DCC Update - September 2009

The sand loss on Ocean Beach over winter months (July especially) has now been largely recovered. In the interim, the damage to the Reno mattresses (that provides protection to the toe of the dune at Middle Beach) was repaired, as was damage to that section of the rubble wall that had been uncovered. The repaired Reno mattresses and the reinstated rubble wall have been re-covered by sand, and the remaining machinery has now been removed from the beach.

Monitoring of sand levels will go on, and the maintenance regime will also continue on an 'as required' basis as the information gathering process concludes. The Project Team appointed to draft the Long Term Management Plan is now meeting on a regular basis, while the program for completing the studies of the beach, adjacent off shore environment, as well as the eventual preparation of the Plan itself, remains on track.

Ether Monthly #5

Well, sort of- given Mr. Kidman is out here in the US (East Coast) and hard at work he's getting all manner of blog press, so I'll keep it simple. The band is playing, 'Last Hope' is screening and there will be books and shirts for the punter who wants a souvenir. Here's the dates, the shows will undoubtedly be excellent in all conditions. Photos above are AK's quiver from the pages of Glide magazine. Few interesting ones in there, believe me.

-9/28 Monster Island Basement @ Secret Project Robot, 9pm
-9/29 Tiki Bar Long Beach, NY
-9/30 Third Ave Pavillion, Asbury Park NJ, 8pm
-10/1 Corner Store Co-Op, Bellport Village NY, 7pm
-10/2 Ocean Mist, Wakefield Rhode Island, 9pm
-10/3 Grain Surfboards, York Maine. BBQ 3-9pm
-10/4 Ashworth By The Sea, Hampton Beach NH, 7pm

Flex & Torque

Stringerless EPS, carbon rails, flexy tails. Good on ya Mick.
New Yorkers batten down the hatches, Brown Birds From Windy Hill play on the 28th in Brooklyn , more soon.

Earwig Spaceship

Coming soon, and this isn't the half of it. Just had one of those beach days with sunshine, warmish water, rail grabs and fine hand crafted surfboards that reminds me why I persist with beach breaks. To add to the simple joy of it all, there's a mussel brose going to happen for dinner and I may get some work done before that.

Wollochet Bay

A quiet little backwater estuary filling a drowned stream valley. Spits, hundreds of acres of salt marsh, and thick forest down to the water's edge. Too bad it ended up on the Gig Harbor Peninsula, where no good shoreline is left unpunished. There's an inkling of what it once was at the newly acquired Wollochet Bay Estuary Park at the mouth of Artondale Creek.

The aerial was shot from a commercial airplane a few years back. The other shots were taken very late Monday afternoon, while I waited for evening rush hour traffic in Tacoma to subside.

Cromwell

I guess there was a certain logic, or at least practicality, to building roads and railroads along the back of the beach. Works okay for the road - as long as you're willing to commit a budget to fixing the seawall, removing logs from the roadway, and cleaning up the mud when the hill comes down. Doesn't work so well for the beach - although technically it's probably still there - the berm and the drift logs 6 feet directly below the westbound lanes of the road.

Cromwell Drive has good company - Dockton Road, Harbor Avenue, Redondo Beach Drive, parts of State Route 106 along the south side of Hood Canal. And of course, the railroad.

Fox Island

The old dock at the southeast end of the island wasn't in very good shape when the state picked it up 20 years ago - but now it's a nice little piece of public shore on an island with very little of it. The dock is now a fishing pier. There wasn't much beach given the high tide - it disappears under the trees to the south - and under a private bulkhead to the north.

And Party We Did...

