E's Surf Report

Rfist Opst.

sorry, I'm a hater

the N Judah can suck my schlong

Paddled WAY out to an outer peak that had some really working waves. Hard to get into, grabbed only one or two with kdalle. Headed to the inside, found a working inner bar with wood-board-fish-guy and over-worked Brazilian ex-pro and there were plenty of waves for everyone before the lump came up and ruined it. I shoulda worked the inside earlier...the 20 minutes I was there before the wind came up were super-fun.

Coooool art!

Got up early and walked over the dunes in the dark, nearly tripping over a sleeping homeless guy. The waves looked really mushy and unispiring from my view point so I passed - lazy ass that I am. They did seem to improve just before the winds came up.

ya, sweet paintings..

Gavin B heat at sunset right now..

my wife gave birth to a beautiful daughter a week ago! we named her fiona.

labor was long & hard (48 hrs+, 4 hrs of pushing) but in the end a c-section was required. it was very challenging and even excruciating at times, but not as horrible as it might sound. she labored to full dilation without any meds using hypnobirthing technique, and 99% of that process was serene. i am honored to have been a part of it, and so proud of her will and stamina. mom & daughter are both healthy & recovering impressively.

in the unlikely event that the winds back off, i will be celebrating the one-week mark with a surf later today.

Congradulations Loon!

yeah, LOON! congrats!
52 hours of labor. insane.
she's a charging charger!
when and where did you take your birthing classes? we haven't even started prepping for the labor yet.
maybe our kids can learn to surf together. get on it, loon! you deserve it.

Congrats Loon. As many of my friends have been having kids lately, I've been thinking a lot about the impact a child has on an adult. It's really profound, at least I think it should be. A friend mentioned to me the other day that his priorities are family, work, then surfing. I think in the case of having kids, family and work are pretty closely related. That is, to plan for your childrens future you need to consider your job as a major influence.

Not having kids, I put my family first, surfing second and job third. I wouldn't move to Arizona for a good job. But maybe if I had kids, I wouldn't give it a second thought...

Just rambling.

happy family bruh

the new buckethead came out today.
Enter the Chicken.
Holy geez.. first two tracks are heavy.. tight guitar cadences.. too much singing for my taste.. more guitar, less voice says i. we'll see what the rest of the album holds.

yeah loon!

i don't think so. i think you need to be happy and proud of the work you are doing to be a good parent. thus, for me i must live relatively close to the ocean (i'm at my outside distance right now, i think) and do work aimed toward advancing the social values i believe in, ahead of prioritzing financial gain. and i hope my kid will appreciate those choices over being able to have every expensive gadget and all the $ perks he might be able to have if i sold out or moved to kansas.

Welcome to the club Loon! Good on you for keepin up with the surfin bug.

For me, if I can surf almost everyday, play with my dog, spend time with my lady, and eat well that makes me happy. I do not think you need total satisfaction from your career. Its the things outside of work that provide me happiness..

thanks e for taking down that namers guys posts. i for one am a little sick of that BS.

This looks like the visual of the story that was told here yesterday...(someone with more skills can post that actual picture if they want to)

http://www.sfgate.com/n/pictures/2005/10/31/titanic1.jpg

Buckethead "Enter the Chicken"

track 10 "the hand" is pretty metal.

first pass of the album is a 3 or 4 on a scale of 1 to 10.. it's hit or miss with buckethead albums. This one doesn't let his guitar shine enough. Too drawn out by the singing. Track 10 is bad-ass though. yeah.

His old album "Giant Robot" is still my favorite. The song "Aquabat" rules! also "I come in Peace" kicks major arse.

i checked out the history of all the posts made by the "Namers get owned" guy today and he has posted nothing but negative and bullying things over the last week or so. sucks. But.. he's not the only namers get owned guy.

back to work for me.. lates.

Loon...adding my congrats to your huge announcement! your lady sounds like a trooper!

as for me...I had fun this morning until my back frickin' seized and sent me to shore early. sux to be on the DL again, but at least it was a beautiful morning.

Mexi, good seeing you in the water.

Dave Blake is going bye-bye. I'd like to say thanks for the efforts in forecasting. your site was a regular in the surf check list. good luck.

Ouch, bummer about Blakestah, the best forecasting by far in my opinion. Thanks gigantically for all the incredible work and great spirit, not to mention all I learned from it.

Congrats Loon.

Gotta say the name's beautiful...I've got an 11 month old with the same.

Where is blakestah going? Is he moving or just taking down the site? What the dilly?

Thanks, blakestah... I will be missing your dead-on forecasts.

blakestah...sorry to hear that you are going. you and your awesome forecasts will be missed. good luck with your next step in life!

i wish bvb would move away instead of blakestah

Steamwand - Kansas! Not for love or money...

congrats loon and good luck B-stah!

