Archive for the 'ocean' Category
Port Wine Cheese Board
Published May 8, 2013 Art , Food & Drink , ocean , Surf 1 CommentTags: port wine cheese, surfboards, Surfer Magazine
Humans Kill 11,417 Sharks Per Hour For Soup
Published May 1, 2013 ocean 2 CommentsTags: Infographic, shark finning
A statistic so disturbing it takes eight graphics to compile just one infographic. Finning’s for fools.
Originally posted on For All The Ocean Lovers, seen by me on Beer and Pork.
Ocean Parkway Is Open
Published April 25, 2013 long island , ocean Leave a CommentTags: Ocean Parkway, superstorm sandy
I heard from a Babylon Town employee that Ocean Parkway is set to reopen today. The parkway has been under construction since early November following Superstorm Sandy, but all of that looks to be behind us now. We should be able to look forward to having two lanes of traffic moving in BOTH directions.
Frederick Knob To The Pacific Ocean
Published April 23, 2013 Frederick Knob , ocean , san francisco Leave a CommentTags: Frederick Knob, frederick street, ocean beach
The elevations in this town are crazy. Walk 20 seconds and you’re 50 ft higher from where you just were. On a clear day – a really clear day – you can see the Pacific Ocean from the top of Frederick Knob where it meets Buena Vista Park.
Rebuilding Ocean Parkway Post Sandy
Published April 19, 2013 long island , ocean Leave a CommentTags: Ocean Parkway, superstorm sandy
Pre-Sandy
Post Sandy
Ocean Parkway was damaged during Superstorm Sandy. To the point where most of south side has been closed. It’s been a slow go in the recovery process – homeowners waiting for insurance checks that just don’t seem to becoming and many of the beaches are simply “closed.”
But for the past few months they have been working 24 hours a day six days a week to repair and reopen Ocean Parkway and Robert Moses State Park. Large earth moving trucks are transporting sand from Cedar Beach all along the damaged areas of the beach. The new dune is now an impressive 18′ wide wall of sand. Top soil, beach grass, and shrubs are being planted to help sure up the dunes.
It’s great to see this progress.
Waves On A Plane
Published March 31, 2013 ocean , photography , Surf Leave a CommentTags: airplane photos, surf photos
This photo was taken from the middle seat of a northbound plane somewhere over San Diego and the Pacific Ocean.
Posing For Tourists At Ocean Beach
Published November 3, 2012 ocean , san francisco , Surf 1 CommentTags: ocean beach, surfing, tourist photos
I was surfing at Ocean Beach today, and it was good. I surfed for just over an hour and came in when I figured the drift pulled me up the beach enough. Ciji drove down with me and was enjoying the sunny day on a blanket down the beach where I first paddled out, so I had a little walk ahead of me to make it back to her.
Today was one of those days at Ocean Beach where you didn’t feel like you were at Ocean Beach. The sun was out. There wasn’t any wind, and the waves were cracking.
Sun is a huge variable when surfing Ocean Beach. Paddle outs seem less of a challenge when the sky’s blue. Bigger waves seem more makable. It was one of those days.
After a fun surf I had a big smile on my face as I made my way down the beach towards Ciji. I walked passed a group of ten or so middle-aged Asian women who were taking photos of the ocean like they’ve never seen it before. They all seemed just about as happy as I was.
As I got closer to the group of women, they turned their cameras on me. Dripping wet and holding a surfboard I probably looked pretty “California” to them.
One of the ladies ran directly in front of me and snapped a photo. She was maybe two feet away from me. I stopped. The smile on my face never went away, and I decided to acknowledge the impromptu but welcomed photo shoot by throwing up a peace sign with my hand.
Pandemonium.
It was as if the peace sign was an invitation for a full fledged photo shoot. Everyone of the women shrieked with joy when I stopped and made the peace sign.
Immediately I was surrounded by the entire group as one person took turns playing photographer while the other women gathered behind me. I stood with my surfboard holding a peace sign in the air for several clicks of the camera.
I asked the women where they were visiting from and was told China as they looked down at the screen of their cameras, reviewing the photos they just took with me.
I thanked them for bringing the nice weather to San Francisco during their trip, waved goodbye and made my way on down the beach.
Not a bad way to cap off a nice day in the ocean. I only wish I had one of the photos.
Ice Tubes Gets Landlocked
Published August 8, 2012 Man Skills , ocean 2 CommentsTags: fremont, landlocked states, nebraska, omaha
I’m done with the ocean. I’m over the mountains. I’m ready for midwest living. Give me the wide open spaces, the corn fields and the college football.
Well, I’m not moving anywhere just yet, but I have always wondered if I could handle life in middle America. Could I flip my life completely around and switch from what I’ve become accustomed to? Could I give up living on an island…
This past weekend I was in Fremont, Nebraska, about 40 minutes from Omaha. I got a close look at what life would be like if I were landlocked. For one weekend it felt good. I’ve been to cities where the downtown area is empty. Where no one actually lives, but commutes there just for work. Omaha might be a small city, but it is far from being a lost city.
The Old Market neighborhood is small, but it was full of life and had a fun youthful feel, with shops, bars, and restaurants. They recently built a ballpark northwest of Old Market that is home to the college word series. I’m told it’s were they hold most of the summer concerts as well. My point is, Omaha is small but not dead.
The real question is, can a University of Nebraska football season replace the Atlantic ocean? Would it be a well-rounded life? A life with new challenges, finding new ways to spend time, or are some things simply not worth trying to live without?
If you want, you can stand in two states at one time.
Urban Crabbing
Published July 30, 2012 ocean , san francisco Leave a CommentTags: crabbing, ferry building
Saw these two kids emptying their haul of crab by the ferry building and thought it was a kodak moment. There were a bunch more crabs on the cement before I took this picture, as I was told they needed to be four inches in length to keep, which more than half weren’t. One of the kids was wearing white socks and flip flops. About one mile away the Giants were about to play the Mets. This is crabbing in San Francisco.
Lonely Clam, A Custom Red Cedar Handplane
Published July 13, 2012 Art , long island , ocean , Surf Leave a CommentTags: wooden hand planes
Handplanes are all over my favorite surf blogs right now, including the Tubes. I’ve been seeing them so often I just couldn’t resist trying to shape one myself. Being a man of many on-going art projects, I had an extra piece of rough cut western red cedar in my bedroom waiting to become a handplane.
A handplane is just like a mini surfboard. Just no fins, right? That’s how I looked at this project. Draw a template like you were making a surfboard for your hand.
I channeled out the bottom to make up for the lack of fins, and finished the handplane by applying wood stain and tung oil. We’re calling this model the “Lonely Clam.”
Now I can’t say exactly what a “good” handplane feels like or how it should handle in the water, but I got in a sunset body surf session with the Lonely Clam yesterday and had a blast. Without question, you’re gonna enjoy body surfing a lot more with a hand plane.
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