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Not Surfing My Troubles Away: May 2011 Surfing in Review

Posted in Surfing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 8, 2012| 3 Comments »

May 2011 Surfing in Review

Considering we are 7 days, 14 hours away from the start of the “Summer of Alf”, which may be a benchmark in the history of Lisanti Land and will be described in detail on or around May 16th, the official start date.  I thought it would be right to finally close out 2011 and get the first ever year in a life of Chris Lisanti surfing stats.  In order to do that I first had to compile the stats from May of 2011.  Actually May was a very integral month in my life last year in a very negative way.

The “Summer of Alf” is going to be all about the positive.  Its almost necessary for this recap to happen nearly a year later.  May was it for Adrienne and I, the final cabash.  I spent the greater part of April trying to win her back and by May my efforts had become futile.  It was not long into the month that I found myself packing my bags and moving out of MY APARTMENT  as a result of the situation.  You can read “Bowing Out” and “One Last Perfect Day” if your new here and lost or just want to rehash my pain.  I know I link these regularly but that is because they were some of the hardest yet better pieces I have written here at SurfingRuinedMyLife.net.

The funny thing is when I read them looking back now it amazes me how messed up and confused I was.  As a result my surfing took a toll.  I missed some days, I was frustrated others and a few surfboards got destroyed as a result of drunken tantrums.  I still managed to stay wet as Nick the Kook would say.  I have said it before the only constant in my life in last 21 years has been surfing and I am thankful for every moment that has been bestowed on me in the water.  Here are the numbers of May 2011.

Number of Sessions Surfed: 16
Number of Days Surfed: 15
Time in Water: 27 hours
Number of Waves Surfed: 409
Average Waves Surfed Per Hour: 15

Spots Surfed:
Mesa Lane: 4
Rincon: 3
New Jetty: 3
Santa Clara River Mouth: 2
Emma Wood: 1
La Conchita: 1
Ocean Beach, San Francisco: 1
Waddel Creek, Santa Cruz: 1

Top 3 Sessions:

3. 5/30/11 PM Session: 2-3ft, Mesa Lane
Time in Water: 1hr 20mins
Waves Surfed: 25
After a morning of failed car surfing John and I decided to give Mesa Lane a look.  The wind was right and the tide was not too low making it a definite possibility.   Upon checking it there were tons of glassy little nugget bowls rolling in with a very light crowd.  It was bit on the low tide side but I was kind of frothy for a surf.  The surf was far from epic but I was in crazy surf mode and began pulling and sticking a variety of airs out of which I brought down three ally oops and one really fast backside air reverse.  It was a fun little session to say the least.

2: 5/29/11 PM Session: 2-3ft, Rincon
Time in Water: 2.5hrs
Waves Surfed: 28
Talk about late season crazy wind swell.  I checked the buoys this morning and they were spiking at 12ft.  I knew Rincon would have to have a wave of some sort.  Low tide was around one.  John and I cruised south and on the way down Santa Claus did not look very promising.  The parking lot at Rincon had a fair number of cars in it and some people were walking around with short boards leading me to believe that there might be some waves to surf.  Turned out there was some waist to chest high scrubby wind swell coming into the cove that was semi clean.  At first I as not too enthusiastic but then saw a solid set of three waves roll in that sparked my interest and had us all over it.  I ended up call boxing one wave and snagged at least three good ones and I saw John get a few good ones also.

1: 5/25/11 PM Session: 2-3+ft, North County, Santa Cruz
Time in the Water: 2.5hrs
Waves Surfed: 40
See Blog  Clearing My Head for more details. In short just a buddy of mine and I sharing waves in the middle of nowhere on a well shaped left reef pass.

There you have it the final recap that was needed to complete 2011.  Stay tuned for the entire stats from 2011, an entire year in surfing.  I’m excited.   Check out the “Urban Surfing” blog I wrote back in May of 2011 it some cool surfing and other adventures from this time period.   As always read the surf log for daily updates on my surfing and day to day.

Empty perfection. If you don’t surf then you probably don’t understand how precious this scene is. All you see is a pretty picture of a wave.

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Of Things to Come…

Posted in Deep Thoughts, Life, News From Lisanti Land, Surfing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 6, 2012| 13 Comments »

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone although it is sort of a bull shit holiday that has been over dramatized and commercialized by America in order to sell tequila and cheap shitty Mexican beer.  Seriously Mexicans don’t even really celebrate it.  Many believe today is Mexican Independence Day.  If you thought such you would be wrong .  Mexican Independence Day is actually September 16th.  Cinco de Mayo actually celebrates some battle the Mexican Army won against the French in 1862.  Now it is just another bullshit drinking holiday so that the general public can feel better about going out and getting absolutely shit faced.  

I for one was planning on jumping on the bandwagon.  I mean who am I to pass up an excuse to drink?  Then as I thought about all the fucking idiot amateurs that were going to be out tonight, the incessant lines and excessive cover charges for that reason I quickly got over it.  I went out last night and had an average time at best.  I think I will leave tonight to all fools who need an excuse to get drunk rather then be honest with themselves that they enjoy to get plastered from time to time.   What is with all these drinking holidays falling on a weekend this year?  First St. Pats, now Cinco de Mayo.  They are way more fun on weekdays so everyone who works a normal Monday through Friday week can feel what its like to work the entire day with hangover like us weekend workers do.

America Fuck Yeah!

 

Enough about tonight before I change my mind and cruise to the bar with the idiots and on to my initial reason for writing.  A blog ago or so I wrote about my current lot in life and feelings (see Food for Thought).  In this blog I am going to explore some of my thoughts about moving forward in life.  Take some stock in the direction I would like to see things move for me.  

