Wednesday

I rolled in first to Newport Beach, grabbed some breakfast on the beach n sat n watched the morning surf. After eating some of my tropical fruit bowl and croissant I realized that I had gone two days since showering and I felt filthy, so it was time to find myself a hotel. I rolled to the Hilton and lucky for me they had a room for me. The bellman was very friendly and we had a great convo about everything from getting back onto the waves to school. He suggested when I go look around for boards I take the hotel shuttle to Main St and he told me about several of the different surf shops to check. The second he had left and I was in the clear I dropped trou and jumped in the shower. Took pretty much the nicest, longest shower in my life! I thew on my ISU Cy shirt and hit Main St.

I first hit Jack’s which was recommended to me because of their wide selection. I was very nervous about approaching the dude over by the boards to explore my board options. I expected:

A. “Why don’t you just go rent a little body board and then get the hell back to Minnesota”

B. “…” (Baffled beyond belief why a Minnesotan is looking for a board)

C. “Yeah man! Check out this SICK board we just got in! Its perfect for beginners and sells retail for $999, but I can probs knock off a hundo for ya”

It was actually quite the opposite. He seemed very enthusiastic about helping find me the perfect board for someone who hadn’t rode a wave for so long. He did a great job at explaining the various aspects behind the smallest of features on the board and the physics behind all going on when the board hits the water. He was pointing me in the direction of the more appropriately priced boards for someone who would be using it at most a handful of times a year. About a hour into searching and learning about all things board related ( some of which had dug into his break time) I found in one of the back corners a complete steal. A $700 board for less than $400, pristine condition, great board company, perfect size. The guy helping me out had no clue about the board being tucked away there and told me the only reason it was probably marked down was because they didn’t carry Ukulele boards anymore. He threw 15% off on my accessories, offered some pointers, helped set up the board and I was set. One of my dreams came true, I had my very own surf board. (GOAL!)

Yes, I know having a surfboard as a Minnesotan going to school in the surf-less capital of the nation sounds like one of the most impractical things in the world to som…er… everyone, but with the amount of surfing I will have done by the end of this trip I would rather have spent only a little bit more than I would have renting a board from beach to beach and be able to call it my own.

So after picking up my board I went out to test that baby out at the beach. I was very rusty, but that was expected considering how its been so very long since I had taken a wave. I had a great time out there, it was perfect there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and it wasn’t too packed nor too dead. After a little over a hour of surfing I decided it was time to eat considering it was around dinner time and I hadn’t eaten since my breakfast on the beach. Strapping my board up to the top of the element after my first session with my board was seriously one of the greatest moments in my life. It was picture perfect, a scene I had dreamed of for a long time.


Went back to the hotel, showered up and took drove over to Main Street. At Main Street I got my first taste of surfer hooligans. As I pulled up they were walking behind some guy giving him crap for his shirt with flowers on it as he was walking to dinner with his lady. They went down the street then came back around walked past me and were making some lame insult about me no short boarding it and having a long board as I was storing it in my car. The insult was so bad that I didn’t even realize they were insulting me until the end when they said long boards were gay. Up next for them they were getting in the faces of a small group of high school age kids and then continued up the street yelling at anyone for anything. Jokes on them, everyone just blows them off and goes on with their lives, while it seems as though their lives are spent walking up n down the street recycling the lamest insults ever. Cool guys.

I ate at Fred’s which is a Mexican-Baja resturant across the street from the beach on the end of main street. They had some damn good chicken tacos and a killer “small” margarita. After that I needed to pick up some sunglasses because all this driving + beautiful sunny cloud-less sky = sunglasses needed. They look pretty baller! I went back to the hotel to rest for a little while then rolled back out to Main street to check out the bars. I ventured into a good ol’ Irish bar, which was pretty full and had band, Quicksand, playing. Brad Tipton, a pro surfer was also at the bar which was so awesome because that’s when you knew that Huntington Beach really is the surf city. I went back to the hotel and TRIED to blog, but was just so tried so I fell right asleep watching CSI.