Losing Stoke.

I know this all too well. when I moved to my current location in 1973 there were less than 12 permanent residents who surfed, in the whole county. Most of the breaks didn’t even have a name and I wound up naming at least four spots. Imagine being dropped in on by a tourist at a spot that you named?

Recent years have seen an influx of all sorts of undesirables. Many are Summer vacationers without a clue, but a big bankroll. I had a billionaire complain to me that I was “catching too many waves”. I said: “You are 20 years younger than I am and riding a board two feet longer than mine. You should be catching more waves than me. Instead, you are being shown up by a crippled old man”. He replied: “You think you own the ocean” I told him: “If you really believe that, you should find a new hobby to suck at”

He is the major bankroller of professional surfing, as I understand it. Been trying to surf for about ten years. Still can’t.

Hatteras is my signature picture because that is my happy place.

 

Mine too along with the Rhode Island reef breaks during hurricane swells.  My family owns a house in Nags Head right at ‘Police Station’ and I’m there for the first two weeks of August every year and will swing to a better swell time once the kids are out of school (HS pre-season sports makes us take that window).  Saving some extra vacations days this year to chase more than one tropical swell north.

If you’re in the OBX during that window, message me.  Lots of open space to surf on the OBX.

Esquire Wired Outside all push

Standups asyms and surfcamps real lush

There’s a shareholder in front of me on the wave I’m tryin to make

Got white skin and goin’ awry

What gopro model did that guy buy

I’m wonderin’ why, and thinkin’ 'bout a quiet alpine lake

These days I’m switching  to long midnight bikerides

Out of the way of sweepers vibes and surfguides

People are crazy and times are strange

I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range

I used to care, but things have changed

 

(thanks to bob dylan for the starter words)

“you should find a new hobby to suck at”. That’s beautiful. Need to remember that one.

dont lose the stoke brother! 

put things into perspective - you are surfing - a lot of others are not anymore

now go bike a down the beach where there is no camera and find your stoke

Around Sways it’s more important to stroke than stoke.  As long as you can stroke fellow attendees at the “pitty party” you have a place in the line up here.  Of course it helps if you can whine a little about the crowds, SUP’s and spongers.  Whaa, whaa, whaa!

I grew up surfing a spot where my family had homes on the beach since 1940. We had our own private paradise for a long time. In the late 80s the housing market in Hawaii went balistic and a developer bought all the land in my little neighborhood. It was previously a sugar cane plantation that bordered the ocean for a couple of miles. As time went by our leases were not renewed and the houses were torn down or used for fire training. The last of the beach front homes was vacated in February of 2015. We still have access to the beach, but so does everyone else. Last week I went down to surf with my brother and Makua Rotham, Billy Kemper, Shane ? and a few of their friends went out and basically made it impossible for old farts like me to get waves. A couple of years ago some of the local pros who are the children of my homeboys did the same. Try surfing when there are 5 or 6 pro level surfers out. They paddle like robots and tear the waves up in ways we never dreamed about. It would be OK if they would say, “go uncle!” and let the old guys have some good ones, but they are trained to take every good wave they can. And, they do.

Now I go to my second home spot, a place I lived next to from 1983 till 1998 and worked next to from 1976. I know this spot about as well as the back of my hand. These days younger guys will come and sit 5 feet inside of me. They don’t know where to sit, so they just hound me. I can paddle all day and they’ll just keep following. Drives me crazy because sometimes I do paddle all over the place to see if they are just assholes, which they are. All that does is make me tired, especially when I ride my smallest boards. But, I love to surf and I’m going to keep surfing as long as my body lets me. When you get that one wave, that best ride of your day, week or month wave, it’s all worth it. My friend got the wave of the day today, and he didn’t bother coming back out. I usually get at least one that puts a big smile on my face. That’s why we do it.

That’s not funny, but reading it is cracking me up. You have a career in writing if your day job runs out.

That’s the shitty part about the six or seven "missionary"families  that illegally commandeered U.S. troops to pull a coup de tet and overthrow a legtimate and recognized Worldwide Monarchy  and put it’s Queen under house arrest.  They established the Lease/Hold land title system.  Which allowed there families to hold title infintin.  Until Eternity or Hell freezes over.  Whichever friggin’ comes first.  Even Hawaiian Lands is only a lease.  Castle& Cooke or the Doles can take it away from you anytime they want.  God Bless Queen Liliuokalani and fuck the missionaries .  Friggin’ greedy turds.  Lowel 

As builders + riders, everyone seems a kook to us.  Some of us are better builders than riders and visa versa.  But we’re still insignificant specks on the ocean just like everyone else.  There are those sessions at “your” spot that you hit with 0-3 people out, then other times there’s a massive crowd.  Just leave, cut some railbands, skin a blank, have a zen moment.   Or, get 2 sons that surf better than you ever did who will run interference on both sides of you while you’re spitting venom at everyone like some crazy old man.  

like my bro i’ve had my share of health issues over the past 5-6 years that have really taken its toll on my surfing and board building.

