Working for the City

Well, I started last monday and so far, it is safe to say that I love it! I know it is only the first week but it has been awsome so far. Its crazy to say this, but I actually enjoy and look forward to coming to work. I never know what the day's challenges will be and I like that. We have a much bigger environment here than I did at the last job and I have tons of fun toys to play with. Its like being in mission control.

Everything else has been going ok. Im STILL waiting on the engine to get back to me from the repair shop and it is taking forever. They had to order another part so that delayed us another week. Im hoping and praying that it will be finished this week or sometime early next week. I would really like to get my boat out there before the dead of winter really sets in on us. I spent the night on her again saturday and I loved it. I worked on unclogging the anchor locker drain on sunday and finally drained the 3 some odd gallons of water that had been sitting around in there, darn leaves. I have been building a list of projects I need to start tackling and its a little daunting but exciting at the same time. Mostly just little repair jobs here and there. Its coming along, slowly but surely.

Well, there hasnt been too much surf to speak of around here lately. The water is getting chillier but as we keep getting some warm days, it warms right back up around 68 and then takes a crazy dive on the next cold front. It has been a little wierd this winter here in Texas as so far, it has been very mild, but we will see. Everyone can be quick to blame global warming and what have you, but Texas weather is always a little wierd. Its mild now but come January, we will all be saying "global warming whattttt?????". I need to hurry and get my but out there into some surf before it gets tooo cold as I only have a 3/2. I cant wait to try it out though, my older brother's friend just gave it too me for nothing! Its a pretty new o'neil so we will have to see how it does. Ok well, I have some issues I need to research so Im outa here!

Im home again

Well, I just got back from Mexico. I had a great time there and logged around 70+ more hours on Mexican busses. I blasted south to Punta Mita again where I was to hang out and see some friends and deliver some shoes that I had promised to buy for a friend there. I stayed the night in Debo's place, which, btw, if you ever visit Punta de Mita, I highly recomend you stop into Debo's and grab yourself one of her famous burgers or some awsome breakfast.

I had a good time there in Mita and I got to surf 2 days. I didnt drag my bored along for this quick little trip so I just rented an 8'0". Yes yes I know, but I had a damn blast on that log and it was the perfect size for the waves those 2 days. We had around stomach high and super long and clean lines. I got some great rides and just had a blast. I met a great couple from Canada and they were cool as hell.

My last day in Mita, I met a guy who had been sailing all around from the Bahamas. He took me out to show me his 40' ketch rig and I really enjoyed that. I havent had the chance to check out anything bigger than 36' and especially a ketch. A ketch is a boat that has 2 masts, the aft (back) one being shorter. There was a lot of rigging on that thing, but overall it didnt look too terribly complicated. He was a cool guy and a good surfer and we traded information back and forth, from surf spots to boating/sailing tips. He really inspired me.

Well, like I said, Im back and ready or action. Tomarrow I begin a new chapter in my life as a career man....for now. That should be some dull reading for a while, so Ill have to come up with some witty stuff or just start surfing and sailing as much as I can. I think we would all rather read about that stuff much much more than what I did during my 8-5.

Almost Done

Well, as it stands, I have about 4 more days of work owed to Jackson Hewitt, and then I'm out! I have around 5 days off before I start my new job, so I havent decided just yet where I will go. Im trying to watch the swell models and make my best guess as to where I can head off for a couple of days and score some good surf. South/Central Texas should be getting good for a couple of days around monday or tuesday, but north to central east coast Florida is going to be going off possibly better and longer. Damn decisions. I wouldnt mind driving to Florida for some good quality surf, but my surf buddy just bailed. He has a lot of doctor appointments for his back this upcoming week, so Ill be flying solo. Thats cool. I just dont know the Florida breaks like I know Texas, so I might just stick around here. I also Have the possibility of heading into Mexico for a couple of days to try and score.

So what has been happening in the blogosphere?? Is everyone throwing in the towel like Wiff? I hope not, cause I secretly know Wiff will be back. Haha, yeaaa... I have been thinking of working on an article about the stabbing for Drift Magazine but I havent fully decided yet. For thos of you that remember, I was lined up to do some writing for them about my trip but then backed off about exposing some spots that I traveled to and saw. Thats that elite-ist asshole in me.

The boat is still coming along. It has all new rigging now and the motor is in the shop so its a matter of days Im guessing. I need to hurry and get some insurance on that thing, so I can go sailing with no worries. I might go and do that today, but I think the office is closed. Damn. I have decided to relax a little about my poor boat. I talked with some great people at the recent ALS walk after party for our beloved Wes Ellsworth and they told me that as my first boat, my primary concern is learning how to handle her and learning all the aspects of sailing. They told me not to go crazy on new electronics and all that gear and just learn how she sails. If I decide to start heading way offshore then yes, I need to learn charting and spend some cash on some good electronics, but until then, I have the entire Galveston bay and Clear Lake to explore.

Ok, well, Im headed off to work. I know, I know, its the day before T-day, but o well. I gotta finish up so I can go surfing next week!

Back Back and Ready for ACTION

Well Im back from the cruise. We had a great time and I would take one again, however like I sa before, its not really my style.

We consumed just wayyyyyy toooo much alcohol. My final tab for 7 days was 600 dollars and well, Im hurting. Im pretty sure I wont be able to drink like that again for a long time, I just constantly pushed it. The reasoning behind it was my celebration of my death of my current self. Things are changing very very much on the personal front, and well, I got hired today at my new job. Ill be the 9-5 guy for a while so I can get my experience and certifications to move on and recover easier from long long surf trips. The money is very very decent for my level of experience (37K start) and they are willing to pay for my certs with Microsoft and well lets just say, those are not cheap. Its time for a temporary change. Waking up early. Working out. No more partying (at least weekday partying). Im watching all my friends grad from college, get married, move away for good jobs and it seems Im one of the last sticking to my guns. This is my gateway and only way to step it up to the next level and Im ready to sacrifice a little while to make it happen.

Anyways, Ill try and start posting regularly again. I have been slacking and Im trying to stop that. I have been working hard on the boat and all my parts for the engine just made it in today so hopefully that will be fixed in the next week or 2. All my rigging and everything is about to be ordered in a day or so, so brand new rigging is going to rock! She should be nice and ready to take out hopefully by the middle of next month. Ill keep everyone posted on my new career as a sailing surfing traveling maniac!

Leaving on Sunday

Im leaving on sunday for my cruise. Yessss! We are headed out for 7 days to Grand Caymen, Jamaica, and Cozumel. Cruises arnt really my style of travel, but it will be fun. I think the plan is just to drink as much as possible. The fun news is, a huge front is coming down from the NE, and its looking like some bigggggg seas we will be crossing. This should be fun!

http://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/waves/latest_run/wna_ecg.anim.gif

yeaaa......

My Bday!

Not much has been going on, just working and trying to get that new job. My birthday was monday, and Im now.....23. Umm, yea.

Ill write more later, been super busy!

Not much to say

Well, I dont have a whole lot to say here, just wanted to poke back in. I guess I gotta start keeping up with this thing again because that was my goal, to try and post as much as possible. Not too much has been going on. The boat is getting there, slowly. Im watching the weather like a hawk and just waiting for any sign of swell on our horizons. Its not coming.....

I might be making a job change. Yes.. Im thinking about tossing in the cards on my current job. The travel and all the time off are not worth it anymore with all of the crap I have to deal with and the wear-n-tear I do "non-reimbursed by the way" Im doing to my vehicle. So, Im exploring another option at the moment, and if it works out then I will post about it. It will pretty much signal the end of my traveling for now..... but.... it will provide the funding for that "UP AND VANISH" move that my current job cannot provide the cheese for. It will provide more working cash for the boat, and it will get me in on the cutting edge of IT work, which, is a true passion of mine. It will give me the means to get certified in all of the things I want so when I vanish, I can come back to something instead of nothing. Dont worry my few readers, Im not abondoning my dreams by any means. Im exploring another route to them. If anything, Im still on my path of living day to day, one day at a time, and trying to explore every option that comes my way. Im not a chronic job hopper, I prefer some stability. Yet, this opportunity is my newest sense of adventure for the moment. Im still living my dream, just in different contexts.

Another weekend on the boat

This is her, a 1983 Catalina 25. Yes, I know the sail is up, Im airing it out!

So, I spent another weekend down in Seabrook, Tx working on my boat. I didn't get much done this weekend but I did finish cleaning the starbord quarterberth. All thats left now is the head/sink and the Vberth in the bow. I really need to get to work on the wood on the outside but at the moment, Im trying to just get her ready to sail.

