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Why You Should Root For Kelly Slater (UCB)

Posted in Surfing, User Choice BLog, tagged , , , on October 14, 2010| 4 Comments »

Well I have to commend everyone for stepping up the ante in the UCB race this quarter.  I have gotten so many submissions it made picking a winner this week rather challenging.  I don’t want to sound like a whinny bitch but if we could try and use surfingruinedmylife.com comments to post future submissions I would be greatly appreciative.  You see word press, my server allows me to compile all comments onto one page making it very easy to sort through all of your entries.

It’s a bit more time consuming when I have to check through days of face book comments, emails, myspace, etc.  I will still take submissions through those mediums but I definitely prefer it if you post here.  Its really easy all you have to do is set up a user name and password.  It only takes like a minute of you time and then you can leave lude comments on my blog whenever you like.

This weeks victory goes to Nick the Kook who suggested I write about Slater’s 10th title run.  At the time of his posting I was not even considering this topic, but just recently Kelly won the Portugal event of the world tour bringing him within spitting distance of title number 10.  His clinching it is almost eminent.

Slater gets a bad rep sometimes in surfing with people claiming they are tired of him winning or that he gets over scored or is a sell out.  I have heard everything.  Fuck man the guy rips, flat out rips.  He has dominated the sport now for over 20 years.  The guy is a living legend.

Not to mention he is one of the coolest people to surf with in the water.  At the most crowded days at both Rincon and Malibu he never drops in on anyone despite the fact that people will burn him out of spite.  Even when such an instance occurs Kelly is still smiling.  He is a true testament to the human spirit and that anything really is possible.

Here was a poor kid from a broken home growing up in south Florida surfing the crappiest waves ever.  From that he managed to break every record in professional surfing.  He misses round one of events cause he is off scoring waves someplace else.  He brought surfing into the limelight through his dominance.  Everyone knows who Kelly Slater is even people who know very little about surfing at all.

He was once voted one of Time Magazine’s most beautiful people, was on network television, toured in a terrible rock band, dated super models.  How can you hate on a guy like that.  Kelly is living a dream and if you have a dream too then there is no reason to be angry at a person living his.  At 38 years old he has shown us all that its possible to high performance surf well into our later years.  Thanks to Slater you don’t have to stop doing airs at thirty.

New School, Old School, Mod col, whatever, Slater has dominated them all.  I think we will be hard pressed to see anyone for a long time rip down the dynasty Kelly Slater has built.  When he takes the world title for the tenth time no one will be happier for him then me.  Every time Im doing something hard and want to give up I always think about Slater and how hard it must have been for him to remain dominant all these years and I put my head down and keep at it.  Thank you Slater for giving me something to believe in.

 

After all these years of winning he is still stoked.

 

 

 

Who says Slater cant keep up with the kids?

 

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Another Altercation in the Line Up

Posted in Anger, Surfing on October 13, 2010| 6 Comments »

Im a pretty mellow dude in the water these days, sure I can be somewhat scrappy and if its fun a super frother, but overall compared to how I was five years ago Im a kitten.  I try and keep to myself and get whatever waves come to me.  This being the case when an incident such as the proceeding story happens I find myself quite dumfounded over the whole scene.  Every time I reflect on said situation I lose a little more respect for surfers in general, the state of modern surf society on a whole and adds to my utter disgust of California.

At one time surfing was a brotherhood and in many places it still is.  A hierarchy used exist among her devoted few.  There was an unwritten set of rules, a heavily enforced code of ethics.  There was a certain camaraderie in knowing that you shared something as remarkable as riding moving masses of water with another.  Not these days.  These days its all about water proof ipods, video clips, stickers on one’s board, wave gluttony, burning, snaking, image and the almighty dollar.  That is just about enough of my foolish divination and onto my tale of another surfing misadventure.