The Path to Enlightenment

“Before enlightenment, chop wood carry water.  After enlightenment, chop wood carry water”.  This is an old Buddhist proverb I picked up in the brief survey I gave to the study of the religion.  I took from them what suited me and left behind the organization.  My religious views are not to be explored in this blog.  I feel this is a really good mantra to try and follow.  One who is truly enlightened knows he must keep at the path that got him to that point.  

I am constantly striving to find out more about myself, who I am, what I am about and what I am capable of.  I don’t believe many understand such entities of themselves or want to for that matter.  When you start digging into your mind, heart and soul honestly there is much there that is amazing, alarming and somewhat a bit unsettling.  Once you open the flood gates its not like you can turn back.  You must keep moving forward.  I have discovered a bunch about myself in the past few years and even more over the last year.  

The more I learn the less I know. “The wise man knows that he knows nothing at all”.  One thing I do know is that I know what I stand for as a person and what I do not.  I also know that I will not compromise this for anyone or anything and I never have.  I rocked long hair for nearly 16 years despite pressure from my ex-wife, family, society, jobs, etc.  Yeah I finally did cut my hair, but for me.  I entered a new chapter in my life and wanted a new hairstyle to go with it.  I plan on continuing this existential journey through my character and how it interacts both positive and adverse in our society making adjustments where necessary to suit me and no one else.  No one can tell you what you need or want besides you.  That my friends is how I intend to live out my days. 

The Short List
 

These are some things I wish to accomplish over the coming months or at the very least better myself in.  If you don’t have some type of direction then you are just running around like dog chasing his tail.  Here is to moving vertically.

Get Back into Music
I play the saxophones rather well and enjoy doing it.  At one point it was my job and that basically ruined the whole thing for me.  After a very short stint in that industry I burnt out and went rouge.  That was over ten years ago.  I have never stopped playing.  I did a little work last summer in the musical theatre genre that was a blast (see “A Trip Back East” Blog for more on that).  I really want to get back into Jazz.  I’m not even talking about performance.  I would just love to meet a few like minded people who would be stoked on pulling out a real book and blowing from time to time.  So if your in the Santa Barbara area and have a yearning to play some of that Jazz music please hit me up.

Learn to Speak Italian
This is more of a necessity to go with one of my other more long term directions, which I will discuss later on.  I am not sure as of late how to accomplish this task.  At the moment I am leading towards taking classes at Santa Barbara City College.  I was also thinking about trying some of those language tapes as well.  Any suggestions would be very helpful.  Maybe I will just kidnap an Italian, lock him/her in my hall closet, force feed him/her cat food and speak conversational Italian with me on a daily basis.  I could def think of one Italian here in SB that deserves such treatment.
 

Go Surfing As Much As Possible
This plan has already been put into action.  I have been really lazy as far as surfing is concerned over the past year.  Yeah I don’t do it competitively or professionally anymore, but it is my best source of enjoyment, exercise and therapy.  I know we are steadily approaching our off season here in the 805.  There are still plenty of waves that can be enjoyed by the intrepid and willing.  I was once both and want to be once again.  Its always more fun when your out there.  Visit the surf log for my daily surfing escapades and more.

Time to get my grovel on…

Read More Books
I have been very, very lazy on the reading front.  I used get to read nearly two novels a month.  Now I am down to around three a year.  This really puts a damper on my thirst to read as many great works of literature as possible.  I have a rather extensive collection of classics many of which I have sadly yet to read.  

Write More
This one goes all around from blogging, to my novel, to another writing project I have been working, to a possible cooking show my buddy and I are working on pitching, to short stories. I am also in the process of a SurfingRuinedMyLife.net redesign.   

Explore more of the greater Santa Barbara Area
It was not long ago, maybe two years to be somewhat exact that my boy Brennan and I set out to attack a list of 101 free things to do in Santa Barbara.  In the process we did and saw many really fun and amazing things.  Since then I have still been striking out to explore my home albeit not as frequently.  There are plenty of places with in a fifty mile radius or so that I have to check off my list and this may be the summer for it.  No matter what I’m sure you will get to read about the results here.

Just another Santa Barbara Adventure!

 Finish the Coffee Table
Ok this project has been going on for almost two years now and the odds of its completion slim, me ruining it in the attempt very good or finding a better one on craigslist most likely.  You never know at the moment I am feeling very ambitious. We never thought the renovations on the Lisanti Palace would come to pass either.

The current state of my coffee table:(

 

Drink and Party Less
How am I going to accomplish all this you ask?  Well one of the things I am going to cut out is the number of hours I spend per week getting hammered both downtown and at home.  When you drink and party all night you sleep and are sick all day or even days depending. The amount of money such a life style amounts to is preposterous.   That does not mean I am going all Mormon on you.  All it means is I am going to bring things down to a safer more manageable level before I end up dead by 40.  Everything in moderation after all.

The high life…Looks enticing huh? Its not all its cracked up to be.

Grow a Mustache

I DON’T THINK SO…Been there done that scared myself and everyone around me for one week too long.

That is the meat of what I think the “Summer of Alf” (what I am billing the summer of 2012) is going to be all about.  Stay tuned for some of my long term accomplishments soon…And of course regular updates, departments and other fun from Lisanti Land.


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Food for Thought

Posted in Deep Thoughts, News From Lisanti Land, Surfing, tagged , , , , , , , on April 25, 2012| 4 Comments »

It was last Wednesday evening that things began making sense to me again.  One year ago my life was in absolute shambles. I had plans, the means to execute those plans and high expectations.  I had this mental imagine, a dream have you of the way the rest of my life was going to pan out.  If I learned anything from Steinbeck its that “the best plans of mice and men may go astray”.  Shakespeare has always warned me to “beware of the ides of March”.

