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August 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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This has been the first summer in the past 9 years or so that I am actually traveling less. Ironically, the title of this column still is “Travel Log.” Nonetheless, I remain busier than ever.

It’s been enjoyable spending the most of my summer in Laguna this year. I chose to take a step away from the UST and the competitive side of skimboarding because it was starting to wear on me and I needed a change. Traveling on tour for the past 9 years was a great experience, but I felt that I needed to find new avenues to push the sport. In addition, the anticipation of my first-born son adjusted priorities and so, now I find myself home in Laguna instead of slugging it out on the UST.

Laguna has been experiencing one of the gloomiest summers that I can remember. We’ve probably only had a week to ten days of sunny weather thus far. There have been a couple of good-sized south swells, but south wind and overcast conditions have dampened motivation to get out there.

The Vic contest came and went. Having yet to win this event, it’s been elusive for me. This is probably the most challenging contest to reach the finals. Just making it to the finals is a feat in its own. If there is one event you want to win as a skimboarder, this is it. This didn’t end up being my year, but I was happy to see another new champion this time around. Mo put together a great heat mixing in a superman air and deserved the top spot.

My Laguna camps started up after the Vic. The advanced camp was first and the waves were huge. It’s not easy teaching lessons and camps when the waves are big and the weather is cold. Fortunately, I had a great group of groms that charged the big ones and made the most of the conditions. It was sick to see one of the campers, Keaton, land a 360 shuv off the lip of a backside liner for the first time after trying repeatedly all week long. Things like that happen at camp regularly and I’m stoked to witness it all.

For now, I’m teaching lots of lessons, camps and squeezing in some of my own skim time. I’m organizing a camp in Newport Beach for the first time as well as a camp in Hawaii in December. Today the waves are big again and I’m headed to Aliso to snag a few wraps after teaching a lesson.

Until next time skimsters…

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Coast to Coast

August 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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It’s summertime, and it’s hot. I’m talking heat that is intrusive and oppressive; heat that feels like a big invisible blanket covering you day and night. You can’t escape it if you are outside. It saps your energy, soaks your skin and makes you second guess your cries during winter for a heat wave. Thankfully, I’ve had photos that needed editing and other excuses to stay inside some.

California, Tybee and Vilano. That’s the main locales featured in this new photos set. California was a great time as always. The waves were fun almost everyday, and I’ve learned from experience that is not always the case. I have to give huge thanks Hank Snapp and Kelly Anderson for being such amazing hosts. Also, I owe a great deal to Steve Taylor for those morning coffee/skim session – always a necessity and greatly appreciated. This year wasn’t quite as warm as years past, but I still had some good sessions. I will say this – make sure to watch out for bodyboarders at the Wedge, because they don’t really watch out for you.

After I’d skimmed and surfed so much in California that I could (literally) barely walk, I had a couple weeks rest and then made the three-plus hour drive to Tybee Island for the annual Skim Invasion contest. The waves didn’t really cooperate with us this year, so the conditions were a lot smaller than last year’s, but it was a still a fun contest. The skim scene on Tybee is growing every year, and the excitement and enthusiasm for both skimboarding and the local skimboarders is great to see. I was not able to stay for the night festivities and movie, but if it was anything like last year, then I’m sure a good time was had by all.

To round off this log, there are some photos from a couple recent sessions from Vilano. The waves haven’t been the best this summer, but as summer wears on the beach is getting back to her old self, and we’ve been treated with a couple fun summer days. Hopefully the upcoming Florida Pro/am will have some similarly fun conditions.

Next Travel Logs I’m gonna do something a little different in terms of writing. By the next update I should have a more firm idea of an exciting trip for the spring/summer of 2010 as well as some ideas on trips for the rest of this year. I’m also going to write a little piece on Google Earth, and some potential spots I’ve seen while wasting hours on there.

Enjoy the photos, and thanks again to Skim Invasion and all the sponsors for the support!

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The Outer Banks

August 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

One month later and I’m still stuck in NC. Things don’t always work out the way you expect them to, in fact reality seems to rarely live up to our imagination, or at least mine. The skim world has said to me, in a round about way, that they don’t want me to go to Angola right now, and so be it. DVD sales are in the dumpster laying on top of the US economy and I’m digging around inside looking for loose change, and lately I think I’m ready for a change of scenery.

