Adventures in snowy coastal North Jersey.

First thing I do is talk the wife into joining me for a pleasant ride to Sandy Hook National Park ("It's beautiful honey, you'll love it even if it's cold... Jake will love running around the beach!"). Lucky for me, she's easy like Sunday morning.

She was into it until she actually stepped outside and realized it is 19 degrees F. I insisted that it would be a fun morning and away we went.

At least it was really sunny

The eyes say it all: "What are you getting me into PRafterDotCom?"

We got to the Cove and we saw the jetty was covered in ice and the waves were waist high and closed out. Oh yeah and the wind was strong. Look at Jake's ears being blown back. It was windy enough that it blew sand all over the snow, so you'd think you were walking up a sand dune and you'd fall through. Jake thought it was really fun to run full speed over it without falling through and then watch us fall right through to our waists.

A slightly bigger set in the background, but howling offshores.

Nothing but old guys on fun boards. And it was really, really cold.

Not sure about this east coast weather.

Jake, on the other hand, doesn't mind cold weather or snow, but he does miss swimming throughout the winter in San Diego. NYC in the background.

We drove down the coast because we'd never been anywhere in between the Hook and Asbury Park. Checked everywhere between Sandy Hook and Sea Girt (quite a few spots)–a style of checking wave conditions known as the "San Diego style". Fortunately for me, the wind typically only blows one way during a given day in New Jersey and I didn't have to worry about on-shores. Found some really, really fun waves at a spot that Dave Mansor and I call, "That Place We Go To Where There Is Never Anyone Out and It's Really Fun".

Fun ones! With a fellow shredder out there doing some turns on the rights and lefts (with an occasional shackage).

New and older Brian Brown shapes, 5/4mm with hood, 6mm boots with interior split toe and 5mm 5 finger gloves. While I have been warm every session this winter, the ocean was so cold today that I could have used 7mm boots and the "lobster claw"-type gloves. Really cold.

Jake played with some other dogs on the beach and got thirsty. So, we scooped up some snow and fed it to him (he loves it). Check the Native Foods mug.

Fun times in the snow (again). Was checking the waves this afternoon to see if I could get down there for a little seshy sesh, but none of the cameras seemed to be working. Checked a couple different sites and different spots until I found out why they weren't "working"... check the picture for details:

All the damn surf cameras were covered in snow!

If you saw my post on my "To Do List", you'll remember that one of my things to do is to "Call People".

One of the people that I needed to call was the very happy Ryan Leonardy. He's happy because he has a great work schedule (for the first time in years) that allows him to surf a lot. A LOT. And (of course) it has been an all-time winter for San Diego surfing.

Here's one image to prove it:

Nice colors too.

Hey people, if you like radical paintings (and who doesn't?), a radical painter named Josh Keyes is offering a print of the below image for only $30!

It will only be available for 1 (one) week starting tonight at 7:30pm (EST).

You need to buy it through Tiny Showcase, which will be donating half the sale to a charity supporting Haiti.

If you are unfamiliar with Tiny Showcase, it's a neat site that offers cheap, cheap prints from artists that I usually like (and it's usually for only $20). They typically sell out within minutes, so if this Josh Keyes thing is for real (that they are selling for an entire week), well, that's nice. Give you a chance to order this image (if you want).

Early morning in the lab, starting the mass spectrometer, then back home, pack up, check the report, get in the car with Mr. Mansor and...

Looks cold, don't it?

In the world of blog-dom, it's pointless to comment on how busy the "blogger" is, but if you attach an interesting image to this declaration, perhaps some of the viewing public won't think they have been cheated:

A peak into my life (oh, you are so jealous):

And the climate skeptics scream, "OH! He says he has to "fix" his d15N data! Oh! He must be fabricating his dataset and therefore global warming is a myth!" Actually, this note is to remind me that I moved some cells in my Excel correction file and it messed up my consolidated data page and... you clearly don't care. This is just to show that I'm juggling quite a number of things and...

