A Surfer's Notebook

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We're back baby!

It's a new note and today is good day.

The email wizards are back at it again for the third time this week! Now let's see if this goes out again after I only make an update....

The wizards are back at it again! I can't believe this is happening.

There it was, the silver Sony handheld camera - a little bigger than my fist, state of the art in the early 2000s. It had a flip-out side screen and it stored memories, somehow mysteriously, on a black strip of tape wound up in mini plastic cassettes. There were several of these cassettes in the sid...

Like waves, I am simply a product of my environment. Oceanographers are good at predicting how a wave will break—or at least explaining why a wave behaves the way it does after the fact. They understand a wave is shaped by external forces: swell size, bathymetry, tides, and wind.

What, then, explai...

I’ve spent too much time contemplating religion and the existence of God. No matter where I look or how hard I try to let it be as is, the questions always come back. I suspect this is partly due to how ubiquitous religion is in almost every culture. When I'm traveling, there's always a temple, cath...

Here's a typical situation:

I'm out with the bros at our local beach break. The waves are the perfect size for a fun, playful session, and the sets are just big enough to make me a little nervous on the takeoffs. Exactly what I love!

A set wave comes right to me. Yep, it's clearly a nice one, the ...

This week's note is a follow up to note #11 My First Real Barrel. If you haven't yet, reading that note will provide a little context (but isn't required).

*This note started the way most of my journaling starts... with a...

Something deep inside of me wants to do everything I know I shouldn't.

It feels like my heart is fighting my head.

My heart: I want to quit. I want to drop out. I want to give up all ties, live in a van, and just surf. I hate 'the system' so much I want to live outside of it; either actively d...

Since I started keeping a log of all my sessions, I've realized it's not just the wave quality or quantity that gets me stoked.

I thought that if I tracked the swell, wind, tide, and crowds, then there would be a clear correlation between conditions and my level of stoke. Then I'd be able to more a...

Hey, yoo, I've been out of the water for a few weeks. Recording these notes doesn't help my froth, but it does remind me how nice it is to be able to travel and surf new breaks with low crowds. So I'm thankful for that.

*After last week's note about surfing with the bros, I was reminded about a s...

I was sitting there, reflecting back on how stupid the Four Loko Challenge was. Then I started laughing out loud for a good two seconds before I caught myself, realizing that I probably looked crazy. How could the thought of something so trivial bring me such a hit of pleasure?

Then things got seri...

*I've traveled extensively and thought I had seen all variations of hustling that arise when relatively wealthy tourists enter poor areas. I've seen the full spectrum of deepest poverty in India, Central America, and Africa. I've witnessed shameful scamming throughout Asia. I've even been offered mo...

*I've met several surfers over the last few weeks who were searching for their first real barrel. I could relate to their search for what felt to me like chasing a unicorn for so long, and I was hoping I'd get to see the look on their face when they found theirs. Although I never had a front row sea...

I sat down immediately after a session in South Africa to write this letter home. With hair still wet and sand on my feet I felt compelled to get it out of my head and on to "paper" before I lost the feeling. Here's 'The Rollercoaster'

Hey Dad,

I had a wave today that reminded me of home and sur...

I recently realized I've been living my life without that extra dose of BS I had been serving up to myself for so long.

What is the BS?

I'm at the train station in Madrid in line for boarding a train for Barcelona when the tenant informs me they do not accept surfboards. This is typically where th...

What's up dudes and dudettes? I just buckled my board, but luckily it was at the end of a 3 hour session.

*I saw a ballie surfing the other day that reminded me of a legendary character I met in the desert of Morocco. "Ballie" is my second favorite slang word from South Africa, used to refer to o...

A local surfer had told me there were a few good, uncrowded waves up the coast. Breaks close to town were surprisingly crowded. Despite favorable winds throughout the day, people were getting on them at sunrise and around 8 or 9 AM surf camps would show up with vans of surfers, flooding the peak. Wh...

*Sometimes I try to get logical about things as illogical as chasing a stoke. Could I paddle out, catch one wave and come back in stoked? I think it's possible. I've seen guys do it. Two days ago an old dude, at least 60 years old, paddled out at dusk. I was thinking to myself, "I can't see sets com...

*In going back through my notes I found several about the ups and downs of surfing in Vietnam. It's such a weird surf scene in so many ways. Some surfers I met there said they love it. Others won't even be bothered to paddle out. *

*My experience has been confusing. I've left the water feeling exal...

I've made a huge mistake.

As a minimalist who travels with one carryon duffel bag that doubles as a backpack and one board bag with two boards, I take gear and purchases seriously. I simply don't have room for any bad buys.

One tactic I've adopted is a sort of catch and release system. Some things...

The mornings I don't have a surf session I feel a little off. A touch of lethargy follows me around throughout the day. I'm a little more anxious and little less grateful. Even the 'not-so-great' surf sessions set me up for an all-around better day.

It's often cold and difficult to bring myself to ...

Surfing is like sugar. It comes in many forms and, at least for me, has a predictable affect on the brain. When sugar hits my tongue I get an immediate reward shortly followed by a strong craving for more.

I can't remember a single surf session where I've caught a good wave at the beginning of the ...