Zuma Beach, March 1 2009, 11:00am

Zuma March 21 2009

This week's beach update splits between two weekends. The idea here is to try to convey what this experience is like for me...which is not about a bunch of macho young man's stuff in which one tames a wave and conquers nature and engages in Xtreme anything...it's more about the fact that you cannot conquer nature, you cannot will the ocean to do anything, it's not listening to you and really doesn't even know you're there. it's about some sort of sense of one-ness with the whole thing. It's sort of easy to get that feeling of serene awe when you are sitting on a board in the ocean with the dolphins swimming not so far beyond you, storm clouds building over the mountains...

It's like the Buddhist mindfulness/Vipasanna meditation, which is a meditation not of blissed out, what's-up-with-my-naval escapism, but of focus, concentration on specific aspects of the immediate here-and-now.


My board, Zuma, March 14, 2009


Tere, Zuma, March 21, 2009

Zuma Beach, March 15, 8am

Zuma Beach, March 15, at about 8am


My board - a 6'10" funboard, made by a UK company named after the Welsh shaper, Zuma Beach, March 15, at about 8am

Zuma, March 2009

Zuma Beach, March 1, 8am

Sunday morning, 8am, Zuma Beach. Perhaps it was the time of day, perhaps the time of year...but I don't remember it ever looking more beautiful. Water flat and glassy past the break; coming down the canyon the ocean looked like a lake.


Zuma FOOD sign


Huntington Beach, Feb 2009

This Year's Theme

Every year has a theme, it seems. Last year's was obvious: the election, and with it, inner city blues. This year the theme is likely gonna be the beach.

The rains have finally let up, or at least took a break. Went down to Huntington Beach Saturday am to surf. This is a shot from two years ago, up at Zuma:

Mimi

Summer seems to be ending...the water's still gonna be warm for a week, maybe two.

The election is a month away.

Now that the McCain campaign is imploding and the prospect of his election seems a little more distant, things aren't so frightening and Sarah Palin's good for a few laughs. I hope she gets appointed to some minor position so we can still hear her fumble around in that weird Fargo accent.

I haven't much to say and I am kinda happy about that. Existential angst seems awfully pointless when banks are failing (mine did) and 90 year old ladies in the Midwest are attempting suicide to avoid being evicted in foreclosure.

Darn right.

I'm kinda over my apartment. I've lived here 6 years. The building has become overrun by folks who are a bit more desperate than I'd like to have surrounding me, especially as I am feeling considerably less desperate than I have the past 40 some odd years...and I'm good with that.

I'm done with the tenement thing. Tenement has lost its luster.

Last Saturday we had movie-set fog, the stuff that swirls around your ankles as it moves down the street. Every other day had been hot and sunny. Zuma beach was the first place heading up PCH that offered any hazy sun. Here are some shots from there and a coupla others tossed in for good measure.

You betcha.