The Outer Banks in North Carolina are a place like many on the east coast; inland farmlands fade to inter coastal waterways, which fade into narrow, low lying islands and the wooden beach houses fade to whippgrass and sea oats, the whippgrass fades to sand and the sand to warm saltwater. The summer days are hot and humid to the point where large thunderstorms build off the scorching intercoastal and swamp lands nearly every afternoon like clockwork. The older folks sit around the beach or pool with a 24 pack of PBR while the kids smoke blunts in their cars in between skim sessions. This has been more or less the pattern repeated up and down the east coast, at least as far north as New Jersey, and it isn’t good or bad, it just is.

Skim Invasion :: Gallery

I just bought a van for $500, the first vehicle I’ve had since I sold my truck for a plane ticket to Chile a couple years ago, and now I’m working on gas money to get back to California. Then I’m planning to use that van to launch a trip down to  mainland Mexico to do some living, then further south to Guatemala. I may at that time decide to take the Pan-American highway down towards Chile and Brazil but I’m really just taking it one step at a time. Not trying to plan too much, just taking it slow and peeling layers of useless materialism off my life so the sun can shine through.

As for NC, I’m just hanging out waiting for sales to pick up while skimming for sanity, fishing for food and filming for the next movie. The skim has been fun and the company a delight. Here are some photos from the past month in North Carolina and New Jersey:

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Another Summer Season

June 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Pau

I find myself again at the start of another Summer season, ready for sun, waves, camps, and the busy-ness of it all.  I kicked off the Summer in Cabo for the first stop of the UST.  Peluso reserved a prime spot for the Exile guys at one of the condo hotel units on Solmar beach.  We were so close to the waves that the sets would rattle our sliding glass door.  All in all, the event went well.  It did seem as though that not as many people made the journey to Mex as they did in years past.  A couple new faces that did make it all the way there were Bernardo and Jack, two of the Batardubreak skim heads.  It was their maiden voyage to Cabo and they kept me entertained day and night.  I must say that Bernardo is hilarious.  He soon was nicknamed by the cougars of Cabo, “Bernardo DiCaprio.”

From Cabo, I came back home for a couple weeks then left for my 11 day trip to Delaware and Florida.  Delaware was my first stop for the second UST event.  The waves weren’t the best, but there’s something about Dewey that makes it special.  It’s become a skim town.  This is probably the first place I’ve been where skimboarding is well known by everyone and it reigns supreme there.  On any given Summer day, you’ll see stoked groms walking across the street with skims and local businesses supporting the sport with event posters and photos.  It’s quite impressive how Jason Wilson and the local pros have developed the sport into the city’s culture.

From Dewey, I went to Madeira Beach, Florida for a skim camp and the Grammy’s.  I wasn’t expecting waves on the Gulf and so I was a bit anxious about how I was gonna teach kids in those conditions.  Fortunately it all worked out because the kids were psyched skimmers lovin every minute of it. I was overwhelmed with a welcoming sentiment by Bryan at Overhead and all of the locals. It was fun to see first hand the type of waves and conditions that the locals skim on a regular basis.  There are some skilled riders who are incredible at making the most of it.  I was impressed by their skill and devotion to the sport.

Now, it’s the day before the Vic, probably the biggest contest of the year.  There’s always a lot of anticipation and hype surrounding this event.    All the skimsters are in town are wave hungry and the beaches are packed.  This is definitely one contest that every skimboarder should check out.  Laguna is the birthplace of skimboarding and this event has been running for about 34 years.  There’s a lot of history here and everyone’s wondering who’s gonna take the title this year.  Hope to see you there.

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On the Road

June 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment
travelogs

Since my last post I have been doing a bit of driving, exploring a bit more of this country that I have such mixed feelings about. If you were to abbreviate the trip so as to simplify it and not take too much time away from your facebook socializing, it might look like this; CA, AZ, NM, OK,TX, AR, TN, NC, VA, MD, DE and back to NC.

NC are the initials of the state in which I am currently residing with good pals Woody, Mikal, Cheyne, Joe and Aaron. Were tucked a bit back in the woods where the air is thick and the bugs are thicker, but the waves have been fun and seem to be getting better. I like NC, it has a nice friendly vibe to it where everyone seemingly knows each other and hang out together in different places throughout day. The waves are soft but better than most of Florida and are mostly point-style liners and nice medium sized wraps.

