10 Excuses Why:

Today I finally took a couple of hours away from normal life for some well-deserved Joe time. I just bought a guitar again (since Happy broke the tuning pegs off of my last one in the house) and I've been playing a lot of music these last few days. finally. So that makes me smile. So much has been going on despite my attempts at narrowing my circle of responsibilities. Its all going great though, and I am definitely happy, even though I'm tired. Tired from surfing, working, building, parenting, thinking. Ready to simply maintain. Not tired of watching the Chargers though. I do have to move in two days so thats been stressful. But then again the surf has been firing so I don't really care too much. Work has been great, even though its been a total bitch. The Zori is INSANE. and as normal I am rambling sorry :-)

#1

I love surfing. The last 3 months the Tamarindo Rivermouth has been very giving to me. I am happy that I am moving back to live above the restaurant in a few days because I will only have more time in the water surfing, and surfing when the waves are best. It is great to always keep an eye on the waves as often as possible as it gets really good with nobody out. We had a mysto due-north swell hit Tamarindo this past weekend. Avellanas and Marbella were only waist to chest high, Tamarindo was reaching double overhead sets. It was only breaking here in town which was crazy. It was big and pretty fast...there were some insane waves.

Here I am going for it out in front of the camp on the best day of the swell, not huge but clean.

I love the Tamarindo Rivermouth, it can set up just perfectly. In the end I didn't make it out of this barrel, but I've been making a lot of them lately and I never get sick of trying.

#2 I am always stoked to hang with good friends!

Here is my good friend from UCSD Andrew Illig and his brother Mike, they were just down here for a week.

Andrew and I go way back. He is now a doctor in New York City while I run a surf camp in Tamarindo. He comes and surfs, checks out my ears, makes sure I'm not dying. Then we go surf and proceed to get shacked at Witch's Rock. I love Andrew. He enjoys the fine life of good waves, traveling, hanging with friends, chilling out and enjoying life. While he and his brother were down we went out on the Zori on a surf expedition to Witch's Rock and Ollie's Point, which gets me to my next point:

#3 The Zori kicks ass

About 10 days ago I took off on the Zori for Ollie's Point and Witch's Rock with some of my friends.

-Andrew Illig

-his brother Mike

-his (and my) friend Greg

-señor Flash Miranda

-Blake Mycoskie (founder of TOMS shoes)

So I guess that would make six of us, plus Charlie (the captain of the Zori). Hanging with good friends, looking for good waves, fishing for lunch... that about sums up the trip.

This fish turned into sashimi about 10 minutes after Andrew landed it. The rest was dinner that night as well as dinner the next night.

Chilling with Andrew and Flash.

The parking lot at Ollie's Point was completely empty except for the Zori.

I took my family on a boat trip on the Zori last weekend. We fished, surfed, and swam in a little hidden bay only a few miles away from Tamarindo. Otis and Happy had the best time ever, it was an awesome day.

Getting ready for a sunset surf with Blake from TOMS shoes. Blake is a really good guy. Its ironic that we're friends, we were introduced through my friends from the band Switchfoot. We share a lot of things in common. He sells shoes, and for every pair of TOMS he sells he gives a pair of shoes away. He just flew back down here a couple of days ago from Washington DC where Hillary Clinton gave him an award at the White House, and he just rang the stock exchange bell with Snoop Dogg of all people. Meanwhile I give away bong rips with every surf tour I guide, I voted for Bill Clinton and I listen to Snoop Dogg. OK, so maybe we don't have as much in common as I thought. No matter what, he likes to surf and I like to surf, and thats about all that really matters in my little world. So we surfed and had the best surf trip ever.

#4 My landlord sucks.

OK, who in the hell tells their tenants that they have to move out 2 weeks before Christmas and only give a 1 week notice? Apparently my landlord does. I couldn't fucking believe it. We had our Christmas decorations up, our Christmas tree full of lights and ornaments, presents all wrapped up and ready to go. Then we were told we had a week to move.

Instead of freaking out about the fact that Christmas in Tamarindo = everywhere is booked up (including the surf camp), I decided that I would get our house above the restaurant remodeled in 7 days instead of the 3 months we were planning on taking. Ambitious? maybe. Possible? maybe. Here I am, 5 days into it and 2 days left to go, realizing I might be camping with my boys in a tent on the beach in front of WRSC Wednesday night.

Wednesday Dec. 9 - 9am

The crew tear down the old walls of the original beach house.

Wednesday Dec. 9 - 11:30am

getting things all cleaned up and ready for the remodel.

Thursday Dec. 10 - 11am

Building the floor structure.

Friday Dec. 11 - 2pm

Walls start to go up.

Friday Dec. 11 - 4pm

Holly laughs when I tell her I'm going to have the bathroom done by Wednesday December 16th, probably because it doesn't even yet look like a bathroom.

Saturday Dec. 12 - 1:30pm

Walls are going up. We are spraying a ton of insulation in all of the walls to block the sounds of a busy bar. Falling to sleep listening to Tico Hendrix is cool the first 20 times, then it gets old.

