#22 Brain Saver!

A few years back….wow, it’s actually been 12 years….when I was on my endless summer surf mission out in the wide open world I spent some time in Australia. DB and I were posted up in the crayfishing town of Dongara about 300 km north of Perth. We just happened upon the place.

Having been out of the States for about 10-months when we landed in Oz our goal was to get a job and rebuild the savings. That way we could live carefree in New Zealand for the next leg of the adventure….it worked! We were at a hostel in Perth putting some feelers out for only a couple dayz when I overheard this dude talking about some farm he knew of up the coast that needed people to pick zucchini. Perfect!

I got the info and called right away from a payphone in the parking lot. Richie answered with his soon to become familiar, friendly voice and said he owned a hostel in Dongara and that he would hook us up with the zucchini job. And just like that it was on….a couple days in the country and we had a job and a place to stay.

That’s the joy of traveling. You are forced to pay attention to your surroundings and be open to people which creates opportunity after opportunity. In our daily lives it is easy to run on auto-pilot and miss all of the gifts.

So the next day we jumped on a bus and headed up the coast. Richie met us at the bus station with his Landcruiser and what do you know…..he’s got a surfboard hanging inside his truck! Now it was really ON!

We lived and worked 7 days a week for a couple months picking zucchini! Those things are low to the ground…hard work…but that’s another story. We bought a car. There was a local surf spot we hit regularly. Went out on a crayfishing boat. Worked in a sheep-shearing shed. Lots of cool stuff but the thing I’m trying to get to is my helmet!

One of the cool cats we met there was Andy. He worked 8-9 months a year as a crayfisherman. For the rest of the time he chased surf around in Indonesia. Over the years he found himself getting more comfortable in the hollow reef breaks and taking more risks in bigger surf. He reached a point where he wanted a helmet but didn’t like the bulky Gath helmets. So as any industrious Aussie would do…he made his own!

The helmet is totally custom made for the surfer. He starts by making a mold of the head and then builds the helmet around the mold. It is an exact fit. The shell is Kevlar which is basically indestructible. It is super light. After all his surfing buddies saw his he ended up making them for all of them. He actually began to support some his travels by bring the materials to Indo and making helmets for surfers.

Here’s mine on its second paint job….



This thing has been perfect for surfing Ocean Beach. The water is so cold that a lot of people wear hooded wetsuits. My helmet fits so snug that it is like a hood...with benefits...especially on the bigger days!

#21 Fortunate Fellow…

There seems to be a theme of thanks these dayz. This morning I got up early for a dawn patrol session before work. I got to the beach before the sunrise. The winds were steady offshore. The swell was a little overhead and organized. There were only a couple people out and a couple suiting up. Once in the water, the sun rose bright orange behind the mist fanning off the top of the waves. The sky awakened and another beautiful day began…

So good to be a surfer.

#20 A Few Words of Thanks...

trying to capture all the thanks i feel in this one blog is as difficult as trying to express all the love i feel for my wife and kids in a birthday card. so before i even begin i acknowledge the impossibility and accept the task of expressing a little everyday.

these last two days of surfing have been unreal! i felt like i got dropped into a surf video. ob was overhead, glassy, consistent, hollow, peeling and just plain awesome. just watching the waves come in was breathtaking. everyone was in such a good mood! it reminded me of the childhood dayz when we would hoot for each other all the time and people would always announce the sets. so fun!

as i suited up and made my way across the sand past all of the beach walkers i had this overwhelming sense of thankfulness that i knew how to surf. the ocean is such an awe inspiring, life-giving, soul-recharging, magnificent thing that to be able to play in it is an absolute honor. i owe my parents the ultimate thanks for relocating our family from inner new york to coastal sunny southern california when i was a wee lad.

thank you to my wife for understanding and supporting my love of the ocean. i am a working father of two and still get in the water multiple times a week. and when the conditions are exceptional she is cool if i let a few things slack while i savor my sanctuary.

i am also thankful for my health. ob is not an easy place to call your home-break. today, for instance, i was in the water for 2-hours. if i was riding a wave i was constantly paddling north to keep from being swept down the beach with the outgoing tide draining from the bay.

i am thankful, too, that i got to share the ocean today with one of my closest friends, db. being able to look over and see a perfect wave peeling toward you with you friend riding it is like....yes! or seeing a perfect wave forming in front of you and hearing your friend yell for you to get it is like....yes!

so, thanks to all the things that have come together to make my love of the ocean possible!

