The Geek Squad is taking over.

I was easing into my morning, enjoying my daily cup of vanilla nut blend, when I stumbled upon this gem and I had to laugh. Who knew the pressure was on to crack the iphone of its ATT shackles. I love the photo, and it just seems to validate the stereotype. It's interesting though. While in my mind, I would have pictured a hacker like THIS..., this new breed of hacker, thanks to the emergence of Apple and all its i-this&that, hip new technology, is sort of a romanticized version of geek & rock star. A hybrid of Bill Gates crossed with Vinny Chase if you will. If I'm having tech trouble with the latest Best Buy gadget, and I give The Geek Squad a jingle, this kid is pulling up to your house in the black & white beetle... right? It sort of says something about what's become cool in America these days.

Score one for Root.

As I have said previously, a good weekend should start on Friday at the beach. I felt obliged to confirm my credo. With the prospect of family showing up for my mom's 60th birthday weekend, I sensed it necessary to bounce out of work after a late lunch, and meet up with my sister Jennifer at Torrey Pines S.B. for a Root rematch. As luck would have it, Friday, August 17th was a gorgeous day here in San Diego. With all the crucial supplies for an extended beach outing: beer... cold beer and maybe a beach chair, umbrella, music, towels, & spf 30, we headed down to the beach at about 1 pm with plenty of time to soak up some afternoon sun. In our haste to get to the sand, food/snacks were forgotten... oops. I did have a few small packs of Nabisco trail mix in my beach tote reserved for emergencies, courtesy of Mike W. from our Baggo @ the beach day a few weeks before. In the right state of mind, they're delicious, but generally... not so good. The last time I played root happened to be after an epic day of Baggo, and seemed overwhelmingly inadequate as a recreational staple. A huge let down. I had actually gone online earlier in the week, and ordered my own Baggo kit, but because I wasn't willing to part with an extra 20$, I was still waiting on UPS to "bring home the Baggo". With Root as the only available option, with significant apprehension, it was going to have to do. To be at the beach was so nice and after base camp had been established, a couple of beers had been consumed, & before we got down to the business end of our mission, we both took advantage of the 70 + degrees ocean water for a refreshing dip. Taking advantage of all the beach has to offer on a day like that makes San Diego well worth the price of admission. Now, in the right state of mind, we were ready to compete. Since my last Root post on LCBS, I had found a site that clarified the scoring system of Root. This was key. Previous attempts at remembering the finer points of Root, had been desperate stabs at piecing together LA roadtrip memories clouded by purple haze. The first game got off to a rocky start. Figuring out the right tossing distance takes a little troubleshooting. Jenn was distracted by a work situation, & I had a spontaneous distraction of my own. I will elaborate...

A couple of month's ago, my 9'0" G&S gem of a board got ripped from my mom's garage. I got a new board, and for the most part... I'm over it. I have to say though, when around my mom's neck of the woods, I do find my wandering eye focus in on every ~ 9 ft. ish longboard I see. Is that it?... no. It's a curse. I know it's long gone, but some part of me thinks I'll see some jerkoff walking to Torrey Pines with my board under his arm. Which brings us to the present distraction. I am facing north on the beach, lining up my toss of the root, when some "jerkoff" covered in tattoos appears past the trestle at tower 7 carrying a ~ 9 ft. ish longboard under his arm. The difference this time? From about 80 yards away, I could see the hallmark G&S logo on an all white canvas, with a single large blue fin. Disclosure: I am about 3 - 4 beers deep. I really thought that this was my board. The windmills of my mind were whirling, playing out all sorts of weird scenarios that didn't end well. All of a sudden my root ability went to hell, and it was obvious to Jenn something besides the game was commanding my attention. I hadn't at this point revealed to Jenn why I was distracted. I really didn't know what I was going to do, and wasn't 100% sure it was my board. Was I going to walk over and say "Hey bro nice board, where did ya get it?", and then cold cock him? You could cut the tension with a... well, with a surfboard it was so thick. Tattoo boy fiddled with the board for it seemed an eternity, waxing it or something which obscured the view, allowing even more time for me to stew. When he finally picked it up to head for the surf, I was able to see the top of the deck. It had a pretty healthy coating of wax, but... It had 2 long, thin, barely visible pinstripes on either side of the stringer. My "baby" was a clear canvas, void of any extra top or bottom deck graphics. And, as my head began to clear as the windmills slowed down, I remembered that my single fin was yellow, not blue. I had given my blue skeg to Ted to use on his longboard. At this realization, it was like the Red Sea had parted in front of me. For about 10 minutes, I had might as well of been blindfolded tossing the root and ball. Helen Keller could have given me a run for my money. At this point, I disclosed to Jenn what was causing my obvious diversion. We laughed. And decided, another swim in the ocean was needed to clear our heads before we could even attempt resuming our match.
After chilling out a bit, the next games were good. We both seemed to have a radar for the stick w/ the root & the root w/ the ball. Jenn scored the most possible points in one turn without being a game winner: leaner with the root, ball through the root, ball hits the stick, 5 pts. very well done (pictured left). Root this time was much better, and honestly, gave Baggo some real competition. Getting out early that day was huge, and got the weekend off on the right note. Another good day at the beach with Jenn Jenn. Something tells me this will have to be a more regular occasion. Good times, LCBS.

