How Chinese food is going to change my life.

For maximum effect of this blog post scroll to the bottom and start the YouTube video for the sound and let it play quietly in the background while you read!

Really? Sweet! So now what? Do I make a list? Is there someplace I go to redeem this like a coupon? Do I go sit out in the desert smoke peyote and wait for my power animal to deliver me a message?

Fortune cookies are the best - they just have a way of uplifting your spirits even if for only a minute. They also have a way of making you think about things - they do for me at least. I mean I'm not talking about massive deep introspection life soul searching or anything serious like that just more like thought of the day type stuff. This particular fortune cookie got me thinking about astrology of all things - something I've never really believed in. A couple of weeks ago I was with some friends and a book about relationships between people of different astrological signs came off a shelf while we were working our way through a couple bottles of wine. We had fun with it and I glossed over it but as it was being read aloud it described some things about me (a Gemini) that were pretty dead on and I was intrigued. One evening when I was at home not doing anything constructive I did some internetting on my astrological sign just to see what it said and if it described me at all. I have to admit, again, that there were a lot of "the Gemini is...", "the Gemini feels...", " the Gemini desires..." points that I could pretty easily relate to and see in myself. Kind of creepy actually especially when you don't generally subscribe to those sorts of beliefs. I looked at is as keeping an open mind and just a lighthearted way to spend some time in an evening other than watching TV. This isn't meant to mean that I'm now reading my daily horoscope and walking around saying things like "Oh Saturn's moon is in the shadow of Uranus so I can't eat cheese right now" or anything like that.

Hearts desire? Sure my heart has desires just like everyone else. Some I already have, am grateful for and desire not to lose. Then there are those just sitting there waiting for the planets to align.

I'm going for a run :)

- Drew

Life Lessons I Learned From My Passport

My Passport, a bunch of coins and paper money from various countries, beer labels from various countries, my camera, sunglasses, a surfboard fin, a stone from the beach in New Zealand, and a scrap of paper with the phone number and email address of Dave who owns a little surf shop in Nicaragua

There's something that people do a lot that really burns me up. Before I get into it too much though I want to make it clear that I both understand and respect (as well as HAVE) commitments and having responsibilities. So please don't tell me I don't understand
I don't know if I hate it or if it bothers me or if it makes me feel bad for people or maybe a combination of all of the above when people say "I wish I could do that" or "I can't do that" or "I can't afford that". Now if your wish is to go stay in the Playboy Fantasy Penthouse in Las Vegas for a month and your job is waiting tables at Ruby Tuesday (I can use that as an example because I waited tables at Ruby Tuesday) you'd better save every nickel and not do anything with your money! Really what I'm talking about is in reference to when I take a trip somewhere and when I get back and people ask me about it. I tell an abbreviated highlighted account of my trip and invariably it's met with "I wish I could do something like that". My response to that comment is just about always "well then do it!" Then I hear the "I can't because..."
When I was like 6 or 7 years old my mom put my brother, Kevin, and I in the car (a 1974 Chevy Nova) and DROVE us from Northern Virginia to Veracruz, Mexico. Why in the hell would a sane smart woman do such a thing? Well simple, because she wanted to go, she wanted to take us, and she couldn't afford to fly us all there. We stayed in cheap hotels on the way, crashed with people she knew along the way, ate dry Cheerios from plastic baggies in the car. When we got to Mexico we stayed with family members and family friends. I don't honestly remember much from that trip because I was so young but I do remember climbing the Aztec pyramid of the Sun and being in Mexico City and walking through an art museum, playing in a fountain in Veracruz to get some relief from the Mexican summer heat, playing soccer in the street with my long lost cousins, and smacking at a piñata at a birthday party for someone that I didn't know and I'm sure didn't know me. The point is that my mom wanted to go and she didn't have the means to do it the "safe" way so she went the way she could manage and even now 30 years later I remember the trip and I remember it being fun. That's not to say that there weren't problems. We got a flat tire in the desert in the shadow of a really gnarly mountain range. Mom knew how to change a tire so it started off as not a big deal but she made the mistake of not putting something solid under the car jack and the partially jacked car shifted on the jack and jammed the jack so there was nothing she could do to reset the jack. I remember my little brother being asleep in the back seat of the car and my mom telling me to take off my shirt and use it to try to flag down a car to help us while she tried to get the jack free. Her last comment to me was "watch out for snakes" Needless to say I have a bit of an issue with snakes to this day. Mom wasn't scared or maybe she was but just decided to go anyway the point is that she took a chance on a crazy but great trip and it worked out great.

