Santa Cruz

It's not often work trips work out so well, but the flight ticket rules on my last trip to San Francisco meant I had to stay an extra night after all the others had left. I took the chance to bail back down Highway 1 to Santa Cruz.

One of many empty peaks on the drive down from San Francisco.

 I wish they all could be...

Grinding Pacific barrels on the left, and The Gower countryside on the right.

Thursday morning, no-one out .

Rock-Rock-Rockaway Beach. One Two Three Four!

 more empty waves...

and more...

Scott's Creek. At last some surfers!

View from the deck of Mr Tim's excellent cabin up on the hill looking out to the ocean. Top digs, cheers mate! In Winter, the fog comes right in just above the height of the valley floor making it look like a lake below.

Cup of tea old chap?

Well I suppose the tree was there first.

Pleasure Point, Santa Cruz. Pretty mellow but incredibly long righthander...

Jack O'Neill's house overlooking Pleasure Point. Having owned a few O'Neill wetsuits over the years, thought I should knock the door and ask for 2 or 3 seconds on the balcony sucking in the view that helped him pay for it.

Good spot for a sundown beer.

  

Steamer Lane, just further round from Pleasure Point. The kelp round here extends a couple of hundred yards offshore and keeps the waves glassy-as.

SL, looking a bit DY.

Early morning bottom turn.

Aim Robot

Noticed this in the shop across the road. The Robot Cleaner, or Aim Robot.

Don't know what they were thinking with the sales pitch. They basically grubbed up a room with some green dust or mold or slime, hard to tell exactly what from the photos, then let this robot do it's robot thing about the place for 50 minutes to clean up. The four photos show some more detail.

They're basically saying this thing can make a 7 sq.m room really clean in about 50 minutes and here are the four pics blown up.

I think there should have been a fifth...

"You too could own a home like this!"
Yes please, I'll take two!

I'll stick with the Grizzly Bear "I feel quite comfortable in Massage CUSHION".

Progress?

Back in Manly over Christmas, I saw this "artist's impression" outside one of the old buildings opposite the wharf. Admirable to try and protect the old architecture but this just looks horrific. The top of the picture is the actual remains of the old facade shown in the top left of the graphic. Maybe it's a colour thing?

BCM

BEACH COMBING MAG is a free Japanese language surf guide you can pick up in surf shops here with lots of good info and a savage looking “wetsuit index” for Hokkaido.

3mm steamers for the dog-days of summer and dry suits from December to May.

From the boys at Sapporo Surf Mag, here's a snap from the balmy days of last September’s typhoon swell that’d keep you going.

Suits you

The 80s are back at Dripping Wet in Manly.

Colours

or not



Australia

A few snaps from a top trip back to Sydney and The South Coast.
Stinking hot & bloody cold, city & country, beer & wine, cockatoos & possums, downpours & heat-hazes, traffic jams & empty roads, crowded waves & no-one out, family & friends... and of course Quentin & Roger.

His Duke-ness

Does my bum look big in this? Harbour Bridge 4 Pines stylee

Heading to...

 The Rocks...

for a bev in, among others, The Glenmore...

 ...and the Fields of Athenry in The Mercantile

 with a guy halfway up the mast

 Storm's a-comin

 Club 57C - Cheers Lunger!

 South Coast

 Even Souther

Doesn't look anything like a camel

Think I'll stop now

At last

Beautiful morning; sun's out, not too cold, the clearest view so far this year of Mt Fuji, public holiday, first day of nearly 2 weeks off and flying to Sydney later this afternoon. First Ozzy Christmas for 6 years!

Merry Christmas to all, back in 2011...

Eddie

During one of the year's biggest swells at the Bay, Eddie took off on a nasty wave that seemed determined to kill him. Sol can still picture what happened the moment he almost lost his brother to the sea. "I remember that day. He was on the wave, it was a big one, and he wiped out. It took him right down to the bottom and rolled him across it."

After the shock of falling through the air and being slammed into the water, Eddie felt his head hit the rocky bottom. He blacked out for a moment and awoke in an underwater netherworld. Being buried under tons of churning water during a bad wipeout can feel like dying. Cut off from light and air, he looked around in a daze, wondering what had happened, where he was and which way was up. Like Odysseus in the Underworld, he felt time suddenly slow down and darkness envelop everything. Boulders the size of VW Bugs rolled around in the underwater tornado. Caught in a dreamscape between the living and the dead, he tried to escape. But like a nightmare he could not yell for help or run away as he was thrown around like a rag doll. He tried not to panic but his lungs were screaming for air, his pulse was pounding and the whitewater kept on pushing him down. For a moment, he must have wondered if his time had come. But then the ocean let him go and he swam toward the light.

From Chapter 8: Wipeout, of the excellent Eddie Would Go by Stuart Holmes Coleman. Boulders the size of VW Bugs? Think I'll put the kettle on... 

 

Ho Ho Ho

You can tell it's Christmas, all the shops selling hostess-bar girl's dresses which I suppose you could call hostesses' dresses, are full of Santa jobs.

Steve PP

Nice bit of Driftwood Art arrived in time for Crimbo from Steve PP. Nice job Steve, stay tuned for Stage 2....

Hawaii

Timing is everything. My trip coincided with, as Bill Morris from Coastal Watch - Hawaii Swell Journal put it, "three days of the flattest surf I have ever seen in Hawaii. It was pretty much unrideable which is highly unusual for these wave rich waters."



The swells need to plenty of West to get into the Big Island's Kona Coast so although not the epic surf I was hoping for, it was good to get back into some warm water.

This shot was the best day of the trip, a bit blowy by photo time though.