Surf the web

It has been about a week since I last went surfing, mostly due to the fact that it has been flat, which pretty much sucks. When there is a swell you ride it, but when there is no swell what can you do?

Anyway, the US Open of Surfing is going on down in Huntington Beach this week. I went down today and will probably get press credentials so I can write a story on the streaming technology they are using to stream the event over the Internet.

Isn't the Internet cool? Everyday it really makes me be thankful that such an invention enables a lot of folks to do a lot of things. It brings people together in some respects, while for others, it makes folks money. It is truly a commerce machine. You can communicate with people all over the world, email pics and even watch porn straight from your computer.

One of the coolest sites on the Internet is Surfline.com. Yep, it is a site set up with webcams at some prime surf spots in the United States and select spots around the world. You can check the surf to see if its any good at your local break, and you can check it in a place like South Shore Hawaii, which streams video of Bowls, my former stomping ground when I lived there back in 2000. I've seen Bowls absolutely going off and just wished that we didn't move back to California. Surfline.com is one of the few subscription based sites that might be worth the money. It was free back in 2000 but today they charge a fee to see the live streams. But they do offer a written report and a still image of your favorite surf spot, as well as a wealth of information regarding surf, weather buoys, swell direction, tides, etc.

I should have become a marine biologist, that way I could be in the water all the time. I remember back in the early 1980s, there was a story in Surfer magazine written by a marine biologist who had a job studying the reefs of the Philippines. Pollution impacts as well as dynamite fishing, that sort of thing I think. The guy got to travel all over the Phils for two years or so, and he happened to be a surfer. Imagine, being able to have a job like that. I could travel all over the country and surf some of the killer breaks they write about in the surf magazines. I had one of my friend's over for dinner the opther night. He has surfed all over the place, Panama, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Tahiti, but he wants to surf Cloud 9 in Catanduanes. He is married to a half Filipina/half German American girl who was my former co-worker. We were talking about Cloud 9, and I was telling him how the break was named after a Philippine chocolate bar. Those candy bars are surprisingly good for Philippine candy, actually, that is one of the things that I ask my aunt to bring me when she visits, that and Bench and FHM Philippines. The thing is the last FHM mag that she brought had Halle Berry on the cover, and Halle just doesn't do it for me. I really wanted to see a filipina on the cover, but WTF. No worries. I'd trade a box of Nestle Whites for a box of Cloud 9's any day.

My auntie Jacqueline is finally getting married. She has been dating her fiance for more than 10 years, and finally they are getting married. The guy is 50 and according to my mom, he has asked her to marry him many times over the years and she had said no too many times. I wonder what spurred her to say yes. My mom didn't approve of him when she first met him (long hair in a pontytail, leather jacket), and Jacq I think took it personally so she never brought him around. ver the last 10+ years they have been dating, Anthony has probably been to a handful of family gatherings. Seriously. Jacq is the half sister of my mom, and I guess she didn't want to disappoint her. Me? I always did my own thing, regardless of what my mother said. I was always opposed to her "meddling" but that is my mom, and her "meddling" didn't change Jacq's mind, she is marrying him. The wedding will take place on the Big Island, at the Hilton Waikaloa Village in August. So I am happy we are going back to Hawaii, if at least for a vacation. After the Big Island, we are going to O'ahu and will stay in our house in Manoa for a week. Jodi is worried about the tenant who rents my portion of the house, but WTF, he is a tenant, and if he wants to move out, he can. Then we can double the rent. I am fully looking forward to Hawaii. I just hope there is a swell when I am there. I have a couple of boards there. I've got like four boards there, five boards in my garage, and I've got another board (hopefully) at my aunt's house in the Philippines. That thing is ancient. But the last time I rode it, it worked. I just didn't get barreled.