When I travel now I can't help but think that I pretty much use the same template. Decide on a destination and connect the dots however I can make it happen using the resources I have available. The biggest resource almost always turns out to be someone I know. You have a different relationship with every person you know and sometimes you may feel strange asking someone to pick you up at the airport or if you can crash on their couch for a night or more but if you don't put yourself out there and ask, what might you miss out an opportunity to see or experience?? I asked a friend in Costa Rica that I didn't know all that well if I could crash on her couch for a night or two while I found a longer term place I could afford. I found a place but was then told to cancel it and stay there and ever since they've always insisted I stay with them. I do dishes, keep my things straight, clean up after myself, pitch in for groceries, show up with drinks, and make myself scarce so I'm not in the way. If I hadn't asked that time I would have found a place to stay and would have had a great time but I did ask so now I have some great friends and contacts as well! I don't know - this isn't the most coherent of blog posts, it sounded much better in my head. I guess the point is that whatever it is you want you have to decide how important it is to you then do it. Don't make excuses, don't say "I can't" don't whine and moan about it being hard and damn sure don't doubt yourself or be scared. If you want to do something - do it. Commit. Want to lose weight - stop eating fried chicken, have a salad and start running. Want to run a marathon - buy some shoes and start training. Want to open a surf shop - quit your stupid job and put everything you have into it. Want to buy a Ferrari and date Playboy models - work your ass off in school get a super high paying job or design the next iPhone and buy till your heart's content.

Chances are no one is gonna do it for you so you've got to go get it. Whatever "IT" is. Me? I want to see, touch, feel, smell, taste and most importantly know firsthand. Lemme know if you want to come with - it's always fun to have company :D

~Drew

Ketchup Covered Ridiculousness

Yeah that's right New Years resolution you are my bitch! Two weeks two blog posts I own you, I rule, I am the undisputed champion of the internet. Buy my ass a cape and name a holiday after me - maybe call it Drewski Blogtacular Day. It can be celebrated yearly by forming a line at my front door and bringing me delicious treats and nutritious meals that I can pop out of the freezer and heat up supplying me with a full year of sustenance so I no longer need to cook ever again. Your way of thanking me for providing you with such captivating entertainment - yeah you're welcome. I realize that the reality is probably more like everyone lacing up steel toed boots and getting in line to come give me a thorough ass kicking but don't do it. Please. Please don't do that it sounds really painful and the truth is that I'd probably cry and get my blood all over your really nice boots and no one wants that.

So on Wednesday Kevin, Debbie, and I flew down to Orlando, FL for Surf Expo - something we do every year around this time. This is the closest thing we have to a "business trip" - oh yeah we can write it off our taxes and everything it's legit. Except that when you walk through the entrance this is the first thing you see:

Now while I realize that we all know that this woman's masters degree in marketing is being put to work here promoting a product of not only economic but social and humanitarian significance I think we need to discuss the obvious problem with the execution. The QR code on her shirt is very likely not going to be properly read because that shirt is wrinkled. I realize that she was in a rush to get out there because she forgot about her pants but the wrinkled QR code is going to ruin an otherwise genius idea.

I love the concept of models. It's like putting ketchup on a crappy hotdog to make it taste better.

Scan it - c'mon do it I dare you!!
What's so special about ketchup? Nothing that's what - it's a bunch of tomatoes liquified then a lot of the water cooked out of them add salt & sugar to make it taste better then squirt it on said crappy hotdog to make IT taste better. In the end you just wind up eating two crappy things. What are models? Generally self absorbed, insecure, personality deprived, unintelligent bitches stripped down and painted up to make you look past their inability to have any kind of meaningful human interaction then plopped down next to some crappy product to make IT look better. Ever see a hot model posing it up in a Mercedes ad? Or a Dewey Weber surfboard ad? Nope - because those are quality products that can stand alone without ketchup smeared all over them to make 'em taste better. When we first started our shop I found that I had a really difficult time looking at the women's clothing lines because I couldn't look past the models - everything looked good to me. You could send these girls out in a manure stained coffee sack trimmed out in zip ties, and speaker wire and I'd be writing an order for 50 in each color. Thank God Debbie has been in charge of women's ordering since the beginning and that I've since realized that models just get in the way of doing real work. And really does anyone want to have a relationship with these girls? Date - sure but c'mon, when you're out to dinner laying groundwork I'm willing to bet there aren't any plans to finish construction beyond the plumbing (damn that was good metaphor - I'm telling you, Drewski Blogtacular Day - gonna happen!)

The Date with the Smokin Hot Model

Fade in: Interior, dimly lit fashionable Asian fusion restaurant in up & coming hip urban neighborhood. A semi attractive man smartly dressed sits with a Smokin Hot woman in a small booth with cocktails. They have just placed a dinner order and their waiter (dressed in skin tight jeans and a black beanie) walks away with their menus.

Dude: "You look lovely tonight?"

Smokin Hot Model (SHM): "Awwwww thanks!" (brushes hair over her ear then straightens it back over on both sides taking a quick glance at the ends)

Dude: "So that QR code was a brilliant idea today at the Expo you really must have noticed a bump in the website metrics!"

SHM: "QR code? I look at Fahrenheit - cuz that's how we do it in America metrics are for Europe and all they know how to do is shoes haha"

Dude: "Yeahhh ha you're right." "So how long have you be modeling?"

SHM: "Oh wow I've been doing it for, like, ever"

Dude: "That's great! You're really cut out for it. So what about long term? What kind of plans do you have?"

