Surfers I have met

I've been surfing (using this term in the loosest form possible) for a few months.  One surprisingly awesome part of the whole experience has been meeting real surfers. 

Hunter and Alex: Surf instructors!  Encouraging and as funny as hell.  I find those who tend to work with kids are the best teachers.  It's obvious they love the ocean and life.  It's crazy to think about how many surfers they're creating and sending forth.

Lisa: Shout out to Lisa for being so cool and friendly AND she's Asian. Woot woot!  Lisa is nice to me and asks me week after week how the water is even though she knows I'm the biggest kook on the beach.  Props to her for riding a shortboard.

Eric: Eric, you can borrow my wax any day.  Thanks to this gentleman for offering his cell phone to me when I thought someone had stolen my keys on the beach.  He showed me how to switch from the phone number area to the message section of the text after I told him I didn't know how to do it because "I have a different kind of phone."  LIES!  Looking back on it, we have the same kind of phone.  Eric said he hopes someone helps his wife if she were in trouble.  He also showed me his lockbox that he uses to keep his keys safe. 

Tom: Tom is up there with Alex for his zest for life.  Tom is like a big ball of sunshine and happiness.  He spent almost an hour chatting with me in the beach parking lot after we both decided not to get into the water (He because conditions were too crappy for his skill level.  Me because my arms were too wimpy for the paddle out through churning water).  Tom gave me all sort of advice on timing, watching the waves, and what not to do.  Tom has been surfing OC for years and has never been stung by a stingray.  Mind boggling.

Erin: Erin drives a VW bus covered in stickers parked on the northside of Huntington Beach's pier.  He looks like a shorter, blonder Iggy Pop.  When I first met Erin he was laughing about getting spanked by a wave at the pier that morning.  He told me he notices when he surfs the faster, stronger waves in Newport Beach his surfing improves when he returns to HB.  Erin urged me to shake off my chicken feathers about catching outside waves.  He said when it's all said and done it's in God's hands.  I can't help but like Erin.  He's so genuine and unique.

Mike: I had a blowout session last Friday morning, as in I blew big time.  I was getting tossed here and there so badly that an OG on a shortboard took the time to come over, wade into shallow water, and shout to me, "Keep paddling!"  He was cool and gave me tips about my hand placement and the fact I need to paddle harder when catching waves and wait until I feel the wave moving my board to pop up.  Anyway, when I came back to my car Mike was suiting up one spot over.  Mike, with his shaggy hair and springsuit, is laid back.  He asked me how it was and if the water was warm.  (I love when people ask me about the water's temperature because I can answer it truthfully without having to admit I suck at surfing.)  Mike's been shanked twice by stingrays this year.  Apparently neither time he went to the lifeguard station to soak his foot.  In fact, after his second sting he squeezed out the poison and went grocery shopping in Long Beach.  Suddenly his foot swelled and felt like it was on fire.  I told him that was hardcore, to which he replied it was actually stupid. 

Artwork by Keiron Lewis (who surfs and is from Down Under)

Previously:
Maroon 5 is right!

Warm nights, tiny lights by Chantal Defelice

I now fully understand love at first sight having seen Chantal Defelice's series "warm nights, tiny lights."  Her sketches possess such character and whimsy.  Just look at the shading of her stucco, the glowing hues from her windows, and the bustling sparkle of the LA city skyline.  I recently bought a pair of earrings she created of images she captured in San Francisco's Chinatown. 

Every day's a new chance to get lost

This is the second commercial for California Lottery that makes me stop what I'm doing and watch every time it comes on!  (Their holiday commercial with the old man gets me every darn time, too.)  The catchy song in the ad is Hey My Man by the Babes. 

Previously
Honda Civic SI
HP baby rolls on 
Pedigree adoption drive -Echo
Yoshi vs. The Tax Man
Will I die today?

Wearing a t-shirt with big boobs

I envy men and flat-chested women who can throw on a t-shirt and be comfortable.  I'd like to get this cute Ugly Doll tee sold by Giant Robot, but know it would fit like a vice.

LOL, that Troy

I was searching for a meaningful quote about "community" for my workplace bulletin board, and I came across this.  It made me laugh out loud.

Previously
He's been told her looks like a Kennedy
Jeff Winger's new hairstyle
Jeremy and Donald: Cholafied
Senor Chang writes in Korean
Breaking Bad stars out and about
Get schooled on how to dress like Annie and Britta
Me gusta: Troy Barnes on Community
Donald Glover for The Gap
Am I krumping?