#19 Our President!

Yes....this is our President-Elect!!! I can't even put into words how much joy I feel to see a Black man as President.....and then for him to be a surfer, too!!! The world will never be the same.

Black children in this country(& worldwide) are going to see the world completely differently than those who came before. It has always been said that you can do whatever you put your mind to & now there is a major role model leading the country. I wish my Grandparents were alive to see this. I wish I could hear their thoughts on this. My Father, having grown up in the country of Alabama, says this is equal to him seeing an alien in his lifetime....he just NEVER thought it possible. I'm glad he was wrong : )

Where do we go from here?........i guess the answer would be: Anywhere.

#18 Summer In San Francisco!

This is just a quick note of thanks and welcome to the arrival of Summer-in-San Francisco!!!

I looked off my back deck to see the flags blowing OFFSHORE for the first time in months signaling the beginning of our surf season in deez here parts. The sky was blue, the air was hot! And by golly, there was swell in the water!

To celebrate i spent most of the day at the beach! First i rounded up my little ones and we had a cross-town adventure riding the street train out to the beach. Watching my 3 year old daughter rolling down the sand dunes and thrashing in the water was a treat to my soul. And seeing my 9-month old daughter discover the joys of burying her feet in the warm sand was all that a beach loving dad could ask for......well almost...

After returning home and getting them down for a nap i had to jump in the car and head right back out to the beach so i could do a little celebrating of my own in water! The surf wasn't epic but it was fun and it was an honor to be out on this first offshore day of Summer-in-the-Bay!

#17.5 Photies from the Archives…

I was doing that thing many of us tend to do…clean out stuff. I was flipping through some photos and these popped up and what the heck…here they are….

The Place: Upstate New Jersey
The time: 1995
After growing up near the beach in California my parents relocated to woodsy upstate Jersey. I had just finished college in Santa Barbara and wasn’t really getting into much. Working 20 hours a week at Olive Garden, bodyboarding, bird-watching and not much else. I had just separated with my long time girlfriend and my folks bought a big house so I moved in.

The photo was staged in our backyard for my cali’ crew to show them how I was holding it down on the east coast….psych! In the 2 years that I lived there I only made it to the coast 5 times. 3 of the times were to play in beach volleyball tournaments, which became my favorite east coast pastime. The other 2 times I made the 3-hour drive in the early dark of morning just to see the sun rise over the ocean!




The Place: Durban, South Africa
The Time: December 1996
This is where is first learned to ride a surfboard. It was the beginning our 18-month backpack/surf trip around the world. The trip was epic, in part because we got all of the drama out on our first day of surfing.

My friend Danny instantly got the job of surf tour guide at the hostel where we were staying. And I became the hostel manager. Among the many perks of our positions were access to the hostel tour van!!! So we did what any surfer would do…we took it surfing.

Over-indulging in the van space Danny took 2 boards. I brought way too much money and my hearty traveling clothes. We parked at a common surf spot in Durban across the street from a military base. The surf was fun, as it always was in Durban….too fun for someone who could barely sit on his board at the time! : ) After the session we came back to climb in our ride only to find an empty parking space…of course!

Turns out that more cars get stolen in Durban and Johannesburg than anywhere in the world….who knew?

The hostel owner was cool. The van was insured and he had wanted another one anyway. We actually saw the van being driven around town on a number of occasions during our stay. The thieves had done an ultra weak paint job and the hostel logo could still clearly be seen.

The event also afforded us a trip to the local police station where the police shared their favorite Playboy magazine issues with us and invited us to go play pool and get drinks. Traveling is the best!




The Place: Transkei, South Africa
The Time: Late December 1996
The Transkei is an area along the Southeast coast of South Africa. On the northern part of the area was this surf campground. This is where we spent Christmas.

The camp sits on a right point break that is common ground for many a shark. Actually the whole Transkei region is known for its high shark presence. We came prepared. Before leaving Durban a local advised us to pick up a shark-bite kit. It was basically a big needle and thread with some gauze for the tears : ) We didn’t need it.

