Finally, nice weather.

Day 6 - Prep

I finally did yoga last night! But, my back is not feeling that great after doing it since it has been so long since I've done it. Anyway, last night as I was going to yoga the wind went offshore! The waves looked good and I probably should have surfed. However, the wind is still offshore I will have to see if there are waves still -- getting ready to head out.

Appropriate Quote for my Surf Streak

The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating — in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life. (a quote from The Way I See It #76, Starbucks Coffee) - Anne Morriss

Loyal Following...

So now that I have a loyal following and I'm well on my way to becoming a well-known blogger (see "Crazy windy day..." on March 22, 2009 -- you have to look at the comments to see my loyal following (Michael)), I really have to step up my content on the site. Even though I'm getting increasing pressure from my following (Michael), to sell out, I am promising now to all my faithful readers that I will not sell out and become another commercial casualty of the blogosphere. I will remain committed to the goal of simply documenting everyday that I surf so that I can go back and look at it at some point later in my life. Alright that's all too serious and I’m just going have a good time to put up whatever I think about putting up and there, it is just a journal really. I just had to make fun of the first person to comment on my blog. Do me a favor and click on the banner ads when they appear…

Day 5 – My 267 written words (the 1000 word summary below is better though)

With all the wind the water has become even more frigid and ice cream headaches were the norm out there. Maybe I should feel pretty privileged to be able to surf arguably the most popular surf spot in Los Angeles (as measured by crowdedness) all by myself! Unfortunately it was not "getting it good" this morning. I took out my 6'8" Indo Board in lieu of my 7'2" fun gun this morning for two reasons. One, I think that my paddling is getting better so I'm able to get into waves a little bit easier now and two, I needed to be able to duck dive as there were a lot of waves and a lot of water moving out there. Wow! It was cold out there. I ended up catching five waves again, surpassing my needed three waves by two! And I know, it is a little bit unbelievable but I did manage to get a left that I unloaded on front side. That's all I need to get me through the day and look forward to surfing tomorrow. I cannot believe that I had fun out there! I felt like a hard-core New England surfer (or a Seattle one -- like my friend Tony was), but I still had a good time and I can't wait for tomorrow! The streak is still too new to get broken right now and today was a novelty, I don't know how I would react at day 40 or 50 at this point. We'll see...

1000 Words...

Day 5 - that's the problem...

So this is a problem! I just went and looked at it and there are side-shore whitecaps not to mention that it is about as cold as it can get! The real problem here is, answering the following question: Do I wait until this afternoon when it is warmer but there is a real chance that the conditions could be even worse or do I just get out there and get my three waves and come in so that I can check off the box today?I'm always anxious all day if I don't get a surf in during the morning on the streak. I think I'll just suit up and see what happens.

Day 5 - the wind hasn't stopped...

I cannot see the waves, but I'm guessing they are not good. There is still about 15 mile an hour sustained winds blowing it looks like from the north which will be side offshore if it is. We'll see! I have found that often times the best tactic is to simply put on your wetsuit start walking down the beach and then figure out if you can surf or not. The result, more often times than not you'll just paddle out to try to get your three waves. But this time, I don't know just to be clear the wind was very strong last night my power was out for most of the evening because of it. But then again El Porto is a bit like the Nicaragua (my trip to Nicaragua the power was out about 1/2 the time) of Southern California where the power just intermittently goes out caught three of four times a year. I'm not sure why because we live right next to 2 powerplants it would seem that we could get a direct feed from the power plant but apparently that's not the case.

Update on my business: so I ordered my supercomputer yesterday and I should be up and running as a video editor here shortly!

Crazy windy day...

Hopefully it will back off tomorrow and there will be some fun wind
swell to be had in the morning.

Day 4 - No easy feat

Today was no easy feat for sure. It had just finished raining and as I was walking down the beach the wind was picking up. I would say that 15 to 20 miles an hour is a conservative estimate. The water was cold and there were no other surfers in sight. It was pretty much downright miserable. However, I did get to more waves than my goal, which was three waves just to log a session. So I got five waves and actually did get a couple of pretty nice turns in. No matter what it seems to happen that way.

