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July 25, 2006
Surfing away my budget...
Today marks my third boarding accident for the past two weeks. It all started the day before I had to go to Chicago on a business trip. I was charging hard that Friday afternoon... It was a hot day and the beach was super crowded, I ended up catching a ton of great waves but half way through I was swollowed up by a huge set and my board hit a friend of mine and a fin busted off (wrecking the fin casing). At first I didn't realize it and I just thought I lost the fin, I kept surfing for a while and actually did pretty well considering only two fins (the middle and left fins) but I knew I would have a busted board on my return trip from Chicago which was a bummer since I didn't have time to drop it off for repairs before leaving.
So this past weekend I just got back from the trip and I knew I couldn't take my board out again because the foam would obsorb water and make a repair even tougher, so I just rented a shop "demo" board. The rental was a nice epoxy 6'5" swallow tail fish and the owner of the shop said he wasn't totally sure if it was a demo or one of the guys who worked there, but he gave it to me anyways, and he warned me "you break it, you buy it" which freaked me out a bit at $400. So I took the board anyway and the next day I had a blast on it! The waves were huge and the board performed very well. Unfortunately I crashed it into an oncoming surfer and totally jacked the front of the board... Epoxy boards are sopposed to be stronger than normal boards (they look like plastic on the outside instead of clear) and my friends in the water said if it wasn't epoxy it would have snapped the nose right off! All of this "fragile" crap is new to me because I'm used to snowboards that NEVER break unless you ride strait into a rock and really put the grind on.
I guess I was stoked to have the board in one piece after the accident but it wasn't a very fun experience returning it to the shop... It turns out it wasn't really a demo board, it did belong to one of the shop workers and he was totally bummed that I dinged it. So, I was left with surf board ding repair number two, and I haven't found out how much either repair will cost yet.
While all of this was going on I had been visiting the local shops a pretty frequently, checking out the used board selection. One board really caught my eye, the Channel Islands Al Merrick Flyer... One of my favorite local shops "Kstar" had this board used and it was an epoxy version! which was awesome because as you recall, epoxy is stronger than foam and normal glassing. Since the rental was thrashed and my board was still in for repairs (number seven in a line to be repaired by the shop) I decided to shell out the cash and buy an extra board. The Flyer was perfect, not only due to it's strength, but also because it's a more advanced shape and I wanted to step up my riding a little bit.
When I went in to buy the Channel Islands Flyer I ended up meeting the owner of the store "Keith" and we got to talking about all sorts of cool stuff including ABSTRACTmall. He mentioned that one of his good friends owned the exact same Flyer model that I was looking at used and he might be willing to sell me his for the same price as the shop's (and his friend's board was in way better shape). I was interested in the offer, so Keith sent word and his friend "Tony" drove right down to show me the board. Now... Tony had owned this Flyer for a long time and he really loved the board, he had even named the thing, "Plastic Fantastic" and he was a bit concerned when he heard about my previous two boards. At the end of the day however, when push came to shuv, I flashed the cash and Tony put out... Keith took his cut in the deal and Plastic Fantastic was mine!
This is what Plastic Fantastic looks like :D
How does the story end? Well, today I went out to Rockaway Beach which is a bit rougher than Linda Mar... The waves were really going off and I almost got bashed into the rocks just trying to launch, I actually ended up back on the beach after taking off to swim out and my fins dragged in the sand! Maybe I should have heeded the warning signs, but I was way too stoked to let a few bruises and scratches get in my way. I finally made it out and caught one amazing wave. It was really powerful and I got a lot of tight turns in. Unfortunately, the fun didn't last long. It was a bit eerie out in the water with yellow foam and a pod of dolphins slowly circling me and the other guys. It was also a bit lonely and intimidating because there were only three guys and we really didn't know eachother. Everyone was way spread out and I felt totally isolated. The fog was rolling in a bit and Rockaway, being surrounded by cliffs, was echoing with the sounds of the crashes waves.
As I attempted my second big wave of the day I leaned a bit too far forward trying to get on and I was dropped down onto the face with tremendous force. I had one of those "oh shit" moments where you know something bad is about to happen and you feel like a tiny child being tossed hard with no control. If I had a tail, it would have been tightly squeezed between my legs. I balled up and was whipped around in all directions, I was so tense that both of my calfs cramped and I felt the searing electric sort of pain that only comes from freezing cold water, exhaustion, lack of air, isolation, and cramps. As I was losing control under water, Plastic Fantastic bashed my upper theigh and I felt a sharp gouging tear as one of the fins dug into me. When I finally surfaced and streteched my legs out I pulled on my leash and flipped my board over to find one of the fins missing... the right fin, just like with my first board. Not only was the fin gone, I also had a huge ding all the way through the epoxy and into the foam.
Deja Voo just doesn't do the experience justice. I didn't completely give up (althought maybe I should have) I stretched my legs out and paddled back into the big waves. I caught one more good one and made a few decent, if not squirrely, turns. Since I cut left when I surf the missing right fin wasn't too much of a problem.
I'll be stoked to have my two boards back soon, but it's a bummer I can't surf for the rest of the week... I wanted to get some pictures but since the damage to the second board was a rental I didn't have time to get it back for photos (and I didn't want to dissrespect the owner). It's been a good second month here in Pacifica and I think I might be moving up to Marin County next month. Marin is sopposed to be cool for surfing up at Stinson and Bolinas but the sharks are a bigger problem there (since the beaches border a bay inlet where fish and nutrients flush out) so I might have to bust out my australian made electric leash... More on that later.
