JD's Journal : A Random List from 2003

:: Biggest stoke - watching Brian take the biggest drop of his life in spectacular blue/green water, two days into the new year and two degrees above the equator.

:: Best food - a tie between Brad's Tinned-Fish Spaghetti, cooked on a campfire in South America, and a truely magnificent Chicken Mole in San Jose del Cabo (south side of the main square - restaurant with a roof garden and a big indoor courtyard - surf your ass off, have two beers, eat the Mole, enter heaven for a good ten to fifteen minutes).

:: Best wave - oh, now, tricky. I'd have to say a long, long left in South America - only a three or four wave session, but the first wave went for about half a mile - hollow sections, fast wall, the lot.

:: Worst wipeout - a top to bottom freefall at the same place in front of an international crew of fine surfers. Got stuck on the lip, stayed there, pitched all the way to the bottom.

:: Least Pleasant Cultural Experience - at a "party" on a Pacific island, a local comes up and says "I'd like to apologize for my friend calling you faggots. He is mad at his wife and wants to fight somebody. I told him to go and beat her up instead". Yes, folks, island life has its little nasty bits, too.

:: Most Pleasant Cultural Experience - at a well-known and crowded break in Baja, everybody giving a wave, sharing a wave, no hassle, no fuss, for over two hours. Wonderful.

:: Dumbest Thing I did - trying to get into a Baja point break by walking over the rocks at the peak instead of paddling round. Ended up with blood coming out of both shins, and a sea urchin stuck in my right thigh.

:: Best Kid-Related Surfing Moment - my son, age three, dunks his head under water, coughs hard, chucks up his lunch, takes a look at the water and says, brightly "look Daddy! hot dog!". Perhaps you had to be there.

:: Best Overall Surfing-Related Experience - Baja, before dawn, head-high glassy rollers coming in, just myself, Brian and Roger out, catching waves all the way to the beach, kicking out into the sun as it popped out over the horizon.

Random Lessons from 2003

:: Yoga helps you surf better. I may be the last person in the Bay Area to discover this helpful fact - but, in case I'm not, let me just encourage you to try it. I've done balance workouts, gym workouts, followed "Surf Flex" (which is excellent), but yoga takes the biscuit. Need an extra resolution for 2004? Head to your local Yoga studio (if you are in San Francisco, there is one within 100 yards of where you are reading this, most likely), and try it.

:: You can take fine water pictures with a Minolta DImage camera and water-housing. 3mpix, with a multi-frame mode and a small enough water housing to put in a fanny pack so you can surf and take pics of your buddies from the inside. It works!

:: Surf all you can when you can. Eventually it goes away. Two friends got to stage 4 cancer this year - a lesson I was hoping to put off for a few more years, but, well, no. Having the time, health, energy to surf is a great luxury. Embrace it, love it, use it.

I'm sure there were more. Perhaps I'm not in the mood for lessons right now.

Have fine waves in 2004.

my email is: jdj@pacificwaverider.com

an archive of these columns is here