Post script: The photos were not staged!

Dawn Patrol

The start of any good weekend should include a hunt for quality surf... maybe not this early though. However, anything truly worth while rarely comes without a heavy price. So my buddy Joel and I woke up at the crack of dawn, and met up at the trestles parking lot, a couple miles from San Onofre State Beach. In the dark, we loaded up into my car, and headed off for the beach. We arrived at the entrance just before 5:30 am, and still on a day with small surf in the forecast, had to wait in a line of cars about 10-15 long. The line proceeded to lengthen with every passing 5 minutes, and at opening time (6:00 am), disappeared behind us into the darkness. 10 $ to get in... /2, no biggie. Through the gate, winding down the bluff, past the entrance, you come around a corner that exposes a view of the beach. At this point (if you're not a regular), you're stomach sinks a bit. You have to drive south, down the beach quite a ways to get to the area where the best waves break. When the surf is small, that's the only place the waves break, which was the case that morning. The beauty of Old man's at San Onofre is that it's a sweet little stretch of coast that has a primary peak situated perfectly to receive the brunt of any good (or not so good) S-SW swell that might be passing through. Waves break pretty far outside (far from the shore) at this spot, in front of the "Old Man's" life guard tower, allowing for some wonderfully long rides. Because we were (in a way) "rookies" at the whole dawn patrol situation, we didn't rush to get right in the water...which we now know is KEY! We were some of the first people in the water @ about 6:15, but that didn't last long. By 6:45 am the water went from looking like the face of a 15 year old, sprinkled with a few zits, to a canvas peppered with humanity like a Jackson Pollock painting. For about 30 mins., I caught some surprisingly nice waves... without "old men" in front or behind me: KEY! Bonus: I felt like I had finally tapped the true potential of my new CON long board, which had kind of been a sore spot of mine since the theft of my G & S about a month ago. Hint: you need a long board, especially when the surf is small. Joel found this out the hard way, sitting on his 7'6" SR egg... sitting, literally. The waves are slow, especially outside at the primary break, which demands the extra couple feet of foam an LB provides. More importantly, you really need the big stick to compete with the baker's dozen of surfers paddling for every wave that roles through. As many people as there were, I still had a blast. The waves at Old Man's were probably of the best form I've surfed all summer. The water was warm (70 ish), which helped cut the chill of the air on a pretty overcast morning. We were in the water about 2 hours... the longest I'd been in the water all summer. All in all, It was a pretty successful trial run. We definitely learned few things, that will make the next DP better. It was good to hang with Joel too. It had been awhile. Good times. LCBS... and was.

Post Script: I had the best burrito at Pipes Cafe in Cardiff, on the way home.

Addendum: I forgot to add... you can NOT have alcohol at San Onofre. Wow! I would never have guessed. Beach & beer go hand in hand in my book. Times they are a changin'. Just thought that should be pointed out as critical info for serious beach goers.

Baggo!

So... another good day, proving that Life can be sweet! The beach on a sunny weekend, summer day with good friends & ice cold beers spells good times. The ocean water temp. was 70 degrees... at least. Jae Lee, Mike W., and I headed down to Torrey Pines after lunch to set up camp in front of tower 7 away from the madness at the mouth of the lagoon. Unfortunately, the mighty Pacific took a day off and was more or less flat, making the decision to lug our 40 lb. longboards ~ a mile seem vain. I didn't matter. Once base camp had been established and we had been "rehydrated" by cold beverages, the good times that is BAGGO began (TY MW). I hadn't seen or heard of this game before. Apparently, it's really popular in the Midwest. Jae Lee brought a little experience to the table, having played some Baggo before, when he lived in Chicago. It's a really simple game, but loads of fun. We spent about 6 hours on the beach playing Baggo non stop. As hard as it is to admit... Jae Lee dominated. It was only until we wore him down late in the day, that I dethroned him. I have to say, I think it might blow "Root" out of the water. Jenn, we might have to get one of these.

Addendum: if there was any debate as to the quality of day it really was...
Fallen soldiers: 11 Tecates, 12 Bud Lites, & 10 Coors Lites. Ted is to thank for the reinforcements & food at a desperate hour.