We had a bit of an issue with the outboard this weekend so hopefully we will be throwing it in the shop and letting those guys take a stab at it. At this point, Im just ready to hit the water.

Guatemala 2007

This is a small video I made of my Guatemala footage I had. Enjoy

The trip pictures are up!

This is a picture of Lago Atitlan in Guatemala from up on the highway leading down into Panajachel.

Well, they are up folks. You can see them at

www.flickr.com/photos/astraltx

They go from pages 1 through 7 and I will post some here on my blog as well. I keep hearing from people that I should write a book about this last surf trip and my new upcoming project, the Catalina. I have been thinking hard about it, and it sounds like a damn good idea. I love to write and writing a book would mean a lot to me. To know that people would actually be reading about my adventures thrills me and excites me. It pushes me to go out and do more! The next series of trips are going to be pushing things to the limit again. For next year Im considering the following...

1) Drive my RAV4 all the way to Panama and back.

2) Take buses/hitchhike/bum rides all the way to Panama and back for the ultimate backpacking experience.

3) Possible slight detour from surfing and head to Syria with my best friend Rami for a month or more. Once there, we will hit the buses and goto Lebanon and Jordan and possibly in Saudi Arabia.

Who knows. The possibilities are endless! Im really banking on number 1 and 2 though, I would love to see all of Central America.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh.... the wonderlust.

The surf here has been nothing to even mention or talk about. Its been flat as hell after hurricane Dean, which sucked anyways. My older brother's friend gave me a brandnew quicksilver 3/2 and I cant wait to get out in the lineup this winter in a new, good suit. Hopefully, I wont freeze my ass off this year.

And the Fun Begins!

Well, I'm already learning the fun stuff of being a boat owner. Today I had a guy I know come over and check out my rigging as I know absolutely nothing about it. He said it was satisfactory but I need to replace all of the rope and work on some of the rope guides. Then we pulled the outboard off to start the process of getting all of the algae and barnacles off of it to clear the water intake and prop. Yay, fun stuff.

The boat needs some serious cosmetic touch up inside the cabin. Mostly, a major cleaning and then refinishing all of the wood on the outside and touchup the inside. The wood inside is still in great shape, just needs to be cleaned. I have to work on a small leak coming from somewhere on the starboard side windows/hatch. It still remains a mystery. Today we plugged in the shore power and checked out the boats electrical system and it seems intact and working. We got all lights and fans running and what seemed to be a small charge moving on the deep cycle but Im not sure.

I cannot begin to explain the level of excitement from all of this. Its amazing looking at her in the water and just going, damn, thats mine, and I'm going to sail her like no other. I cant wait to get it fully ready to liveaboard. Im hoping to make that transition by the end of september if the money holds out. Ohh, Ill try and get some pictures soon. She's a 1983 Catalina 25. Shes 25' in length, beam of 8ft, draws 4ft, and has a fixed keel. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!
Also, I have all the pictures from Mexico and Guatemala ready to be posted, so Ill start getting them into Flickr sometime this week and Ill post the link. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! Im excited!!!!!

Approved

I checked out the boat saturday. She is awsome! Im going to have to reaaaaally spend some time cleaning her and working on it, but I already cant wait. Im extreamly excited about this and I think it will give me some direction in all these last months I have with no work. Im already compiling a huge list of projects I need to do, all mostly just labor not much cash.

So today I went to my bank and BLAM, they approved me for the $4,000 I asked for no problem. The guy lowered the price to help me out a little to $3,000 so that gives me an extra 1K to have in case of emergency needs for the boat. I will hang on to it for a while and eventually just roll it back into the loan payment if I dont need it after a few months of work. Im super excited and ready to begin working on her. Now I just need to get the title signed, get it registered and all that mess. Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Im pumped!

Back From Surfing

Well, I just got back from a decent session down in SurfSide Texas, aka HillBilly City. I don't know what it is about hurricane swell but it brings out everyone who owns a damn board. I swear yesterday in the water some guy next to me was talking to his buddy about his board and he called the fin a "SKEG"! I almost threw up all over the place. Damn hillbillys on surfboards.

Anyways hahaa, I had some good rides. I wish I would have had my fish on me, but she is still under the knife in my garage to repair the nice rail damage I did with my shin in Mexico. So my rides were quick and to the point but it was still a little fun although frustrating at times for sure.

Not much has been going on, just working on some projects still with a friend. Last weekend I went to Mississippi to visit my older brother and some of my family and we had a blast. Free beers in Casinos are the greatest. A ton of drama has been going down between me and my ex in Mexico and basically well,,,, it just sucks to be separated from the person you love. So, that all has to come to an end because basically our circumstances just dont allow for it right now. Such a sad realization.

Well, I decided right now to spill the beans on project "New Apt/Exploration". This weekend Im headed back down to the coast to check out a 25' Catalina. Thats a sailboat for those who dont know. Shes pretty nice but small. It just happens to have the perfect price tag for living on it and learning the arts of sailing. It sleeps 3-4 people, has a bathroom(no shower), and a full kitchen with a table and benches. The guy is asking $3500 for it, and I think Im a go. I have been checking all the marinas in the area and getting everything lined up to live aboard and try that out for a while. Yes it will be hot. Yes it will be hard. Yes it might not work out too well. But, Im determined to make this happen. This is the first step to one day criss crossing the world looking for surf. I'd rather spend under 5k and find out if I like it or not than 20K. See what I mean? So thats been my primary concern for the past couple of days, and I will let you all know how it goes when I get back this weekend.

An Excerpt from My Journal

This is an excerpt from my journal from when I was in Mex. Its about the freedom of the road, and I wrote this at 2am when I couldn't sleep one night. Its a little... "off" but I thought it was pretty interesting when I read it the next day.

"The hunt for these damned elusive forms of energy. It almost seems insane at times, even to me. The joy though, especially of traveling, of living in the now, it's indescribable. Every day I just wake up, check the map, and we decide where to go. The freedom is just awesome. I have now seen the power of a vehicle and really how insignificant borders are. They are imaginary lines full of imaginary bureaucratic bullshit, designed to scare you and keep you out. But once you cross those lines, a whole new world opens up.

I could have driven around the world if I had wanted to, and had the time and money. You just hit the road, clear the border, and there is that much weight gone. You blast some Tome Petty, just roll with it, and take the next border as you get there. I guess border crossings are kind of like daily issues, but without the great reward for clearing it. Live in the "now", roll with the punches, its almost all illusionary. Drop the windows, put your foot down, crank the stereo. We just hit Guatemala. What's next? Honduras, Belize, El Salvador? Fuck... wherever I want. You can choose. Who knows what you will find there.

Roads are incredible things. They can open an entire world of fates, possibilities, and events, just by leading you somewhere. I truly believe that roads can be powerful tools and even healing objects when used correctly. Some people say that maps steer us in the the direction we need to go without getting lost, or as least as possible. Fuck that. They can do that when you use these poorly understood objects for such a mundane task. I look at a map and I see possibilities. I see hope. I see the unknown. Maps can help you escape reality. They can force you to live in the "now". Don't plan. Roll with it. Go left, right, straight, hell its your choice. If it doesn't work out then turn around and go back. Kinda sounds like life doesn't it??"


The night I wrote all of that, I had a lot on my mind. I was feeling good. I was feeling ready to conquer the world with my car and newfound freedom. My curiosity is so intense, its hard to quell it. I wish I would have driven into El Salvador and scored some good right hand point breaks. There is always next year, plus... who knows whats on the horizon hehehehehe.

Back in the Mix

Yeapp..... I'm pretty much fully back in the mix. I'm working again (not much, but working is working) and just trying to sort some stuff out for next year. Where to go?????? So many choices, I think I'll let my savings account decide next year. Im getting ready to sign up for some fall classes again but I have no idea what Im going to take.

My buddy Chris and I have been working non stop on a program that we really hope to sell to the small business market. We also hope that we can sell tech support services through this software and try and make a little more cash on the side with that. I really hope this works out. I would love to give out the details, but NO WAY! Its just toooo awsome!

Well, Im here at work right now, and there is about to be a supposed 6 hour meeting about pretty much nothing. This should be about as exciting as brain surgery so Im really looking forward to this hahaa.

Ill try and post more this month, I have some stories I want to relate from Mexico.

Im back

Well, first I just want to say Im sorry for everyone who still reads this piece of shit. Yea I know I hardly updated while I was in Mex but I was on a mission to keep an accurate diary this year and rewriting what I had just written seemed a little redundant to me. Also, trying to find or make the effort to walk to an internet cafe EVERYDAY or whatever to blog was just stupid. So, I want to say Im sorry.

