The BIA is Coming to Town

The BIA will be making a stop at Manhattan Beach this Saturday next Sunday. Come down and support the BIA and bodyboarding.

Here's the entry form (thanks to Bran):

Branline

Since I had a late start this morning, I didn't have much time to decide what spots I was going to check. Luckily, Bran was on it from the early hours of the morning and provided me with the surf report for most of the local spots via text messaging. His up-to-the-minute surf texts made Surfline's reports look like yesterday's news (Hey, Bran, this could be a possible business venture!). Based on Bran's surf texts, I decided to skip most of the local spots altogether and head elsewhere.

The one local spot I did check had its moments. Unfortunately, they were few and far between.

Marineland Reduxed

The last time I saw as much marine life as I saw this morning, I was at the Aquarium of the Pacific. I saw a bunch of dolphins and even a whale. The marine life added a nice touch to an already beautiful California morning.

Decent surf (especially before the high tide), offshore winds, relatively uncrowded for a holiday, and beautiful weather were all in the hand that Socal dealt this morning. I'm pretty stoked all in all.


I wonder what kind of footage JY got on his GoPro cam from this point of view

Dirty and Stinky

If I were to blindfold you, take you to the spot that I checked out this afternoon, and then ask you to guess where you were, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if you said a trash dump site. Disturbingly, you'd be somewhat correct. If you know what spot I'm talking about, you know what I mean.

Anyway, after checking Sal's blog this afternoon, I decided to check out this spot since it rarely breaks and when it does there's usually a nice little side wave that develops (what can I say, I have a soft place in my heart for side waves). The waves weren't as nice as they were when Sal was on them, but I was delighted nonetheless to see the side wave working (refer to the soft-place-in-my-heart comment above).


A small, and I do mean small, a-framer

If this side wave had a little more kick, you'd have a nice little launch pad

Eternal High Tide

Is it just my imagination or has the morning tide been super high every Saturday for the past few months? If it's not my imagination, you'd be hard-pressed to convince me, as the high tide was again in full effect this morning swamping out what would have been pretty decent surf.

Flashback: So You Want a Good Chuckle?

If you want a good chuckle, check out the following bodyboarding gear from the '90s:

A hard bodyboard. Think surfboard in the shape of a bodyboard. It consisted of a polyurethane foam core covered with a high-density foam outer shell, which was coated in a clear automotive polyurethane paint. Sounds more like materials you would use on a space shuttle than you would on a boogie board.


Do you really need a strap to carry your board from the beach's parking lot to the beach? Really? With board bags already available, I can't really think how this strap would be functional, especially since it's designed to fit around only one shoulder.


And you thought I was joking about florescent-colored wetsuits.


Basically channels that you stuck on the bottom of your board like a sticker.


No explanation needed for this product; just sit back and chuckle.

Flashback

Who doesn't enjoy taking a look back? Who doesn't enjoy laughing at the singularity of a bygone era (i.e. florescent-colored wetsuits). Who doesn't marvel at how things have changed? Who doesn't marvel at how things haven't changed? In short, who doesn't enjoy a little bit of nostalgia? I know I enjoy a flashback every now and then.