July 8th, 2019

Back in the Biblio

I’ve been running around quite a bit lately and am stoked to be back in my favorite library in Newport Beach. This place is ridiculous. It has all these fancy Macs and PCs with any adobe app you might need and it’s all for free. Thank you rich people of Newport :).

Since my last post, I surfed Kelly’s wavepool, went fridgin’ in Alabama, visited New Orleans and the Gulf Shores, spent the 4th of July in bonkers Newport, then headed to Mexico for a Golden Road event/surf trip. So.. since quite a bit has happened, it’s time to write!

Kelly’s wavepool aka the Surf Ranch was insane. That’s all I have to say about that. Also, it’s wayyyyyyy harder to surf than I thought. And it was super cool to see yourself on the cameras after to see how good (or for me, average) you look on a wave. Definitely a humbling and surreal experience. Now I can’t wait for these things to go mainstream so I get get another crack at it and figure out some better form. More flow on a wave equates to more fun.

The fridge trip was pretty fun actually. The squad consisted of 10 dudes. I knew three of the guys and the others were random fridgers from Washington, Northern California, and Arizona. The work was brutal, but I noticed that we all seemed to be the most locked in/having the most fun when we were exerting the most effort. When I got into a nasty sweat under the humid skies of Tuscaloosa, Alabama nothing else mattered except for the moment and the task at hand. When we were doing tasks that did not require my full attention such as unboxing or walking a fridge to a room, my body hurt, my mind wandered, and I probably was working somewhat slow. After studying work (organizational psych) for a couple years, my brain continues to spin out about how humans WORK.

Probably my favorite part of the trip was walking into places with 10 guys that stick out like sore thumbs in the South. It’s amazing how different the culture is out there. So many people would just look at me and go , “Surfs up, dude” or something like that. We visited the Gulf Shores of Alabama and managed to spot one or two Gators which was rad. However, the South kicked my ass. I managed to amass over 100 bug bites. The rest of the boys got bit up pretty bad as well. New Orleans is loco. I didn’t know a place like that existed. Just shenanigans up and down the street. I only visited the touristy “Bourbon” street, but wow I had no clue! Also, Waffle House has my heart.

Newport on the 4th is hilarious. The streets are packed with intoxicated people. I walked through tons of drama, fun, and barbecues. The fourth provides an excellent display of people watching, that’s for sure.

I crossed the border on the 5th of July to attend a K-38 Lager sponsored party in Las Gaviotas. I had quite a bit of fun that day passing out beers to everybody, surfing, playing volleyball, and slammin tacos. The people on the beach that day ended up crushing 550 beers and I had to bust in to my personal stash to keep the party going! The next day, my buddy Kyle and I went hunting for waves (kinda failed), crushed more tacos and tortas, trespassed on an old pirate ship movie set and proceeded to get lost and eventually wait for 8 hours to get back across the border. An quick edit of this adventure should be coming out soon!

So what am I going to do now? Great question. We shall see ;)