Yea, so I got back on the first. I have been slowly trying to readjust to being here and its been hard as hell I can say that. Im trying to not drive like Im in Mexico. Im trying to fight the urge to pull over and grab a beer for the road to fight that traffic hahaha. Im trying to get used to hearing english everywhere I go, and change my thinking back to english. Im trying to get used to not surfing, exploring, or waking up to something new everyday.

Why is it such a crime to always want these things? Living dynamically as I have been for the past 2.5 months has been a life changing experience and one that I will never forget. I have been humbled in many ways and countless times on this trip. I wake daily now and no longer see my map. I no longer see options for my day. Now I see things I have to do. I see that routine filling in. I see no waves on my horizon.

I chased waves all over Mexico this summer. I scored great and I got skunked too on astronomical levels. That's the balance of this great activity that we surfers seek. One must pay the toll to keep riding. My tolls included many skunks. Getting stabbed. Living in a tent for 2.5 months. Crapping in things that could barely be called toilets. Somehow avoiding both Malaria and Dengue (I still dont know how). Getting sick countless times including food poisoning on the drive back home. Now Im back here, wondering what to do next.

On my last day in Mexico in Punta de Mita I did something I had set out to do but almost didnt. I drove out that afternoon and explored the Cabo Corrientes. What I found out there was simply amazing, and I drove merely 1/3 of it. I found little settlements of farmers and ranchers. I found towns where who knows when the last gringo came through. I found a beach that breaks good on NW swells that has a jetty and an all rock bottom. Has it ever been surfed? I doubt it. I found countless backcountry dirt roads for exploring for the patient. I found a little ranch where I bought some Raicilla, Mexican/Jalisco moonshine in an old dirty water bottle. I was glad I drove out there. It was long (6 hours) and hard but well worth it. There are still parts of Mexico on the coast that are untouched and this is one of them. Its absolutely beautiful, and for all those future land developers reading this, good luck, its all ejido and backcountry. You wont be able to get the infrastructure there for years, hell the road isnt even in barely passable condition in parts. So, just leave it be.

Im trying to decide what course to take lately. Im going to take some more classes this fall, thats a neverending mission. Just a few at a time, Ill finish eventually right? I need to start chunking back cash NOW to try and get a jump on the trip coming up next summer. Its looking like I may have 4 months off so thats going to be a little expensive on my end. Who knows where I will go. I have been thinking of many things. Drive to Panama? Australia? Bali/Indo? Im not sure what it will be but it will be good, thats for sure. Ill try to get back on this blogging thing. Sorry, my heart just isnt here right now.

I miss you Leslie

The phantom swell

Well our swell here in Mita has been taking the phantom route. First she decided to show her head almost 3 days late and it got good but not too lined up. Hrmm.... Joe and I got a boat to The Cove yesterday morning and it was big but not working that well. It was a solid 6 - 8ft with some bigger set waves coming through, but like I said, not that good. The first 5 minutes we were out there I had another brush with disaster. Im paddling toward this major set wave to try and get under it before it unloads on my head and I see this guy trying to take off on it. My first thought was "wow, this dude has some balls, thats a major drop and she is already looking like a closeout". I see him struggling and Im waiting to see which direction he will go so I can paddle out of the way when the wave starts pitching. He makes eye contact with me just as he eats it coming down the lip. I try and duck dive as hard as I can and just before I go underwater I see his board coming straight at me. I decide to not go too deep and I kick the tail of my board to angle her nose up and block my face. Good move..... kinda. It worked but the wave was so big it picked up me right as his board hit me in the head. I get flipped backwards and my own board is ripped from my hands by the force of the wave and I feel a leash wrapping around me. I became seriously entangled in his leash with both of our boards being wrapped up too. So here I am in the rinse cycle, now being dragged and hit with random boards and I cant make the surface. I really, seriously thought that I was going to drown but I did my best to stay calm and not fight the entanglement. I came out of the mess and immediatly saw another wave bearing down on us and got the fuck out of that disaster. He was apologizing profusely but I said it was all cool, I was just scared more than anything.

So that little incident set the stage for the rest of my session and I could not for the life of me make myself calm down and relax and just enjoy the waves. I took only one ride and it wasnt even worth writing home about. I got caught inside on a major clean up set and the second wave of that set decided that duckdiving a serious overhead wave as it slammed on me was not going to work. Yes... backwards through the rinse cycle again and that one had me coming up gasping. That was it for me. I paddled back out and sat there. I waited for the boat to come and just couldnt get my shit together. I had a lot on my mind as well and that didnt help either. So for the next 45 minutes, I sat there, like a fucking kook, dodging waves, and trying to rationalize some things in my head. I hate that crap. Sometimes surfing can get me to clear my head of all my problems and then other times it does nothing but make me think even harder about them.

Well Mita has been being nice to us again this year. Not surf wise but just meeting some cool people and all that mess. I think we have been invited to more free dinners and boat trips than I can recall. Im not ready to go home. My time is coming. We need to hit the road this monday or tuesday and Im not looking forward to it at all. I love Mexico. I love being on the road. I love surfing. Dammit...... what does it take??

Manzanillo

Well... after 2 weeks or something, we had to let poor Ticla go. Yes, we relenquished the hold on her waves and we decided to share. Of course I´m kidding.....

Ticla was amazing and we had a blast there. Too many beers, waves, tacos, and hamburgers to remember everything in order but I can say... I had a blast.

I want to give MAD PROPS to TACO JIM, hailing from LA... for eating 43 TICLA TACOS in 32 minutes!!!!!!! You will forever be remembered our linebacker friend!

Well, we have just 2 more weeks of this great trip and I´m sad to see it coming to and end. Its now or never, time to step it up. These last 2 weeks will not go down in any other way than spectacular. Yes.......... that´s the plan. PV and all those wonderful other waves in between.... here we come

in La Ticla

Well, I havent written in a long long while. Hell Im not even sure when was the last time I wrote. We are in La Ticla now and the waves have just been solid head to a couple of feet over head for the past 5 days or so. This left here is just fun and reeeeeeling without too much of a price for when you eat it. Only thing sketchy is the entrance and exit from the water, many many rocks and my feet are paying the price already.

Well, we had a blast up in Coleta de Campos and we stayed maybe a bit too long but that place was just addicting. The local family that owned the rest. we were staying in pretty much adopted us and when it was time to leave, phone numbers and promises of return were exchanged. We headed out past Maurata and Huihui (i think thats how it is spelled) because not much seemed to be happening and we got some stearn travel warnings for (wah wah). Evidently its pretty heavy there right now with the narcos and such so we just blazed on through.

Now in Ticla, we have us a solid Texas stronghold. There are a bunch of guys from Texas and we have been holding down the fort at our campsite hahahaa. Numerous nights of crazy partying, going dancing in the town dances and just general madness have been taking place. We have been hearing that the nickname for this place is Texla hahahahaha! We are camping with a guy who has been down here surfing in Mex at Ticla and Nexpa since the late 70s and even saw Petacalco breaking a few times before they built the dam. We are going to hang out a few more days here and then we will figure out what we are doing. Im trying to arrange a meetup with a cool guy from Cali out at my secret left point someone showed me last summer. We will see how that works out. Well..... until next time

CORY, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, you ready for the cruise when we get back?????????? I hope so, and you better start practising your drinking, your going to need it.

Skunked in Zihuat

Well we found the Ranch a day or 2 ago.... been 20+ people since we found it. The a frames just to the right of it have been providing but today they got us. Super bad current and peaks everywhere that I could not for the life of me get lined up in. So paddling in, I had a talk with God and asked him why he has been skunking us so much. I prayed for a better session somewhere else. Then I stepped on a sting ray in the rocks. Thats a pain like no other hahahaha, and thank God the guys at El Burro Burracho (where we arw camping) knew to grab some plants off the beach and boil them. Pain and the fever gone in 45 minutes or so!

Yea we have checked everything in the area. Playa Linda sucks lol.

Troncones beach break produced a little right for me the other day and then yesterday it decided that it had enuogh of me sneaking into rights so it pounded the liiving hell out of me!

Saladita has been 20+ people and small since we arrived. Yea I have decided this place has tons of potential but is juust too DANG close to an airport for its own good. Take the American guys we ran across in Ixtapa 3 days agao (just after I posted my last post). We asked them about the ranch and all they would say is (you were close, try harder). Ok.... fuckk you dude, its not a secret spot by any means, and your sugar bottom flew in here and got a rental jeep and crap. I drove my sugar bottom off to get here, got stabbed in the arm in Tapachula, and got robbed again in Zipolite. I have earned my right to be at the Ranch! I wasnt asking about the best secret in mexico, i was asking about the ranch. What assssholes!!!

