A New Lava Lava

     I think (my first mistake-thinking)  if I don't get my feet back in salty water, I'm dead. (maki ) I've
been on dry land far to long!  My spiritual self is not being shared and can not survive out of life sustaining
water (salty) but another three months.  I don't mind death!  What I do mind is being alive with death.  When I am sailing I am moving and responding to a living Ocean.  When I am surfing I am one with a vibration or a ripple that is in motion.  When I'm sitting on my butt I'm bored.  I can only paddle my canoe so far!
     A fart is only one's body speaking in tongues!  Even silent it speaks in a language understood by whoever is in the room that has a nose!  When it makes sound an ear hears a b flat or is it sharp?  Actually what it is saying is, "It escapes me"!  People need interpreters to understand tongues!  I like the hawaiian word," Kukai"!  Otherwise shi-shi on it!  There has to be a boat going somewhere. PLEASE!!! Take me with you....I can sail butt I can't sit.........................

Birth of a human into salt water ocean and character!

         In  1961 I shifted from skim boarding to riding ocean waves.  It was my dads fault.!   He taught
me how to hunt and fish.  Things are what parents did to their children in that day, stage and time!  We surf
fished.  Sand spiked and with a very heavy lead sinker with big hooks that we were able to throw into a surf beach break!  Far out!!  Caught our dinner!
          I loved doing that with my dad and yearly, " the Grunion Run", !  Our family were inland people.  Valley Animals.  I was so young, I didn't know that if we lived inland we were considered outsiders.  I was to young to know what outsiders were?  However, I wasn't such a noviscote to be unaware that if there was a group of outsiders than there must be a group of insiders!
        So, what or who determines the inside and is it possible that anyone allowed a choice would choose to be on the outside, looking in?  Hard to believe, isn't it?
        What fun I had living in Kansas?  Go figure.  Bottom line.  There is no surf in Kansas.  California doesn't have very good waves either, on the best of days.  What I learned is, if you want something, go out and get it.  If I named all the breaks that I have surfed and all the people I have met in many countries surfing said breaks with, you would have no choice but to call me a liar! 
         I thought for a minute I had dedicated my life to surfing!  I was right but I realized later that surfing also involves sailing.  That is where and when I finally met a woman I loved and love. She is my wife. She can sail and that is more important to me than surfing. I met here in Cairns . Australia. She is from New Zealand. When it started to get crowded I thought I might try something else.  Well, it evolved into a life-style.  Sailing.  I sailed so far and so many miles that I finally met my wife.  She is a fine sailor and my friend.  We have been together now for quite a few years and in several countries. 
         I wonder what is around the corner?   I think I have one more trip left in me?  Not sure.  I am weary
because I am growing tired of bullshit on every level.  It is a sad thing but it is on every level and that would be liars!   Do you understand?

Today in Hanalei, Kauai. Not Yesterday

Dated and filed.  I don't want to go home.  Why should I?  I live on a river. I can take the American, to the Sacramento, to San Francisco, to Hawaii and points unknown!   Guess where I am?  Obviously I'm not in Hawaii or New Zealand!  Nor will I be anytime soon!  I'm cool where I are.  An old friend that is young wrote what is below.  If I was there I would be surfing waves that are still unimportant to people who treasure being on camera.  To me a true surfer is invisible, kind of like God. or the wind.  The only reason we know that wind exists is by what it effects.  I feel it on my skin and it moves my hair but I can't see it with my eyes. David, in the Bible wrote, " Though I walk through the valley OF THE SHADOW of death, I shall fear no evil!   Well crowds on waves on Kauai are like ideas!  Many are meaningless and even more just clutter what is beautiful by it's being
      I have many friends on Kauai, who not only know me but love me.  The few I have here that are still alive, I have had to make.  This is a sad thing. The river that runs to the sea replenishes itself.  I am comfortable.  This is important.
show details Dec 22 (6 days ago)