SHM: "Oh well I'm working on my portfolio still but I met this really great photographer in a club last weekend who said he'll shoot my photos for free! He's got a studio at his house - I just have to schedule a time to go over there and do it! But I'm doing these expos for now to get some exposure and once my portfolio is done I'm gonna put in for some magazine gigs and get an agent and... (dude drifts off to fondly thinking about his most recent dental work and the time he was beaten near to death by a mass of people in steel toed boots while SHM's master plan of modeling world domination unfolds across the table from him)

Fade to dude dream sequence: The camera is tight on SHM's mouth jabbering away then to dude who casually glances under the table at SHM's perfectly shaped legs, he takes her leg into his hand and sensually runs it down her calf and slowly removes the stiletto heel from her foot firmly grasping her heel in his hand then plunges the heel into his own neck and slits his throat from ear to ear to end his suffering.

Fade out of dream sequence to smiling guy who realizes he is still alive and drops his head into his hands.

My Very Tall Friend Benny & Very Short Sister-in-Law Debbie

Was that too much? I can, and do, appreciate a beauty as much as anyone else but c'mon some of these girls need to get their heads out of their asses and don't even get me started on male models - except Derek Zoolander duh he's rad.

Long story short, Surf Expo was great as always and we're looking forward to 2012 and having some killer stuff in the shop. We went out to some fantastic meals and had some laughs and made some contacts and generally got a lot of work done. My friend, Adam, was there for his first Surf Expo showing his new line East Coast Original Surfers (check it out it's cool! Website, Facebook) and it was cool to see his reaction to the enormity of Surf Expo as well as him hustling to get his new little company started on a very large industry stage. I wish him the best of luck.

Can't wait to see how much hate mail I get about how models are people too. Let me answer you now: "I know they aren't all stupid", "Yes I most certainly CAN date a hot girl but she needs to be able to hold a conversation or I don't want to date her", "What exactly do you think I'm jealous of?", and "Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about but maybe I do, why do you even care?"

Have a great week!

Drew

Happy New Year You Arrogant Prick!

I'm not entirely sure what started my train of though leading up to this blog post but at some point I had a moment of thought where I wished I could kick myself in the face. I suppose I have had quite a bit of ambivalence towards the concept of New Years resolutions mostly because of what I always hear from people: I want to lose weight, I want to stop cursing so much, I want to remodel my kitchen - whatever it is. While I don't want to discount anything that's important to people I have to say that it's always seemed to me like the things I hear are either really superficial or just said to try to impress the people they're telling. I have to admit that I haven't made ANY New Years resolutions that I can remember for the past several years and the reason I would give you is that I was unimpressed with what I heard from others and didn't want to be part of that method of thinking. So at some point over the past week or so I've been thinking about it and I've come to the conclusion that I'm an arrogant prick. Maybe instead of being so concerned with boycotting the status quo I should have been looking inside myself for the things I need to change or improve. This made a lot of sense to me - hell resolutions should be about self improvement or improvement for the greater good and there's no reason why I can't make a resolution(s) that accomplish that without broadcasting it to the world... Oh crap... Now I really feel like an ass. Certainly that's what most people do right? I mean if my resolution is to be more tolerant of people, for example, that isn't something that I'm seeking credit for so I wouldn't even say it out loud - yet if I wanted to lose 20lbs I would probably announce that so when I started looking slim & trim people would take notice and compliment me. So there it is, I welcome the New Year with the realization that I'm an arrogant prick - I've not made resolutions to change anything about myself and yet I'm far from perfect. Before you click over to your Facebook friend list to unfriend me though I will say that I do try on a daily basis to do what I can to be a good person, a constructive member of the world, and practice what I preach health & exercise-wise and I think that, for the most part, covers the large majority of what resolutions generally revolve about.

So here's my resolution - well my PUBLIC resolution: I resolve to have resolutions - I've come up with a few things that are important to me that I'm going to either change, improve upon, or strive towards but they aren't things that I expect to receive recognition for - hopefully I'll feel good though and can make some people in my life feel good as well. Another thing, I'm writing a blog post once a week period. That's 52 blog posts in 2012 and if Saturday or Sunday rolls around and you're looking for a blog post from me but haven't seen one please call me out on it! I'm gonna start right now. This whole self chastising resolution rant doesn't count!

Blog post #1 of 2012:

Happy New Year!! What a crazy year 2011 was and I'm sure 2012 will have surprises of its own but I'm really looking forward to seeing what it holds! First a couple of highlights & lowlights of 2011:

-Rang in 2011 in Orlando, FL

-Took a long surf trip to New Zealand

-Got into arguably the best shape of my life

-Tore cartilage in my knee

-Had surgery on aforementioned knee

-Ran a respectable finish in a 10K 8 weeks following surgery

-Bought a piece of property for my business

-Had to seek legal counsel related to the property purchase

- Began construction of a new building for my business

There was a lot in between but those were the standout items of 2011 as I remember them at the moment. 2011 ended pretty crazy for me as well leading right into 2012. My brother, Kevin, and I closed up our shop just before the Christmas holiday like we always do but then we had to completely empty the building where Hatteras Island Boardsports has resided since 2002. For the most part this went really smoothly but it was a lot of work and wasn't so fun but we put our heads down and powered through it in about 3 days of packing, storing, trashing, & recycling. No sooner were we finished (on Dec 30th) than I jumped in my car, back still throbbing from carrying heavy boxes, and drove up to Raleigh for the night with my cousins then up the following morning, New Years Eve, at 4am to make a 6am flight to Austin, Texas to visit my friend, Amanda, and her sister, Laura, for New Years. I treated myself to a first class upgrade for the long portion of the trip from Raleigh, NC to Houston, TX and fell promptly asleep but woke up just in time to look out my window to see the day breaking on the last day of the year - it was pretty and made me smile. I was supposed to be in Houston at about 8:30am then fly out at 10:30 and be in Austin at 11:30am but tiny droplets of water made a mess of this. Fog delayed my flight out of Houston, then they changed the gate, then they delayed it longer, then delayed it longer still, then changed the gate again, then apparently played rock/paper/scissors over where the plane was even going to go and finally cancelled my flight to Austin. I dragged my tired ass to a very long line expecting to be told that I'd be put on another flight or at the worst that I'd have to rent a car and drive the 3 hours to Austin and stood quietly and watched customer after customer walk away from the counter with disgusted looks on their faces. There were some irate folks spewing some pretty hateful verbiage towards the poor people manning the counters and I decided that whatever happened to me I was going to be nice about it. When I finally had my turn at the desk I tried to smile and said simply "rough day huh?" to the woman behind the counter. Somehow by the will of (insert your favorite religious icon's name here) she managed to get me on the last available seat on the last available flight to Austin.

Upon arrival in Austin (at 8:30PM!! When I was supposed to be there at 11:30AM!!) I was shocked to find my bag patiently waiting for me completely intact - this was a concern because I was traveling dressed comfortably but not appropriately to go out on New Years Eve. Amanda had actually gone to the mall and purchased clothes for me to wear in case my bag didn't come - the stakes were serious I'm telling you.

Ok so here I am, 9 ish pm CST, been up since 4am EST, and I'm getting ready to go out for NYE. Anyone who's ever been out with me for New Years knows that I don't sit quietly in my pj's dozing and trying to keep my eyes open long enough to see the ball fall on TV. Amanda very politely offered to let me rest while she got ready to go out but I declined, got myself showered and dressed and started sipping on a cocktail. Between then and the next morning was a typical New Years blur of drinks, dancing, drinks, photos, drinks, a boisterous recognition of Happy New Year, and... well... drinks.

New Years day was beautiful and, although it got off to quite a rough start, we managed to retrieve the car from downtown Austin where we abandoned it for a cab ride home, have a little nutrition to revive our abused bodies and throbbing heads, have a fantastic brunch at Moonshine Grill and even take a nice walk on the Greenbelt

Rather than recount my entire trip to Austin I'll just say that it's a fantastic city. If you're the get outside and run/bike/swim/hike type you'll love it. People out running & biking everywhere and the sidewalks, trails & pedestrian lanes & bridges to support it. There was a playground my niece & nephew would have loved and it was swarming with hundreds of kids having a blast. All the restaurants had tons of different and healthy & vegetarian choices on the menu - I guess this might be expected in the city where Whole Foods is headquartered. Austin is also renowned for its music scene. South By Southwest is a huge music & film festival that takes place in early spring that I've always wanted to go to but have an even greater renewed interest in now that I've spent some time in Austin. Austin City Limits is another music festival which is supposed to be great as well.

I generally think of Texas as a haven for meat eating, Wal-Mart shopping, ultraconservative, racist, oil drilling, ravenous football fans (yeah that was a bit exaggerated I admit) but that's not what Austin is so I highly recommend it.

Alright I'm gonna leave it there for now - remember to stay on my back about posting once a week it's good for me to vocalize what I'm up to. Even though I leave a lot of stuff out of the post for personal reasons when I read back over it I remember for myself everything that I didn't write down and hopefully the people I shared those experiences with remember as well. Happy 2012! I hope yours started as well as mine has and I hope we all have a great year!

Just for fun

My dad sent me the following email joke thingie and, although I've seen it before, I think it's pretty funny. Enjoy!

- Drew

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend5.0 to Husband1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend5.0.

In addition, Husband1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as NBA5.0, NFL3.0 and GolfClubs 4.1.

Conversation8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning2.6 simply crashes the system. Please note that I have tried running Nagging5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,

Desperate.





DEAR DESPERATE,

First, keep in mind, Boyfriend5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband1.0 is an operating system.

Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html, try to download Tears6.2, and do not forget to install the Guilt3.0 update. If those applications work as designed,
Husband1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry2.0 and Flowers3.5.

However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, HappyHour 7.0, or Beer6.1.

Please note that Beer6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Farting and Snoring Loudly Beta.


Whatever you do,
DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)

In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend5.0 program. This is an unsupported application and will crash Husband1.0.

In summary, Husband1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software
to improve memory and performance. We recommend Cooking3.0 and Hot Lingerie7.7.