Yesterday afternoon (10/12) I was lucky enough to get out of work an hour earlier then usual and with near still wind and solid combo swell in the water it was a very celebrated affair.  I began cruising south with the intention to surf anywhere besides Rincon considering the frustrating morning session I endured there (see Surflog for details on that session).  Passing by Rincon it was inconsistent and far more crowded then I wanted to deal with and that is an observation made from doing the look back of death on the 101 at 65 miles an hour.

I headed to Pitas to see if there was a wave beginning to materialize there with the steadily dropping tide.  As I was ruling out the hit or miss point I got a call from my buddy Ryan down in Ventura claiming Hollywood by the Sea to be chest to head, glassy and fun A-frame peaks up and down the beach.  Hollywood is one of those places that can give you an epic session or a royal class A skunking.  Luckily for me Ryan is the best source I have for surfing south of Rincon and every time he calls Hollywood I score.

As I was leaving Pitas I ran into Lindsay who was on her way to Rincon after a somewhat fun session at Emma Wood.  When I told her my plans it did not take more then a second to park her car and jump in with me.  I don’t know if I had heavy foot syndrome from too much stoke but I made remarkable time.  Sure enough upon pulling up it was as good as Ryan had described if not better.

There were just killable peaks as far as you could see north and south from the beach with maybe 10-15 guys spread out.  If there were three to four guys to a peak it was a lot and plenty of empty ones as well.  Some of the insiders even barreled a little bit.  The first hour was magical just a bunch of surfers hooting and hollering and having the best time ever, a sight rarely shared by everyone in a California line up.

Lindsay and I were kind of sitting this peak to the south on the inside all to ourselves when I hear this guy paddling out start screaming “Go back to Ventura, get the fuck out of here, this is not New Jetty, its Oxnard”.  I did not think this person was talking to me in particular because first off the line up was empty and I was surfing by myself and number two Im from Santa Barbara.  As this was going down a serious set began to roll in and it was one of the best lefts I had seen all day.

I immediately scratched to the outside and put myself in perfect position for the wave.  As Im paddling into it the mother fucker I described above swung around right next to me for an uncalled for spiteful burn.  Observing the situation I dropped way in front of the wave into a long bottom turn to avoid getting run over.  Dude ended up eating shit anyhow and I got three turns and an attempted corrupt flip off the close out, leaving me easily 75 to 100 yards down the beach.

I paddle back out and I see this angry dude come paddling at me full bore. I have been in these situations plenty of times before and assumed things were going to get ugly, but I had at least five people two of which are bigger guys who I knew would get my back if it went to blows on the beach although I was hoping it would not come to that.  This irate person paddles right up to me and stabs me in the chest with the nose of his board.

Then yells at me to take my “stupid long hair, J7 surfboard, tell Jason Fiest he can suck his dick and go home”.  After which he took a swing at my face with the nose of his board, which I blocked with my own board taking a small pressure dent in the process.  Then he says “this is not New Jetty brah, keep your shit in Ventura where it belongs and took a swing at my head with his fist.

I dodged that one too and luckily a wave came right after and I jumped on it and surfed it left as far down the beach as I could to get away.  Unfortunately this guy was driven and paddled at me again.  This time my friend Ryan, who is a big dude got in the middle and broke the thing up and then the rest of the line up took my side of the controversy and after a few more words he wisely left.

Turns out the 411 on him was that he lost his job and with that his health plan enabling him not to get his psyche medication for his bi-polar disorder and he was getting evicted from his apartment, which happened to be right across the street from where I was surfing.  This guy saw me paddle out and came out with the intention to fuck me up.  Maybe he thought I was the boogieman or something?  All I know is that his eyes were all gnarly looking when he was getting into it with me.

On another note he has been holding this grudge against me for paddling around him at New Jetty a year ago in a session I cant even recall.  Im not really a paddler.  If I paddle around someone it is because they are not sitting deep enough, are missing good waves or are just a line up buoy.   You east coasters might not understand what that is (unless they have infiltrated your lineups as well), but a buoy is some one who paddles out, does not catch any waves, mostly getting in the way but sometimes serving as good line up markers.  In California they are in no short supply.