Anyways, yea... even to us its just funny. We just laugh and keep driving at this point. I REFUSE to believe that Mexico is a closeout from Puerto E to Guatemala. We just have some type of stars aligned against us or something. Maybe this is Gods grand design at a lesson from hell, Im not sure. Im sure of one thing, Im going to find some surf, some good surf, and Im going to surf my brains out. Its time for this trip to really commence. I knew I should have continued on to El Salvador when I was only 40km from the border!!!! but seriously, thanks for the tips guys. tomarrow we head for nexpa on a dying swell. Its more of a stopping point or something for us. Until next time, I can promise you that despite the lack of waves we are having a blast, and believe me., we are doing our fare share of keeping the Mexican breweries in biz

In Guerrero now....

Well, Barra de la Cruz was a complete slap in the face.

They now charge 20 pesos per person for beach access, even if you walk!!!!

They can have that sh!thole..... <_< <_< <_<

We blazed on and checked Huatulco and found the Bocana mentioned, just a large closeout in rocks at the time of my arrival....

Checked every dirt road north to Boca Vieja and other non mentioned bays and after 2 hours of dirt roads I said lets blast out to Puerto!!!

We made it to Zipolite (a little town before puerto) and surfed there a little... In the morning we were once again victoms of a theif and Joe lost his cell phone and camera. Yea we canceled the service <_< <_<

Puerto had too much attitude for me. I know you think I chickened out but it was only head high and on shore when I got there and TONS of surfers. We headed further north and scored a great wave for 3 days. wow that place was fun but tons of current. I guess you cant have it all right???

We left there and headed into Guerrero and found a great left point break. Free camping and super cheap food, perrrrrrect and this mornings session was pretty good despite the GIANT seaturtle that surfaced 3 feet in front of me for my semi heart attack of the week. :lol: :o :lol:

We are going to explore Guerrero some more, tons of potential here just south of the big A.

wiffleboy....... man..... I found the spot for you dude, wooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!! Ill send ya the details when I get back

Back in Tapachula

Well, after seriously considering entering El Salvador since we spent the night only 40km from it in Monterrico, we have headed back to Mexico. The drive was pretty long but the border crossing was fine. We are going to call it a night again here in Tapachula but in a hotel hahahha. No more free camping here in this city.

I just want to say thanks to everyone for leaving a comment. My arm is healing pretty good and we took the stiches out the other day. My nose is healing pretty fast also.

The surf in Guatemala was running but I dont think big enough. Im not going to write off that beach or Guatemala completely just yet. The waves in Monterrico do break right onto the beach, but I feel there was not sufficient swell to make it break a little further out. There is surf in Guatemala, its just a little elusive. The hotel was super nice and we only paid 100 quetzales (about 13 usd) to stay for 1 night, 2 people, and secured parking.

Well, tomarrow I think we are blasting to the Oaxacan coast line so Ill try and update as soon as I can.

In Lago Atitlan, Guatemala

Well Joe and I are currently in Lago Atitlan Guatemala. We scored big time when we ran into 2 older ladies at the Tapachula aduana and they invited us to crash at their hotel for free and follow them into Guatemala. We turned it down but got their number and somehow ran into them doing the crossing, which... was a blast I might add.

Last night sleeping way in a poorer side of Puerto Madero/Puerto Chiapas, we had an incident.We had been letting our guards down and well, I paid.We found this huge semi concrete abandoned palapa and pulled the car under it. After dinner and beers yadda yadda, joe slept in the car and I pulled out my little foam pad and slept next to the fire.

Around 215am, i randomly woke up and started trying to rebuild the fire. thats when I noticed the shady guy walking up.FUCKKK WHERE IS THE FLASHLIGHT???? He talks to me in pretty good english, about my age, and asks for some pesos for some ciggarretts or something, i throw him 20 and say im going to bed. I laid awake in the dark for a while and he did return to grab something he left and he left again.

Anyways, next thing I know, hes coming up behind me as Im laying on my stomach and as I turn to get up, he grabs me around the neck with something sharp against my throat, im thinking glass, still dont know. I fight naturally, and get cut on the hand, then in the struggle one slice catches the bottom of my nose tearing it up, then I got stabed in the arm. Im yelling for joe, cause its dark as hell and Im disoriented and seriously scared for my life. Joe comes running out with the machette and the guy takes off like mad. We hit the hospital, 4 stiches in the arm and cleaning for everyting else. I cannot stop replaying that thought in my head. It took everything I had to enter Guatemala today and to convince myself its a fuckked up world and that could have happened anywhere, and next time we reaaaaaly need to pick better spots, paid, and closer. Glad to know God was watching out for me, and I thank god I had joe with me.

In Chiapas Mexico

Well, I know I havent been posting but its a little hard when you are on the road for the past 7 days.

The trip so far has been totally amazing! I have adapated so much and so fast it scary! The driving for instance, they drive how I wish I could in the states, so its fun as hell to me!!!!!!!!

We took the Gulf route all the way down and turned south from the Gulf to Palenque. That place is just indescribable. After we hit that, we took the frontier highway and stayed in a small indegeneous mayan village called Lancanja. The back on the higyway again, and skipping many many details, I am now in Tapachula Mexico, right on the border with Guatemala. We decided a long time ago not to enter but curiosity has gotten the best of us, and we are now awaiting monday to finish paperwork and hopefully enter what so far looks like a nightmare of paperwork and mordidas. AHHHHHHH

Well the surf is running here but its mostly a beach slamming closeout so we are investigating tides and other beaches close bye. I cannot venture too far because my car permit is now suspended for my entry into Guatemala.

Ill try and post again soon.

I seriously love this place. If I had it my way, I would never come back...

Cmonnnnnnnnnnn, We're almost there! (sub title: Happy Mothers Day!)

Wellllll............... Im home from some party that was partly thrown in our honor for our trip that is occuring very very soon. It was pretty interesting and I had a lot of fun.

So as the date is nearing, Im watching my bank account dwindle quite rapidly. In the past 3 weeks I have spent the following..

Yakima racks = $250
Panasonic 3ccd miniDV cam = $430
Fuji 7mp digital cam with accessories = $260
PREVIOUS APARTMENT DAMAGE (they tracked me down) = $400
oil change and inspection = $70
misc. parts for my car (mostly brakes) = $150
other major car parts = $200
labor for installtion of said car parts = $235
---and this is what I can remember!----

----still to come-----
food and other needed camping supplies = $175
extra camera shit = $80
more car parts = $50
car registration = $60
and who knows what all else

Yeaaaaaa this is all hurting but it is going to be worth it. 6.................moreeeeeeeeeee...................daysssssssssssssssssssss

I can make it....

A small rant on American auto makers

So I'm driving down the freeway and I'm headed back from a surf session
in less than spectacular waves but we will get to that in a moment. I'm
going to go ahead and apologize now if things are spelled crazy because
I'm driving while typing this.

Moving on... So I just saw a billboard advertising the Chevy truck and
it said "Our Country, Our truck." And I have to say I'm a little pissed
to see what most people with their heads on correctly, a now inferior
Chevy resorting to 'patriotic' tactics to keep consumers faithful. First
and foremost let me pont out that driving a japanese vehicle is by no
means "unpatriotic". Almost the entire fleet of Hondas, Nissans, and
Toyotas are assembled here in the USA. Basically, your being just as
patriotic buying a Japanese car as an American car. Americans are still
working in those factories building them.
So now that Chevy has been officially creamed by the new and truely
badass Toyota Tundra and the Nissan Titan and the sales show that Toyota
sales outpaced GM in Q1, they are pulling the curtains. GM is now back
on the path that every single American car maker takes when they get
beaten. Instead of heading to the drawing board and creating some
efficient, reliable, durable, and safe they would rather try and make us
feel somehow less of an American for not buying an inferior product.
Hopefully Chevy's gimmick only appeal only to rednecks and poorer
cowboys who usually represent a small percent of American/Texan
purchasing power. Lets take some time and try to find Chevy/GM and the
other American auto makers shortcomings shall we?
1st. Reliability. American auto makers are out to make money. Save money
of fast design. Save money in production. Make money in costly repairs.
American makers do have certain models that fair extreamly well in
durability ( dodge 97-2001 cummins diesel engines for example) but they
simply cannot shake a stick at japanese reliability.

2.efficiency. Hardly any of the American makers have tried to implement
more fuel efficient vehicles. GM has played another clever trick by
rolling out "flexfuel' cars but anyone who knows anything about ethanol
can see straight through this. Plus ethanol is more polluting than
fossil based fuels. With the hybrid argument out of the way, now we can
talk about inefficient engine designs. Americans have always stood by
the saying "there is no replacement for displacement" and I'm not sure
why. Its almost as if we are a little insecure about the sizes of out
penises or something. You take the ford v8 in the mustang gt. It makes
somewhere around 320hp I'm guessing and yes I have been in one, quick
but not fast. Now take the nissan v6 in the 350z and infinity g30.
Almost 300hp in a v6 AND 24mpg gas milage. You don't even want to know
what the ford gets. Simply, inefficient.

