down in the dumps

literally, I was down in the dumps. It sucks there, it smells just awful. The ground vibrates as these giant steam-roller with spikes-for-tires machines scrape all kinds of junk into piles. I forgot how much of an expanse the SD landfill was, I hadn't been there since I was a kid.
It is hard to fathom how much trash is under those mountains of earth. One tends to forget the impact us humans have on planet earth. I was hoping some homeless guy would take the mattress and old sofa chair I had in the alley behind my house, but nope. The trip wasn't that bad, my dad helped out. He came by this morning for some coffee and breakfast. Holly whipped up some eggs and mushrooms and spinach and toast, add a bit of hot sauce and thats a great morning in OB. Check out this pic of my pops with OZ, I guess we're keeping it all in the family :-)
I trip out when I see photos like this. We have a nice photo of my dad, Otis, me and my dad's dad Ed Walsh. Thats a pretty cool photo from last year, I'll see if my mom can send me a copy of the 4 generations of Walshes. Holly and I were laughing about the fact that when she and Otis return to CR next week everyone is going to trip out on Otis. They've been gone for longer than I have, and with Otis growing up as much as he is, its just going to be funny. Pretty soon that kids going to be surfing, then it will all be over.

back in the action

Yo check out my dad trying to stuff something into that fridge. That fridge is sponsored by Costco, let me tell you. The best part is that most times when I go over there, I search and search and I usually find a hidden beer in the back of one of the shelves, behind the backup mustard. I don't remember the fridge ever having the good shit it has these days, back then I was stoked just to have Honey Nut Cheerios. I'd eat bowls and bowls of Honey Nut Cheerios.
This morning we took advantage of the zoo passes my parents gave me for my birthday. We took Otis to see flamingos and elephants and kangaroos. It was pretty cool, and the best part was we did it all in a couple of hours. The SD Zoo is great, I grew up going there all of the time. It is HUGE, I've heard that its the biggest one. I just like taking advantage of having it near, and Otis loves animals and was really excited today. I got some good work stuff done, which included talking to Karl Zappa and arranging the first of the Witch's Rock Pale Ale. Oh yes, finally, oh thank you sweet baby jesus oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes. You see, this has been a dream of mine for about as long as my brain cells can remember. The time has finally come. I'm at this point with the surf camp, you see, a time in which I'm tired of always talking about things I've never gone and done. Of course I've done a lot with the place, but I'm talking about those last details, the ones you never got to do because keeping the place afloat each and every day is tough enough. So I got up to SD and am getting organized and now we've got a phone system so that when you call the surf camp it doesn't drop you off in the middle of phone system nowhere, instead you hear nice menu options and music when you wait for your extension. We don't answer sometimes, so you leave a message and we instantly get an email with the message. I love the internet. Coming back to SD to get up with this shit was needed, and now I'm stoked. I've started working with a web development team in India, which is crazy as they are 12 hours apart from San Diego and I don't understand all of my conversations. At least their written english is great. Its amazing what you can do with a cell phone. Does anyone ever stop and think about that? I guess I'm that Geico caveman on tv, kindof.
I am totally tripping out that this thing is sitting in my driveway. It was way too easy. I went to the Toyota place to check out the Tundras, then next thing you know I'm inside one, then they ask a few questions, then I give them my credit card (which is maxed out and the reason my credit is so shit at the moment), and later that evening I'm parking in front of my house with this bling ride. Whoa. In Costa Rica that would/could never happen. I'm just tripping out that I'm that guy, the one I saw when I was in college and wondered what the hell does he do? and think that it must be some crappy job that he hates. Well, its not, its actually quite the opposite. In fact, because "work demands so", I'm taking a two week trip with Dave Levy and surfing from Nicaragua to Panama, taking our new surfboards and setting up accounts along the way. My new friend KG from India is making the online surf shop for me, we already have 150 boards sitting in a bodega near WRSC. Tomorrow is negotiations with DHL over shipping and handling import taxes. Hey you know whats crazy? I have blue tooth on my radio and talk through my car speakers when I'm driving. Its like the Jetsons, kindof. So Holly is going back to CR next Saturday, I'm going back two weeks later as now my new job is to drive this truck around southern California and get all of the things we need for this October WRSC hotel room remodel and restaurant remodel. I guess its just me, the laptop and the surfboard. And the Padres and the Chargers. And Black's. And Manderain China.