To sum things up, today is Monday, its currently 9:30PM. The walls of our bedroom, the kid's bedroom, and our bathroom are almost done. Tomorrow we'll start to tile the bathroom, install the toilet and sink, and install the ceilings. Wednesday we'll install the doors. The house won't be done, but we will hopefully have a comfortable place to sleep. No matter what, the Walsh family knows how to roll with it. We've been rolling with it for this long. We were planning on moving back to WRSC, we just figured there wasn't any pressure and that we could take our time with things. Nope. In true Joe Walsh fashion I've created yet another chaotic environment where things must get done well before anyone would imagine possible. Lets see how it goes.

#5 the Witch's Rock Surf Shop is finally (just about) open!
You see, I was actually getting SICK of construction when I got the notice that I had to move out of my condo. We've been building our surf shop for the last few months. It has been a slow project, but we did an amazing job. We took down the curtains and temporary walls and have been setting up the displays and making signage. The shop truly looks beautiful.



A sign like this one is currently being built by Grafiko Tamarindo.

Andres and Rodolfo are stoked to finally move into the new shop.

We received our new Witch's Rock shirts last week. This week and next week we're waiting on the arrival of boxes of product from Rip Curl, Volcom, Rusty, Dakine, WRONG, and more. By Christmas we'll have the shop stocked with tons of boardshorts, tshirts, rashguards, surf shirts, surf hats, hats, bikinis, shorts, sandals, backpacks, neoprene vests/short johns/spring suits, and a collection of other random surf shop essentials. Things are starting to fill in, the shop looks great, we are all really stoked with how it turned out. I will be announcing an official surf shop launch party date very soon, stay posted :-)

#6 thats a HUGE bitch!

look at the size of the breakfast burrito I (mostly) ate, served up at Cotijas in Tierrasanta, SD CA 92124

3 weeks later, I am still full.

#7 WRSC Biodiesel Collective program is finally taking off!

Have you heard the rumor that Zephyr Eco is opening a brick and mortar market at the surf camp? Its true. As soon as we move the WRSC sales office into the new surf shop, Zephyr is taking over the existing office space at the entrance of WRSC and turning it into a full time organic market. Not only will this space be a market, it will also be headquarters for all of the community programs we are working on. One such program is the biodiesel collective program. How does this work?

Its pretty simple:
#1 you have a restaurant in Guanacaste (the closer to us the better). We schedule a time to pick up your used cooking oil.
#2 Zephyr Eco takes the oil and processes it into biodiesel.
#3 The resulting glycerin (byproduct of the biodiesel process) is used to make soap, surf wax, sunscreen, and more. All of these products are fully biodegradable by the way.
#4 The biodiesel is used to power the WRSC vans and the WRSC surf yacht Zori

Also:
#5 For every hotel/restaurant that participates in the Biodiesel Collective program, Zephyr Eco gifts back 10% of all WVO (waste vegetable oil) received in the form of biodiesel, or soap/surf wax/sunscreen. We also list your company on the new Zephyr Eco website which is about to launch, advertising your business as part of the Biodiesel Collective.

The new market is going to be great. The space will serve the community well, administering this and other community programs we are launching. We are networking all of the sustainable professionals in the region, literally just trying to get the right information out there. Stay posted to the new zephyrecoproject.com website that will be online in the very near future (thank you Jane Bocker).

#8 How about those San Diego Super Chargers?

I sat at the bar yesterday with Larry and Yana and watched the Chargers seal the deal against the Cowboys. We are now 10-3, and a full 2 games in front of Denver. Unlike years past, I have kept my mouth shut and silently watched as SD has gone from 2-3 to 10-3. I am hoping they end the season 13-3. I am really hoping to see them play New Orleans in the Super Bowl. Rivers vs Brees, 2 explosive offenses. I'd have to go to that game in Miami. fingers crossed... I could go on and on about the Chargers, but instead I'm just going to enjoy whats been going on this season and smile.

#9 Email sucks. My email has become a responsibility. It makes me feel guilty. What about just talking to people in person, or calling them on the phone? I know I go through these phases of email me don't call me or call me don't email me. And the irony is that I love computers and the internet. I keep a blog. Mr Google is a dear friend. My iphone has become my lifeline. Instead of worrying about email, I live in this fantasy land in my tiki hut with a perfect tubing right-hander out in front (sound familiar?)

#10 I must be the luckiest dad in the world

My two boys are my entire world now. It is hard for me to remember what life was like before them. I am so lucky to have such a great family. Lately I've made sure to make plenty of time to hang out with my boys regardless of how much work or surf is going on. They really do make me complete and I am really thankful.



and thats it. I'm tired. I'm going home. Monday night football is on TV. I don't care about the 49ers or the Cardinals but I do like the idea of falling asleep watching football on tv. Tomorrow I'm going surfing and hopefully getting some good waves. And hopefully my bathroom will get tiled and I'll be moving in there on Wednesday. This week will be interesting. At least I explained it all the best I could.