Today I leave for the Battle of the Paddle Dana Point, California.  This stand-up race is going to be huge and I am positive that its gonna be fun!  Its probably going to be a bit of a blur so I will let you guys know how it was in a few days!

"Today was so sick!"

I woke up early for a morning jog with my Mom and the weather was really bad.  From a large hill near my house I could see that the North Shore was completely socked in with rain, bummer!  But later on in the day we decided to check it out anyways and believe it or not, but believe it, there was swell and wind!  Alright, back up, there was logo high swell and perfect wind!  I went out and immediately knew it was going to be an epic day!  The waves were lining up so that if you aired over the section you could enter a sick shoulder.  Finally after hours of sailing I was just about to call it a day when, out of nowhere, a set wave came rolling in with my name on it, spelled wrong. Hehe.  So there was a sick wave coming in and I tacked onto it.  I spotted a lip that would throw over first and I rocketed down the line, drifted into the flats while picking up speed, and hit vertically under the lip!  Before I knew what happened I was flying above the wave in slow motion!  The wave was perfectly glassy until a gust came over it like a snake making its way along the water, I looked up and thought I could see my Dad putting his hands up on the beach!  Then, as soon as it happened, I landed back in real time and all I could do was stare at the beach like, “Did you see that?”

"[Josh Stone] streaked down the line and popped a nuts air..."

Oh man, today was the first true swell of the winter wave season and it was sick!  I went out, and as I sailed through the break, Josh Stone caught a logo high set wave!  He streaked down the line and popped a nuts air that projected out into the flats, I could see the bottom of his orange Goya shimmer once or twice and then with a clean smack he hit the water.  That basically set the tone for the entire day!  I caught a wave right after that and experienced the ultimate feeling of a crisp turn through a glassy wave, then, that turn transitioned into a vertical slash right up under the lip! 

     After hours of sailing my Dad finally called me in.  I signaled for one more run and I beamed out through the break!  I passed over two waves when I spotted a perfect ramp for a backloop. Putting it in high gear, I launched off the wave with force that I knew would taking me really high, as expected.  At the apex of my backloop I looked around my shoulder a focused on one little coral head in the water; this was setting up perfect, as expected.  I went into a free-fall and my nose stabbed into the water. After a split second of being chest deep in the water my board suddenly shot up out of the water pushing me with it, not expected!  I pushed out with my sail to catch my balance, I looked like a clown sheeting in and out until I finally got back on my feet! Yah I went in after that!