Whatever the case this dude was willing to kill me over however miniscule this incident was that took place more then a year ago that I can’t even recall.   Upon his departure things went back to normal and everyone resumed having a decent session but for me there was a lingering bad taste on the whole thing.  Towards dark we all got out of the water together.

When we got to the parking lot guess who was waiting there all changed, accompanied by his dog?  That’s right psycho boy.  He starts yelling never come back here again at me and his dog was barking.  Then Ryan was able to distract him with some neutral conversation, remember the guy was bipolar.  At that cue Lindsay and I booked it to my car jumped in with our suits still on and got the fuck out of there.

The surf was fun but you can bet your ass it was not worth getting shanked over.  Just when I was complaining about how my life was getting boring its more of the same courtesy of another California head case.  I know there is better place to live then this and when I find it I will be the first to let you know.

***If you like blogs like this I update my surf  log section miniature blogs of every surf session I partake in.

 

Here is a picture of some silly scallions to represent then many faces of Bipolar disorder.

 

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The Essence of the Backside Bottom Turn

Posted in Surf Tips, Surfing, User Choice BLog, tagged , , , , on October 7, 2010| 1 Comment »

Mark Occhilupo has arguably one of the best backsides in surfing, ever.

This weeks UCB makes a victor of Kooky Kyle whom is getting yet again back on a roll with two wins in a row.  If he gets a hat trick (three in a row) he will be awarded an extra half point.  He suggested I right about the essence of the backside bottom turn.  Since it is officially Rincon season I figured why not.

Backside surfing is the proverbial double edged sword.  Those who have it mastered are either goofy foots living in the northern hemisphere or world class surfers in general.  Everyone respects a surfer with a strong backside.  It’s the corner stone to solid surfing, the ability to go both left and right with out a care in the world.

 

For me being a goofy foot born and bred in the mainly right dominated beach break of northern New Jersey backside surfing was never a consideration but just another instinct like breathing.  The funny thing is I surf with so many people, especially here in Santa Barbara who always are hesitant to go backside.  It seems too, that regular foots will always take a right over a left when they can find them, while a goofy will take a right over left at times.

 

Personally I almost find it more enjoyable to have my back against the wall.  Surfing backside allows me in many cases to fit better into the barrel and draw that picturesque backside bottom turn.  The backside bottom turn may be the one of the most ascetic yet highly functional moves in surfing.   I mean lets face it good backside surfing is completely based off your ability to get out in front of the wave any way.  How is that done?  The backside bottom turn.

 

I find it to be one of my favorite feelings, next to getting barreled and doing a massive air.  There is nothing like the way a perfect backside bottom turn rings home through your lions.  The initial drop straight down in front of the wave pulling as far straight as you can before losing the wave.  Then at the moment when it feels like all could be lost, make it or break it, you lean back on your inside rail with your back foot, un weight your front foot and all of a sudden with all the natural pull of the ocean and your body weight you feel the inertia of being catapulted back into the steadily crashing lip.

 

The size, length and shape of the wave will distinguish the extent and gnarlieness of the turn itself.  After all you can do the best bottom turn in the world but if it does not amount to anything then it was all for nil.  Its winter time now so for me it is finally back to nothing but long fast hard backside bottom turns for ridiculous amounts of distance at many of the various points around, but mainly reserved for Rincon.  I love winter.

Here is my lousy backside bottom turn.

Here it is closer up.

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I’ll Have My Cake and Eat it Too (UCB)

Posted in Surfing, User Choice BLog, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on October 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

This week Kooky Kyle strikes back getting a star on the board.  Got to be honest people its still a two way street between Kooky and Mauriello.  Now that we are myspace free there really is no reason not to play.  Kooky asked what I would rather surf, Sand sucking barrels or perfect lined up waves such as Trestles.