3.attractive styles. American car makers are just now getting it and
barely. Hell ford used the same gauge cluster design for 10 years in
trucks, mustangs, and other sedans. BORING! Cars are supposed to be fun
not mundane. The big American makers are now jumping on the '20s'
gimmic. Please, not all of use wanna look like a ghetto rat. If 20s are
all you have then ill once again stick with my imports.

4. Competative pricing. Here is where they fall short again. If you ever
go cheap on an American car, you better call the church and ask for
constant prayer or something for the lifetime of the vehicle. Lets do
just a small comparison.
My best friend rami just bought a car and his girlfriend also has a new
car.
Her 2006 mustang Gt, 30k+, all power and leather and other plain options
that come on all other cars, 340+hp, average 13mpg.

Rami's new 2007 lexus is250 (a toyota if I may). 34k, 240gp at 26mpg,
full touch screen talking navigation, bluetooth for cell phones, all
power and leather, push button start, KEYLESS EVERYTHING! No key to
start or unlock just have the pad on ur body. , HID headlights that turn
when you turn, paddle shifting, plus tons more. Lexus has one most
reliable car award for like 2 or 3 years in a row. And he gets free
unlimited oil changes and car washes for like 2 or 3 years.

30k+ mustang vs. 34k is250. Apples and oranges ladies and gentlement.

So to wrap this up, chevy, shut the fuck up with your patriotic
gimmicks. Ur loosing and will continue to loose until you really realize
why no one wants to drive your vehicles. Don't try and make me feel
guilty for wanting a car far superior to anything you have ever produced
that wasn't 50k. Ill continue to buy japanese cars and not feel a damn
bit of guilt, because they are still....built....in...america.

Apparently we have neither waves nor surfing talent (here in Texas)

A quote from http://queen-of-the-surf-pirates.blogspot.com/

"But maybe it is your lucky day that you ended up here after all... because if you were looking to learn to do any surfing on South Padre, I need to tell you something... I know surfers who live in Texas and they all pretty much suck at surfing, mostly because they don't have any surf to speak of there. I can also tell you that all of those Texan Surfers I know just end up coming here to the Outer Banks to learn how to do it right because we have surf and real surfers here to teach them. So just save your money and a wasted trip to Texas, head here instead and we will show you how surfing is done."

Well, in response to that, I decided to throw up some pictures from last week. Ohh, and we have had pretty consistent waist high surf for almost the past 2 weeks :) I just happen to live on the upper coast where conditions can be a little more fickle but we still get it decent.

No talent in Texas, we all "suck"

No Size here either...

Same as above....

Once again.. no skill....

We tube dodge...

We don't have much size....

... you know I still love you Paula the Surf Mom :)

A Wild Weekend

This weekend was the Ellsworth crawfish bash. Wes Ellsworth is the man
responsible for our texas surf forecasts and he is an all around awsome
guy. Saturday night they invited everyone from our surf forum
(www.elride.net) out to their lovely home. Tons of people made it and it
was awsome to finally put some faces to names of the people I chat with
online.

The party was freeeaaakin wild! Everyone was having a blast. I had just
a tad bit too much to drink and then started eating crawfish which ended
up getting me sick as hell. I puked a couple of times that night before
I crashed on a couch there. That
suckkkkked. I haven't been hungover/sick like that in a while.

Anyways, we had a blast. As you can see, my counter is getting lower and
lower. I'm within 3 weeks of departue now and I can hardly contain my
excitement. I'm almost ready to go and I have just a few more things to
take care of. I could have been doing it now but my dumbass flipped out
the other day when checking out some things in my bank account. I had a
wierd charge that just said "HOU ITV MEXICO D.F" for $40 bucks and then
a wellsfargo charge of 1.20 for converting usd into pesos. Hrmmm...... I
though about it for a while and could not remember any purchases to
mexico so I called and started to have it investigated and
cancelled all my cards. 15 minutes later.... "DAMN I'M A FUCKING
IDIOT!!!!!!". That charge was the charge from the consulate banjercito
to get my vehicle import permit for my car. Damn why couldn't they just
call it "Banjercito" or something? So I called back and canceled the
investigation on it quickstyle for fear of messing up my paperwork and
creating a redtape nightmare to get it fixed in mexico. The cards
however could not be cancelled so here I am waiting on a new set of
debit cards for the next 6-8 biz days. Doh!

I got my new video camera in the mail a couple of weeks ago. I bought it
just for this trip and I cannot wait to be filming with it. It has
amazing picture quality as it is a 3ccd camera. I got the Panasonic
pv-gs320 from newegg.com for $430.00 with a badass carrying case.
Everyone else wants around $500 for this camera so I got a pretty good
deal. Like I said though, the picture quality is just totally unreal! Be
looking for a webcondensed version of my trip dvd when I return. Well
its a beautiful monday here in Houston and tax season is officially over
so I only work tuesdays and thursdays now! Well I guess I will do some
laundry, clean the bathroom, and go work out.

Surfed Today

Wow, did texas go off!

Chest high and seriously on shore when I showed but the weather was crossing the coast. I had to wait out a serious lightning storm before I could get my jollies wet. As I paddled out, I suddenly realize just how out of shape I am. So with that thought, starting next week, I will be paddling my ass off in the lake nearby to strengthen those arms.

I surfed for a while and only got 1 ride when the cold front approached. Its very eerie watching a cold front approach like that. I stayed in the water while it passed and it brought with it 20+mph offshores. NO BUENO! Its sooo hard to get over the lip with a 20mph offshore blowing all the water in your face and making the front of your shortie act like a damn kite! It got cold fast and I finally paddled in to wait out the rain and pray the winds would back off. My friend Charlie showed up and I waited it out with him and we ran off to grab some food. Finally, the sun came out and the winds backed off to around a 5mph offshore. PERFECT!

After a 1 hour nap in my car while Charlie caught up on his session, I paddled out on the fish to try and make something of this whole trip to the coast. Low and behold, I did. I caught the longest ride of my life today and even though that long ass ride had some serious downsides like a massive paddle back out, it was worth it. It was probably over 70 yards and lasted what seemed like forever. I finally had time to slow it all down and execute my moves by wanting and not just muscle memory. PERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRFECT!

I couldn't have prayed to make it better. I needed that ride, I have needed that ride for almost a year. Thank you....

So......Tired

I'm blogging mobile from my phone today. I'm incredibly tired and today
will be a very long day indeed for me, that I can be sure of.

I hung out with my ole computer buddy and damn good friend Chris
lastnight/this morning. We got together and decided to get back in our
old coding ways and start programming some stuff. Well, we decided to
make an all nighter out of it and here I am at 9:45 am, about to finally
take a 1 hour nap before I head into work.

We were working on an awsome project we think we can sell to small
business owners. Its a VNC Que Tech Support server to get all advanced.
In english, its a server that ques remote desktop connections so a tech
support team can just click and connect to you and help you with the
problem and all this without dealing with custom firewall/router
configurations etc. Its awsome! We are probably 30-40% done overall. We
spent all of our time tonight working on the main server and reverse
engineering the VNC protocols to use them the way we want.

Anyways, bleeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhh..... Yea so, wednesday I went to the
consulate of mexico in downtown and got my vehicle import permit. That
was incredibly easy, only took 10 minutes and I was outa there. I'm
really excited because we are nearing down on the date and all these
things are bringing us closer and closer.

Yup, well its time to pass out for a bit.

Babel

Well I watched this movie for the first time last night and I have to say that I have not been so moved by a movie in a while. The director first and foremost is a genius and I have seen his other works (21 grams, Amores Perros). If you have not seen Amores Perros, watch it! Its in all subtitles but cmon, don't miss out on a great film just because it is not in english!

Babel was simply moving. Im not afraid to admit that it made me cry in more than one part. Its amazing the way the director is able to beautifuly portray the Human condition. Always fighting, seperating ourselves, especially by language country and tradition. I truely understand the meaning of the title now. Watch this movie, you will not regret it.

Anyways, I had a pretty good weekend. Passed up some surf but thats ok. it was good but the cold front hit faster than expected and the water temps keep dipping back into that 'wetsuit' territory. Im getting very tired of this as we are merely weeks away from May. The water needs to hit a solid 75 and STAY THERE! I've pretty much given up on surfing until I go on my trip. Looks like Texas once again is going to fuck me. Thanks Lone Star State.

