California is Beautiful Roadtrip

Eager as a headlight on a northbound train
While running on rubber through Steinbeck country
Beneath greedy gray clouds
Hoarding their stash of soothing rain

California is beautiful.

It hadn't been too long since I'd taken a drive up the California coast. A few months before I loaded my two high school aged sisters in the car and introduced them to Big Sur, Santa Cruz, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, tent camping, and 'smores over an open fire. Still, my energy had been focused on making sure they were having a good time, rather than quietly taking it in for myself.

On a cloudy Saturday morning I set off with a mug full of coffee, ipod full of new music, and an eager smile, looking forward to spending a long drive in the car solo.

My first destination, Los Gatos, to meet up with the Surf Stronger crew.

Scott Adams and Todd Walsh of Surf Stronger.

The boys at Surf Stronger have put together an innovative series of warmup, stretching, and workout tips and techniques specifically targeted to surfers that are available on their website. Definitely check it out! Their next project is a surfing specific workout using a new piece of equipment called the TRX.

Designed by a former Navy Seal captain who needed a way to keep the Seals in top phsyical shape while waiting to deploy, the TRX is a workout solution that is lightweight, totally travel-ready, and can be used anywhere to train the total body. Attach it to anything overhead, a tree, lifeguard tower, door, even an SUV roof rack, and you are ready to go.

They needed a test dummy for the video and I volunteered. I do not like to workout, but I figured it was a good excuse to take a road trip to San Francisco, so why not?

Luxury accommodations at the Nob Hill Motel.

Todd Walsh was nice enough to draw me a killer little map of the must-see sights in that part of the city. I was super stoked to find the Fields Book Store - "Soulful and scholarly books from the world's spiritual traditions" - definitely my kind of place. I spent about an hour inside and ended up walking out with an armload of books.

I didn't buy this one, and right now I am definitely regretting that. What was I thinking passing up a manual of practical teleportation and time travel? Damn!

San Franciscan sights...

Fast forward to the following afternoon, in the TRX training center for the video filming.

Coach Scott Adams and I, verbally rehearsing.


It might not look like much, but the TRX provides a gnarly full body workout!


After six hours of filming and only a few exercises needing to be done over because I didn't "make it look hard enough" (it's not hard when you're having fun!) the whole crew was smiling.

The next morning with the job done and the schedule open, Todd Walsh volunteered to give me a walking tour of a few of the coolest places in the city.




I then took the opportunity to visit my Aunt and Uncle in Fremont and savor some of Uncle Gary's famous smoked meatloaf. Amazing!

After a night with family, I took the road South, choosing the 1 along the picturesque Big Sur coastline.
Driving down a windy road lining fog-filtered cliffs
Light reflecting
Waves of emotion
Breaking through the mist.



Next stop, my college roommate Katy Walker's home in Los Osos to sample her husband Brett's homebrew. Good stuff!

Finally, I stood on stage as a guest lecturer and told a class of UCSB Geology of Surfing class students about my trip to West Africa.

Professor Stuart Sweeney tried to talk me into hanging out and surfing Campus Point afterwards, but as you can see, it didn't look very enticing. So I got in the car and kept on driving South.

Quite a few empty mysto LA County nooks nearly inspired a paddle out, but after getting a call from a friend saying the surf at home was pumping, I raced back to the South Bay to find booming beachbreak windswell.


Excited to be home, I threw on my wetsuit, ran down to the beach and pushed through thumpy closeouts with tired muscles. The water was warm, salty, and invigorating.
A couple of days later after the muscles fully recovered from that six hour workout, I felt stronger than I ever had before.

I don't like to workout, but I want to be surfing stronger and can no longer deny that working out is necessary sometimes. Fortunately with the TRX, it feels a lot like play.


Surf Stronger TRX workout coming soon....

Check out Surf Stronger videos so you too will be surfing stronger...

Surf Stronger Vol 1
Surf Stronger Vol 2
Surf Stronger Complete Workout

Filming for Beautiful Wave

I've tried to be an actress a few times. There was Jr. High drama class, one year of high school drama, a few skits back when I was going to church camp in the summers, but nothing too serious. As a blonde-haired surfer girl living in LA with that "classic Californian" look, I've been invited to audition for a few commercials. After I was at the top of the pack but still turned down by Coke, Dodge, and NetZero, I had pretty much given up. I even read for the lead of Blue Crush and a few other pilots by the same director with no success.

Finally, last summer Microsoft thought I was cool enough to use and I had my first acting job. All I had to do was ride a longboard at tiny Leo Carillo and read a few lines like "I'm a PC and I ride longboards". It was a fun day, I made a little money, and was stoked for the next few months every time I deposited a residual check. It also built up my confidence a bit.

When a friend of a friend called to tell me about a new independent feature film called Beautiful Wave, "a coming of age story about surfers but not necessarily about surfing," it caught my interest. I was asked to drive to Burbank to read for one of the main characters. In the past I shied away from those sorts of things, but this time I really liked the character and embraced the opportunity.

I felt confident at the audition and left feeling good about it. The director even emailed me the next day to let me know that I was his first pick for the character but that the money guy in Dubai would be making the final decision. I was cautiously excited.

Of course, the money guy in Dubai liked another more experienced actress better even though she didn't surf at all. The director apologized and promised to write me into the script somehow.

I ended up playing the part of a lifeguard that gives the main character a couple of tips in the water at Malibu and pushes her into a few waves. Once again it ended up being an incredibly fun couple of days with great people including the orignial Gidget, Kathy Kohner Zuckerman. Stoked! I can't wait to see the finished project.

Beautiful Reaper

Inspired by Chris Lundy's Beautiful Reaper

Beautiful Reaper

Slow motion moment
Brushed color in parceled time
One step closer…
Head tilted just a little to the side
Noticing surprising undulations rippling along
What is no longer emotional flatline

Colors that soothe
Still strangely arresting
Silent energy that tantalizes
With deep neuronal activation
Touches the body and intrigues the mind
And arouses a giddiness -
That giggling addiction of tip-toeing off kilter
A visual representation of sensations
That I’m for some reason ceaselessly subconsciously seeking to find
Foci amidst distraction
As time continues it’s unwind

--

Heart beats
beat beats
beats faster
pounding deck
blurring lines
arms pumping
lungs drumming
sudden realization
of vital water becoming unkind
caught helpless
in temporary trepidation
then all but appreciation, resigned
in the realized perfection of present moment
brushed in color
psychosomatically sublime

--

heartbeat
beat beats
of another
serendipitous split second seduction
that sparks a fantasy into branching time
attracted by misperceived and exaggerated beauty
with a forced denial of reality’s brine
as deep blue molecules are rising
catching the hopeful paddler
in a familiar drama
again mistimed
another martyr to the beautiful reaper
yet somehow energy still attracting
as a look to the beach reveals
a seemingly endless parade
of pitiably pretentious paddlers
eagerly clamoring in line