Custom "Lava" painting by artist Dan-O Florez

• Cute song from Pixar's new short, Lava, and fantastic artwork by Dan-O Florez
  
• Writer and director of the animated short, Lava, James Ford Murphy, talks about the movie's inspiration with EW

Maroon 5 is right!

I got stung by a stingray while surfing yesterday at Bolsa Chica State Beach and it hurt like a mutha.  The crazy thing is after landing on my ass a few times and shuffling through a low tide all morning, the stingray stung me when I was standing still.  The sensation is not like stepping on a jagged shell or even glass.  My sting was like someone took a gigantic needle and jabbed it into the top of my foot with all the adrenaline and force he could muster.  The pain that immediately follows is intense, burning, and cramping.  The longer it takes you to get your foot into hot water the more it burns.  Luckily my husband was on the shore and helped me hobble to the lifeguard headquarters where I soaked my foot for 40 minutes.  I left a trail of blood from the lifeguard station all the way down the beach to where we had left my surfboard.  As I sat with my foot throbbing in the red stained water I told myself I was done with surfing.  I suck enough where it won't matter if I quit, plus why go through the potential of getting maimed by sea creatures?  About 20 minutes in another surfer arrived.  He had to hobble the distance of three lifeguard stations and get a ride from his wife after being stung, so his foot was on fire. By that time my pain had lessened and I remembered that I still had four lessons that I had paid for so I may as well keep surfing.

In the end I figure I each mucho pescado, plus as a kid I had more than one unfortunate aquatic pet.  I'll take a few painful stings and know that it's karma.  My husband says we have to get good enough at surfing to paddle to the outside breaks and stay out there.  Otherwise like Maroon 5 says, this summer's going to hurt like a mutha.

Things I don't like about "Jurassic World" (SPOILERS!!!)

If The Rock was still The Rock from the year 2000 I would have watched his flick, San Andreas, yesterday.  However, neither The Rock nor I are the same people we were 15 years ago so my friend and I settled on seeing Jurassic World, instead.  My friend jumped every time a dinosaur took a booming step or a dinosaur took a swipe and ate someone. 

Things I liked about Jurassic World:  (SPOILERS)

• Jake Johnson (from New Girl) working the main control room
• Bryce Dallas Howard running in pumps.  We all know women who can haul ass in heels.  I don't find it too far-fetched
• The pterodactyls soaring in the air and swooping down to grab people
• The park goers losing their minds over the incoming pterodactyls
• When the geo-modified evil dinosaur (GMED) stepped on people

Things I did not like about Jurassic World: (MORE SPOILERS)

• The two child characters.  They were horribly written.  The younger brother seriously needed to be stepped on.  Writers should have made the characters kids of a rich investor or something like that.
• The scene where Chris Pratt comforted a dying brontosaurus. The scene was over the top.
• In Jurassic Park, the T-Rex was the ultimate bad guy.  The entire movie involved people running for their lives.  Yet in Jurassic World, Bryce Dallas Howard lets out a T-Rex to fight the GMED.  Then people smiled and congratulated themselves after the fight even though THE T-REX WAS UNCONSTRAINED AND FREE ROAMING.  What's changed people?
• Preachy messages like, "when you have kids" and "they're worth it, I promise." Judy Greer's character (the one pressuring Bryce Dallas Howard to have kids) cried through the whole movie. Yeah, lady.  You have kids and you look really happy.

If a Japanese surfer was wearing this suit at Pipeline while shouting "Banzai!" we might be on to something

Ah, the Japanese.  Leave it to our salaryman brethren to take the wetsuit to a whole new level. See the suit in action.

My girlfriend who lived in Japan for over a decade says that Japanese avidly surf, but their beaches are really dirty.  That is certainly not how I envisioned them.

Check out Quiksilver Japan's True Wetsuit website to see the collection.

They got my hair right

A few weekends ago I was on the Huntington Beach pier.  HB had notable waves that Sunday and skilled surfers were out in droves on the northside.  One kid stood out.  He was taking all sorts of waves, even ones other surfers were ignoring.  His pop up was interesting to me in that he'd appear get up late, almost where I thought he was going to miss the wave.  But then he'd be on his feet and tearing shit up.  I had no idea who he was but he was so damn steezy.  Being the dork I am I wrote a "Hey You!" to OC Weekly and they published it.  God, I wonder if I looked as creepy in real life as I do in the little illustration.  They got my hair right though! 

Update: It turns out the brilliantly awesome surfer who has nudged Nathan Fletcher down one notch in my list is a young pro from Huntington Beach (and number 22 on Surfer's Hot 100).