Good Luck!

Tech Support

Beer and Grammar - Love and Hate

I like beer. I like the taste of it and I enjoy tasting different beers. Back in college one Christmas my mom got me a beer making kit - a really basic one and I made a brown ale that turned out ok considering it was the beer making equivalent of buying a boxed brownie mix at the supermarket. Several years later I was thinking about it and decided that I wanted to get back into making my own beer so I bought a few things to take my home brewing operation to a more "from scratch" level. Really that just amounts to buying a big pot, a couple of food quality buckets, a glass carboy, thermometer, and a couple special pieces. *If you're interested you can go Homebrewer's Outpost where you can buy or see the type of kit that I'm talking about* I made a couple different beers and always enjoyed the fruits of my labors as well as the process of making them. When I met my buddy Andy in Hatteras and found out that he also had a passion for brewing as well as some equipment he and I both started working together making and sampling beers together. There are a lot of Craft Breweries and Micro Breweries that I like but one of my favorites is Dogfish Head which is located in Southern Delaware in a town called Milton just inland from Rehoboth beach. My Dad and Step-mom have a beach house in Ocean City, MD and it's only about a 40 minute drive to the Dogfish Head brewery in Milton so this past weekend my friend Benny and I went up and took the brewery tour. It's a great tour with a cool gift shop and at the end of the tour they give you some samples to try out - sweet! A production brewery really isn't any different from what I do back in my kitchen except they are obviously a much larger scale. After the tour (and dropping a phone/sat/internet bill in the gift shop) we made our way over to Rehoboth where Dogfish Head has a brewpub restaurant. The cool thing about Dogfish Head being a small company is that they still use their Rehoboth brewpub location as their test facility. Here they brew smaller batches of beers and use their restaurant as a test facility so as a customer you get to try something that isn't available in stores (and DFH is already hard to find in stores) and it makes great sense from a business standpoint as well. Long story short we had a fun excursion - like a field trip for grown men. Come to think of it maybe DFH should consider having their waitresses in cheerleader outfits and install a pole... naaaaa that would distract from the beer.

Panoramic of the Dogfish Head Brewery

The Fermentation Tanks - where a weird tea becomes beer

Ok a major peeve here that I've got to get off my chest. I know that the English language isn't super easy and we have lots of things that are confusing - "i before e except after c", silent letters, etc. I also realize that text messaging has spawned usage of abbreviations to make composing messages easier and more efficient even if it means incorrect grammar and I use it as well in texts ("c" instead of "see", "u" instead of "you" - "c u l8tr" is much more efficient to send via text than "see you later") So please understand that's not my issue.

My issue is the rampant incorrect usage of a bunch of simple words - most commonly the "Their, There, They're" group, the "Two, To, & Too" group, and "Are, Our" (that one really gets me!) So here's a refresher course in case you're one of those using the wrong word in the wrong context and please also understand that this is a personal pet peeve not a character assassination of anyone! If you find yourself getting offended look at it this way - if you misuse these words in a job application or a proposal to a client it could cost you the job!

There: Describes Location as in: "Where is it?" "It's over THERE"

Their: Describes possession by them as in: "This is THEIR sweet car"

They're: Contraction for "They Are" as in: "THEY'RE going to the mall"

"They're driving over there in their sweet car" translates into: "Those people are driving to a location in a sweet car that they own" and makes perfect sense!

Moving on to too, to, two!

Too: Also, as well, or an expression of excess as in: "I love tacos TOO" and "Those tacos had TOO much hot sauce"

To: Indicates direction or intent as in: "I want TO give this TO you before you go TO the gym"

Two: Spelled out number 2 as in: "I want TWO tacos please"

"I'd like TO order TWO tacos TO go but not with TOO much cheese please!" "Hey I'd like TWO tacos TOO thank you!" Got it?!

"Our" and "Are" being used interchangeably if you're out of the 7th grade (in my opinion) is inexcusable and either you need to go back to 7th grade or all your teachers need a smack on the back of the head!

I think in light of all the talk about immigrants "knowing the language" it's important that we (US citizens) also know the language which, in my mind, means being able to read and write as well as speak it!

I suppose I've probably made some grammatical mistakes through this blog post and I realize that my rant about the usage of Their, They're, There & To, Too, Two will probably open myself up to scrutiny of my use of punctuation and grammar and that's fine. Like I said at the beginning - it's a major pet peeve of mine! Have a good evening!

-Drew

Food first?

