Well the new year has started off great in CA. This is a pic of I took of Michael Gumina while coaching today.

A good photo could still be had on my last day in NH, but the signage at this beach made it CLEAR that they don’t want any “treble” from anyone!

It’s been really small in the NE lately so I got bored and put together a little Senegal collage. Yup…that’s a side pony…

As I stood in the 24•f wind daydreaming of all the signs/ads/etc…that have hung in this very spot it made appreciate this vintage, time-honored, social media/marketing classic and yet laugh inside at how I was going to share it with all of you.

Every time I watch this video it makes me laugh and smile! I just saw it again while I was updating my video page and I had to share. It’s easy to stay warm when you cut the rug like this!! If you don’t know AND like Ralph you probably live in a bubble and I feel a little bit bad for you haha. Props to Mr. Michael Sander for an amazing edit!

Well isn’t the grass always greener on the other side(or in this case blacker and whiter)!? Just like I always miss the east coast when I am not here, I was missing La Jolla a bit this morning too when I was watching the cam. I couldn’t help but think “boy, a 3/2 and no booties sure would be nice for a session” haha. I never really get homesick during the days no matter where in the world I am, but at night it’s a different story. Oh well, I’ll be back soon enough. Here is what I was looking at this a.m..

It’s not Mc’d’s but I’m lovin’ it! I enjoy the North East so much. Last weekend I was surfing a spot where a kid was hailed by his grandparents to come in and get some water and eat a little left over turkey real quick. It was the first time I had seen anything of the sort but sure enough, in ten minutes he was ready to go for another few hours. How awesome!! And then today, there were some fun waves around town and even better yet it felt like a ghost town. In fact, the only person I bumped into before paddling out was a 50ish year old lady who stated, “this isn’t a good beach to surf, you should go south”. I must have given her the crazy eyes because she instantly retracted and said “BUT I don’t know anything about surfing”. Haha. Hard to beat fun peaks with only one friend out…or at least that’s what I think. Here are some of the empty lineups I passed.

Summer Sessions is on fire lately! In case you didn’t see this photo in a recent ESM online feature here it is:

Tyler is one of the owners of the shop and was in Senegal with me. He has been trying out all sorts of new equipment and it doesn’t look like the 5mm booties are slowing him down a bit! Such a well composed photo. Congrats to Ty and Brian Nicholson photography for capturing a gem!

There’s been a lot of action here in New England since I arrived back from Africa. As I mentioned at the beginning of the post titled “how not to dawn patrol” I have a lot of cool stories to share. Here is another.
Generally there is a strong correlation between MY arriving at Logan international and WAVES arriving along the shores of the NorthEast. I don’t find too many kindred spirits like me that enjoy the extremes of New England, be it the accents, beauty or bone chilling water. There are a few however, and whenever I’m in town I try to meet up with them. On Friday I made a run to meet up with one of these friends Nathaniel Graham. When I pulled up with my buddy Ryan I could see Natty was already in the water and the waves although far from perfect looked like they offered potential for a good time.
It was freezing out and I mean this very literally, so a person doesn’t want to kill too much time outside putting on gear. I quickly hopped out to throw on my suit and to my surprise at the next car down was Craig Anderson and a couple other friendly guys. I said hello, told them I was shocked to see them(especially this time of year) and then wished them good luck hunting down some nuggets as I’d be excited to watch since I’m a huge fan and I wasn’t sure if we’d be surfing the same peak. I then ran out and began my own hunt for some of the good ones coming in. The conditions were kind of tricky but some would open up into some nice little left tubes. I managed to line up one of the bigger ones and was trying to backdoor it as that allows you to get an extra second in the barrel and draw a line that leads to a higher probability of exiting this particular wave. Of course being my first session coming from 75 degree water the 6mm booties had their way with me and I caught the toe on my board. Instantly I was getting jacked up WITH the lip instead of tucking just UNDER. As I was going over the falls upside down I noticed Craig paddling out and I could only hope that I was providing a good laugh. It was of course a great ice breaker(no pun intended) and I wound up chatting with him and the other guys for a bit. One of the other guys was Warren Smith, who like me had rented a place in the area and was enjoying how cool the area is and the recent run of waves. Another of the guys was living down in New York and they were all super cool and I had fun surfing with them. I also got to see my buddy DJ and it was actually his birthday. So happy bday bud! All in all it was a great session and I had a blast watching those guys. Natty got out early and let me steal a couple screen shots with their approval of course. Remember to check out Nattys blog which I have a link on the side. It’s called “the dump” so click and check out all the cool stuff he has been up to lately. Also check out what Warren and Craig have been up to as they were very nice and shredding with great style in some frigid water.

Warren Smith

Craig Anderson

My buddy Natty who got the shots. Thanks amigo!

I was super excited to find out ESM(Eastern Surf Magazine) included a little blurb on me in their new issue. Thanks guys!

I know a lot of you out west haven’t had the opportunity to see the magazine before but I recommend checking it out as you will see lots of good surfers you won’t see elsewhere shredding some beautiful backdrops. They have the current issues on their site and it is easy to browse. The current one has lots of cool photos and stories dealing with super storm Sandy.

To check out the whole issue online just click the following link: http://www.easternsurf.com/ISSUES/ESM_ISSUE_165/