The answer my friend is that I will take both.  As a matter of fact I live on a wave, you may have heard of it, Sand Spit that offers both sand sucking barrels and rip able walls.  Also Rincon on Low tide will barrel like a motherfucker and also allow for plenty of performance.  El Capitan is a crazy heavy barrel that also offers high performance surfing.  I live within a 15 mile radius of all these waves.

There are waves like this all over the world.  J-Bay and Snapper Rocks offer great barrels and rip able sections.  If you give me the choice of Beach, Reef, or Point Break, I will always take the point break no contest.  On a beach break you may get a handful of days a year where every wave is perfect but 90% of the time your bobbing and weaving and fishing through close outs lucky to find a half dozen good ones at best.  Meanwhile at a point even the not so perfect waves are pretty damn killable.  As far as barreling reefs go I find them fun to visit but would get bored of just pulling in everyday.

Sand Spit doing its thing.

Snapper Rocks, barrel and performance.

El Capitan, Need I say anymore?

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Rincon Opener Revisited

Posted in Surfing on September 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I was not going to blog today minus the usual updates to Groovin’ High and Surf Log, but then I was fishing around the net at some of my usual haunts and came across some video and photo coverage of yesterdays session as written about in “There is Nothing Like Opening Day” blog.  Its on SantaBarbaraSurfer.com and they got one shot of me groveling, the third shot down from the top of the page and there is even a little video to show the conditions.

Great Moments in groveling. Like that wing span? Photo courtesy of SantaBarbaraSurfer.com

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There is Nothing Like Opening Day

Posted in Surfing on September 27, 2010| 7 Comments »

Last year we had already seen three solid NW swells by this time, but it was El Nino and as I’ve been told La Nina is not to be thought all that highly upon.  Technically Rincon broke a few weeks ago but it was only a minor wind swell.  Today on the other hand we saw the first true NW groundswell of the season, add unseasonable 100 degree weather and it was on.

I had to work from 6am to 2:30pm my only consolation knowing that Rincon would most likely be waiting for me when I got off.  I showed up around 4pm ready to shred.  The lot was pretty crowded forcing me to park in the top lot about half way in.  Normally when this is the case I just move on to another spot.  Not today, its opening day and anyone who is anyone at a surf spot must show their face for at least one wave on opening day. Besides I always get my waves at the Con’ anyway.

I get down to the point and it was far from what I had hoped only about chest with the occasionally plus set and about fifty guys spread amongst the entire point.  With a steadily dropping tide I figured it could only get better.  I was heading to the top as I usual do on such small size when a friend of mine talked me into surfing the cove claiming it was rather kelpy and over crowded up there.

Him and I have similar surfing styles and wave interests so I took his word for it and focused my session in the cove, by far the best section at Rincon anyway.  It was crowded but it turns out the majority were just donkeys getting in the way more then competing for waves.  The whole sess went down splendid.  I was still not sure if it could be truly considered opening day until I saw Tom Curren come screaming down the point on a fun looking right.  If Curren is out then you know its real Rincon.

It was getting near the end of my session and I was just looking for one more good one.  Of course whenever that is the case snagging said wave is nearly impossible.  I actually had three good ones that would have been more then amiable to quit on except for the fact that I was burned miserably by this kook ass chick on the first, and the next two I spent the entire wave on defense fighting off other potential drop ins during the best section of the wave.

Finally a set wave came my way, although I was a little deep.  I was sitting there watching to see if this lady deeper then myself was going to go.  Not surprising she opted out of it being a bit too late giving me the chance for it.  Im not going to lie I was super deep and very late on the take off.  I grabbed my rail for a Hail Mary elevator drop into a larrel (shitty barrel).  Somehow I made it out and as I was bottom turning to set up the next section of the wave I saw this guy drop in.