monday can be a fun day

I sat around all weekend thinking about how much shit I had to do this morning. I got out of bed at 6:20am, now something that isn't really that hard to do anymore, made coffee and checked the surf. I drove to the cliffs, then to the pier, then back home and to some emails. Then around a quarter to nine I decided it was something that had to happen, I grabbed the wife and kid and surfboard and hit up Scripps, just as the onshore winds started to pick up. It was still really fun, even with poor wind. Not many people out and some sets with some size. I hit my board on the sand I think, somewhere, and cracked the tail. its sitting outside drying, now I'm back in my office and trying to get myself focused to do all of that shit I was thinking about this weekend.

family guy star wars episode

So here I am, watching Rivers throw a great game and watching Favre throw an even better one, and some bad luck, and the Chargers are now 1-2. What a shame. Here you see my pops, equally bummed but still cheering for the Chargers after 46 years of being a Charger fan. Check the retro WRSC t-shirt circa 2001. It didn't help that the Padres lost the third game in a row to the Rockies, making it that much tougher to get into the post season. At least there is some great weather and good surf here in San Diego, because today's sports wasn't. But then again I haven't surfed in two days because the rain has made the water here really dirty.
I took my family to La Jolla Cove today to watch the sunset and chill in the park. Otis ran around, we checked out the seals, it was really mellow. We got home for some late Sunday night football, just now the Family Guy Star Wars episode finished, holy crap just another reason I'm stoked to be back up here. Tomorrow is the big day, tomorrow is going to be huge. Tomorrow I'm going to connect my cable receiver and learn how to operate my DVR.

the Chargers are 1-2

this sucks.

Hi my name is Joe

The driver's window in my car doesn't go up, and it pissed down rain last night, so that was fun. I've got a ghetto trash bag on it now. It doesn't really matter as I've got some serious issues to deal with to get my rig drivable for the coming winter. San Diego has already started to get cold and I can't imagine driving my family including a newborn baby in a freezing car with rain and no way to get the window up. Oh, but I did just get the alarm installed and a bunch of fuses replaced. Its a 68 Fleetwood and I cruise like Smokey from Friday, its classic. I went to the Padre game last night with Chris Muzzy and his folks. They are great people, I've known them since I was 14 years old and a freshman in high school. We used to jump off of their roof and into their pool, and chill in the hot tub overlooking Mission Bay and USD. It was a bummer that the Padres lost, especially after they had won like six in a row. Thats me, Muzzy and his dad. I've been watching most of all of the games since getting back to San Diego and the Padres have come back to win some games and show that they could go all the way this year. It would be awesome if that was the case. I'm sitting on my lazy boy right now and watching the Saturday night game, hopefully we'll win and the Diamondbacks will lose. Yesterday morning I woke up early and was watching the surf and the wind for about an hour. This week has been strange with the wind conditions, we had this storm come through town and mix things up a bit. But just slightly. Yesterday morning I drove from OB to Del Mar and checked all of the spots I like to surf, deciding to return and surf Scipps. There was quite a bit of swell and I had a couple of fun ones, but it was pretty walled and most of the waves weren't make-able(how the hell is that spelled?) I love SD so much, and its so nice to be back here after being gone for almost seven years. I literally took a couple of hours to drive from La Jolla back to OB, checking every reef from La Jolla cove to Little Point to North Bird to the Cliffs. This is a photo from the cove. A wave breaks here in the winter that is called Boomers, and to the north the cove has a left that wraps for a few hundred yards. It wasn't working of course, but I stopped in for a coffee at the old coffee shop where I used to work in college. Its called the Goldfish Point Cafe and sits right above this amazing view of the bluffs. I've also been catching up on my many years' deficit of San Diego breakfast burritos. I don't care where in the world you are from, the best Mexican food is in San Diego, not in Mexico. Its f$#%*%g amazing. Hey, I have a question, or, better yet, you just tell me if I'm becoming that annoying dad who is over-proud of his children and doesn't ever stop talking about them. Maybe I'm becoming that guy, and that scares me. I guess its way better than not being stoked on your children or something, I mean...how could you not be? Now that I got myself a proper cell phone (yeah, cell phones in Costa Rica are lame and you have no email access or even camera phones) I always have a phone on me. Today Otis and Holly and I went to Coronado with Chris Brown and Chris Muzzy to watch the Red Bull Air Races in the San Diego harbor. It was pretty sweet, there was this helicopter doing flips which I didn't think was possible. I shot this pic of OZW as he was cruising from neighbor to neighbor on the sand and giving his hello. That kid is so freaking great, I'm really lucky. I can't believe that Holly and I haven't found out if we're having a boy or a girl yet. I guess things have been in limbo as we realize that we've got a growing family and grown up responsibilities to deal with. We've decided to have the baby here in San Diego instead of in Costa Rica like we did with Otis. It was a combination of me not wanting to spend a month and a half living in a Best Western in San Jose like I did last time, along with wanting to be near family to help us with the new change. No matter what, getting fun waves and chilling out with my family here in SD has been very nice thus far. Now if only the Chargers would pull off a win tomorrow, things would be perfect!

