weekend fun.

This weekend turned out to be a blast. After the staff meeting on friday, i bailed from school and met Darren on the coast. The weather was perfect. After suiting up, we saw that the sea lion dude was still around from thursday. Poor guy was either sick or injured. I thought that there would be someone to notify or something out here, but i guess the park rangers had already been notified... Just before we were about to jump in the water Nick rolled up. We all headed out, and it was fairly fun. I personally thought the swells were breaking cleaner on thursday, even though there was all that mess from the storm. Nick agreed that it wasn't that great, so we skimmed around for awhile, and just enjoyed the weather.

Saturday woke up around 9am, and rolled up to the beach around 10am. Nick had a laid back lesson to teach. Turns out one of the girls was originally working in NYC, and worked on some high level in the trade center towers. When sept 11 rolled around, she was 15 minutes late to work from being out too late the night before... crazy...
After the lesson, Nick and i headed out to the "outside". Waves were breaking super well. Darren ended up showing up out of nowhere joining us. He was susposed to be at vancouver all weekend. The swells ended up getting pretty big... Darren and i got broke off a couple times dropping in to some 7-8ft waves from the top, haha.
After being in and out of the water for about 4 hours, Nick and i decided we were going to take his canoe to a few of the inland lakes. We stopped at my place to grab a quick bite to eat, and talk to Kim about windsurfing. We went over to his place, and threw the canoe on top of his car. We were headed to "Island Lake" and "Lost Lake" as shown below:

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We cruised Island Lake to the northern end. Then stopped and walked through the woods to Lost Lake. It was super peaceful back there. Nothing but wildlife hanging out. Saw a bald eagle, and a redtailed hawk flying around. After surfing pretty much everyday for a week, my shoulders were killing me on the canoe trip. Nick wasn't in much better shape, haha. My feet have also been taking a beating. There are a bunch of blisters from Travis's size-too-small boots. The tops of my feet have been doing some kind of muscle thing where it's actually kind of hard to walk at times. It has something to do with all the surfing, but just hoping it goes away.

Looking North at Lost Lake


Tree.


Paddling south on Island Lake.


Today, Nick and i decided to take a road trip down to "Short Sands" in Oswald West State Park. It's just south of Cannon Beach and about an hour away. You park off of Hwy 101 and hike about a quarter mile to the beach. The beach is like Waikiki in that it's a cove protected from north and south winds. Immediately upon arriving i saw just how many people there were. It was definitely different than Long Beach. I'd say about 80% of the people there were there to surf. Most of the crowd was younger, and in general it was super laid back. It also helped that there were a bunch of surf babes, ha. The weather was spectacular. After suiting up and heading out i noticed how clear the water was, it was crazy compared to Long Beach. The waves were so clean and amazing, just super smooth and easy to catch. Even though i was intimidated at first with surfing around other surfers, and trying my best with proper etiquette, it turned out to be super chill, and more than enough space for everyone. It was interesting seeing the variety of surfers. From young to old, long boards, to short... There were some dudes that were shredding, including Nick. He let me borrow his 7'6" "hybrid short/long" board. It was amazing... catching waves super well, and having the maneuverability of a shorter board. The entire day was a great experience, and probably the best day I've had surfing yet.
On the way back we stopped in Cannon Beach, and Seaside to stop at a few of the shops and look at boards and other various equipment. Hit up Freddies in Astoria, and purchased all the "trail mix" supplies for my manufacturing class. Crossed the bridge, and headed back up to the peninsula. Good times.

Creek leading out to Short Sands.


People hanging out.


Overlooking Short Sands, cheesy photo, but thanks Nick.