The surfer turned out to be none other then three time world champ Tom Curren.  There are a few people who I don’t get angry at burning me at Rincon, him being one.  When he saw I made it through the foamy larrel thing and was cruising he pointed down the line, pulled off the back of the wave and bowed his head to me.  I ended up getting four top to bottom backside hits on it, followed by three roundhouse rebounds to the beach.  Thank you Tom for the wave and the respect.

Here is some Ricon Highlights from last season.  Im so glad its winter again.

Nothing like a good backside assault at one of the worlds best right hand points.

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A New Great Adversary (Blast from the past: 2010)

Posted in Blast from the past 2010, Surfing on September 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Last night I posted a blog regarding a video clip of me pussing out in Dane Reynolds latest Marine Layer Down Load.  This weeks Blast from the past is the actual blog from that session posted on 4/23/10.

I have in my now almost 3 decades of living in the lore of the surf experienced a wide range of waves at home and afar.  It was not hence this week that I was put in front of a wave I had absolutely no vocabulary for.  Mix in some serious size and power and a challenge of immense propensity arose.

For over a year now I have been enticed by the idea of a seemingly mystical and very exclusive wave located south of Santa Barbara on a highly secure naval base.  My photographer Dave has a pass, veritable “Golden Ticket” so to speak, being that his father is in the service.  Up until this time we had made several attempts none successful at getting this wave to work.  He had long dangled the idea of a wave most consider too heavy to surf in front of me since our affiliation, I was yet to experience such although had gotten inkling of such from prior recon and a brief clip of Dane Reynolds there (although at the time had not idea it was the same spot).  Most I have talked to about said spot claim it as one of the best waves in California.

On Monday (4-12) there was forecasted south activity to move in towards the end of the week, banking on this we had made plans to make another attempt at the base.  Conditions looked best for Thursday (4-15) and the stage was set, whether for a tragedy or a comedy still unknown.  Given the distance south from Santa Barbara we struck out early just before the sunrise and headed on the fifty mile trek south.  There is nothing worse then waking up at 4:30.

The way down felt like it took an eternity although less then an hour.  Both of us were rather apprehensive on what we were to discover.  We joked the entire way about getting skunked yet again, the base being the biggest lie in southern California, of Dane and his filmer being there and challenging us to a duel, anything to calm our nerves.  I brought two boards, my standard 5’10 J7 and this Simon Andersan 5’11 round tail I have been carting around since the fall of 08’, still a trusty soldier despite its age and being broken through the nose by a careless airline baggage handler.  The great boards of man are always seemingly ruined by the hands of the airlines, I believe almost every traveling surfer can attest to that little adage.

We get on the base undisputed by the guard and cruise up to the parking lot.  Already there are more cars there then we had ever seen, a very good sign.  Stepping out of the car the booming of breaking waves became prevalent and spray could be seen just making it above the sea wall (it stands a good 12 feet or so above sea level).  Dave got over the top of the wall first and let out a yelp with a huge grim across his face.  I climb up and all I could see was perfectly oil glass overhead bowls throwing out as wide as one can imagine with four guys on it and a crowd of body boarders charging some disgusting triple up practically breaking on the sea wall to the south.

Then a set came and it was solid eight to ten feet, sucking up to solid double overhead, I have not seen that much spit from a tube since my time at Pipe.  Needless to say I was back at the car, into my wetsuit and out in the lineup before you could drop a hat.  As I climbed down the seawall to beach level Dane’s videographer was on the beach tucked into the rocks.  I was about to paddle out to the middle peak to get my bearings but he cat called me to paddle to the main peak with Dane.

I jumped in and though it was between sets just ducking under the little one’s I could tell that this break had some serious force to it.  I get out there and I was completely dumfounded.  There were waves coming in from every direction, south, north, west, parallel to the beach.  On top of that there was side wash, back wash and contradicting currents between both the inside and the outside.  Basically there was a ton of mother fucking water moving around.