At that time in my life I did not head either great writer’s advice.  When things went awry I had no where to turn in my mind but the bottle.  Anyone who reads regularly can attest to the less then stellar results that have come out of such.  If your new here just peruse some blogs exactly a year ago and maybe a few from the summer and fall.  They will fill in all the blanks immensely.

I was lucky in that I had a strong support system of friends who were not about to sit around and watch me destroy myself.  You know what I am still here and sure I still drink a bit too much, but “kill all  my demons and my angels may die too”.  In all seriousness I have been working on reducing my alcoholism back down to a safer level.   I must say it has been a crazy, scary yet invigorating ride to arrive at the point I am at now.

There I sat out in the middle of a very disorganized lineup at New Jetty with two other guys out making the most of the crossed up lefts that were coming in.  It was more then just a surf.  The sun was going down, the lighting perfect to allow the mountains to reflect all the colors of the sunset.   I looked up the coast line, one where the mountains literally meet the ocean, then back out to the horizon at the channel islands ominously floating in perpetual solidarity.   The world around me is so breathtaking.  That is why I live my life.  That is why I always have.

I let myself get so dragged down into the mud that I forgot what being alive was all about.  I still have no idea what is going to happen, but then again it really is not my place to know.  If one knew his own fate would his life still be worth living?  I know I have been lost for a while now, maybe the last four years of my life even.  I had put all of my cards into surfing and as that ticket slowly ran out I was unsure of where to turn.  I think that was where Adrienne came into the picture.

She kind of gave me a new reason to live.  I was wrong to put all my eggs in someone else’s basket and ultimately I don’t really know how happy I was with our arrangement anyway.  I spent so much time trying to glorify it and living in a constant state of veneration of what we were that I clouded what our reality was.  The truth is Ade’s and I lived very separate lives for a couple and both of us let a lot slide with the other cause it was not worth arguing about.  When I look back on things now I realized that we almost never fought and I know on my side of things and I believe on hers too it was because neither of us cared enough about any topic to make it worth our while.  All the big issues we never resolved just pushed under the rug.

I was never good at compromising and I am pretty sure it is a skill she lacks as well.  I know right now your reading this thinking why is he rehashing all this?  The answer my friends is that sometimes I need to put things into writing when my thought process on them has finally reached a conclusion.  Call this my final closure on the Adrienne issue.  I have been stewing on these thoughts for a year.

So basically the reason we did not work was because neither of us found it worth while to put the necessary effort in that two people in relationship have to in order to keep it moving into a forward direction.  Ultimately we hit an impasse and by the time I realized it things had already spiraled out of control.  Looking back objectively now things sort of went down hill steadily after we moved in together.  Much of that is due to many factors that we never bothered to address.  Its like a car, over time there are certain maintenance issues that need to be regularly handled for the vehicle to remain functional.  If you miss oil changes and regular service eventually that car will break down no matter how strong it was initially.

In our a case neither of us really gave a shit about making things work.  Now that I see that clearly it is no wonder what happened happened.  I mean could the situation had been dealt with better sure, but I guess what went down was in true Lisanti Land fashion. In my world there are only extremes and nothing in between.  I must say I would not have it any other way.  Insanity or as Micheala put it Lisanity becomes me.   I think the moment I went wrong was when I tried to compromise what I am about.

Where does that leave me?  My new roommate Dan put things in perspective perfectly a few weeks ago after spending just a short time in Lisanti Land.  This guy lives in the palace full time and those of you who have spent time here know exactly the level of ridiculousness that goes down on a normal week.  To my readers if you think you get the full story here you don’t know the half of it.  There are plenty of instances that go down that are either too embarrassing, incriminating , just plain wrong to put on any kind of public record or go lost in the mix of all the other craziness.  Those are the stories you  have to come to the palace to hear from my lips to your ears.   Then live your own adventures with us.

Dan being a complete outsider to my world.  I mean I could not have found a roommate who comes from such a different walk of life then myself.  The guy is on the total opposite of the spectrum.  I think for me he has been and may be the necessary evil and contrast I need in my life.  An outsider looking in can often better observe what is going on then those directly involved.  About two weeks ago he said to me that I am an artist at life.

That is what really got me to understand myself and my entire reason for being.  On greater thought he is one hundred percent correct.  I am an artist at living and the entire world has been my canvas.  Since as long as I can remember I have custom tailored ever facet of my existence to suit me perfectly.  Every detail down to the color socks I wear, the type of bed I sleep in,  the club I frequent, the drinks I consume, etc has been thought about with meticulous detail.

My life has been always about not compromising and you know what I am proud of that.  When given the option of doing something I did not really want to do and be with friends or being alone I have always chose the latter.  Does that make me selfish or narcissistic, I don’t really know.  I know for the most part I get the most out of every minute of my day I can and always have.  If I seem angry, sad or frustrated at times it is because things did not work the way I saw in my head.  In other words I could not paint the picture I wanted.

The reason I have calmed down a bit in recent years is that I have learned that sometimes I have to learn to paint with in the parameters of the rest of civilization, but still manage to make the statement I intend.  I hope some of this makes sense to you.  It is a bit confusing even to me, but I finally do understand more about myself then I ever have.  Forget living out of spite cause the only person I was spiting was me.

Over the next few weeks I have some new long term possibilities (I’m not going to call them goals or plans anymore cause that seems so final and definite) I want to explore here.  And yeah I don’t know whats next.  I can promise that I am going to continue my art, that is the art of living and living well.  I always said one of my best characteristics was that no matter what I always knew how to appreciate the finer things in life.  As summer is upon us I would like to declare the summer of 2012 “The Summer of Alf”.  There will be more explanation of what that means soon.

A surprise barrel on an other wise less then optimal surf day is definitely one of those finer things in life.

Ready or not "The Summer of Alf" is upon us.......

