It Only Hurts When You Laugh Wednesday Surf & Culture Report
Our first photo is of the Professor squeezing some juice out of this little corner, last Saturday. He was looking pretty loose compared to this morning, when he took off on a ledging left, lost his board, then watched it come back up (as he was headed down) and bat him in the chest. Fortunately, there was no coronary damage due to the small size of the Professor's heart, however he did break two ribs. Doc says: "No surfing for a month." Professor says: "How about two weeks?" Photo #2 is Kevin Ginther farther down the line on that long left he sliced up - also on Saturday...
A beautiful clear morning, with 25 miles visibility. Winds turned onshore early at 3.7kts, leaving a definite tack on the surface to mingle with the flotsam and jetsam. The air was a chilly 50.5° and the water was likewise chilly at 56.5°. High tide was at 9:29am +3.7' and low tide will be at 2:26pm +1.6'. The buoy is reading a much diminished west swell out of 261° at 3.3'. It was about 3' to 5' this morning, but snappy!
Our third photo is a shot taken yesterday as this set bridged the jetty and actually broke better on the Sapphire side than it did on Topaz. This was the second set we saw like this. We didn't have our camera for the first one and the whole thing peaked before the jetty, so you could'a rode it either way. Always carry your camera!
From SeaWolf...
The following is a blog post from my friend Seth Godin, forward thinker, author, business guru.
Three months ago I wrote about farming and hunting. It seems, though, that the growth industry of our generation is surfing.
Talk to surfers and they'll explain that the entire sport comes down to the hunt for that blissful moment that combines three unstable elements in combination: the wave is just a little too big to handle, the board is going just a little too fast, and the ride could end at any moment.
This makes for a great sport (for some people, anyway) but until recently, it wasn't much of a career path. (aside: Aimless web surfing is a waste of time, and that's not the sort of surfing I'm referring to). That feeling of freedom and risk in equal measure was difficult to find at work, so we sought it out on the slopes or the ocean.
Once we figured out how to get thrills from waves, we could switch to snow, or to stand up paddling, or kiteboarding. Different terrain, same cycle.
More people, though, are finding a way to surf and get paid for it. Freelance projects, joint ventures, entrepreneurial startups are all paying off for people who are hooked on this feeling of plan, launch, cowabunga, repeat. Each time you do it, you get to take on a bigger project, a bigger wave. The cost of wiping out is low (if you plan for it) and so you can do it again and again. You don't even have to be solo... now there are teams and corporations that seek out people who want to surf their way through fundraising or product development or customer delight.
We see successful musicians and writers do this all the time. Now, though, it's not unusual to watch someone surf in their development of shareware, or in the videos they post online or risks they take in their personal blog.
So many of the conversations I have every day could easily be replaced with, "so, where's the next wave? Tell me about your last one..."
"When the surf breaks, we'll fix it..."
The Professor!!