First it was epoxy contamnation to a burst appendix to a full knee replacment to a torn rotator that led to a frozen shoulder syndrome that I really haven’t gotten rid of since 2012. I guess you call these nuisances compare to several heart attacks and open heart surgery like my bro who’s the most psychotic-stoked surfer board builder i’ve known.

It’s hard tgetting back on the saddle when you’ve been out for 1/2 a year to a a year and a half  because you almost have to start all over again just to paddle out and catch a wave. The shoulder thing has been the worse because of the pain and not being able to paddle or catch waves even with one hand. I am in awe Bethany for what she does.

Then there’s the crowds, seems like no matter how early I go, there’s a half a dozen to a dozen guys already out in the lineup, so I’ve lost the motivation to do my dawn patrol gig as well these days. So I get up late and just go down before lunch and try to catch what I can in the shittiest conditions of the day. 

Meanwhile a dozen or so project’s have sat around for years uncompleted because its such a pain to do the whole set up, take down and clean process when you do everything in the garage or front of the house.

I just started surfing a couple weeks ago after being out of the water since Sept/Oct of last year, and I’ve worked my way down to the 6’4" Coil Mike made for me that’s Ive ridden only twice. I’m hoping to get down to the 6’2" hovercraft that Greg made me in a week or so but i’ll need some oompf to get in, since my paddling still sucks, But at at least I’m trying when its so easy to just give up. Last week I did an almost 6 hour session in two shifts when i ran into my brother on the way home after a three hour session and went back out with him for another. We always have fun making jokes of each other and make each other a better surfer/shaper in some ways because of it.

At 60 I don’t know how much longer I can still ride 6’2"‘s but the 12’ Munoz SUP I bought after my knee replacement surgery has never touch the water yet which is a good sign.

All it takes is one good wave to make my day and one good board that brings a smile to keep the fire going.

Like Buffalo and all the old farts on their longbaords use to say to me in the line up at Makaha in my youth, jus go boy jus go no worry beef curry i follow you. I think that’s how you have to think about it when its crowded, just go, no worry. If you’ve done your time and paid your price in the lineup, just go.

So when it all get’s to be a bother… Jus Go 

Good for you.       Keep on keeping on.         You’re doing way better than most.

Preach Brother Lowel, Preach! Sharkcountry’s story is the story of recent Hawaiian history (the past 150 years) and it makes my stomach turn. I try to follow Christian principles but it seems more harm than good has been done in His name. It’s a wonder the U.S. gov’t. didn’t try to extend the reservation system like on the mainland. When I think of what the Hawaiians have given up/lost/stolen from makes my loss of spots here nothing in comparison. Sharkcountry’s stoke is inspiring and what better way than to run into your brother while being out. Some of my favorite sessions have been when I’m out and a friend or two show up to share more than waves. For me, it is a way of keeping the fire lit. What he said about surfing with pros is spot on. I used to surf a spot in Ventura that is always bigger than anywhere else. When it did get big, the crowd thinned out. Then the Malloys would paddle out. Don’t get me wrong, they are great guys and know how to share but their wave count is double what everyone else gets. It is an eye opener to what machines these pros are. The brothers are great to surf with but they have a completly different game going on. That is why I would seek out Kawela Bay when the circus would show up. It’s bad enough in Foodland dealing with the zoo much less in serious surf. God Bless the Hawaiian  people.I would have a chip the size of a Sequoia on my shoulders. Mahalo island bruddahs.

 

 

My Stoke is running pretty high at the moment.

 

 All my surf muscles are feeling good and sore.  I was getting a lot of the larger set waves yesterday with little to no competition for them, and only a few obstacles  in the way, and a lot of hoots given and received along the way.

 

Couple older guys out there bleeding style, smiling and sharing, but they could have been wave hogs and nobody would have said anything to them.

4.9 feet at 17 seconds, time to go make sure  surf muscles are sore tomorrow too.  I missed the glass, but chop thins the crowds. I find the early morning pre work crowd, often to be too aggro for me.  Like surfing with a pack of Brazilians, so I often will wait for conditions to deteriorate so I can surf without Mosquitos buzzing in my ear.

Sounds like the conditions we’ve been getting in San Diego lately.  Couldn’t be more stoked!