** A preliminary note to the reader: If you're hungry you might want to grab a bite to eat before you start reading this then fix a drink and make yourself comfortable! **

Holy moly is there a lot to talk about! I suppose that's what happens when you don't blog for nearly 2 months! I left you with Owen the toothless Chihuahua in Orlando and I hope if you haven't already befriended him you'll go back to my Jan 2 post and do that now! Surf Expo back in early January was quite a bit different that what it normally is and I hope reflects an, I believe, much needed shake-up or shift in the surf industry. The absence of Volcom was probably the most notable thing about Surf Expo. When a company like Volcom doesn't come to one of the most important surf industry events of the year you have to wonder if adjustments are going to be made. I've been none too pleased for several years now about the pre booking dates that are being imposed on us, the core shops, in order to satisfy the needs of the big box stores like PacSun and the large national department stores as some of the larger surf brands have continued to increase their presence in the mainstream middle America retail stores. Just last night my brother and I wrote 2 orders for Fall 2011! It's still February - we haven't opened for spring yet and already our reps are sweating because fall orders are "late"?? We used to go to Surf Expo in January and put in our orders for Summer - totally reasonable - but now they're looking for Fall orders to be in to them by the end of January to satisfy their non-surfing mega giant retail. Lame. Anyway our response is to take a look at some smaller brands who are closer to the roots of what the sport & culture is - it's not going to be an all at once thing and the industry giants still will be represented but I really hope that if all the smaller shops, like us, are taking a similar approach it will send a message to the big boys that the PacSun's of the world exist because we paved the way for them.

The Orange County Convention Center

Anyway I was in Orlando visiting my friend, Claudia, and doing the New Years warm weather thing and then moving over to International Drive/Orange County Convention Center for Surf Expo where my brother was supposed to meet me for the long Expo weekend. A few days before I get a call from Kevin back in North Carolina telling me that he's in bed sick and that if he doesn't get better soon he's not going to be able to fly down. Needless to say he doesn't get better so I end up doing Expo alone. Not the end of the world because there are plenty of people around that I know and I have no problem meeting people so socially I'm fine. The issue is that this show generates a lot of paper and "stuff". I end up with my backpack FULL every day and that gets heavy for 1 person not to mention trying to haul everything back home on the plane - I'll get back to that. I met with a bunch of our existing reps and spent a lot of time just poking around looking for new & interesting things. It's amazing all the different types of products relevant to the surf industry: Surfboards, bodyboards, skimboards, skateboards, clothing, shoes, watches, sunglasses, waterproof cameras, retail software, sunscreen, health products, energy drinks, energy bars, energy supplements, books, magazines, etc, etc, etc and they're all represented at this huge show incredibly under 1 massive roof. The nighttime social networking (read partying!) is not far removed from a college party and in many instances makes a college party look like Sunday Tea with the Red Hat Society ladies. I'll run into a rep and stand and chat with him in a bar while a 6' bikini clad model comes by with shots of some kind of promotional tequila/rocket fuel energy drink combination followed by another rep friend with an armful of beers. Then the band will start up and the under 21's who snuck in start a mosh pit just as we're all getting into a good discussion about how PacSun and Hollister are ruining the industry.The next morning I'm meeting the same guys in the, by comparison, mellow environment of Surf Expo and we are all looking at each other thinking how nice it would be if the ringing in our ears would stop and people would quit talking about tequila. Meanwhile the 6' model comes out in a fresh bikini for her day job and snickers an all knowing crooked grin in our direction. This is my job people!

Surf Expo Shenanigans

The massive crowd at the All '80's Skate Jam with Tony Hawk, Christian Hosoi & more

