Dolphins, take 3.

Another video from my buddy Fred.

Great stuff.


Dolphins off Pt Fermin from Steve Shlens on Vimeo.


Today is the last day of June.  My constant crushing headaches are finally gone (knock on wood).  I'm looking forward to the second half of this year, physical therapy & exercise, and a new beginning.  Look out.

Another Dolphin Video from Fred... at his work.

As mentioned in an earlier post, my friend Fred has the lucky job of working off the Southern California coast near Point Fermin. Often, he and his partners will come upon pods of dolphins. Depending upon the conditions, some pictures or video might follow. Here's another such video:


Dolphins at Pt Fermin from Steve Shlens on Vimeo.

I'm nothing but jealous of being outside, in the sun, on the water, and with the ocean on days like that. On the windy, rainy, nasty days, not as much.

Dolphins & Checking In

I'll check in, first.  Doing okay.  Headaches & doing nada are taking their own mental toll.  Getting back to some physical activity and real work will really help. Yesterday afternoon the doctor gave me the 'green light' to start walking, again. Thank goodness! P.T. will begin in 3 more weeks. I can go in the water again in another 4. I cannot wait. Today, as an example, driving by the coast I spotted a mylar balloon in a kelp bed about 1/2 mile out. I wanted nothing more than to paddle out and grab that balloon, but couldn't. Hate that sight and this feeling of powerlessness. It'll be gone soon! Grrrrr....

Okay, now to the real fun.  The following are some videos from Fred S. sent to me when I was supposed to be working.*  The first one he sent was on June 24, 2011.  The subject line of Fred's email read:  Work today.

Damn.  That's a great place to work.

The video that kicked it off:

Dolphins 6/24/11 off Pt Fermin from Steve Shlens on Vimeo.

After getting this, I sent an email to Fred asking if I could post it. Sure, he said. Then he mentioned that he had a few others. I asked him to forward those along. Here's one from April 1st, 2011:

Dolphins 4/1/11 off of Pt Fermin from Steve Shlens on Vimeo.

*Editorial comment: "Supposed to be working" does not refer to my ditching work. To the contrary, I was missing work. I couldn't work because of my back.

Molokai

Molokai to Oahu Paddleboard Race from Molokai2Oahu on Vimeo.

This year's race is July 31, 2011. I will be there in spirit.

The Faces of Surfing

LOVED this movie when it came out.  It defined surfing at the time. Stumbled across the 'faces' theme.


Faces Theme by Eric Henderson "Surfers the Movie" from Eric Henderson on Vimeo.

PRONE: Courtesy Chris Aguilar of Soul Surf Media

LINK TO CHRIS AGUILAR'S PRONE VIDEO.

Direct link per the above.  Video starts automatically, so I changed this up.  Please visit the sight.

Beautiful.

A.I.

Father's Day: Damn GREAT Job, Paddlers!

What a difference a year makes.

UL Winners: A. Vela, G. Loren, M. Walls
14' Winners: J. Loren, S. "R" Caldwell, P. Rausch
Stock Winners: J. Bark, M.Becker, J. Pepper
Wahine Winners:  F. Seagull (UL board), D.J. O'Brien (stock board), Margaret (UL).
Relay Winners:  Spector & Sardisco, Delaney & Ambrosi, maybe someone else... but those are my friends!

This is awesome!

Post Op Day One

Plenty drugged up.

Amazed by the lack of stitches.

Already gone on a couple of walks, too.



I WILL SURVIVE.

Under the Knife

Well, went under the knife today. What's amazing is how minimal the cut is.  About 2" long, to the left of my spine.  What's more amazing is that I'm already walking (albeit super slowly and with LOTS of drugs in the system).

Taking it all very slowly.  No water immersion for a month and no vigorous activities for 3-4 months.

But I WILL be back.

For right now, as may be evident, I'm über stoned.  So I'm going to take the advise emailed to me from Pepper:

G'night.

I'm Going for a Walk

Not the after dinner kind. [Bad Religion reference. Dig that band.]

Yesterday was the 14 mile Davenport Downwinder race. From all reports, it was an amazing race. Craig Waltz, the Silverback, apparently won it all on his unlimited board. Second was Kyle Power and third was George Plsek, also both on UL boards. Coming in just behind them was Pete Stirling on his UL.  Great job, all!

The 14' class was led by none other than Harbor Rat Nick B -- awesome work, Nick! There's nothing like racing when it's just flat out fun. Second was a Santa Cruzer named John Shliber and third was Harbor Rat Adam Maingot. Great work as well, fellas!

Stock class (12' boards) was won by Hogan Kania, a friend of mine from the Bay area.  Hogan! Beyond that, I heard Harbor Rat Sam Mackie & Santa Cruzer Greg Ford tied for third.

So, while these guys were digging the stellar downwind conditions, I did the one thing I can still do, albeit slowly:  I went on a walk.

More Mesa.

The Good Land.

This guy wasn't budging for anyone.  He thought he was camouflaged.

And this guy was just giving me stink eye.

I was a curiosity to the animals.  This Dragonfly buzzed me a few times.

Goose fly by.  Apparently the surf wasn't sufficient for the geese today.
(see post just before this one)

Couple of flying rats (also known as pigeons).

I almost stepped on this guy. 

On the walk back, the swallows started buzzing right by me.

 Well, it's not quite paddling or surfing, but I'll be back.

Animated Penguins or Real Geese?

I'll go with real geese.



Video courtesy my friend in France, Mederic.

Welcome to My Pissed Off Party

An Emphatic No.

Update on the 'Deja Vu All Over Again' post:  My back is doing better-ish and I'm taking a lot of drugs right now to keep the pain down and the stoke up, but just got word from the doc about the Akolu race this weekend:  "Emphatically no, Steve."

I might start paddling again some time next week.  I can only hope.

In the meantime, I leave you with two thoughts:

1.  A Random Peppering.

This had me laughing hysterically -- and I don't think it was because of the drugs, although you might disagree:




2.  Sally Can't Dance.  [If you know what I'm referring to, it means you're at least 35 years old.]

I recently saw a board which impressed me a great deal.  The back story here is that I've often thought a P-40 Warhawk style shark's mouth would look cool on a board.  Not that I'm a war monger kind of person.  That I ain't.  However, it just looks really cool to me.  (Maybe I watched that Robert Conrad show Blacksheep Squadron a bit too much as a kid.  Whoa, a second old guy reference -- my apologies.) I'm referring to this:

The problem is, up until last Tuesday I had never seen it done right.  Whenever I'd seen it attempted, it usually looked far too 'forced' or just drawn plain old wrong.  Then I saw this one the other night:

Not sure who's board it was, but this is impressive.  I don't think I can pull this off anymore, but to the owner of this board I must say:  Well done.


Here's to getting healthy soon!