telling me to take off my shirt and use it to try to flag down a car to help us while she tried to get the jack free. Her last comment to me was "watch out for snakes" Needless to say I have a bit of an issue with snakes to this day. Mom wasn't scared or maybe she was but just decided to go anyway the point is that she took a chance on a crazy but great trip and it worked out great.

When I travel now I can't help but think that I pretty much use the same template. Decide on a destination and connect the dots however I can make it happen using the resources I have available. The biggest resource almost always turns out to be someone I know. You have a different relationship with every person you know and sometimes you may feel strange asking someone to pick you up at the airport or if you can crash on their couch for a night or more but if you don't put yourself out there and ask, what might you miss out an opportunity to see or experience?? I asked a friend in Costa Rica that I didn't know all that well if I could crash on her couch for a night or two while I found a longer term place I could afford. I found a place but was then told to cancel it and stay there and ever since they've always insisted I stay with them. I do dishes, keep my things straight, clean up after myself, pitch in for groceries, show up with drinks, and make myself scarce so I'm not in the way. If I hadn't asked that time I would have found a place to stay and would have had a great time but I did ask so now I have some great friends and contacts as well! I don't know - this isn't the most coherent of blog posts, it sounded much better in my head. I guess the point is that whatever it is you want you have to decide how important it is to you then do it. Don't make excuses, don't say "I can't" don't whine and moan about it being hard and damn sure don't doubt yourself or be scared. If you want to do something - do it. Commit. Want to lose weight - stop eating fried chicken, have a salad and start running. Want to run a marathon - buy some shoes and start training. Want to open a surf shop - quit your stupid job and put everything you have into it. Want to buy a Ferrari and date Playboy models - work your ass off in school get a super high paying job or design the next iPhone and buy till your heart's content.

Chances are no one is gonna do it for you so you've got to go get it. Whatever "IT" is. Me? I want to see, touch, feel, smell, taste and most importantly know firsthand. Lemme know if you want to come with - it's always fun to have company :D

~Drew

Ketchup Covered Ridiculousness

2012-01-15T17:51:00.006-05:00

Yeah that's right New Years resolution you are my bitch! Two weeks two blog posts I own you, I rule, I am the undisputed champion of the internet. Buy my ass a cape and name a holiday after me - maybe call it Drewski Blogtacular Day. It can be celebrated yearly by forming a line at my front door and bringing me delicious treats and nutritious meals that I can pop out of the freezer and heat up supplying me with a full year of sustenance so I no longer need to cook ever again. Your way of thanking me for providing you with such captivating entertainment - yeah you're welcome. I realize that the reality is probably more like everyone lacing up steel toed boots and getting in line to come give me a thorough ass kicking but don't do it. Please. Please don't do that it sounds really painful and the truth is that I'd probably cry and get my blood all over your really nice boots and no one wants that.

So on Wednesday Kevin, Debbie, and I flew down to Orlando, FL for Surf Expo - something we do every year around this time. This is the closest thing we have to a "business trip" - oh yeah we can write it off our taxes and everything it's legit. Except that when you walk through the entrance this is the first thing you see:

Now while I realize that we all know that this woman's masters degree in marketing is being put to work here promoting a product of not only economic but social and humanitarian significance I think we need to discuss the obvious problem with the execution. The QR code on her shirt is very likely not going to be properly read because that shirt is wrinkled. I realize that she was in a rush to get out there because she forgot about her pants but the wrinkled QR code is going to ruin an otherwise genius idea.

I love the concept of models. It's like putting ketchup on a crappy hotdog to make it taste better.

Scan it - c'mon do it I dare you!!
What's so special about ketchup? Nothing that's what - it's a bunch of tomatoes liquified then a lot of the water cooked out of them add salt & sugar to make it taste better then squirt it on said crappy hotdog to make IT taste better. In the end you just wind up eating two crappy things. What are models? Generally self absorbed, insecure, personality deprived, unintelligent bitches stripped down and painted up to make you look past their inability to have any kind of meaningful human interaction then plopped down next to some crappy product to make IT look better. Ever see a hot model posing it up in a Mercedes ad? Or a Dewey Weber surfboard ad? Nope - because those are quality products that can stand alone without ketchup smeared all over them to make 'em taste better. When we first started our shop I found that I had a really difficult time looking at the women's clothing lines because I couldn't look past the models - everything looked good to me. You could send these girls out in a manure stained coffee sack trimmed out in zip ties, and speaker wire and I'd be writing an order for 50 in each color. Thank God Debbie has been in charge of women's ordering since the beginning and that I've since realized that models just get in the way of doing real work. And really does anyone want to have a relationship with these girls? Date - sure but c'mon, when you're out to dinner laying groundwork I'm willing to bet there aren't any plans to finish construction beyond the plumbing (damn that was good metaphor - I'm telling you, Drewski Blogtacular Day - gonna happen!)

The Date with the Smokin Hot Model

Fade in: Interior, dimly lit fashionable Asian fusion restaurant in up & coming hip urban neighborhood. A semi attractive man smartly dressed sits with a Smokin Hot woman in a small booth with cocktails. They have just placed a dinner order and their waiter (dressed in skin tight jeans and a black beanie) walks away with their menus.

Dude: "You look lovely tonight?"

Smokin Hot Model (SHM): "Awwwww thanks!" (brushes hair over her ear then straightens it back over on both sides taking a quick glance at the ends)

Dude: "So that QR code was a brilliant idea today at the Expo you really must have noticed a bump in the website metrics!"

SHM: "QR code? I look at Fahrenheit - cuz that's how we do it in America metrics are for Europe and all they know how to do is shoes haha"

Dude: "Yeahhh ha you're right." "So how long have you be modeling?"

SHM: "Oh wow I've been doing it for, like, ever"

Dude: "That's great! You're really cut out for it. So what about long term? What kind of plans do you have?"

SHM: "Oh well I'm working on my portfolio still but I met this really great photographer in a club last weekend who said he'll shoot my photos for free! He's got a studio at his house - I just have to schedule a time to go over there and do it! But I'm doing these expos for now to get some exposure and once my portfolio is done I'm gonna put in for some magazine gigs and get an agent and... (dude drifts off to fondly thinking about his most recent dental work and the time he was beaten near to death by a mass of people in steel toed boots while SHM's master plan of modeling world domination unfolds across the table from him)

Fade to dude dream sequence: The camera is tight on SHM's mouth jabbering away then to dude who casually glances under the table at SHM's perfectly shaped legs, he takes her leg into his hand and sensually runs it down her calf and slowly removes the stiletto heel from her foot firmly grasping her heel in his hand then plunges the heel into his own neck and slits his throat from ear to ear to end his suffering.

Fade out of dream sequence to smiling guy who realizes he is still alive and drops his head into his hands.

My Very Tall Friend Benny & Very Short Sister-in-Law Debbie

Was that too much? I can, and do, appreciate a beauty as much as anyone else but c'mon some of these girls need to get their heads out of their asses and don't even get me started on male models - except Derek Zoolander duh he's rad.

Long story short, Surf Expo was great as always and we're looking forward to 2012 and having some killer stuff in the shop. We went out to some fantastic meals and had some laughs and made some contacts and generally got a lot of work done. My friend, Adam, was there for his first Surf Expo showing his new line East Coast Original Surfers (check it out it's cool! Website, Facebook) and it was cool to see his reaction to the enormity of Surf Expo as well as him hustling to get his new little company started on a very large industry stage. I wish him the best of luck.

Can't wait to see how much hate mail I get about how models are people too. Let me answer you now: "I know they aren't all stupid", "Yes I most certainly CAN date a hot girl but she needs to be able to hold a conversation or I don't want to date her", "What exactly do you think I'm jealous of?", and "Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about but maybe I do, why do you even care?"

Have a great week!

Drew

Happy New Year You Arrogant Prick!

2012-01-08T17:30:00.002-05:00

I'm not entirely sure what started my train of though leading up to this blog post but at some point I had a moment of thought where I wished I could kick myself in the face. I suppose I have had quite a bit of ambivalence towards the concept of New Years resolutions mostly because of what I always hear from people: I want to lose weight, I want to stop cursing so much, I want to remodel my kitchen - whatever it is. While I don't want to discount anything that's important to people I have to say that it's always seemed to me like the things I hear are either really superficial or just said to try to impress the people they're telling. I have to admit that I haven't made ANY New Years resolutions that I can remember for the past several years and the reason I would give you is that I was unimpressed with what I heard from others and didn't want to be part of that method of thinking. So at some point over the past week or so I've been thinking about it and I've come to the conclusion that I'm an arrogant prick. Maybe instead of being so concerned with boycotting the status quo I should have been looking inside myself for the things I need to change or improve. This made a lot of sense to me - hell resolutions should be about self improvement or improvement for the greater good and there's no reason why I can't make a resolution(s) that accomplish that without broadcasting it to the world... Oh crap... Now I really feel like an ass. Certainly that's what most people do right? I mean if my resolution is to be more tolerant of people, for example, that isn't something that I'm seeking credit for so I wouldn't even say it out loud - yet if I wanted to lose 20lbs I would probably announce that so when I started looking slim & trim people would take notice and compliment me. So there it is, I welcome the New Year with the realization that I'm an arrogant prick - I've not made resolutions to change anything about myself and yet I'm far from perfect. Before you click over to your Facebook friend list to unfriend me though I will say that I do try on a daily basis to do what I can to be a good person, a constructive member of the world, and practice what I preach health & exercise-wise and I think that, for the most part, covers the large majority of what resolutions generally revolve about.

So here's my resolution - well my PUBLIC resolution: I resolve to have resolutions - I've come up with a few things that are important to me that I'm going to either change, improve upon, or strive towards but they aren't things that I expect to receive recognition for - hopefully I'll feel good though and can make some people in my life feel good as well. Another thing, I'm writing a blog post once a week period. That's 52 blog posts in 2012 and if Saturday or Sunday rolls around and you're looking for a blog post from me but haven't seen one please call me out on it! I'm gonna start right now. This whole self chastising resolution rant doesn't count!

Blog post #1 of 2012:

Happy New Year!! What a crazy year 2011 was and I'm sure 2012 will have surprises of its own but I'm really looking forward to seeing what it holds! First a couple of highlights & lowlights of 2011:

-Rang in 2011 in Orlando, FL

-Took a long surf trip to New Zealand

-Got into arguably the best shape of my life

-Tore cartilage in my knee

-Had surgery on aforementioned knee

-Ran a respectable finish in a 10K 8 weeks following surgery

-Bought a piece of property for my business

-Had to seek legal counsel related to the property purchase

- Began construction of a new building for my business

There was a lot in between but those were the standout items of 2011 as I remember them at the moment. 2011 ended pretty crazy for me as well leading right into 2012. My brother, Kevin, and I closed up our shop just before the Christmas holiday like we always do but then we had to completely empty the building where Hatteras Island Boardsports has resided since 2002. For the most part this went really smoothly but it was a lot of work and wasn't so fun but we put our heads down and powered through it in about 3 days of packing, storing, trashing, & recycling. No sooner were we finished (on Dec 30th) than I jumped in my car, back still throbbing from carrying heavy boxes, and drove up to Raleigh for the night with my cousins then up the following morning, New Years Eve, at 4am to make a 6am flight to Austin, Texas to visit my friend, Amanda, and her sister, Laura, for New Years. I treated myself to a first class upgrade for the long portion of the trip from Raleigh, NC to Houston, TX and fell promptly asleep but woke up just in time to look out my window to see the day breaking on the last day of the year - it was pretty and made me smile. I was supposed to be in Houston at about 8:30am then fly out at 10:30 and be in Austin at 11:30am but tiny droplets of water made a mess of this. Fog delayed my flight out of Houston, then they changed the gate, then they delayed it longer, then delayed it longer still, then changed the gate again, then apparently played rock/paper/scissors over where the plane was even going to go and finally cancelled my flight to Austin. I dragged my tired ass to a very long line expecting to be told that I'd be put on another flight or at the worst that I'd have to rent a car and drive the 3 hours to Austin and stood quietly and watched customer after customer walk away from the counter with disgusted looks on their faces. There were some irate folks spewing some pretty hateful verbiage towards the poor people manning the counters and I decided that whatever happened to me I was going to be nice about it. When I finally had my turn at the desk I tried to smile and said simply "rough day huh?" to the woman behind the counter. Somehow by the will of (insert your favorite religious icon's name here) she managed to get me on the last available seat on the last available flight to Austin.

Upon arrival in Austin (at 8:30PM!! When I was supposed to be there at 11:30AM!!) I was shocked to find my bag patiently waiting for me completely intact - this was a concern because I was traveling dressed comfortably but not appropriately to go out on New Years Eve. Amanda had actually gone to the mall and purchased clothes for me to wear in case my bag didn't come - the stakes were serious I'm telling you.

Ok so here I am, 9 ish pm CST, been up since 4am EST, and I'm getting ready to go out for NYE. Anyone who's ever been out with me for New Years knows that I don't sit quietly in my pj's dozing and trying to keep my eyes open long enough to see the ball fall on TV. Amanda very politely offered to let me rest while she got ready to go out but I declined, got myself showered and dressed and started sipping on a cocktail. Between then and the next morning was a typical New Years blur of drinks, dancing, drinks, photos, drinks, a boisterous recognition of Happy New Year, and... well... drinks.

New Years day was beautiful and, although it got off to quite a rough start, we managed to retrieve the car from downtown Austin where we abandoned it for a cab ride home, have a little nutrition to revive our abused bodies and throbbing heads, have a fantastic brunch at Moonshine Grill and even take a nice walk on the Greenbelt

Rather than recount my entire trip to Austin I'll just say that it's a fantastic city. If you're the get outside and run/bike/swim/hike type you'll love it. People out running & biking everywhere and the sidewalks, trails & pedestrian lanes & bridges to support it. There was a playground my niece & nephew would have loved and it was swarming with hundreds of kids having a blast. All the restaurants had tons of different and healthy & vegetarian choices on the menu - I guess this might be expected in the city where Whole Foods is headquartered. Austin is also renowned for its music scene. South By Southwest is a huge music & film festival that takes place in early spring that I've always wanted to go to but have an even greater renewed interest in now that I've spent some time in Austin. Austin City Limits is another music festival which is supposed to be great as well.

I generally think of Texas as a haven for meat eating, Wal-Mart shopping, ultraconservative, racist, oil drilling, ravenous football fans (yeah that was a bit exaggerated I admit) but that's not what Austin is so I highly recommend it.

Alright I'm gonna leave it there for now - remember to stay on my back about posting once a week it's good for me to vocalize what I'm up to. Even though I leave a lot of stuff out of the post for personal reasons when I read back over it I remember for myself everything that I didn't write down and hopefully the people I shared those experiences with remember as well. Happy 2012! I hope yours started as well as mine has and I hope we all have a great year!

Just for fun

2011-03-10T10:24:00.003-05:00

My dad sent me the following email joke thingie and, although I've seen it before, I think it's pretty funny. Enjoy!
- Drew

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend5.0 to Husband1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend5.0.

In addition, Husband1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as NBA5.0, NFL3.0 and GolfClubs 4.1.

Conversation8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning2.6 simply crashes the system. Please note that I have tried running Nagging5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,

Desperate.

DEAR DESPERATE,

First, keep in mind, Boyfriend5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband1.0 is an operating system.

Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html, try to download Tears6.2, and do not forget to install the Guilt3.0 update. If those applications work as designed,
Husband1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry2.0 and Flowers3.5.

However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, HappyHour 7.0, or Beer6.1.

Please note that Beer6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Farting and Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do,
DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)

In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend5.0 program. This is an unsupported application and will crash Husband1.0.

In summary, Husband1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software
to improve memory and performance. We recommend Cooking3.0 and Hot Lingerie7.7.

Good Luck!

Tech Support

Beer and Grammar - Love and Hate

2011-03-08T18:11:00.007-05:00

I like beer. I like the taste of it and I enjoy tasting different beers. Back in college one Christmas my mom got me a beer making kit - a really basic one and I made a brown ale that turned out ok considering it was the beer making equivalent of buying a boxed brownie mix at the supermarket. Several years later I was thinking about it and decided that I wanted to get back into making my own beer so I bought a few things to take my home brewing operation to a more "from scratch" level. Really that just amounts to buying a big pot, a couple of food quality buckets, a glass carboy, thermometer, and a couple special pieces. *If you're interested you can go Homebrewer's Outpost where you can buy or see the type of kit that I'm talking about* I made a couple different beers and always enjoyed the fruits of my labors as well as the process of making them. When I met my buddy Andy in Hatteras and found out that he also had a passion for brewing as well as some equipment he and I both started working together making and sampling beers together. There are a lot of Craft Breweries and Micro Breweries that I like but one of my favorites is Dogfish Head which is located in Southern Delaware in a town called Milton just inland from Rehoboth beach. My Dad and Step-mom have a beach house in Ocean City, MD and it's only about a 40 minute drive to the Dogfish Head brewery in Milton so this past weekend my friend Benny and I went up and took the brewery tour. It's a great tour with a cool gift shop and at the end of the tour they give you some samples to try out - sweet! A production brewery really isn't any different from what I do back in my kitchen except they are obviously a much larger scale. After the tour (and dropping a phone/sat/internet bill in the gift shop) we made our way over to Rehoboth where Dogfish Head has a brewpub restaurant. The cool thing about Dogfish Head being a small company is that they still use their Rehoboth brewpub location as their test facility. Here they brew smaller batches of beers and use their restaurant as a test facility so as a customer you get to try something that isn't available in stores (and DFH is already hard to find in stores) and it makes great sense from a business standpoint as well. Long story short we had a fun excursion - like a field trip for grown men. Come to think of it maybe DFH should consider having their waitresses in cheerleader outfits and install a pole... naaaaa that would distract from the beer.

