party wave videos

Here are the two party wave videos (where I crash right after I stand up on the board):

 

 In this vid I crash moments after take off.

In this vid I crash and my board tombstones

I'm not a role model, so probably shouldn't be a mentor either

FH has an assistant who also does technical work. I offered to mentor her by teaching her data modeling and process modeling. FH thought it was a great idea.

But, to be honest, the only useful mentoring advice I've given her is the following:

T: Went roller skating today. Bad idea, my knees hurt so bad.
Me: Try bio freeze. It's like crack cocaine for the knees.

As for career advice, probably not as useful:

T: FH gave me my own office!
Me: I'd recommend putting crime scene tape around your guest chair to keep the guys in line. I did that at my last office. HR drew the line at the fake blood though.
T: Maybe I can get some fake organs.
Me: They used to sell eye balls at the dollar store.

And she gave me some advice as well:

Me: Don't tell FH this. I just took his toilet apart. Replacing the innards to make it more efficient. Hope I don't fuck it up.
T: I have faith in you! Girls can do home improvement too!
Me: I'm using a hack saw now, which was not specified in the instructions. Oy vey.
T: That's just improvisation. If you have more screws left over than when you start then worry.
Me: Or when FH gets home and there's a taken apart toilet on his kitchen table.
T: I would come help before that point.
Me: It works! Go me! And go broncos! (was sort of watching the game while I was working)
T: Did you have any parts left over?
Me: Some screws. But I think they are just extras.
T: Uh oh. I won't tell if you don't.

(then I made a joke about a super bowl party since I was working on the toilet but there was no response)

some more pics surfing the party wave

Here's a pic from a video where I caught the same wave as FH. Of course, he surfed it in and I wrecked.

I surf goofy foot. Also, on most waves I managed to keep a safe distance from FH.

when the board shoots straight out of the water it's called tombstoning the board

the surf board fins are supposed to be IN the water

Two of my favorite still shots from the vid where I wreck into FH:

FH's board (left arrow) and my board (right arrow)

FH calmly surfs on while I flounder behind him

We saw three snowflake eels the past few days in the low tide. The marine biologist Tony said they're coming in because the water is unseasonably warm. Very cool!

damn women drivers

Today conditions were rough at Olas Altas. And then I accidentally wrecked my surf board into FH's board. I didn't just ding his board. I rode up the back of it.

When we got back to shore the "life guard" Mario was like "dude, is your board okay?" and I was like "yeah, fucking women drivers". The board, for the record, is more or less okay (minor repairs necessary).

seven feet, rocks

Yesterday Olas Altas was big, almost as big as during May's storms.

The waves were big and fast. It took forever to get out to the line up. At one point I just let go of the board and dragged it behind me by the leash.

FH and I caught a wave and I fell off almost immediately, which sucked because it took me 10 minutes to get back to the line up. On the second wave I was determined NOT to fall no matter what. I paddled my ass off and suddenly was in the slot. I got up on the board and had one of the longest rides I've had. Then the wave crashed on my head. Miraculously I didn't get washing machined or hit by the board.

When I got back to the line up FH said "I can't believe you caught that." It turns out it was a 7 foot wave. FH was paddling into it (I followed, figuring he knew better than me which waves to catch) when he realized I was also paddling in and he stopped because he thought I was going to get munched by the wave and potentially injured. He said he saw me get into the slot and then was shocked that I was standing up. He saw the top of my head for a second and then saw the wave come up over my head. I'm not sure how I caught the wave but I was glad because the rest of the morning was a shit show.

The next wave I tried to catch closed out. I got washing machined by three waves. Right as I thought I was getting close to shore and out of the shit I put my feet down and realized I had drifted into an area that FH told me to avoid because it's full of rocks. And the rocks are covered in sea urchins. If you avoid getting scraped up by the rocks you'll get stung by the urchins.

the rocky area I was caught in at low tide - normally the rocks are under the water

 I managed to get out of the rocky area after a few minutes of struggle. Then I decided it was time to go in. Meanwhile, in the line up, FH had been looking for me. Because I was getting washing machined he couldn't see me at all. I think he was pretty glad to see me stumble up on the beach.

