surf Archives - a popnea blog

Dana Point and Junip at the Troubadour

October 20, 2013 by popnea

We wanted to surf Doheny State Beach, and after a quick argument we came to the conclusion that I (as always) and Google Maps were right, Doheny State Beach is in fact the same thing as Dana Pont, where we surfed a few weeks ago. Didn’t really matter though, as I really liked that place! The low tide made it easy and I was hanging out with all the 5 year old kids that were still better than me…

The best way to end a good surf weekend? Watch Junip at the Troubadour while having a beer and a greasy pizza!

Surf San Onofre

October 19, 2013 by popnea

I have to say, I am still not that comfortable in the water, and when I come across a huge empty beach with a nice break, I keep asking myself; Is this right? How come no one is here?

I am also more comfortable with more people out in the water that I can keep an eye on to make sure I am not to far out and wont get caught in a rip curl (< thank you grandma for scaring me with rip curls as a kid…). And also, other surfers can help keep an eye out for the dreaded sharks. I know sharks are actually our friends and they don’t want to attack people, but they still scare the crap out of me.

There were only a handful of people out in the water at San Onofre and no life guard on duty, but the water was nice and calm with a perfect break for someone who is still a crappy surfer like me so I wasn’t so uncomfortable. The only thing that creeped me out a little was sitting there on your board, dangling your feet in the water just waiting for a shark to come and take a munch. But then 5 dolphins made my day when they came up and played about 30ft away from us. Way cool! They only stayed for a little while, but it made me super calm. Someone once told me that if you see dolphins in the water you can be almost certain there will be no sharks out.

It it definitely time for me to get that waterproof camera!

The marine layer started to roll in around 3pm and it messed up the sunset, but still an awesome day of surfing!

Let’s Go Surfing!

October 5, 2013 by popnea

I kind of sucked at surfing last week and was ready to give it up, but thought I’d give it one last chance.

We drove down to Dana Point, but saw this sweet old Volvo for sale in Venice, I fell in love a little. I should call and see how much they want for it.

The conditions were awesome in Dana Point and I rocked the surfboard! The challenge to with confidence be able to say I am a good surfer is still on! So much fun!

Learning to surf is exhausting, we stopped for coffee in Laguna Beach on the way back.

The day was not quite over yet. They had an Octoberfest in Huntington Beach, and since that was on our way home…

Surfing

September 28, 2013 by popnea

Excited to get back in the water, it has been way to long!

Ale Stenar

September 3, 2013 by popnea

Came back to my parents house and jumped in the pool. My cousin had left me two surfboards to bring back to Los Angeles, wohoo!

Amazing open faced prawn sandwich and a beer for lunch with my parents! Why don’t we get these kind of prawns in Los Angeles?

We picked up my sisters kids from school after lunch and drove down to the very south of Sweden and Ale Stenar in Kåseberga. Last time I was there was 27 or so years ago and all I remembered was the photo we had of me and my brother and sister sitting on one of the stones, so I was super excited to go back!

The little fishing village of Kåseberga of the southern coast of Sweden. The stones is just a short 10 minute hike up the hill.

Germany and Poland is there somewhere across the sea.

All these years, I thought this was gravesite and a Viking king was buried here. But it turns out they don’t really know what this thing is all about. It’s 59 large boulders that are raised in the shape of a ship and it’s laid out so that the sun sets over the two main stones during the summer and winter solstice, suggesting it is a form of a calendar. It apparently also has some connections to the Stonehenge in England. They think this thing was made about year 600 CE.

What do you do when you are 6 years old and you see a bunch of large stones? You climb them!

I think my niece is obsessed with butts. But why not, butts are cool!

Busy Saturday

July 27, 2013 by popnea

I really like waking up without an alarm clock on the weekends, totally recharged! Started off the weekend with a hike up the stairs. I have a love-hate relationship with these stairs.

Came back home and noticed my ginger had started to sprout! Turned out to be really easy to grow ginger, just dig the root in some dirt with plenty of water and let it sit for a couple of weeks and you will see magic!

Since I still haven’t learned how to turn when I surf, I ding up the board pretty bad. I finally got a chance to bring it in to the shop today. I should start surfing where there’s no rocks so I don’t have to spend all my money getting the surfboard fixed up.

I’ve heard about “Fridays off the 405” that lately has turned into “Saturdays off the 405” at the Getty Center, but have never been.
Geographer was playing today so we headed up there to check it out.
Parking was crazy and the beers were $10 (as expected), but it doesn’t really matter, because it is a free event and it’s fun!

The views from the Getty Center is always spectacular. Heavy fog over LA today though, so we couldn’t see anything, which is still kind of cool since it doesn’t happen that often.