I know that some people out there hate it when I post YouTube videos, but my rule is only to post if it is truly hilarious (measured by the presence of sustained, multi-part laughter). This is 40 inspirational speeches in 2 minutes (I think my favorite part is when Sloth from the Goonies appears):

Dominican Republic car wash (taken from a moving car, so I missed the "wash")

I've been diggin on this band called The Octopus Project for a couple years now (you may have seen it on one of my top 5 lists a year or so ago). Hard to describe, but electronic-ky in a good way (like '60s space music) and really catchy. Funny enough, I remember that Radio Shack used one of their songs for a commercial (over the Xmas season).

Anyway, I saw this video for one of their songs and though to myself, "Self, this looks something that our friend Alison Kaz-a-what-ever-her-name-is would think up." If you wanted an unprecedented (has it ever happened before?) look into my soul, you might see (and hear) something like this:

Wet Gold - The Octopus Project from Zellner Bros. on Vimeo. 

The tundra outside my front door has <finally> thawed.

It is the first day in I-don't-know-how-long when the air temperature has risen above the freezing mark. What a strange feeling, to walk around my New Jersey neighborhood without glove, without hat, without long-underwear, without even the heavy winter coat.

It can't last.

Maybe I'm being a little pessimistic because all my friends on the west coast are saying things like, "Best Winter Ever" and, "Can you please do me a favor? Move back out here so I can brag about how good the waves have been without feeling guilty".

Yeah.

Does it matter that I predicted (way back in early summer 2009) that the 2009/2010 winter surf would be great on the west coast? No, that doesn't do anything to ease the pain... does it help that we had a pretty good run of waves on the east coast since I moved here (August through to the weekend after Xmas)? It did work during that time period, but as I've indicated in earlier posts, it has been FAAHH-LAAAT here for weeks. Time for another trip to the Carribean...

Until then, a big shaka to all my west coast friends–I'm happy for you.

Stolen from another surfy-type website (oh well)

Some inspiration:

</Totally ripped off of some surfy website>

What if Curren were a goofy foot? Let's see:

Now I can feel it.

I edited that "short story" about Timmy below. That's what I get for writing on vacation.

This is an interesting sight... when we got back from the Caribean on Friday night, I heard from a friend that the waves were flat in New Jersey. Ok, "Flat" can mean many different things. On the North Shore, you can hear that it is "Flat," but there can still be waist to chest high waves rolling in. In San Diego, I often heard that it is "Flat," but I had several spots that were always (ALWAYS!) ride-able (maybe waist high or so).

So, when I woke up Sunday morning, I checked the surf forecast for the next 6 days:

Here's a close-up:

I've been here since August and I've never seen this website flat-line on the surf forecast before. But look at next Saturday–could be some waves that day, right?

Wrong, here's this morning's forecast:

EVEN FLATTER!!!!

AHHH!!!!

Well, well, well... flew back from the Caribean last night to find snow on the ground.

Hmmm... don't like that too much.

It was a fun time. Check it out here:

A short story
I moved to Avalon from Stone Harbor sophmore year of high school (1990). Things were different in Avalon: when you paddled out in Avalon, the old surfer guys were more likely to drop-in than at 110th street; there was a WaWa AND a 7-11; there were more kids that live year-round and ride the surfboards and skateboards; and there were giant dunes that can be explored for fun stuff (like riding home-made snowboards after a snow day).

One day, I got out of high school at 2:15 PM; rode the bus to my new Avalon home, grabbed the skateboard, and checked the waves. No wave to ride, so I rode the skateboard down to my new favorite skate spot (a bank with a long double-side curb to rail-slide). I heard a ringing sound coming from Avalon Elementary and at least 10 kids streamed out of the exit riding skateboards, which they pushed right up to where I was sliding the double-sided curb.

I think they were impressed with my sliding skills (the secret: I had plastic rails on my board–sick!) and I was impressed that their principal let them bring skateboards to school (my Stone Harbor Elementary principal was particularly harsh about riding skateboards; my friend once rode his to school, hid it in the bushes so no one would see it and the principal picked it out of the bushes and didn't give it back to the end of the year).

Anyway, one of those kids turned out to be a real jerk who loved to do pull-ups, listen to the Rollins Band, read J.R.R. Tolkien, and ride the skateboard. I also liked these last two things and so we became friends. This guy (who we will refer to only as, "Tim") recently produced offspring and here's some images (stolen from a secret video not available to the public):

"Tim" and a fine lady named Jen have produced a (so far) nice young man named Cole Patrick.

I know, right? Surprising, that they named him after me.