Panoramic of the Dogfish Head Brewery

The Fermentation Tanks - where a weird tea becomes beer

Ok a major peeve here that I've got to get off my chest. I know that the English language isn't super easy and we have lots of things that are confusing - "i before e except after c", silent letters, etc. I also realize that text messaging has spawned usage of abbreviations to make composing messages easier and more efficient even if it means incorrect grammar and I use it as well in texts ("c" instead of "see", "u" instead of "you" - "c u l8tr" is much more efficient to send via text than "see you later") So please understand that's not my issue.

My issue is the rampant incorrect usage of a bunch of simple words - most commonly the "Their, There, They're" group, the "Two, To, & Too" group, and "Are, Our" (that one really gets me!) So here's a refresher course in case you're one of those using the wrong word in the wrong context and please also understand that this is a personal pet peeve not a character assassination of anyone! If you find yourself getting offended look at it this way - if you misuse these words in a job application or a proposal to a client it could cost you the job!

There: Describes Location as in: "Where is it?" "It's over THERE"

Their: Describes possession by them as in: "This is THEIR sweet car"

They're: Contraction for "They Are" as in: "THEY'RE going to the mall"

"They're driving over there in their sweet car" translates into: "Those people are driving to a location in a sweet car that they own" and makes perfect sense!

Moving on to too, to, two!

Too: Also, as well, or an expression of excess as in: "I love tacos TOO" and "Those tacos had TOO much hot sauce"

To: Indicates direction or intent as in: "I want TO give this TO you before you go TO the gym"

Two: Spelled out number 2 as in: "I want TWO tacos please"

"I'd like TO order TWO tacos TO go but not with TOO much cheese please!" "Hey I'd like TWO tacos TOO thank you!" Got it?!

"Our" and "Are" being used interchangeably if you're out of the 7th grade (in my opinion) is inexcusable and either you need to go back to 7th grade or all your teachers need a smack on the back of the head!

I think in light of all the talk about immigrants "knowing the language" it's important that we (US citizens) also know the language which, in my mind, means being able to read and write as well as speak it!

I suppose I've probably made some grammatical mistakes through this blog post and I realize that my rant about the usage of Their, They're, There & To, Too, Two will probably open myself up to scrutiny of my use of punctuation and grammar and that's fine. Like I said at the beginning - it's a major pet peeve of mine! Have a good evening!

-Drew

Food first?

2011-02-25T11:43:00.018-05:00

** A preliminary note to the reader: If you're hungry you might want to grab a bite to eat before you start reading this then fix a drink and make yourself comfortable! **

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.

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!

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

Owen!

2011-01-02T14:34:00.001-05:00

My friend Claudia has been kind enough to host me for New Years and a nice little pre Surf Expo Orlando, FL visit. I can't even tell you how nice it's been to be able to go for an outdoor run wearing shorts and my lungs not burning from cold air. Claudia is a Pilates instructor and has her studio in her home (visit her website and make an appointment with her if you're in Orlando and want a great workout!! www.abetterbodypilates.wordpress.com ) Claudia also volunteers at an animal shelter once a week and fosters rescued animals as well. Owen is one of her dogs that was rescued and she then adopted. He's a 10 year old long haired Chihuahua that was severely neglected - lost all his teeth, was way underweight (tough to imagine on an already tiny dog!!). Claudia has done a lot of work with him and makes a point to take him out with her and tell his story being the animal advocate that she is. Go check out Owen's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/Owen/119652951383123 and his merch page at www.cafepress.com/everythingowen - it's a good cause and Owen is a trip although it's not easy to show in a blog!

2011-01-01T19:57:00.003-05:00

When I first started this blog I envisioned it being basically a surf report on steroids. I found that my best posts however (at least the ones I thought were best) tended to be about my travels or when I opened up about what was going on and just spun a yarn rather than "reporting". Being a new year and having resolved to build on my experiences over the last year I'm also really hoping to stick to more of a storytelling format and hopefully keeping it more interesting to read. I encourage anyone who reads to make comments and don't hold back - I can take it!
I started this year off in Orlando with a beautiful vantage point of downtown - I'm going to keep this post short and just post the photo I took last night - Happy New year to you all - I hope you all approach it with an open heart and mind and call me out on it if I don't seem to be!
- Drew

Andy

2010-11-03T02:15:00.002-04:00

I haven't written in a long time - largely because I just haven't felt up to it - haven't felt inspired to. I've been out to surf a few times since I last posted but I've also just gone up to the beach and stared at ocean unable to find myself motivated by what I was looking at to get in. On several occasions I've walked up over the dunes to find total garbage conditions but still plopped myself down in the sand or on the railing and just gazed out across the ocean. It really is peaceful and beautiful - I forget sometimes how much I love the beach and the ocean and I'm afraid I take for granted sometimes just how much I do love it because it's right there all the time. How many times have I complained about the lack of surf in this blog when you're sitting in an office somewhere hours away from a beach wishing you could go and look at the ocean 10 times a day if you felt inclined or take a walk across the street to eat your sandwich on the beach for your lunch break. I'm sorry for doing that to you - I'll try to be more thoughtful in the future and paint the picture you want to read about because for the most part it's true. This is a beautiful place - it's not perfect but we're fortunate.

Andy Irons died today and it's really got me thinking. So much so that I'm up at 2:30am writing about it. If you don't know who Andy Irons is - he's a professional surfer from Hawaii who won the world title 3 times. That's not an easy feat and there aren't a lot of guys who have won the title multiple times but he's one of them. Andy was one of the headlining team riders for Billabong and a big rival of the famed Kelly Slater - there has been a lot of press over the years about the rivalry between Kelly and Andy being a bitter one but if you look at the more recent press you'll see that Andy and Kelly had a lot of respect for one another and I'm sure in the coming days you'll see print from Kelly to further justify this. Andy was a superstar in the surf world - that may not be the same as say Brad Pitt or LeBron James - those guys can't go anywhere without being mobbed. Andy can probably walk through an airport or a mall without being followed by 1000 screaming fans but if he's near the beach people are going to know who he is and at a contest he's going to be harassed for autographs. At home in Hawaii I'm sure Andy can't really just run out to the store without being noticed - the guy was loved and respected in the surfing world. He has a beautiful wife, Lyndie, who is pregnant and due to give birth to their first child (a boy) in a month, and a brother, Bruce, who is also a big time respected surfer. Andy died today - alone in a hotel room in Dallas, Texas. There's already some speculation that his death may be drug related but he had withdrawn from a contest currently going on in Puerto Rico because he was sick. He was on his way home to Hawaii and apparently was feeling too sick to make a connecting flight and checked into the hotel in Dallas and was found dead by hotel staff. 32 years old, professional athlete, pregnant wife, on top of the world, living the dream. Dead. Alone. In a hotel room thousands of miles away from any surfable waves. If his death turns out to be drug related or not (the initial reports said he contracted Dengue Fever in Puerto Rico and died from that), it's no way to die. I'm sure he was just feeling awful, just wanted to get home and lie in his own bed and have his wife stroke his head. I'm sure he talked to her on the phone before he got in bed in Dallas and I'm sure she felt horrible for him that he was alone and feeling bad. I'm sure they both told each other "I love you and I'll see you soon - everything's going to be alright." Andy isn't going to have the chance to even hold his baby boy, or push him into his first wave, or cheer for him at his first surf contest, or show him how to fix a ding.
So I'm sorry that I complain about the lack of surf sometimes, and I'm sorry that I don't always appreciate what I've got right in front of me. Thank you's, smiles, and I love you's are things that we shouldn't hold back on because we really never know how things are going to turn out.
Rest in peace Andy

Round 2 - ding ding!

2010-09-12T15:21:00.005-04:00

I haven't had a chance to gather my photos from Hurricane Earl much less write anything about that whole experience and here we've got more action in the water that needs to be talked about. So here's what I'm going to do - I'm going to real quick do an Earl recap with no photos (sorry!) and get into the "what's ahead" forecasting.

Earl: Obviously there was a lot of buildup ahead of Earl and we were all watching it carefully since it was a category IV storm that was looking to make a very close brush with our little island. Wednesday morning September 1st a mandatory evacuation was posted for Ocracoke Island and visitors on Hatteras Island - the gas stations were backed up, there were a lot of cars moving around and it was an absolutely gorgeous day - so hard to ask the visitors to pack up and leave. Anyway as I said in my last post Laura and I went to VA Beach - on Friday morning we got up and had some breakfast and took a look at the surf in VA Beach (unimpressive actually) then got packed up and started heading back to Hatteras knowing that the road wasn't yet open for re-entry to the island. We arrived at the Bonner Bridge (Oregon Inlet) at about 3:30pm and were told that the Department of Transportation was going to make a decision at 4:00pm as to when the road would be open. So we sat in the car until about 4:20 until the announcement was made that the road would be open at 7am the following morning. Fortunately we were up front in the line so we got the announcement first and there were a lot of cars lined up behind us so we were able to get turned around and headed North without having any traffic ahead of us. We went to Manteo and got a room at the Tranquil House - a gorgeous place on the waterfront in Manteo. We met up with some friends Brannon & Sally Helms that live there had some food and drinks and just had a great evening. Saturday morning we got up early and made the drive back to Avon. Normally this drive takes right at an hour but it took us the better part of 2 hours because of slow moving traffic through standing water on Hwy 12. We were happy to find no damage to our homes or to the shop so Laura sped off to work as did I. I got the boards off the windows and the kayak rack set back up - made some sales in the shop then closed up at around 4 and went for a surf. I was really lucky because the spot I chose to surf there were only 4 other guys out and all people that I know and the waves were beautiful. Still overhead sets and as clean and glassy as you see and mind surf and daydream over in magazines. Sunday morning I got up early and headed back to the same spot and surfed with only 1 other guy out but significantly smaller - the biggest wave I caught was maybe chest high but there were still some pretty clean lined up waves and it was worth the paddle out. I was in the shop at about 11 and got the roof sign put back up as it was the only task I hadn't taken care of on Saturday. Since then there's been basically no surf at all and I have been doing busy work and cleaning up my yard etc so I didn't get around to writing and now all of a sudden the Atlantic Ocean is alive with storms again.

Hurricane Igor (doesn't THAT sound ominous!!!??!!) as of right now is a category IV storm and projected to remain so for the next 5 days. The current forecast models are showing that the storm is supposed to continue Westward then make a turn to the North and cross in the area of Bermuda and stay off the coast of the US. I hope that is indeed the case because that will send us waves but keep us out of harms way for the damaging wind that comes with hurricanes. Especially good news because Laura's entire family, including her sister and brother-in-law from Alaska, are coming into town to celebrate her father's birthday. Igor, please, stay off shore and don't mess up the party!!

Igor's 5 day forecast

Igor visible satellite image

From Dry Ground!

2010-09-02T12:59:00.009-04:00

Hurricane Earl in all it's Category IV splendor prompted Laura and I to pack it up and head to VA Beach. I'll stay on the island for a Category I or II storm but once it's a Category III storm that looks to have an impact on our little sandbar I pack it up and head for greener pastures. There are a lot of people who stay on the island and everyone has their reasons and I respect that. For me though I've never been one to buy into the "go down with the ship" mentality - I'll build a new ship! Anyway the other thing is that the island is pretty much shut down anyway so we'd just be sitting there doing nothing so we drove up to VA Beach and are staying with Laura's brother and his family. We get to visit with Laura's nephew and go out and have a drink and I even went for a surf this morning. Waves weren't all that special - waist high maybe up to chest high on the set waves but fairly mushy and lacking any power. I did get some nice long rides though and the water felt good so I'm glad I paddled out.

Yesterday was a busy day getting the shop buttoned up and the house ready so we could take off when Laura got out of work. We have our roof sign on hinges so we just have to knock down the support arms and lay the sign on the roof and secure it in place and we pull all the kayaks inside and board up the windows. The whole process doesn't take too long and we actually had a pretty good day of business considering the island was in the process of evacuating! It's been a while since we've had an evacuation of the island but it never ceases to amaze me how out of touch people can be. The evacuation was announced at 8am for all visitors on the island - at 1pm I had a woman in the shop buying some things asking me what I though of the approaching storm and if I thought there would be an evacuation. When I told her that we were CURRENTLY in the midst of an evacuation and all residents were supposed to be off the island by 12pm she was shocked - no idea at all. So if in the next couple of days you're watching the news and see someone crying about how they barely escaped the storm with their life - I wouldn't feel too bad for them - they had plenty of fair warning from people obviously way smarter than them!!

*Drew now steps down off his soap box*

The pic below is the most recent storm track which, thank goodness, is showing a turn to the North and seems to be sparing Hatteras Island a direct hit.

Hurricane Earl 5-day forecast track

Despite the apparent miss, the island is still going to get Tropical Storm force winds (40-72mph) minimum and likely hurricane force winds as well (>73mph) although not necessarily Category IV storm force winds (cross my fingers, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye...) as well as get an ass kicking from the surf. Speaking of which...

The Frisco pier seems to be in the throes of death unfortunately. I pulled the following photos from the Facebook page of a Frisco resident who is on the island - keep in mind that the pier has been closed for, I think, two years now in a state of disrepair so it wasn't looking so hot even before the following pics were taken.

The Frisco Pier - taking a beating before the arrival of Earl

Bits of the Frisco Pier on Frisco Beach

If you're still on the island I wish you the best of luck and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow or Saturday safe & sound!! I'll have the shop open as soon as humanly possible and I'm looking forward to getting back and going for a surf! Love you Hatteras!!

Storms-a-plenty!!

2010-08-28T10:32:00.012-04:00

Wednesday and Thursday the 25th and 26th were days Laura and I have been waiting for all summer. Our "weekend" is Wednesday and Thursday due to our work schedules in a tourist economy - anyway we've had lots of beautiful beach days on our weekends this summer but generally lacking in the surf department and this time we got to surf! Wednesday we spent the day in Frisco and the waves were pretty small with some nuggets here & there. Laura got a couple of decent waves on her longboard and I managed one or two on the SUP. Laura took the SUP for a whirl as well but didn't really catch any waves. The highlight was the absolutely crystal clear water - dolphins running around. We grabbed some sandwiches from the Frisco Sandwich Company and enjoyed a gorgeous day on the beach! Thursday was the same on Avon beach (I'm sorry I can't be more specific about where exactly - you understand!). I got a call from Andy early and a text message from Stuart saying that they were headed there and that it looked good. Laura and I opted to sleep in a bit then made our way up to the beach with SUP, Longboard, and 2 shortboards in tow along with our beach stuff. We were greeted with waist to chest high beautiful glassy walls. We surfed all day and on all the boards and really had a blast - it was a clean easy workable wave with a few people out but plenty of waves for everyone on a few defined peaks.

Laura - Wednesday on the SUP

Laura on her first wave of Thursday!

Laura with a pretty righthander

Laura with yet another lined up left

Me turning down the closeout section

On to the storms!!
Hurricane Danielle is a Category 2 storm currently with winds at 110mph and it is in the process of making its turn to the Northeast and away from the US and Bermuda. Overnight Danielle was briefly a Category 4 storm when its pressure dropped to 942 millibars and was packing winds of 135mph. Today we are certainly seeing swell with waves in the shoulder high to overhead range although it was difficult to tell because no one was in the water when I looked. Unfortunately on the East facing beaches (at least here in Avon) it really isn't rideable - Northeast wind is making already rough conditions very choppy and it just doesn't look manageable. A look at the cameras on Frisco beach looks unimpressive but I may just not have caught any sets while watching the cam because Laura tells me that Frisco is getting bigger by the minute which does stand to reason. With any luck she'll get a photo that I can post here. The following photo is from the Avon pier this morning at about 9:30am I apologize for the quality it's just an iPhone pic. Truth be told a higher quality photo would just show in more detail the mess that's out there so this photo may actually be better!

So the big question is "what's going to happen?" Unfortunately the current forecast isn't all too promising for surfing conditions - no lack of swell mind you but the wind forecast is calling for moderate winds out of the Northeast through Sunday which means continued sloppy dumping conditions. Monday's forecast for the wind is calling for a dip in the wind as well as a shift to North Northeast which combined with continued South swell could point towards some pretty decent lefts on the South facing beaches of Frisco, Hatteras and even Ocracoke. I don't like to speculate that far ahead so I'd say we should wait until tomorrow evening to start getting excited about that prospect but it will certainly be in the back of my mind.

Now there is also Earl out in the Atlantic as well which is, for the most part following Danielle at the moment but appears poised to make its Northward turn West of Bermuda which would bring it much closer to the US coast than Danielle. The current 5 day forecast looks like it's threading the needle between Hatteras Island and Bermuda as a Category 3 storm so we'll definitely be keeping tabs on Earl especially over the next few days. Earl's swell looks to be arriving starting on Wednesday or Thursday and then building from there - again a bit far away so lots can change.

Current 5 day forecast track for Tropical Storm Earl

Lastly Invest 97 is off the coast of Africa and looks likely to develop into our next named storm. It's way too early to get into any speculation about this one and there's plenty of other action to talk about - just wanted to mention it!