The locals had other means of dealing with sharks. There was always one dude on shark watch. He would sit on the point and scan the waters for finned visitors. On one of the 3 days that we were there we were chillin’ in camp when we heard him yell, “Shark!” We peeked over the bluff to see all the dudes getting out of the water until the coast was clear….or clear enough. Guys paddled back out in 10-minutes! : )




The Place: Singapore
The Time: End of March, 1997
Spoiled! By this time we were 7-months into the journey. We had visited: Lesotho, South Africa, Mauritius, India, Thailand, Malaysia and were en route to Indonesia. We had a friend from college who was working in Singapore and offered to put us up for a week. Little did we know that she and her husband lived in the penthouse of some high rise! Little did she know that we were well committed to our travelers care-free nature. When she opened the door she couldn’t get past our funk to give us hugs : ) Greetings happened after our showers! That was definitely one of the best showers of my life!

Their home was ridiculous. Marble everything. State-of-the-art sound system. State-of-the-art kitchen. Fridge stocked with everything. View of everything. And they both worked during the day so we were free to run amok!

That is one neat city. Startlingly clean. The food was spectacular! It was just so organized!

Our friends opened their doors to us for a week before pre-Indo to prepare and for a week post-Indo to decompress. We were fortunate souls for their hospitality.

The photo is just clowning in their hallway.




The Place: Nias Island, Indonesia
The Time: End of May, 1997
Our last day on Nias Island. We were there for 2-months. We stayed in a lossman(bungalow) that was a stones-throw from the water…literally. We ate fresh fish everyday. We collected fantastic sea shells. We wrote. We gazed out over the ocean for extended periods. We walked empty beaches. We got up at dark and were the first ones in the water. I got malaria. We grew our hair!

This was the heart of our travels.

The picture says it all…






The Place: Big Sur, California
The Time: September 2007
This was during the Black Surfer campout we helped facilitate. It was an amazing and inspiring gathering of people. And the surf was fuuuun!

More on that later….we filmed it!






The Place: Kona, Hawaii
The Time: February 2008
Spoiled again! My folks and sister treated my whole family to a family reunion voyage to a beach house in Kona.

What can I say?…..HAWAII!!! That place is otherworldly. The people, the waves, the landscape….all beautiful! I had some of my best ocean experiences ever in the short time that we were there.

The bliss came not just from the amazing surf and warm water, but more from the vibe I got from the people in the water. There was a pure love of the ocean that radiated from all of the local surfers. The ocean meant so much to them and was such a vital part of their lives that they just glowed in its presence. It was an honor to share surf with them.

A family friend was on the spy cam with for this shot. I didn’t know she was shooting until I was walking back up the beach. I was grateful because it is so rare to get any photos of me doing this thing that means so much to me.

#17 Japanese Surfers, Mini-van, Cheetos, Cloves and Gangster Rap

During my session the other day I was thinking about my experiences as a Black Surfer. Is it necessary to make the distinction? Is there a distinction? Aren’t I just a surfer with darker skin than the popularized image of surfers? The short answer is: yes. The long answer will be covered in our documentary. But here are some medium thoughts.

As I approached my car after a fun surf there was a different car parked next to me. There was a mini-van with all of the doors open. The back had 3 surfboards and a bodyboard. Inside and around the mini-van were 4 Japanese surfers who were smoking cloves and passing around a bag of Cheetos while gangster rap echoed out into the parking lot. I found the scene fascinating….liberating….inspiring! It made me realize one of the reasons I love surfing.

That image shook up any preconceived idea I had about how we need to behave to be a part of society. Theirs was an image of free expression. They were not fitting into any idea or ideal. They were just doing their thing. And by doing so they caused me to stop for a moment and assess my own judgments. They brought me an awareness of the possibility to live life how I desire. They brought me to the moment.

Being a Black Surfer has a similar affect. I see it almost every time I paddle out. Whether it is the double-takes and paused stares I get as I suit up in the parking lot. Or the actual comments people have given me when they realize I am going surfing: “You’re going surfing? I’ve never seen a black fellow surf before.” – “Go ahead on, Brotha!” While hitchhiking with my board in South Africa back in ‘96 a local Afrikaaner stopped to pick me up. He said with wonder in his eyes, “I’ve lived in South Africa all of my life and I’ve never seen a Black Surfer! Hop in!”. I’ve had similar comments in the water. But what is more common is the attentive way all eyes are on me when I catch my first wave (and most waves thereafter). I can only speculate as to what is on people’s minds but it is clear that their minds are on full alert.

This ‘awakening’ is definitely not why I surf but it is a great side effect.