What else is going on today? I'm in the process of buying a new computer so that I can start my video editing business. I just can't seem to pull the trigger.

My arms are pretty sore from yesterday, but I'm feeling good about surfing everyday. I can't believe that I'm happy about surfing today as the conditions are as bad as they can get, but that's just how surfing is. The best reason for surfing is no reason at all and my commitment to beat my prior record of consecutive days is plenty of reason for me.

Victory at sea and rainy - Day 4 Prep

This is certainly the biggest test as of yet. I woke up and it was raining and 15 to 20 mile an hour winds. It looks like shit out there. I am almost certain that there is not another surfer out in the water. But what can I do? I'm suited up and heading out there now. hopefully I can get some pictures of how shitty it is.

I guess that this is the problem with starting a streak while it is still winter...

Not good, but fun.

In parking lot toward 45th.

Day 3

The weather is ugly again. Hopefully, I'll post a picture when I go to the liquor store. But, today the waves were fun. I started out at 40th St. and then paddled down towards Rosecrans. The sandbar at 40th St. was not working, there was just too much water on it. When I went over to Rosecrans, I caught some really good waves. I had one really good last where I did a solid cut back on the fun gun and worked it to the inside. My wave of the day however was a right that was pretty racy and gave me the opportunity to for two solid turns. So fun! My skills are coming back, but it could take some time for me to get back into shape. However, the waves were very small, I would put them in the knee to waist high range. Furthermore, the tide was really high so you really had to sit right on the sandbar to get away that would break. Supposedly there are going to be some waves tomorrow but it might rain.

I just checked my ESPN bracket and I'm in the lead! It is so funny, because it is so random as I just picked all of the favorites. Anyway, I doubt it will last but it's funny in the interim.

This isn't easy. I am highly certain that I would not have surfed today if it were not for my new streak. Anyway, I know from experience that the worst is yet to come. I know that somewhere around two weeks I will hit a wall as I did last time.

Another pic of how bad it was.

This is looking down 42nd st on the way to the bus.

Ugly Day 2

Waves not that good either. at least I got out there. It really was one of those early June gloom type of days. The waves were awful as well. I think I got a total of five waves during my entire session. There was a little bit of wind on it and it was high tide. I rode my fun gun again and it seemed to work okay on a few waves that I got. It still amazes me at how fun it is once you get out there and just get a wave. So on the few waves that I got started working on my cutback and if found myself wanting to paddle back out for more even though there were hardly any to be found. One good thing about it when it is shitty like this, is that there are very few people out there and you end up getting a fairly high percentage of the good waves that do come through. Anyway, I need to get back into shape to make this much more enjoyable. It is not nearly as fun when you are struggling out there.

Day 2 Prep

Not feeling all that flash given the Laker game last night...  Ramping up to get out there though to get day 2 outtaway.  My buddy just had his second child (yesterday I think), really stoked for him, but its going to be one more ripper to look out for when I'm geriatric.  Congratulations Tom!

I'm still on the fun gun.  Not sure how long that will last.  It's just a matter of time before get back to the compressor, but I have to have some paddle before you do that not to mention some flexibility.

Anyway, I'm not sure what the conditions are like today or if there are any waves but I have to admit that it is very liberating to know that I'm in the surf everyday, there isn't even a question about it. It will be a matter of time before I'm back into the surf thing entirely.

Oh yeah, the Lakers won.

Huh?

Laker time!

Day 1 (Continued)

Day one, ended up being much easier than expected. The real difficulty will probably come around day 14 or so when all of the excitement wears off and then it just becomes a chore. Anyway, I got some really fun waves even though my arms were dead and my legs could barely support me it still ended up being fun. Just like I remember from the last streak I did, I really don't remember a day where I regretted going out in the water. It's more a problem of just getting out of the water. One other thing that I noted today is that the El Porto attitude still exists and it is as strong as ever, some things will never change.