Sano pictures, winter 2009

My daughter took these pictures when she when to Sano with me and Tom one day during the Winter break 2009. It was a great winter break because I surfed almost every day. Some days I even surfed twice a day. Just like paradise.

Walden Magic Fish

Just got my first fish. It's a Walden Magic Fish 6'4". I guess I am a Walden guy now since I own a Walden Magic 9'6" long board and now a Walden Magic Fish. The board looks great, thick and wide so should be very floaty and stable. I have not taken it to the water yet, waiting for the glue on the stomping pad to dry. They said you should wait 24 hours after you applied the stomping pad. Will let you know how it ride.

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Took my fish out today to Doheny. Typically Doheny is not a short board kind of place. Most people ride long boards there. However because of the south swell, we were getting 3, 4 feet waves and that is perfect for me to try out my new Magic Fish. I was surprise to see how easy it float. Paddling it like paddling a small 7'6" fun board. Duck dive is easy. I did not catch the first wave but on the second one, my take off was fast and easy. The board is wide so it is very stable. Riding the whitewater just to get used to with the board balance. Once I learned how it handles, I started catching waves. I was amazed that I was able to make turns, move around like I was on a skate board. Love the late take off. I just lean forward on the nose of the board, looking down the face of the wave, give a couple kicks with my legs and off I go, no paddling is needed. Great. The only thing that you cannot do is paddling this short board all the way out to the the long boarder line up. It's just too hard. But then again, it was fun catching the inside breaks where the long boarders just give up. Yeah, I love it, love the Walden Magic series. They make great surfboards.

Winter Surfing 2009

To be honest, I did not think I could survive surfing in the winter in California. I am an Asian and we skinny butt people usually bundle up in the winter, not jumping into the icy cold water. In the winter the water is too cold, the waves are bigger, blah blah... But you know what, I did it. I surfed the whole winter of 2008. I did not stop surfing when November came. I surfed on Thanksgiving afternoon, right after a rain storm stopped. There were only a few people went surfing on that day. I remembered saying Happy Turkey Day to some of them. I went on in December, even on Christmas Eve. Did I surf on New Year Day? I think I did, can't remember. I surfed throughout January, February. I surfed on flat days, sitting and waiting for a small tiny little bumps in the water. I got bad wipe-outs, pinned down under overhead sets in Huntington Beach where the waves were so walled up, so strong that one big one pinned me down and pushed me in. So fast, all the way onto the beach, sand all over my wetsuit. It was nearly impossible to go back out. There was a teenager boy on a fish board, was trying in to get out at the same time with me. I guessed he got pinned down so bad that after he came back in, he just lied flat on the beach for a long, long time. In this winter, I fell off my board a lot. One time when I fell, my board fell on top of me. Its fin cut me right across my nose. Blood-dripping down of my face but I was still surfing. So bad.

But I also caught some of the best waves I ever caught in this winter, down in San Onofre. I learned how to make turns, do cut back, hang five, close to hang ten but not yet, float on the top of some waves. Now I can do some moves so I am having a lot more fun. I rode some big sets that way over my head. I remembered one day right after a storm, I hit the beach. The whole San Onofre beach and there were only 3 people, me, Doug and another guy. Waves were breaking overhead, so fast and strong that I took me a good 15 minutes just to get out to the line up. And the first wave came at me was huge, like a tall building, at least 10 foot tall. I had no where else to go but to go down with it. I was really expecting a bad wipe out. I remembered the wave picked me up. Somehow I managed to stand up on my board, stared down its nose. My board was pointing down so steep, like 60 degree down. I was so high up on the crest of the wave that it was like looking down from someone's second floor's balcony. I managed to shift my weight, tilt the board to the right so it ran 45 degree to the wave's face, avoid a bad wipe-out. And then I rode the wave, ride it for a long time, started from the Point and ended up at Old Mans. My legs were burning from stood up for a long time. That was scary and fun at the same time. After catching that wave, I paddled back out with my heart pounding, my body shaking. The freaking scary wave, the adrenalin rush of catching it, all mixed up together that it took me a while to calm down. After that I caught one wave after another, had lot of fun until I could not paddle anymore. That was definitely a define moment of my surfing this winter. I just love it.

Surfing on Christmas Eve

Chrismas eve. I got to the beach around 1:30 pm. Passed by the entrance and said Merry Christmas to the park employee, a nice older gentleman sitting by himself inside the boot. He waved back at me with a smile. I drove down the beach and there was almost nobody. Yeah, they all must be at the mall doing the last minutes Christmas shopping. There was just one lonely guy out there at the point,trying to catch a sloppy one footer. Surf is tiny today, if any. But I am here, so I went ahead and put on my wetsuit. The poor guy came in. We chat a bit. He said it was better an hour earlier but he think the swell is dying down now. I agreed with him. It looks so flat out there. Well, swimming is a good exercise too. He told me I have the whole Sano for myself. Wahoo! except for there is no waves! Walking down the beach, I dipped my foot in the water. Man,it is icy cold, may be in the fifty-ish degree. The sky is overcast with only a tiny speck of sunlight. The air is as cold as the water. Perfect! Time to get in.

It is sure small today. I struggled to catch a few tiny waves. Got one, stood up, rode a bit but not much going on at the Point so I paddled out to Old Mans. Waves are breaking over there, not by much. I caught a few one, two footers. It's kinda of broken, crumpy, bumby waves that most people would call junks. Well, one of the surfer I met later today told me: "You ride the waves you got, not the one you wished you had" so got to make the best of what out there. Strange thing, even there is not much swell today but where I lined up, there is a strong rip curl kept pulling me out to the ocean. It's kind of freaky. After a few minutes sitting on your surfboard, you ended up farther from the shore. I had to keep paddle back closer to the shore, thinking, if this stupid thing drifted me out to the ocean, there is nobody around I can ask for help.

I got a few more waves, got one last decent one and called it the day. I was getting a bit cold too. Walking back to my car, taking off my wet suit and at the same time I heard the Surfliner train horn going in the background. So I was thinking, the last train of the day, taking people back to their family, to a happy Christmas dinners with love ones. Merry Christmas to everyone. Merry Christmas San Onofre.

The moment

Ever wonder why surfers are so mellow? Yes, my friends, when you are out there, on the waves, you forgot all about this f. bullshit. Yes, it's all gone. Just you and the waves, the very moment that you stood up, the moment that you shred. That's it. That's all that's matter. All your body is living the moment. Yes.....

Lord of the Rings

I just watch Lord of the Ring again. Every time I watched it, I can see the relationship between the Ring and the greed that fell on the human race. Yes, the ring is the greediness, the ego, the power, the want-it-all human nature. Yes, one ring conquers it all. We has human beings struggle to free ourselves from greediness but we are not always successful. Why, is it because you never when your next meal will come from? Is it because you never know when on rainy days, do you have enough to survive? Why we always want more? More money, more recognition, bigger house, bigger cars. What is it? What is it that make us human to be greedy, has to be so egolistic? If we can conquer fusion energy, then energy will be limitless then we can produce as much food as we want, all the big houses that we want to own, all the nice cars that we drive. All problems will be solved, right? Yeah, until someone control your source of fusion energy, and you will have to pay for it. And it's all start all over again.....

My favorite surfers

Kelly Slater, Rob Machado