Day 14 - Confusion

Today the waves were really small, but clean again. I went to bed really late and when my alarm went off, I just shut it down. The pain of being tired and not wanting to do something was intense. Anyway, knowing that I don't want to think about having to surf in the afternoon, I rallied. To my surprise, Jason actually did to, I figured he was out of it today, since the only thing that had me in motion was my streak. As we were suiting up, Jason made the comment, "I don't even have to look at my wetsuit, I just pick it up and I know it isn't mine".

So we both really struggled to get moving and headed down the hill. Jay had the fun gun and I decided to roll with my longboard this morning. I also decided to surf without booties for the first time this streak. I really like the feeling a lot better. Booties bug. Anyway, as we are about to get in the water Jason looks over at me and says, "This is a large!", referring to the wetsuit. He was wearing my old suit! So, I guess what we can take from this that Jay cannot tell his wetsuit by just picking it up. Or, by putting it on. Or, by walking down to beach in it. But, he can tell that it is not his because mine has as hole in the knee and he felt the water rush in.

We paddled out late, but we still got our share of waves. I was on my 10'0" and having a blast. I saw Jason, attempt a full rail cutback that looked like he was going complete with ease, he was a little overzealous on the 7'2", It doesn't like that much. He bogged down and dug in. I had a couple of attempts to walk the nose, I managed to do it only once partially. But, I had forgotten how fun that board is. That happens every time. In the middle of the session, Jay looks over at me and tells me that my wetsuit is unzipped - confusion. I had felt some water going in but, I hadn't been inundated yet.

It is fun riding longboards. My final wave some clown tried to go right on a left that I was going on and I had to push him out of the wave. I never understand that crap. Just too much testosterone. Here is a picture of me getting snaked last summer and the guy actually said that it was his wave. And then all of his friends made fun of him, because it was obvious that he snaked me. The funniest thing about it is there was some kid on the beach taking pictures and one of his friends (the guy that everyone was making fun of) emailed them to me - Funny.

Day 13 - Unlucky 13

Session 15
This morning I got out there right at dawn. It was a really cold morning with fairly strong offshore winds. However, the swell had dropped off dramatically since yesterday and was only about knee to waist high. The offshores however kept the shape fairly good even though the tide was very low and going lower. Jason pointed out to me that the longboard kid was wearing trunks and a neoprene top, which is insane because I was cold in a 4/3 wetsuit and booties. This is a kid that I've seen grow up over the last few years as up until this year he was basically a midget and now it's probably about 6 feet tall he's a really good paddler and it looks like he rides a fairly long board and catches everything. It was a good session for me to cut short as my back is still stiff and my arms are still tired so maybe I will get some rest today. I went to hot yoga last night again and it was brutal, but I'm glad I went. My biggest problem is that back then because I sit hunched forward all day and my back simply does not go that way. So as I work the flexibility into my back, it just stays sore. This makes surfing a pretty difficult task, however to ensure longevity I have to do it. So to summarize this session was not a very good one but I'm looking forward to tomorrow, which will be two weeks!

Day 12 - I'll hit that wall anytime...

More to follow. Going to the bus right now.

I've hit a wall studying, working out, working, traveling, snowboarding and I'm certain at various other times in my life. The anatomy of "hitting a wall", in my opinion, in its simplest form, can be conceptualized (for me at least) as: the benefit from doing something no longer APPEARS (you’ll understand the caps later) to offset the cost of doing it. In other words, the marginal benefit does not offset whatever the cost is (time/pain/exhaustion). So, where the cost crosses the benefit, we shut down. We quit. The inverse of this is almost certainly what happens in addicts, as for the most part, they know that what they are doing to their bodies is detrimental over the long term and they would choose not to have that long term outcome if they were in control. What happens in my opinion is that the cost of continuing the addiction (long term) does not match the benefit from continuing the addiction (short term), so it can continue indefinitely. I’ll call this a duration mismatch – benefit is short term, cost is long term. At some point, the short term benefit likely becomes the inverse of the cost after an extended period of time – so the short term benefit is simply avoiding the short term cost (withdrawals etc.) – the short term cost is then just lower than the long term cost as it is deferred. The benefit in this case is not having withdrawals. It is, in my opinion, summed up by the following statement: “I’ll start my diet on Monday”. Then on Monday, for some reason I don’t start my diet! This can be stopped by a choice (commitment to stop it - commitment is the key word here) or it will likely be halted when rock bottom is hit (the near term cost outweighs the near term benefit in this case.) Wait a second; did I just compare you (me) to a drug addict? Well, let’s just say that a heart attack will certainly change eating behaviors (rock bottom in the diet example). Thoroughly confused? I know that I’ll be when I reread this someday… The point here is that we are all addicts, whether it is chemical or not, it is part of being human. Now, it is very important to realize that the cost is made up in our heads (the only place reality exists - which in fact is not real at all - no wonder everyone is so screwed up!). Why is this important? Because we can CHOOSE not to be one – make our own reality!

