E's Surf Report

I drove my car to work today (a very rare occurance) so I got to see the early morning smoothness. I was tempted to bail on the job and get in the water, but too much residual, childhood Catholic guilt coupled not enough swell (really tiny) kept me on the straight and narrow to my cubicle - arrrrrrrrrrgggggggggg. Stupid conscience!

Posted by: Jimmie at June 12, 2006 10:22 AM

That 1st foto is cool..

Posted by: mexi at June 12, 2006 10:56 AM

bogus surf forecast: minimal winds, fun rideable windswell and south swell until Wednesday. I'm out of the water until then. You can thank me for my sacrifice later :P

Hey e, I finally got some art on compuder disc, tried to email it to you, and my little mac here wouldn't attach the files. Damn. Someday.

Posted by: s.s. sharkbait at June 12, 2006 10:59 AM

Congress is now pushing a law that would end the free and open Internet as we know it. Internet providers like AT&T and Verizon are lobbying Congress hard to gut Network Neutrality, the Internet's First Amendment and the key to Internet freedom. Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. So Amazon doesn't have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to work more properly on your computer.

I thought this was interesting

Posted by: mexi at June 12, 2006 11:02 AM

great post today, e, on the even-handed awareness tip.

The way Net neutrality is seemingly going (down the tubes) and the way corporations basically usurp everything and every eyeball until we are totally worked over -- I would not be surprised to soon see Hurricanes named after ad sponsors, can see the headlines already: "Hurricane GEICO covers Florida", "Hurricane Pepto-Bismol upsets Texas panhandle," "Hurricane John Deere mows down North Carolina."

Posted by: Ancient Jetties at June 12, 2006 11:11 AM

I took a look at the Storm Surf Guide the other day (never saw it before) and was pretty bummed at the pics and directions to some relatively secret spots. Many of the spots I spent years finding on my own. It is sad to think that those people would give up people's right to discovery and solitude for easy money. Disgusting, shameful shit.

Posted by: mexi at June 12, 2006 11:24 AM

you think you're bummed? I just got an email from somebody I never met before, asking about an island I visited in 2000 that I was hoping I would be able to surf unmolested for the next ten years at least. "I've heard there is surf at XX" the email says. "can you let me know?". couldnt believe it. what do I say? the guy's a seeker just to ask, so it's cool and all... but, you know... etc.

Posted by: reefboy at June 12, 2006 12:50 PM

i knew i should have gotten in the water this morning, but instead opted for watching world cup with the bambino, who is completely riveted by the beautiful game.

anybody know what's going on with the noaa buoys and the wind model sites. seems like both yesterday and today they've been on the fritz?

i think it's much worse to see a spot you've scoped and think of as secret in a widely published book than to get a random e-mail. the e-mail is alot more like word of mouth and the only way you will avoid that is to keep your mouth completely shut about your travels, which when it comes down to it, few of us do. doesn't mean we necessarily blab to the world, but sometimes it's hard to score and keep it totally silent. thank god, because i never would have gone to ______ or _____ or _______ if someone hadn't coughed up the d's.

in the end though, those really out of the way spots are still gonna be alot less crowded, no matter what, because folks is lazy. and from my limited experience, i've found that people in the water there are a lot more pleasant because we all recognize the effort it took to get there and respect each other for having put it out.

now let me go order my copy of the storm surf guide.

Posted by: steamwand at June 12, 2006 01:30 PM

More than a decade ago, the German Green Party
petitioned the whatever international weather
body that names hurricanes, typhoons, etc.,
recommending that they start being named
after major greenhouse gas producing companies:
Hurricane Exxon, Tropical Storm BP, Typhoon
Conoco, etc...

David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest" posits the
onset of "subsidized time", where calendar years
are auctioned off to the highest bidder.
Year of the Adult Depends Undergarment!

Posted by: occasionalposter at June 12, 2006 01:31 PM

AJ, occasionalposter - if you like satirical fiction you should check out George Saunders. He writes great dark comedy along these lines.

rboy - Ah, the surf bro conundrum. I only have one real surfing secret that I hold dear and my rule for that nugget: Don't give up the dope unless it's a)a blood relative b)gonna help me get laid. But I don't have a lot of friends and my xes all call me a self-centered a-hole.

I will say this though - once the word is out it will spread quick. I've gotten some good information while just being an observer of a conversation between two acquaintances as they attempted to one-up eachother with all the perfect, empty, secret spots they'd surfed over their lives. I just wished I had had a pen.