Tropics on Fire!

2010-08-24T11:02:00.009-04:00

Since my last post it's been relatively quiet in the surf department. Anne, Laura, Stuart and Andy did get an evening session on longboards that I opted out of. I chose to have a cold beer on the bench overlooking the scene at the Avon pier and take a few photos of my compadres instead. Andy and Anne bought themselves a new camera for their honeymoon trip to Ireland so I had the opportunity to get my hands on it. Technology is such a cool thing - I have to admit that I'm a gadget guy so anytime I have a chance to play with a sweet new camera, computer, TV, iPad, whatever I'm a happy dude! So it wasn't an epic session by any stretch of the imagination but they all caught a few waves and had some fun.

Anne finds a nice right

Andy picks off one of the better looking waves of the session

Laura milking it all the way to the closeout section

We've been tracking Tropical Depression 6 which quickly became Tropical Storm Danielle and even more quickly amped up to Hurricane Danielle and although we haven't seen any swell from it just yet we're looking at a forecast showing some serious swell on the way. On top of that, just off the coast of Africa is a new weather feature that looks to be our next named tropical system! Invest 96 is on the heels of Danielle and the early projected track has it following Danielle and staying offshore. The computer I'm on doesn't have a decent photo editing program so I apologize for the quality of the photo below of the Atlantic but it give you an idea of what's going on. Danielle is forecast to pass to the East of Bermuda then spin off into the North Atlantic and as of right now Invest 96 is forecast to drive pretty much straight to where Danielle currently is then also turn Northward and pass near Bermuda.

Atlantic Ocean satellite view from The Weather Channel

No lack of swell in the forecast for sure! The unfortunate part of the forecast is the wind. Right now the outlook is for winds in the low to mid 20mph range out of the NE which doesn't bode well for surfing conditions but the windsurfers might just be pretty stoked for Frisco/Hatteras/Ocracoke. Keep an eye on Andy's blog and see what he thinks - not really my department.

Rad-iculousness!!

2010-08-18T20:11:00.015-04:00

Got some sweet lightning photos from my house the other night!!

How rad is that?! Laura was none too happy with me when I was outside under the house shooting them - obviously I survived.

Today rounded out 3 days of fantastic surf! Andy, Stuart and I had a couple of super fun sessions at the pier complete with overhead reeling left hand waves with some odd rights sprinkled in here & there for good measure. I have to give Stuart a shout out here because he's only been surfing a couple of years and he's charging! He may not make every wave he takes off on but it's not for a lack of trying. Living at the beach means that he's got access to waves when they come up so that's been in his favor for learning but he's got huevos too and it's fun to watch! Andy and I cruised up the road a bit with Anne and Laura for a quick after work session and got a couple of super clean long lefts at dark - absolutely beautiful and super fun! We hit up the same spot the following morning for a few more ridiculously long beautiful lefts out by ourselves - beautiful blue skies glassy blue water and basically calm wind - perfect! Today was a day off for Laura and I so we hit the beach around 10:30 after sleeping in and were greeted by yet another day of beautiful fun conditions. I started out by paddling out my 10' SUP and caught some long clean rights - yeah you read that correctly - RIGHTS :D - after surfing almost nothing but lefts it was great to go right! The only problem with the SUP was that I was sitting down the beach away from the few other people in the water (I don't like to SUP in the same lineup with prone surfers because it can be a little dangerous and on the SUP I can dominate the lineup and it wouldn't make anyone happy if I'm taking all the good waves!) and the rights coming through were pretty far apart all the while I'm watching pretty consistent lefts pouring through just up the beach. Anyway I went in and switched out the SUP for Kevin's 6'4" Dewey Weber Retro Pig - this thing is a 70's style single fin that is an absolute blast - especially in the type of conditions we had today - it catches waves easily and FLIES!! It isn't necessarily the best maneuvering board but it's stable and fast and so fun to ride. Needless to say I had a blast and caught a bunch of good fun rides - the best of which were lefts but a few rights as well. Thanks to Laura for all the photos and the video - check her out in the photo below - nice huh?!! I'm a lucky dude :D!!

Day 1 after work shots:

Stuart Charging wave #794

Andy racing a section

Me on a lined up lefthander

Andy bottom turning on a beauty!

Me on a rare right

Day 3 action - a pretty wall on the Weber Retro Pig

A short video - fun day!!

Colin II The Resurrection!!

2010-08-05T19:43:00.004-04:00

Y'know - I didn't say anything in my original post about TS Colin because I thought it would be dumb but now I'm gonna do it. From the time I saw the 2010 Atlantic Hurricane name I knew that the "C" storm (Colin) would be something. My nephew is named Colin and the kid is and absolute firecracker to say the very least. He's smart, ambitious, and unGodly energetic!! When TS Colin was named I wanted to say "watch out for this one - it could be a doozy!" but I resisted the urge and felt that I'd made the right choice when The Weather Channel was issuing it's "final advisory" yet here we are and it's come back together and regained strength back to TS status. Now the storm track keeps it well away from the US coast but still between it and Bermuda which means we should see waves from it - always encouraging news!! While the forecast looks great I hesitate to write off Colin simply because it's already playing trickery - much like it's namesake. Don't sleep on this one folks- it could be a doozy :D

Tropical Storm Colin 5 day projected track

The Original TS Colin!!!

Easy Come Easy Go

2010-08-04T08:31:00.003-04:00

Well that didn't take long! TS Colin got us (ok it got ME) all excited and Google crazy - I looked at Weather Underground, The Weather Channel, NOAA, Magic Seaweed, etc, etc reading every forecast I could find and trying to gather as much information about the projected storm track and possible strengthening of TS Colin when BAM! The Weather Channel is suddenly calling it the "remnants" of TS Colin - WHAT!!!???!!! This has been a long slow very much waveless summer other than a couple days on the SUP's and longboards - I thought we were gonna get some juice!! Alas no Colin has broken up into a mere rainy day. I'm still hoping that it will follow the same track that it was forecast to as a tropical storm and have enough punch to stir up the ocean and send us some surf but we'll have to see I suppose. The good news is that as a non-tropical system if it does send us some waves it won't be as blown up in the media and thus won't attract as many surfers. It's early - we've got plenty of time for waves!

2010-08-03T09:04:00.002-04:00

Well after quite a long hiatus I'm back!! Been in the midst of a pretty busy summer (a good thing!) with lots of family visits - a jaunt up to VA Beach to see Jack Johnson, Anne & Andy's wedding and very little surf other than some random days here & there. I've not posted largely because all I've wanted to write about has been the BP oil spill and I really don't want to turn my blog into a downer fest so instead I've just not written anything. "If you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all". So hopefully the end of the summer doldrums is upon us and now we can start talking about the tropical storm season since "Colin" has formed overnight. Although it has a long way to go and is just a newly formed tropical storm, it does look like it has potential to be a wave producer for us. In the picture below (stolen from wunderground.com) you can see that the current 5 day forecast has it passing between NC and Bermuda which most certainly means waves for us! I don't want to speculate too much right now but will definitely be keeping an eye on this one and hoping for waves and sunny skies (read NO landfall!!) Sorry for my leave of absence and I'll be back soon!

Keeping an eye on Tropical Storm Colin!

Dust Off The Shortboards!

2010-05-20T10:33:00.004-04:00

YESSSSSSS!! Write it down folks - Tuesday May 18 was the end of a horrific flat spell! I had been watching the forecast for a few days and it was looking like it was going to have potential to be a fun day on Tuesday - I eluded to this in my last post - but I was reluctant to express any real excitement. Tuesday morning came and there was some swell but the wind was kind of sideways still so it didn't start off so promising. Laura and I checked it early and it just wasn't really working so we went to Oceanea's Bistro for some breakfast then checked it again - still not ready. We were getting a little frustrated at this point so we went home and got changed and went to the gym and had a workout. After the gym we took a look at the conditions online and, although the wind was still out of the South it had shifted from South Southeast to South Southwest so we started getting optimistic that it would swing around as forecast and go West and clean up the surf. We got our wetsuits our and I pulled out my Imagine 5'8" UnRetro fish and set up the fins. We got the car packed up and drove up to the beach and saw a bunch of people in the water or on the beach getting ready to paddle out into the beautiful waist to chest high clean waves! Woo Hoo! We opted for another spot in order to avoid the crowd at that spot and surfed with 3 other guys for about an hour then by ourselves for another 2 hours or so until our arms were shot. It wasn't epic Hatteras surf by any stretch of the imagination but there were still open faces to ride and get some speed on and make some turns and it was easy take offs on smooth faces so it was fun. After going home getting a bite to eat and a little recharge of the batteries I paddled back out with Andy, Stuart, and Ken and caught more waves until dark. Andy was on his Imagine 6'1" Pocket Rocket, Stuart was originally out on a shortboard but was on an SUP when I got back out and Ken was rockin' the boogie board - so we were quite a diverse little group out there but all of us catching waves - fun! We went back to Oceanea's Bistro for $1 Taco Tuesday and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer - perfect way to end a great day! Alas it was just a taste however because yesterday the waves were gone gone gone. Laura and I had the day off from work but couldn't find a decent wave to save our lives. We did finally paddle out in Frisco on longboards and caught some waves but it was mostly frustrating - gutless mushy bumpy closed out waves. We gave it a shot for about an hour then were over it and went home and made a KILLER dinner that made up for it. Sorry no pics for this post but my waterproof camera is dead meat and the battery on the other camera was dead so Laura couldn't get any shots from our evening session - I told you in the last post - I must be the worst blogger in the world!

Redemption??

2010-05-04T09:14:00.008-04:00

I swear I must be the worst blogger in the universe. I honestly think every day about writing but here I am once again - haven't written in well over a month - lame. In that time I've been to Costa Rica, been SUPing and surfing in Hatteras, kegged beer, attended birthdays, followed oil spill - plenty to talk about so today is the day!
One disclaimer first though - aside from the couple good days of surf I had in Costa Rica I can literally count the number of surf sessions I've had on one hand since my last post - it's been Godawful surfwise - so hang in there because this could easily become an angry frustrated rant - I just don't know how it's gonna turn out!
Alright, let's start with the good! On April 7th Laura and I hopped in the car and drove up to DC after work spent the night and went to the airport in the morning and flew out to Costa Rica for my friend, Alexandra's, wedding. I had been anticipating this trip for quite a while because it was Laura's first time to CR and I was anxious for her to meet my buddy Andres who is like a brother to me. We got to Costa, picked up our car no problem and drove to Andres' office and picked him up and spent the night with he and his wife at their house in Escazu which is a suburb of San Jose. Laura hung in there while Andres and I laughed and talked trash like a couple of idiot frat boys. The next morning we got up and drove down to Playa Hermosa on the killer new road that pretty much cut the drive time from San Jose to Hermosa in half - I was amazed and I tried my best to convey to Laura how amazing it was but I'm sure she didn't really get it understandably. Once in Hermosa we rented a bungalow steps off the beach - it was KILLER - I've stayed in the Hermosa Bungalows a ton because my friends Alexandra and Twinka live there but I've never rented one. Any time I've ever rented a place to stay in CR it's been a cheap little place so to stay in a nice place that I was paying for was a real treat - actually it was a treat that we had a car too because I normally travel around by bus and by thumb so I was really spoiled this trip! Friday night we went to a rehearsal dinner barbecue at Alexandra's house with an unreal spread of food that I'm not going to describe because I haven't had lunch today and I'm starving. Saturday morning we got up early and drove down to Esterillos and went for a surf in fun overhead kind of mushy waves - Hermosa was really closed out and didn't look makeable at all. If you've never surfed Playa Hermosa it's an unbelievable wave - really heavy and hollow and clean BUT when it's closed out it can be horrifying. Taking a closeout section on the head at Hermosa is a humbling experience - it puts you on the bottom and holds you there and grinds you up. I didn't want to deal with that and I didn't want to put my lovely girlfriend through that since we really only had a couple days to surf so we went to Esterillos and rode the softer easier wave there. Saturday night was Alexandra's wedding to her husband, Alex, - the setting was incredible. They found this little spot up on the side of a mountain that looks out over the Pacific ocean and was simply gorgeous. It rained but didn't dampen spirits - it was beautiful.

Is that a wedding site or what?? Sunday morning we got up and went back to Esterillos for a surf as Hermosa was doing the same thing as Saturday. After the wind started wrecking the conditions we packed up and drove down to Parrita to the waterfall there. I've been there a bunch of times but the 1km hike there is pretty different every time because it's an operating farm so they always have different crops & it's cool. This time they had a ripe crop of tall sugar cane growing and once we crossed the creek the field had a bunch of cattle wandering around. Laura was not at all happy about walking past the huge cows but she made it and we saw a bunch of monkeys in the trees as well on the way up to the waterfall.

Trekking through the Sugarcane

Once of the many cows that made Laura nervous!

Sunday night we went to The Taco Bar in Jaco - one of my fav places to eat - stayed up late and had some drinks. Monday morning we were up early and hit Jungle Surf Cafe for some enormous and delicious banana pancakes - hung around the pool and got some sun then packed up and drove back to San Jose where we met up with Andres and turned in our rental car. The evening (our last unfortunately) was a whirlwind of seeing a bunch of friends in San Jose - it must have been torture for Laura because she doesn't speak Spanish and there was a LOT of fast talking Spanish going down for sure! Andres, Estefani, Laura and I went and had a fantastic dinner in San Jose and then reluctantly got up early and said our goodbye's and flew back to DC where I promptly screwed up buying Metro tickets and bought 4 $20 cards instead of 2 $6 cards. That fiasco took the better part of 40 minutes to fix then we had to get back to my dad's house, in the car, and drive back to NC. Talk about a whirlwind!!Back here in NC the surf has been absolutely horrible. A bunch of Andy's buddies from Vermont were here for a week and I did manage a mediocre SUP/fish session with them one day and Laura and I had another afternoon of total crap on longboards - my shortboards are hibernating though and it's killing me. Fingers are crossed and I'm doing every Voodoo dance I can think of to hope that the forecast small groundswell for tomorrow actually materializes.

A garbage day on the SUP

Same garbage day on the singlefin

I said in the opening paragraph of this post something about the oil spill in the Gulf and I intended to write my thoughts about it but I'm going to hold off - to say I'm pissed off about it is the understatement of the century so I'm going to collect my thoughts a bit and write something in a future post. My shop is open and fully stocked - we've been having a pretty good spring so far and I'm really optimistic about the rest of the summer season - just need some waves to help lift the spirits!

Avon, NC Wednesday Surf Report

2010-04-07T10:26:00.000-04:00

Goooooood Morning!!!! Ahhhh it's absolutely gorgeous out - the surf is
crap (maybe knee high and dribbly - but actually rideable if you must
get out!!) but it doesn't matter because spring is in the air! At the
risk of ruining it I have to say that the start of this month is
really making up for the miserable winter weather we had. I'm sitting
out on the beach right now in a pair of shorts with my shirt off
probably burning rather than tanning but it feels so good! After work
this afternoon Laura and I are jumping in our, already packed, car and
driving up to DC where we'll spend the night and tomorrow we fly out
to Costa Rica for a short week. My friend, Alexandra, is getting
married to her man Alex - so it'll be the Alex & Alex show from here
on out! This is Laura's first trip to Costa Rica so I'm really
excited to take her - just wish we were gonna have some more time.
That's all for now - the shop will be in my brother, Kevin's, capable
hands for the next few days so go by and say hello to him and maybe
pick up one of our killer new Hatteras Island Boardsports T's!!

Spring Has Sprung!

2010-04-03T14:50:00.006-04:00

Once again it's been quite a while since I've posted - well I flat out neglected the month of March. Mostly because I was - BUSY!! We got the shop opened back up for the 2010 season and had lots of boxes to unpack and new product to get tagged and on the racks. We had to finish up our orders for fall 2010 and Andy and I managed to swing a couple of sessions in some pretty cold water as well. I spent a week from March 3-10 in Maryland with my dad while Laura ditched me for a trip to Alaska to visit her sister who lives up there. I know this blog is about my life and although Laura gets a lot of mention I obviously leave her doings out of it but I'm going to offer up part of her Alaska trip just because it's so cool! In a week up there she really did a lot - I'm actually kind of surprised that she hasn't gotten really sick after a trip to the tropics then to the freezing cold of Alaska - she went to see the start of the Iditarod in Anchorage, sent me some incredible photos from the fur auction, went cross country skiing a couple of times, went to a hockey game, and (best for last!) went for a ride on a dogsled. How cool is that??! She said that on her dogsled ride the driver actually flipped the sled over and she and the driver got dragged a bit - that didn't sound too fun and I'm glad I wasn't there to see it and I'm really glad she didn't get hurt. Back in Maryland I was hanging out with my dad who had an accident just before Laura and I went to Puerto Rico nearly severing 3 fingers on his right hand. Fortunately he's healing nicely and won't lose the use of his fingers but he's recovering and since it's on his dominate hand life in general is kind of a pain so it was good that I was around that particular week to help him out as my step-mom was out of town. When we got back to NC after Laura got back from Alaska - my brother, Kevin, and I were full steam ahead getting the shop ready to open on March 15 and meanwhile Andy was, and continues to be, working feverishly to get his new venture Wind-North Carolina (aka Wind-NC) set up and opened up in the space behind our shop formerly occupied by Sailworld. On the Sunday the 21st Laura, Anne, Andy & I were up in VA Beach for the Shamrock Marathon. Laura and her brother, Bobby, both ran the 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles!!) and Anne ran the full 26.2 mile marathon. It was a beautiful day to be a spectator but it was a bit warm to be a runner I'm afraid. Our 3 interests all finished but were all pretty beat when they finished understandably.

