The Thursday Stoke!

It's late in the afternoon and I'll admit... this is the hardest Thursday stoke for me to write yet. Simply because I've been down all week. Down about the poor weather and poor surf, down about the economy, but mostly down about my still injured Achilles tendon. It's looking more and more like I won't be able to finish the Daytona Half Marathon if I attempt to run it and who knows, perhaps I need an MRI or something expensive for doctors to tell me not to run a marathon in January. Everywhere I look I see people, friends, bloggers running since it's race season and it sucks to be injured and remind myself I can't join them. It's almost like many of the women in my life; just around the time I really fall for her, she leaves. Is running leaving me? Ugggh... on to better things now.

The Thursday Stoke!

I'm feeling better already and I'll tell you why! It's better to laugh than be down. Sometimes it's just hard to find that laugh. For the past 20 minutes I've gone back through my email for the past few days and looked at the forwards. Those emails your friends send you that 90 percent of the time you've seen already or they're something annoying bound for the trash can. However, what I'm looking at is the other 10 percent. The few "new" ones that are funny and you know what? I'm laughing at them for all their worth so I'll share some of the funniest things (in my opinion) I've seen all week via my inbox.

Here goes:

1.) This came to me today with only the following label: "Air Traffic Control in Texas!"

2.) This was quite the stir of controversy when I forwarded it to a few friends, but only amongst the ultra (Oh my God what to we do with Obama) conservative friends that can't see the humor in a joke. I love the area that includes Iceland, Greenland and the North Pole that shall be known as Santa! From now on I won't be forwarding those conservative friends anything humorous and if they send me anymore long political email responses I shall respond by only saying "Santa!" with a retarded voice! (click to enlarge)

3.) If you're involved in any kind of real estate right now this is hilarious!

Click here to view the YouTube video.

4.) This one is "in the gutter" but I laughed the hardest when I saw it. It was labeled "My New Girlfriend."

5.) This one isn't funny, but just beautiful. I wanted to close with something that shows my true passion in life. I think this shot by Clark Little accomplishes it perfectly!

10-inches and hangovers!

There's no better way to get rid of a hangover than going surfing. Yes, it sucks dragging your butt to the beach, but once you're in the water you always feel better.

Today was one of those days. Last night a few friends and I went to a local bar to hear some original music by a band we like called Whole Wheat Bread (crazy name I know). I had planned to only have a few drinks and come home by midnight. Somehow my plans always get thrown in the trash and set on fire along the way. One too many drinks later and half past 2 a.m. I finally hit the sheets. Luckily for me, a surfer friend called at 8 a.m. to wake me up and let me know how good the waves looked. It was hard, but 20 minutes later I approached the inlet in my Jeep.

The water was cold for some reason and that was all the better with the hangover, but I was definitely off my A game. The waves were glassy waist to chest high sets rolling in with perfect lines for longboarding. For the first 30 minutes it was fun, but by 9 a.m. all of Florida had showed up to surf a half mile section of beach. I've been riding the 9'8" Anderson noserider pintail sans leash for a few weeks now, but I still get nervous in crowds without the leash so I paddled in...

My nose riding is progressing quite well. I'm able to cross step on the board now instead of shuffling back and forth. The cross stepping was uncomfortable and awkward at first as I had to force myself to do it, but now it's becoming a smooth movement and actually feels more natural than shuffle stepping. I'm able to get one foot up on the nose very consistently, but the few times I try both the board feels like it's about to give way and pearl. I realize New Smyrna Inlet isn't Malibu, but other guys are doing it on the same waves I'm riding. After sitting through a mundane home inspection this afternoon (yes, I'm a Realtor and actually do work) it was raining so I decided to stop into a local surf shop. Picked me up a shinny new fin!


It's a Mikey Detemple 10 inch RFC (clear color) and it has a little less rake than the 9-inch Josh Farberow Flex Fin (blue color) that I've been using, but I think the extra inch and the wider base will give me that little extra edge to support me on the nose for longer periods of time. I'm super excited about it and if I wasn't so dang tired from lack of sleep and being hungover I'd hit the waves this evening, but it'll have to wait until tomorrow morning!