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The Beginning of the End: April 2011 Surfing In Review

Posted in Surfing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 24, 2012| 5 Comments »

April 2011 Surf Sessions in Review

Bare with me here, I know these stats happened nearly a year ago, but I just found out while trying to compile some yearly stats that I still need to write up the stats for a few months that went by the wayside back then for obvious reasons ( you can read “Bowing Out” if your new here and missed a major incident in my life).  April is always a rough month for surfing in the 805, plagued by constant winds, transition between NW and South swell seasons and extremely cold water.   Throw in a full time job, school and a falling apart relationship and it became one of the toughest months to surf of my entire life, let alone live.  Hey here I am still kicking.  I am not sure why I am still alive, but mainly I feel my survival these days is based purely on spite.   I am not quite sure whom it is I am spiting by staying alive, but I am sure there is someone out there who may benefit from my death and for the chance just to spite that person I will fight to live no matter what.  Survival for spite that is the new campaign for 2012, forget anything else I have mention previously.  Here are the stats for April 2011.

Number of Surf Sessions: 21
Days Surfed: 21
Total Time Spent In Water: 33hrs 45mins
Total Number of Waves Surfed: 636
Average Waves Caught Per Hour: 19

Spots Surfed:
Mesa Lane: 9
Rincon: 6
Emma Wood: 3
El Capitan: 1
Hammonds: 1
New Jetty: 1

Top 3 Sessions:

3.  4/1/11 Am Session: 2-4+ft, Emma Wood
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves surfed: 25
Talk about a double up barrel fiesta out there this morning and I was not even going to go surf when I woke up this am.  The weather was so nice and since I had got a lot of work done at J7 yesterday and an alarming potential for south winds in the afternoon led me to Emma Wood.  When I pulled up it was solid chest high with overhead suck up sets.  I saw a three wave set A-frame and barrel hard both left and right with only about six guys out.  I was on it and at least ten of my waves were solid dry barrels.  Then after about 45 minutes everyone showed up making it a bit crowded, but there were like six peaks working all going both right and left making for plenty of room.  If I did not have to get dings done at J7 today I would have stayed out till the tide drained.  Im so glad Emma has finally got her groove back!

2. 4/7/11 PM Session: 1-3+ft, El Capitan
Time In Water: 3 hrs 15mins
Waves Surfed: 49
On my walk to class this morning I noticed that Lead Better had some solid chest high waves hitting the beach break and even larger sets on the point.  I got home and checked the buoys and East Santa Barbara was reading 7ft  and the wind was hard WNW, off shore for El Cap.  Still I was thinking about Rincon when my boy from work Kevin called me and was all physicked on surfing in the avro.  With a partner in crime I said lets go to El Capitan and it was on.  We got there around 4ish and it was pretty small looking.  There were only about four guys on it and occasionally a chest high wave would roll in.  Anyway there were plenty of fun looking waist high ones coming through.  Thing about El Capitan is that it is a perfect wave no matter the size so even small it was still rather inviting.  We ended up having a blast.  I dont think I have ever gotten that many waves there ever.  Renowned surf board shaper Wayne Rich paddled out with these two mini-groms and two friends of his and he paddled right up to me, introduced himself and said “Hi my name is Wayne you are too good of a surfer to grovel this hard with all the hopping around, but just so you know I am really impressed by your surfing ability”. I was like are you serious, Wayne Rich a man who has seen so many greats surf was stoked on my surfing.  He ended up getting a bunch of good ones and everyone out there was just hooting a hollering; a completely different vibe then the last time I surfed out there with Kooky.  The waves were twice as good that time but the crowd was super heavy and people were all aggro.  See March ’11 of the surf log 3/17/11 entry for more details on that session.   All I can say was that it was a most splendid day of surfing.

1. 4/2/11 PM Session: 2-3+ft, Rincon
Time In Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 15
Sometimes I surf really well.  I think everyone has those sessions where they feel like god out there.  I dont care what skill level your at, when you have a session where you surf to the highest potential of your personal ability it feels incredible.  I had one of these sessions at Rincon tonight.  The funny thing about it was that going into the surf I was feeling rather lackadaisical.  I had just finished repairing my favorite board which got destroyed at some epic Rincon two weeks back  (see “Bad Decisions Lead to Great Out Comes” and“Yesterday’s (3/24) Rincon Session Revisited” for the skinny on what happened there).   Jason and I pulled the tail in about an 1/8 inch from my regular template and it has really turned my performance up a notch.  I love computer design programs.  It is so easy to make those minute details come out perfect.  I think the combination of a good board, fun chest high plus glassy bowls and a light crowd aided in a fun session.  I surfed the entire point spending the first half up at River Mouth were I snagged a nice little backside tube and stuck a solid backside section air.  The next half I spent in the cove absolutely owning it. By my 15th wave I was completely exhausted.  Besides the wind got on it a bit, the crowd picked up and the tide began to make things a bit swampy.  Timing is everything in life.
 

Me at Rincon Circa Spring 2011. Life may not have been working out for me back then but at least I still had surfing.

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An Empty Nest

Posted in News From Lisanti Land, Surfing, tagged , , , , , on March 6, 2012| 6 Comments »

I thought it be poignant to fill everyone in on what has been going on in my life the last few weeks or so.  I have been really busy. There was tons of work to be done at the Palace and like any home improvement project things you think should be finished and done in no time with little effort wind up taking the most time.  I am proud to say that stage one of the gentrification of the Lisanti Palace is complete.  Stage two, the kitchen and bathroom are at the moment on hold till summer, unless of course you kind people would like send some funds my way.  Did not think so.

