I went to the Dolphin Club today and swam in the bay. I'd been looking forward to it for a whole week. I've never done open-water swimming before, or been in the ocean/bay without a wetsuit. This was a first for both. A buddy of mine who has been out there a few times served as the necessary wingman/motivation to actually go ahead and try it out. I got out of the water after 5 minutes because I was feeling really euphoric, which I foolishly figured was the beginnings of hypothermia. In fact, I think I was just stoked. Walking... Continue reading

I was almost a Californian, you know. I moved to the Bay Area in 2006, or, more accurately, stumbled off of an Amtrak and ended up staying. Let's not front. I didn't come here to ruin your party, I just sort of wound up here. San Francisco tends to take people like me and either kill them or fix them, and it seems to have mostly fixed me, at least insofar as I've been here for 5 years and I'm not living on the streets or dead. If you want more details, ask me. There's parts of my life that... Continue reading

Since its inception, I've loved Google Street View for two reasons. I can tour dangerous places I've always wanted to visit I can suss out bike parking in advance before I go somewhere This works well in cities. It does not work so well in the suburbs, where the place I'm going might be set back behind a sea of parking. I do not expect the Google Street View Prius to go putter around every parking lot and garage to spy on my behalf. This week I am attending Velocity, a conference which up to this point I have been... Continue reading

Ruyn Ruyn Ruyn. Nokia is thy name. I read Stephen Elop's "burning platform" memo. What a clueless nitwit. Nokia has absolutely been fucked for years, but the problem isn't their platform. Nokia has a quality problem and a customer service problem. Switching operating systems isn't going to fix that, except... Continue reading

Among my associates you will frequently hear this "rule": If, as go about your day, you run into an asshole, then damn. What an asshole. If you run into a second asshole, well shoot. Guy's an asshole. If you run into a third asshole, you are the asshole. This rule is very appropriate when surfing, especially when you're a kook like me. I tend to assume that if I wind up in someone's way, or if they wind up in mine, it is probably my fault. There is occasionally reasonable doubt, but after the second or third time it's occurred,... Continue reading

As some of you know, I have been attempting for some time now to get his eminence Chris Wilson, of Wilson/Powerlines Productions, to join me over brunch, where we would get to discuss the issues of the day over slow food and mimosas (OK, he gets to have the mimosas. I would have a lemonade). Regrettably, my attempts have been for naught. The most recent, rebuffed with utter silence, involved the hand-delivery of this invitation to a Powerlines representative who was holding court over a few DVDs of Down the Line at the final Sunday Surf Benefit: Chris: you don't... Continue reading

A little over a year ago (last Sunday was the actual anniversary), I had brunch at Universal Cafe and then went up to the beautiful little town of Bolinas (it doesn't exist; don't try to find it) on the invitation of my dear friend Josh, himself the subject of an exciting and titillating bromance that began on IRC way back when and has yet to be consummated with Ice, largely due to my abstinence from booze. Alas. Since then, I've managed to break a Softop (that happened in the first couple of weeks, actually), sprain an ankle, cut myself in... Continue reading

Board is here!, originally uploaded by tehdely. Finally picked up the new stick from James today. That's Jon on the left helping him hold it up. I can not fucking wait to wax this thing up and take it out for a ride. When I carried it into Mollusk to buy a bag, there was a brief flurry of "get a load of this!" from the employees. One of them said "that is the gayest board I've ever seen" to which I promptly replied "yes, that's the point". Win. Continue reading

Smooth Rides, originally uploaded by tehdely. Beautiful, tiny morning @ Kelly's. Images courtesy of ob-kc.com, music courtesy of Boney James. Look closely near the end for a brief Cryptomail cameo. Continue reading

via www.ismercuryinretrograde.com This explains everything. Excellent single-serving site, by the way! Continue reading

God knows there's been enough debate lately on Stoke Report about who's behaving appropriately and who belongs where. People have to do a double-take when a bot regurgitates a bunch of it; its nonsensical prattle looks so familiar to the battle-fatigued. Today we were alerted to the fact that we're now the subject of a (somewhat scathing) blurb in this month's SURFER, the relevant parts of which I'll quote below: On the other side of the spectrum were the Stoke Reporters–equally as, well, stoked as the Saffas, but completely lacking in skill and etiquette. Stoke Report is a regional website... Continue reading

So, I won a surfboard last night. Wait, let me back up. I won a gift certificate for a custom-shaped surfboard last night. Let me back up further. I won said gift certificate after spending four hours with some of my friends from StokeReport and other awesome, stoked people at a fun little bar in the Outer Sunset, while we listened to dub and watched surf videos. I also won two front-row tickets to a pre-season Giants game on Sunday, and an oversized t-shirt from Aqua. Pretty fucking rad, no? Listen, I'm a piss-poor surfer. And "surf culture" is still... Continue reading

This is why I surf :) Continue reading

To sum: A step in the right direction, but make sure to double-check things... and can Google really replace local knowledge? Google's announcement of bike directions was all the buzz yesterday, so I decided to try it out for myself. My friends know I'm particularly smug about my commute and have gone so far as to map it on Bikely, which yields a particularly enviable elevation profile: It's no surprise that I not only enjoy my ride to work, but can usually make it in under 15 minutes (12 is my record, from a combination of really good luck with... Continue reading