3D Fathers Day Solstice Skate

What better way to celebrate the longest day of the year than with a Fathers Day Summer Solstice Skate! This was my first fathers day without my Dad. And I was a little extra sad because Dad always got so excited about the Solstice. He loved the longest day (well day light) of the year. I needed something to cheer me up. So I went Skating with Eli and his stepson Steven -:]

Here is Steven working on his hospital flip. I think there is a varial flip in there as well.

The stereo is a little out of sync but it mostly works. I need to bring a better video rig next time.

Here I am doing a frontside air. I needed to do some flying in honor of Dad -:]


I tried to get my frontside on video but I guess the pressure got to me because I didn't quite make it. Still the air is pretty clean and I think the video is kind of funny.


I like this picture because you can tell it's not a 2 foot section I'm airing in.

I did land this one and the air in the first pic -:]
Now it's time to start adding some height!

Sick Sea Lion(s) -:[

Some friends (Eli and Todd) and I were meeting up to surf this morning. I stopped at one spot around 5:30 am to check it and it was looking pretty bad so I called Eli who was driving buy another spot that I thought might be good (it was) and said he should stop there instead of meeting up with me since where I was sucked. Then I left to check another spot on my way to meet up with Eli and Todd. When I was checking the other spot Eli called and said there was a sea lion on the rocks that looked sick and asked if I had the Marine Mammal Rescue number. He thought I had it because two weeks ago we saw another sick sea lion and I called the Marine Mammal Rescue. I gave him the number so he could call it in. When I got there this little guy was laying on the rocks not looking so good.


He was looking pretty sad but was still kicking and managed to keep an eye on everyone checking him out.


Right as we finished up surfing and got out of the water one of the local Marine Mammal Rescue people showed up to get the little guy. She had a BIG net and that got him all excited but not that much. She caught him with very little effort.

Click on the image to see it bigger (works with all the images)

And here is the hero of the day, Eli, helping her get him to her truck for transport.


Poor little guy stuck in jail. I hope he pulls through.

So this is the 2nd sick sea lion pup we have seen in two weeks. When I called the first one in the guy I talked to said there have been a lot of sick sea lion pups this year. He said they think the sea lions are having a hard time finding food. The Marine rescue lady was telling Eli the same thing. Bummer.

Update: Here is an article about the current increase in sick sea lions.

Nice flip trick

Shot this last week at Menlo Park. This guy (don't know his name) was there playing S.K.A.T.E. with a couple of my friends.

Whale Tale

Went out surfing with some friends Wednesday morning before work at Kelly Ave in Half Moon Bay. The waves were so-so. A few fun waves but nothing to exciting going on. I was paddling back out after catching a little ride and one friend, Adam, was pointing at our other friend, Ed, who was 20-30 yards away and I thought I heard Adam say, "whale".

I paddle over to him and ask, "Did you say whale?"

He said, "Yeah, right over by Ed."

I looked over and sure enough there as a whale about 20 feet from Ed but a little closer to shore than we were. As we watched it looked like there were two of them, a bigger one and a smaller one. We figured it was probably a mother and calf. Oh and by smaller it was still huge. The part we saw was 15ish feet of it's back which probably put it in the 20+ foot range and the other one was bigger. They ended up swimming around us keeping about 20-3o yards away gently surfacing and blowing out of their spouts but not really splashing much. Once they were around us the moved in closer to shore again and seemed to keep heading up the beach. I think as we were leaving they swam back by but further out looking like they were heading back out to sea.

To top it off the night before I was thinking about taking one of my water proof cameras out but decided I would rather focus on surfing which is why there are no pictures of whales but I figured I had to post this story.

I have never seen a whale before let alone been sitting in the water right by them. It was crazy cool. Probably the coolest things I have ever seen.

I Heart Pads!

So here is what happened to my knee pad after failing to stick a frontside air.

Notice the plastic shards.

Take a closer look. Pretty right?


Now here is what my leg looked after taking the pad off.

I have a big fat scab on my knee now and that was with two inch pads! I don't want to think about what my knee would have looked like without pads -:\

Skate Junk

I almost grabbed this stuff. Then I figured I already have enough skate junk of my own.

I actually saw it last week. When we walked by the same place this week the wheels and truck were still there. Funny because those are the things that seemed most useful. The deck was for sure soggy and just about worthless. Diffrent stroks for diffrent folks I guess.

Skate Week

My friend Mike who I have been skating with since 9th grade, some 23ish years now, was in town this past week. We mostly skated and took pictures and video of skating.

Here is Mike busting an ollie over a recycle bin at the Menlo Park Skate Park.


And here he is holding on to the picture frame to help him land this rail slide.


Here is Steven busting an ollie over the same recycle bin.


At the Pacifica Skate Park we met this kid named Shane who was tearing it up. That's Mike taking a picture.


Shane kept doing these big ollies out of the bowl and onto this platform. He was pulling all kinds of grabs and 180s and stuff.


You can see how big the ollie is better from this angle.


At Menlo Park there was a biker pulling some nice airs.


I like this shot a lot but it's not as 3d as the first one of him.


More pictures and probably some video coming soon.