Friday Randoms #1

This year I managed to complete the holy triumviate of things to skate for anyone over the age of 30. And all in the UK, which if you include the pool and the ditch is a pretty rad achivement. These fullpipes were actually 5 minutes from my parents new place in South Wales which I find pretty amusing. Thats Joe "The Bear" Habgood going big for the benefit of the Newport youngsters.

Fullpipes - super fun, but they don't half kill your legs.

Dave Carnie used to write/edit/arse around for fabled skatemag Big Brother. Now he writes a whole heap of funny shit with his wife about food. Makes I larf.















foodondrunk.blogspot.com

The Vegas stuff about Dude bags I found particularly amusing. Mainly as I've been in that pool and witnessed it first hand. "Awesome".

Southern California has always held a strange attraction to me. Growing up with the Taylor Steele movies, Rob Machado in Surfer mag every month, the punk that was associated with it and of course the skateboarding made me want to one day visit the places I’d read or heard about regularly. That and the perma-sunshine/waves.

Fast forward to last year and having an idea for a holiday I managed to talk the wife into going to San Diego for a week. We loved it, although I didn’t surf as much as I wanted. I went skating with a local and visited Washington Street and some other places, hung out at Mission Beach and just generally enjoyed the SoCal lifestyle.

[Click Pic above for Peekers 07 SD Slideshow] [Click Pic above for my 07 SD Slideshow]

So much so we went back again last month. We stayed in Pacific Beach again, but this time got a hire car and a proper board. This trip from a surfing point of view was a lot more enjoyable – up at dawn (thanks jetlag!), surf, breakfast, play at being tourists, back for a surf then out for food and drinks. Heaven. I got to have a skate day again with Riik and some other fellas, eat some amazingly good (and nearly authentic) street tacos, checked out SurfIndian store and chatted to Chris the owner about the amazing surf art and boards he has in there and drove up and down the coast through all the surfspots that were the reason for the trip in the first place.














Pacific Coast Highway looking down to La Jolla
[Click Pic above for Peekers 08 SD Slideshow]

The surf was pretty fun all week – 2-3ft, nothing serious but enough to have fun in. I got to surf 27th Street in Del Mar on the last day which were the best waves of the trip.

I’m saving up to go again next year. Even if the wife wants to go somewhere else.

Oh and one morning after a surf I went and took a few snaps at Pacific Beach.

















Crystal Pier windswept but fun.
[click for surf slideshow]

A driving force behind the creation of this blog was to document and make myself go surfing more. I’ve slacked off more and more over the last 10yrs with my surfing and something needed to be addressed.Yes - I do get pissed off at the crowds and the kooks, and this was a contributing factor in forcing me away from surfing, but am learning to come to terms with it. This summer allowed me a chance to get in more than once a week most weeks and it’s fair to say it returned a lot of the stoke I had from surfing.

Which has led me to purchase this puppy. After Whip got stoked on his, and I saw this bargain, I went and got into a lot of trouble with the Wife by buying it.

Let’s hope it rides well, I really need to get out again soon.

6'6" Seed Single fin shortboard. Pretty fat and wide, I keep thinking "mini-mal".

This is a test...

...icle.