Is it "have I lived too long", or "have I lived to long----for a little surf and satisfaction"? Probably the latter. Yup-- I'm glad I didn't plant my ass in Hanalei, tho I'd have gotten lots of days slipping out between the cracks, it's still discouraging to show up at Middles at 7AM these days only to feel blessed to get the last spot in the parking lot (if the surf isn't good, that is-- if it's good you missed parking by an hour.) Forget Black Pot-- you gotta park at the pavilion and walk to the pier. Women and children--2 more generations-- too dumb to lay-down geezers (you lookin' at me????), and the horde of 20-somethings hoping for that cover shot, not to mention the fleet of strokers on 10' stand up boards, acting like Laird only in their ability to catch every smallest ripple from beyond Impossibles thru the pier. I'm driven to the thought that 99% of surfing has not much to do with riding perfection-- the drive/check/wax-up/paddle-out/duck-dive/sit there/ find your take-off spot/stroke-in/ fade or bottom turn are all pretty much the same whether it's 8' west swell Hanalei or 8" on-shore "Behind-the-Golf-Course." Then there's a few seconds of delight or terror, depending on how far behind the peak you are, tempered by how on or offshore the wind is and how many others have the same idea you do.....and then it's over and you are back to step 3 of the 12 step--"Paddle back out & try again." Yup-- to each his own, but at the end of the day I usually get a few good-uns around here, with a 10 minute drive and a lot less expended testosterone as opposed to an hour drive for a few good'uns and a whole lot of frustration. The last time I surfed Middles-- 6' & I waited out the back on my 7'2" for half an hour, dodging long boarders & standups. Finally took off on a beaut, only to get jumped & stuffed behind the bowl by a life-guard (and friend--a drummer who's gigged with us, for cryin' out loud!) riding a 9'0" on his coffee break. "Sorry 'bout that," he grins-- "You waited a long time for that one." I just paddled in. "You're welcome, asshole----" Later-- J

November 11th. 1967

        Oh, how wonderful.  A long airplane ride over a vast ocean.  A big ocean.  The Pacific Ocean.
I am 19.  I have lived in San Clemente and worked at the brand spanking new , San One'fre Nuclear reactor.  Checked out Mexico after my friend got us fired for stealing tools.  We were the first two janitors.
He was the thief.  I was/am an asshole.
        All I ever wanted was to ride very good waves.  Southern California has some real fun waves.  Kansas, Arkansas, Arizona, Wyoming don't have an ocean but they do or did have some very fine missle silos.
My dad took me to these places so that are family could live the " American Dream".  My dream was to surf
waves and enjoy a life on or near a beach.  My dad's idea was to protect our country by making me a local in places where I didn't get to have a name.  I didn't realize how important it was at the time to have an incredable amount of armed Titon Two nuclear warhead missles aimed at our enemies!  I sure do now.
         The heck with surfing and not having a name!  I'm proud to say I went to school with a guy, Jim Ryan,
from Witchata East, Kansas who fell down in the Olympics.  Topeka was very flat also.  Kansas is a place that looks like an ocean if you look at a lot of grain blowing in the wind.  And have an active imagination.
When it snows and freezes don't look for a hill to ride a tobaggon, sled or ski's!  Guess why?
          Cheyenne Wyoming is where I discovered cold!  Not cold like surfing Santa Cruz but so cold that when I spit my spittle broke into pieces when it hit the ground.  40 degrees below.  No surf but the pinball machine and bowling tried to replace my dreams of a perfect wave with me as a masterful rider and failed
horribly.  Frontier Days was great and Jack-a-lopes are fine.  I'm sure no one ever knew my name.  I was called," California ".
          Arizona and Arkansas have nothing in common.  Both states start with an A.  I mean nothing.
I've never met anyone except my sister and brother who have lived in both these states.  Why would you?
My father is buried in Tucson.  Maybe I should exume mother, who is buried in California, and re-bury her next to dad.  The weather is better in Arizona and they should be together.  The only surf in Arizona is a surf machine they built.  In Tucson every high school is named after Southern California surf towns.  It's kind of spooky!
          I land in Honolulu, Hawaii!  Can you smell the air?  Frangipane (plumaria) and an undefinable frangrance!  Youth freed without restraint for the very first time!  Unlimited possibillities.  To taste, touch
and feel a dream long awaited for.  And in the doing, discovery of myself while exploring an island and it's people.  All these years later, I still am discovering myself while exploring an island and it's people 
         All I ever wanted to be is a surfer.  I didn't plan to own a restaurant in Hanalei, Kauai. But we
did.  When I say we, I mean Jeff, his wife Sandy(my sister) and me.  Ralph Young (my friend) also
was our partner.  Equals and friends to this day.  Who would have thought that it was a possibillity that one could actually own
a resturant located in Hanalei Bay?  I don't care who speaks about all the places on Earth!  Hanalei is not only the finest wave I've ever seen or surfed but is also the most beautiful place on Earth. It might just be a memory.  Time has a way of changing what we used to know.  Tourism has a way of re-defining landscapes
in Hawaii!  Maybe the Big Island of Australia is my next Port-of-Call!  Newcastle, New South Wales -latitude 21 south!.............Maco nuts and Kona coffee, yea! 