I was thinking whilst making the 45 hour trek across the country that America is still a beautiful place to live in some areas. I tend to have a very jaded view of it because I was born and raised in southern California, and when I started traveling to other countries and saw how much better the quality of life tended to be, I got a very bitter taste in my mouth towards the US. This country seems to have done nothing but take from my soul since I was born, and I can’t help but draw a connection to the Native Americans and the way the missionaries that founded this country destroyed them in order to suit their objectives. So when I traveled across this enormous country founded on such a disgusting past, I was overcome with an erie feeling, almost as if it were haunted by the ghost of what it once was. But I do not hate it, in fact I can’t help but love it. Traveling it’s length for the second time has been bittersweet, and I can’t wait to get back on the road and taste some more. I really recommend traveling by car over airplane whenever possible, I think I may even start traveling by horse or walking. I feel like I am struggling to keep myself interested in trips that I am planning because of the flight and the cost involved. Of course you get to see places that are amazingly far, but you miss everything in between, and that is often the most important part.

Last post I mentioned Africa, and now I am prepared to elaborate a bit. Angola is the country on which my eyes are affixed. My friend Mega from Portugal has family there, and discovered some evidence that seems to point towards the possibility of finding the best/longest skim wave in the world, period. Wish us luck as myself and 3 other people try to procure funds to make this trip a reality and bring it back to you.

Here are some photos from CA, NC and DE

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Filed Under: Travel Logs

Hibernation

June 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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It’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these. After a great first year, I went into a hibernation of sorts this winter, in terms of traveling. The weather got cold and bad and the waves went flat. I got a job working 40+ hours a week. I turned to lifting weights to compensate for the lack of water time. I watched a lot of movies – a LOT of movies. The winter was especially brutal this year, with weather and water temps not seen since the early 1900s in Florida. I started to go a little crazy. It’ll happen to anyone who lives near the beach and is not able to vent frustrations and relax because the ocean doesn’t see fit to indulge you with anything of worth for months on end. It shows in their snappy moods and in their eyes – the madness that builds with wave starvation.

I’m writing this from my cramped window seat somewhere above the Midwest en route to California. This is the first time I’ve been on a plane in months, but it’s all the same. The lines, the uncomfortable seats, the sitting, the waiting; it’s all the same and I’ve missed it. Looking out the window I see the ambiguous landscapes of places I can’t name. It is different and the same for any flying experience. I’ve become accustomed to it. I’d say I’ve grown to enjoy it but that may be going a bit too far. I know that half the adventure is getting to your destination but let’s face it: there’s nothing exciting about sitting in a small seat with minimal movement or stimuli for hours on end.

So, the year ahead. This would be the second year for Travel Logs. This year the goal is to continue to provide you with top quality content and some sense of what it’s like to be a globetrotting adventurer in search of new places and new waves. That’s right – I’m going to be spending way too much money on flights and gas, living off cheap food, sleeping on friends or strangers’ couches/floors, getting lost in sketchy places, and basically actively dodging comfort and stability. It’s a glamorous pursuit I know, but I do it only to provide everyone with quality skimboarding content and maybe do a little for the sport.

Obviously California is the most current trip. The swell forecast is looking good and I’ve heard the sand is shaped well. Hopefully I’ll score some waves and photos to share with everyone. After California, June looks somewhat quite for skim trips, although I will be heading to The Skim Invasion Tybee Island event in Georgia again this year. It was a great time last year and I’m sure it will be even more fun this year. July has a couple possibilities, with a trip to the Outer Banks an almost sure thing and a possible trip to Cape Cod. In the fall I have several trips in mind, including Mexico and the Caribbean. I’m sure some things will change ( they always do) but that’s the tentative schedule of adventures right now, with maybe a couple secret jaunts to mystery spots thrown in for some spice.

I’ve gotten some photos together that I’ve gotten from the past year. A couple you may have seen, but most you haven’t. Hopefully that will satiate everyone until the next Travel Logs update.

