There must be a tool for that

This afternoon, after my post surf session siesta, I found

myself sitting outside at a friends house with a few others

hanging out, talking about the the nothing in particular.

As is usually the case in situations like these topics came

and went in no particular order, often blending one into 

another in a stream of consciousness manner. 

Elliot had spent part of his day removing grout from tile. 

He was raving about how he'd hit upon a tool and system that

seemed to work really well.  After a few minutes of  us

teasing him as he described how he did it, Scott smiled and 

with a wink announced sheepishly "there is actually a power

tool for that...could have made your job much easier".

Leon talked about a new gadget that he was installing

to boost a mobile phone signal.  It's an essential

tool for him.  He loves to pace when he's on the phone

and lives in a place where when he paces he looses the

signal and call.

I described a problem I was having with a screw that

holds the cross bar in place on my car roof rack.  I've

tried all sorts of tools to hold the thing in place, spent

hours on it before giving up.  My problem became

a group challenge.  After a number of attempts using

surf wax to hold the back of the plate in place, Dave 

hit upon an idea.  We needed something that had a 90

degree bend that, with the help of the surf wax, could

secure the plate in place as the screw was aligned.

He rummaged through the garage and came out with a

saw.  A saw, a punch, a screw driver, some surf wax 2 

men actively working and 3 watching.

My roof rack is fixed!  There must be a tool that 

would have made the job easier but certainly not as

much fun or as memorable.

Footprints

When the air gets really cold the sand along the 

high tide line freezes.  When that happens there 

are no footprints on the frozen sand.  Sounds rather

obvious but I suspect there are lots of people for whom

 the idea of frozen sand is a novel concept.

As I walked along the beach today, on the hard frozen

sand, I got to thinking  a lot about footprints.  Much is written

these days about all sorts of footprints. Understanding the

"footprint" concept has become an important part of our

environmental awareness.  Do you know your carbon footprint,

your water footprint, the footprints of the clothes you wear or

items you consume? We need to at least understand the

concept and think about these footprints and their impact.

I saw a sign at that read "leave only footprints".  I know that

the sign was intended to urge  us not to leave our trash behind. 

Not a bad idea even in  the most general meaning of the word

trash,  but that sign got me thinking about footprints in yet

another way.  What footprints will you leave behind for your

children, grandchildren? My friend CJ Olivares likes to say he

wants to leave the world better than he found it. He take steps 

to do so, hopes to leave his own footprints.

What footprints are you making as you walk through your

life, what footprints will you be leaving behind? It's kind of

unusual and rare for the sand to be frozen like it was today.

It's really rare that we make no footprints.

Shifting Paradigms

I read an interesting piece earlier today.

The author, a dedicated 6'2" thruster devotee, was

commenting how he'd ridden a Campbell Brothers

Bonzer recently, and has become a "convert".  He'd

totally changed his perspective on  surfing, surfboards

and surfboard design.

He's not alone it seems.  After the false apocalypse

that was the death of Clark Foam,  many surfers  and

shapers have changed the way they look at their surfing,

their boards, and their mindsets. 

Some are trying to recreate old shapes out of new

materials, others adapting and improving upon

those old designs, while even others are going way back to

the past and reconnecting with surfing's roots.  Fish, quads,

bonzers, wood boards, epoxy, bamboo boards, a total shift

in wave riding equipment is taking place.

The piece made me think that we, as individuals and as 

a culture, need to change some of our perspectives, shift

our paradigms. Opening to new ways of thinking from the

past as well as looking at the future with an eye towards

how things can be different can help us get out of the

economic, environmental, and psychological state we seem

to be in these days.  

Some days you're just not supposed to

Some days I guess you are just not supposed to

do certain things.  You can't fight it or get too mad

about it.  About all you can do is go with it, accept

it, not obsess or ruminate, and try to laugh at it.

Today was just one of those days!

Thursday is, for me generally a very busy day.  It is

the one day that I have to leave the house early to

see patients in The Center for Pain Control.  The Center

is about a 30 minute drive.  I see patients there and consult

in the morning and than head to my own office to see

patients in the afternoon into the evening.  I'm a dummy,

Thursday is generally my late night.  Guess I figure if

I've got to be in early I may as well work late.  I know

it makes little sense but...

Strange how many swells we get on Thursday's.  Today was

a perfect example.  Most would agree that the surf has been

really poor here in NJ this winter.  In fact I can't remember

a worse winter.  It's also felt like a cold winter.  Well, this

morning at sunrise it was sunny and unseasonably warm, 

about 44 degrees, not bad for mid February.  The wind was

gentle and offshore and the surf in the chest to shoulder

range.  No surf for me today!  To add insult to injury today

my wife is leaving for 3 weeks in Puerto Rico and the surf

she'll encounter upon her arrival looks really good too.