Easter Weekend

Well, I did not do much. I hung out with my friend Adriana from Mexico as she came into town for the weekend and that was fun. I haven't seen her in a while so it was good to see her. As I dropped her back off at the bus station (the same bus station I left from on my trip to Mexico last year) I started to become overwhelmed with that crazy pretrip traveling. Just looking at the bus in all of it's monstrosity, the smell of the diesel thick in the air, the driver checking tickets at the door. I suddenly began to think of the possibilities. I could run inside and grab a ticket to just about anywhere if I felt so inclined. I started to feel free again. I felt compelled to get on that bus and just blast away, I'll think about the consequences later.

*sigh*, moving on, I saw the movie '300' this weekend. The acting was a little subpar but I have to say that the story and the cinematography were amazing. I haven't seen that much gor and blood in a movie in a while but I felt like they did it in a pretty tasteful way. Its hard to avoid bloody scenes in war movies I don't care what anyone says. It was a gigantic buffet of beautiful people though as I had heard hahaha. I swear, every guy shot in that movie was just totally rippppedd!!!! Maybe one day I can look like that, blehhhhhh.

The End is Near!

Well, for my work anyways. Our last day I think is going to be the 17th this year and that is pretty exciting. What ever will I do with myself after the work is no longer fullt time you may ask? Why, I will being a very tough workout routine until I leave for my trip. I gotta drop some pounds and get the arms ready to be pulverized. I plan on paddling the lake as much as I can on my shortie to build the stamina back up. Its worked well in the past so Ill try it again. Maybe I cam tie something to the back of my surfboard and pull it around, like a person on a raft or another surfboard or something. Thats the other thing we used to do when paddling the lake.

In some other news, I talked my boss into paying me for my entire 2 month vacation! The catch is I have to go on this cruise thing he and our office manager are promoting all over houston. Its a 7 day cruise from October 27th - November 4th and it hits Grand Caymen, Jamaica, and Cozumel. My ticket plus gambling and whatever should run me around 800 max so Ill still be making 1600 for those 2 months I will be paid. That money pretty much pays for my entire trip so I'm pretty stoked. All the money I have saved up so far is now "idle" but thats a great thing! I will keep saving it and throw it towards my trip for next summer.

I got some Yakima racks for my RAV4 and they are awsome. Totally worth the $257 they cost me. Solid as hell and I think they support like 150lbs on the racks!!! I wish I could post some pics....

Woooooooooooooo

Its friday!!!!!

Not a whole lot been going on. We have been having a consistently crappy week of surf. Mushy wasit high all week and after my last session, Im not driving back to the coast until she hits chest high or bigger. The good news is the water temp is up to 73f now so its totally trunkable. Im just praying for some surf right now. Taking that much time off from surfing is just not good especially when Im heading to Mexico in a month and a half. Grrrrrr there has to be a better place to live with a better line up and warm water.

On a sidenote, I was talking with one of my Palestinian friends today. She moved back to the westbank around a year ago and has been living there ever since. She is very involved with the protests and NGO groups there and she is just doing awsome things. Anyways, she invited me to come over there and hook me up with a place to stay provided by the NGOs for a little while. I deeeeply support the Palestinian cause and this would be a chanceto first hand get involved. The protests turn violent very very often but she assured me they only shoot rubber bullets, tear gas, and sound bombs hahaha. Still sounds horrible but it is just a small price to pay to be involved and to show my support for them. Its something I will consider for the next year as its looking pretty good that my boss has given the green light to 4 months off next summer. damn I just cannot wait! I need to save like hell and come up with a good itinerary for after a month in Israel/West Bank. Maybe take a hop down to S. Africa or Madagascar??? GOOOOOOd SURFFFFF! Who knows, we will see how the money goes and the possibility of working in the insurance field next sumer. HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE

And the Surfing was...

Yup. It did not.

Nope, not even.

WTF????

Joe, Charlie, and I all met up at the Chevron this morning at 5:30am to gas up and grab some food and stuff. Then we were off, complete with some 2way radios, toll roads, Monsters, and little Mexican pastries.

5:55am, driving

Charlie: BEEEEP "Hey David, Whats the Galveston bouy reading?"

David: BEEEEP "Hrmm, Its at 4.3ft but reading a NNE swell at 6 seconds. Thats wierd, it must be malfunctioning. I know it always reads lower but NNE?"

Charlie: BEEEEP "Yea, Lets just hit Gtown, I dont think surfside is going to be much better. Whats the water temp at flagship?"

David: BEEEEP "Yea surfside bouy is showing solid 6.3ft at 8 seconds but crazy winds. Flagship water temp is a cozy 67F"

Charlie: BEEEEP "Alright, lets hit Gtown then, we can tuck in behind the jetties to break the current"

David: BEEEEP "Im down"

And thats how it went. You just have to love modern technology. Upon arriving in Galveston we quickly saw just how disorganized and choppy it was. O well, 80 miles, we are getting in the water no matter what. I'm in a fullsuit for the beginning of the session. I'm thinking about some software changes I made at work last night and praying I dont start getting blasted with tech calls and end up driving back to Houston. I twas waist - waist+ and very mushy. My 6'2" was just not cutting it, but I trudged on, wanting desperately to get the board wired and see her potential. Wave after wave missed, blown, not popping up fast enough.

I get out and change into some board shorts, a vest,and a rash guard over that and just brave the water and too my suprise it was not that bad. After missing another who knows how many waves, I decided to end the session before I threw my board into the seawall.Charlie and joe just kept trying to reassure me not to get pissed over such shitty conditions and that it was hard for everyone today. *Sigh*I just want out of this state. I want warmth, sun, good waves....I want to progress. I want to surf a lot!I want to surf well!I want to never see a wetsuit again...Im very down trodden with today. I'm just getting that wierd rush of "stuckness" all over again. I'll never make it out of this shithole....

*this was an old post, but blogger was screwing up. the date of this post should be marchh 21st, wednesday

And Here We Are...

The week of the long lost surf has finally arrived. Its spring, its warm, and its currently waist to chest and building. THANK GOD! Already I'm checking which classes I can skip and dodge without missing too much material. Im going to try and DP all week if I can and possibly just get a day off of work for some surffffffff. I can't wait to be in boardshorts on my new board and in sizable surf. The first and only time I have ridden it was in less than ideal shortboard conditions and I was in a fullsuit which I hate surfing in. I'm ready to see this boards potential and what I can do on it. No more big thick shorties, Im moving into the 'potato chip' series now.

Well I have been communicating a little with the online magazine Drift (link on the sidebar) and there might be a little "voyage of the swell" type deal in the works. As the countdown timer shows, my friend and I are setting out on a huge trip this summer and I would love to write about it. Im going to try my best to film the entire trip as well and document as much as I can. I have a few issues about writing about my trip though so those of you who read this, please feel free to chime in and let me know what you think.

The issues I have with writing about my trip stem from a sense of selling out and/or possibly exposing secret or lesser known breaks. I will do everything in my power not to expose places as Im pretty secretive about the spots I do know of and the ideas of future spots in my head. To me, even just giving the state that Im in is already too much information. I have to really think hard about this and see if it is worth it to write and potentially expose or just keep my stories to myself. I love writing, especially about my adventures I embark on and I would really love the opportunity to write for the surf and surf adventure community. I feel like my travel style has a special ring to it that would attract readers and inspire others to try their own style of adventure travel. Whether I write about and publish them or not, I can guarentee you all that I will be exploring some very remote regions and surf. I have several ideas down on paper and I have been googling and reading guidebooks about the local areas, and the more I find some to no information, I get very very exited. I have already been scouting some other countries for some future expeditions and I can say Im looking at the Caribbean and South America actively.

In other areas, everything else has been going fine. I have been promising myself to start blogging more, especially after I saw that I only had 15 total posts so far for 2007. I just dont have much to say lately and I dont want to bore you all with the same ole repetative shit. Well, hopefully, I will have some surfing to be writing about very very soon.

Waiting

Spring break is here. Water still chilly (64ish). We have no waves to speak of. Dammit.

Well Im still alive. Its beena while since I posted last so I figured I would throw something up on here.

Getting Warmer

The Gulf is warming her cute butt up, and I cannot tell you how exicted I am. I dont think I have been in the water since sometime around December, hell maybe even November! We are rapidly approaching warm spring trunkable waters and decent spring time surf. I hope we have an active spring time this year because last years left something to be desired.