Right on Loon- a new chapter, congrats!

Best of luck Bstah, while I may (secretly) miss your accurate reports, a little more randomness thrown into the mix at the beach is always a good thing. Hopefully there's some mountains or something where you're going- and there's always surf trips! Sometimes being forced to pickup a new sport or hobby after focusing on one for so long can be an awesome experience.

Blakestah is a charging charger who charges like a good charger should charge on chargable charge days with waves that are charging like chargable chargables. Hopefully you're heading to a chargable charge location where the waves are chargable like the chargeable chargables you have been charging in the past. Charge? Yes indeed.

He's also got some pretty thick skin for dealing with all the bullshit and shit talking many "anons" have thrown in his direction.

Welcome, Fiona!

God damn, Blake! Congrats on your life factors, I suppose, but condolences on your surfing loss, and I'll sure miss your site, and a friendly head in the lineup. Cheers!

Everyone hold up.....

First off, Loon, nicely done! How about that new-found respect for the wife? Congratulations to all of you. Glad to hear everyone is happy and healthy. The first surf back is a cleansing for the soul.

In a strange twist of fate, I just got word that BVB is going to step in for Blakestah. EVERYTHING WILL BE A'OK!

Blakestah, thanks for the site! Good luck in your next phase, I assume hurricane tracking might be in order?

Me thinks Blakestah is trying to join the BRIGADE!!!

or, maybe not...

I'm moving, the site will stay up, but I will cease to forecast. That would be pure torture. Its a very positive move in a lot of ways, just not in any of the usual ways I relate to most of you. To most of you I am a surfer and forecaster, but the other side of life is what will be changing for the better. The ocean seems to creep back into my life after a few years away, hopefully this time will be no different. But you never know. Enjoy it while you have it, I sure tried to.

what Blake is saying is that most of us just surf and surf and that he only relates on one level, surfing.

The other level is his secret identity as a top level CIA spy searching out evil doers on the west coast.

In the last few years he's only turned up one guy, BVB, and the government just thought Blake was better used in another region. BVB, will soon be in custody, dont worry.

Blakestah, I can't imagine or relate to the move, but have fun and live strong.

best of luck to you blakestah. thanks for all the years of great forecasting.

and if you'd like, i'd be happy to take over the forecasting part of your site for you. i promise that i would do my best to accurately mispredict the surf conditions on a regular and consistent basis. i consider myself to be hardworking and dependable, and can supply references if needed. and no, these are not my selfish intentions working, but a genuine and charitable attempt to force the masses to learn to predict their own damn waves! that's the only reason. i swear.

CK, think glucosamine. Good seeing you.

I don't know the details of the mighty Blakestah but what will happen with the rotating fin system? Seems like that was just gathering steam. Damn. Well good luck on your travels Blake, must be really something if you are taking surfing out of your life. I couldn't do it.

Brief highlights of surfing with blakestah:
1. This morning. Just the two of us with the rose colored morning sun painting the whitewater on a calm, clear morning with some very photo-ready peaks.
2. Steamer Lane on a faily large day. Blakestah paddles right out to Middle Peak, paddles furiously into a set wave, stalls at the top and disappears over the ledge. Comes up with the nose of his board snapped.
3. Feeling bold I suggested we surf Mavericks. He didn't hesitate. Our first day we just paddled out to have a look. A very different wave than I had surfed before. It was faily crowded so we just paddled in after a while. He immediately orders a 9'-8" gun. Second time, he made the call--- Mid-day on a weekday, sunny, offshore, just three of us out there. Big beautiful peaks with a ledgy takeoff. At one point blakestah breaks his leash and loses his board at the peak. it was headed for the rocks for sure. He swam in, got it and paddled back out.
4. Ocean Beach. Too many days to recall but one large winter day in the Aves. sticks out. Big burly well shaped sets. The whole crew is out including lots of Mavs guys. I catch a nice one and as I'm paddling out he drops into a beautiful 2X left. With the lip feathering overhead he leans into a smooth bottom turn and gets into perfect position in the pocket and just glides as the wave peels right behind him.

He's a go-to guy, willing to take on a challenge, share the stoke, invent a new fin system, forecast for the laziest among us and elevate the community spirit and be a friend. I'm not sure how he will do it but I suspect he will still keep on surfing no matter what.

loon congrats!

blakestah thanks for the forcasting. good luck in your future endeavors.

woke up at 4am to what sounded like a gunshot across the street from my house last night. looked out and there's a huge whole in my neighbors picture window and a bunch of drunk guys screaming and hollering in the street. not sure what happened, but do know that the cops never showed up. sucks having thugs living across the street. bitches kept me up the rest of the night and made me miss surf too. sorry for the negativity but damn!