onshore and cold

I've gotten myself into a nice little routine where I wake up at the crack of dawn, get a couple of hours of work in before the family wakes up, then head down to the beach mid-morning for a surf. I got to Scripps yesterday around 930am, just as the wind did as well. I hadn't watched the news for San Diego so I didn't know that we were about to get hit with some heavy weather. It hasn't gotten that bad, except that now it is Thursday morning and the onshore wind is still howling. Its really pretty cold, too, much colder than I've been in quite a while. Holly booked some tickets yesterday for her and Otis to fly back to Costa Rica in a week and a half or so. I think that I'll wait a bit longer before I go back, perhaps taking a quick trip to the east coast to see my friends and get some hurricane surf if all goes as planned. Until then though, every day is less and less of a grind as I get more and more settled and more and more of an idea of where I'm going with things. I laugh when I explain to my friends that this is the first time since I graduated college that I've made any sort of plan for more than 2-3 weeks in the future. I've literally been making everything up as I go, and however much fun that is at times, its also not fun just as often. I've gotten a few evenings to chill out and watch the Padres, they're fighting to regain first place of the NL West, or at least to keep the wild card spot as they head into the playoffs (hopefully). Last night was a classic game, with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th and the Padres down 3-2 with two guys on base. Hairston cracks a 3-run homer and we win. I've been watching the Pads pull off a few wins like this lately, and it slightly soothes the pain after watching the Chargers get whipped. Hey, whats up with OJ Simpson these days? Am I taking crazy pills or what? Oh, and now he's out of jail again. hmmm. Well, since I'm not getting to surf I might as well get caught up with some work things. Maybe I'll head down to Petco and watch the day game today.

Where the hell have I been?

I hate football today. I really do. I'm bummed the Chargers lost yesterday, but its a feeling you learn to live with when you grow up as a Charger fan. At least we didn't lose to the Cardinals or something... Today has been the full force of a Monday. My mind is spinning and in a knot. At least I got a lot of things done. I was too tired to surf as I surfed double sessions yesterday, at Pipes and then at Blacks. Today the wind was on it... so it seemed like a good day for a work day. This last week Matt and Colin were up here. We had some good times playing the Nintendo Wii I got for my birthday from Holly. I guess she is pretty bummed now that I play it all of the time. I even got tennis elbow from the tennis game. Well, not really, but I play so much that I get sore, but now I'm old and shit so maybe its just because I'm old. We cruised out to the OB Pier to get breakfast burritos. Very good ones out there at the cafe, as I've said a million times. Too bad that Heather isn't working there anymore though. Heres some photos of me taking Otis to watch some old guy feed the birds. I'm not sure what it is about old people and feeding birds, but they sure love doing it. One day I'll figure it out I'm sure. Otis was pretty stoked on it, but its kindof strange watching birds fight to the death over a slice of moldy bread. Breakfast burritos were way better. Then Matt and Colin took off and Will Pirkle came into town for a couple of days. We worked on our game plan for the Zephyr Eco Project, which is finalized but still being updated on the website. You'll find not much and some dead links, but give us a few days and you'll see exactly what the story is. It is very sweet. Hey, does anyone know anyone who needs to rent a house in Tamarindo? Holly and I are renting out our apartments in Langosta, check http://langostatamarindo.blogspot.com to see some photos. I have been asked a ton if I'm going to furnish the units, and I figure that if I go that far, I may as well make the place a rental property for the surf camp, but I'm torn on the topic, because personally I don't want to have to drive past the surf camp and into the heart of the beast of Tamarindo. Maybe thats only because I lived in the area for almost seven years... Avellanas was a good move, but still right in the middle of it. It didn't help when I found out that the local developers want to make the corner where my house is the center of town, and build it out with strip malls. Woo hoo! So, as I sit in my pad in San Diego, at my desk, I see sailboats and waves breaking off of the OB jetty. I've just finished an hour and a half meeting with James using Skype, no headphones, just my laptop's mic and speakers. I love this technology shit. I worked on a project with Rafa and sent everything back and forth. I actually am getting so much more done from up here, its weird to see how the internet has slowly attached itself to practically every aspect of normal life. Location matters very little these days. Except when it comes to surfing, and water temperature. Blacks had some nice waves, but it had plenty of people and the water was a bit chilly. This has led me to try and figure out when I am getting back to CR. No pressure though, I'm just going to take each day as a gift and do whatever feels most interesting. A bit of html code, a bit of frisbee golf and breakfast burrito, a bit of Handy Manny or Baby Einstein, some surf, a few phone calls, a couple of emails, etc etc.