So this weekend was a blast. I hung out with my bud Damien and we hit some new bars here in The Woodlands. In general it was a good time. I ran into an old friend from Venezuela at a bar here and it was good to see her again. They used to be part of the big Latin crew at the local junoir college I attend but they have all since moved on except a few. I too am left in this damn college. Sunday I woke up at Damien's and we decided to head out to this little pond (about the size of a football field) that I discovered wayyyyyy off in the woods by my house. This is all private property owned by The Woodlands Corp. We decided to try and fish it since I hadnt been fishing since I was a kid and I recently bought a rodnreel for my trip to Mex. We didnt catch anything but had some strongggg bites. We are going to change up the bait/lures when we head back out next weekend and hopefully we will have more luck.

Well not much has been going on, just counting the days. I have been thinking of trying to produce a surf movie lately about hardcore surf adventure. Think "Second Thoughts" by Timmy Turner. I think I am capable of doing this but getting it out there and licencing all the music and crap is discouraging me very fast. Ill keep everyone posted on this project.

Ohhh also... Im walking with a team for my company on March 11th here in AIDS Walk 2007 Houston. Please if you have the chance/time, drop by my donate page for my team and donate a couple of bucks if you can.
http://afh.convio.net/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1030&px=1058402

Never ending wanderlust

It just doesn't stop.

Im actually considering going to work in Iraq/Kuwait/Africa or pretty much anywhere overseas that I can drum up a shitton of cash fast so I can try and curb some of this wonderlust. My buddy Damien offered me that old spot at the City that I passed up on a while back. Dammit.....I cant get tied down yet to something predictable. I need to wonder, to surf, to just find something. Maybe that something is myself. Maybe that something is the meaning of life. I know people will try and pass off some religious "meaning of life" statement, but that just does not cut it for me. I need something solid. Something real. Faith does not hold that answer for me, well at least at this point in my life.

Truth be told, I think I am in the middle of an identity crisis of no small scale. Im hopelessly lost in my mind. Who am I? What am I to do with my life? Why must I follow the path set out before me by everyone else and their ideas of what is right? Why am I so afraid to take the 'leap'? What does money really mean? Why do I feel the need to have so many materialistic things in my life? Why am I now feeling the need to rid myself of everything, clothes, furniture, and all my useless shit?

Those are a fraction of the questions I am dealing with on a day to day basis. Hopefully, I will find some answers soon.

To change the subject up a little, I went shopping with Joe on sunday to try and grab some more stuff for the trip. I bought a new smaller backpack that I like for small hikes. I got a fishingpole for trying to catch a majority of our food when we are in Mex. I grabbed a small camp shovel/pick that folds up all nice and small. I got a meat cooker thingy you lay over/in the fire to cook the meat without it falling into the fire/dirt. Last but not least, the camp chair! Joe saved me as I was reaching out for a $4.00 collapsing metal chair and told me to go for the $12.00 one. I quickly remembered all those occasions when those shitty metal chairs break a leg or support beam. The time is flying by. Im saving my cash. Im getting mentally prepared. Im getting physically prepared.

Thy time is nigh o' captain.
Guide us through the depths of the lands
Bring us safely to Neptunes gifts
And return us as we came

The idea for whatever is written above was shamelessly stolen from Queen of the Surf Pirates. Thanks Paula the Surf Mom!!!!

Math Sucks

Yea....I failed my first Trig test. Yay. Failed completely out of lack of trying or care. I hate it. I can just tear myself down so bad mentally that I dont even want to do the work. I would do homework in almost any other class except math. I hate it. I understand math completely. I just hate the fact that I have to do so much of it for nothing. Blah

So yea the template changes that were supposed to go down on my blog didnt finish. I worked up a nice banner collage from a bunch of my photos and then.... WHAM! It was the wrong size. So.. in the middle of moving out of my apartment and back home, I havent had time to set shit up and get my computer up and running at home. So, I havent had time to completely recreate my bannner. No I cannot resize it because I rescaled all the pictures exactly to certain sizes to resizing just blurrs everything really bad.

So Im officially moved out and it sucks. Its not bad, I just dont feel that welcome in my home. I guess we will see how and if it will all work out in due time right? I think Rami is doing ok back at his parents house so I know I can tough it out. He has been out on his own for 4 years now, and decided to go back home to saveup some cash.

In other recent news, I think my mom may be headed off to Iraq to work for KBR as a bus driver on base. Se is determined to get her hand son some of that cash, and her fearlessness is kind of motivating me to follow her. They have several tech jobs open for Iraq and Im very qualitified for several of them. I might be submitting my resume after I return from my trip this summer. I wouldnt mind working there I guess. It would be dangerous and all, but I will be inside the green zone mostly and just working indoors on computers and making my cash. I could even do this a couple of years in a row maybe and save up a good amount. Then.... SEE YA LATER! Who knows. Jessica and I also broke up. I never blogged about her much, but shes the "cant say" person who was bitching that my blog was personal enough haha. We were together roughly 5 months I guess and it all pretty much came down to that Im an asshole and I just couldnt make enough effort to see her and spend time with her. She is a great girl, and Im hoping to pick things up after I get back from Mex and my school is over for a bit. Right now, especially living 45 minutes in the wrong direction from her with school and work everyday, things are not easy. I think its best for now.

Anyways.... Im off. I need to go run some errands for work and do some system updates. I have been doing these freaking updates for like 1 week now because Jackson Hewitt corporate has dropped 3 updates (.07a, .07b, .07b) in a damn week. This is GETTING ANNOYING! 10 stores, 3 updates, 30 trips. Probably over 1K miles of driving. For those few tech readers I still have, ever heard of a program to do taxes crashing a p3 1ghz machine with 256mb of ram with "Windows is low on virtual memory" warnings??? yea neither have I. Sounds like very very shitttty programming to me.

Up to Nothing

Yea... I havent been surfing, havent been doing shit. Just studying non stop for stupid trig and working. Thats about it. Some "people" have been bitching lately that this blog isnt personal enough, its repetative etc. I agree. I will be doing my best from here on out to make this blog more personal and less repetative.

Im going to try and start updating my blog and get some more links. There are many blogs I read yet I do not link them. Somehow maybe I might be pissing other "bloggers" off with this. To those of you that I offend, Im sorry. Im not exactly up to date on the latest and greatest blogging trend faggotry. With that said, Ill defend myself and say no.. Im not anti gay and all that. I just needed a great word to describe anything that might resemble "blogging ettiquette" because there is no such thing. I just blog. I mean to make hyper links, and make my blog all cool and flashy but then again, I dont want to spend the time. I personally like the simplicity of my blog. It gets... ya know... TO THE POINT.

Ok sorry for my rant and probably pissing off whatever is left of my reader base. Sorry I dont have anything interesting to talk about. Sorry Texas is not exactly affording me the greatest of my surfing adventures. I can say though that I will work on making this blog better. I will work on scoring some surf. This blog will KICK ASS when Im finally in full travel mode. It will be littered with travel and surf and all that great stuff and it will be the envy of God Blogger himself. K well not really. Probably will not have any more or less readers than it currently does. Dammit, who needs a beer?

It Just Keeps Getting Colder

The water has been on a steady decline after all these winter storms. We are now down to 50-52 degrees in Galveston, 50 in surfside, 48 in the Galveston channel, 49 in South Padre. South Padre water as far as I know, hardly ever gets that cold. It usually stays decent in low to mid 60s in the winter, and around high 70's to low 80s in the winter. They have deeper water much closer to the coast down there than here on the upper gulf. Anyways, its FREEEEEZZZING!!!!!

I have been wanting to get in the water, but its just soo damn cold!

So my phone bill for the month of Jan. is $311. Im kinda angry about that but o well. I dont know if I mentioned this either but Rami and I have to pay an extra $319 for the apt because we didnt give a damn 30 days notice. That place and their management can goto hell. O well, Im happy. My tax reutrn this year will be $2380. YAY! That combined with the 1200 I have saved, and the 1500 I plan on saving from Feb - April while I'm living at home should give me a nice chunk of spare change considering I'm only using $1800 for my trip.

$1800 for trip
400 for tires
550 for used transmission and clutch
200 in other maint parts.
------
$2950 grand total.

Thats not bad at all! Its just too bad my car needs all that damn work to make the trip but O well right? I would have to do it eventually anyways so its better to do it now. That leaves me some change to buy an extra board but Im not trying to blow allll my savings and Im taking 3 boards as it is. My quiver will be, 6'2" Spider, 6'6" Al Merrick K-board, 6'0" SurfThis Fish(twin, tri, quad adjustable fin setup). I will however need to buy some camping gear maybe and a double board bag. Any recomendations on the board bag?

Texas makes SURFLINE!!!!

http://surfline.com/surfnews/article_bamp.cfm?id=6878

There she is, from two of our best photogs, GScott and Jon Steele.
See more of Texas surf and G's work here at
http://www.gscottimaging.com/

Yea, Im stuck at work again right now and it sucks. Im on hold with tech to try and resolve and issue with something here at work. Bleh!