Laura and Bobby after the finish of the 1/2 marathon.

We're all super stoked to have Andy back there and wish him the best with his new business! He has had his hands full with taking over some inventory, starting up a new business from nothing more than an idea and actually getting it opened up as well as build and launch a website from scratch. Lots of work but he's got his doors open so come in and buy something so the man can pay his rent! Speaking of Andy - the old man had a birthday on Wednesday the 31st so we had some folks over to the house for burgers, beer and good times complete with custom windsurf cupcakes by Anne.

Laura's parents came down Wednesday night as well and left this morning so the past couple of days were spent hanging out with them. They couldn't have chosen a better time to come either because Laura moved to a new apartment so the 2 extra sets of hands got Laura moved into her new digs easy easy! Also the weather has finally eased up on us and has been gorgeous the past couple days. We were able to celebrate Laura's mom's birthday yesterday with a beautiful beach day - Laura's dad and I paddled out on longboards for a couple of waves and the 4 of us had an absolutely fantastic dinner at Mac Daddy's in Avon. If you're ever here in Avon and you don't go to Mac Daddy's you're a fool - plain & simple!! So that's a pretty good wrap up for now I guess. I'm headed out of town in a few days so we'll have some pics and yarns to spin in a bit!

Puerto Rico!

2010-02-23T09:14:00.013-05:00

Ahhh warm water and waves at last!! From the 12th - 19th Laura and I escaped (barely!!) the cold and took a trip to Rincon, Puerto Rico. It was a week of warm water waves, cold beer, great meals, and relaxation that I was afraid wouldn't happen. It's no news to anyone but the DC area has been absolutely clobbered by snow this winter and most notably by 2 major snowstorms on consecutive weekends. Here on Hatteras Island I was concerned about this for 2 reasons: 1- My parents live in that area and I was afraid that they would overdue it shoveling and 2- Laura and I were to fly out of Baltimore Washington International airport and the first snowstorm shut down the airport for the better part of 2 days. What I didn't anticipate was that we'd have another 50mph West wind blow causing significant soundside flooding here the day before we had to drive to DC! Are you kidding me?! Wednesday afternoon the 10th we watched the wind start blowing as it was also snowing it's ass off up in the DC area. The news channels were all over the snowstorm and specifically talked about how BWI was shut down - "oh please let them get our flight out at 7am on Friday" I was thinking as the water started rising up through Avon. It's not terribly uncommon for us to get windblown sound flooding but it rarely comes up to my street - this time it not only came up my street but up under my house to the point where I was concerned about my car so I broke out the jack and lifted the car onto 9" blocks. Now the concern shifted to "oh please let this water go down so that I can drive out of here tomorrow and please let them also clear the airport so we can fly out Friday morning!"

Pretty day - not so pretty conditions

Just a precaution!

It was looking like someone really didn't want us to take this trip. I parked my van on high ground at the Spa, Laura had to leave her truck at work and I walked her home, Anne got out of work early but only was able to get 1/2 mile away from home and Andy parked his truck on some high ground nearby, and Stuart found himself stranded at Anne & Andy's house. We went to bed Wednesday night with the wind still blowing and the water still up and me convinced that the trip was doomed. Thursday morning we got up and Laura went outside for a look and came back in saying that it looked like there was never any flood at all - everything was dry! So we walked the mile up to my car then drove over to Laura's truck - got our stuff in the truck and drove up to my dad's house in MD - hurdle 1 had been overcome!! More good news - by Thursday afternoon BWI was getting flights out again. Bright and early Friday morning the 12th we were at the airport with boarding passes in hand, surfboards checked and ready for action! Our flight took us from BWI to Orlando then on to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Flights went great and we arrived a little early to San Juan but... no bags. Gee thanks alot AirTran - you checked our bags to Orlando not all the way to San Juan and it's 3:00, the bags aren't arriving until 6:15 and we have a 3 hour drive over to Rincon!! Oh well I'm on vacation - AirTran takes our information and promises to deliver our bags to us tonight so we go get our car and drive over to Rincon.

Laura with our little car

The bags arrive unscathed at about 11pm so no harm done and we're happy. Saturday morning we wake up and get our boards put together - grab some breakfast and start looking for surf and getting a lay of the land. We quickly find the spots we anticipated would be the places we'd spend most of our time surfing but the swell is gigantic and there's no one out anywhere so we make our way North out of Rincon into Aguada were we find 2 spots that look good and are breaking at a reasonable size for us - we continued up to Aguadilla as far North as Wilderness which was beautiful but huge so we went back to Aguada to what we think is a spot called Schoolyards and surfed for a little while on the clean right hander.

Overview look at Aguada

The rest of the trip we surfed mostly at Maria's in Rincon but also at Sandy Beach in the Puntas area of Rincon and we looked at Domes and Steps pretty regularly as well.

Steps Beach - one guess on how it got it's name!

From the water view of the lighthouse between Maria's & Domes

Domes beach on the other side of the Lighthouse point

If you've never been to Rincon or Puerto Rico here's what you can expect: Beautiful water, fun easy waves, great food, mellow vibes and LOTS of traffic. The traffic on Rt. 22 and Rt. 2 was a real bummer - fortunately once we were to our hotel we really didn't drive those roads again until we went back to San Juan. We found Rincon to be absolutely fantastic - no cheesy nightclubs or super touristy overpriced restaurants. If you want a relaxed surf trip and can entertain yourself when you aren't surfing then Rincon is your place. We caught some really fun fast waves with open faces at Marias and followed them up with $1.50 Medalla beers and a dinner of fresh fish, or Mofongo. Laura took a couple of blurry photos of me surfing one afternoon but otherwise we don't have any surfing photos (the downfall of being a surfing couple) and my waterproof camera bought the farm while we were there too so not much from it either unfortunately. We also took an afternoon hike to a waterfall in San Sebastian which was a nice little diversion off the beach.

Soaking in the view in San Sebastian

It's cheap - it's good - embrace it. Medalla

If you're looking for a surf trip put Puerto Rico on your list if you haven't been there already - once you get off Rt. 2 you'll be happy and please hit up the local restaurants and stay away from all the mainland US fast food restaurants!!

February 1st

2010-02-01T18:23:00.005-05:00

Well I suppose it had to come to an end but then again who would have guessed he would have made it past round 1. Buxton native Brett Barley bowed out of the Volcom Pipeline Pro after today's semifinal round of 8. If you go to this link and then click on the Day 4 tab you can watch Brett's heat (semifinal heat 2). Brett trailed throughout the heat but had one Backdoor wave that he almost snuck out of that would likely have put him into 2nd place advancing him to the final. The unbelievable thing about all this is that Brett made it to the final 8 out of an original 112 competitors - we're all super proud of him!
Meanwhile back here on Hatteras Island we had some big cold barrels breaking! I got a call from Andy with the report so I threw my gear in the car and went to meet him - when I walked over the dunes Andy was coming out of the water and told me that he got rejected trying to paddle out he also told me that he was cold to the point of nausea wearing a 6/5/4 wetsuit. I brought my 5/4/3 so I took out my camera and took a couple photos instead of surfing.

First look over the dunes!

A cold Lost In Hatteras author - Andy

Chad Speedy making it look easy

Happy New Year (gulp)

2010-01-31T09:20:00.012-05:00

Yes I realize it's the last day of January and that I haven't posted since December and, yes, there has been a lot going on to blog about and, no, I'm not really working because the shop is closed for the winter so, no, I have no good excuse for not blogging. I'm sorry - that's all I can say! Quick New Year recap: had a little holiday celebration here on the island with the usual suspects and had our last day of the shop being open for the year then Laura and I jumped in the Dodge and drove up to the DC area to my dad's house. Laura stayed 2 nights then made her way up to NJ to spend the holiday with her family. After the holiday I took the train from DC up to Philadelphia where Laura picked me up and we went over to her parents house on the beach in NJ for a couple days - had some laughs & drinks and a couple great meals and an evening in Atlantic City then took the Cape May, NJ - Lewes, DE ferry and made our way to Ocean City, MD to meet my dad and step-mom and stayed for the New Years celebrations. Had a great time out dressed up like city folks (insert redneck chuckle here) and on New Years Day wandered up to the beach for the Penguin Plunge where a bunch of lunatics wash away their 2009 sins and previous night's hangover by jumping in the ocean in their summer gear (read boardshorts and bikinis - NO WETSUITS!!) Hardcore!! AND it was freezing cold outside - cold wearing a beanie, heavy coat, scarf, jeans and uggs! Back on the island there's been no lack of surf although the wind has made for pretty rough and often undoable conditions. The unfortunate thing about winter surfing and blogging is that it's very difficult to carry our waterproof cameras when we're in our wetsuits - in the summer when we're in boardshorts we just put the cameras in the pocket of our shorts but in winter there are no pockets and we're wearing gloves which makes operating the small buttons on the cameras really tough. Additionally when it's cold and windy on the beach people generally aren't so stoked to sit on the beach and shoot while we're out so it makes getting any footage really difficult and a blog is a little boring without anything visual to back it up. Also this time of year I'm normally off the island someplace warm with all new things to blog about but I chose to stay this winter so activity-wise it doesn't really seem like I have anything new to talk about.

Ok - excuses and explanations aside I have had 2 notable surf sessions in recent weeks with really clean head high and bigger condions - I passed up another really good day due to just being in a funk (it happens to the best of us!) and had another really fun SUP session with Andy in smaller but beautiful conditions just the other day. I'm really looking forward to my first trip to Puerto Rico in about 2 weeks with Laura - PR has been getting a lot of waves this winter so I'm hoping to snag a few for myself and come back with some great photos and other blogables.
The biggest news of the month so far comes from Buxton native Brett Barley who is in the midst of competing in the Volcom Pipeline Pro contest in Hawaii - this is a WQS 5 star event with $120,000 in prize money and surfing's heaviest of hitters including the likes of Bruce Irons and Sunny Garcia just to name a few. Anyway Brett went out and scored a 10.0 on his first wave and a 9.67 on his second for an event high score of 19.67 (out of a possible 20) He's got a long way to go to win the event but he certainly made a huge impression on everyone and in the article on Surfline.com he even drew comments from Gerry Lopez - the original Pipeline Master!! We actually sponsored Brett for a short time a few years ago when he was still in high school but his bigger sponsor O'neill basically forced him to drop us because we aren't an O'neill dealer - no sore feelings - Brett and his dad are standup guys and we've continued to maintain a friendship with them. Anyway go to this link to view the contest live and catch Brett in live action! (starts today at 7:30am local time in Hawaii) In the interest of keeping it short I'll let the rest of this be a pictorial blog. Looking forward to writing soon I hope everyone is having a fantastic winter!

Andy & Anne at Christmas

Kevin and Ava at Christmas

Laura and yours truly dressed up & out on NYE

The Penguin Plunge in Ocean City, MD on New Years Day

Andy and I brewing up a batch of goodness

Brewing Continued

Happy 4th Birthday Colin!

Token Surf Photo - Some sick waves this month!

Ahhh December

2009-12-15T10:13:00.005-05:00

Wow I really need to get back in the water on the windsurf board because there's been very little going on surfwise! We had some surf yesterday but it was so foggy that photos were impossible and by the time I got out to the beach people were coming out of the water and it was time to get to work so I missed it. We are in the midst of our annual "Big Sale" at the shop - with the exception of surfboards and wetsuits everything - yes EVERYTHING is 50% off. So now is the time to pick up some killer gifts at an even more killer price! Kevin and I went to the Redskins/Saints game in DC which turned out to be, arguably, the best NFL game of the season as the Saints were undefeated coming in and the Redskins were bottom feeding yet the 'Skins just about beat the Saints and ended up losing by just a field goal in overtime. A couple of birthdays to mention - Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law, Debbie, on November 30th Deb had a little get together at their house. Kevin grilled up some monstrous steaks and Laura made a delicious cake and Colin led us all in a rousing couple rounds of Ring-around-the-rosie. Good Times!!

Deb's Birthday Cake (Colin got his finger in the "b" before we took the photo!)

Yesterday was Laura's birthday but we actually started celebrating it on Saturday - Friday if you count the Realtor's Ball we went to up in Duck. Laura works for Hatteras Realty so I was her date to this thing - don't really understand it actually but I gathered that it amounted to an end of the year awards banquet and initiation of 2010 officers and a way to spend the dues money that all the members pay. It was nice - food was good, drinks were flowing and we rocked out on the dancefloor.

What surfers look like when you dress 'em up!

Laura & I at the Realtor's Ball

Saturday night we had a little party at my house for Laura's birthday and her brother, Bobby, and his wife came down from VA Beach to surprise her. We made one of our famous burrito bars and had some cocktails and a lot of laughs. Yesterday was Laura's actual birthday so we just made a nice dinner at home and she opened some presents. Happy Birthday L!

Anne & Laura - Click on the photo for a better look at the "killer cupcakes" Anne made!

Other than that I'm afraid there just hasn't been a lot going on to talk about - holiday shopping making travel plans to visit the families and formulating some ideas for some winter vacation travels and hopefully a surf trip here or there.

The Trek and Thanksgiving wrap up.

2009-11-21T15:05:00.005-05:00

I started writing this blog post on November 21 so if it sounds like I'm talking about since yesterday that's why!

Since Sunday (November 15th) I have traveled over 4,000 miles by truck, suv, airplane, and minivan. I've been searched by TSA, I've had 2 different cars searched for drugs, I've seen camels, hundreds of windmills...

Let me explain. My grandfather passed away last month and was living in El Paso, Texas with his wife (not my grandmother who passed away when I was in college) He had an old Ford minivan so my mom asked if my brother and I would fly out there get the van and some of his things and bring them back. Well as we all know by now we had that big storm that's now being referred to as Nor'Ida (stupid name I hate it!) so it put some question as to how we were going to get off the island for our 7am flight from Norfolk on Monday morning. We found out at 9:30am on Sunday morning that the road north of Rodanthe was going to be open at 10am to 4x4 vehicles only and for an undetermined amount of time so we threw some things together and took advantage of the opening to get off the island. We met my mom in Nags Head and parked the truck at the Outlet mall and mom drove us up to Norfolk where we spent the night and she dropped us at the airport in Norfolk at 6am. This is where the excitement starts. On the way over to the airport my brother realized that he had forgotten his photo ID back home so we didn't think he was going to be able to get through security at the airport. The only photo ID he had was his school ID so we went in with smiles on our faces and after answering a lot of questions and pouring out every thing in his wallet they let him through - miracle!! I had visions of me driving by myself from El Paso to Norfolk and it was making me break out into a sweat. So off we go - first to Nashville, then to San Antonio, then finally to El Paso where we are met by my uncle. This is 2:30pm (mountain time) and now we go right to my grandfather's house and immediately into packing up all the things on the list. Fortunately my uncle has already packed a bunch of stuff so it only takes us a couple hours. Throw everything into the van and then I'm looking forward to going out for some authentic Mexican food but my grandfather's widow has dinner plans at the house so we get stuck eating there - bummer. After dinner we jump in the van and go top off the tank so we're ready to head out first thing in the morning and check into our hotel from which we can see across the border into Juarez, Mexico. We watch a fantastic Monday Night Football game between the Patriots & Colts and hit the sack. At 5am the alarm goes off, we throw our stuff in the van and get on Interstate 10 headed East - only 2050 miles to go and no plans on stopping for anything other than food and gas! We get 200 miles east of El Paso and Kevin has to pull over for the blue flashing lights in the rearview mirror! The cop waves Kevin back to his car and as Kevin is walking back (remember he left his drivers license in NC!) another cop pulls up and comes up to me on the passenger side. Now we just took possession of this van about 14 hours ago so as far as the Texas DMV is concerned it belongs to Carmen Garcia Vega - not me - (even though I have a bill of sale and a properly signed over title) AND we're driving a road paralleling the US/Mexico border that gets a lot of drug traffic - you see where I'm going with this. So Kevin is back with one cop and I'm in the car talking to another and we're both telling the same story and answering the same questions - the cops ask if they can search the car and we give consent and they take the next 20 minutes really going through it then we're back on the road. But not before the cop makes a comment about how 2 white guys driving a vehicle that goes back to a Mexican name was suspicious and thanks for our cooperation! (I'm allowed to make the following statement because I am part Mexican so don't tell me I'm racist!) I'm thinking: Wow isn't that statement supposed to be the other way around? 2 Mexican guys driving a car that goes back to a white guy name?! AND I haven't been called a white guy in quite a while so the whole thing was pretty funny! Kevin then drives 650 miles to the East side of Dallas before I take my first turn but along the way we pass the things you'd expect to see in West Texas like oil rigs, barren desert, longhorn cattle and some things you might not expect to see like a farm with hundreds of camels and ostriches. We also pass hundreds if not thousands (literally) of windmills. My mom and I drove this same route (in reverse) a few years ago and there were no windmills but there are tons of them now - what a beautiful sight to see. When you first see the oil pumps you actually smell them first and they add to the already miserable landscape but now there are these windmills that give new life to the landscape. I take over the wheel just before dark East of Dallas and drive until 3am (with a time change from Central to Eastern) through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and into Georgia before Kevin takes over the wheel again and I try to grab some sleep in the passenger seat. Kevin drives pretty much all of Georgia into South Carolina almost all the way to the NC Border where I take over again to NC64 leading to Manteo where Kevin takes over for a couple hours to Nags Head where his truck is waiting for us and we split into 2 cars for the last 40 minutes back down to Avon.
So we've just completed 2050 miles without a ticket or any breakdowns - flawless no problems and no overnight stops - just 29 hardcore hours! THAT night I leave my house to drive over to Laura's and I get a ticket for rolling through a stop sign!!! Are you kidding me???!!! This is also when I have my 2nd vehicle search for drugs or whatever it is that cops are looking for when they search your car.
A relatively quiet week getting some rest then on Tuesday before Thanksgiving (the 24th) Laura's mom, dad and older brother come down and there are waves (I swear those guys have the best luck for showing up to good surf!) Laura is working but I have the afternoon off so I have a chance to surf with Bob (Laura's dad) and Bobby (Laura's brother) and Stuart down in Buxton. The paddle-out is a bitch but once outside there are some fantastic waves and although we don't catch a lot of waves we do catch some screaming fast buttery smooth waves and it's a lot of fun albeit a bit cold - I didn't wear booties.
Wednesday morning Laura and I are up early and in Buxton to meet her family again - her brother and dad go out for a surf but Laura and I decided to head down to Frisco because Laura really wants to ride her longboard and the waves out front in Buxton aren't too longboard friendly - we catch a few & it's fun. My family showed up from VA on Wednesday night late and we have a short visit. Thanksgiving Thursday morning the whole crew minus Stuart heads down to Frisco for an early surf. Laura, Anne, Andy, Bobby, and myself all show up at the Frisco pier early and there are only 2 other guys out - we all catch lots of waves for a few hours then get out so we can get cleaned up and start getting ready for Thanksgiving. Food, Beer, Football, more food, a few laughs, more food - I feel like I need to hibernate. Looking at the forecast it's calling for West winds in the low 30's overnight so we're expecting to see relatively flat conditions on Friday morning. Laura's apartment (where we are staying that night) is soundside and in the middle of the night we both wake up because a chair blows across the deck - no big deal we go back to sleep. I wake up just before 5am and the wind is really blowing so I tell Laura I'm going downstairs to check the cars. I go down to find that the water is already a few inches up my car door (a Toyota Celica) and it's almost to the bottom of the door frame of Laura's car so I'm in panic mode instantly. I run back upstairs and tell Laura to get dressed and put on her waders and call my brother to ask him to come with his truck to pull my car out because I don't want to risk starting it in so much water. When Kevin gets there we realize that it's even too deep to be driving his truck so we just decide to leave the cars rather than risk possibly losing a 3rd. When all is said and done Laura's floor boards got wet and I had to take the seats out and pull out the carpet to dry it but it's running just fine. My car is another story the water was quite high and even the seats got pretty wet - as of today I haven't tried to start it but there are fuse boxes and electrical connections that got wet so I'm not too optimistic about what's going to happen with it - I've got a feeling that I may be looking for a new car soon. Finally I want to say Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law, Debbie, who had her birthday yesterday! So this was a pretty long winded kind of boring post but it is what it is. More interesting stuff coming soon I hope!