Oh well, some days you're just not supposed to do certain

things.  Guess I wasn't supposed to surf today.  There will be

other days I'm sure.  No worries, no complaints!

Surf shops

I love the feature on Surfline (www.surfline.com) 

about surf shops.  In my view local surf shops are

unique and wonderful places.  That's especially true

I think in colder climates and in places where waves

are less consistent.

Today was a bit chilly and blustery here in NJ. It

wasn't frigid or anything like that but it wasn't the

kind of day you'd want to spend long hours outdoors.

Many of us, by mid February,  have been stuck inside

long enough. To add to the cabin fever feeling, this winter

hasn't had the most frequent or consistent surf. So

where do you go to connect with the surfing culture on

a day like today?  A local surf shop.

You can almost always count on running into someone

at the shop.  They aren't there necessarily to buy anything,

although they usually they end up with something. They

are there more to hang out, talk a bit, watch some of a new 

film, avoid the honey do list, and discuss the world.  Often

they bring their kids.  Today I encountered a 3 year old trying

to get a skateboard moving, arms held out in a classic pose.

Of course the munchkin was dressed like a miniature surf

rat with tiny Uggs, jeans, unkempt hair and all.

What a great way to kill some time.  Can't do that at Walmart

or Costco.  Support your local surf shop.  There are few places

like it.

Too much of a good thing

We had a really solid swell today, an offshore 

wind, and fairly mild temperatures.  Offshore

winds are usually a good thing but not when they

blow at about 30 mph sustained with gusts close

to 50 mph.  Too much of a good wind can knock a

swell down in no time.

Today's wind somehow got me to think that we,

as a society, just might be in the straights we are

in because we had too much of a good thing and

we weren't really mindful of the consequences. 

Too much cheap gas, too much plastic, too much

easy credit, too much consumerism, too much overall

gluttony is not a good thing.  As we face the new

challenges of today perhaps it is a good idea to ask

of ourselves just how much do I need?  How much is

enough to make me content?

Strong gusty offshore winds can serve to teach us

many lessons.  Sometimes too much of a good thing

isn't really a good thing.

Shades of Blue

This morning the sky was a beautiful clear blue.

The ocean, even with it's flatness, was yet another

shade of blue.  Despite the beauty of nature all around

me I was a different shade of blue.  The kind of blue

that comes with a sad reflective feeling.

I'm reading Thomas Friedman's book "Hot, Flat and Crowded".

It is a book that we all should be reading.  Unfortunately

the facts of our changed world, it's finite resources, and the

infinite demands of the earth's population as it grows, does

not present a very positive picture.  It doesn't bode well for

my grandkids.

 My mood was also coloredby a talk I watched given by

Charlie Moore of the Agalita Foundation.  Charlie is one of the

foremost authorities on plastics in the marine environment.

You can see that talk on the Jim Moriarty's blog at

www.surfrider.org. Please do the planet a favor and take the 

30 minutes to watch it.  One of the things that struck me was

a slide of a WWII victory poster. It's message was simple and 

all too relevant in this time of economic  and environmental crisis.

We'd do well to live by that message

today.  Conserve, walk to work, plant a garden, and don't waste

precious resources.  Our consumer based, afluenza ridden ways

are deadly.

Friedman's book, Charlie's talk, listening to rigid partisan

spokespeople on the Sunday news shows ridicule and criticize

those who don't agree with them is enough to make anyone blue.

As Charlie Moore and others are saying "shift happens".  We need

to learn from the past, change the tired old paradigms we use

to think about and solve problems.  My generation has contributed

to making a total mess out of things.  Let's all take action to change

the shade of blue that leads to despair and degradation.

 

Snow on the beach

Snow on the beach are 4 words that just shouldn't

go together.  Not the image most of us like to

hold in our minds eye as a fantasy.  Snow on the

beach is exactly what we got today here in NJ.  Thanks

to a coastal storm we got about 3-4 inches of snow

yesterday.  There was snow up to the high tide line.

If you have never seen snow on the beach you should!

In fact, today convinced me that I need to add photos to

some of these posts.  It's kind of neat to go to the beach

on a crystal clear morning and see snow.  I'll admit that

it's not my favorite beach sight but, what the heck.  As

one of the 40 something surf girls said "isn't it beautiful?"

It was in its' own way.

The beach and ocean offer up many moods and are full of

surprises...just like life.  Many moods and many surprises.

What helps keep us balanced is how we cope with these

moods, these surprises.  It's not the snow on the beach

that presents a problem or creates the mood, it's how

you look at the snow, how you think about it.  How do

you think about your problems - your snow?  How does

your snow impact your mood?

Oh yes, there were waves and a few hearty souls out surfing.

That's another tale for another day.