And here is an image of Tim's twin brother who (coincidentally) is also named Patrick:

And here's some more video screen-grabs, but this time from a really fun wave-riding session in Avalon last week (taken from Brian Herron's Go Pro camera). I could have gone up to other places like this place that had bigger barrels to ride inside of, but all my friends were out in Avalon and that would have been a jerky thing to do (again):

So weird. I look like a mime or something.

My next update should have something from my current location–the Dominican Republic.

A great Christmas was had by all: we ate delicious food at my sister's house, got to play with cute little babies, gave and received great presents including a good day of overhead tubes with warm weather. It would be nice if the rest of the winter was like that. I have some photos and stuff (including some cheesy clips on a Go Pro from B Herron), but that'll have to wait for now.

Right now, I need to provide links to several friends' websites.

First up, William Sions and the extremely well made Errand Boy website (several views from the intro screen):

This is not a clever CGI effect, these are actually made from metal! Pretty amazing attention to detail that is seen for all aspects of the site. Go there here.

I just saw that Ryan Leonardy has a different website than I last saw (years ago, it's true). This may not have been updated too recently, but that's how it is:

It's not quite the infamous "LeosGnarly.com" (which appears to be non-existent this day), but it shows off his graphic design skillzzzz.

I was about to put up a link to Brian Herron's new blog, but he wants to have some good material before people start to peruse it. Until then, enjoy the suspense.

I just had to add a close-up of that advertisement:

Christmas Eve and all through the house, three dog creatures were slobbering from the mouth.

We are dog-sitting for Brooke's brother and it's a busy place.

They say that the snow won't be here for long, so here's some more photos from the snow storm:

Here is Brooke, getting her car ready for her commute to work. I insisted on driving.

Yes, we have some unconventional tree ornaments and yes, that is a bear mask with Xmas lights coming out of its eyes... it's a long story.

Whoever signed me up for the free issue of Bowhunt America, I owe you one (and you need to update my address–I don't live in La Jolla anymore):

Here's an interesting advertisement I found while checking the junk mail folder on my email account:

Me: Ok, looks like the standard junk mail, VRBO, John Kerry, Viagra... oh and here's a homeless looking dude telling me that I can get financial aid to go back to school! Are they trying to tell me something? This is either a stupid or brilliant advertising campaign, I can't tell.

Also, you might notice that it says "Copyright Scott Soens2009" under the picture. That is my desktop background photo peeking through (a radical photo Scott took on the island of Oahu). You aren't allowed to see this photo until it's published. Sorry.

Oh yeah, we had snow. Lots of snow. Fun times, but I couldn't get to the beach for the one day of waves...

Jake's first time in snow (snow that is deep enough to wade through).

Fun for All!

It's nearing the end of the year and so I thought I might start putting together a "Best Of 2009" list.

Then I look over to the right and see that I haven't updated my top 5 lists since September (have just changed it to my most recent good stuff).

Regardless, this Best of 2009 list will contain something like:

Best New Band Name: Dananananaykroyd

Best Surf Photo by a friend of mine: The photo Scott sent me yesterday and I can't show you, but it's amazing

etc.

This might go down as my favorite photo of Jake this year

Jake, hard at work in the office reading the new issue of Science. You've probably never seen him wearing glasses because he only needs them for reading.

Hands down, these things are some of the most amazing/creepy pieces of art I have ever seen:

Mostly made from found objects. You can see a bicycle sprocket here, a chain there... so very creepy. See more here.

After a full look at this guy's production, I am floored at how creepy and downright scary it is. Really. Scary.

Maybe we will have a major, super update for you today? Let's see...

A blast from the past–my beginnings as an oceanographer (from the year 1999). I know what Katie is doing (still in oceanography), but I wonder what is up with Mikala and I can't tell who the other guy is. On the RV Delphinus.

Putting away the firewood. Man, is it cold up here.

After the first snow-fall. Jake won't drop that tennis ball for anything.

And a big old Winter Shaka for all. (buy this t-shirt here).

I should have brought my camera to the beach the other morning–beautiful sunrise over chest to head high tubulars. Pretty as a picture, but don't be fooled–it's freakin' freezing.

The reports say it's 50 degrees F, but I was much colder than a week ago. This is the kind of ocean temperature that makes the location of every hole in your wetsuit gear abundantly clear.