Another September, another celebration of that which is mad, chaotic and Simmons related in surfing. Number 7 was a really good one- Jamie Brisick, Jon Wegener, Ryan Thomas and Andy Davis all in the same room- any one of those gentlemen is entertaining enough to warrant the drive to San Diego, all four at once was classic. The Old Man Hands Gypsy Orchestra played briliantly again, Elwell, Bahne and co. brought the knowledge, photogs Ryan Field and Maggie Marsek were there with cameras in hand, crowds of international flavor came and went and a few just stayed, films were played, Tyler Warren showed with footage and a board, I talked to a very cool surfer from Senegal and the Manny Caro Mobile Disco wound out the night for the lovers and dancers in the parking lot. Boards too, some seriously fine ones- Bauguess, Ekstrom, Mackie, Mirandon, Thomson, Wegener and a few Fryes for good measure. There's a teaser above and more pics soon. Here's the new shirts, limited quantities in mens med and lg on the Ando Bodysurf, Casper in all sizes and the blue one is for the ladies.

Rosario Beach

Rosario is a pocket beach, trapped in a small cove just north of Rosario Head. It's a steep, gravel beach with a series of high storm berms, topped with big logs, separating the ocean from a small back barrier wetland. The southern part of the beach is in Deception Pass State Park, while the northern part is private.

The beach has a "classic" log spiral form (I suspect any curved beach can be made to fit a log spiral if one tweaks the coefficients correctly, but the point is that the curvature of the beach is tightly wound at the south end, but then relaxes to the north). This results from the southwesterly waves wrapping (refracting and diffracting) around Rosario Head. Click on the title of this post to see the aerial image in Google Maps.

Weaverling Spit

This little point in southern Fidalgo Bay is a little hard to decipher, but I suspect it is basically a rocky island separated from the rest of Fidalgo Island by a tombolo. The tombolo, which probably once harbored tidal wetlands and a native community, is now covered in fill and RVs and an old railroad grade (which is now a bike trail). There are small pocket beaches on the north side (not really pockets, since drift can get past at low tide) of the rocky point and a small spit at the eastern end (aerial photo - courtesy Google).

The railroad used Weaverling to launch it's trestle across the bay and the resulting causeway has altered the southern shore of the point. The causeway and trestle has probably had several effects. It must have altered tidal circulation at the south end of the bay and may have reduced the exposure of the southern end of the bay from the rare northerly storms. It protects the little spit at the tip of the point from southerly wave action - there was never much due to the limited fetch, but now there's none. This might be expected to lead to small shifts in the configuration of the feature over many decades - but since change would be driven by those rare northerlies, it might take many decades for much change to occur. The causeway has also created a long skinny, rock-lined lagoon on the south side of the point.

Thread monthly #1- The Basques

Patxi Oliden by Patrick Trefz from the Thread book. Signed copies available for $30, email me.

The opening image of the Trefz book. Patxi is the first Basque shaper (check that Diff template behind him.) Before starting on boards, he shaped oars, and his label apparently translates to 'Democratic Surfboards' as he felt everyone deserved the chance to surf. This man is truly a legend, and I highly recommend you read 'A Basque History Of The World' by Mark Kurlanski. You have no idea how how badly I want to go to the Basque country, but for now I make do with the fact that we wound up with a run of 500 copies of 'Way Of The Bird' translated into Basque. I leave the last words to Patxi, from his manifesto also printed in 'Thread'.
'Nahiko zaila da detaile guztiak gogoratzea; nik uste, nahiko garbi dagela hemen estaen direnekin zer metaodo erabiltzen nuen.'

Eastward Ho!