Posted by pocket at 08:08 PM | Comments (0)
July 21, 2006
Corporate Training
Today marks the end of my corporate consulting training in Chicago. Let me just say, it's hot and humid here! and wearing dress up clothes can really drag you down... especially when you're working your a$$ off from 8am to 7pm every single day (plus half day on Saturday) for two strait weeks. Add the two hour time difference coming from San Francisco (equivilant to a 5am start each day) and you've got a recipee for success!
I'm not a huge partier, but we managed to squeeze in a few nightes of going out to bars, kareoke, bowling, and general drunken rowdiness. I'll post some pics when I get some time later this weekend.
We worked in teams like this... happy faces, lots of diversity.
Thursday nights were kareoke at Cadillac Ranch... Fridays were tough.
Yum, bowling!
Our Australian, playing pool.
Posted by pocket at 10:08 AM | Comments (1)
July 18, 2006
Who is Verne Baginski?
Well Last night after returning to my hotel room in St. Charles (just outside of Chicago) I was swimming laps in the resort pool. It was a scorching hot day and the humidity here in Illinois was nearly unbearable! The swimming was nice, and the resort I was at is pretty ritzy. It must have seemed a bit weird to onlookers because I was holding on to the ladder on the side of the pool with my feet and paddling with my arms to try to keep my arms in shape for surfing. Almost everyone had left the pool by 9pm and there was only one guy left over... Verne.
Verne is a technical lead with Wrigley (the guys who make gum, notably Orbitz, my personal fav). I had never really thought about the brand but apparently in Europe, specifically Germany (where Verne is from) the brand owns over 80% market share and recently bought parts of Kraft because it is so saturated! I don’t want to get Verne in trouble by sharing any numbers here, but Wrigley has grown a lot lately and it really sounded like a neat place to work. They even have a new marketing program with youth in Europe trying to help them invent the next great candy/gum product and that is just awesome! I told Verne about my recent Euro trip, how I had visited Germany less than a month ago and had enjoyed his country. He told me how much he enjoys the US, and that he has been here a few times on business with Wrigley, to Miami, LA, Chicago, and even SanFran where I am from. This visit was actually for leadership development and it was designed to bring together the top 50 people from Wrigley for networking and personal growth. I told him I would get his card later this week if I see him again and that I’d visit him in Germany next time I’m around... He said he would give me some free gum if I visited.
Aside from chatting about gum and golfing at the resort, Verne has branched out a bit this past weekend and explored the area, including a short trip over to Milwaukee where there is this awesome new art museum! We got onto this subject because I had mentioned my recent trip to the Chicago Institute of Art just a couple of days ago. Apparently the Milwaukee museum has these huge windows and is almost entirely glass. It also has this weird roof that is shaped like bird wings which can be opened or closed to let the fresh air in or keep the heat out!
Milwaukee Art Museum, MAM
Posted by pocket at 06:54 AM | Comments (0)
July 08, 2006
Pacifica Castle "Sams Castle"
Pacifica is an awesome place. When I moved to the Bay Area three weeks ago I was staying with a friend in Berkeley and that gave me the opportunity to search out a good living place, with surfing, mountain biking, and that small town feel. As described in my earlier posts, I didn't want to get robbed again and I'm not really stoked on the city... so a small town is perfect.
Within Pacifica I live in Linda Mar which I also wrote about, the reason I chose Linda Mar is the great surfing and the protected forrests that surround it (perfect for biking). They also built an awesome new skate park here and I have had a blast with that.
So anyways, as I have settled down and had some free time on the weekends I have begun adventuring out and exploring the town and surrounding areas in Pacifica. One thing that alway caught my attention was this castle up on a point right near the highway. Every day I pass this castle on my way to the BART station (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
Okay, Okay... So, I finally got my chance to visit Sam's Castle the other day, that is the point of this post!
Posted by pocket at 01:19 PM | Comments (0)
Friday Afternoon Focus Group
Another exciting Friday afternoon yesterday July7. It was my last day of training where I work (before I go on a business trip this weekend and do more training in Chicago) and I had planned on leaving early and having some fun. To preface this fun: earlier this week I was with my friend Alex hanging out in Palo Alto with his girlfriend who is running a lecrosse camp, we actually spent the night in the Stanford dorms and went to this pool party... I bought a bike, we even saw Superman (it was a big weekend), the point is, while we were out in Palo Alto I ran into this lady who was looking for participants in a focus group on video games. Well, I love the gaming industry so I signed up.
It just so happens that the company running the focus group was Lucas Arts! Crazy... I love Lucas Arts but lets be honest, most of their games suck, can you say say Star Wars Galaxies? Yeah, not good, but actually that project was run by Sony. Well, I can't say much about the focus group because I did sign a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA), but what I can say is; the food was good.
So I had left work, headed out to the focus group (which was like an hour and a half away from my work) and on the way I passed some really cool sites. Motorola has a huge office complex right off the highway near where I was and I also passed Yahoo headquarters... These are some amazing companies and the buildings are very impressive. All of Yahoo's buildings match and they are on both sides of the street! p.s. Yahoo and Ebay have teamed up along with PayPal and Skype... I have friends up here in NorCal that work at all of these companies and it's pretty cool!
So the other really neat part about Sunnyvale (which is the town where all of this craziness is going down) is that it is right next to Moffett Field, which is now owned by Lockheed Martin (originally built by Goodyear... the goodyear blimp???). This so called "field" is huge and it contains two gigantic hangers, another rounded hanger for blimps, and an enormous wind tunnel. I tried to get in but the security guard told me it was all closed and honestly, you don't want to mess around with guys who build missiles and rockets all day :)
Old School Pic of Blimp Hanger
Sucktastic Wind Tunnel
Posted by pocket at 12:44 PM | Comments (0)