Yoga

I finally did my first yoga class in over a month. So nice. I did the "swinging bow" for the first time. I felt like a kid as the instructor swung me.

Pismo Beach is a neat town. The drive was awesome - beautiful rolling hills and it only took us two hours on the return trip. Here's something funny. The bank directly from where Hanna works got robbed the day before we were there. Guess what the name of the bank is - Rabobank. Seriously. Not a joke.

It might get up to 70 degrees today - yeh!
P.

Sy, Hannah and Patty at their new place in Pismo Beach on Christmas eve. Oh yeah..and Rico!

Rico's morning report

Saturday, 12-27-08

7am

waist to head high plus, glass to slight offshores

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

...to Tampa Ave.

Christmas day

These are my other two nieces - Victoria and Isabella from Houston. Bella is a little scared of Santa. Miss you!

We had a nice evening with Sy and Hanna. They live in a cool little place on Shell Beach. We'll have a picture later.

Spike and I gave eachother gifts from our favorite store - Patagonia. It's right on the edge of downtown , very close to where we live in Ventura. It's raining today so maybe we'll go to the movies and hang with Sy/Hanna.

Have a great day!

P.

Pismo Beach Surf Forecast

New Beach same ocean bigger waves.

Hazard Canyon..about 20 miles north of Pismo Beach Pier.

Extremely heavy and unforgiving reef barrel replete with boils, ledges and wicked currents with a unfriendly local crew. The Canyon can be the area's best break in mid winter with a overhead to double overhead NW swell. Breaks in front of a large rock outcropping. Sound inviting?

Surf: NW swell 5 to 8ft to double overhead at select reefs

water temp: 54

high today: 56 with heavy rain at times.

Gee, Can't wait for my buddy Sy to pick me up to share a few waves and spread the Christmas cheer with new found friends! Maybe some pics later today.

On a lighter note with some real Holiday cheer, Here is Santa with one of my favorite girls - Aeriana - our niece from Houston. r/s

Rico's morning report

Actually it's too early and still dark out but the picture of Rico checking out the surf is too good to pass up. ...neither is this one of Patty happily working her way to booking another charter. We are leaving for Pismo Beach today and spending Christmas with our friends Sy and Hannah who are from Puerto Rico, Oregon, Indiatlantic Florida , New Zealand and now Pismo Beach, California.

Kiosk

This is the kiosk where the camp hosts work - just steps from our motor home. There's three camp hosts, Spike being one and I'm a back up. It's a big responsibility - handling money, signing people up for overnight and day parking, etc. A lot of paperwork for the state.

Saw a good movie today - "Seven Pounds" with Will Smith. Really good - it gets you at the end.

P.

Here are the pics from Saturday's (yesterday)7am report taken from the main salon of our RV. I call our rig "STEAMBOAT LANDING" in honor of our dear friend Howard "Liver Eatin" Kelly"

Surf report/sat. 6:40am

I gotta tell you, opening the blinds and being able to watch 4 guys surfing shoulder high waves as I write this is a hoot. Just saw one of them take off and it was head high. Pics later!

Evening session surf report/Friday, 12-19

Around 3 pm a longboarder paddled out in 2ft glass. Rico and I were sanding an exopy patch repairing a foot long hole I put in the port side of the RV with curious Nugget watching us from the window. All the while I kept watching this guy catching little peaks. Around 4pm two more guys were in the line up and the peaks were a foot bigger on take off and were beginning to line up in fast little 2 ft walls on the inside. I compare any small waves to my favorite spot. A break known as STEPS in Puerto Rico. If I find myself saying " Hey, that looks like Steps" I paddle out. So...Caught my first waves since arriving here in Ventura and was stoked as the waves were in fact just like STEPS down to the setting sun back lighting the top half of the wave. That O' Neil wetsuit with the "Firewall" inner layer kept me dry. r/s

Busy day

Today we started going at 9am and finally sat down at 5. Just like a job. We rode our bikes to the police department to get fingerprint scans so that we can work at the state park. Didn't realize how far it was. 20 miles. It took us an hour to get there. After a few stops we took the RV to fill up with water, get some groceries, gas and run Rico in a grassy field. Poor little guy has been cooped up a lot. Nugget has been too but we won't let her out here. Just too dangerous with the railroad tracks behind us.

One thing that keeps catching my eye is the mountains. We don't have those in Florida. They are magnificent and many have snow on them. It was a crisp clear day, colbalt blue sky with the Pacific on one side and snow covered foothills on the other. Not too exciting day but it was a good one.
Patty

waves today

Waist to shoulder, slight offshores in the a.m.

We've been here less than a week and are starting to get the routine down. We're in a "primitive" campsite meaning no hookups. No electric, water, bathrooms, etc. Just like being anchored out on a boat. Run the generator twice a day, charge the batteries, etc. We're totally self-contained. BUT since we are the new camp hosts, the state park service is getting us hooked up with electricity via solar panels.

We decided to this very simply - no car. Just two good bikes which we love. We ride into town everyday (except today was cold and rainy). It's an easy ride along the ocean, cross the railroad tracks and on a bike path all the way to downtown Ventura. Less than 2 miles each way. On our way to a hardware store yesterday we found this great authentic Mexican restaurant on one of the side streets. We're enjoying getting to know the area. For those of you that don't know where Ventura is - it's in the northern end of Southern California between Malibu and Santa Barbara.

Patty

Full Circle

Ventura Overhead, Ventura, California.
My dad took me surfing here in the early sixties. Now, with 15 days left in 2008, I'm living 75 ft from that very spot with my wife Patty our cat Nugget and 15 lb. Puerto Rican former homeless mut we call Rico. Waking up this morning with Anacapa and Santa Cruz Islands on the horizon and 5 surfers ripping a peak 50 yards out from our port window with the dawn on fire was a jaw dropping scene.
Good start to our new life.
Spike
mambohaven@yahoo.com