Slowly it all comes together for the last 1/3 of the year. A flurry of t-shirt printing for the Swift party this weekend, including the Casper with Casper and new run of the old school Jill Jordan 'Bird' shirt. Not on yellow or tan of course, that would be too simple- black and a pale blue called 'Seafoam', blue shirts for the ladies too. I'll post pictures of the actual colors when I see the actual shirts. If you can't make it to San Diego, send me an email to info @ foamandfunction.com and I can get you sorted out with a shirt- $25, shipping included, inside the US of A. The Brown Birds shirts are also reprinted for the upcoming east coast tour for Andrew and boys. Mr. Kidman will be in the New York Groove for a couple of months, the band is playing some shows in the N.E., there will be an Ether show in the city and some film events. As I get actual dates I'll post them, and it'll be fun. I also moved a large piece of Trefz art so it too can be sent east as he's part of a show in NYC later this month, again, more info as I get it. Finally, and waaaay east, are the very cool folks at Revolver Surf in Newquay, Cornwall. They will have a selection of our shirts and goodies and we couldn't be more stoked to be associated with people who wear woolen bathing suits. They've done an alaia demo with Tom W and been a part of the World Bellyboard champs this past week or two, and they proudly support tea and tattoos. On the off chance that anyone reading this is in Cornwall (which would be pretty cool of itself), go check 'em out.

Building Up

St Clair surfers would have noticed an incredible increase in the volume of sand being deposited at the base of the sea wall, and out into the break its self. I have heard it described at the beginning of the week as pipeline-like. below: a view the new Hotel on the Esplanade with sand build up. And the 6 dogs on the beach where Dogs are prohibited on St Clair Beach.
Pic at Bottom: Harbour dredging's have been deposited on the wharf the last few weeks and trucked to Moana Rua Rd where massive amounts have been dumped off the end to build up the toe of the dunes. This spoil has then immediately been washed into St Clair with the east swells. You can see the scarp at the base of fill.

It's time....

So again, make your way to downtown San Diego for more fun and some seriously outstanding surfboards. Having had the sneak preview of what Bauguess has been cooking up all I can say is it's going to be good and the weaker willed surfboard fanciers should come prepared or leave that wallet at home. For those not able to attend, I'll certainly be taking some pictures and I'll be rolling in on Friday with a truckload of Mackies for perusal and purchase as well. It will be, as always, a really good time.

How To Find Time To Serve God

What if you can actually finish your life goals in three years and do what you loved to do for the Lord?

The Lord Jesus showed how you can find time to fulfill your life goals early and serve God even in the midst of our busyness. In the Gospel of Mark chapter one, Jesus was seen preaching all morning. In the afternoon, he heals Peter’s mother in law. And just when it looks like he can kick back and relax, someone comes over to the house. And says, "Lord, I saw what you did in church this morning for that demon possessed man! Can you do the same thing for my kid?" And then someone else comes over and says, "Lord, is it true that you can heal diseases? My wife has been sick for a long time. And I don’t know what else to do anymore. Please help her anyway you can!" And the Bible says in Mark 1:32 that pretty soon, the whole town was standing outside the door. And Jesus loved them. And touched them. And healed them way into the night.

I’m sure that when he finally crawled into bed, he was wiped out. Perhaps some of you fall into bed every night feeling that way. I get to talk to a lot of moms and dads. And I can hardly believe how busy some of you are. Most of you work during the day and weekends. And then the rest of your time revolves around your kids. Basketball practice on Mondays. Tae Kwon Do Clubs on Tuesdays. Wednesday is church practice. Thursday is chill out night with office friends. Friday night is practice night or prayer meeting. Saturday is game day for your kids. And after church on Sunday, you plop down on the couch to watch football. And you thank God that there’s at least one three hour window during the week when you actually get to relax. Then you get up and clean the house. You listen to one of the kids complain about what you made for supper. You go to bed. And start all over again the next day. The question is, "how do you keep up that kind of pace without burning out? Without getting irritable? And depressed? How else can you find time for God?

1) The key is in the small but quality quiet time spent with God each day. After that long hard day, Mark 1:35 says that Jesus got up while it was still dark and went off to be alone with the Father to pray. If you study the customs of Christ, he always finds time early in the morning to pray. The Lord's quiet time with the Father was such that it enabled him to stay so sharp everytime and finish off each day with enough energy to wake up early the following morning. We need to ask God to empower us each day. We live in a busy, fast paced, stressful world. And we need God’s power to make it through each day. And I’m learning more and more not to be shy about asking for help from God.