Stage the three, the Japanese rock garden I hope to put into action by late spring early summer.  I have always loved the peace and tranquility of such places.  I think having one right in my own back yard overlooking the ocean would really do me a lot good. Just to have a spot where I can pick up a rake and make patterns in the rocks would be amazing for my favorite past time of pondering and stewing on my life.  I would love to do a small koi pond out there as well.

As of March 1st I had the entire apartment all to myself.  Kooky shoved off to New Zealand late at night on February 29th.  For a while I had not heard anything of the kid and was getting a little bit worried.  Just the other night I got a facebook message from my friend Sara that he made it to Raglan safely and she was able to get him a job at Solscape working off his accommodation.  Now that is three jobs I have set Kooky up with through my own personal connections and the third job that I had personally done at one time.  The kid has managed to work three of the jobs I had over the last seven years in under seven months.  Now that is a true life intensive Lisanti experience.  I am sure he will send in a Kooky’s Korner on his adventures soon and I will post it here on SurfingRuinedMyLife.net.

Dave left to go home to Florida a day or two before Kooky.  He had to go back for some traffic court issue.  I have not heard from him thus not sure how things are working out.  All I know is the last I saw of him was right before I passed out from a Sunday at the Kitty and he had to catch a bus at 3:30am to LAX.  I think he drunk ate my lasagna I brought home for lunch the next day cause it was gone.  When I know more I will post more.

On one hand it is really nice to have my apartment, car and life back.  I loved all the visitors and adventures over the past eight months, but it was beginning to take a toll on me.  Having some relaxing quiet time and not worrying about catering to others is rather satisfying.  It is great to do whatever I want, whenever I want and it is really nice to always have a clean apartment and everything in the place I expect it to be.  This was not the case with lots of people constantly floating through.

On the other hand it is a bit lonely being just Alfie and I again.  Having all my friends here for an extended period of time was a very necessary evil to help me get over Adrienne, fix up the apartment and get my life back on track.  I remember back in early December crying on the phone to my mom over Adrienne, which was complete craziness since we had broken up back in May.  I did not go home for the Holiday because of it.

Thanks to everyone who came and spent sometime here with me and was kind enough, and patient enough to listen to my oblique whining and not kill me I was able to realize how pathetic I had become.  Just like that here I am now nearly self sufficient. Sure I still hurt over her on occasion, but it is not like it was before.  Now it is more like I will just get really lonely, or see something that reminded me of her or thought of something I thought she might have got a kick out of and will momentarily think “man I wish Ade’s were still here”.  Then I shake it off just as fast.

The Palace will not be empty for long.  I am happily relieved to say that I found a new roommate who will be moving in full time by the middle of the month.  His name is Dan and he seems like a really good dude.  He has a full time job, is 28 and looking for a step up in life.  I think we are both in the same place in life right now and should be a good fit.  Then again I always think that about my new roommates and then two months later find them with needles in their arms.  I really do have a good feeling about this guy.  Time will Tell.

Wednesday will be the grand re-opening of the Lisanti Palace dinner party, 8pm.  If you are in the Santa Barbara area and want to partake in the festivities hit me up.  You are more then welcome.  Just make sure you RSVP by Wednesday morning so I have a head count.  My new roommate will be here and I believe some of the usual suspects.  This will kick off the weekly dinner parties  we used to indulge in here in the fall.  How can you not enjoy an evening of good food, good wine and good people?

Work is work.  We have had a good number of staff quit meaning new family members will be coming in and old ones going out.  School is school.  Unfortunately my equanimity is waning fast as my hopes to become a “paper chef” seem more and more of an impossibility due to the fact that I would have to quit my job to conceptually finish the program.  This is one of the situations I wish I had my rock garden for to allow me more clarity of thought.  As of the moment I think I may take the fall semester off all together.

Besides that things are looking good and the future bright.  I don’t know what tomorrow will hold and at the moment that is good enough for me.  For I think I will just take things as they come.

Chris Lisanti at Emma Wood 2012

Did I mention that I am making an effort to surf more too. If your not reading the surflog on a regular basis you are missing out on the blog within the blog. Its raw. Photo:Kooky

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A Month of Surfing Sloth: December 2011 Surfing in Review

Posted in News From Lisanti Land, Surfing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 17, 2012| 2 Comments »

December 2011 Surf Sessions in Review

With each session review I get closer to compiling enough data to bring a 2011 year of surfing in review to this site.  It will be the first of its kind and I must say I am rather excited to see the results of 12 months of useless surfing data.  I know I am crazy.  OCD is a terrible disease.  I guess one could say I am the Rain Man of surfing except I do not have the ability to count cards.

December started out slow surf wise then the north west swells just began to pour in and as of the moment really have not stopped. Believe me there are no complaints here.  My only gripe is with myself and the fact that I blew a number of potential surf sessions thanks to either pure laziness, partying too hard or due to injuries incurred from partying, all of which amounted to December becoming the most underutilized month of the year for me.  That being said there were still plenty of good times all around.

In life I managed to begin the renovations on my apartment, which at press time are just about finished.  Mentally and emotionally I worked through a ton of issues I have been harboring as well.  Maybe not surfing my brains out amounted to some positive in the end.  Only time will tell.  Here are the stats for December:

Number of Surf Sessions: 23
Days Surfed: 18
Total Time Spent in the Water: 35hrs, 25 mins
Waves Surfed: 442
Average Waves Caught in an Hour: 13

Spots Surfed:
Rincon: 8
Emma Wood: 3
Hollywood By The Sea: 3
Little Rincon: 2
New Jetty: 2
Oxnard Shores: 2
C Street: 1
Kooks Peak: 1

Top Three Surf Sessions:

3) 12/20/11 PM Session: 2-3+ft, C Street
Time in Water: 1hr
Waves Surfed: 1o
Mother fucking Cstreet, are you kidding me.  Is that really where I have had the best session in the last five?  Apparently.  Kooky and I car surfed down to Emma finding nothing.  The choice came down to running back to Rincon or going to Cstreet.  I had a feeling it could be fun at the latter so it was on.  Not even looking at it we suited up.  Out of time it was a make it or break it kind of session, sometimes the best ones.  There were two distinct peaks up at pipe.  Straight out of the gates I was nailing good waves.  I caught ten waves and eight of those had no less then six turns.  My last three were sick and some of the better backside turns I have done on my new board.  My last wave was so good I quit on it even though I still had easily another 15 minutes of light left.  Unfortunately Kooky not really knowing where to sit had a frustrating session.  C Street can givith and take it away just as fast.