To make my point about the realness of reality, I’ll use an example. I'm partially color blind, so I certainly don't see the colors that others see, yet it is as real as it gets in my head (some greens and grays are actually just different shades of the same color you know). Maybe, in fact, you color snobs are the real problem! So your green is no more real than my gray, it only exists in your head (and mine). Why do I make this point? Because I hit a wall this morning (it really started yesterday) and in my opinion, hitting a wall is a term that describes the distortion of reality that occurs in all of our heads. It is no more real than the gray tie than I’m wearing right now (green for you). I had been predicting that this would occur around Day 14, based on my recollection from my prior experience with my streak, but maybe I have been surfing more intensely this time.

The power of commitment:
So hitting the wall under normal circumstances results in a change of behavior to realign the short term cost / benefit relationship. In my case, more sleep would garner quite a bit more utility than throwing a cold damp wetsuit on in the dark, with no idea of what I’m going to get in return. Sleep would certainly be much better than that! Armed with two pieces of knowledge, I chose to put my wetsuit on anyway. 1) I know I have to surf every day (commitment) and it is much better to get it out of the way earlier as to avoid having to worry about it all day and 2) I know that it is an undeniable fact that the least crowded day, without exception is always Monday. So, even though I hit the wall, commitment is what drives action, not feelings (made up stories/excuses – not reality). The story I had going this morning was, “My back is sore, it is cold outside, the tide is low (could be walled), my wetsuit is wet, I have to pick things up because my housekeeper is coming today, etc. etc.”

Today:
Obviously you know what is coming by now. I made it out there based on commitment and nothing else. It was the best day of surfing yet. I was a little hobbled by a sore back, stiff knee and tired arms, but the waves were so good that it really did not matter. It reminded me of low-tide river jetties when I was a kid. Sucking barrels with the bottom dropping out from underneath of your board – you either go real fast out there or you don’t go at all. I surfed my double concave (double D, is what it is called I think), this board goes really fast down the line, but it does not like to turn without speed (a function of the double concave is that it is hard to get it on rail without speed). So, I learned it the hard way again today (got stuck in the lip and pitched – going too slow). But, then I was able to unload on number of waves. My last wave in particular, as it was a perfect left, which was offshore-groomed leading into a closeout barrel of a right about 50 yards down the line, about head high. I focused on getting a lot of speed with the perfect Newport-arm form and then set it on rail for a full wound up frontside bottom turn, with plenty of time and space, I let go, unwinding my bottom turn at the right time on the closeout barrel coming at me. With so much speed and so little weight on my board, I was able to get down off the lip before it collapsed onto the flats. I’m always amazed at how sometimes you can drop 5-6 feet off the top of the wave and not feel a thing, the transition is as smooth as silk. If I were to jump off of the cabinet that stares at me all day in front of my desk, I think I would hurt myself and it is only 3 feet high. Go figure…

So the waves were slightly overhead this morning, with offshore winds and low tide. El Porto does not get much better than that. All the regulars who surf really well were out, as a result of experience, I’m sure they know that Mondays are the day to go, especially when there is some swell in the water. All the weekend warriors are tired from competing in the weekly Surf/BBQ biathlons that are held up and down the coast every Sunday.

One other thing, before I forget. I saw a little sea lion out there. I’m sure he is the same guy that I used to surf with last year. Still just a baby, but he has put on a few pounds. Last summer he was a sardine hunter though, it looks like he weighs 50 lbs or so now.

I’m certainly not over the wall, but I know I’ll be back on it tomorrow – no matter what the cost.

Day 12 - Prep

Rushing to get everything done so that I can get out the water! Mondays are almost always the best day for a light crowd. It is just a matter of whether or not there are waves.

Day 11 - Fun but running out of Gas

Session 13
Today I woke up around 7 AM and went straight to hot yoga. Wow! I am very stiff and tired. Hot yoga in the mornings is very hard as your body is not naturally limber from moving around all day. This morning was particularly hard, I'm not sure why probably just because I am fairly worn out from surfing everyday. Anyway, it is much needed and I will continue to go. My goal is to go four times this week, but today counts as one. It seems to work the best when you go consecutively so I'm going to try to go tomorrow night as well. However, just like with the surf streak there is a point where it almost seems like it's doing your body harm instead of helping it, and I'm there now. My back is very stiff and my hamstrings are also very tight. Being stiff and tired makes it a little bit difficult to surf as it is hard to be very quick.

