Local Leucadian Family Need Our Help

My friend Judy Finkbiner sent this to me about one of our local families in need. If you know the Reynolds read on. They can use our help. 

Dear Family and Friends,

Many of you know that on Christmas night 38 year old Sabrina Reynolds, mother of two girls ages 3 and 7, suffered a brain hemorrhage on the left side of her brain. After 10 days in the hospital with multiple tests and medications administered, Sabrina was released believing this was a one time event that would be treated on an out patient basis. Well since last Friday, January 8, 2010, Sabrina has suffered several types of seizures and had another bleed in the front of her brain and is again in ICU for more testing to determine the course of treatment.

Since these two episodes happened in 2009 and now in 2010 Billy and Sabrina Reynolds have incurred two annual deductibles with a myriad of other co-payments. They are facing hospital bills in the 10's of thousands of dollars even with PPO insurance. We have set -up a bank account at California Community Bank (in The Lumberyard) at 851 South Coast Highway 101, Suite 300, Encinitas, CA 92024. This is a new community bank and Ann Lim, New Accounts Representative, has waived the fees for this bank account to accept donations for the family. The bank is open from 9-5 Monday through Thursday and 9-6 on Friday.

Many of you have asked how you can help and this is how....you may make a direct deposit into the account, checks made payable to Billy Reynolds, you do not even need the account number since the staff has been alerted that donations will be forthcoming. You may also mail checks to Billy Reynolds, Care of Judi or John Finkbiner, 140 Range Street, Encinitas, CA 92024 and we will deposit these checks into this account. CHECKS MUST BE PAYABLE TO WILLIAM REYNOLDS AND NOT SABRINA since the bank was unable to identify Sabrina in person.

The bank can also accept ACH or wire deposits please just contact me via e-mail for the wiring and ACH instructions.

Please consider making even the smallest donation since you will be helping a family in your own community. Billy has taught many of the children in this community as a History Teacher at Oak Crest Middle School. Sabrina has also touched many of your children's lives as the Treatment Coordinator at Rawlings & Hydo Orthodontics in Encinitas and Solana Beach.

This has been an unbelievable event that has occurred to this famliy and we appreciate any help you may give. Billy was a bit hesitant of "being
on the dole" so to speak and suggested that you could also help the family by purchasing his educational CD titled "Professor Presley" onwww.cdbaby.com/cd/professorpresley which is a rockin' way to learn historical facts. Also, you may purchase his band’s CD, Lo-Fi Nipple available at www.cdbaby.com/cd/lofinipple 

Thank you for your continued prayers and positive thoughts for Sabrina and please feel free to forward to other angels!

Sincerely

Judi and John Finkbiner

I know that money is tight after Christmas and that you probably already donated your grocery money to the Haiti disaster, but please help the Reynolds if you can. Thanks! 

Eli Mirandon

The other day when David and I were shooting, we met up with with Eli Mirandon .

Now I had met Eli before but I've never seen him surf in person. I had never seen him in his element. That day I got a lot of respect for the guy. David and I had watched all day as double to triple overhead sets came in with no one on them. All I thought all day was you couldn't pay me to paddle out.

Then comes Eli. He looks at it, suits up, paddles out and catches the most insane offshore, double overhead barrel. It was amazing to watch.

p. E

p. E

p.E

p. D

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 Photos by David Gray and Ed Lewis

David takes me under his wing. I get my first big swell shots.

David took me under his wing yesterday and brought me shooting with him. I have to admit I felt a bit intimidated. I wasn't sure how anything would turn out. Would the swell turn on? Would the lighting kill the shot? Would I choke? It all crossed my mind as I sat back and followed what David was doing.  He was a good teacher. Guiding me, showing me his tricks, keeping me entertained as the conditions looked iffy at best and then got me stoked as his persistence and knowledge turned us on to the perfect spot at the perfect time.

He knows what he is doing for sure and the two of us balanced each other out. He guided me on some techincal things and I pushed him to find some new angles. It worked out well. We had fun and David even scored a shot on surfline's feature of the swell.

All and all it was fun and I got some shots I liked. A bonus! Thanks David for showing me the ropes. I had a blast.

JP Marengo at it again.

Photo by Mike Delanzo

Photo by John Slavin

Murphy team rider JP Marengo, has been out doing his thing. Here are a few to get you pumped up for more swell tomorrow.

Some Waves Last Weekend!

