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.