Too many days to recall but one large winter day in the Aves. sticks out. Big burly well shaped sets. The whole crew is out including lots of Mavs guys. I catch a nice one and as I'm paddling out he drops into a beautiful 2X left. With the lip feathering overhead he leans into a smooth bottom turn and gets into perfect position in the pocket and just glides as the wave peels right behind him.

Dec 1, 2002, I think. The end of an unforgettable 5 day stretch around 2002 Thanksgiving. Sunny, warm, offshore, macking week. Kdalle is a good friend, we shared many many big OB days.

I'm too committed on the fin system, the CAD drawings for the three fin version are almost done, then it will be a month until I have samples.

Stravinsky - "The Firebird Suite" - conducted by Pierre Boulez and performed by the New York philharmonic is radical.. inspiring... transcendental.

Blakestah-I echo what someone said earlier. I have nothing but respect for anyone who invests time in trying to help others enjoy life more (yeah, yeah, don't want to hear the whole" the beach would be a whole better without"...b.s.) You do have a super thick skin in being able to subject yourself to all the judgement etc on this site and for that I commend you. Best of luck in whatever you're doing and thanks for providing a service that helped me get through my work week. It is always the first or second thing I would click on when the reality of being indoors nearly all day finally set it.

Well Bstah - we haven't shared many sessions together. Come to think of it, not one really good one. But you have my respect and well wishes. Ya'll come back and visit now, ya'hear.

yes to firebird. phenomenal.and yes, trancendental. agreed.

Bstah,

Many thanks for all of your efforts. I've only discovered your service a couple of years ago, and I have since moved from the Bay Area myself, but it has made my life, my gas expenses, probably the environment, much better off. Again, many thanks.

I've also given up surfing since i've moved out to Miami (there are surfing oppty's here, but I decided it wasn't worth my time and efforts to pursue anymore), but it was WELL worth it. I also agree that certain life factors are much more important than surfing, and after awhile, I just got tired of freezing my ass off in SF, tired of the plain looking women there, tired of the traffic, tired of the negative people, etc...

Anyways, best of luck.

Best wishes, BStah! I'll miss the spot-on forecasting and being second one in the water... but I'm betting that you'll show up for a DP now and again...
Cheers!

Loon- Great news! And I'm glad you got ya'self an honest job, to boot! (Inside joke.)

Dr. Blake, you will be sorely missed. I really admire your patience with the BS and willingness to share your considerable knowledge.

That being said, Kaiser and I were discussing cortical representations of simple sounds over a donut the other day. Frankly, we’re not convinced that the magnitude of receptive field change due to development or adult plasticity is proportional to the receptive field size. Could it simply be primate surfer’s ear? I think you should rethink your decision and conduct additional field studies at Sloat.

wow, can't believe blake of all guys is bailing. hmmmm. i guess i can second all the appreciation, cause i have definitely used his site, especially for wind which is hard for me to get a handle on. but, wasn't b-stah just last year telling kaiser he was crazy to go to Hawaii in november? let alone leave the coast all together??? oh, well, guess you never can predict life's twists and turns and he must be on to some important stuff. good luck.

Loon- Great news! And I'm glad you got ya'self an honest job, to boot! (Inside joke.)

Dr. Blake, you will be sorely missed. I really admire your patience with the BS and willingness to share your considerable knowledge.

That being said, Kaiser and I were discussing cortical representations of simple sounds over a donut the other day. Frankly, we’re not convinced that the magnitude of receptive field change due to development or adult plasticity is proportional to the receptive field size. Could it simply be primate surfer’s ear? I think you should rethink your decision and conduct additional field studies at Sloat.

sorry for the duplicate post- internal server error forced extra keystroke.

http://www.burstofbeaden.com/annai_hi.mov

coolest cartoon ever..

blakestah, you're report has been a staple for a long time. You will be missed! Good luck to you. Loon, congratulations on the bambino. A little over 4 years ago I remembering annoucing the birth of my son. Now I've got a 4 and an almost-2 year old. Tempus fugit...make the best of it.

Bruce, you have truly surprised me. You have picked out a detail in the discussion section of one of my papers that has eluded 99% of the field. Stunned.

Steamer Lane and the West side will never be the same with no one on 10 foot guns on a DOH day.

So sad... =)

Blakestah thanks and good luck!

"The present is the only reality.
Make the most of where you are right now"

Words to live bye, e.