A rock to return to

I am caught inside but so is Jim Pollock and Ambrose Curry! Does that make it better? No! It makes it more problematic! Hanalei Bay is a wave with nuances depending on the swell direction, tide and what the originater of the swells is capable of generating. If it is a giant northern swell from a storm in the Aluetians maybe we move over to " The Left's In The Center Of The Bay "! No fun getting caught inside there either! When you are surfing Hanalei 6' to 8' feet with an occasional 10-12' it is a harry adventure! So ambrose, jim and I catch 6 waves apiece while Ralph Young and Rick Mc Duff and more are sitting and waiting and waiting and sometimes waiting even longer! We aren't! But here is the price you pay! When an outside set announces itself you can feel it before you see it. You begin to paddle frantically as you watch a mountain shape itself before your very eyes. You decide that you can make it over the first one, knowing there is another and another behind the visual. So what are your choices? It is way to late to buy a bigger board! Do I want to go over the falls with a board cord tied to my leg? Is it time to sing a CSN and Y song, " rejoice, rejoice, you have no choice, but to carry on!!!! Good-bye Jim! He didn't make the first big wave! Damn close! " Good from far, but far from good! Shit, I didn't make the 2nd biggie and almost died being held under water with my board crushing me, holding me by the pressure of the force of water on the bottom of the ocean's floor until I almost was forced to inhale salt water. Almost-again! Ambrose made it outside of that particular series of mixed size waves. But I saw him take off on a wave I didn't think he could make. He made the take-off and bottom turn and was driving towards me when it closed. I think my view was better than his. I watched the wave pass him so that he was going faster than the board he was riding was designed for. He didn't make it but he was tubular for an extremely long time, so long that I, watching my friend, forgot where I was an got sucked over the falls at intersections. It's really shallow there. Sometimes it is more fun watching a friend get the ultimate ride and you getting sucked over the falls is a price worth paying. We all have gone on to surf another day. I think I need to return to a rock, " The Jewell of the Pacific", The Garden Isle, Kauai No ka Oi!!! Aloha pumehana

surfing Hanalei

River water is cold and fresh. Papio later ulua do the fresh water salt water thing. It is a long way to impossibles. I don't know why it is called that I lied. (to you). Why is innersections not enter sections? Actually certain swell directions make it enter sections! But when Hanalei connects it is one of the most powerful and longest rides that exist anywhere. I'm a goofy-foot. Like Gerry Lopez only he has always been a lot smoother than me. I always loved his style. Carlos Andrade is a smooth goofy-foot also. Beaver( Jim Demoral), David Abbott( abaldo)and Tim McKenna could handle also. Jim pollack, Ambrose Curry and myself loved inside Hanalei! While Ralph Young and Rick McGruff (Mc Duff) ( best steak cooker that ever lived)would wait and wait( righteously so) us guys would be ripping the 6 to 8 footers until the big weinee would catch us inside and over the falls at least two of us would go!And there is Ralph on the wave of the day! So what we were strong! In the day, before whore cords, it would not be unusual to swim for your board five times. I loved getting older and wiser. It got to a point where we were getting boats. Ralph would motor out and drop a pick with four of his friends. Save the long paddle! The looks one got if one was lucky enough to be in the boat! Surfing changed immensely when board cords announced their pressence. At Hanalei, just to paddle out for a novice surfer was an event. When a novice lost his board at " The Bay", you simply didn't see him again. Long paddle, long swim. It's funny looking back, remembering the reef walk, or back doors, or full swim because your board was in the channel on it's way to Wainiha or Niihau!!! Hanalei is still there. When it connects through the bowl almost to the pier your legs are shaking bra! It is a long ride doing different things. One thing that always got to me though! You make this incredible take-off, you are screaming through sections closing out but just enough to reach and stretch reach the bowl and Joe Bogest or someone like him takes off in front of you. Why didn't I kick out?Because I always wanted to shoot the pier! Just joking. I've sailed half way around the world. Hanalei is still the prettiest place and the overall greatest wave I've ever seen. I've seen Joey carve at twenty! Rusty Miller and mike Doyle were there. So was Gary Fodor and Mike Mc Clellen. So was Jimmy Lucas, Jeff Hay,Leon Thomkins,David Abbott,Bubby Yarbouro, Robbie Bryson, Coy Ardledge, Hila monster ( Randy Mills) John McCelgan ( frog)and more!!!! I've surfed Sunset Oahu, Hanalua Maui, and Hanalei Kauai. Which do you favor? Aloha no ka ko