William Booth, the founder of Salvation Army, was 19 years old when he decided to become a minister. And his Sunday school teacher encouraged him. But as a teenager his health was frail. And so his doctor said, "I don’t think the strain of the ministry would be good for your health. Maybe you should find another profession."But Booth prayed about it. He said, "Lord, this is something I really want to do. Give me the strength to be the best minister I can be." So he decided to go against the advice of the doctor. And he became a Methodist minister. And after that, he started the Salvation Army. And he lived to be 83 years old.

The little but quality time he spent with God that day resulted to a lifelong vocation and endless supply of strength and focus.

2) The second key you'll need to cope with the busyness of life and stay focused on your goal is to learn how to say no to others.

Many of you are burning out because the word ’no’ isn’t even in your vocabulary. If someone asks you to do something, you’re like "Yeah, I’ll do it." And then when the time comes for you to do it, you say to yourself, "Why the heck did I agree to do this? I don’t have time! I’m already way too busy!"The Lord Jesus knew when to say no. In Mark 1:37, the disciples came to him and said, "Alright, Lord. The clinic should open by now. Everyone’s looking for you! Let’s get back to the village."But Jesus said, "No. Let’s go to our other branch. God’s got other plans for me."

Part of me wants to say, "But Jesus, these people love you! They want to hear your sermons! They want to experience your healing power. Why are you leaving them?"The answer is that God’s will was for Jesus to branch out and preach in other villages. And in order to be faithful to God’s plan for his life, he had to turn down opportunities. Sometimes, saying ’yes’ to God means saying ’no’ to people. So before you guys make commitments, you need to ask yourself, "Is this opportunity the best possible use of my time to do God’s will? Will doing this particular project help me to achieve my larger goal in life? Or is it merely an attractive distraction along the way?"

The late tenor Luciano Pavarotti shared that there was a time in his life when he wasn’t sure whether to be a music singer. Or a music teacher. So he asked his father, "Shall I be a teacher or a singer?"His father replied, "Son, if you try to sit on two chairs, you will fall between them. For life, you must choose one chair."Pavarotti went on to say this: "I took my father’s advice. And I chose one chair. It took seven years of study and frustration before I made my first professional appearance. It took another seven to reach the Metropolitan Opera. And now I think whether it’s laying bricks, writing a book-whatever we choose-we should give ourselves to it. Choose one chair." Learn to say no to others.

3) Coping with busyness to stay focused sometimes means knowing when to take a break. In Matthew 14:13, when Jesus heard that John the Baptist died, he said, "Time out! I need a break! I need to be alone for a little while."You have to know your own body. You have to know your own spirit. You have to know your limitations.

There’s an old story about a man who saw the great storyteller Aesop playing childish games with some little boys. He laughed and jeered at Aesop, and asked him, "Why are you wasting your time with such frivolous activity?" And as the story goes, Aesop picked up a bow. Loosened its string. And placed it on the ground. And then he explained, "If you keep a bow always bent, it will eventually break. But if you let it go slack, it will be more fit for use when you want it."People are like that too. Sometimes we need to let ourselves go slack before the Lord. And allow God to minister to us his peace and his rest. Sometimes the best way to cope with the busyness of life is to get away from it for a little while.

Luke 5:16 says that Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to pray. And perhaps, some of you need to withdraw.

The past week, I felt so wiped out and felt weak. What was the reason? I realized that I have been packing up so much activities in my day and specially on weekends. I had to pause and ask, “Why am I killing myself?” “Why do I pack Sundays with so much activities that I could actually miss God’s voice?” I need my time out with him.

The story of two sisters Mary and Martha in Luke 10L37-42 should help us all to focus on our goal, "37Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
41"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

When was the last time you went slack before the Lord? And just melted in his presence?

Have a quiet time, learn to say 'no', and take a break before the Lord. Start now by finding a quiet place and have your quiet time with God.