Mountain and Sea

NOTE: "Pictures are in reverse order from the description"

Spent the morning in Ojai.

Nice farmers market!

Noe eating "See" food in Antonio's Mexican Restaurant. Mmmm, mmmmm!!!!

Then we went to Point Mugu Beach to fish and paddlesurf. Didn't even get a bite - not one. I'm starting to think it wasn't meant to be...

The ocean facing the south was nice and flat today. Still had to watch your back to make sure a sneaker set didn't get you - especially when ferrying young ones around.

I had to bribe my kids to go out with me on the paddleboard... they obviously didn't get the ocean-phillic gene from me.

Methane

I've been able to paddle the new racing SUP twice now. Inaugural wetting was this past Thursday - with head high swell in the water, I did a south-north jetty run at Silver Strand beach (2 miles roundtrip).

This morning (Sunday) with waist high swell and a NE offshore breeze, I paddled from the south jetty, to the north jetty, then on to the rotunda of the Mandalay Bay hotel - then back to the south jetty (times per leg - :14, :26, :19, :12) for a total distance of 5.2 miles (not GPS, but goggle earth distance).

The new board is ridiculously fast! It is very stable and cuts through chop well. A completely different feel from the 11'6" Naish I've been distance paddling since November 2007.

And the pictures today are of my new favorite paddle - a Kialoa Methane. I've used this paddle in the surf and now for distance paddling and the 8" blade makes it easy to keep a higher cadence without aggravating my left elbow (which I have been battling golfer's elbow since last winter - I had the rowing machine at work set too high and I think I really hurt it on a working dive around the same time frame).

Great paddle!!!

Commitment

I got this picture off the Patagonia website (credit to the photographer who took it, not me).

I have sold my prone paddleboards after realizing that my physiology is not that of a long distance prone paddler (I should have realized that a long time ago - that paddle out to "Threes" in Waikiki never made me happy) and moved on to Stand Up Paddling.

But look carefully at the picture. This is proof that the human spirit is a very powerful force. Life can be tough, cruel, unfair - stick your own synonym in the sentence, but it's how you deal with the situation you have before you that is the measure of your perception of the gift of life.

I wax prophetic... Go Out There!!!!