Today me and Jason got out in the water at about 10:30 AM, which was probably a pretty good time to get out there as the crowd was thinning and the wind was not yet a factor. We saw my downstairs neighbor Cliff and he got a really good wave right in front of us. The tide was on its way up which caused it to be a little bit of bowly as there was some size out there. So what happens is the wave does not feather and break slowly, it piles up and breaks all at once after it hits a shallow spot on the sandbar. There are some pretty deep holes out there so the waves would back off pretty quickly which required an immediate cutback off the whitewater to keep the velocity up. I had a couple really good cutbacks today. However, I really wasn't surfing up to par as my arms continue to be very tired and my back is very stiff. Jason got a couple of good ones on the fun gun and worked them all away to inside. He surfed without a leash and I saw them take one of the bigger waves of the day right on the head. That will get you in shape! I think it is session 5 or six for him and day 8 of sobriety. Stoked on that.

We had lunch at North End, we all got sandwiches. Pretty good.

This little video doesn't show you anything but at least it shows you how the weather was. It has been cloudy all day, with an occasional beam of sun breaking through. The water still pretty cold.

Day 10 - Getting Tired...

The last time I had a surf streak going was the summer of 2007. I still cannot find the calendar where I kept a log of all of my surf sessions. Anyway, I may be off the mark here but I believe it was 126 days in a row. My goal is to beat that. What happened the last go around I really hit a wall about day 14. It feels like this may happen again. At first the exhilaration of starting a streak and gaining your skills back is enough to carry you through the first week or so, but then it just becomes a streak and that is where you get tested. Because of the exhilaration you have more energy but it goes away and combined with tired muscles you actually start to deteriorate a little bit. I am there now. However, I have to be honest I did go out drinking last night and that is certainly slowing me down quite a bit today.

Jason and I got it really good this morning, as we were on it at dawn. The waves were pretty good with offshore winds and actually some size. I initially brought my 10 foot longboard down to the parking lot and realized very quickly that I had chosen the wrong board. So I ran back up the hill and got my 6'2" short board. I surfed really pretty poorly all in all as I had a bit of a hangover. I had a few good turns and a decent cutback but that's about it. Jason rode my fun gun is he's just getting back in the water and he got some pretty good waves.

I'm experimenting with some video so this doesn't show much it just shows that it is a nice day and it is a long time after we surfed this video was taken at about 12:30 PM. One more thing to note is that if it seems like my writing style varies it is because sometimes I'm dictating into the blog utilizing voice recognition software. It seems to work pretty well but oftentimes I do not go back and proof what it has written so there are quite frequently typos.

Today is my brother's birthday and we are headed over to my mom's house to celebrate. It should be a good time! I'm looking forward to.

On bus...

Probably hard to see but the driver had to swerve to miss a minivan that stopped fast at the light. That would've been ugly! The minivan would not have had a chance. Then the driver was laughing about it. She is nuts! She takes the turn on the transition to the 110 from the 105, faster than I do, but in a bus!

Good weather, good waves, good times...

Day 9 - I'm back

Session 11

The waves were phenomenal. I just had a massive injection of dopamine... Ah, it feels so good to be addicted! I surfed about as well as I can at this stage in the game. My last wave was the best backside turn that I've completed probably since surfing in El Salvador last summer. A full bottom turn into a tail release that put me backwards coming down the face of the wave and then a rail grab to recover and continue down the waves. It's my "go-to" move on the backhand, feels good to get that one back! By surfing every day, I'm getting sharper. Time starts to slow down out there, distance become shorter, intuition starts to take over and the conscious starts to be the unconscious. Kind of like Neo in the Matrix! Ha! Just kidding - well, sort of. It is all relative, but that is OK because everything always is. I can be surfing as well as I ever had and then somebody will paddle out and do something that seems impossible. But that pushes you to try harder and surf more. Why, because your brain rewards you with a boost of dopamine followed by an IV drip of serotonin throughout the day.

