Luau & Longboard Invitational 2012

Graham asked if I wanted to be on the Cymer Surf Team a month ago.  Yes!  I made the cut!

I had never been in a surf contest before so I really got an education.  Knowing the La Jolla Shores parking situation is terrible without a surf contest, I decided to get there at least 2 hours before the 9:30am first heat.  Good call. 

I street parked near Bob’s parents’ home in La Jolla shores and walked to Scripps pier.  Bob was on the beach, and Silvia and Graham joined in.  They suggested warming up with some waves, so Bob and I went to change and grab a board.  I had brought both Takayama boards in the Element and decided to try the Erik Summer model.  Immediately in the water, I realized the better choice was the
In The Pink model.  Waves were 3-4 feet, glassy, and well-formed.

So I walked back to my car (this will be a common theme of the day) to swap boards.  I had made the bad decision to bring only the sleeve-less shorty wetsuits when the air temp was well into the 80’s and the water temp was 69F.  Sweat was running off of me.  Every car visit was a reapply of sunscreen and a cup of ice.

The ice was for picking up the 1.5 growlers of Pizza Port Swami’s bought for the previous Thursday night Cymer Surf Team party at Bob’s parent’s place.  Good times.  Lucky for me I had plenty of ice.  The ice would bring my body temp into the non-sweating mode for about 10 minutes.

Hmmm.  I am writing this post-Invitational, with the Swami’s downstairs in the frig.  I’ll pour a pint to accompany me in this write-up. 

Yummy.  Still tasty.

So lesson #1 was to have all your gear, ice water, etc. on the beach to cut out the car trips.  Lesson #0 was to have board shorts to quickly change in/out just to try and stay cooled off.

The Cymer Surf Team consisted of Graham (Captain), myself, Bob, and James.  I considered myself the weakest surfer.  Onshore for support were Matt, Silva, and various other Cymer people.  Heats began, with Graham going first, then me.  I was getting worked up:  I needed at least 2 good waves with a maximum of 10 waves scored.  In 15 minutes!  The plan was to get a conservative 2 waves then get exotic, trying to get better scores.  The anticipation and heat had me sweating.  Look, there goes PT (Peter Townsend), Shawn Towson, and Devon Howard: two world champions and all accomplished longboarders.

Mental note:  do not throw up while surfing.

I nailed the first session, scoring a beautiful long right followed by a rollercoaster left.  Everything else was gravy on the top.  Only having 15 minutes, I was sprinting for every wave.  The surfer next to me looked familiar.  Are you Joel Tudor?  No, just Joel’s brother Andy.  Andy surfed like his world champion brother.

I belly boarded to shore after the 15-minute horn.  Exhausted and overheating.  And not knowing the process, I waited around in my wetsuit when I should have slipped into board shorts to cool off. 
Bob and James followed by catching great rides.  James especially was very good on the board.  James was also a rookie and worried like me.  Neither of us hurled while surfing.
Finally, I decided to change out of the wetsuit after 1.5 hours (another trip to the car).  Then the announcement came:  Cymer was in the final round! 

I quickly checked the schedule.  I was on in 40 minutes, so I again changed into a wetsuit (another car trip, see a pattern here?).

Wait a moment.  The first pint is gone.

I’m back with a half-pint.  Don’t judge me I am not driving!

I got back to the beach with 20 minutes to spare.  Sweating in a wetsuit, I laid down in the water.  Drank another bottled water.

The horn sounds.  Surfing conditions had deteriorated with chop and sparse waves.  Ca-ca (kelp) was also on the water surface.  I managed to catch some waves while watching my wristwatch.  At 14:50 I tried to catch a final wave when the horn sounded
.
My surfing for the day was over.  Yet another car trip to change (more ice!) then back to the beach for team support.

For the Cymer legend, our original legend was nowhere to be found so Shawn Tomson was drafted.  Shawn Tomson!  Later, Graham said we should all get together with our boards for pics.  Yes, another car trip for the board.  But too late to get a pic with Shawn Towson.  BIG REGRET.