And if you do tell him (I could care less, I'll never go there)- I wouldn't send an email.

Posted by: obro at June 12, 2006 02:01 PM

good points obro. I will give up the details when the blond lady with the large chest comes by and asks.

Posted by: reefboy at June 12, 2006 03:40 PM

boobs, secret spots, george saunders (recently spoke at Canvas gallery at 9th and irving), trading secret spots for smooches are all good things..

hey.. i'm helping to prepare a sierra club interview with Al Gore. Anyone have any riveting questions they'd like asked?

Posted by: e at June 12, 2006 03:44 PM

Once upon a time surfing was different. More Authentic.

A Lifestyle.

Posted by: PNW at June 12, 2006 03:48 PM

how does he reconcile his 'invention' of the internet, an industry based upon products manufactured via processes that contribute greatly to green-house emmissions, contaminated waste and and mass-consumption of natural resources, with his stance as the 'new' champion of global warming causes?

Posted by: PNW at June 12, 2006 03:53 PM

e -- yeah, "why didnt' you just drive up to the white house, say 'look, i won. let me in; or shoot me, i'm not stopping.'"

better days are just ahead:

Posted by: scott free at June 12, 2006 04:20 PM

e - I just the Al Gore movie last weekend. Can you ask him why he spent so much time trying to say "I am right, I called it years and now look at the shitty president you voted to office!".

It was informative movie, I could have done without the Al Gore shit.

Posted by: toooshy at June 12, 2006 04:48 PM

Hey e, you could ask him why (although I thought the movie was pretty good) the movie basically just preaches to those who are going to already care about global warming (i.e. lefties, most of the rest of the world bar). It does a good job of doing this. But the reality is that America is a (just stating not criticizing) country that has a very short term, and profit driven view point.

Stopping global warming requires thinking and bold action outside of these parameters, and to the detriment of profit and popularity (which is why we did not sigh the Kyoto treaty).

The problem I have with the movie is that it is polarizing (hard not to be with Gore doing it) and it will never reach out to that 50% of so of America that watches fox news and reads Ann Coulter – those respective media outlets have already bashed the shit out of the film, so basically all the movie does is increases the polarization of the audience.

Those who support it do more so. And those who don’t are increasingly vocal about how Gore is trying to ruin the economy etc…

So bottom line – good film, good move, but if I had to raise a point, I think he should have tried to reach out to a wider audience, because I think that is were the REAL massive opportunity is, to somehow change the ingrained thinking of people who simply don’t even have an open mind to this issue. If he could have done that better, then I really think he would have achieved something great.

Anyhow my 2c.

Posted by: ankors at June 12, 2006 05:49 PM

should that be known hence forth as "fahrenheit 911" effect?

those movies seem like they almost do more harm than good..imho..

my friend voted for Bush just because he hates michel moore so much..i got him to admit it too..

Posted by: bajel at June 12, 2006 05:58 PM

i agree with what ankors is saying basicaly..

Posted by: bajel at June 12, 2006 05:59 PM

Is that a grip on a fish? I though those only go on thrusters? - I have been having foot problems and was wondering if grips give any adiditional foot padding?

-P-

Posted by: dubby at June 12, 2006 08:00 PM

I saw the movie, An Inconvenient Truth, yesterday night. My 2 cents on this is the general consensus in the scientific community is that we're basically fucked regardless of what greenhouse gas emission curbs we put into place, i.e. the point of no return has already been reached. We could cut all man made green house gas emissions right now, but it's not going to stop the C02 that is already stored in the oceans. In the end, what's probably going to happen is that the other 50% of America that read Ann Coulter is going to wake up someday and realize the planet just got fucked. By then, it will already be too late.

I also think it's sobering to note how fast the evidence for global warming is mounting. 10 years ago, I did a presentation/paper for a graduate course in oceanography on global warming. I presented both sides of the debate, and back then, against popular notion of today, a lot of scientists weren't on the global warming bandwagon. My professor, a world class oceanographer, was actually one of those guys that were skeptical. 10 years ago, you didn't hear about events such as icebergs the size of Rd. Island breaking off the artic shelf, or no snow on the Materhorn in the history of human existence there. Nowadays, it's a common event.

Anecdotal evidence is also surprising. Here is a very late season, actually, not even in season, north swell at Pipe today. These late season swells have been an increasingly more common thing down there in the past 16 years that i've been doing the ocean thing:

Posted by: MSG at June 12, 2006 08:16 PM