So Over This

2009-11-14T12:23:00.017-05:00

I'm up for an adventure as much as anyone else but this N'easter/Tropical Storm Ida remnants thing is sucking the life out of pretty much everyone I think. That said I'm going to write this blog post then I'm not talking about this storm anymore. The most notable thing about this one, to me, is all the attention it has garnered. Granted it has caused a lot of damage to public and personal property and I don't want anyone to read this and tell me I'm being insensitive to people's losses because I do realize that homes were lost, weddings were ruined, and nerves were/are rattled. Here on Hatteras Island the last truly damaging storm we had was Hurricane Isabel in 2003 where significant damage was done particularly to the village of Hatteras, and the island was completely breached requiring not bulldozers to rebuild the road but a dredge of Hatteras inlet to pump enough sand to fill in the breach. In 1999 Hurricane Dennis caused homes in Rodanthe to collapse as well as overwash and tear up Highway 12 at S-Turns North of Rodanthe as well as just North of Buxton. In that area near Buxton there used to be a beach access parking lot but that was lost and the road had to be rebuilt and the power lines moved to the other side of the road. 2 weeks following Dennis Hurricane Floyd passed inland of Hatteras causing major flooding in Tarboro and other areas of Eastern NC where there is a large population of hog farms. The runoff from the hog farms caused major pollution problems in the sound as well as the rivers and tributaries in the region. We can go back further and talk about a multitude of other storms but my purpose here, again, is not to diminish anyone's losses or experience with this storm but rather to point out that Hatteras is a storm battered island and this is hardly the first time anything like this has happened and it certainly won't be the last. Here are some old photos I dug up online:

Aerial view of the breach between Hatteras and Frisco from Hurricane Isabel in 2003

Ground level view of the same breach - note that the road is gone - not cracked & torn up - gone! The website I pulled this pic from said this photo was taken a week after the storm had passed.

An Aerial view of the Avon Pier in October 2003 - note the amount of beach between the pier house and the water line!

Laura and I have taken a lot of photos over the course of this storm (some of them are actually quite pretty!) I was hoping to be able to show the amount of erosion that occurred but in looking over the photos I've found that's it's really kind of difficult to see but the most dramatic perspective starts with the 2003 photo of the Avon Pier above and uses the next 3 photos of the Avon Pier. If you use the air conditioner units on the outside of the pier house as a reference point in the next 3 pics you can get an idea.

This first photo was taken on Wednesday at 2:30pm

This one was taken on Thursday at about Noon

This one was taken today at about 11:30am (you may want to click on the photo to see an enlarged view of it)

Now go back to that first photo from 2003 - the amount of beach we've lost in 6 years is pretty unbelievable! Here are a couple of pics we took of the waves at the Avon Pier yesterday evening:

Ok enough of that! Yes the road is pretty wrecked up at S-Turns but it'll be fixed and life will go on. And I'm very sorry for anyone who lost a home or a car or family photos or anything else to this storm but if you're reading this you still have what is most important to you and you can build another house, or buy another car, and take new photos with the people you love. Even though the ugly is what has captured everyone's attention during this storm there have been some really pretty moments as well and I hope everyone was able to use some of the "lock down" time to something fun that you might not normally do like have pancakes with their friends, or do a puzzle, or make a killer dinner - it's the little things sometimes :)

photo - Laura

Live From The Dark

2009-11-11T23:36:00.001-05:00

Ida, my love, why are you so confused? Everyone around here is calling you a Nor'easter yet you and I both know that you were spawned in the Carribbean and had an encounter with the Central American country of Nicaragua just a few days ago. Even more recently the boys and girls at The Weather Channel were spread out across the Panhandle of Florida and Alabama and even still now are in North Carolina and Virginia. I thought Nor'easters were born off the coast of Massachusetts? Is it this confusion that has you angry and leaves me sitting in the dark sipping Corona by candlelight with a frightened girlfriend from New Jersey? Don't worry - she'll be ok she just doesn't have a lot of experience with the unpredictable weather around here. So yeah the power is out - it's 11:30 pm so no weather channel updates and we just have to see how long the cell service hangs in before sending email from the phone is no longer an option - I've only got 1 bar as I type
this. Is this dramatic enough? To watch the Weather Channel you'd think the world was coming to an end!! We're ok - the power is out - no big deal. We've got a generator which we'll turn on tomorrow if the power isn't back on - food, water and plenty of beer - hey look - I've got 2 bars of cell service again! ;)

Sent from my iPhone

The Marathon

2009-11-09T14:26:00.015-05:00

At the end of yesterday I was wondering if the OBX Marathon was the run that Laura and Anne had done earlier in the day or the DAY itself! We were up at 4:45am so that Laura could get something to eat and get a bunch of fluids in. Then get our things together and make the hour drive from Avon up to Nags Head for the 7am start. Anytime you're doing anything before 6am it always feels, to me at least, like you're going to forget something important or make some kind of big mistake based on being tired. Looking back on it though all we really had to do was remember to get some safety pins to put Laura's number on her shirt, bring a change of clothes and her inhalers so I'm not sure what we were stressed about. The weather recently has been pretty chilly and also pretty windy - not conditions I particularly wanted to have for standing around outside but yesterday, as if on cue, the temperature warmed up to 70F the wind dropped to a very light 5-10mph out of the West and the sun came out! I got Laura up to Nags Head to the starting line of the 1/2 Marathon and wished her luck knowing full well that she was going to do great. I hopped back in the car and considered going to look at the surf at the pier in Nags Head then opted to drive on to Manteo to get a good parking spot and spot at the finish line so I could get a photo of Laura as she came across. My decision proved to be a good one as I found a spot about 3 blocks from the finish line right down by the waterfront in Manteo - so close that I was able to go walk around, take some photos, and get a lay of the land then go back to the car and change lenses on my camera then go get some tea and hang out & take some more photos without feeling like I was walking back and forth out of the way to the car. The scene early down by the finish line was all preparations - people scurrying around with everything from towels and water bottles to kegs and barbecue grills. I scoped out claimed myself a great spot at the finish line about 5 minutes before the 7am start of the 1/2 marathon and was expecting to see Laura come across sometime after the 2 hour mark. I was able to see the winners of the 1/2 marathon come across the finish line (after only an hour and 4 minutes!! Holy Crap!) and practice taking photos With 3400 1/2 marathoners I was relying on having a good handle on her running time, my good positioning, my constant heckling of anyone who got in my field of view, and of course ability to pick my girlfriend out of a crowd! I really didn't want to miss getting a photo of her finishing and it paid off because I found her and got a shot as she came across after completing the 13.1mile course in 2hours 14minutes! She saw me immediately so we didn't have any trouble getting together in the reunion area and I was shocked at how good she was feeling and looked considering the long run she had just finished - in fact she even said she felt like she could have run it faster! We took a walk over to the car so she could change her clothes and Andy found us right at the car so we were able to all hang out until Anne finished her full marathon another hour and a half later. Anne also blew me away when she finished with how good she looked and felt. These girls just finished running 13.1 and 26.2 miles respectively - that's impressive! I didn't mention it earlier but there were people coming across the finish line, when I was waiting for Laura, and puking their guts out or looking like they were gonna pass out. After walking around for a little bit Laura and I decided it was time to head back down to Avon so we hopped in the car and made our way back - lots of traffic in Manteo made getting out of there a bit slow but we got back just after 1pm and Laura lay down to take a nap while I watched the Redskins make an attempt to play the game of football.

6:30am Laura looking a little nervous at the starting line

The 1/2 marathon winner crossing the finish line! (1 Hour 4 Minutes!)

Some costumed finishers

Crossing the finish line!!

Congrats Laura!

Anne looking strong at the end of a long run!

Wooo Hooo Anne & Laura!!

While Laura was sleeping Stuart sent me a text message saying that the surf was looking really fun and shortly after Anne called and said that she and Andy were gonna head over so Andy could surf and Anne was just planning to hang out on the beach. Lucky for me Laura woke up just as I was hanging up the phone with Anne so we grabbed my stuff and went up to the beach. It looked great from the beach - glassy and clean with some fast sections. I got myself in the water and caught a bunch of waves but really didn't feel like I surfed well at all. I had one turn surfing on my backhand that felt good but otherwise I felt out of sync and like I missed a lot of opportunities to make waves better by not making sections I should have been able to make, mistiming adjustment turns, and just flat out blowing it. I was frustrated because it's been so long since the waves were any good and I just didn't get it done. I guess beating myself up about it in the process didn't make it any better but surfing isn't a sport where you typically have a coach or someone there with you to tell you to calm down and do your thing. Regardless it felt good to get in the water and go a little fast - especially in retrospect.

Me making the first turn I've done in seeming months!

Andy with a fun looking left!

Me going right

So you tell me; up at 4:45 am., leave the house & drive to Nags Head, Drive to Manteo, Hang in Manteo for 4 1/2 hours, Drive back to Avon, short rest and watch first 1/2 of the Redskins game, go surfing for 2 hours, eat dinner, chill & watch TV, bed at 10pm. Does that sound like a marathon day to you?! Really great day and I'm super proud of Laura - Anne and Laura both. They trained hard and it obviously paid off!

This morning Andy and I cruised around looking for a wave and finally paddled out but it just wasn't what it was last night so we didn't stay out long - not complaining though - hell how long has it been since I got in the water on consecutive days?! Later this week and into this weekend it looks like we've got some nastiness headed our way weatherwise. Forecast winds of 50mph on Thursday night and wave heights of 9' at 12 second periods should make for lots of overwash and just generally nasty conditions the only silver lining being that the air temp is forecast to be mid 60's (although 30 mph wind will make it feel a tad chillier!!)

Check out this forecast!!

Staring Down Thanksgiving

2009-11-04T15:45:00.008-05:00

Let me start this post by being a miserable complaining bastard and I promise I won't make a habit of it. This has been one of the worst fall seasons for surf that I can remember. There have been a few standout days here and there but we have had 2 significant swells all fall thus far and November hasn't started out so well either. I'm so stir crazy to go surfing I can't even begin to describe it. I'm looking at the forecast for the next several days and it's pretty much nothing but North wind until possibly Sunday. My girlfriend, Laura, and Andy's fiance, Anne, are in the OBX Marathon on Sunday so we're all heading up there early Sunday morning and maybe Andy and I will bring our gear and sneak in a sesh in Nags Head while the girls are in the early part of their run then meet them at the finish line if the forecast holds true.

In non-surfing news Laura and I took a fun little road trip last week up to DC on Sunday after work to go the the Redskins/Eagles game at FedEx field for Monday Night football. Laura is an Eagles fan and I'm a Redskins fan so it was fun but the 'Skins are playing so poorly this season that it's tough to watch but Laura had never been to an NFL game so we went really early and tailgated and had a lot of fun.

Laura at her first NFL tailgate

Laura and I just before we shut down our tailgate and headed into the stadium.

photo courtesy: some drunk guy

Typically NFL pregame isn't too much to get excited about until you get to the SuperBowl but we got lucky because Miss America, Katie Stam, was singing the National Anthem (and she sang pretty well!) We really enjoyed the fact that she was standing all by herself on the sideline though and Laura made me feel good by yelling out "Hey Miss America - I've got a man what's up with you??" I'm a lucky dude.

Miss America, Katie Stam standing all by her lone self on the sideline.

On Tuesday we were supposed to hang out with my dad for the afternoon then head back to NC but we decided to play hooky from work and make the 2.5 hour drive up to Ocean City, NJ where Laura grew up and where her parents live. Laura hasn't been home since last Christmas so she was really excited to be back home and her parents where equally excited to have an unexpected visit from her. It was my first trip to OC, NJ so I was excited to go someplace new and see where Laura grew up. We went to her parents local watering hole for a beer - Laura's mom did a good job of embarrassing Laura by showing me childhood photos and we had a rousing round of Wii bowling (typical I blew a solid lead in the last frame!) Wednesday morning we got up and went for a run on the boardwalk had a little driving tour of OC then met Laura's mom for lunch. I also wanted to check out the surf shop that Laura's family uses up there - Surfers Supplies. I wouldn't normally plug another surf shop but they're so far away and I really liked it so I don't mind in this case - I even bought a t-shirt. We drove down to the far South end of the island to the Ghost Pier and looked at the surf which was clean and glass with light offshore wind but really weak - even the longboarders in the water were barely catching anything - it was cool for me to see though.

The Ghost Pier - Ocean City, New Jersey

Thursday afternoon we packed up, said our goodbye's and made the short drive to Cape May, NJ and jumped on the Cape May-Lewes, DE ferry then another 30 minutes down the road to Ocean City, MD where we crashed for the night at my dad's place there if for no other reason than to go have dinner at La Hacienda. If you are ever in Ocean City, MD and you have even a mild taste for Mexican food go to La Ha - it's incredibly good. Pretty much all I ever get there is a Neptune Burrito but everything is excellent. Go there and ask for Mike (the manager) and tell him that you read about La Ha on my blog and that I said it's the best place in town - you won't be disappointed. If you happen to be there on a Friday night you can score 2 for 1 Margaritas - booooooyaaaaaaa! From there on Friday morning it was back to Avon and right into packing up Laura's stuff and moving her to a new apartment. Saturday was a fun Halloween party hosted by Jay and Karen of Outer Banks Kiting -

Laura as a Little Bug and myself as a Dirty Hippie

Lost In Hatteras Author, Andy, as a Boxer (note the championship belt) and the lovely Ms. Anne as a Doctor.

Ah then back to work where things are quiet and I expect they will continue to be until Thanksgiving week. My brother and I have a little excursion coming up here soon that I'm not particularly looking forward to. We are flying out to El Paso, TX , which is literally in the far Southwest corner of Texas on the border of Mexico, then driving my grandfather's minivan back to NC with his things. We're flying out there - packing up the van, staying the night in a hotel then leaving at 5am the next day and driving the 30-35 hours back and planning to do so without making a hotel stay stop. I want to get there and get back - keep you posted. Hopefully there'll be some surf to talk about sometime soon here otherwise the next post may be about the OBX Marathon on Sunday.