Chris, Graham, Silvia, David, Bob, Matt, Jame and me

The tented luau felt 20 degrees cooler.  I was slamming water until I found the beer cooler.  Lunch never was tastier.  I bought some swag and considered bidding on an Aaron Chang print.  The Cymer team and extras got a table together.  All surfers were exhausted.  Dan congratulated me on a great surf day – this felt great.



Graham, Bob, James, and me with the hardware

The auctions were really entertaining.  Then the announcements came on the placements and the Cymer Surf Team got individual trophies!


The Trophy and Lei

I went home, took a restless 1-hour nap then hydrated for the rest of the day.  The next day I felt really sore.   But, I just finished the last half-pint.

Click Luau & Longboard 2012 for more pics.

Gordon and Matt Visit San Diego

Gordon informed me several weeks ago that he and a friend, Matt, were coming to San Diego for a work presentation on Saturday/Sunday.  They will be arriving Wednesday evening then taking the next two days off to explore San Diego.  Excellent!

I burned two vacation days to join them.  I sent a link to my Google maps for San Diego so Gordon could share with Matt and pick what they wanted to see and do.  They were interested in learning to surf, kayak in the caves, and do some standup paddleboarding.  If windy conditions came up then we would go to the Torrey pines glider port.

Pre-trip, I scouted for foam surfboards and SUP rentals.  The local temperature got warm the previous week, so most rental places were out of SUPs and only had 8-foot foam surfboards.

They were staying at the Indigo hotel in Del Mar.  Nice place.  Thursday morning we met at Del Mar beach to observe the choppy and poor wave conditions.  Nevertheless, the decision was to surf in the morning and snorkel with sharks in the afternoon.

We traveled to my place to load up surfboards and shorty suits.  My spare shorty suit fit Matt, and Gordon had brought a wetsuit top.  Perfect wear for the water/air temperature.  We traveled to Pipes café for breakfast then to Pipes surf spot. 

Gordon and Matt found learning to surf to be challenging over the next two days.  I tried to assist by giving a push but the waves were lacking.  It would have been ideal if waves broke outside and gave up whitewater to learn the standup move but waves were breaking close to shore, forcing us to try and surf them.  But they were troopers and put in over 1.5 hours in the water.  Gordon did manage to pick off at least one wave; catching it perfectly, standing up, and riding in unassisted.

Lunch was at El Especial Norte for the Chicken Tortilla soup.  Someone please remind me to order the small bowl next time!

We then unloaded surfboards and traveled to La Jolla Shores.  Gordon and Matt found snorkel rentals and off to the shore we walked.  After wading in and adjusting our snorkel gear we discovered conditions were murky with visibility of maybe 3 feet.  Disappointing.  I did manage to see many stingrays which reminded me to keep shuffling my feet.

Friday morning was more of the same:  breakfast at Pipes then surfing at Pipes surf spot. 

Again, conditions made it challenging.  Matt did manage to catch a wave, stand up and ride to shore.

Lunch was at Ki’s with a killer ocean view.  We could tell we were tired but we pressed on to La Jolla Shores.  The plan was for Matt and Gordon to try either kayaking into the caves or SUP.  I wasn’t feeling all that great so I volunteered for shore duty.  They picked up SUPs and took off. 

And I got a first-time look at how difficult SUPing is.  And they thought surfing was challenging.  At least with surfing you are in the water and cooling off.  If you are any bit successful with SUP then you are out of the water, in the sun, and paddling hard.

After the tired troopers came to shore and turned in their paddleboards, we decided a cool drink was called for.  We found an Italian restaurant with terrible service but great outside seating and ordered chilled wine and water.  Gordon and Matt were VERY tired.  Gordon got a text from other conference attendees, asking to meet up for a 9pm dinner.  Ha-ha.  Gordon and Matt expected to be asleep by 9PM.

We walked back to the respective cars and parted ways.  I hope next time my guests find better waves and clearer water.  And then I realized I never took a picture!