Laters

Some Pictures

My MYspace picture as some have called it hahaha. Too bad I dont have a myspace.

Just tired and a few beers under....

The old group. The guy with the red board is my partner in crime for next summer.

He and the short guy came with me last summer.

This was a sunset over Surfside after a session

This is what I look like after 62F water for a couple of hours. Damn I'm red!

Hey Hey Hey

I dont have much to.... SAYYYY!!!!!

Just wanted to drop a line, let everyone know Im not dead.

Sometimes, I feel like I'm just talking to a wall. Others, talking to that wall feels good. As long as this thing remains somewhat theraputic, I'll keep it up. I hae been on a mission to cut and paste all of my posts in Word when I get the chance, just to see how many pages this thing adds up to.

In other news, I have been researching/Google Earth scouting some locations in my upcoming trip, and I have to say, its going to be beautiful!

Iceland....lookout!!!! You have 40ft ground swell headed at your western shores in a couple fo days. I have scouted a nice rivermouth beachbreak that should LOSE TOTAL CONTROL when this thing goes off. Ill post some pics of the WAM soon.

My little world

Well, all this winter weather is finally about to vanish I hope and that has me a little excited. Im waiting for the water to start warming back up. Im really thinking hard about purchasing a 4/3 for the rest of this winter season, but I just dont see myself getting to use it much because of work and class everyday. Bleh

So my little world was shaken this afternoon while hanging out on the local surfing forum (www.elride.net). They threw up a post for me showing a 91 Ford sportsmobile. Its basically like the old westfalia VW campers except that its newer and its a ford. The top pops up, it has a stove, a bed, and a fridge. It sleeps like 4 people or something. The best part is, the guy is in Austin and hes only asking 5,500. I would have to trash the idea of my trip to get this thing, but someone mentioned in the forum something I didn't know, and it shook my little world. Financing for RVs is special and leases up to 12 years can be arranged! That would make this little beauty roughly 40 bucks a month counting interest! Of course it wont take me 12 years to pay it, but it makes it a viable option for the summer and some more summers to come. 40 a month is very affordable, and Ill just pay her in big lump sums when I return from my trip and being working my 2nd jobs.

I dont know what to do, this has totally messed me up. I dont know if I should travel long term by truck, SUV, van, motorcycle, car, bus. bleeeeehhhhhh!!!!

Spray Paint

So Rami and I got a little creative last night. Well, I guess I was the test subject. Damn you Carta Blanca Caguama!!! Thats a Carta Blanca 32.oz beer for the rest of you :)

Out of Control

My spending is out of control! I feel like shit about too. Im blowing precious money on stupid stupid things, like eating out everyday for lunch etc. I need to stop all of this because this is precious money for my trip this summer and its cash to have when I return and move into my new apt. I realized today that I spent a little over 400 in bars/resturants in the month of December. THATS UNACCEPTABLE! Its going to help a lot when I move home with my parents in a couple of weeks.

Yes my experiment living out of home is coming to and end as my lease is going up on Feb 1st. I didnt know that you have to give them 30 day notice and Rami and I have been working insane hours so now we have to pay an extra 319 for extra days. BULLSHIT! Anyways, so I have decided to move back home to avoid paying bills while Im off running around chasing waves. I think this will be a much better solution and I will save a lot of money. When I return, I will be looking for a place in downtown Houston. I want to be right in the thick of it and it will save me a lot in gas for work. I want to be near the punk/hippie crowd. I need to surround myself with some people that have the same mindset as me for a while. Out here in the sticks (im really just in North Houston) people are very different.

So I have been reading tons of blogs on the internet about traveling. I read a guys journals the other day at work for 2 hours! He traveled by bus and car all over the world for 2 years. Damn, I would really love to do that, and Im slowly trying to find a way. It doesnt cost much money but that all depends on how you spend. If I were to camp the whole thing, I could be gone for a long long time. I keep trying to tell myself that my time will come, and be smart with my money until then. Look for certain jobs etc, and things will work out. My mind is slowly warping into that "quit and run" state that I need it to be in. Im no longer afraid of quitting my job, losing everything, and myabe selling the rest to run off for a while. I have been conditioning myself for this, and telling myself there are ALWAYS other jobs when I get back. I personally think its sad that I even have to do this much thinking and convincing but I can blame that on my parents for making me so damn scared and responsible. :)
If I go on living like I do, I can easily plan out the next 5 years of my life. Car, House, Places to surf, Trips, How much money I will probably make. THATS JUST BORING AND STUPID! Im afraid that I will never venture off and do my own thing for a while. Im telling myself that hell, in the end if it doesnt work out and its a huge disaster, everyone is allowd a good fuck up in their lives right????

I know my life style will work out. I know I will be soon writing into this blog from whereever Im staying, surfing my brains out, and living with/like the locals. I have it in me ro live a rough lifestyle to accomplish the things I want to accomplish. If I had a bigger vehicle (ie. a van) I would seriously try living in it. Im not even joking. 24 Hour Fitness gym membership for showers and working out, throw away plates and cups, maybe a laptop, and just cruise and sleep wherever I want. Live homeless. I think that would be a blast!

When I move into my next apt, Im not going to make the same mistake I did with my current. No more buying useless shit. All I need is my computer. I dont care about anything else. I might buy like an Ikea couch and fill the living room a little, but In all honesty, Im just going to turn it into a surf pad. Surfing EVERYWHERE! I might even spray paint my walls. who knows.
Speaking of spray paint, My roommate and I had a little fun last night. The pictures are the result.

Not Much of Anything

Just a working and a working. Today was a blast though, I had some crazy windows printer error, something along the lines of unable to launch spooler. So I went into the services and tried to start it manually. Lo and behold, the best windows error I have seen to date. I dont remember exactly but something about "missing dependancies and structures" blah blah. Please, if you know whats this means, let me know! I got one look at it, and formatted the harddrive to reinstall haha. Sometimes, thats just the best solution, especially when there is no way in hell any of my employeees could have pulled this one off, not even on accident!

The surf has been flat or whatever but it really doesn't matter to me anymore. My head is soooooooo focused its scary! Im eliminating any barrier to my trip, one at a time. family, friends, etc. I have been gathering prices and ideas as for the work that needs to be done to my car before I can get her Mexico ready. I once again, have considered just doing the transmission myself. I know how to do it, but Im not sure how to change out and realign the clutch. I have a Haynes manual on order as we speak. Im also considering doing the waterpump/timing belt myself as well. If I can pull this work off, I will save myself somwehere between 700 and 1000 in labor costs alone according to my calling around to shops. After that comes all the easy stuff, complete brake rebuild, new plugs and wires, new air filter, clean throttle body, clean out EGR, clean battery, new tires, octane booster, new oil, and im ready to run!

I have still been working on the route, but Im just not sure yet. Everything is up in the air, but I kinda like it like that. We will probably decide over some campfire beers somewhere in southern Mexico if we should head into Belize/Guatemala or not. Im thinking... why the hell not right??? I mean, you do only live once. Im planning on scoring some of the best surf of my life and having some of the best adventures of my life! Im fully read for shit to go bad though, it kinda has to. Someone once told me, "your only a tourist until your shit goes horribly wrong!"

Well, I dont have much else to report. I gotta program a little and work on this shit for work for tomarrow. If only they knew how much time I throw into this job evern AFTER I get off of work right??? O well... karma karma. I will get my dues, when Im hiking through some country for 6 months, chasing surf and adventure to the highest, I will know it was all worth it. Believe me when I say it, its coming....

Im still alive

Well I havent posted in a while, so I figured I would throw something up. Nothing much has been going on, just working like crazy! Things are finally slowing down a tad, and corporate is getting their crap together finally. I'm getting more and more excited as we are heading into spring. Yes I know, its barely half way through January, but I can dream cant I?

In other news.... hahah Im kidding. I dont have much else to report, other than Rami is a flaming homo. I can get away with saying that because he doesnt read this blog. He's not really gay, but if he was, it wouldnt make much difference to me. He'll always be my best friend. awww *tears*

Ahhh man, I just dont have much to write. So Ill end this now before I get a little more silly and delerious from lack of sleep.

Who says we dont have waves???

First and foremost, let me say HAPPY NEW YEARS to everyone!!!!!!!!! Feliz ano nuevo!
I had a blast last night, and I hope everyone else had a great new years as well.

These are some pictures of BHP yesterday (Bob Hall Pier) in Corpus Christi, Texas. This a great spot and a lot of good Texas surfers hail from this area.