Annnnnnnnd Summer's Over

2009-10-17T12:36:00.003-04:00

While we still get lots of days through October and even into November where we can wear shorts & t-shirts I am definitely wearing jeans and a hoodie today and have been for the past few days. It always seems to happen like this - we're out surfing in boardshorts it's October and it's totally comfortable then we get a hard blow for a few days out of the North and we all have to break out the rubber just like that it feels like summer came to a screeching halt. Since my last post I've only been in the water to surf twice but both times were pretty fun. I went out by myself in Buxton (something I don't normally do) and caught some fun waves before dark. The Towson University Surf Club got down here on Thursday to pretty solid swell - I had a chance to catch a couple of waves with Adam & Peter & some of the other guys at the 2nd Jetty down in Buxton. Some really fun fast peaks but a bit soft on the shoulder. I've been wrestling with a cold since I got back from Virginia from my grandfather's funeral so I kept my session short on Thursday. Yesterday there were some solid waves pouring through but I just couldn't muster the energy to paddle out and I didn't have anyone to paddle out with as Andy and Stuart were both working and pretty busy with the rather large windsurfing contingent that's on the island right now enjoying solid & consistent wind. On a sad note, a 15 year old boy from Hampstead, NC died here yesterday after getting swept under the Avon Pier while surfing. Apparantly his leash got tied around a piling and he was unable get free of the leash due to the current. You can read the full article here. We always try to warn people of the dangers of surfing and swimming here and it's very unfortunate because this type of thing is avoidable and should never happen. So no photos for this post unfortunately but I'm hoping that this cold will be kicked soon enough and we'll have some surf and lots of pics to post. I also don't have any winter travel plans just yet but I'll be doing something for sure so I'll be back with updates on that front as well. I'd suggest heading over to Lost In Hatteras blog and checking out the insane windsurfing action Andy has been blogging like mad. Till next time!

Island Life

2009-10-04T16:00:00.012-04:00

Well it's been decidedly slow for surf here recently - a horrible thing when you consider that this is supposed to be the best time of year for surf. I think that since it's an El Niño year and the Pacific is very active with tropical storms another result is fewer Atlantic storms. That said, there is a large tropical wave out in the middle of the Atlantic right now that isn't forecast to do much but is impressive looking nonetheless.
I've not been much of a recreational fisherman because frankly I never really caught much and I had a stint as a commercial fisherman that really soured my desire to go fishing but my girlfriend, Laura, really does like recreational fishing so I've been promising her that I'd give it another shot.

How can you not be willing to give it another try when this is your fishing guide?? The other day on our day off the water and weather was absolutely beautiful but there really weren't any waves so we decided to throw the fishing gear in the truck and an SUP just in case a rideable little wave came up and headed up to the beach. We cast out a few times without catching anything when almost all of a sudden there was a lot of activity on the water - fish hitting all over the surface! There was a guy, Ryan, on the beach who recognized me from the shop and suggested I change my bait and just like that we started catching Bluefish.

Me before the fish started biting - what a beautiful day!

I caught 2 from shore then decided to put the pole on the paddleboard and try to catch some that way. I was trolling around with the bait trailing behind me and caught another three from the board - I have to admit that it was a lot of fun!

The take!

Yes Laura cleaned the fish!

We cleaned the fish up and called our friends Anne & Andy, Jenny & Stuart for some fish tacos - a really fun day and evening with all our friends. In my last blog post I talked about how much I enjoy this time of year - feeling not as taxed from long days dealing with crazed tourists evenings with friends & family and having dinner & drinks on the porch is one of my favorite pastimes. I'm sure all the participants of the Wave Jam last weekend will agree because I know they had their closing awards outside with a little cookout as well in nice weather.

Anne & Andy awaiting delicious fish tacos.

On Saturday I participated in the "Bike the Light" benefit which was and event to benefit the local Kiwanis club. The Kiwanis sponsors the Terrific Kid (the kind of thing you see "I have a Terrific Kid..." bumper sticker from school) anyway at the shop we get hit up for prizes and donations all the time for this raffle or that raffle to benefit someone who's sick or going to rehab or whatever - we decided this year that we are tired of donating to causes that are questionable and that we're only donating to things for kids to get scholarships or things to benefit the kids of this island - it can be a tough place to grow up and unfortunately there aren't always the best influences so we just want to donate to things that promote the good kids or to making sure that its things that encourage the kids to do what's right. Long story short this was a benefit that met the criteria so we gave some gift certificates as prizes and I went down and teamed up with the owner of Spa Koru, Joe Thompson, and we did a Breast Cancer Awareness themed bike (I think I failed to mention that this bike ride was to be in costumes and decorated bikes).

Self portrait of Joe and I on our bike

It was an 8K bike ride from the Cape Hatteras Secondary School to the Lighthouse and back. A lot of local business people were there - I saw my banker and my lawyer as well as some real estate agents the elementary school principal and lots of others. Anyone who knows about east coast surfing should know Brett Barley a Buxton native who is arguably one of the best surfers on the island and east coast - Brett was there with his wife in quite the costume...

Brett Barley on the left but that's not his wife!

In all I believe something like $5000 was raised for the Kiwanis and another $4000 in prize donations and monetary donations were collected as well so for a first year event on a rainy morning after a helacious thunderstorm I'd call it a success (we had a thunderstorm come through in the wee hours of Saturday morning that caused 2 house fires from lightning strikes!!)

Alissa was one of the HIB gift certificate winners!

I forget this little guy's name but he was the other HIB gift certificate winner!

I'll be out of town this weekend to attend my grandfather's funeral, but I'm hoping the surf picks up a bit before I leave and certainly when I get back - otherwise there might not be much to talk about until we get to Halloween! Have a good one all!

Wednesday Surf Report

2009-09-30T09:34:00.000-04:00

Good morning! Sitting on the beach at the Avalon Fishing Pier in Kill
Devil Hills, North Carolina it's a picture perfect day aside from the
fact that there isn't a wave in sight. The sky is crystal clear blue
with the only clouds are off on the Eastern horizon over the ocean.
It's warm enough for shorts but I'm wearing a light hoodie to keep the
breeze chill off & sipping a chai tea and watching an old man cast
netting for baitfish. In July or August, sitting in this same spot, it
would likely already be 85 degrees and the parking lot and beach would
be loaded with tourists jockying for position and making a mess of
things. But it's late September and the crowds are gone and even up
here it's peaceful and pleasant and you can hear yourself think. If
there was any surf there would probably be some people exchanging
smiles in the parking lot while they pull on springsuits in
anticipation of some fun waves while playing hooky from work for the
morning. 40 minutes South from here, in Avon on Hatteras Island, it's
a little quieter still with wide open beach to pick up shells or cast
out a line and try to catch your dinner while hearing nothing but the
water lapping up against the shore and the occasional bird squacking.
Why more people don't come here in September, October & November I'll
never understand - this is the nicest time of the year. Enjoy your day
- I'm going to sit here for a bit more until I've finished my tea then
maybe go get a standup paddleboard or a kayak and get some exercise
and a little sun on my skin.

Avon NC Tuesday Surf Report

2009-09-29T09:21:00.001-04:00

There are some clean little beachbreak waves breaking - be careful though it's shallow! Some neck & board breakers out there!

Long Time No Blog

2009-09-27T12:09:00.002-04:00

August 21 - FIVE weeks. Are you kidding me? I haven't written ANYTHING in 5 weeks. Lemme have it - tear me a new one I deserve it!! On August 21 Hurricane Bill was still approaching and we were able to surf that morning - by that evening the swell was huge and there was no way to get out - Saturday morning the 22nd the swell was gigantic and there was talk that there were some pros tow surfing up around Oregon Inlet. After Bill passed on by we had a few days of great surf and as it began to drop off we started receiving a new swell from Danny which passed offshore on the 29th - a week after Bill. All in we had a solid 2 weeks of solid surf - to say it was fun is the understatement of the century! Andy has a great post from the first day of the Danny swell which you can check out here Since it's impossible for me to properly recap all the surfing we've done over the past 5 weeks (damn that's painful just to say!) I'll just say that I'm going to get back to work hopefully as early as today because there are some waves out there and be more consistent with my posts even if there isn't anything particularly great to say!

2009-09-27T12:07:00.001-04:00

I can send text messages that post as blog posts! Now I just need to get off my lazy ass and blog more!!

Friday Morning

2009-08-21T12:20:00.004-04:00

Andy, Stuart, Laura & her dad, Bob, and I hit our favorite spot this morning early and although there was a little South wind on it we managed to catch some fun waves with a little punch. It looks like best case scenario for Bill's track - going to pass between the NC coast and Bermuda sparing Bermuda a direct hit. It does look like it's going to make landfall in Nova Scotia but as a Category I or II storm a much better situation than Bermuda taking a Category III or IV hit.

The only bad news is that the swell associated with Bill is so significant that it looks like it's going to be a complete washout here tomorrow. I hope I'm wrong and it's the most epic day of all time but I really don't think the beachbreak setup here can handle 10' at 16sec - we'll see I guess! I forgot to plug in my camera battery last night so I didn't get any photos this morning but I snagged this one from my buddy John Wright of www.wrightcoastsurf.com - please check out his page as he is quite a talented photographer. The photo is from the pier in Rodanthe.

Finally!!

2009-08-20T12:35:00.009-04:00

So after all the talk and photos and graphics I've been posting and predictions and guesses and the 4,000 phone calls I've fielded at the shop asking me "When should I come? How big is it gonna be? etc etc" the first waves are finally breaking on our shores from Hurricane Bill. *I got a phone call from my to remain unnamed girlfriend this morning at 6am who told me that it was kind of fat and didn't look very good but she and her dad were going to take their longboards and go for a paddle to "get wet". So you tell me - does that sound like a reason to get out of bed at 6am? I stayed in bed and got another call from Andy at just after 8am asking if I wanted to go surf - I told him what Lau... oops what my girlfriend had told me to which Andy groaned and said oh well dude let's go out anyway because we have to go to work all day so we might as well. This sounded reasonable to me so I started getting my stuff together and called my girlfriend to let her know what we were gonna do and she says to me "oh yeah dad and I just got out it was fun!" What???*
Anyway Andy and I went out and I took my brother's singlefin Weber Retro-Pig based on her report of it being "fat" ("fat" in reference to the surf generally means that the high tide is making the waves difficult to catch and slow and) When we got out there it was kind of "fat" until the set waves came through and they were more walled up and fast so I could have ridden it on a shortboard if I had chosen that - really it was rideable on any board if you waited on the set waves. Don't read into this however - it still has a way to go before I'd call it "good" it was fun and we caught some waves but it certainly isn't what we're expecting it to be.

The author of Lost In Hatteras catching the first wave of the 2009 tropical season (well the first one that I photographed anyway!)

The surf should continue to get bigger over the next couple days peaking on Saturday into Sunday. The most recent 5 day forecast hasn't changed much as you'll see below

I also put together an animation from the Weather Channel's satellite images of the storm. You may have to click on the image below to see the animation

I'm back in the shop now and 7pm isn't going to get here fast enough today - Andy and I are both blogging and scouring the interned for every piece of Bill related info we can find. Looking forward to see what there is to see over the next few days!

*In her defense I'm not a very easy person to get moving in the morning so when I got the call from her that didn't sound epic I just didn't go! If anyone out there wants to get me up out of bed at 6am to surf I'm game but you have to call and have some excitement in your voice about the conditions - or jump up and down on my bed then drag me out of it and push me down the steps to the car!

Beefy Bill

2009-08-19T14:14:00.003-04:00

Well it looks like ol' hurricane Bill scored some steroids last night and stayed up all night getting jacked! Bill is currently a Category IV storm and still strengthening although the National Hurricane Center is not currently forecasting it to progress beyond a Cat IV storm. It appears that Bill is indeed taking the track that I thought it looked like a few days ago although that can change as well. The current forecast has it moving Northwest towards the Mid-Atlantic and West of Bermuda until Saturday then taking a turn to the Northeast and possibly making landfall in Main or Newfoundland, Canada as a Category I storm or stronger. Good news for us here in North Carolina as this is pretty much the ideal scenario for waves - Storm passing West of Bermuda but staying offshore so we don't get the damaging wind & rain. I'm really hoping that the surf here doesn't get so big that it just shuts down. For the time being Saturday and Sunday are looking like the peak of the swell but waves should start showing up tomorrow night and last through Monday. Like I always say - we'll just have to wait & see as the thing progresses.
Huge wave talk aside I gave a surf lesson this morning in ideal beginner conditions - light offshore wind and knee high waves and it's a lovely summer day here on Hatteras Island - the shop is pretty quiet - indicative of a great beach day!

Watching William

2009-08-18T08:11:00.002-04:00

No update yesterday because my internet access was down and a lot happened! Tropical Storm Claudette made landfall in Western Florida then quickly dissipated, Tropical Storm Ana was downgraded & fizzled out but Tropical Storm Bill was upgraded to a Category I hurricane and this morning was further upgraded to now a Category II Hurricane! It currently has winds at about 100mph which puts it at the upper end of a Category II hurricane and the National Hurricane Center is still forecasting it to be a Category III hurricane which means winds from 111mpt to 130mph. They also now have drawn the 5 day forecast track to keep the storm offshore of the United States passing through Bermuda - bad news for Bermuda but great news for surfers on the US East Coast! The only concern we have here on Hatteras Island is that it is entirely possible that it'll be too big for our sandbars to hold and be a big closeout - just have to wait and see what shows up. For the time being the surf here is flat - it's pretty surreal with all this talk of hurricanes and tropical storms that we're grovelling on big floaty boards trying to find a wave big enough to push us for more than 3 seconds and with enough speed to do a freakin turn! So we're in wait & see mode with fingers crossed!

Eyes On The Tropics

2009-08-16T11:04:00.005-04:00

Wow did the tropics come to life or what?! So we've got 2 named storms, Ana and Bill, churning away out in the Atlantic both with their sights on the US AND there's Tropical Depression 4 (TD4) in the Gulf of Mexico also headed for the Gulf states. Whew - so much to talk about! Starting with Bill it looks like the forecast track has changed a bit from yesterday and looks like they (THEY, THEM, the evildoers at NOAA!!) have Ana headed across Southern Florida and into the Gulf region taking a walk through basically all the upper Caribbean Islands. This track should mean that the storm will downgraded to a tropical depression and I'm guessing that we'll see minimal swell from this system due to its path as well.

Now Bill is a different story. Ana is paving the way for Tropical Storm Bill and setting up more optimal conditions for its development which could be a Category I Hurricane as early as tomorrow morning. It also looks like THEY (haha I'm really amusing myself with that) have Bill on a course for the Mid-Atlantic region - although to my amateur eye it looks like it will make a turn towards us then continue to turn North and possibly hit Bermuda or pass between North Carolina and Bermuda as a fairly strong Category III Hurricane so we could be looking at some really intense swell from ol' Bill - definitely want to keep tabs on what Bill does.

The swell forecast is looking like Wednesday night into Thursday morning we should start to see some more significant waves showing up and continuing to build through Friday and Saturday. I don't like to forecast that far out but if the storms and their tracks don't change too drastically I just don't see how it can be any other way. I AM, however, going to refrain for the time being on making any wave height predictions - let's see what happens over the next couple of days.
Lastly there is Tropical Depression 4 in the Gulf of Mexico. This system looks like it will pretty much just bring rain and stronger than normal wind to the panhandle of Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi and certainly no effect on our surf or even our weather for that matter. Today is pretty much just a typical beach day on the Outer Banks - sunny & warm with small beginner type waves - that's all going to change before too long here though!

The Tropical Season Has Begun!

2009-08-15T09:11:00.004-04:00

A few days ago I posted about the tropical depression off the coast of Africa that had potential for development. This depression kind of fizzled out but then made a comeback and this morning was upgraded to Tropical Storm status and named Ana. As of this morning its 5Day forecast has it headed to Florida.

We're expecting a little groundswell from this storm starting tomorrow and then through the next week the forecast is showing increasing conditions!

Looks like it has the potential to be fun but remember that things can change so don't hold me to this - we'll watch it day by day and see as these storms move what happens. The last thing I want to point out for the storms is the NEXT storm (potentially Bill) This storm is behind Ana and as the Weather Channel explained there is dry air ahead of Ana that is going to make things a bit difficult for it to develop but behind Ana is wet air for TD2 (potentially Bill) to follow which will make it easier for it to develop - point being it's worth keeping an eye on!

Way Too Early...

2009-08-11T14:04:00.003-04:00

...to get excited yet but this may be worth keeping an eye on. Right now it's still Tropical Depression #2 but it is forecast to be the first named storm of the season and will be Ana if it does, in fact, strengthen enough to be upgraded to a tropical storm. We'll keep watching - my blog sure as hell needs something to talk about!!

Avon, NC Thursday Surf Report

2009-07-30T08:19:00.001-04:00

Pretty stiff WSW wind blowing making for fairly clean conditions. It's
only knee to waist high and kind of sectiony but I'd go out if I
didn't have to go to a meeting!

Avon, NC Friday Surf Report

2009-07-24T09:14:00.000-04:00

Still swell in the water but too much high tide at the pier - standout
sandbars are working great however!

Avon, NC Thursday Surf Report

2009-07-23T08:44:00.001-04:00

Chest high & offshore - go surfing - now!!

Avon, NC Tuesday Surf Report

2009-07-21T09:46:00.001-04:00

There appears to be a little bit of swell in the water but high tide
was at 7:30am so it's still pretty full right now. Waves are standing
up but it's still too deep for them to break. As we get closer to low
tide at 1:00pm this afternoon I expect it will be much more rideable
provided the wind doesn't wreck it! As of right now the wind is
basically calm - maybe just a puff out of the South. It looks like
we've got some groundswell on the way beginning to show up as early as
tonight so keep your fingers crossed and be ready to go!