Also, there are locals that watch surfers from the sea wall (far left in the above picture). I'm not positive about this, but suspect they called an ambulance when they saw me getting washing machined in the rocks. As I was trying to make my way back to the beach I saw the ambulance pull up with its lights on. After I got back to the beach it left.

I talked to a marine biologist Tony, who is also a surfer. He said what happened (and it's very common even for people who surf there every day) is the rip tide pulled me into the rocks. As I was surfing I thought I was surfing to the right but the tide was pulling me left. You can't really tell on the wave.

As celebration for surfing my first big wave we went out for drinks at the freeman. Nice views from the roof.

sunset from roof of the freeman - rocky area of olas altas at the bottom left

El Faro - light house is far right - it's one of the highest lighthouse in the world - we hike up it in the early morning as a warm up for surfing

sunset - the large stone island at the far left of the picture is host to seals, and of course sharks

moon over the historic district of mazatlan - FH's house is near the blue building in the center of the picture

mexican food

Not quite the same as in the US...

At playa norte today, best fish ceviche, although today we found a piece of octopus in it (which I'm allergic to). No bad reaction so far.

home made tortilla chips...porque no?

And a big shout out to Taqueria Playa Sur. Best vampiros ever (here vampiros are like a taco pizza - I didn't find any english web pages with Maz style vampiros). And papa locas (again, english recipe, not quite the same).

Taqueria Playa Sur is an outside restaurant. This is the grill. We got there before closing. Normally there's a long wait if you go during dinner hours.

Vampiros (on the left) and papa locas (front). Yum.

ejection seat

FH commented, after looking at over 20 vids of me trying to surf, that I never fall off the board like a normal person. He said "it looks like the surf board has an ejection seat".

He's surfed this brown board for over 7 years and never flown off of it like I do. I'm sure no one who knows me will be shocked by that.

barrel roll

Since I've been surfing with the big brown board I have to be careful when I fall off (which is 9 out of 10 times I try to stand up) because I don't want to get hit in the face with the board.

This ride, I started to pearl, but the wave was slow so I hung onto the board and tried to keep it from pearling. I later found out from FH that you can't save yourself when you're pearling. In any case, as I held onto the board it flipped over. I managed to get it upright by the time I stopped. The board did hit me in the arm above the elbow and I have a nice bruise from it.

It was worth the bruise!

how to miss a wave

Learning to read the ocean, and know when a surfable wave is coming, is a lot harder than I thought.

This vid is called where did the waves go?

This vid is called what happened to the wave????

pearled

When you weight the surf board too far forward you pearl, which means the surf board heads straight for the ocean floor. This video gives a good idea of what that experience is like.

and no vacation is complete without a trip to home depot

The water was a lot calmer the second day we were here than it was the last time in Maz though the first day the waves were pretty big and sounded like buildings falling down every time they crashed into the shore. I did go out the first day but after watching the good surfers eat shit I was surprised I got up on the board at all. After getting banged around for an hour I decided to rest. Good thing, because the next day (day this pic was taken) conditions were perfect.

Rare to get beginner waves at Olas Altas but we got them. Also, the water is unseasonably warm. We saw one jelly fish. There are a lot of sting rays on the ocean floor though so have to watch out for those. I stepped on two today, and though neither stung me one mouthed my foot. Good thing I haven't washed it lately. The ray spit it out. The waves should be getting bigger next week (3 - 6 foot waves as opposed to 1 - 3 foot waves). Hopefully I'll continue to do okay on the bigger waves.

One of the hazards of surfing (especially jumping on the board as opposed to sitting on the board) is banged up knees. This is after the first day of surfing. They've turned a nice purple color now.

The bike shop off Olas Altas. FH and I rented bikes for two hours to go to Home Depot. The hurricane down here did some damage to his house including the roof, causing a lot of water damage. I spent a day scrubbing mold off the walls and cleaning the floors. Fun to take a bike ride through traffic and tourists except that my bike chain kept falling off. Luckily FH knows how to fix anything.

Home Depot at Mazatlan. Same as the one in Denver but more mexican.