2) 12/4/11 AM Session: 2-4ft, Oxnard Shores
Time in Water: 1hr
Waves Surfed: 17
Finally a surf and a good one at that.  I got down to Ventura Harbor and it was all closed out.  I was left with a choice of either going to a steadily draining tide Emma Wood or a gamble at the shores.  If I choose the shores and lost then I would have once again blew my gas on yet another wasted car surf.  My prayers were answered as I came up the beach to head high offshore spitting barrels in every direction I looked.  Kooky and I were on it.  What ensued was a full on barrel fest.  I had some drainers.  I saw Kooky get blasted out of a few good ones  too.  My last wave was one of the better left hand barrels I have caught in a long time. It may have been three days in the making but the first session of the month was on.

1) 12/25/11 AM Session: 3-4+ft, Rincon
Time in Water: 3hrs
Waves Surfed: 24
See a Christmas of Epic Proportions Part I and Part II for more details.

 Well there you have it another month of surfing in Lisanti Land folks.  As always you can keep a daily tab on my surfing sessions or just the gnarl that happens in my life that keeps me from surfing at the surflog.

Rincon on Christmas morning, the best session of the month with out a doubt.

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The Month of New Jetty: November 2011 Surfing

Posted in News From Lisanti Land, Surfing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 9, 2012| Leave a Comment »

November 2011 Surf Sessions in Review

I know I am like two months behind, but what would any one who reads here regularly expect.  If you keep up with the daily updates in the surflog then it should not surprise you.   My life is crazy and my time spread thin.  I guess I will sleep when I am dead.  I am only getting this done today because I happen to be sick and called out of work.  I am too sick to surf even.  Trust me it is firing right now with some real nice WNW action.  You know I’m taking it hard if I am sitting out.  I have already missed an epic El Capitan session last night.  Whatever, I don’t give a fuck.

Back to November.  November for the most part was one big let down after another both for waves and life.  Kooky who came out here with high hopes of scoring great point surf got stuck more times then not at shitty New Jetty, which was where the majority of my surfing took place.  Now in the summertime that is common place, but in the fall it should not be.  There was still some choice days.  There were also some terrible drunken nights at the bar that cost me a surf or two and one surfboard that got completely destroyed as a result.   You can check out the November ’11 surflog for the details on the entire month.  Here are the session break downs.  Oh the joys of having OCD.

Number of Surf Sessions: 23
Days Surfed: 22
Total Time Spent in the Water: 35hrs
Waves Surfed: 521
Average Waves Surfed Per Hour: 15

Spots Surfed:
New Jetty: 9
Rincon: 3
Emma Wood: 2
Oxnard Shores: 2
Dredge: 1
Sharks Cove: 1
Sand Spit: 1
Little Rincon: 1
Silver Strand: 1
Gold Coast: 1

Top 4 Surf Sessions (I could not leave any of these out to only make it three)
4)  11/25/11 PM Session2: 1-3+ft, Sharks Cove
Time in Water: 2.5hrs
Waves Surfed: 32
We were on our way to battle the immense crowds down south, when Kooky spotted out some waves breaking at Sharks.  I knew it would be a bit smaller there, but no one was out and I love that wave.  The place is so rip-able and its right here in town.  We decided to go for it.  Four other guys joined us crushing my hopes of a solo session, but I knew one of them and everyone took turns and was mellow.  It was a bit smaller then I would have liked.  Only about waist to occasional chest, but it was perfect.  I had a ton of really fun waves out there and it was just the mellow session in the midst of a hectic weekend I was looking for.

3) 11/21/11 AM Session: 3-5+ft, Rincon
Time in Water: 3hrs
Waves Surfed: 23
I love bounce back swells.  This one hit the Islands and came upon us at a perfect angle.  There was a dropping tide and light winds.  Rincon was flawless.  When I first got out there I was in the cove with about 30 people.  An hour later I was sharing the place with a solid 200 crowd spread over the entire point.  I had some great ones.  I got burned on some that would have been great ones and I burned a few along the way.  Classic Rincon.  I did stick one huge six foot long gap air that I totally cleared an entire section on.  I had a near 540 as well but landed on the back too far on the shoulder to ride it out.  Minus the crowd I was stoked.

2) 11/24/11 PM Session: 4-7+ft, Little Rincon
Time in Water: 2hrs
Waves Surfed: 27
Oh another Turkey day west swell.  I wanted to surf Rincon but it was over 300 hundred heads strong.  I tried a gamble and lost with El Capitan.  Little Rincon had a decent enough wave with only about thirty or so guys on it.  It was a bit stretched and racy, but there were some good ones.  I was having a good time till I went on this dude who was clearly not going to make the section he pulled into.  Kooky said he was falling as I dropped into it.  The guy paddles over to me and tells me “If you do that again I am  going to break something on you”.  ”Were you really going to make it” I replied.  ”Thats not your call to make” he said.  ”No it was the waves call and it was not having it” I retorted.  He got mad and told me that when he is on a wave I don’t go.  I apologized and left it alone.  Then he deliberately burned me on my next wave to prove a point.  The old Chris would have gone into the beach.  Went to my car, got the tire iron out of my trunk and beat the bejesus out of him.  The new Chris  just took a deep breath and let it go.   Whatever I got a wave from the hotel at Mussel Shoals all the way to the beach break at the bottom of the highway.  We clocked it in the car on the way home and  it was just under 7/8ths of a mile.  Never done something like that there.  My legs hurt so bad by the end of it I could barely turn.

