places I've been

Not only is it 2010 but it is February. How exactly did that happen?

I am feeling pretty overwhelmed. I'm going on vacation. Right now. Yes, I'm sitting in the Liberia airport about to catch a flight to LA. My dad is picking me up, we're driving back to San Diego. My grandfather just died. Ed Walsh, may you rest in peace. If it wasn't for my dad's father and mother, Witch's Rock Surf Camp wouldn't be what it is today. They helped my dad and I out incredibly in the early years, when my dad and I both ran the camp. He lived well into his 90s. We're having a family gathering tomorrow. Everyone is in good spirits, its more like the Walsh clan is having a wake in memory of Ed and Rose Walsh :-) I am happy to be going there and I'll enjoy seeing all of my family.

This trip to SD and back will have to be quick because I'm guiding a surf tour on the Zori a week from Wednesday, on Feb 17th. That has been taking up a ton of my time lately. We have done a major retrofit, including:

- complete engine overhaul

- new windows throughout

- aft stateroom modifications (converted to 2 staterooms, 1 stateroom with double bed and 1 stateroom with 3 single beds)

- new curtains, new beds w/ marine upholstery for sleeping on deck

- new aft deck canopy with new shade (200 sq ft of shade added to the boat)

- 2 Air Breeze 12 volt wind generators

- new inverter

- new 12 volt 22inch flat screen TV / DVD player

- 12 volt coffee maker

- 12 cubic ft fridge / freezer

- a bunch of other stuff too

I've had to become a 12 volt system expert, research everything online, ship it to guests flying down, line up welders/electricians/carpenters/tons of other experts. Many thanks to Catalina, Valerie, Charlie, Luis Contreras, my dad, too many WRSC guests and other staff members to name. The trip is going to be really good, we're going to surf Witch's Rock, Ollie's Point, then up to Nicaragua for a few days... should be insane and I can't wait. So I guess my trip is really a California - Costa Rica - Nicaragua one thats going to last the next 3 weeks.

Now I know you're probably going to agree, it was only a matter of time, but the time has come: my kids have started surfing! Officially, Otis stood up and rode his first wave on January 20th.

He is three, turning four the end of next month. Happy wanted to surf too, so we pushed him into some waves on his stomach.

A couple of days later Happy stood up and rode his first wave, about a week before his 2nd birthday. Crazy. So, now its official, my kids surf. Otis has gone about 5 times since, and stands up on almost every wave. Makes me wish I had started at his age...

Happy Birthday Happy. You turned 2 years old!

February 1st, 2010

February 1st was Happy's birthday. We had cake and ice cream for dinner and Pizza Hut for desert. The boys at a sugar overload and went to bed screaming. Classic birthday night for a 2 year old. I gave both Happy and Otis haircuts for their birthday.... pretty much shaved their heads. I had to do it since Holly had given Otis a haircut last week and it looks really bad and I felt bad for him, plus both of them with long hair was kindof cramping my style (just kidding what style?), so I just hacked it all off. They actually look really old now and it makes me realize how fast the time is flying by.

Holy shit this house is expensive and it takes forever to finish.

gotsta have the new tile

a kitchen goes here, with a really cool spacey granite counter top

all I need is my couch and an Imperial and I'm doing pretty good (and some swell).

I was personally devastated by the earthquake in Haiti. I remember feeling similarly with the tsunami in 2004. It is still difficult to understand exactly how much has been done, but needless to say it was a sad event. Things like this make me tell my family I love them as often as possible. Even though the surf camp has been spending so much money lately I wanted to make sure I started giving back. Thank you Jane Bocker for giving me that copy of Yvon Chouinard's book Let My People Go Surfing. It was a nice read and gave me inspiration for years to come. As part of Witch's Rock Surf Camp's data migration to Quickbooks this year, we are setting up a 1% for the planet fund as part of our operating expenses. I figure if I can get the surf camp organized to this point, we can probably afford to give 1%, especially to things like this.

If you haven't heard of the Wegener brothers, maybe you should. I met Tom Wegener my first year at UCSD back in 1996. He had just finished making a surf movie Siestas y Olas (you should own a copy too), which I went and saw in downtown La Jolla. A great story of buying an old Suburban and driving it throughout mainland Mex for 3 months... It was a motivating factor in my life and helped me make the move to Costa Rica. The last few years I got to know Tom's brother Jon, who is always at the surf shows with Margaret Yao and Bing Copeland aka Bing Surfboards. They are all from southern CA so we share common friends from there. So, as for the Wegeners, they are legends. They have been a driving force behind the revival of the alaia, an old school Polynesian surfboard with no fin.