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Hello Again

May 17, 2010 By 2 Comments
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It’s been a weird few months and we have a little catching up to do.
It’s currently 5:49 AM and I’m sitting in my “room” in my parents house in Fallbrook, CA. My “room” is more like a closet stuffed so full with junk that it would easily qualify for an episode, or maybe a full season of Hoarders. Ive been in here for a little over a month trying to get this movie finished and out the door. I am completely nocturnal now and am watching the sun rise as I type. And my head HURTS.

This is not for me ladies and gentlemen, this is for the birds. This is the first DVD I’ve produced and I’ve been trying to maintain my pride and do it all on my own. Start to finish I funded, filmed, edited and produced the entire thing and man do I feel stupid. Yes it is very artistic and very ‘roots’ to create something out of nothing but I cannot handle this computer work any longer. I am an outdoor person, more animal then human, if being human requires one to stare at a computer screen for days on end.

Since my last log I have completed that two week trip in The Dominican Republic which was a fantastic success, and spent two weeks in Cabo which was a nice relaxing break and of course the rest of the time has been spent in Laguna or in this closet. I have reached my breaking point however, and simultaneously finished nearly every phase of production, which has me sitting here all wound up with nowhere to go, and that is a good thing. I am reaching big this year, really big. To get warmed up I will be driving out to the east coast with Woody Harris, Michael Calvino and Cheyne Terjesen and visiting Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Delaware and New Jersey. Following that trip; Africa.

Now I don’t want to give too much away about that trip because it is going to take a ton of work to pull off, but if and when it does happen, you’ll be the first to know. Meanwhile, enjoy some photos from the DR, Cabo and Laguna from over the past few months:

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Up in the Air

January 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment
adam

Why is the temperature never right in Florida? I am sitting in Miami international freezing my tail off while trying to come up with something to do for the next 6 hours. My first thought was to build a fire but now I’m writing this to take my mind off that idea.

Traveling on a budget is often synonymous with complete boredom, and the more you do it the better you get at wasting time. During my first layover yesterday I spent almost 5 hours sitting in one position doing nothing but people watching…a favorite airport pastime. My second 5 hour layover I was fortunate enough to take a break between stints and eat, as people watching can really take it out of you. Now I’m in MIA and its freezing and I didn’t sleep and my 5 hours here just turned to 6 (how can they delay a flight that early in advance?), but ive got to admit that I am happy.

You may have noticed that my last posting was wreaking of a bit of depression and frustration from trying to get this trip together, but I hope you can learn as much as i am from the contrast between then and now. In my frustration and impatience a fly could have landed on my shoulder and I would’ve screamed, but now it seems that nothing can touch me, and that’s the way it is. Have faith! Be patient, i keep having to tell myself. Things will get better, we just have to wait for it.

The waves have been pretty good in Laguna. Epic 3 week long high pressure systems had us getting all the good and none of the bad from the northern weather. Now I find myself heading back out to the Caribbean with my bff woody, plus Blake tyre and the brothers lopez from the Virgin Islands straight into a great looking swell and what promises to be a damn good trip.

I’m out of the doldrums and back on the road and it feels good. With regards to the contrast in these two postings I really have to tip my hat to progressive companies like Exile, Apex and Skim Invasion. These are the guys that are still pushing forward, even when times are tough, to make this kind of thing happen and they are what the sport needs.

Check back and I’ll keep you posted on the trip.

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Twilight Zone

December 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment
adam

View the Twilight Zone Photo Set

I feel like I’m talking to a wall. Or in an episode of The Twilight Zone where everyone has been hypnotized and are glued to there tv’s, computers, bongs, couches, wallets, women etc. and I am the only one left to wander the earth alone. Skimboarding might be the sport that attracts the laziest of people, or the world may just be filling with this type. We could go around and around trying to figure out why people flake out on things, myself included, but it is no use. This is what this is, and half the time; it sucks.

I think it’s worse when you let it mean anything to you, if you really love something and you put responsibility on other peoples shoulders, they crumble every time. As you can probably tell from this rant, this is what I have done again on accident and this is why I am going back to traveling alone. What I love to do is let go, nobody else seems to want to do anything but talk about letting go, while holding on. It would be fine if people could just say; “NO, I CANNOT LET GO”, but they can’t can they, they’ve got to pretend to be really interested, until it comes time for commitment, for movement, and then they fade into obscurity. I am not any better, and they are certainly not any worse of people, we are just different. After this return trip to the Carribean, I am going to do my best to avoid places where no indigenous skimboarders exist, and people and companies where no motivation exists. It’s no wonder this sport has never gone anywhere. People blame it on the money and say the passion exists, I blame it on the passion and say the money exists. Call me wrong, call me a cynic, but as for this moment and this headache…I’m done. End rant.

