The Last Day of Summer

I wasn't going to let the last day of summer slip away without putting in one more fun surf session.  We took the day off and started heading north.  We could have went straight to my typical fun zone - Dogpatch, but I wanted to check out something new.  My friend Reid has been telling me how fun it's been to surf Cardiff so I figured we should check it out.  When we got there, a mob of surfers were already out on the water.  Usually I don't like surfing when the waves are inundated with surfers, afraid of getting in their way or hitting someone.  I decided that I needed to get over it and just surf it.  I'd have to learn to surf through a crowd sooner or later and now was just a good a time as any.

My Boga never lets me down.  If you look real close-- you can see the swarm of surfers in the water.

It was meant to be.  Some surfers came down from San O saying the beach was closed due to a sewage spill (yuck!).  Plus, I had an awesome time surfing Cardiff.  I charged a couple of pretty big set waves.  I'm so much more comfortable with my surfing that the big waves don't scare me (but I'm not saying I'm ready for Mavericks... or ever will be.)  It ended up being a fun surf session!  I would have surfed longer but my hunger got the best of me.  We  found a cool breakfast spot close by.  Stay tuned for the post about this place.  For now, I've got to go pack my bags for the Philippines (flying out tonight).  From what I hear, there's surf there too :)

"Calgon... Take Me Away!!"

Last week was a crazy, hectic week.  I was working 10-12 hour days.  I wasn't sleeping well.  It was just an exhausting week.  Reminding myself that the weekend was around the corner-- which meant another day of surfing for me, helped get me through this treacherous week.

I took a few shots of some of the boys out in the water:

These boys were rippin' it on these fun, little waves.  I love watching them and taking notes so that some day I could hit ripper status!

It Was a Massacre!

I was driving Saturday morning to Coronado around 9:00am ready to be a spectator and cheerleader for my friends participating in the Chainsaw Massacre in Coronado.  I strained my lower back the weekend before surfing and thought I wasn't up to doing the race like I originally intended.   I also haven't been able to do any SUP training in the past couple of weeks (aside from surfing) so I didn't feel that I would be prepared to compete in the 6.5 miles open ocean race.

The race course was to the point that you see in the background
and then back, through the surf and a run through the blue flags.

But if you truly know me, or have been keeping up with my somewhat inconsistent blog, it's not so easy for me to just sit on the sidelines and watch.  So I did my typical "Liza-move" and hit a u-turn home to pick up my BOGA race board "just in case".  You know how it goes from here...

I got to Coronado, met up with my friends and registered for the race.  I knew it would be grueling but there wasn't much competition in the women's category, so what did I have to lose.  It was a race against the clock.  It was a race against myself.  I really wasn't sure what to expect.

Guess who got 1st place in her division?!  Okay, there were only 5 women in the race and 2 DNFs...  but you know what?,  it was still a great accomplishment to me.  It taught me that with any excuse I could use in the book, I still could finish a race and do well.  It was a tough race.  The chop and wind was crazy as we got closer to the buoy.  I learned that I definitely need more practice out in the open ocean.  I hung in there and didn't fall in once but there is so much I am learning about the ocean through surfing that is helping me with my racing.

I was only supposed to be a cheerleader for my good friends, Kiwi, who won 1st in the SUP stock division and John, who won 3rd in the SUP stock division.  If I'm gonna be a part of this crew, I need to learn not to never be left back waiting on the sand.

Ahhh... Long Weekends

Long weekends are fun until you head to work on Tuesday and need to complete 5 days of work in 4 days. So you need to make the long weekend worth it! I surfed every day at my favorite surf spot, the Dog Patch in San Onofre. Waking up at 4:00am isn't so bad when you know you'll have a prime parking spot, surf all day, BBQ and nap if you need.

If you're a surfer, you know that a huge South swell rolled through last week and the surf was crankin'. Unfortunately, with audits coming up I couldn't squeeze in any time during the week to surf, not even a "sick" day. I was overly-excited to get out on the surf when Saturday finally arrived.