At the far left of this picture is FH's friend Willy, who takes care of shit while FH is back in the US. He is a member of a band and they were playing at the closing of this bar (owners spent too much time smoking pot and drinking to run the bar according to local gossip). The band was good but FH and I have been getting up at 630 every morning since the dudes come around 8 to work on the roof so around midnight we decided to head home.

second surf videos

This was my best ride into the beach (had to bail off the board before I hit the sand and ruined the board).

And this video shows why you should manage your surf leash (I managed to get tangled in mine more than once).

first maz surfing video

Huge thanks to FH for teaching me how to surf!!! He's the best instructor ever!!!

This is my last run I did yesterday while he was out in the water coaching me.

I'll be posting more videos shortly. I have some great wipe outs. And thanks again to my mom for the gopro!!!!

some pics from maz, since my video doesn't seem to want to load

Apparently I've overloaded the "internets" in Mex. Here are some pics from surfing today.

Is it beer 30 yet?

Making a fashion statement on the beach with my Ugg slippers, for which I've caught endless shit from the surfer boys. And I have the requisite coke and e-cig (breakfast of champions - kidding kids, don't fake smoke).

Took the brown board out today because the waves were pretty small and this thing is like a canoe. You don't even have to stand on the string, apparently, to surf. It weighs as much as I do. Glad it didn't hit me in the head.

"Now that I've gotten my ass kicked, time to go in"

Still shot, wipe out, from the gopro. You can't even see the board.

maz redux

I've been in Mazatlan since Sunday and we just got internet access today. Hooray!

Will be posting some funny surfing vids in a day or so I took courtesy of the gopro my mom bought me.

lack of communication makes for a "shitty" situation

On new year's day FH and I headed home from Steamboat, but first we stopped for breakfast at Nora's, and FH had three cups of coffee. As we were traveling down highway 40, a desolate stretch of road, FH had to poop. There was no place to stop though, so he suffered along until Kremmling. I was suffering too because he was farting up a storm.

We got to Kremmling and then decided to continue on to Frisco because FH was hoping for a nice Starbucks bathroom. But there wasn't a starbucks directly off the highway so we ended up finally stopping at Georgetown. Luckily it was warm outside and I was able to crack the car window, otherwise I might have died from the farts. Regarding that gas station just off I-70, I personally wouldn't go into the men's room for at least another month (assuming it doesn't get razed to the ground in the mean time because the stench won't go away).

FH got back into the car and I turned on the heat to warm up my feet. I smelled farts again so I was like "why are you still farting???" and FH was like "I'm NOT farting!" I thought maybe his clothes had been fart infused so as soon as we got home he changed his clothes and then we headed to an irish bar for a new year's drink (the idea being to hit the bars before everyone else showed up so we wouldn't have to deal with a crowd).

I was sitting on a bar stool when suddenly FH said "I smell the farts again and it's coming from you!" I was like "dude, I am NOT farting". We puzzled over the situation, wondering if somehow my clothes also had gotten fart infused (I didn't change because I didn't have any other clothes to wear). I also worried that maybe our sense of smell had been destroyed after over an hour trapped in a car filled with noxious gas.

Then FH said "let me see your shoe". Turns out, I had dog poop on my shoe and that's what the smell was. He said "you must have stepped on that dog turd behind the car when we were packing at the motel". I was like "what dog turd?" FH had noticed it the day before but didn't tell me. I didn't see it when we were packing the car up because it had snowed.

We both started laughing like 5 year olds. I eventually got the poop off my shoe. And FH said from now on he will tell me if a dog poops behind my car.

happy new year!

rabbit ears

Staying at the Rabbit Ears motel up in Steamboat. It's kind of like a noisy, shitty hotel combined with weird satanic neon and a logo that would not be out of place at a strip joint.

if bugs bunny did acid

But it's centrally located, and I like to walk, so I shouldn't complain.

FH did a back country ski but I wasn't allowed to because of my blisters (will spare you the pic of the blister on my left ankle, which isn't as big as the one on my right ankle, but still gross). Then we went to find a pair of shoes I could wear that don't have a back on them because I was getting tired of walking around town in my slippers.

one more person ask if I'm wearing slippers....yes I am FUCKING WEARING SLIPPERS

Embarrassingly, I bought two new pairs of shoes. But one pair was on sale.

ugg slippers that are meant to be worn outside - perfect for post skiing, climbing, etc.

