state of chaos

The official baby update: no baby yet. Otis was late, Happy will be late too. Holly is always late so maybe its genetic. I guess I'm late too... It feels like everything I know is converging right in front of me. It didn't help that my parents are cleaning out the attic at their house, and all of the things I never threw away as a kid ended up at my house this morning. I'm just glad its here so my parents can stop talking about how I need to take all of my shit out of their house. This probably happens with parents and children around the world, just another part of life. In one of the boxes was a pile of everything I'd ever stolen from Denny's when I was back in high school, a menu, a napkin dispenser, salt and pepper, an orange juice carafe, a few coffee mugs, silverware, etc. I have been reunited with my old baseball and basketball card collection. I have no idea what to do with it. I started looking through the cards and realized how much time has actually passed by, I saw a few David Robinson rookie cards as well as the steroid dream team rookie cards Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, and Jose Conseco. Spending three hours this morning chilling with my friend and acupuncturist Victor, possibly the world's most mellow individual, was calming. He even put a few needles in Holly to help with the pregnancy. I was kindof expecting Happy to be born by now, so I could spend some quality time with the new baby before heading back to the surf camp. I was shooting for being there this weekend for the contest and associated gatherings at the surf camp. WRSC sponsored the Tamarindo contest this year, now only if Carlos can win first place back-to-back... I'm sure its going to be a total blast, so I hope everyone has fun and drinks a few sin panzas for me. I'll be back down there soon enough, but I won't risk missing the birth of my son. God it sounds crazy to read that out loud. Otis keeps wanting to go to the pool at the gym, which is awesome as he is learning how to swim. I keep telling him he needs to get really good at swimming so he can go surfing with daddy this summer. Dad has been the super patient one, wanting for YEARS for Otis to hurry up and be born, and grow up enough, so I could drag him out on a surfboard. That time has almost arrived, and it is super exciting. Things are moving along quite well with the Zephyr Eco Project. I've written up an overview document that we're printing up as soon as its cleaned up a bit, and the local papers have been really cool about covering articles and bringing more exposure to sustainable building in the community. Larry is finally moving to Tamarindo, this weekend hopefully if we can work it out... Larry and our good friend "Eduardo the Builder" will be opening up the ZEP headquarters office at the surf camp, to be officially open to the public by February 15th. Wow. It was an idea to open this office just about two years ago, and finally it is happening. Its so weird, to think enough about something (and probably talk so much about it that you make everyone around you sick to death of hearing about it) and for it to finally happen. I know the feeling, that is exactly what happened with the building of WRSC. I can't even imagine what things are going to be like in the next couple of years. Hopefully I can be chilling with Otis and Happy surfing out in front of the camp asking that question over and over again for years to come. But for now it is definitely the calm before the storm. Sly and the Family Stone's Underdog is playing in my headphones, which is nice. But then I'm staring at my computer's desktop, which looks like this:
Unorganized, all-over-the-place, reminding me of all of the shit I've planned to do and that I have no idea what I'm doing at all, I'm just doing.
Check out how the Sand Bar has progressed:Building with earthbags has been a good experience. We are going to paint the bar similar to how I painted my house in Avellanas, a faded sand color that is achieved when you paint and highlight with a sponge. Its coming along pretty sweet. I wrote an article for David Mills of the Holwer which dropped yesterday or today, talking about the process of how to build with earthbags. If anyone would like to come by and learn about any of the sustainable building projects we are working on, please feel free. In the meantime I'm just going to sit here and wait for Happy to be born. Then all hell is going to break loose. The chaos of work or the chaos of two infant children. I've actually learned to phase out crying and screaming pretty well, but then I'll find myself every once in a while tuning in to a conversation that I was having with someone, and not knowing at all what the hell the person is talking about. It can be a problem at dinner parties, let me tell you.