Movie of the Week - Water Man - Only $6.99

I own this video and like it enough to have watched it a few times.  It's with Laird, Dave Kalama, the Malloy's, Machado and Jerry Lopez on a boat trip all trying different equipment. I like documentary style films so it was entertaining to watch and the crew is top notch.  Can't beat it at $6.99 if your looking for some new films to add to your library. www.thesurfnetwork.com

Stained Glass

I love digging through old photos. I found this one again and still like it. I took this shot in France a few years back in a church. The image is of a stained glass window. I started playing with long exposures on that trip and came away with some really cool shots. When you zoom in the light looks like hairs. Enjoy.

Cheryl Sorg's Art for a Cause

My friend and local artist Cheryl Sorg has been working on a project to help bring awareness to  Human Trafficking. After reading a book on the subject Cheryl was inspired to do what she can to help support organizations that stop and prevent these crimes. In an effort to raise awareness she is donating proceeds from the sale of her thumbprint works as well as organizing an auction that she will be selling thumbprints of celebrities that believe in the cause.

I encourage you to take a look at her site and learn more about her cause and the creative ways she is going about making a difference.

www.cherylsorg.com

Erik Pulls 501 sessions for last year (The neck tan proves it)

My good friend Erik Baldwin started a goal on the first of last year to clock 500 sessions by the time 2010 came around. I, like many of his friends, have been paying close attention over the year to his progress.

The road to glory is not always paved with glassy waves and shakas. Over the course of the year I watched (and was dragged out to many of them) as Erik paddled out into every condition imaginable. While the rest of us were home sleeping on that cold blown out morning, Erik was paddling out. After it dumped and the water was all brown, Erik was out.  While it was dumping Erik was out. When the rest of us where curled up in the fetal possition from that cold that was going around, Erik was out sneezing in the lineup. 


To reach this kind of goal you have to take the good with the bad, the crowded with the empty and double over head with the knee high slop.  You have to preservere.

When Erik gave me the final count I wasn’t really surprised he made it because I saw how hard he was working at it. But I was surely taken aback by the feat itself. 


To give you an idea, the average surfer maybe surfs twice a week or 104 times a year with 261 days off to do other things like work, be with the family, or go to sporting events.


I tend to surf a lot and if I'm lucky if I get to surf about 4 to 5 times a week. I maybe clock  200 session a year leaving me with 150 days or so that I don't surf.  Frankly, I can get surfed out at 4 to 5 session a week. 


Erik on the other hand only missed 7 days last year! That means 358 days last year Erik was in the water and just under half of those days he had either double or triple sessions. That is staggering. I would say that there are few other surfers in the world who have clocked that kind of water time. 


Erik, my friend, well done. You have lived the dream we all wish we could. Now, I beg you, take some time off and work on smoothing out that wetsuit tan. 

Road Trip - Three Rivers

At the end of the year I took a road trip, 5 hours north, to a little town called Three Rivers. It is just outside of Sequoia National Park at about 1500 feet elevation. The town is small. You can pass right through if you aren't paying attention. The town itself is quiet and comfortable, but the main attraction is the river and surrounding mountains.

I'm usually a beach vacation sort of guy. I tend to pick my destinations by the quality of waves. In this case a friend of mine will be moving soon and she will no longer own her home on the river. Before she leaves I wanted to see her place. Am I glad I did.

Three Rivers is a truly beautiful place. The views are fantastic and the energy is calm and relaxing. From my friends home you can see mountains, the river and wildlife.

Right out her back yard is the river. She told us stories about when the river gets big after a storm. This is about as low as it gets. The highest rocks are ten feet high and they get covered when the water is flowing. At night when the water is surging rocks collide and spark underwater. I'm told it looks like lightening in the river.

Kissing rocks.

4 foot Boulders scattered like pebbles. Evidence of the power of the river.

My friend's home is beautiful. Built into the side of the hill it looks out with one whole wall of windows to the beauty of the mountains and the river below.

One of the most stunning features of the river that I found was the moss. Its vibrant color contrasted the gray of the rocks.

Nature is amazing. Out of simple cracks spawn trees.

The area is abundant with water. On the side of a road you will find small untouched waterfall habitats.

A small walk brings unexpected things.

Like this Buddha statue complete with bark alter.

Leaves of green framed by stone walls of yesteryear.

Yellow colored moss covered fences.

The textures of the surroundings caught my eye more than once. Everywhere I looked I was inspired to take just one more photo.

Being a water person I couldn't help but long to play in the river. Although it was cold I found myself daydreaming and feeling myself gravitate to the motion and power of the river.

Going there I thought I was a beach person through and through, but I have to admit,  I did find myself wanting to stay longer and curious about the possibility of living in such a place. Even though my allegiance is to the ocean I do think that any place with nature and vast emptiness is a draw. At least until the North West Swells come.