I will be so happy if I wake up a few days from now and my blisters don't look like red dwarfs.

saddles and saddle sore

Yesterday I made a mistake. Well, two mistakes. The first involves a hike. My right ankle was so swollen from my now somehow infected blister (even though I put nu skin on it) I couldn't ski. So I decided to hike a trail at Cache Creek while FH and his sister skied it. The last 2 miles, heading towards the car, I was feeling pretty good (well, it was fucking cold outside and to be honest I couldn't feel my feet since I was hiking in my summer trail shoes - bad packing on my part - I didn't expect to be walking anywhere, only skiing) so I decided to run back to the car. Which was awesome until I got to the car and realized, as my feet were heating up, that my right shoe was full of a bunch of soupy shit from the blister.

At which point I probably should have told FH that I didn't think I could skate. But I wanted to practice more hockey stuff...so...I went skating.

By evening I could barely walk. So we went to the million dollar cowboy bar for some pain killer. FH insisted I sit on one of the saddle seats. For the record, I only sat side saddle.

drinking million dollar cowboy beer on a saddle - for real

By the end of the evening I was in excruciating pain (from a blister - give me a fucking break). Didn't get much sleep last night.

who's the dumb ass who decided running 2 miles in the snow on a blister was a good idea...um, me

Just got a text from my dad (sent him the above picture asking for advice). He said "just saw the pic (of my blister) - definitely gross!!!" Hahaha! Blood usually makes him throw up.

Had a painful ride from Jackson to Steamboat, where I was supposed to do a back country ski tomorrow (we'll see what the heal looks like tomorrow). FH found the tv remote funny (we were watching the broncos game - blood bath).

Fisher Price - my first TV remote

rest day

Due to my jacked up blisters we decided to have a rest day yesterday. We went for a walk on the aquaduct.

cold, but beautiful

hooray for winter!

Then we went to the free skating rink. FH found some hockey sticks and we had an impromptu hockey game (my first). I scored 3 goals. Of course, there was no one on the other team.

menace on the ice

When we got home FH did surgery on my ski boots for my foot warmers so the cable wouldn't rub against my blisters.

don't worry, I'm going to put duct tape on it when we get home

skiing Jackson

Yesterday we skied Taggart Lake. It was my first experience with swix wax. I did really good skinning up but on the way down I took my skins off and FH put on the swix. Unfortunately, he didn't realize my ski has a greater camber than his so it didn't work as well on my skis.

Swix looks like snot, but it's for skis

 It was really scenic and the snow was in good shape even though it hasn't snowed here since Monday night.

I actually look like I know what I'm doing.

Here I seem confused by my poles.

Ski through the trees - and I made it down a similar narrow trail without hitting a tree.

Heading down to the car was going great until I hit a two foot steep section. I tried to walk up it but I didn't have enough swix on my skis so I kept sliding backwards. Then I decided to walk up the hill sideways but forgot my heels were not locked in. I got half way up the hill and suddenly pitched forward, doing a face plant right between my skis. As if that weren't bad enough, I tried to push myself to a standing position with my poles and the skis took off from under me. I ended up in a pool of water (it was 5 degrees outside).

I flailed around in the water for a few seconds and tried to lock my heels into my skis, but I couldn't see the bindings. I wallowed around like a beached whale and then realized there were two people coming. I managed to get out of the pool, get my bindings locked, and get over the hill before they saw me acting like an idiot.

Today we skied Phelps Lake.

The ski was fun except that I had gotten a blister on my left foot from skiing in wet socks yesterday (and I NEVER get blisters because I walk around barefoot all the time). The blister got a lot worse, and then I ended up getting another blister on my right foot. By the time we got back to the car I was in so much pain I couldn't get my boots off (they were stuck with blood on the sides of the boot linings). FH and his sister finally managed to yank my boots off but it ripped the skin off my feet.

Ech. Ouch.

So tomorrow we may take the day off from skiing to go ice skating or do something else that doesn't involve me ripping the skin off my feet.