Der Tälismann - that’s Yoda’s buddy, who was in from Germany for the past ten days - left yesterday afternoon, but not before we got in a three-hour session (fittingly) at Threes. Der Tälismann is so named because the offseason swell that gifted us two weeks of waves hung on for almost the entirety of [...]

One session a week, on Wednesday with Yoda, and that’s it, at least until I can wake up the morning after not feeling like I pitched seven innings with a rotator cuff injury. In the meantime, I’m heading back into the gym to do what Mark Verstegen calls “prehab,” which are elements of his training [...]

Lost a contact lens in a wipeout during last night’s session with Yoda. Spent the rest of the night without depth perception, which is a handicap I don’t need - I have enough already. Still, it’s better than Tuesday, when I lost both contacts after fumbling the drop and doing a faceplant in front of [...]

Okay, the 300 Days in the Water challenge is officially off. As I sat nursing my aching left shoulder and right hip last week, it occurred to me that surfing every day is actually counterproductive. Every modern training methodology I’ve seen agrees that your muscles need at least 48 hours to recover from a period [...]

Wow, what a hell of a paddle. Threes, Paradise and Pop’s are the three longest paddles on the South Shore, according to Yoda, but apparently it’s worth it when it’s going off. Not a lot going on out there yesterday, but it’s easy to see how the wave at Threes would scale up nicely with [...]

2pm in Hawaii Kai: Overcast, rainy, cold. 3pm at Ala Moana: Sunny, rainbow over Honolulu skyline, mild offshore winds and beautiful surf. There were great waves at Ala Moana this afternoon; sets every 10 minutes and at least one shoulder high wave in each set.
After my last wipeout, I paddle back out and sit next [...]

One thing I forgot to mention: when I got home from my holiday trip, I found that my upstairs neighbor/buddy/landlord - we’ll call him Tim the Enchanter - had converted my parking space to a handicapped stall.

Apparently he found an old stencil and thought it would be fitting since I’m coming home with a new [...]

My mom cooks the way rabbits multiply, so I should have expected it. Out of the water for almost three weeks now, two measly pickup soccer games to show for it, and definitely fatter. Fuck.
There’s only one cure, of course. Starting with tonight’s regular Wednesday session, I’ll be on my way to keeping the New [...]