Without giving anything away I saw some really great stuff at Surf Expo and am excited about the 2011 season. The night before my last full day I sat down with all the stuff I had accumulated at the show and started packing up my bags so I'd be ready to head to the airport for my 6am flight out the following day. I weeded out a lot of stuff that we didn't need and threw a lot in the trash (a total waste of paper by the way - we need to start doing this digitally people and I know how to get it done!!) but it became quickly obvious that there was no way I was getting everything I needed into my bags to carry home. After a mini panic I went to the trusty iPhone and found the nearest post office - gathered up everything and shipped it home - crisis averted. With Surf Expo over I fly back to DC on January 9th (I was staying with my Dad after Christmas and went to Florida from there) and make it back with plenty of time to catch the football games and relax on the couch after an exciting 10 days in Orlando.
The next thing on the agenda is my trip to New Zealand on January 13th! The 10th I spend doing laundry and mentally laying out what I need to take and still get for my trip and I hang out with my dad and just kind of chill. Tuesday Morning the 11th I wake up with a little sore throat - nothing that would concern me normally but I'm about to fly half way around the world in 2 days so I AM a little concerned but I decide to get done what I need to do and see how the days goes. A light raincoat and a New Zealand plug adapter are the top things on my list and a quick trip over to the Annapolis mall takes care of that & my dad joins me so we have lunch & a nice father/son afternoon. My throat isn't any worse but it's still there and I tell dad that I think I'm going to go to the doctor when we get back to the house just to be sure. I normally don't go to the doctor unless I feel it's absolutely necessary so my intuition must have been kicking in because a strep throat test comes back positive (insert expletive laden panic thoughts here!) I tell the doctor that I'm supposed to be flying out at 8am in 2 days for New Zealand and he tells me that it shouldn't be a problem because I've obviously caught it early and he's going to give me a good strong antibiotic to knock it out - I want to kiss the guy but then he'd probably get strep too and that's no good! Thursday morning the 13th comes along and my throat is feeling better just a minor tickle at this point but now my head is stuffed up and I'm blowing my nose like mad. Has anyone ever flown with congested sinuses? I have before and I can tell you that the pain is akin to having people standing on either side of you taking turns firing nail guns into your temples, forehead, and eyes. Forget strep throat I've got some serious flying ahead of me (20 + hours worth!) and that's going to be Medieval style torture if I don't get this pressure thing under control. Fortunately CVS is just a 5 minute drive from my dad's house and on the way to the airport so I grab a couple different decongestants, a huge bottle of water, a couple bottles of grapefruit juice and a multivitamin and, looking like a total hypochondriac, I head off to the airport hydrating and popping pills. By the time I get to the airport my eyes have receded back into their sockets and my head is feeling much more air travel worthy but I'm still a little nervous simply because I don't ever want to feel that sinus pressure/air travel pain combo again in my life. The first leg of my journey is a 5 hour flight to Las Vegas and fortunately my cocktail of hydration and drugs is doing its job - life is good. From Vegas I'm supposed to have a 3 hour layover before flying to San Francisco but that turns into a 5 hour layover (this will be important later). My flight to San Francisco finally leaves and what was supposed to be a 3 hour layover in San Francisco is now only a 1 1/2 hour layover made even better because my ticket to Auckland, New Zealand is in Business Class so I have access to the Air New Zealand lounge where I get a snack, and geek it up on my iPhone a bit before boarding the plane for the 13 hour flight to Auckland. I'm not going to post a photo of the seat I had because that would just be obnoxious - if you're interested Google Air New Zealand Business Premiere Seat. I have to say up front that I didn't pay to fly in Business - I had a ton of frequent flyer miles so I used them for this trip to New Zealand and when I booked it Business was the only seat available that I could use my ff miles. This was the most incredible "seat" on a plane ever. It lay completely flat so when you wanted to go to sleep you pushed a button and the seat transformed into a bed and there was a pad provided that you roll out to sleep on and a blanket and real pillow to sleep on. The food and entertainment system were incredible and they even gave you a little gift pack with a toothbrush, toothpaste, face soap, & other things to make you more comfortable - an absolutely unreal travel experience and especially nice since I wasn't feeling 100%.
Remember I said that my layover & delay in Vegas would be important later? When I arrived in Auckland and was waiting for my bag I realized after a bit that I was the only person standing around the baggage carousel and didn't have my bag. Apparently because of the delay in Vegas my bag didn't make it on to the flight to Auckland so I did all the song & dance with the luggage folks so they'd get my bag to me and proceeded on through customs. I had a ton of time to kill in the Auckland airport until my last flight to Gisborne and fortunately I was again permitted access to the Air New Zealand lounge because I had flown in on Business class. The lounge was a Godsend because I was tired and hungry and the lounge had food and comfy couches on which to sleep as well as a good wifi connection - if only they had a change of clothes for me. My flight to Gisborne was on a small prop plane with 1 seat on either side of the isle - a far sight from my last flight but the short trip in the middle of the afternoon was awesome. The view of the lush, green, mountainous landscape from the plane was fantastic & I would have been happy to just fly around for another hour just for the view.

As we descended into Gisborne we circled out over the Pacific Ocean on our approach and I could see the surf hitting the beach - my friend Euan had been telling me that they were expecting a swell around the same time I was arriving.
I met Euan a few years ago in Costa Rica - we were both by ourselves and ended up sharing a room in Rancho Grande in Playa Hermosa. Euan was living and working in London at the time and we just kept in touch - this past year he contacted me because a surf shop in his hometown of Gisborne, New Zealand was for sale, he was considering buying it and just wanted to pick my brain about surf shop ownership. He ended up buying the shop and moving back to New Zealand and was nice enough to host me for my trip. So Euan picked me up at the airport in Gisborne and tells me that there's swell hitting all over and that we're going over to his shop then we're going to go get a surf. I tell him about my bag being lost so he grabs a wetsuit from the shop and we head over to his family's house in Wainui. Euan has only been back in New Zealand for a year so he's been staying with his parents, Carnie and Ivan, while he looks for a place of his own and I knew that their place was beachfront but nothing more. When we got to the house it was gorgeous - right in the middle of Wainui beach and, while I was expecting to be in a spare bedroom or on a couch, they have a guest apartment for me to stay in with a view out over the ocean that I literally don't even need to get out of bed to check the surf. I'm stoked to say the least!

Seriously? I'm staying here??