What is coming natural for me this streak are the mechanics of the the bottom turn, which have been missing on my frontside for much of my surfing life. Proper shoulder alignment and arm rotation (Newport arm as we used to call it in high school - good surfers had it), are allowing me to complete turns instead of letting the wave push you around. Anyway, this time it feels all very natural probably because I have worked on it so much over the past few years. I'm not thinking about it. Jay has done it right for years, I'm just learning. I had the proper form on my backhand for years, but it is funny, at 36 I'm just learning my forehand... Until now, I've certainly relied more on strength than technique. It should look like something like this:

Day 9 - Prep

I'm going with my 6'2" compressor. For no reason I might add. I was not able to get Jason to rally at dawn. Oh well, another morning where I'm out there by myself. I was able to get a session of hot yoga and last night, we'll see how it goes today as I have been stiff in the last few days and my knee has been a little bit shaky. Actually two nights ago, I woke up with my knee basically immobilized from what I would guess was from some swelling. It's really tough breaking down that scar tissue!

Ah, to remember better days...

Not much to say here...

I don't know how, um not sure, uh nevermind just have a look.

Yesterday evening - Day 7

Nice afternoon, small waves but fun.

Day 8 - Crazy figure 8's

Day 8

Session 10

Some fun ones on the fun gun.  Amazing, when you do something every day you get better at it...

I could be wrong, but I believe that they used to call the standard cutback a figure 8 back in the 70s. Anyway, I had some really good figure eights today, even if they weren't called that back in the 70s, I'm calling them that now. Surfed the fun gun, but the waves had picked up a solid 1 to 2 feet from yesterday. The shape was the same as the session last night, but it was bigger. There were some very good peaks that I was able to complete full wraparounds on.

Anyway, looking forward to tomorrow as me and Jay are in the surf at dawn.

Day 8 - Prep

All right, today I'm just going to ride my longboard because I am tired and for no other reason. Let's see how it goes! We obviously know what the pitfalls are to changing this decision now... see my previous post: Day 7 - Cold and Offshore - Olson's Dilemma

Day 7 - Second Session

Tonight I got it pretty fun out there! I saw Tim out the water we got some waves. Checked out his new board, it is pretty cool. I had to surf again because it was glassy and the waves looked pretty fun even though they were still very weak. I did get a couple of decent waves had a couple of good cracks and a few good cutbacks. I'm in a hurry now so that's all I'm going to write tonight I'll post a picture from my camera phone. Oh yeah, when I was getting out of the water I saw Arnold, Brett, Marnie and another guy forget his name. Anyway they were Brett's house on the Strand drinking beers. The reason why I say such details like who I saw, is that I think it will set an anchor for me to remember back to this day when I look at this later.

I gotta say it wasn't a good day (had to use my AK)

Looks better now than it was. I couldn't get into the waves and it was much colder at dawn.

Day 7 - Cold and Offshore - Olson's Dilemma

I actually thought it was going to be very good out there because the wind was so offshore and there were still some waves. However, it turns out that the waves were much weaker than I had expected as it had fallen off overnight dramatically and the offshore wind was a lot stronger than expected so the two combined made it almost impossible to get into a good wave. Anyway I struggled to get about six waves during a full session. It wasn't all that fun it was pretty painful but in the end I'm really glad I got out there, not just for the streak, it just starts the day off right. Now, I'm about to miss the bus and I got a get to it. I'll see if I can take a picture from my phone on when the bus.