I love hackers

Hmm... its a Saturday night, you're bored, nothing to do.... let's try to hack into the Witch's Rock Surf Camp surf shop and get some free gear and credit card information, that will be fun. Uh, yeah.... ok, so you tried and it didn't work. If anyone is wondering why the WRSC website is shut down, its not because the Chargers lost yesterday, although that would have been a good reason to do it. It was because some geek squad member with nothing better to do over the weekend tried (and failed) to hack into the site. I guess we thought about that before you did. Who needs 500 Witch's Rock t-shirts anyways? Its not like I wouldn't have noticed. So...getting on with things, did anyone catch any football yesterday? One thing to make sure you all know, I'm in no way in a depression or upset about the loss. I figure that if the Chargers could play the Patriots that well without our starting offense, against a team that will go down in history as the best football team ever, thats pretty good. We had a shot, I mean we picked off Brady three times which is unheard of. We just didn't have the offense in the red zone where we usually have it with LT and Gates. Still, we had quite a chance, which was more than anyone gave us, so I'm happy with that. We'll be back next year. I woke up early this morning with the plan to get some things done so I could go surf. Surfing hasn't been on my agenda the last couple of months, I have surfed twice since Thanksgiving. The reason for this is a pinched sciatic nerve that was causing severe pain in my right leg. I didn't want to bitch about it on my blog, as I hate when people complain about their problems over and over again and I'm quite responsible for doing shit like that from time to time. I figured that I had an issue that only I could solve, so about five weeks ago I started fixing it. I got an acupuncturist who is now my trainer, a chiropractor who discovered that my right leg is 18mm shorter than my left leg (thats why I'm sometimes 6'2 and sometimes 6'3, depending on which leg I'm standing on). Sergeant McNulty, my good friend the Terminator, set me up with a serious workout routine that I've been following daily, literally going to the gym for two hours each day and swimming a mile, doing yoga and working out. I've drank no more than 20 beers over the last five weeks, which could have been a rock star night for me in the past. And now, with my body feeling better and my leg no longer keeping me up at night, I'm going surfing again. Now don't get me wrong....I'm very much planning on getting back to the surf camp after Baby Happy is born, and I'll have more than enough sin panzas to celebrate. But for now its all about getting ready for some serious surfing in 2008. I mean, now that the Chargers are done for the season, what else is there? Surfing, surfing, and more surfing. I'm going big this season, already planning my trip back to Panama with the Witch's Rock Surf Team. Its going to be sick, get ready for the video. Oh, and that new website? It should be up in a couple of days.... hasta

just chilling on the couch

For anyone who has grown up on San Diego or even lived here for long enough, the store Jerome's is well known. Even the Jerome's jingle gets stuck in my head when I think about the guy on the Jerome's commercials, who must be Jerome (is he?), talking about all of his nice furniture for sale. You know you're getting older when you start to get to thinking about buying new furniture for your house and not planning on getting something third-hand from Craigslist. Its like I've been taking my naps on the third-string quarterback of couches ever since coming back up to San Diego to have this baby. Really... the couch we had was a gift from my friend Justin, who got it from his sister I think, who might of bought it new but I think she bought it from Craigslist. Whatever, now I'm chilling in my new couch. Its not that crappy green couch, its a nice, new, gigantic couch. Its big enough that I can lay out and my feet don't stink up whoever is laying out on either side of me. Its a big kid toy. I took this US real estate investing 3 day seminar with Larry a couple of years ago, just for the hell of it. It was actually really interesting, especially the part about getting free money, which I thought was quite applicable since I am still paying off my credit card loan from when I initially built the first 12 hotel rooms for WRSC. Anyways, Jerome is giving me a year with no interest and no payments, so its free for a year. Free couch, hooray. In a year my kids will have destroyed it with ball point pens and Gus will have slept on it so many times it will start to be worn out, and then thats when I'll have to buy it. Is won't feel like a new couch then, will it? Is it worth it? Right now, yes, but I'm sure I'll be thinking about this mental conversation again down the road.
Hey, check out this photo I found of the camp in Tamarindo back in 2001.
Even the main road of town isn't paved yet, its just a dirt road. The front of the surf camp, just a beach house then, was covered in signs as much to advertise the surf camp as to keep the dust off of the bar and tables. Now compare that to this-
Holy crap, huh? I start thinking about how much has happened, and when I compared these two photos it kind of sunk in a little bit. whoa. I am so stoked to be able to tell you that I've created a cool new tool, called the WRSC Timeline. It is on the new WRSC website, which, believe it or not as I know I've been talking about this forever, is going to finally drop this next week. I think one of my excuses was that I had too many different things I wanted to do with the site, I just needed to take my time so that I could do them. And I've done most of them. I'm trying to recreate the WRSC community online, so we can all live in la-la land even when we're not in Costa Rica. Hey, its my attempt to be there right now, I'm totally in a depression over not being back in Costa Rica. I am happy that I am about to have Happy, as in my new son who will be joining us at any moment now. I'm super stoked to be up here for this Chargerathon. I hope to hell we beat the Patriots tomorrow. I even shaved a mustache from my beard today, a lucky mustache. Then shaved it off shortly thereafter as I looked completely ridiculous. I miss Costa Rica and warm water and the surf camp and cold Imperial on tap. Oh, back to the WRSC Timeline, this one aspect of the new website will work as follows:
1) Website visitor becomes WRSC Registered Member (this is you, you can sign up on the new site)
2) Member uploads photos or video from past trips to WRSC (guest, employee, neighbor, friend). If you have video as a youtube file you can the link. I'm expecting to get some sweet old school photos from all kinds of folks, like the one I put up above.
3) Bam! It's done. It is out there for the rest of the world to see. The WRSC Timeline will be a simple vertical timeline, each posting will be on a date between WRSC inception and today, and the rest of the world can learn about how this whole surf camp thing happened. It's going to be pretty dope, and its just about done...finally.....I'm not joking, really...
So, tomorrow is the big football game. I asked God for this game, and he gave it to me. Now I'm asking God for the Chargers to win. Every sports analyst has picked for the Chargers to lose this game, but I guess they all thought the Chargers were going to lose last weekend also. All I know is I was crushed last year when we lost to New England in the playoffs, but that game the Chargers were actually favored to win. Hmmm... this all means absolutely nothing, its just my brain talking out loud. I've had a shit ton of patience this week, waiting for tomorrow's game. If we were somehow able to pull the upset, then I'd have to wait for two weeks until the Super Bowl. Jesus, its not easy being a football fan. atic. I guess there was that phase when I painted Charger bolts on the entrance to the surf camp...