Positivity is great and a wonderful way to live. But other emotions are all part of our experience.
"Negative" emotions such as sadness, depair, loss and anger, have been equally inspiring, harnessed in the right way. Just look at art, music, sports... Our society is so repressed that people are afraid to express emotions- until they build up to unbearable levels, many times resulting in violence. That's why putting those emotions into creative things can be such a great outlet.

Bstah, good luck in your new adventures.

bstah: i'm going to miss all those special moments we shared together. when you tried to make it with that cow...i want to party again with you, cowboy

keep pimpin'

egp

Ah, the wonders of the internet. I assure you that I have absolutely no understanding of neuro. But professor wife speaks highly of the work out of the M lab. Hope your new gig is equally satisfying. It's going to be hard to find a blog replacement who has published in Science, but given the neighborhood, I wouldn't be surprised.

I thought it was a llama at the sf zoo...?

Bruce, back to that donut discussion we had, I realized it wasn't necessarily a magnitude of change in the receptive field change due to osteomis! The reason I couldn't hear you scream when you spilled your Lizard coffee on your lap was because I had a goop of cream-filled chocolate bar clogging up my ear canal thus minimizing the receptive field altogether.

Great donut though!

Lizard, read this one when you get bored! Check the fine print. The really, really fine print.

Hawkins, D. and P.A. Molé. Modeling energy expenditure associated with isometric, concentric, and eccentric muscle action at the knee. Annals of Biomedical Engineering. 25(6):822-830, 1997.

haha look at that fat guy up there

Did Bruce blow his wad into Kaiser's ear?

cool post artifact. right on.

also like kdalle's post about the 'stah

Blakestah - good luck and have fun my friend!

my mom's art

Blakestah, bummed to hear you are moving away. I liked the sparseness of your forecast page as well as the accuracy. So where are you headed? Roughly of course, no need to give up all the goods to the great unwashed masses that read this site, including me.

Keep rotating blakestah.

Hum... I wonder if those Pacificos I left in the freezer last night are cold enough yet? Doh!

Oh yeah if anyone's interested vegoose was pretty nutty. Good music, friends and times. Played some craps with Phil Lesh- very chill dude. A highlight was the sound tribe sector 9 late night show. A very surreal experience- that drummer is pretty insane- some trippy artist in the back painting and going off to the beats.

Sorry to we couldn't connect j.o.c.!

synchronicity - me too dano! only it was an acme ale.

artifact.. did you see Ween?

i dig that sts9 drummer. he rips.

i just finished reading phil lesh's new book "searching for the sound"
it was pretty good but not that good. some interesting stories of the early trippy years and a smattering of Marin county references.

db: you're getting the props you deserve today - thanks for the role you have played in this community - and the used crib. also - make sure that i am on the list for one of the first tri-fin orders! fare thee well - ya hear?!!

and on behalf of fiona and family, thanks for all the well-wishes folks!

Yeah Ween went off- so did Primus and Beck, Warren Haynes killed it on the guitar, played a sweet Zep "No Quarter" cover

Phil was super mellow- normal dude, I think he's pretty sober now.

you live well artifact.

I see the fog rolling in. Ugh... make Junetober stop!

Thank goodness Bstah says... "Sunday: a welcome sight to this forecaster. The first real signs of high pressure ridging over the Bay Area in any meaningful way. It is not a Great Basin high, but it will ridge over Central California and bring at least one solid day of sun and calm winds. More importantly, it is one of those "winter weather" patterns we LOVE to see, and this is the first time this fall."

Just when Bstah goes year-round, his show gets canceled. Gonna miss those forecasts. The only one you need to check. Thanks for 10 years.

3to5... lol. Mine are rock solid! Ugh, two dead soldiers. Ttttragic.

loon, good on you and your family.

Bstah-Thanks.

blakestah = good doer of good things

RFS Report:
Ducked outta work a little early today and caught a few waves on the 6'1 RFS ala Bstah. First wave was a little overhead left. Late drop but no air. The bottom turn felt very smooth. A bit different from my 6'1 Mongrel thruster. I hit the lip on the backside and again, the turn felt very smooth. The fins definately have a unique feel to them. I think there is less drag paddling too. Hard to tell though cuz the Flyer RFS is a little beefier than my Mongrel. Second wave similar to the first but it closed out ahead of me. I only had time for a hard bottom turn and a kickout. Third wave was a total airdrop closeout and time to go to school so I rode in on the whitewater. Anyway, first wave being the best, the fins felt pretty good. looking forward to another test.

Blakestah - sad to see you go. There was a certain something about your forecasts. They were beyond reproach. I will feel a little blinder when they are no more.

What's with the yellow water wings on the surfer in the above photo?

Bummed about local surf conditions lateley? I recommend a long walk onto the GG Bridge to end your depression. Trannies....nuff said.