Imagine this...

2009-07-12T18:36:00.005-04:00

I've been surfing since I was basically 13 but I grew up in a landlocked VA town so it really wasn't until I was in my early 20's that I started going through surfboards. Even still I'm guessing that over the years I've owned probably 20 - 30 surfboards all of which were or are PU/fiberglass boards with the only exception being the SUP that I ride which is an epoxy. I've also always been at least somewhat conscious about my consumption of goods and production of waste and really am enjoying the attention being paid to being Earth consciousness that's more prevalent in recent years. Surfboards are TOXIC - period. Surfboards are non-biodegradable, non-recyclable, and made from non-renewable petroleum resources that are at the heart of most major international conflict. As in touch with the Earth as many surfers are we contribute to some of the worst things going on this planet and treat it no better than anyone else when it comes to our waste surfboards. I hate to say it but it's true... Until now.

Back in December Andy sent me an email with the subject line "Check..." and in the body of the email it simply said "... this out" and he provided me with the following link on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_fI1nzJSl4&feature=PlayList&p=53E285814A9046AA&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=23 Better yet here's the YouTube video:

So it turns out there's this guy in Montreal, Canada that has figured out a way to use RECYCLED foam to make surfboard blanks which are WATERPROOF then he glasses them with flexible bamboo Fiber! Are you kidding me? I was in Costa Rica at the time and did as much research on the guy and the company as I could find online and when I got back to the US spoke to my brother about it. We both agreed that it's a great idea and were both really amped to find out more but like all surfers we were nervous about how they would ride and what the hell does anyone in Montreal know about surfing!! I emailed Corran at Imagine Surfboards introducing myself and asking for more information and got back a long detailed email and was told that one of his riders was actually on the island with some boards and that he would arrange to have him come by the shop and show them to us. Stoked!! Julian came by the shop a few days later and we were blown away with what he showed us - beautiful white boards with a real wood stringer that flex nice with a little pressure. Julian hung out for a while and told us his experience with the boards and shared some other killer personal experience (you'll have to come by and talk with one of us to get the FULL skinny). The bottom line is this: We ordered boards and are expecting our first batch this week, I've ordered 3 for myself and Kevin & Andy are getting one as well, my other boards are on the used rack as are Andy's and Kevin already sold one of his, I feel GOOD about these new boards coming - I know that when they were shaped the offcut foam was collected and is going to be put back into a bin to be made into another blank - I know that the board was glassed with bamboo fiber which is one of the most renewable fibers on the planet - I also know that when I get a ding in one of these boards I don't need to worry about water gettin into it because the foam is waterproof and if and when I break a board I can strip off the glass and ship the foam back and have it recycled back into a new board blank.

This is what surfing needs - a truly new approach to building boards not just another formulation of the same toxic things. I'll be posting more about this but please ask me questions and come by the shop and I'll chew your ear for hours!

Overdue!!

2009-06-28T13:34:00.003-04:00

Normally when I haven't posted anything it's because there isn't a whole lot going on to talk about - not this time. In this case the only excuse I can offer is that my arms have been too tired to type. Not buying it? I don't blame you - really there's no excuse because there has been a ton of action recently and we've been surfing a lot - especially for June. Andy posted on his blog a couple days ago with some photos but even he was slacking a bit as by the time he put up his post we were surfing smaller less powerful waves so there are no photos of us on the bigger, cleaner, better days. Call it selfish or just call it childlike excitement that we didn't even think to bring a camera until we had a couple days of surf under our belts. I suppose it is a legitimate argument that we were coming off a serious surf lull and while we were expecting surf I don't thing we were expecting it to be as fun as it has been! That's not to say that it's been September/October hurricane swell style but, again, for June it's been a lot of fun. We started things off with an evening session at the Lighthouse in Buxton taking off on some pretty bumpy but big lefthanders that were kind of difficult due to the bumpy conditions but some of which lined up really well making for fun long rides. The following morning was more of the same down at the lighthouse and from there it's been a blur of sessions one after another through the Buxton/Avon area. We'll go out in the morning on shortboards catching clean offshore waves - rotate working in the shop and surfing the afternoon on longboards & SUP's then another evening session on fishes. In the past week I've ridden my 6'1" Shortboard, a 6'1" fish (which I blew out a fin plug on), a 6'6" fish, and a 10'0' SUP. I apologize for slacking this swell and I'll try not to let it happen again on the next! Big props to Anne because she's been surfing better than I've seen her surf ever - really making strides this summer and it's a lot of fun to watch! Stuart has also been stepping up his game since he picked up his Rusty Pro-ject - if you talk to him he'll tell you that he needs to work on this or work on that & that he's not a very good surfer blah blah - the truth is that he is killing it considering he hasn't been surfing all that long. I've seen him take off on some sizeable waves in critical sections and making it, laying down solid bottom turns, making cutbacks and adjustments in the right places - looking good bro! Andy's wave selection is getting to be remarkable - he seems to have a knack for finding exactly the right spot to sit to get the most of what's in the water and is pulling great rides on a variety of boards from Shortboard to fish to longboard to SUP a lot of fun to watch and surf with. Laura has gotten some epic length rides on the longboard the past couple of days - I didn't even realize that the length of ride was even out there for some of them but you'll see her paddling and take off then you'll duck dive a wave or two and look back towards the beach and she's still riding the same wave - incredible. So check out Andy's post (it starts with some windsurfing then gets into the surfing) and keep in mind that it represents the lesser of what's been going on!

Finally!!

2009-06-20T10:10:00.005-04:00

You know I think I've titled other posts "Finally!" as well - I'll have to check into that. So the onshore flow that we had going on resulted in some waves finally. Thursday was a bit on the messy side but Andy, Stuart, Laura and I hit up a little roadside spot we like took off on a few bumpy waves and managed some fun rides. Yesterday morning early Stuart was up and telling us that the wind was light offshore so we scrambled up to the same spot and sure enough there were clean glassy lines coming through - stoked! The waves were generally in the waist to stomach high range and pretty racy and a little tough to catch. Also kind of lacking in power so it turned out to be kind of an "it looked better from the beach" situation. Now that's not to completely discredit it however because there were some fun waves to be had and it was fun and certainly worth getting up for. My only complaint was that I snapped a fin off my board which normally wouldn't be a big deal but the fin plug broke as well so the board is useless until I replace the plug. I had the day off yesterday so after my surf I took a little nap then lazed around on the beach for a bit then went with Laura just before sunset for a paddle on the sound on the SUP's. It was Laura's first time on a sup and she did great - she's a surfer so the big board and calm sound was easy for her - I'm looking forward to getting her out on the ocean and into some waves on the SUP.
Surf today has dropped a bit but there the buoys are still reading 2.5 feet at 9 seconds and there's a relatively light Southwest wind so there is a small rideable wave out there. Low tide is right about now so it should for the next 2-3 hours this is the window to get out there.
I looked at it at about 9:30 this morning so that's when the picture is from - conditions may be a bit different now. I'm at work so go catch a few and let me know how it was!

Tough Times

2009-06-16T14:07:00.002-04:00

The most difficult thing about writing a blog based primarily on Surfing is that from time to time you find yourself faced with lulls in action. This is one of those times. June last year was great and we had a lot of really fun days but this June has thus far been pretty miserable. Just no swell - Andy and I managed to catch a few micro waves about a week ago on SUP's but my shortboards are gathering dust. We have a pretty stiff onshore wind blowing right now and are expecting it to continue through tomorrow so I'm hoping that on Thursday we have an actual wave to ride. In the meantime just spending lots of time in the shop and trying to find other activities to burn some energy - although windsurfing hasn't been so hot recently either! It'll change though I know - this IS Hatteras after all!

Avon, NC Tuesday Surf Report

2009-06-09T10:51:00.000-04:00

Gorgeous day!! Crystal clear water knee to waist high with offshore
wind absolutely perfect conditions for surf lessons or a first time on
a Standup Paddleboard. Fun little longboard wave or on the set waves
you could also manage a fish - get out there and enjoy it!

Just an update

2009-06-05T13:24:00.003-04:00

Well it's been a few days since I've posted anything - it's tough to post when there aren't photos to go along, you know the whole "picture tells 1000 words" thing. There hasn't been any surf worth talking about and as I continue to learn how to windsurf I'm just not good enough to handle the windsurf rig and operate a camera at the same time. I DID meet a gentleman by the name of Dennis Keim who is a professional photographer and who got some shots of Andy and I windsurfing the other day at Canadian Hole. I don't feel at liberty to post them though since they aren't mine and since he gets paid for his work. I don't have any problem giving him a plug though so click on his name up there and check out his work - pretty impressive stuff. I ran up to DC the other day to pick up my friend from Lithuania, Renata, from the airport. Renata is the girl at the top of this post that you probably keep scrolling back up to look at - believe me - I know and I understand go ahead and look again. Ok one more time... now pay attention! So I picked up Renata and we crashed for a couple of nights at my dad's house and I was able to celebrate my birthday with my family and get some nice home cooked meals. I took Renata into Annapolis to walk around because she'd never been there - we had a nice afternoon walking around the Naval Academy, took a little boat tour, and had a Painkiller at Pussers pub. On Wednesday we got up early and drove back to Avon and I made it back in time to have a windsurf with Andy down at Canadian Hole. I continue to get better about getting into the harness & footstraps as well as waterstarting more reliably. I'm also able to begin to carve into jibs but still haven't ridden out of one. I think I actually feel comfortable enough with my waterstart that I could go into the ocean if there was enough wind but not too much rough surf - if it was big & choppy I'm pretty sure I'd get slaughtered. I'm not going to go on too long because there isn't much point in talking about the lack of surf, crappy weather, or the dip in sales between Memorial day and when kids start getting out of school. I'm looking forward to a little birthday celebration with my friends this evening and the wind is picking up as I write this so maybe tomorrow we'll have some shots to post of windsurfing and or my par-tay. In the meantime go ahead and check out Renata's photo again - I know you're going to anyway.

Blowboarding update

2009-05-30T12:13:00.004-04:00

Stuart dropped by the shop yesterday with a little gift for me - my very own set of harness lines! I'm a lucky dude when it comes to learning to windsurf because I neither own nor rent gear yet I get to ride decent stuff and as I progress I'm able to progress the gear I'm using as well. It's an ideal situation as I'm learning and I realize how lucky I am that my buddies let me use their gear and the available rental gear from their shops. I guess this is a good time to plug both Sailworld Hatteras where Andy works and Ocean Air Sports where Stuart works thanks for "sponsoring" me guys! After work yesterday Andy, Stuart, Anne and I all went to Canadian Hole (in 4 separate cars - shame on us by the way for that) and I initially rigged up a 4.2 with my new fancy dancy harness lines and promptly went nowhere! Just not enough wind and not enough sail - here's where the hookup kicks in though! I derigged the 4.2 and there was a 5.7 available for me to use so I got that setup and off I went - popped into the harness lines got locked into the footstraps and off I went! Much better! I zipped back and forth a little bit and did some solid deepwater starts without much grief at all - it's really nice to spend less time treading water and more time riding. The only problem I found myself having was a pretty extreme wobble as I'm putting my foot in the rear footstrap - I can recover from it but I sheet out in the process slowing me down so I need to fix that and still need to jibe as well. I didn't see any but Andy Stuart and Anne all said that they saw a lot of jellyfish but didn't get stung - I DID have a small skate swim right between my feet as I was walking in - so happy it decided not to sting me - that would have sucked! Wind has shifted out of the North Northeast today which should prolong the little cold bite going on in the ocean (grrrrrr). I'm headed up to DC tomorrow after work for a couple days but will be back on Wednesday evening. Hopefully I'll get out this evening have a good one!

Avon, NC Thursday Surf Report

2009-05-28T12:53:00.005-04:00

Hey so our session this morning was fun and Kevin & Wendi are still out there! Summer is certainly here though - the wave we're surfing is a pretty confined area and there were a bunch of people out there. When you throw in the fact that it's the first time we've had glassy waves in quite a while it starts to get a little stupid. People dropping in on others and then turning around and calling people off waves - not cool - hey I'm sorry to be negative but you CAN be both the best surfer in the water AND the biggest kook simply by acting like that - I'm not impressed! Ok lecture aside it was fun! I got a call from Andy this morning around 7:30 that we had a very light offshore breeze combined with a waist high swell. Andy, Stuart, Laura and I were on it and enjoying some basically waist high clean waves with a little zip. I was able to manage a couple decent turns and I got a chuckle out of watching a few guys trying to pull into barrels. Hey I like to get shacked as much as anyone but if the wave is only stomach high how big can the barrel be?? After surfing for a couple hours I ran home and got cleaned up & gave Kevin a call at the shop and came over and relieved him so he could go for a surf.

Kevin leaning into a bottom turn on a clean one!

Going surfing

2009-05-28T08:30:00.001-04:00

I got the call about 30 min ago that we have light West wind and waist high fun waves so I dragged my sorry ass out of bed and I'm headed up - I'll give a report after and hopefully I'll be awake too

Fun Dreary Day!

2009-05-27T14:33:00.009-04:00

So it's a pretty rotten day out today - raining, scattered thunderstorms the works just kind of drab. We've got this little weather system - a pre-tropical depression if you will sitting just offshore stirring up the ocean a bit and sending us some waves but it's a bit too close so the swell is pretty disorganized and junky. Today was our first day back on the radio giving the surf report every morning at 11:30am on 99.1 The Sound and yesterday I built a facebook page for the shop (which you can and SHOULD go to and become a "fan" of!!) so Kevin and I decided to run a little promotion to combine the 2 things. Since 99.1 streams it's content online I sent out a notification that the first out of town person who listened online and posted to the HIB Facebook site the name of the weather system I mentioned during the surf report would win a t-shirt. Well Tim Bray from Fredericksburg was the first person to properly post "Invest 91" to the site so he won a Volcom t-shirt! So that was fun! The other fun thing is that today is Anne's birthday! Anne is the prettier half of the Anne & Andy couple and one of my surf/windsurf/paddleboard/drinking buddies and just a great all around person and friend. Honestly you can't have a better friend than someone like here - we're all lucky to have her and she certainly puts up with a lot from all the idiot guys she's inherited through Andy (namely, Andy himself, Me, and Stuart but there are more!) So here are a few pics in tribute of Miss Anne's birthday and to poke some fun at her too!

Handling a very sugared up Colin Scalia (my nephew)

Anne is famous for falling asleep - this time Andy and Banana passed out with her

She also very selflessly takes the dreaded "middle seat" on surf missions

For someone who loves the water as much as she does she's afraid of everything in it!

A little meditation and yoga and she's able to handle her kids at school and her kids at home

Happy Birthday Anne!

And Heeeerrrrree we go!

2009-05-25T11:36:00.004-04:00

And just like that it's summer! It seems like a week ago that I was blogging from beside the pool in Costa Rica back in January and now it's Memorial Day Monday the sun is shining it's hot out, the shop is in full swing and stocked to the gills. Tomorrow (Tuesday) marks the first day of our daily radio broadcast surf report at 11am on 99.1 The Sound. A cool addition that 99.1 has made this year is that they are now streaming online so even if you aren't on the Outer Banks you can listen to my voice around 11am every morning (I'm sure there's a delay between live and the online stream but it's probably not too long) hear what you're missing or what's in store if you're a day or two from coming down. http://991thesound.com/ is the site and the link to listen to the stream is right in the middle of the front page so check it out!
Speaking of surf Andy, Anne, Kevin, Stuart and I have been snagging some sessions at a magical little sandbar in Avon the past few days. When you go up to the beach for the most part it looks like nothing is going on but this bar seems to be catching the smallest bits of swell and turning them into rideable little chunks. Last night we charged it on the SUPs and caught some fun waves. It doesn't quite have enough punch to push a shortboard but we've also managed some waves on fish as well so it's been nice to surf a bit. On the windsurfing front the wind kind of dropped out but Anne and I rigged up anyway and went out at Canadian Hole yesterday afternoon. With meager amounts of wind I looked like a pro out there hardly falling at all and didn't get catapulted once! Unfortunately there wasn't enough wind for me to get enough speed to work on jibs or much else but it was still good to get out there and get some practice.

The Pyle Family

2009-05-23T13:17:00.002-04:00

Congrats to the Pyle family from Pennsylvania who are the proud owners of a new Kalama 11'6" SUP! This was the second board I rode when I started standup paddle surfing and it's a fantastic board - really stable, paddles well, rides waves. A fantastic first SUP and a great family board. A great start for us on our first day of the summer season and sure to be a great season for the Pyles enjoy it gang!! Maybe I'll try to make this a regular thing a "Family of the day" or "customer of the day" we'll see how it works out. In other happenings the TV commercial/OBX activity show "Escape To The Cape" that I'm in has been on the air for a couple of days now and I'm already hearing about it from my friends and some random people who have seen it. I'm prepared for comments about it all summer so bring it on! If you aren't on the island and you're interested in seeing it you can see it online at www.escapetohatteras.com and click on "Watch The Video" right on the front page. Surfwise there's a little bit of a bump in the water - nothing spectacular but rideable nonetheless. Yesterday evening Andy, Stuart and I ran out here in Avon and got a few pretty fun wedgy peaky waves. Andy went out bareback, Stuart in trunks and a vest and I wore my 3/2 fullsuit. Andy was borderline hypothermic and when I saw him at his house later for dinner he was wearing flannel lined jeans and a hoodie while the rest of us were in shorts & t-shirts. I share his enthusiasm to get out of the rubber but unfortunately it's just a bit chilly yet!