Dane was going ballistic doing no paddle take offs into deep below sea level pits finishing off with an array of eight-foot airs.   As for me I found myself absolutely at a loss on what to do with this crazy left bowl/wedge thing that was on set sucking up to solid double overhead.  Basically I kooked it shoulder hopping most, bailing through the back on sections I was not confident about and I even pulled back on three waves, one of which was one of the best waves of the session and in front of everyone in the lineup. Now immortalized thanks to Dane and the internet.

After that one Dane paddled up to me and told me to get my shit together and everyone else just had the dirtiest stink eye for me.  What can I say the place was gnarly and I had no idea how to surf it, not to mention where the waves were breaking was no more then knee deep.  I was tested and was beaten failing miserably.  Since that day I vowed to learn that wave and master it so that next time its on I can surf it to my full potential.  I still am far from mastering it feeling like a kook the most recent time I was there.

Funny thing is I went back there Saturday (4-17) and it was smaller around chest to head with the occasional bigger set and it still kicked my ass, although I did feel as though I was beginning to understand it more.  I guess it is finally time for a new surfing challenge to be brought about in my life.  Usually summer here is all about the grovel but I guess this year its going to be about the charge.  We only surfed and filmed there maybe a dozen times at best this summer and never saw it as good as this day was.

 

One of the bigger ones I caught that day.

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Why You Should Never Pull Back.

Posted in Surfing on September 24, 2010| 5 Comments »

A back in the spring I managed to finagle my way onto Point Mugu Naval base with my photog Dave.  It was the third or fourth attempt we made at getting the wave and this time we scored.  It was solid overhead, heavy, perfect conditions and a light crowd.  Upon checking it we saw that Dane Renyolds and his videographer were on it as well, Dane killing it as usual.  We had not seen the footage of it and wondered what ever had become of that session not being posted on his blog MarineLayerproductions.com.

All that wondering went out the window when he posted a free 30 minute video download with the finale of the video being that session and one of the last few clips is of course me pussing out of the wave of the day.  It’s at the end of the video at 30.45 on the video timer.  If you are new to my blog and missed the original blog from that faithful day I am going to repost it here in a day or so.

Here is Danes video, its like 32 minutes long, but after it downloads you can skip to 30.45 and witness my pulling back in all its splendor.  I should have went after seeing it I think I could have made it.

http://player.vimeo.com/video/15007394 This link will get you to the video for whatever reason Im retarded and could not get the embedded code to work.

Here is one from that day I did make.

All I can say is that if was macking.

All I can say is that it was macking.

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Another Blog within the Blog; The Blog within the blog within the blog even?!

Posted in Surfing on September 20, 2010| 2 Comments »

I added a new section to the make up of surfingruinedmylife.net.  It is called Surf Log and there is a special little tab for it up on the menu bar.  Its sort of like Groovin’ High, but with surfing.  Basically not every surf session I have is blog worthy or even worth of the amount of time I spent in the acquisition of said session.  Since this is a “surfing blog” that is not about surfing I found it prudent to include this section into the blog from here on in.  The Surf Log will be a daily account of my surfing escapades or lack there of.  If something really phenomenal happens during a surf session it may warrant its own blog.  So if Groovin’ High was the blog within the blog, then is Surf Log the blog within the blog within the blog?  I will let you mull that one over in your own time.  Talk amongst yourselves.

Yeah! Isnt surfing so much fun...

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Rincon Broke Today

Posted in Life, Surfing, User Choice BLog on September 6, 2010| 3 Comments »

No Triple points UCB today, not that anyone besides kooky bothered to play anyhow.  Rincon broke this morning for the first time of the season and although it was only a meager chest highish little wind swell pulse I managed to snag a few five or six hit waves before work. Then I cooked ridiculous quantities of food and now Im just too plain tired to bother to write anything of substance, not that I ever really scribe anything of substance anyhow.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the triples points UCB the final of the quarter.  Im going to chill-lax now. Bye Bye.

Here is a fun video to entertain yourself with till tomorrow.

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