May 7, 2002 - My Nekkid Encounter with Flek.  Well, I just had the shock of MY life, and as the person with the least amount of legitimate as points, I am writing in to claim a bunch of them.  I
was happily lounging around, post surf nekkid, when the doorbell rang.  Thinking that the garage door was closed, I dashed out there to grab my clothes which were in the wash, only to come face to... ahem... face with....

FLEK!

Of all the ways to meet someone from alt.surfing, that has GOT to be the most embarrasing.  Unfortunately I had left the garage door open and he had wandered in to look at the boards.  He was very polite and averted his eyes, and I ducked back in and threw on some clothes from the dirty clothes pile, and we agreed to never mention this, but I couldn't resist.

So if it's a certain amount of points to meet someone, and a different amount to surf or trip with someone, how many is it to meet them when you're nekkid?

February 2003 - Foon Does Robertos and Ron Jons.  Foon was expected yesterday around mid-afternoon, but I got an unexpected call to go in to work.  Despite my assertion to my boss that there ARE no printing disasters, what they did to my Women's History month certainly qualified as a printing snafu.  I left a note on the door with my cell phone number and instructions to go to Roberto's for lunch and Ron Jon's for the experience.

I got home around 4:30, and Foon arrived back at home base shortly after that.  After a surprisingly non-awkward "get to know you a bit" chat, we met Peter over at his house to go to dinner.

Foon seemed to like the board collection, and the child insisted on giving him a tour of the shaping shed and showed (and described in detail) some of the various boards we have lying around.  Particular interest was paid to the paipo board that Peter made me last year, as well as the various boards in Beth's collection (remember, it was the child who was giving the tour ;)

We ate dinner at Longdoggers, which is a local surf hangout known for ribs, and then retired back to the casa to watch surf movies and talk about all of you.  Actually, Peter and Foon mostly talked about surfing "back in the day" and how wonderful new materials are :).  Foon was incredibly patient with the Alzheimer's dog - Peter's ancient chihuahua mix who had several strokes and now can't quite remember where anything (including his food dish and the bathroom) is.  Bogie also tends to forget who is a friend and who isn't, and has been known to absentmindely bite one of us.  He was particularly
well-behaved this evening though.

We watched Shelter, and talked about the state of modern surfing.  This is one of Peter and my favorite movies (mostly because of the soundtrack) and Peter told some stories about watching Kelly at Desperado's when he was 5 and 6 riding a boogieboard standup.

In the morning, after Peter left for work, we went BACK to Roberto's for breakfast (I love that place) and then did a "tour" of the local surf breaks.  We had already checked out Lums (Perkins) the night before - no waves, but hey, it's a really flat winter.

We hit 16th street, and O'Club, and Foon got to meet some of the more intimidating locals, including Pirate Dan, who is a 6' bald, earring wearing longboarder and one of my closest friends.

Then we went to Balsa Bill's (Bill Yerkes) shop and looked at pictures and vintage longboards.  Brent Russell was working, so Foon got to meet him, as well as Pete Dooley's wife Deb, who runs Natural Art and the Cocoa Beach surfing museum.

All in all, I have to say that Foon is one of the FRIENDLIEST people I've ever met.  He'll talk to anyone!  He even got the normally reticent Peter to open up and talk about Bill Andrews visit to Jacksonville in the 60's.  I alwasy figure, if Peter will talk to someone, they must be a good "people person" because he's normally fairly antisocial.

So now Foon is gone, and it's back to work, and waiting for waves, and recovering from the flu from hell.  Nice to meet you, and come back soon - next time we HAVE to have waves!

Blast from the past - a chance alt.surfing encounter

April 2003 - Blast from the past - a chance alt.surfing encounter.  Anyone remember Bruce "the Snake" Gabrielson?  Didn't realize he was the same Bruce Gabrielson that Peter KO'd last year at Easterns, but yup, it is. Skip Savage introduced us today, and he asked if I was alt.surfing's own Jane, and I was forced to tell him that I was ;).

Anyway, he's down for the Easter Surf Fest, and hanging out with 'da boys (Skip, anyway).  We, of course, are hanging South for a while till the madness clears, and if we hadn't happened to stop at 16th street  to look at the surf and to put the boards on top of the wagon, the encounter would never have happened.

April 2004 - Sufing with Snake and Skip. More AS points for me - surfed with Bruce Gabrielson and Savage this weekend - he was down from the cold gray North for the Easter Surf Fest. The contest turned out to be a dud because the waves were totally non-existent, and they met up with us at O'Club for a few 1' waves (I KNOW Skip saw our wagon, and decided that if we were out, there MUST be waves ;)). Waves were still only about a foot, but I had the 10' board out, so it was still fun.  We had the only waves in the county, with just the four of us out - what more could you ask for? Well, today it was waist/chest and offshore, which was better ;).

Update 2004.  I have also surfed with both Flek and Herb.  I've never surfed with either Foon or Ferg,
because I can never catch up with Ferg when he's over here, and Foon wouldn't go in the water ;) . 

Point totals: 7.5