Chargers show up and blow up!

I'm sitting in Cafe 976 in Pacific Beach right now, it is about 6:15pm. As I left OB there was a guy in front of the liquor store on Voltaire and Ebers wearing a Chargers Rivers jersey. That wouldn't have happened last year. And today Rivers went out of the game with a knee injury, and so did Ladanian Tomlinson, and we still won the game. We beat the Colts! This calls for the biggest statement one can make, Super Fuck Yes once again!!! I mean...I feel even more stoked than I felt last week when we beat the Titans, because this time it was against the Colts. Last year's Super Bowl winners, dust, gone. I'm still kind of shaking right now, like I still can't believe that we won. The Chargers played INSANE, I am so freaking stoked I can't really put it into words. All season, all I've wanted was to get a rematch in the post-season against the Patriots, just to get a chance to pay back the favor from what they did to us last year. And this year's Patriots are arguable the best NFL football team ever....yet, I feel that if there was a team that had the ability to beat New England in the AFC Championship, it would be the San Diego Chargers. I'm just so impressed that we were able to win that game solidly without Rivers or LT....the entire team shined, what else can be said. The Chargers played just about perfectly and are a force to be reckoned with. Ahhh..........its going to be hard to get this out of my mind. I'm still sitting in SD waiting for this baby to be born. With all of the shouting and screaming during today's game, I'm surprised Holly didn't go into labor during the 4 Quarter. I'm screaming for them to put Rivers back in, and Norv stays with Volek, and they end up driving and Volek, our backup quarterback, runs in a touchdown. Here I go again talking about that game. Obviously I'm affected. Its pretty much waiting for the baby, go Chargers, damn the water is too cold to surf in San Diego right now, waiting for the baby, go Chargers!, cold water, baby, football, surf, eat, sleep, need Costa Rica, need warm water, freaking out as I'm about to have double the amount of kids that I'm used to, go Chargers, etc.
I'll write more when I settle myself down - joe

Sound the charge!!