1) 11/7/11 AM Session: 2-4+ft, Oxnard Shores
Time in Water: 2hrs
Waves Surfed: 28
Oooo there is nothing I love more then a good old fashioned barrel fest. Not only that but a Hatteras style barrel fest.  Lindsay and I pulled up to New Jetty and it was crowded, at least thirty guys deep.  Lakey Perterson was out with her little grom crew and camera.  The whole place was a scene.  On top of that it was a bit walled and wonky.  Not nearly as good as the previous day.  I noticed the wind was trying to go offshore and with plenty of combo swell still in the water, plus a dropping low tide I made the call to try the shores.   The place loves such conditions.  I pulled up to the closest spot to Ventura.  There was some movie being filmed up on the beach with all their stupid Hollywood hoopla.  Right in front looked marginal at best.  Then I looked down the beach and was pretty sure I saw spitting barrels.  Upon driving a few blocks south my eyes had not deceived me.  All I could see in every direction was left and right bowls unloading on a shallow sand bar.  I am talking throaty double ups.  I got my ass seriously kicked by a few I did not make it out of.  The crowd was about twenty strong but spread among an endless amount of peaks. Bobby was surfing the peak next to me just getting absolutely pitted off his skull.  I had my share as well.  It was a fucking great session.  It lasted a solid two hours before the wind came up.  What a session.

Oxnard Shores delivering.

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La Nina, Why: October 2011 Surfing In Review

Posted in Surfing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 15, 2011| Leave a Comment »

October is usually a crazy month for surf around here.  This one was rather average, although there were some choice days.  I had a few keepers at Rincon and plenty of beach break action.  I think this may the be winter of the beach breaks unfortunately.  October marked the return of Kooky Kyle to Lisanti Land, this time joining the court at the Palace for an extended stay.  You can check out Kooky’s Korner for his take on things from time to time.  Kooky and I went on a 24 hour idiot mission up to San Francisco to surprise our boy and UCB all star John Mauriello, surfing a few spots on the way up.  Besides that I kicked a second heroine addict roommate out of my house.  Third time is a charm I guess.   Business as usual here in the Land of Lisanti.  Here are the stats and yes I know I am posting October’s stats in December.  I am month behind.  Always a day late and a dollar short.

Number of Surf Sessions: 21
Days surfed: 20
Time In Water: 34hrs
Number of Waves Surfed: 497
Average Waves Surfed Per Hour: 15

Spots Surfed:
New Jetty : 8
Rincon: 7
Waddel Creek, Santa Cruz: 1
Moss Landing Montery:  1
Surf Beach: 1
Santa Clara River Mouth: 1
Emma Wood: 1
La Conchita: 1

Top 3 Sessions in October:

3. 10/27/11 AM Session: 2-3+, New Jetty
Time in Water: 1.5 hrs
Waves Surfed: 25
You know those sessions when you feel like  God? I had one today.  It was only about chest to head high and a bit crumbly with the wind on it, not to mention a larger then optimal crowd.  I was on and that was all that mattered.  Every good wave seemingly came right to me.  All my turns were crisp. I stuck a bunch of airs.  It was just one of those days.

2.  10/18/11 AM Session: 2-4+ft, Surf Beach
Time in Water: 1hr 50mins
Waves Surfed: 27
Ahhh, Surf Beach and just about the one year anniversary of the fatal shark attack that happened there. With minimal swell and a need for adventure Kooky and I threw caution to the wind and went up to the wild north.   Upon pulling into the lot we were greeted by fun looking glassy chest high plus bowls with out a person in sight.  As we got changed this crazy old man who had to be over eighty and was born in Lompoc in 1924, lived there his whole life, began telling us all these gnarly stories of way back in the day.  He lost his wife of like thirty years last year and found himself a bit lonely these days.  I always find it really sad when old people lose their spouse after all that time.  I could not imagine the heart break.  Turns out he should not drive cause he has dementia but does anyway cause he does not give a fuck.  First thing he said to us was “I’m 86 years old and lost in life, maybe I always had been”.  Those words always win me over.  Then as we were about to paddle out this lady whom I have surfed both there and Jalama with claimed some guys saw a 12 foot great white there yesterday. I told her “well that was not today now was it” and paddled out.  Turns out the session was super fun and both Kooky and I scored some sick waves.  I got a few barrels.  We stopped at the Jalama Cafe for Lunch,  my favorite eatery in the area and ran into that same old guy.  What an awesome day.

1.  10/13/11 AM Session: 4-6ft, Rincon
Time in Water: 2hrs 45mins
Waves surfed: 27
Oh man, Rincon.  Today was the first day I have to say Rincon really cooked for me this season.  Kooky and I got there and the lot was packed.  I was going to drive away, but my rule of thumb is that if I can get a space in the front lot then I will surf the place regardless.  I ended up snagging a spot and was stoked I did.  The place was on.  I started up at River Mouth and surfed from there down three times.  I had some sick ones.  Out of the 27 waves at least twenty had no less then 9 turns.  I got two from high River Mouth to Low Cove and called boxed one from high cove.  Killian was out and had some guy filming him with a 35mm.  I had so many sick ones it was incredible. I love Rincon.

Well there you have it the month of October in surf sessions.  As always if you enjoy reading these little session reviews check out the surflog where I post some type of insanity about both my life and surfing every single day.