It is really hard to practice my fundamentals when I cannot catch a lot of waves. In hindsight, I should have gone out there on my long board or the fun gun. At the last second, I reached for the compressor (6'2" ultra concave, double winged swallow - see picture from El Sal below). This happens a lot when I feel like I'm surfing better... I don't think it is smart though. I'm going to call this one "Olson's Folly", which is overestimating your surf skill and the effect your equipment has on your surfing. It can be summarized by a few examples such as: buying a board that is 1/2 inch thinner because you think you'll be able to turn better (and the kid in the surf shop tells you "Dude you'll rip on this one") or going with a super thin "Comp" leash because you think you'll notice the decreased drag. I also fell victim to what I'll call, "Olson's Dilemma". Olson's Dilemma refers to a thought process that is governed by the Jinx Framework*. So, Olson's Dilemma refers to the fact that in order to jinx something you have to believe it, which restricts the ability for the surfer to manipulate a situation**. Olson's Dilemma works in conjunction with Olson's Folly as a sister theory, because once you decide to go with certain equipment contingent upon what the conditions require (to perform immeasurably better), you unwittingly put the Jinx Framework into motion. The reason for this is that by making a conscious decision (by choosing what you think is the correct equipment), you automatically jinx the conditions because you truly "believe" it. So to to walk through the whole scenario in terms of this morning's example: I was thinking about riding my long board (10'0") but then I thought, "well, I'll just surf my fun gun (7'2") so that I can get some turns in" - Olson's Folly #1. I then proceeded to see a wave breaking as the dawn light gave me just enough to see the whitewash crumble. As I was heading out the door, based on my single observation (albeit bad observation), I decided to grab my 6'2" since I'm beginning to surf well again - Olson's Folly #2 - setting the Jinx Framework in motion. Olson's Dilemma refers to the inability to make a choice of equipment (based on unconfirmed conditions) as it set's the Jinx Framework in motion and will certainly cause the conditions to be suboptimal for the equipment you choose. How do you get around this? And why does it still happen, since we know it exists? The answer to the first question is to simply decide which equipment you will ride for the following day and do so based on an arbitrary decision like: "I'll ride that board tomorrow for no other reason than, I just like that board" and then stick with your decision no matter what. Why does it still happen? Because there is a great deal of "buyer's remorse" that occurs when you chose the wrong equipment (and it happens a lot). I really remember those sessions where I have chosen the wrong wetsuit and froze. The reason for choosing the wrong wetsuit is, invariably a result of Olson's Dilemma, which is then recursive in nature resulting in the dilemma happening again and again. The Jinx Framework also works exceptionally well in the field of investing (which, I observe every day). All of this is intertwined with my theory on "free lunches". I'll put that in an entry at a later date.

Just a final note: so that if somebody (besides me) ends up reading this someday: I have recently completed the reading of "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. It is a great book. I'm making light of how all kinds of discoveries are attributed to the supposed discoverer by utilizing the name of the discoverer to describe whatever it is. After reading that book, it is clear to me that many of the discoveries that bare an individuals name actually had been discovered by another previously and credit was give to the wrong person. Also, giving a ones name to a discovery, well I guess find it to be a bit pretentious. Darwin, is one example that comes to mind...



*The Jinx Framework discovered by early surfers refers to the fact that you can jinx a surf session by saying, "Wow, I have never seen this place so good! Today is going be perfect all day!". Under this scenario, by the time you get out in the water, either the wind will have shifted causing deterioration in the surf, a crowd of people will have arrived (mostly frothing teenagers or a pro longboard team of women-which has happened to me) or a meteor will hit earth that dwarfs the one that ended the Cretaceous period and the existence of dinosaurs. The Jinx Frameworks exists everywhere in life, not just surfing.

**It is believed that surfers have long traveled to the East, to search for an understanding of the meditation practices (or just good ganja-I've heard it works the same as meditation) in order to try to utilize the jinx framework against itself. The thought process is that through meditation it is possible to change what you truly believe allowing for the existence of the coveted "Opposite Jinx", which allows one to control the future. If we are able to control this at some point, it will dwarf the theory of relativity and as well as all other scientific discovery up to this point combined. This has been replicated in labs but we are yet to verify its existence in practice.

Day 7 Prep

I'm feeling really slow right now. I think all the surfing and the hot yoga has gotten to me. The waves are really small right now but the conditions are good. I'm having trouble deciding which board to take out there. I think I'm going to go with the 7'2" fun gun. Especially given that I'm tired and sore. It looks like it's clear and offshore just about knee to waist high.

Day 6 (Continued)

Managed to make it to yoga and then get another session in. I'm pretty tired now, but this is my first double session of the streak. I'm pretty happy about that. I had a good time out there even though the waves didn't end up being very good. It was really sloppy winds while, kind of a standard windy summer afternoon even though it is not summer yet., I had some good waves and I think that I'm getting used to the compressor. Tomorrow will be a week! I'm looking forward to getting that under my belt. Things are starting to come more natural, my cutback is starting to come back and my timing is slowly but surely falling into line. However, my strength is not in my flexibility is going to require a lot of work.

Day 6 (feels like 60)

Today we finally had some good weather and good waves. I surfed my small wave board, the compressor and I have to admit it was pretty awkward. The board has such a tight turning radius that my timing was really off. I felt like a kook out there! No, actually I was a kook out there. However, I did get a couple of good waves that I was able to crank a few hard turns on. In particular I had one front side wave where I was able the bottom turn and release my tail off the top. It felt so good! I also had one backside wave where I did a tail slide, but it was pretty sketchy. Reminded me of a k-59 in El Sal turn! You know the one... Ah K-59...

My back was struggling to support me after doing yoga yesterday for the first time in a long time. Now the question is going to be whether or not this is going to be my first double session day or is it going to be a yoga night? Maybe both...