new year, big year, its happening fast

Welcome to 2008. Yeah, I know I'm a bit late with the blog, but what can I say? I can say the Chargers just won their first playoff game in 13 years. Super Fuck Yes. I should put that on a t-shirt, SFY, the most emotionally charged way to say that yes, you're really stoked. I'm really stoked. The last time the Chargers won a playoff game I was a senior in high school. We made it all the way to the Superbowl. I'm just itching for a Charger / Patriot rematch. I was pretty let down last year when the Patriots beat us in the first round of the playoffs, I will admit. You can read the blogs from then, I was downright depressed. Thats what football does to men. In 1994/95, the Chargers made it to the big game against the 49ers, that was the year that Steve Young finally won, and got out from under the shadow of Joe Montana. I think Rivers is playing like the QB that we were hoping he would/could become. I haven't checked, but the last four games I'm pretty sure he had QB rating over 100, and today he threw for almost 300 yards with 21 for 30 completions or something like that. It was nice to watch, its been a long time since we've shown such dominance in the post-season. Getting on to other things, its been an interesting start to 2008. I've been a bit let down by the surf camp lately, well, I guess just the fact that I've come back to San Diego to have our next son, and I'm trying like hell to run things down there from up here. My good friend from the college days Matt Krasnovsky, who I hooked up with a job as the restaurant and bar manager just 18 months ago, has made plans to open a night club in Tamarindo in a couple of weeks. There I go again, hooking up a friend with a life changing career, showing him how to run shop in town, then watching my friend bailing on me to open his own gig, and not telling me until a couple of weeks before it happens. He still wants the WRSC gig, but its like, if you're not 100% into it and have other things going on, you're not trying to make WRSC as good as it could be, so go do something else man. I just wish he would have told me when he first starting making plans, as everyone knows how supportive I am of getting my friends to start their own endeavors. It was as if he looked at me as his boss and not as his friend. Hellooooo Matt......remember me? The surf camp can do things like that, its weird. I had a good talk with James about it, the behind-the-scenes Director of WRSC. Its like he is the exception, since he's been working for WRSC for almost five years I think? could that be right? wow. We agreed that the gringos never seem to last for too long, its just way too different than the US for most to survive. I have so many employees that I consider good friends, who have worked with me for literally most of WRSC's life. I feel as though I am part tico, seeing as I've lived a quarter of my life in Costa Rica. Ricardo is such my bro, I love that guy. Johan and me have always been super close, same with Flash, I love that guy like a brother. Flash grew up in Marbella, which will some day be another big surf town in Costa Rica. Heres a pic of him in the pit at his home break-
That place was farm land when I first moved to CR seven years ago. I love Marbella, and I love the hills above it. Some guest below, not sure who, probably really stoked and glad he booked his surf trip through!:
Heres a pic from a break nearby I named La Finca. Nobody knows where it is, which blows me away. When I first found it I couldn't understand how it hadn't been discovered yet, and now with all of the growth of the region I'm baffled that it still hasn't been discovered by outsiders. The WRSC Surf School goes here all of the time for the graduation trip, and there is NEVER anyone there. Sometimes the sand bar gets just right, like this pic-
The Zephyr project is actually located above Marbella and La Finca, so I know I'll always be pretty close. If you are interested in the project and you did not receive the newsletter I sent out last week, please email me at zephyrecoproect@gmail.com and I'll put you on the mailing list for future newsletters. You can view the current newsletter at: http://www.zephyrecoproject.com/2007/12/news-letter-december-2007.html
So, getting over this whole thing with Matt and my restaurant is tough, but whatever, its part of life. I found Matt, I'll find someone next to take it to the next level once again. I am stoked for Matt and hope he does well, and our friendship would need to have more things like this happen before I lose a friend over it. Good friends are hard to find and good friendships can survive a lot of things. He'll understand soon enough what it is like to have friends work for you and how that can change things. I can't wait to get back to CR and take a much needed surf trip back to Panama. I'm currently in talks with a VC group that is very interested in being involved in WRSC's future, which makes me stoked because it means that I get to spend more time surfing and less time at a computer. I am organizing a series of surf trips with the WRSC surf team (Luis, Cedric, Carlos, Richard (pronounced Reeeeee-chard!) ) for a documentary that I started in Peru in November 2006 about the history of WRSC. Its going to be very awesome, and we'll be doing a feral Panama trip soon enough. But for now I'm staying in San Diego in my house in Point Loma, waiting for Happy Zephyr Walsh to be born. I even grew a beard the last couple of weeks to mentally prepare as I was sick of people telling me I looked like a frat boy when I shaved.
Holly is due in the next three weeks. We've packed the bags for when it happens, I just can't believe its happening again. Another baby. wow. Its going to be awesome even though it scares the hell out of me, at least I know what to expect. I trip out on how fast Otis is growing up. We've been taking Otis to the pool at the YMCA, and he's been learning to swim or at least has started to grasp the concept and is comfortable in the water. I hate to be that parent, but isn't he getting big???? wtf?!?
Pretty funny that his favorite toy right now is that cash register, maybe I can start him working in the surf shop this summer? And soon enough he'll be surfing. How crazy is that? Then both him and Happy will be surfing. I am so stoked to cruise the beach with Otis and know that he and Happy are going to grow up with the true surf life. I just have to make sure to keep it real for them, just like the way I grew up. Otis is turning out to be quite an awesome kid, and I know that with him and Happy I'm going to teach them to worship their mother and I'll have to lay down the law from time to time.
Yo Otis, yo Happy, nobody fucks with the Jesus! What a trip that I get to be a dad. I didn't have to take a test, I didn't have to get a license or a permit. You just get to do it. Crazy to think that anyone can be a parent. Crazy to think that I can be a parent. I'm tripping myself out waiting for Happy to be born, can you tell?
Seeing that artwork just makes me feel better for some reason. Check out www.theryde.com and get the shirt, these guys rock in a big way. A big pura vida from me and WRSC.