Otis plays the blues

I just think it is hilarious that my son loves music as much as he does. I mean, its great. I love to play music, he loves to play music, I like to listen to music, he does too but while dancing. Its great. I just shot some video of him playing the harmonica, it cracks me up.



I haven't left the house much except to go surfing, I've surfed four times in the last two days. I've been working on the computer and organizing a bunch of bills that have been mailed to me over the last two years but that I'm just now opening. I guess I owed T-mobile some money for a while, until a collections agency took it over. hmmm I wonder what my credit looks like right now. It has probably been dinged, as I was in Costa Rica for eight months straight and forgot to put a hold on my mail. whoops. I'm having a party on Sunday to celebrate my birthday along with my mom's birthday, which is that day of the 9th, and of course it is also the Charger opener....! I'm flying James, Colin and Matt up to SD for a couple of days. We'll have a good party here in OB, get some surfing in as they are bringing up some of the new WRSC boards (check my WRSC industry blog to see pics of the boards). I'm also figuring we'll get some frisbee golf in, as well as a few pitchers of cheap beer at Champs Lounge in Clairmont. It should be a good weekend. Then next Wednesday Will Pirkle flies out from Florida and we solidify the next 90 days for the Zephyr Eco Project.

Sometimes losing money is a good business decision

Sometimes losing money is a good business decision. That sounds crazy, right? It sounds crazy when I read it out loud to myself, yet I know that there are times when this is correct. In fact, I haven't written a business blog for over two weeks now, and the reason why is that I was busy losing money. On last Friday, two days ago, I lost $45,000. Am I in total depression? no. Am I completely pissed off? not at all. If I am going to have the balls to be a businessman and work for myself, I know that at some point in my life I'm going to lose more than $45,000. Its just part of the deal. The way to stay in business for yourself is to make more than you lose.

Now to explain why losing $45,000 was a good idea, let me start off by saying I was in the process of trying to purchase an empty piece of land bordering my company Witch's Rock Surf Camp in Tamarindo. This small piece of land was to allow me to expand operations in my restaurant/bar/surf shop and even up to ten more hotel rooms. I had agreed with the sellers to purchase the land for $450,000. I paid a ten percent deposit (the $45,000) and I had three months to come up with the balance owed. That was the last day of May.

Two weeks later I'm having a meeting with three bank representatives from the Central American banking institution Banco Cuscatlan, now owned by Citibank. They are ready to loan me the money for my expansion plans. I knew we were to have this meeting; thats why I paid $45,000 out of my own pocket to tie up the side property in the first place. All they need are some financial statements my accountant can draft up, once I decide who my accountant is going to be, now that I've decided to grow a serious business (hey, the surf camp now is completely serious, I just laugh at how I used to live in a school bus that was parked there). I leave on a couple of surf trips to Panama to clear my head and figure out what this all means. I don't follow through with Deloitte and Touche, the accounting firm that I had assumed would be preparing my documents. Before I realize it, I have three weeks left and still I haven't even started the loan process to buy this property.

