Friday Surf

Headed out to 121 on Friday to meet Winston. Got held up at the border for about 20mins. the surf was clean, not as big as predicted but still an awsome time in the water here is a shot of Winston riding his Channel Islands 6'5".

Props to the talent

Its time to give credit to the talent in California.

The locals.

Closeup Glass.

For you viewing pleasure here are some closeup shots of some beauts. This is what California is and was.

Lets just surf...

All right, all right we went to california to surf and surf we did. The trip was more of a surf boot camp, don't get mixed signals here, it was awsome. We awoke every morning about 5 am to hit a dawn partrol at trestles or salt creek. Surfed for about three hours then hit a little breakfast place called the 'Sugar Shack'. Filled the void in our stomaches and cured the cravings for protein. Hit up some of the local surf shops and headed out for surf session number 2 for the day. We surfed for another three hours or so then headed back to the campsite for some refreshment in the form of a Pacifico bottle. Spent some time relaxing only to head out for the third session of the day. We surfed until the sun went down and the sharks came out. Enjoy and repeat, all week long. So here are some pictures from those sessions.

Trunkin

I was reading an article on the web yesterday that talked of earthquakes in southern California. It stated that for the week we were camping San Clemente there were over 400 earthquakes recorded and several of those over 3.0. Now staying at the San Mateo campground sleeping on the hard sand floor I thought that maybe we would feel something. Upon second thought it was realized that with camp pendelton bombing, shooting, artillery and Liam's snoring it is near impossible to tell the difference from an earthquake.

While in Cali myself and Colin had to at least trunk it once, being lake surfers and all. My day was on Thursday. I paddled out mid afternoon amongst all of the rubber clad surfers in my pale white outfit, Boardshots only. After several confused looks from locals, someone finally said 'your gonna get cold sittin there'. I was actually not that cold, no colder than the lake in the summer. (about 61F) While we were waiting for some waves we noticed that the dolphins from the day before were back. It must be mentioned that the day before a couple of fins arose from the water about 6 to 8 feet from me on an early morning dawn patrol. My brain was telling me that they were dolphins, but my body telling me to get the hell out of there. After I casually turned around and started paddling for shore, Colin was yelling 'they are only dolphins...'. As I calmed myself down searched for any loose terds in my wetsuit, I sat back and enjoyed the sight of them. Anyway back to my original thought, as I was sitting on my board I was thinking that this may only be a once in a lifetime chance so I started repeatedly slapping the water in hopes to call the dolphins over. (like they do in Seaworld) It did not take very long before about 6 dolphins came right over to me. Probably attracted to the bright white object in the water. The dophins swam and fished around me under me and looked me eye to eye. It was amazing to understand first hand the gentle playfull nature and curiosity. I could have at any one time reached out and grabbed one. I thought of jumping in completely and see if they would swim with me. But I did'nt. The dolphins hung out with me for about ten minutes before continuing on with their journey. Before they left completed they caught a few waves with us. Colin actually rode a wave beside one of the dolphins. An amazing experience.

The day after

After the big NW windstorm we experienced on Sunday, Monday dawn patrol was looking very promising. We awoke to the pleasant sound of "Colin... Colin... Colin... Colin... Liam... Liam... Liam... Liam...". Packed up the car and our gear cranked the heat and headed out toward Salt Creek. Music playin crusin down the Pacific Coast Highway we hoped that the wetsuits would soak up some degree of heat. Upon arrival at Salt Creek we witnessed head high peeling barrels. Offshore winds waves of glass. Suited up and hit the water. Talent was in water full force. Colin got barreled. Nice! check out the pics below.

Liam riding clean

Winston goin deep right.

Colin gettin some Salt Creek barrel.

Cali day 1

We awoke bright and early on Sunday to meet the northwest wind howling onshore. The decision was made to hit up Salt Creek. When we arrived it looked much like the lake, windblown unorganized waves pounding the shore. We surfed it anyway even with the ocean sized bombs coming in. We then went to San Mateo campground and set up home base. After a while we changed things up and went to Surfers Beach. The current, waves and white water were almost an inpenetrable force. Liam got closely aquainted with the nuclear power station. Some rides were had and headed back to the campsite tired and ready for the next session.

California Buzz

We left for our trip to Southern California on Nov 8 and got home early morning Nov 14. The trip was fantastic. There are many stories, waves, experiences and more during the week that we were there. I took in all, about 2900 pictures. Pictures of surf, countryside, birds, campground anything to help remember all that the trip was. There is some fantastic talent in the water on the west coast and in posts yet to come I will give credit to some of these unkown surfers. Come back often for many updates as I cannot add everything now. To start with, here is a picture of what we had to put up with early morning every day.