Alright this was not taken in the month of October. My boy Dave's girl Roo shot it at Santa Clara River Mouth back in March. Its still a sicky though.


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Hmmm…Lots of Surfing: September 2011

Posted in Surfing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 6, 2011| Leave a Comment »

September was a good month for me surf wise.  At the beginning I had a crazy girl friend type thing that eventually went up in ruins.  By and by I still managed to sneak in a bunch of fun surf sessions.  There were point sessions, beach break sessions, a fun mission up north.  All and all I would call the month of  September a victory for surfing at least.  Here are the stats and top sessions.  Now if the rest of my life could have fallen into place in September I would be doing alright.  Hey I am still alive right?  If everything worked out for me then there would be nothing to write about and I would be rather boring.  So for everyone who likes to read about my personal misery lets hope it will be business as usual in Lisanti Land.  For now things are looking like they will be status quot for quite awhile.  Lucky me.

Number of Surf Sessions: 27
Days Surfed: 23
Time In Water: 39 hrs 25 minutes
Waves Surfed: 505
Waves Caught Per Hour: 13

Spots Surfed:

Rincon: 9
New Jetty: 9
Hammonds: 2
Jalama: 1
Emma Wood: 1
Santa Clara River Mouth: 1
Fruit Stands: 1
C Street: 1
Ventura Campgrounds: 1

Top 3 Surf Sessions:

3: 9/20/11 AM Session: 2-3ft, New Jetty
Time In Water: 1hr 50mins
Waves Surfed: 28
Buoys had a little south push on them and conditions were clean so I ran down to Ventura Harbor where sure enough I was greeted with some playful waist to chest high surf.  There were fun little bowls everywhere.  Crowd was a bit heavy at first, but I luckily got it in the middle of morning shift and lunch shift leaving me a good hour with just a few chill dudes out sharing really fun waves.

2: 9/13/11 AM Session: 2-3+ft, New Jetty
Time in Water: 2hrs 15mins
Waves Surfed: 25
What a session.  I think it has been weeks since I have had a surf that I truly walked out of the water amped on.  This day was unreal.  The wind stayed down all morning leaving me with perfect lefts, running for about 100 yards down the beach, with barrels and about chest to head high.  The crowd was a shit show, but I still managed to get my choice of what ever I wanted.  I had a sick back door barrel on the wave of the day, stuck three ally-oops, and over all just owned it.  I felt so good out there.  So much fun.  I will take that session to the bank.

1: 9/27/11 AM Session: 2-4+ft, Rincon
Time In Water: 2hrs
Waves Surfed: 20
Lindsay pretty much begged me to take her surfing this morning.  My new schedule has me rather booked up leaving not much time to be able to allow her to tag along with me.  She was hard up for good waves being relegated to nothing but Mesa Lane and other shitty town spots.  I remember those days and always have sympathy for those with out a car here who are serious about surfing.  I took her to Rincon not expecting much more then a high tide grovel session at the River Mouth.  We were pleasantly surprised with some new pumping NW swell.  I got two waves from Indicator all the way to mid Cove.  We are talking easy 300 yard rides with 15 turns a piece, full on leg burners.  Lindsay snagged a great one from high River Mouth to high Cove.  Everyone was getting tons of great waves.  My friend Antoine and I shared a wave from Indicator all the way to upper Cove and changed tracks four times.  It was a super fun session. Did I mention there were maybe 30 guys on the whole point?  Oh yeah 5 days in a row of the ‘Con!!!!!   Well Im about to run back and get some more before class this afternoon!!

There you have it.  If  you enjoy this little post session synapses fell free to visit the surf log where I post daily updates of my surfing endeavors and other ridiculous shit.

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Something Old That Made Something New

Posted in Surfing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 6, 2011| 4 Comments »

Chris Lisanti is a mother fucking hoser.

This shot was taken around the same time period all of the footage your are about to watch was.

About two seasons ago, my last days as a pseudo professional surfer my good friend and photog Dave Molleck convinced me to start shooting video instead of pictures.  Now I have always hated myself on film and as a result spent the bulk of my life avoiding it.  After some friendly prodding I was sold on the idea and we began shooting some of my sessions.   Dave moved to New Port like anyone else you wants to make it in the US surf scene.  He went to try his chops as a photographer and shoot some guys who really could surf instead of kooks like me.

Since then he has had some shoots in the mags and on Surfline.com.  I actually ran into him at Trestles this summer (see blog Orange County Can Keep Lowers for that story).  It was good to see him.  I had all these discs with footage of me sitting in a junk draw in my bedroom dresser just collecting dust.  The DVD/CD drive in my computer fried about two years ago so I could not do anything with them, plus I am really lazy and was a bit scared to see how bad I looked.  My boy Ryan has been sleeping on my couch while attempting to get on his feet here in SB.

I was telling him about the footage and since he studied film and editing back in his SBCC days he said he would give it a look and edit it for me.  So here it is the first ever Chris Lisanti surf video.  Its five minutes of absolute spastic gnarl that only I could serve up.  Those of you who have seen me surf in person you know it is quite the experience, those who have not well your in for quite the eye full.  Most people don’t really know what to think the first time they see me surf.

Shoots I was with Adrienne for a year and half before she saw me surf a shitty day at Emma Wood.  shortly after she left me for another man.  What does that say for my surfing?  I think it takes a few watches to appreciate my brand of gnarliness.  Either way its good for stoke or a laugh or both.  Public humiliation is fun.  Told you I am an emotional Masochist.

The video is broken into two parts by a song change and black out.  Stick around for part two cause I get crazy in it.  Listen to the lyrics in the first song.  I think it is rather fitting for me.  Feed back in the comments is always welcome.  Remember when I was a grom my grommie nick name was “The Spaz”.  This vid should easily help you to understand why.

Dave and I about to go for a water session.

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