The Talented Chris Del Moro

Such a nice weekend! I was out walking with my wife and took these sunset photos with my iPhone. Cell phone cameras have come a long way.

Movie of the Week - Seaworthy only $6.99!

If you don't already own Seaworthy now is the time to buy it. It is currently the movie of the week at www.thesurfnetwork.com  and is listed for only $6.99. Nathan did a great job on this film. It's one of my all time favorites.

Home Made Alaia - By Dom De Pietro

My friend's son Dom has been busy making his own Alaias in his backyard. This is actually his third. He got Cyrus' Tom's Plantation Creation  a while back and has been on a mission. His first two were made of pine until he got to ride one of his friend's Paulownia powered boards. After feeling the float of the Paulownia he went up to see Jon Wegener to score a blank for his next board. 

Dom is a ripper on foam boards and it will be fun to see him dial this board in. 

Dom with Paulownia blank purchased from Jon Wegener

Cut it out. 6-4

Outline inspired by the Peanut model.

Sanding the tapered rails and concave

Ready to ride after two coats of boiled linseed oil.

Mobilize Your Board Bag

www.korduroy.tv

Have you ever looked on with envy at the guy pulling a wheeled board bag in line next to you at the airport?

Does your wife or girlfriend surf and you get stuck holding the bag?

Is your current board bag still good but you just don't have the budget to upgrade?

If so then we have something for you!

Check out the new Korduroy.tv segment on mobilizing your board bag and convert that old bag into a new wheeled model. Thanks to Cyrus Sutton and Jack Chellemi of Kordury.tv there is now a segment on how  to do it yourself.

It's fast. It's easy. It's eco-friendly and... it's free. (Well sort of free if you don't already own some of the stuff needed.)

The idea of this conversion came after my friends Kirk and Anne borrowed my bag for their first couples surf trip. Kirk, seeing the writing on the wall, knew he was doomed to lug that thing around.  To make his life easier he made a strap on wheel system to save his back. After seeing that I devised a way to permanently mount my own skate trucks to my bag so that I can forever roll with ease through the airport in style.

The result was great and you wouldn't believe the heads you turn.

(Note those are my original, circa 1986 Independent trucks!)

Watch it, learn and upgrade your old bag to a new first class wheely bag today.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all our friends. Thank you for hanging out with us over the last year. You are the reason we do this!

Side note on this shot. This is actually a "Blue Moon" i.e. the second full moon of the month. This was shot Dec 30th in an amazing place called Three Rivers. This shot is amazing to me because, one, I've never been able before this shot to get a clear shot of the moon. Two it happened after going on a quick hike, stumbling onto a small statue of a Buddha in a moss covered glen, deciding to take a moment of silence in meditation and then opening my eyes to see this view between the trees. Truly a once in a Blue Moon shot. Enjoy.


Ed

Power Surfer-Taylor Knox

Local Surf Art - by Micaiah Hardison

My friend Micaiah has come back to what he loves. Wave Art.

Micaiah is one of my favorite local artists. When I was just out of collage and started living on my own I met him when he was 18 and bought my first painting from him a year or two later. He was completely self taught and insanely talented. My first painting was of Pipeline from the water. I've featured it here before. It's one of my most loved possessions. Everyday I look at that painting and get lost in it.

Over the last 13 years Micaiah has grown up, traveled the world, gotten married, got a dog, had kids, lived in other countries and has now landed back in our neck of the woods again.

In the last 5 years he took off from doing wave art to study more traditional techniques of figure, portrait, still life and landscape painting. His work has been amazing but, I have admit, I've been missing his wave paintings.

Now he is back at it again and with a purpose. Micaiah always has something cool up his sleeve and now he is focused on the water again and doing paintings like these. These two are from the last couple of swells. He shoots photos on good days to help him capture the lighting and specific shape of a typical spot and then selects his own color from memory. They are beautiful.

Micaiah, I'm so stoked you are back at it again, filling peoples spaces with amazing wave goodness. The world is a better place.

Look for more work by Micaiah. He will be in the water this year doing plenty of "Research".  Check out his site or contact him for when he displays. www.MicaiahHardison.com

Driftwood and Surf Wax Shark by Chris Miller

Chris Miller and his drift wood, wax and leaf shark. I have to admit it put a smile on my face. Great work, Chris! I really dig the leaf tail fin. Very creative. I think having one for Rodney's  Fish at your house has really inspired you.

For your efforts you score a brand new Wax Buddy . But you have to come up and surf with me to pick it up.