We thought for sure we'd be the first to get into the SanO Beach since we got there around 5:30am. To our surprise, there was a line of cars already waiting. No problem. We were still early enough to get in and find a parking spot.

The surf was pretty junkie Saturday morning but that didn't stop me from going in. It got better as the morning clouds burned off and I "charged it". I went for every wave that I could and as a result, caught a ton of them. I'm practicing my turns and am learning to "pump" up and down the face of the wave.

I hear another big swell may be coming our way this week. I hope to run into you out on the water

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BOGA Does It Again

BOGA has a myriad of fun boards and I recently got to add this one to my quiver:

This is the new version of the 9'2" BOGA Bullet.  It's 9'5" by 30", so it's a little longer and narrower than its predecessor.  I took it out surfing at the Dog Patch today and had a blast!  I had an awesome surf session on this thing.  It's such a fun board.  It really wants to move and it's so easy to maneuver.  And the board was definitely catching people's attention because a few of the guys on the water had to come by and ask me about it.  It must be the fire red... just my style.

Here I am wiping down my new baby after a fun day in the surf!
I can't wait to take it out again!!!

Tahoe-Nalu part II

I loved the energy that was resonating throughout the Tahoe-Nalu event! Everyone was having a good time and was excited about SUP. The competitors were fired up, yet there was a great sense of comradery even if they were rivals. It's always about winning but even if you weren't at the top of the list, you felt like a winner by simply participating. The crowd made everyone feel like winners by cheering on every racer, including the lonely last ones.

The Elite race started at 1:30 pm under the blazing 85*-90* weather, as if it wasn't
bad enough for those who just came to visit and had to acclamize to the altitude.

Danny Ching finished with a huge lead.  Second place came in almost 2 minutes
behind Danny.  And check out that pivot turn.  He does it in one step.

The Elite race was stacked. That was the fastest 6-mile race I've ever witnessed. Of course, Candice Appleby takes the women's division finishing in 40:27 and Danny Ching, no surprise, takes the men's with 35:21. Watching the Elite race gave me a renewed motivation for racing. I took copious mental notes as I studied the racers when they paddled by (I had an awesome view from the pier.) Yesterday I tried to implement and mimic some of what I saw. To my surprise, I made a huge improvement in my time. Granted, it was a perfectly glassy day. I'll continue with the same technique and hope it creates the same results in wind and chop. If so, I may tell you my secret.

Candice Appleby stayed next to one of the keikis during the Grom race to motivate her.

I especially enjoyed watching all the families in action. Each member of the Clark family (John, wife and 2 daughters) joined in on the fun. I was told about John's incident from last year's race when the winds were blowing hard creating huge swells that you could surf. It was his first race, he fell on his board face first, cracked both front teeth but continued to finish the race. He was given the Inspirational SUPer award.  John wore a helmet with a GoPro camera through the entire event.  He filmed everything and everyone.  Watching John's excitement throughout the entire event was contagious.


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The Heat in Tahoe

This past weekend I spent in Lake Tahoe at the Tahoe-Nalu SUP event. I heard all the stories about last year's event-- cold, blown out, and disorganized so I arrived with little expectations. I didn't expect a huge crowd and hoped it wouldn't be as bad as it was last year. On the contrary, the weather was beautiful, the lake was glassy for the race and there were a ton of participants and spectators.




Previously, I've only traveled to Tahoe for snowboarding. I didn't even bother checking out the lake because there was no reason to. With SUPing, you better believe I'll be back during the summer months.

Many families were in attendance. It was great to see so many people trying SUPing for the first time, especially children. I was happy to represent BOGA, who had their demos constantly being picked up for trial by newbies and veterans alike. BOGA boards were catching everyone's attention. (But beware for impostors! I heard someone came out with a line that looks way too similar. Go with the real deal please.)




Here's a pic of team BOGA: (L-R) Trish, Ben, Dino, Me and Dave. An awesome crew of people (including myself :)




There was so much going on at the Tahoe-Nalu that I can't possibly write about it all in one post. Look forward to more stories and photos, including the Elite race.

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Location:Lake Tahoe