Cardboard Surfboard?

One of the guys from work asked me the other day if I had ever seen a cardboard surfboard. I was thinking "yeah right." So he showed me a youtube video of a cardboard surfboard that the guy made. He cutout many pieces of cardboard with a cnc machine to make a cardboard blank. Its pretty cool stuff, I am interested in making one of these unique boards. check it out at http://foundout.blogspot.com/, and the website at http://www.sheldrake.net/cardboards/.

The tempermental Lake.

Once again the lake has chosen its own path. The wave forecast was a little bit incorrect. It turns out that we ended up surfing Saturday late afternoon at O road. I can briefly describe the conditions, Major current, Captain Mush, and Corporral no face. All members of the inconsistent and unpredictable army of waves that met us face to face. Winston had an idea to go up the shore were he has been before. The surf proved to be consistent, peeling and some size. It was a very good session. We rode into the night until we could not see the waves anymore. Headed home tired and satisfied...for the next 8 hours at least.

Possibly Epic?

Looking at the forecast for Sunday... well it has potential to be epic as long a the North wind stays out of the picture all day. I think that it needs more south in it for the spot I am watching to go off perfectly. Here's hoping it gonna be sweet... see ya in the lineup.

"...you can't surf the lakes!"

The forecast was calling for a heavy SW to churn up some nice swell for our surfing pleasure on Sunday. Loaded up the car with gear, gas and the guys to make the 5am dawn patrol session a couple hours up the north shore. We checked several spots, but the forecast looked better than it actually was. The decision was made to hit up old faithful. The sound of waves pounding was resonating through the trees. We suited up and hiked the short trail to the beach and found some overhead sets coming in. We surfed for hours, caught some good rides, met some people, took some photos and headed back home with intense thoughts of the Surf road trip approching quickly.

Spectacular

Wave buoys showed 10.8 feet on a SW and W wind. An adventure was underway to find some good waves. I went to a new spot and found 10 foot plus shore pound. The force and energy of the waves could be felt 100 feet away. The ground shook from the impact and I could feel pound in my chest. below is a photo of the shore pound.

I surfed for about an hour and a half at the down the beach at the pump house. The waves coming in were chest/shoulder high and jacked up nice and steep. After my session I went to the west end of the beach past the pumphouse and got some photos and video of the waves. I have surfed there before on a large day such as today. the waves wrap around the point and produce some nice and perfectly smooth waves to ride. Though the waves are small, about waist high at the most, the wave breaks with a peel and are glassy clean.

I then ventured to another beach to see what kind of waves were coming in. I found a wave that had extremely long rights and lefts. the wave has to be at least 7 to 8 feet for it to work, but when it does it looks like some nice long rides. below are some more shore pound photos.

Ahhh Summer

Most of our time when not at work is spent enjoying the summer months. Out camping in the new tent trailer or spending the weekends out at camp. Warm sun, warm water great family makes for some good times. Spent the weekend in the water, tubing behind the boat, snorkling for fish with the kids, water skiing and paddling the surfboard preparing for the upcoming season. Caught some fish Saturday night. Most people are out for the largest fish. The photo below is smallest bass ever caught. If you think he is small you should have seen the hook I used! The dogs watching the fish swim by, a favourite pastime. The buzzing and whizzing of the humming birds fighting over the feeders. All of these spell summer. Hopefully tommorrow will provide some excellent photos of the perseid meteor shower, heres hoping.

All photos taken by John Marchant

Summer Interest

The weekend has been ripe with thunderstorms across the region. I was at Lac de Milles Lac and the bolts were flyin. Last night the thunder rolled in late so I jumped out of bed and chased a few storms. I took about 180 photos of which 60 had lighting. I narrowed the 60 down to 14 best photos that are now showing in the slideshow above. One thing to note, when taking photos of lightning you always need to pay attention to what is happening around you. I was holding a large deck umbrella to keep the rain off of the camera. I thought the storm across the bay was far enough not to be of a concern to my safety. Turns out that a bolt hit off to the right of me, at the same time I looked down at my finger and noticed a blue spark jumping from the umbrella pole to my finger. It lasted about a second or two with an interesting 'zzzzzzt' noise. I then folded up the umbrella and went inside. My storm chasing ended at about 2am and took me from both ends of the city and in between.

Dragonfly catching its breathe from the onslaught of mosquitoes we are having.Some sparks from this years Canada Day celebration.