For those of you who don't understand what an option is, let me explain it simply: an option is a payment from a buyer to a seller that goes towards the purchase of something, in this case a piece of land, so that the buyer is then allowed a certain amount of time to complete the purchase. In this particular deal, by paying the $45,000 I was buying 90 days to come up with the balance. I was planning to borrow the $405,000 from the bank, but because the bank wasn't on my timeline (something I can't always control) I was nearing my payment due date and without a bank loan.

I then come back to San Diego, where I sit back and look at my options. I had exactly two weeks to come up with roughly 400K when I sent out an email to everyone I knew who I could trust with the information, explaining the situation briefly and looking for capital to acquire this land. I was received with only interest from individuals wanting some kind of ownership in the surf camp. I decided that it is not time to sell out. I decide that, even thought I can find a way to personally come up with the $405,000 for the surf camp, it isn't in my best personal interest to do so. It would leave me financially unable to do anything in the case of this month, and next month, being horrible low seasons and my surf camp losing money each month. I'm about to have another baby with my wife, and if there is complications and I don't have health insurance, what would happen then? If I borrow money from my parents, who borrow it from their home equity line of credit, that is putting my parents at risk. When is it time to stop borrowing from those who believe in you? All I really know is that if I paid the $405,000, I would have been living with much more stress than I was interested in having.

Relaxing at my desk now, a nice Sunday evening, about ready to turn 30 tomorrow. I look back at the very few years I've been in business and I realize that I'm lucky to have had all of the experiences that I had in Costa Rica. I've learned how to deal with difficult situations and to learn from them. The owners of the property, upon learning that I was unable to pay them off, offered me an extension on the loan. I'll of course pay more for the property than the original asking price, but I'll have more time to find the money. I guess they know, as I do, that the best owner for their property is the company that I know and love, WRSC. And even though I lost $45,000, I'll still end up with that property one way or another. I've learned that bank loan processes in Costa Rica are unpredictable. I've learned how to pull myself out of the WRSC loop and act as an outside investor. I've learned a lot about asking people for money. I've learned a lot about many people I know, who have said over the years how interested they were in working with me, exactly how they stand when propositioned with my company. All in all, what I've learned has far exceeded the monetary loss I've incurred, and for that, sometimes losing money is a good business decision.

finally I get to relax

I haven't written much lately. Its safe to say that we've been busy. doing what? well...we just started yet another company. This one is called the Ocean Beach Cottages, http://theoceanbeachcottages.blogspot.com
We took our old beach cottages (almost 100 years believe it or not) and fixed them up really nice. We furnished them thanks to craigslist.com and Ikea. It was about two weeks, maybe a bit more, of being MIA. I'm still not really sure if its ok to relax, and then I think "fuck it". I'm turning 30 tomorrow, I'm all grown up, I get to do whatever the hell I want to do, and that feels great. What am I going to do for my birthday? Not a fucking thing. I'm going to surf. I'm going to sit on my fat ass. I'm going to wear a blue shirt with red shorts. Because I don't care. Because as soon as you're born you start dying, and because I want to enjoy every day from here on out. I'm pretty stoked on where we moved to here in OB. Its up on this hill, on Coronado Ave, and it looks out over Point Loma and OB, and then on up to Mission Bay and Mission Beach, and then Pacific Beach and La Jolla, and over to Bay Park and beyond. There are airplanes flying by and sailboats sprinkle the ocean. I can check the surf at the OB Jetty, and when it gets big I can check the cliffs on Orchard Street. Life doesn't get any better than this. Now that I'm all grown up, I've got a couple of big plans. I should give Chris Brown a call as we share the same birthday. God, I can't wait until next Sunday. Its the Charger season opener. I'm waiting until then to celebrate my birthday, as it is also my mom's birthday (the 9th). We're going to have a good old time. I'm also getting a DHL package of ten Witch's Rock surfboards. We finally have the boards, and they are finally at the surf camp. Get ready world, here comes the Witch's Rock brand. www.witchsrock.com very very very very soon..... And then I think I'll go back to Costa Rica, and then drive south to Panama, as Central America is again starting to call my name. Its a tough balance, but rewarding. I finally got some decent surf this evening at the reefs at the end of my street. The water is so warm, its just amazing. The weather has been hotter than in Costa Rica believe it or not.