Before the Tahitians came here and made us all their slaves we had a true paradise. Some say we were the decedents of Lemuria, some say we called this place the Land of Mu, or just Mu. Stories talk about people with connections to the earth, winds, and oceans so deep we could do things unheard of. Stories that make it easier to understand how large stone buildings like the pyramids are made. People my parents age who were taught secrets of the old people could show you things that wouldn’t make sense. Making it rain or stop raining was child’s play. Moving very large stones with your mind was one of the tests Kahunas had to pass to reach a certain level. It’s hard to get the people who do know this stuff to talk anymore because that knowledge puts them in danger. I was lucky to meet one years ago, but he passed away a while ago.

In the years up to about 1200AD, the islands were inhabited by peaceful, highly intelligent beings living in a very well developed society. They understood how nature worked so well that they had an incredibly well developed completely sustainable world. Everyone had their reason for being and they did what was expected. The worst thing that could happen was being banished, becoming the living dead, because they did not kill people.

Back then people sailed across the pacific as easily as we fly around the world today. Pa’au, a banished documented canniballistic priest, saw that with the right force he could take over this place and rule it. He brought the Tahitian warlords here and killed or captured all he could. Those that could, fled into the mountains or sailed away. From then on, the islands were ruled by force, fear instilled by power hungry priests, and constant killing.

For hundreds of years the ruling chiefs kept killing each other until Captain James Cook stumbled on our home and told the rest of the world what he found. One of the young chiefs, Kamehameha, was blessed with great foresight and while foreign ships were allowed to leave Hawaii he kept Issac Davis and John Young here to help him learn the western ways, especially the use of guns. Using guns and western military techniques Kamehameha was able to conquer the major islands of Hawaii, Maui, and Oahu. He made a truce with the ruler of Kauai and unified all the islands. Once we became the nation of Hawaii, all the wars stopped we bcame a single nation to secure our future against the rest of the “civilized” western world. This was how the rest of the world susposedly worked. 

Hawaii just happens to be out in the middle of the pacific. A very important location from a military perspective. It was always the intent of the US to take over our islands. But in reality, it’s not the US, but the people who run the world. They created the US and they pretty much run everything now.

There are 2 kinds of people, those who decide to love one another, and live in peace and harmony, and those who don’t care about anyone but themselves, who will take whatever they want, hurt or kill to get it and not think twice about their actions. This life is just a small part of our total spritual journey. In the end what we do now will decide where we go next and it can be an even better experience, or it can be quite bit worse. Only you can decide what it will be.

Love is the answer. It’s so simple, but it’s so hard to do when faced with everything going on. So many people have been telling me this for a while now, but it is true… we are heading into a strange time, and in the end love will be the only way get through. Fighting only leads to more fighting, and that leads to death. My biggest struggle in life is stay focussed on the good, to keep from allowing myself to get swayed by anger, fear, and my own ego. But, I’m trying.

Read this, it’s just one of many things that may you open your eyes.

who,s gonna say something ?

Y, NCSD

Those largest sets coming in today…My 9’3"x22x3 singlefin bladey  ‘hullish’ pintail allowed me early enough entry to make it a good distance at full throttle, but no fourth gear.

 Had one carving Downturn at speed that earned me a few hoots from shortboarders waiting further in for the betweeners.  No leash. A couple underwater cartwheels bear hugging board both paddling out and after straightening out on a long wall. My last ride will have me buzzing for a week. Heck, the wind had just arisen when I got there, but there were only 6 guys even near the main peak.   There was nobody even close to where I was sitting waiting for the biggest mackers and when the horizon started warbling with an oncoming set, and looking well southward revealed lefts peeling at me, I started frothing out, giggling like a madman, as I was on my regular lineups but firther outside, with nobody around me, and only concern was finding the  one with a shoulder and a self reminder to not take the first one unless it was an absolute Gem.

I thanked each wave as I kicked out or straightened out.  Though it was not needed, I thought of this thread and  I thought of the dog wagging its tail recommended earlier.   More giggling like a madman. Good trick, it works.

Full Giddy endorphin overload mode, especially when  after one ride, I got to the outside edge of the impact zone 3 separate times only to be denied  by a macker multiple wave  set, and washed in, and kept humble via underwater cartwheels.

 Buoy seemed to peak on this pulse, an hour ago, reading 6.1 feet as 17 seconds.  More pulses forecast i believe.

Kind of frothing, but for the weekend factor.  Hopefully it is big enough to keep the some percentage of the greedy hordes on land.  I tend to turn non surfing hermit avoiding masses on summer weekends, but do make exceptions. 

 

Thank you Southern Ocean.

 Stoke is high.

Busy out in the surf today 4 people out!
Not all at the same time through and on diferent peaks Lucky

Tblank, it was done in the name of the almighty dollar not the “the” Almighty. 

All the best