my first movie....

Couldn't sleep last night. Too much on my mind.  I decided to mess around with a few video clips I shot with my  Nikon D300s, everything was shot from one session in Santa Cruz about 2 months ago. It was the first time I had ever shot video, and all files have just been sitting on my computer, s000o I decided to put together a little edit....lemme know what you think.

song: Claisson, By Jonathon Deans

surfer: Josh Mulcoy

PS. sorry the song doesnt fade out at the end.. i dont know how to do that yet.

a few things Im Grateful for... in no particular order.

Christmas is my favorite holiday.. even though i tend to gain a few pounds.. its all good.  heres a few things i am grateful for..

1. Mexican Food

2. Family

3. A job that brings me joy.

285〬 WEST

The Swell was short lived.. but it had some moments. It was 25 degrees when I left my house wednesday morning, i think that coming from the coast we are pretty much pansies when it comes to cold weather, at least that was the way I felt that morning. 

Randomly, I was involved in 2 near death situations over the weekend.. one on tuesday night which involved a friend of mine spearing his posterior tibial artery and almost bleeding to death on the beach after he stabbed himself in the leg with the nose of his board. His accident was just a worst case scenario of jumping off a wave the wrong way. Luckily  because we were close to the road we were able to get him up to safety  and call 911, and he was rushed to the ICU and he is going to be ok, He lost 8 quarts of blood. The next morning as I jumped on the jet ski i was heading out to an outer reef and I saw a stand up jet skier launch off a wave and come of his ski in mid-air. The jet ski landed on him... from about 30 ft in the air. We could see him struggling in the impact zone.. we couldn't get to him because a clean up set was heading straight for him. He went over the falls with his ski and almost drown. His initial thought when we picked him up was that he broke his femur, he has a total loss of control in his legs and was about to pass out. We rushed him to the beach and called 911 on the way in. As it turned out he had a severe bone bruise but was altogether OK. The momentary loss of his legs could have drowned him but he luckily made it to ski.

Definitely an eye opener for me. 

jeeez im a Slacker....

Been to long since i have updated this thing. Last few months have been some good ones. Spent some time in Nicaragua, then went over to  Europe and drove back and forth from France and Spain. Probably some of the my favorite places i have been... The food in Spain was amazing. I have been working with Peter Mendia on a profile piece and we spent some time with his family in the town of Axpe. Its an incredible place, tucked behind Mt. Antobo in the Basque country. Got a few waves at mundaka as well...

What a long strange trip its been...

this sorta sums up the feeling.....

Finally home.. i think there might have been  a moment where i even wanted to kiss the ground like Kevin Costner in Robin Hood.. but that would have been weird. For those not savvy on the social media networks like Facebook I recently did a trip to Russia.. 

To make the long story short, I had some visa issue and was detained in a Russian holding cell. It was a room with a metal door with no handles, 5 deadbolts and bars on the window.. It was probably one of the scariest moments in my life when i realized that i was completely alone in there and they just locked the door and left. Luckily my phone worked and the US embassy was able to speak on my behalf so i could get something to eat.. and drink. After 24 hours I was deported back to Korea then had to come back to Russia 2 days later. I missed the best day of the swell and basically ended up sitting there for two weeks with flat conditions. I don't think I have ever endured such hellish adventure.. 

Needless to say you have to take the good times with the bad. This trip ended up costing double what i thought it would and definitely left a lasting impression. I don't think ill be going back to Russia anytime soon. But at least I have a few photos to remember it by.

Frozen.

Looking back through some archives from last spring/ summer.
This time last year at this time I was camping on Icelands frozen beaches. Such a great trip, and well worth the cold. People are always asking where my favorite place is that i have been, I always tell them Iceland> Someday I will be back there. 

It doesnt have the best food, and its not cheap, but it does have some of the most accessibly beautiful coast i have ever seen.

Close calls n' Big Sur.

The last 3 weeks have been a flurry of Emails, deadlines and lots of time staring at my monitor, it is scary how fast time can pass when your eyes are fixed on a computer. For some quick R&R and a little bit of AD work, I headed up the coast to Big Sur. Me and my good friend Guy Jones, who happens to be a 4x4 enthusiast decided to leave late in the afternoon and camp on the Ridge Rd. For those of you not familiar with the Big Sur ridge, it is a 4x4 only access rd that sits high atop the big sur hills,  it is mainly used as fire rd access to get out of Big Sur, just in case. High above the fog layer and dismal conditions of the coast this road leads you straight to what might look like cloud 9 for a central coaster in the summer. 

Around 10 pm we started on the road and climbed upwards for what seemed like an eternity. Navigating this rd in the dark and fog is not Recommended. Finally we reached clear night skies and it seemed like the most incredible night ever. Above the fog there was a warm summer air that was as still as could be, you could even hear your echoes through the canyons. When you finally reach the top there is an ocean of  accumulated clouds below you reflecting back at you the moon and stars. 

We drove for about 2 hours and looked for a camping spot. But about 2 miles before we got to our destination, we wanted to take a look at this tree with and odd shaped root system, we came up to the tree and in order to get the headlights closer we tried to climb the small embankment and get a closer look. What we didn't realize that the small embankment was not small and the truck we were driving did not have capable clearance. We were stuck, about to tip over in what seemed like possibley the Lamest situation ever. I have to climb out the passenger side window to balance weight evenly and as I clung to the window and front tire which was hung about 3 ft from the ground I realized this was not a good situation, we were on about 2 1/2 wheels with most the weight hanging on the front axle. Both of us made the realization that because of the roof tent that was on top of our vehicle , were were top heavy and off balance by about 2oo lbs. That was why we were so tipsy. 

It was the military shovel that eventually came to our rescue, we had one lodged in the back of truck and decided to dig out the embankment under the tire, At the same time we propped the front left tire with a jack and pushed the truck over the jack, about 6 times we had to do this until the truck was more balanced... By this time is was 1:30, and were on a rd that gets seldom travelled.. Maybe once a day, so having someone drive by to help us was pretty much outta the question.

Finally we made camp around 2.. talk about some rest and relaxation. All in all it was a great trip with some even better memories.