And that's my view huh? That'll do I suppose

My first surf is just a few minutes drive up the road at Centers in Makorori. The waves are head high to a pinch overhead and peeling down the rock reef - nothing better for clogged sinuses than clean right handers! A couple of duck dives later I'm sitting in the lineup of maybe half a dozen guys and another minute later a set comes right to me and I stroke into a clean open faced green wall, pump off the bottom & do a couple of mellow easy turns and pop off the back and paddle back out - surf trips don't start much better than this even if your luggage is lost!
I can't possibly recount every day and every surf session because I was there for 25 days and it would take forever and I'm sure no one wants to read all that detail anyway. Suffice to say I surfed a lot of really spectacular waves: Chalet, North Makorori, Wainui, and Tuamotu Island. The Island I surfed twice and on consecutive days very early in my trip. It's close enough to shore that you can paddle out but far enough that it's a bitch to paddle out! The first time out there I went with on of Euan's employees, Smudge. Heading out it was low tide - you park in the lot at Sponge Bay, jump the fence into a cowfield then walk a short trail down the bluff to a rocky beach, a short walk along the shoreline then into the water and you can wade most of the way over to the island but it takes forever because you have to wear shoes and be careful about placing your feet so you don't twist an ankle. Some parts are deep enough that you paddle then you walk again until you get all the way to the shore on the island. Again it's pretty rocky and you're on the wrong side of the island so you have to walk around the island and stash your shoes and then you're finally ready to paddle out. Like I said, it's a bitch but he waves are totally worth it - perfectly peeling lefthanders that break into a channel and allow you to paddle back out without having to duck dive at all unless a larger set comes through. Coming back the tide had come in so there was no wading and we had to paddle the whole way. After surfing for a couple hours the 35 minute paddle back made my shoulders feel like freshly ground beef. The second time I went out there was with Euan the following morning and we took a different approach. We went down to the sandy beach of Sponge Bay with standup paddleboards and put our shortboards on the front and paddled over to the island. This was an overall longer route but on the SUP's it only took 10 or 15 minutes to get over to the island and once there we tied the SUP's up to a crayfish pot buoy outside the lineup then paddled into the wave zone on the shortboards. This time we were the only 2 out and even though the waves weren't quite as good as the previous day and not as consistent, they did come in 2 wave sets so we'd each catch one then paddle back out together - a great session.

The Island

The most standout surf I had was on Thursday the 27th of January though and right out front of the house in Wainui. We were expecting a swell and got up early to find it hitting at 6-8 feet with 10 foot plus sets. Euan had the day off of work so it was particularly great for him because prior to my arrival there hadn't been any swell in weeks. We surfed a morning session with a friend, Zoe, from up the street then took a break and had a nice big breakfast and were sitting on the lawn watching the waves continue to roll in and digesting when we realized that the wind was still offshore with no sign of it shifting. We suited back up and went out for another session for a few more hours until it was time to break for lunch. Another friend, Sophie, joined us for our 3rd and 4th sessions of the day and we all finally collapsed in the back yard with some beers barely able to lift our arms, sunburned, exhausted, and all with huge smiles on our faces. The wind never switched and the swell was perfect all day - it was a tripmaker of a day and one I will never forget. The entire trip for that matter was unforgettable, I made a lot of great new friends, relaxed, surfed, spent a lot of time on a bicycle riding around and was even able to help Euan at his shop, Blitz, a little - I cannot wait to go back to New Zealand and highly recommend you go visit as well.

Jan 27 at Sunrise

Midday

Done!

Circadian Dysrhythmia
1. Disruption to the body's biological clock caused by a sudden shift in daily rhythm.
Synonyms: jet lag

Now I've been to Europe and have experienced let lag but the jet lag I had when I got back to DC and over the next almost week was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. Completely exhausted but unable to sleep, sleeping for a few hours in the middle of the day, wide awake at 3 & 4 am - just wrecked. I spent a few days at my dad's house then drove down to my mom's house in Virginia where my brother and his family were also visiting and then finally made it back to North Carolina on Valentines Day for a dentist appointment in Kitty Hawk before making the last little drive down Hatteras Island. Pretty much as soon as I got back and after unpacking my bags (which thankfully made it back with me from New Zealand!) I started taking apart my bathroom. I've had a remodeling project in mind and decided to get right to it. Andy gave me a call on my first full day back and we went for a surf in Avon - quite shocking to get back in a heavy wetsuit with hood, gloves, booties but we caught a few decent waves and it's always good to surf with my buddy back home! My brother came over with his reciprocating saw and we cut the shower out of the bathroom and got the rest of the old paneling down then my mom came came down with some odds & ends and I got hard to work rebuilding the bathroom. With my brother's help we got the new shower installed then we hung new underpinning under the entire house and were fortunate to have good weather for the outdoor work. Everything was done in just about a week and it's looking great!

So now what? Well I've got a couple of weeks until the shop opens and my brother and I just have a couple of things to do so I'd like to run out and have a couple of options but am hanging on to hear from different people about their schedules etc before I make any p

lans.
This has been a mammoth of a post and if you've read all the way through I'm impressed!

I've been thinking a lot here recently about all the different forms of social media and how they relate to both business and my personal life. I use Facebook on a daily basis, have a Twitter account that I use sparingly, am building a new website for the shop in easily updatable form, a blog obviously, a Flickr account and a new iPhone 4 with lots of apps so I have all the pieces to be more active and I hope to be so.I know that it'll be a lot easier on me if I do regular small updates rather than a once every 2-3 month novel but I just need to DO IT!! Ugg I hate to admit it but I might need some help with this - any suggestions?! Thanks for hanging in there and I look forward to seeing and hearing from everyone soon.
- Drew