Confession Time

2009-05-17T14:25:00.002-04:00

I've been holding off doing it and it's gotten to the point that I have to come clean. I'm learning to windsurf. Wow I feel so much better now that I've said it. Seriously I'm guilty of being a "typical" surfer in the fact that I've made jabs at all kind of sports that aren't surfing - windsurfing, wakeboarding, kiteboarding among the leaders of my criticisms. Over the past year or so I've been gearing up and hitting the waters of the Pamlico sound primarily at Canadian Hole on Hatteras Island. Sailworld Cape Hatteras sublets space from us and I have the pleasure of working with Andy as a result. For anyone who doesn't know Andy you probably don't windsurf on the east coast - this guy is a fantastic windsurfer and a great friend and responsible for getting me out and up on a poleboard for the first time. I hadn't been out too consistently but here recently I've been going out a bunch and I'm progressing very well (I think - at least that's what everyone is telling me) It's been a while since I undertook anything new that requires taking time to learn so I was a little surprised at how easy it was right at first - pretty much within 10 minutes I was gently cruising back and forth in light wind so I had some success and positive feedback immediately. My initial goal was simple - GO FAST! Andy got me set up on a big clunky beginner board and I managed a few waterstarts and got into the footstraps after just a few go-outs and went fast - mission accomplished! This past winter I did a lot of surfing while I was in Costa Rica and got spoiled in the warm water and beautiful waves so since I've been back it's been rough because the surf this spring has been pretty lackluster to say the least. There have been a handful of decent surf days but few and far between so, quite frankly, I've been bored. Back to windsurfing - again Andy and now our other buddy Stuart have been getting me setup with gear and giving me pointers and I've been much better about getting out more consistently and it's starting to show - my deep water starts are much more reliable, I'm in and out of the harness relatively easily, I'm riding a smaller board, and I'm in and out of the footstraps pretty easily and going fast on a pretty regular basis. My new goal is to learn to jibe without coming to a complete stop or falling and my long rang goal is to get comfortable enough with my waterstart and jibe so that I can take my windsurfing show into the ocean and ride some waves. Anyway don't give me crap if you start seeing windsurf related posts on my blog - don't get me wrong - I'm still a surfer first and foremost! Given equally good conditions I'll go surfing - I'm just trying to make my bag of tricks bigger!

Avon, NC Saturday Surf Report

2009-05-16T10:24:00.000-04:00

If you go out Right Now it's ok. Waist high - maybe a little bigger on
the sets fairly sectiony but with some rideable lines. There's a south
wind starting to pick up that will likely junk up the surf pretty
quickly so if you want to surf today you either already went or you're
headed out now.

I Guess This Is Spring

2009-05-12T10:50:00.000-04:00

I've been a bit frustrated over the past few days because the nice
warm weather and water we had going here on Hatteras Island just
vanished. Then today the sun comes out and it's pretty again albeit a
little chilly (this is a matter of opinion because behind me on the
beach there's a girl laying out in a bikini) so I get to thinking and
remember that it's still only early May -spring - not yet summer so I
should quit my bitchin! So it's a pretty spring day now if we could
only get some surf!!

Thanks For The Compliment!

2009-05-08T10:43:00.000-04:00

So last night someone changed out marquee sign from "Stocked with
sunglasses & sandals" to " Stocked with ass sun & sandals". If you
like what we've got goin on just let us know - I'm single & would love
to know if someone is diggin on me!!
Avon is a beautiful place to be right now and here's a SHOCKER - the
water is actually already pretty warm! My 3y/o nephew was running
around in the water the other day and I've been surfing in a
springsuit but there are pleanty of people surfing in just trunks or
trunks & a top. Grab the family and come on down - rental houses are
still off season rates and for another week we still have prebook
rental specials available on our website www.hiboardsports.com

1 Night 2 Sessions!

2009-04-27T11:52:00.007-04:00

Right on I scored!! I'm in Playa Hermosa, Costa right now - just a sneak down visit from San Jose because the real reason I'm in Costa Rica is to attend my buddy Andres' wedding this coming Friday May 1. Yesterday early morning my friend, Estefani, in Escazu had to come down here so I hitched a ride with her early in the morning and was on the beach by 10 am. Normally my experience with Playa Hermosa is that around 10am or 11am the wind starts to turn onshore or sideways and messes up the surf. Yesterday it made it's shift but never blew very hard so around 2:30 when the tide was coming back in the surf was pretty decent. I grabbed one of my friend Alexandra's boards and surfed some head high kind of soft but lined up and fun waves for a couple of hours. Like I said it didn't have a lot of power so you had to work a little bit to not get too far ahead of the wave or it would mush out on you but it made it fun - takeoff with some speed make a big round turn hit the whitewater behind you and drop back down and do it again 2 or 3 times all the way to the beach - fun!! Last night I met up with a bunch of friends here for dinner at Alexandra's house where we had Lupe's famous ceviche and some chicken and beers - again a lot of fun and really nice to see everyone from here. This morning I was up early early at 6am and surfed chest to head high clean buttery waves with one other guy out. As the tide dropped it began to close out but not before I was able to get some fun fast rights and lefts. It's 10am here as I write this now so I've been here 24 hours and surfed twice - Stoked! Especially since the rest of my day is going to consist of having lunch with my friend Alexandra then jumping a bus back to San Jose. A lot of running around but totally worth it getting to see my friends and surfing :)

Good Morning Hermosa

What was the first thing YOU saw this morning?!

My surf buddy this morning

I've got the next one!

Check the size of that Beetle!! No wonder people eat beetles in some cultures - it's a whole meal!

Gate 47 To Warm Waves

2009-04-23T08:51:00.000-04:00

Ahhhh the journey. We read about and see pictures of the destination
all the time and occasionally we see some snipits from the trip but
rarely hear about the process of arriving to the destination. I'm
sitting at gate B47 at Dulles International Airport in Waahington DC
right now waiting to board my first plane of the day but my trip
actually started yesterday. I'm going to Costa Rica for a friends
wedding (bachelor party and delicious rum too) but I'll also get some
beach time and waves. Anyway I left North Carolina yesterday morning
and had a 6 hour drive to Reston VA (suburb of DC very cloae to the
airport) where I have a friend. On of our reps also lives in the area
so I gave him a call and met him at Reston Town Center where he was
nice enough to give me a box of shoes (if you wear size 9 and want a
funky pair of shoes write me a good comment telling me why you should
get them). I met my friend and we had some dinner and a couple beers
watched Slumdog Millionaire (I hadn't seen it and it was great!) then
hit the sack around midnight. My flight this morning is at 9:30 so I
was up at 6:00am to get showered & shaved - when you're a youngish
dark complected man it's good to be clean shaven and respectable
looking in the airport it minimizes (but doesn't eliminate) the
profiling - drove the few minutes over to the airport got parked,
ticketed, & bags checked. Got in the line for security which can
always have tv potential to be interesting. Today wasn't too bad but
there was a woman who apparantly doesn't travel much because she
didn't know the difference between her receipt and her boarding pass
and also didn't have her ID out nor did she know she needed to take
off her shoes or take stuff out of her pockets in order to pass
through the metal detector thing. So here I am at the gate waiting to
board my flight to El Salvador where I have a short layover then
another flight to Costa Rica. Here's another interesting observation -
they just announced boarding for 1st class and 2 police looking guys
escorted a guy onto the plane - sweet I hope he's sitting next to me :)

Avon, NC Monday

2009-04-20T14:01:00.000-04:00

Despite the downpours and strong winds and lack of surf it's actually
a nice day! Seriously the rain seems to have k Ickes the humidity down
to nothing and the breeze feels really nice. I dipped our of work for
a minute to look at the ocean and am enjoying the spring air - summer
is on the way!

Oh Well

2009-04-18T13:36:00.002-04:00

So we got good and drunk last night (a solid hangover generally guarantees that the surf is good) walked up to the beach this morning, heads pounding, and were kind of disappointed with what we saw. There were waves but it was not as clean as we were expecting. Got suited up and made the paddle out in the COLD water and didn't catch anything. I paddled for a few waves but it just wasn't happening so as it turned out the actual conditions weren't even as good as they looked from the beach. Now then - I understand that at the 1st Jetty in Buxton and at S-Turns in Rodanthe the conditions were/are an entirely different story and it's really good at both spots and equally as crowded. I hope you got some waves 'cause I sure didn't!!

Is tomorrow the day?

2009-04-17T20:18:00.000-04:00

The forecast for surf tomorrow is looking incredible!! Fingers are
crossed and we're adheering to all known superstitions - check in the
morning!

Sent from my iPhone

Avon, NC Thursday Surf Report

2009-04-16T11:02:00.000-04:00

Surf actually looks good in still photos but 30mph winds out of the
Northwest are making the inside bars a mess and putting a rediculus
current in the water. I'm not going out but I suppose if you can get
to the outside and catch one it's rideable. Don't be stupid!

Avon,NC Monday Surf Report

2009-04-13T10:00:00.000-04:00

There are some fun looking waves out there - everything from SUP to
longboards fish to shortboards - get out there!

Avon, NC Saturday Surf Report

2009-04-11T12:00:00.000-04:00

The good news is that there are clean pretty right hand waves all over
the place the bad news is that the wind is blowing pretty hard
offshore so it probably isn't going to last very long and it may make
catching waves tough. But get out there now if you can and give it a
shot - I hope to sneak out of work for a few!

Them Damn Crazy Kids!

2009-04-06T21:55:00.002-04:00

Ok I'm gonna give these guys their own post. This is the beginning of the 8th year of Hatteras Island Boardsports and in that time my brother and I have met a lot of people and groups. Surf clubs from Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, even Ohio - church groups galore, too many families to even count, hell I've even given surf lessons to people who didn't speak English and couldn't understand a word I said (and YES they did quite well!!) But the ONE group that keeps coming back year after year and is just as stoked every time is the Towson University Surf Club from Towson, Maryland. These guys and girls are too much - they roll into town about 30 strong rent up some places in the Avon Cottages and go surfing no matter what the conditions are. This past weekend if you were reading my surf reports you already know - sucked surfwise! The wind was all wrong, there was no decent swell just bad. Didn't matter this crew was in their wetsuits and on it and if you're a college student off campus for the weekend with 30 of your friends in close quarters in Avon, NC with nothing really going on what do YOU do at night? You drink the beer isle and liquor store dry that's what you do! I was extended an invitation for all three nights they were here to hang out in the evening but didn't make it over there until the last night of their visit and witnessed (among other things) the following. An entire bottle of Tequila vanish in an extraordinarily short amount of time, a blow-up ahem "pleasure" doll dancing with some guys AND girls, probably the worlds largest game of flip cup, a meat fight, and probably the highlight of the evening - a surprise presentation of birthday cake which the birthday boy accepted by punching both the cakes. Ahhh to be young and drunk - I can hang - I did hang - my head hurt the next morning. Here's to the Towson University Surfing Tigers you guys rock - see you in the spring and please give me a little warning next time so I can properly hydrate first!

If you see these guys coming - hide your liquor!

Avon, NC Sunday Surf Report

2009-04-05T11:36:00.000-04:00

What a gorgeous spring day! There is literally not a cloud in the sky
so get put there and do something - go for a bike ride, a jog, walk
your dog, go fishing, windsurfing, dig a garden, cut your grass,
whatever enjoy it! The onshore wind and lack of swell isn't making for
the best surfing day unfortunately I'll just leave it at that and not
spoil the otherwise perfect day :)

Ugggg

2009-04-04T11:42:00.001-04:00

I hate it when I do this!! The photo goes with the report below

Avon, NC Saturday Surf Report

2009-04-04T11:41:00.001-04:00

Finally a pretty day! Sun shining short sleeves - actually feels like spring! Wave-wise it's pretty dissapointing - very weak barely breaking crumbly waves. I suppose that there may be a sandbar somewhere that is catching the little bit of swell better than where I looked but other than being clean I doubt you'll find anything with any punch. Your best bet is to grab a longboard and see what you can find - leave the shortnoards at home even SUP's are gonna be tough paddling into the wind.

Sent from my iPhone

Avon, NC Thursday Surf Report

2009-04-02T11:31:00.000-04:00

Choppy & junky but rideable chest to probably head high (tough to say
with no one out). If you have nothing better to do it might be worth a
paddle-out

Avon, NC Wednesday Sutf Report

2009-04-01T11:05:00.000-04:00

Pretty much the same deal as yesterday - light onshore wind is the
only source of waves. Ankle to knee high short period slop.

Avon, NC Tuesday Surf Report

2009-03-31T10:40:00.000-04:00

Happy birthday Andy and Jason! I hope you both have a great day!
Unfortunately it won't be spent doing any surfing - if it weren't for
the onshore breeze of would be lake flat all we've got is windblown
texture on the water.

Oops

2009-03-30T11:07:00.000-04:00

This photo goes with the post below

Avon, NC Monday Surf Report

2009-03-30T11:06:00.001-04:00

Overnight we had really strong West winds (offshore) which pretty much blew the surf flat. It's a really pretty day but just not enough swell to stand up to the wind. The shorebreak has great shape if you don't mind risking a broken board for knee high waves!

Sent from my iPhone

Ocean City, Md

2009-03-27T18:08:00.002-04:00

I'm in Ocean City, MD visiting my Dad & step mom right now and there is actually a pretty clean little wave out here today! I've been here a bunch of times but never seen a decent rideable wave. Too bad I don't have my gear with me - I'd have gone out!

Pshhhh

2009-03-26T12:34:00.002-04:00

Don't let that 3 day forecast on the right side of my blog page fool you today!! It is big and disorganized and messy out there and basically forecast to get worse for today as the wind is supposed to pick up pretty strong out of the South. Overnight the forecast is calling for the wind to shift out of the Southwest which should clean it up considerably but we won't know until tomorrow. I'm headed to Ocean City, MD tonight after work for the weekend so I won't be p0sting a report for Avon for the next few days - maybe something from OC though if there's anything worth talking about! Have a great weekend! Oh yeah and slide by the shop - we've got a TON of new stuff in and it's finally looking good in here after a week of chaos!

Nothing good happens after 2am!!

2009-03-25T05:02:00.001-04:00

Ok this is about as random as it gets! As I'm beginning to write this post (on my phone because I don't have Internet access at my house right now) it's 4:30am. Granted I went to bed early last night - about 9:30pm - but still c'mon!! Anyway I had one of those dreams that seems really real and I woke up a bit freaked out then once I realized that I had just been dreaming I had a good chuckle at myself but now I'm wide awake. So my dream... Freaky. I'm in a house that is my family's house but doesn't look anything like my family's real house - in my dream it's MUCH bigger and for whatever reason Madonna lives in our house but she's not there. So my sister-in-law (Debbie) and I decide we're gonna be nice to Madonna and wash her car (a nice little black convertible Mercedes!) and clean her part of the house. So I help Debbie get the car setup to clean then I head upstairs and start straightening up Madonnas part of the house which is a big bedroom and a
smaller bedroom with 2 beds then like a living room. In the smaller bedroom both beds are unmade so I make them both up then go into the living area and run the vaccum. When I head back through the small bedroom on my way to the big bedroom both beds are unmade again - weird but I don't think anything of it and make them up again then go into the big bedroom. I straighten up that room and as I am moving around in the room I pass a mirror and see myself (duh of course) but I also see someone else behind me kind of hidden in the background. When I turn around there's no one there but when I look in the mirror again they're still there. So I head out - again through the smaller bedroom and sure enough the damn beds are unmade again!! So now (in my dream) I'm freaked out and I wake up and I'm freaked out for real! Now comes the clear thinking... Um I'm freaked out because the beds in the part of my family's house where Madonna lives are apparantly unmaking
themselves and I'm also seeing people who aren't there. Either I have a really vivid imagination or my tacos at the Bistro last night were laced with something! Why can't I dream about normal stuff like being Hugh Hefner or lying on a warm tropical beach with an endless supply of cold beer and perfect waves??? Nooooo not me - I'm a freakin housemaid to the stars meets haunted mansion. Any psychoanalysts out there?

Sent from my iPhone

Avon,NC Monday Surf Report

2009-03-23T08:59:00.001-04:00

The forecast is calling for the wind to go out of the North within the next hour but right now it is very light out of the West (offshore) the surf is head high glassy and clean! It's beautiful so get off the computer and go right now before the wind shifts!

Sent from my iPhone

Buxton, NC Sunday Surf Report

2009-03-22T09:03:00.000-04:00

East winds prompted us to drive down to Buxton this morning to check
the cove. There's a bit too much offshore wind here and not enough
swell wrapping in however. It's a pretty day but cold in the wind!!
We're on our way to take a look at Frisco but kind of expecting it to
be choppy - we'll see.

Avon, NC Thursday Surf Report

2009-03-19T10:47:00.000-04:00

It's finally nice out again after a spell of gloomy cold windy rainy
weather! Light west wind (offshore) with chest to head high waves
(although it could be bigger - it's tough to tell when there's no one
out) Some fun looking waves out there but also a lot of closeouts so
you'll have to be patient and choosy to get a good one! Get outside
and enjoy this beautiful day!

Avon, NC Wednesday Surf Report

2009-03-18T10:22:00.000-04:00