West street has been good. Me and Woody had one small sneaker day at wedge worth a couple waves. Aliso sider has been on and off, 9th street early in the morning on the spring tide. I spent today driving around with Mo checking every secret spot imaginable with a full tide and a big glassy swell, and found nothing. I can really appreciate Mo, and I feel like he and myself have similar feelings on this. He is a professional athlete, yet he funds and goes on his own trips all the time. He is always traveling and making the sport bigger and better while enjoying himself on his own dime, not to take anything away from Vic and what they do for him. Paulo somewhat fits in that boat as well. All the photographers, cinematographers, magazine editors and even down to the athletes do everything you see, pretty much for free, or pay to do it. This is not about recognition, or money, its about people following through on what they say they are going to do…..ahhh, Im drifting again. Maybe if I’m being honest, it just makes me feel lonely, and it’s a bad time of year for that. So I suppose it’s time to run again.

Here, enjoy some photos from out there in the Twilight Zone, but don’t look at them if they aren’t a skimboarder skimboarding;

View the Twilight Zone Photo Set

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All Over October

December 7, 2009 By Leave a Comment
tad

October had me going from Pensacola, FL to New York City to Cape Cod, MA to Washington, DC to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

After traveling for over a month, all across the country, I’m actually glad to be home and not going anywhere for a while. Traipsing around really wears on you, mentally, physically and financially. There are always fun parts in traveling, of course. Meeting new people and getting to experience new places and even new cultures. Trying new foods, or taking a stab at a new language. Extended traveling takes a toll though.

I basically lived day by day, not knowing where I was sleeping or what I was going to do the next day for an entire month. With all the time spent on the road, I tended to become more observant and somewhat introspective because I was alone much of the time. Nowhere is this more apparent than in a crowded subway car in New York City at 8 a.m. There is less the 6 inches between you and the other passengers in the car, and yet it is wider than any bridge in the world. Everyone is in their own, complete, cut-off universe via an iPod, Blackberry, textbook or newspaper. No one acknowledges anyone else. Even when there’s someone panhandling or playing a terrible cover of a Ramones song on his electric guitar & amp-in-a-cart on a subway car during rush hour.

New England is an awesome area in the fall. The weather is still somewhat mild. I saw beautiful scenery and landscapes courtesy of the changing seasons, especially in Massachusetts. and Connecticut…and there are waves for sure! I got to enjoy a weekend in Cape Cod and sampled some of the fun-yet-chilly shorebreak in the area. With massive tide swings and a huge slope, the area has serious undiscovered potential (as long as you have the right amount of neoprene). I also surfed a big Nor’easter on Long Island, NY. Insane left-handers and no crowd made for a fun northern surf session.

When my work was done up north, I took a short trip to DC to visit my family. I was able to go to the National Zoo one day. The place is awesome and free, and I highly recommend going there if you’re in the area.

It was now time to thaw out. So after several planes, trains and automobiles, I found myself in beautiful Cabo san Lucas, Mexico. This was my first time in Mexico, but I love Latin America and this country was no different. The waves were lackluster for most of the trip, but there was enough swell to run the first annual Lands End open, and the contest was a blast. It was the first contest the locals have put on themselves. They had some great ideas and they are definitely heading in the right direction towards a world-class contest. One of the cooler things I got to do while in Mexico was drive the southern portion of the Baja peninsula. MUCHO!A LOT. However, because of the recent hurricane, the entire country side was lush and green, and stunning. The locals say that it was rarely like that during this time of year – it’s more of a dust bowl, usually. My guide/chaperon for the trip was Netto Parra, and he was an awesome host. He looks like a miniature Johnny Depp, and he is just as smooth. I also have to thank Sean Ward and Aaron Kriess for helping me out and hooking me up. This trip could have been VERY different without their help, and I am incredibly grateful.

Hope you all enjoy the photos. These were the last trips for me in 2009, but bigger things are in the works for 2010. I’ll keep you guys updated when I know anything for sure.

- Tad

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