Anyways, long story short, the WB Surf Camp was doing another surf trip to Witch's Rock Surf Camp in Tamarindo Costa Rica, I got to hang and surf with owner Rick Civelli, got to know his guide Jason Andre... Jason is making alaias out of the Wrightsville Beach area in North Carolina. So officially Jason is the second guy I know who makes alaias. He brought down 2 and ironically only went home with 1.

Thank you for the alaia Jason! I haven't had a chance to go sliding yet, as last week was totally flat and I was going berserk. now this AM the waves picked up and I'm stuck waiting for my plane. So that you know I plan to take this board with my on my Nicaragua trip next week, I will give you the full report. I am STOKED. The board is shaped really nicely, definitely a LOT of attention to detail. I like alaias because if you were stranded on a deserted island you could make your own surfboard and surf your own waves. dope!

I am happy to see the sport of surfing finding it's roots. Except for stand up paddleboards which I still think are still super gay. Sorry SUP riders I know and am friends with. We can still be friends, I just hope you stick to the harbor or the estuary or long paddles down to Grande away from where the rest of us are surfing.

Whenever I think of North Carolina I think of Stephen Monticone. He was an original WRSC staff member from the old days. He used to run the Coco camp, back when there was a Coco camp. I heard the news that Stephen was getting married this May in Ocracoke, so I've made it my plan to take the Walsh clan to Stephen's home island and see it all go down. My good friend John Cheshire is also getting married in NYC shortly after in June, so maybe we'll be doing an east coast trip, seeing some weddings, catching some east coast waves... Wow... watching my friends slowly all get married... everyone all of a sudden is having kids too. Having kids isn't even that weird to me anymore. Time flies by... Congrats to Bill and Emily, as well as to Nicki and Andrina, more beautiful babies for Otis and Happy to grow up with.

Thank you Outback Jack's in Brasalito, for becoming the newest member of the Zephyr Biodiesel Collective.

Who needs a place to rent? Joe's friends have studio apartments 500 meters north from the Fertama hardware store for $250/month and 2 bedroom/2 bath apartments for $450/month. If you want to live in Avellanas we have a 3 bedroom /2 bath brand new home for rent for $1500/month long-term. If you want to build a rancho there and make a bar on the commercial property adjacent to the house we can talk about how to do it.

So once again the WRSC crew flew to Orlando Florida for the twice-a-year Surf Expo. We had a great show and as always had a great time.

This photo was the afternoon of day #1. That night Yana, Valerie and I went out to dinner and had some (more) beers. The next morning, officially day #2, I woke up really hung over. Everyone else was chipper. How could this be? Yana drove, Val talked, I moaned. I got out of the car at the steps of the convention center and threw up in the grass. It wasn't pretty. Fortunately I powered through and made it. By the way, Florida was 35 degrees and I didn't bring shoes. I thought you didn't need shoes in Florida. besides that the show was great.

Our good buddy Mark Tucker flew out from Atlanta for the show. He grew up skating with Tim Pain, they ran into each other, and the next thing its Mark, Tim Pain and I, talking about the skate park we're going to build next to the surf camp here in Tamarindo. I think I could have some sponsors lined up. If Tim Pain built our park it would be so rad its kindof hard to explain unless you know who Tim Pain is. So, if you like the idea of a Tim Pain skate park on the beach in town, let me know because you could be the lucky person to pay for it!

Talking about the surf shop, here's the deal. We have our bus parked in front, we don't have any signs up. Yes, normal surf shops have signs. We will too, soon enough. We don't want to officially "open" until we have our wish list bought and in the shop. We are still stocking things up, but you can expect Firewire, Stewart, Volcom, Rip Curl, Nixon, Von Zipper, Ocean Minded, Santiki, Rusty, WRONG, Dragon, Hynson, FCS, Headhunter, this list goes on. Unfortunately much of what was initially shipped didn't include some key women's orders that we had made, but just this morning I saw a box of Rip Curl women's bikinis show up. Slowly we're getting there, I just don't want to put up the signs or move the bus until we're ready. We've waited this long, we might as well keep tinkering before our grand re-opening. even though we're already open. make sense?

I am happy that the Saints won. I am bummed they weren't playing the Chargers though. Me bitching about the Chargers will probably last forever.

HELP: Do you know of an awesome band that wants to play at our surf contest event for next to free? for a free vacation to Costa Rica?

I know, I need to get better at the communication thing. But really... what guy doesn't? Yeah, life is full of excitement borderline craziness makes-me-wanna-get-away kind of feeling. Sometimes that exactly what you have to do. I packed my California surf guide, my 4/3 wetsuit with booties and hood, I've got a 5'11 sitting in my parent's garage and a truck in the driveway. I even brought my snowboard gear, I hear its snowing up in Big Bear. I'll spend some quality time with the family... then visit with my friends... then hit the road for a couple of days and see some shit... should be nice.