I haven't had a chance to ride my bookshelf in some time now because it's either too big or I have a limited time and need to get as many waves as possible. Along these lines, I've seen a trailer for Brian Herron's new video-short about his trip to Nova Scotia (with brother Adam) and it looks radical. I bet there will be some wave sliding on anorexic / apocalyptic equipment not-unlike the Alaia in this and following movies (perhaps involving the author of this website?).

Anyway, here's a NY Times piece on riding Alaias

From the back, that guy looks like Christian Glasgow in a neon green fullsuit.

It's snowing:

He's such a good dog. Just look at him sitting there with the snow falling on him. The lights on the Xmas tree look a little lop-sided, eh?

Some fun photos from winter walks in the woods near our house:

A few days later, another walk with Sadie, Gimp, and Jake.

email me:
patrickrafter1 (at sign) hotmail.com

PRafterDotCom: Good Things (20091219):
(1) Firewood and fires (carbon neutral heating)
(2) This old Ikea couch that makes anywhere feel like home
(3) Cormac McCarthy (thanks Scott for insisting I read The Road)
(4) Not hitting that car when I started sliding in the snow (thanks Bob for teaching me the right moves in such instances)
(5) Friends that are my best friends that are still friends (?)

PRafterDotCom Playlist (20091219):
(1) Crazy Xmas Mix Tapes (see this link for lots of free downloads)
(2) Cats and Cats and Cats (only have one album, but a lot of really tight, fun, jangly sing-songs)

(3) Caspian (instrumental motions sort of a cross between Sigur Ros, Isis, and Appleseed Cast)

(4) Sting - If On A Winter's Night (This guy is good at everything and this really puts me in a wintery mood. Imagine that Sting has been slightly influenced by The Decemberists–dark-of-the-night storytelling with a nautical flair.)

Dominican Republic 2010

Cross Country Aug. 2009

The Hunter Wedding Jan. 2009

Zeus Memorial Happenings 2008

Brendan Borek 2008

Pellini Wedding 2008

Kristopher Zuccato--Good Times

Help out A Wish from a Fish: A fundraising event for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation

I hear that it went well, Click here!
I still want a poster...

Santa Barbara Basin Cruise 2008

Pat and Brooke got married 2007

Brendan Borek Art Show 2007

Brendan Borek Surf Contest 2007

A Wonderful Trip to NJ 2006

Old Music Reviews(01-4-07)

Photo of the Month
(yeah right, "month")

Top Ten

Chris and Emily Got Married 2006

Borek Events 2006-ArtShow

Borek Events 2006-Surf Contest

Borek Events 2006-Party

Fourth of July 2006

Paul and Lorrie Got Married 2006

Brooke's Birthday 2006

Stone Harbor in the '90s

"It's Science"

Leonardy Wedding

Seymour-Miller Wedding

2005 Brendan Borek Events Photos

NJ Trip 2005.1

Galapagos/Mexico Trip

New Year's 2005

Seymour- Stafford
Wedding

2004 Brendan Borek Event

2003 Brendan Borek Art Show

2002 Brendan Borek Event

A list of Essays from Brian Herron

Brian Herron, Matt Pellini, and Robyn Alley's Trip in the Southern Hemisphere

Roadtrip to Florida 2002

Surf Photos shot in the water by Jaime Hunter.

I started writing down some quotes I heard, never really finished it though.

Spartacus

My story of driving through the desert--away from my love

---------------------------------------------
LINKS THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH PRAFTERDOTCOM (what I do when I'm cruising the internets)...
--------------------------------------------

Friends

Centennial Guest House

The Brendan Borek High Tides Memorial Fund

Politics

Daily Kos
Cursor
Talking Points Memo
Firedoglake
Eschaton

Research

Web of Knowledge
UCSD Library
AGU Publications
Nature Magazine
Real Climate Dot Org
NOAA FTP Data
NGDC Sediment Core Search

People That Make Stuff

Fecal Face
Art Prostitute
Tim Biskup
Blaine Fontana
Joshua Krause
Gregory Euclide
Deth P. Sun
Jeff Soto
Souther Salazar

SURF

Surfline
Surfshot

"Desert Island Discs"

Bad Brains - S/T

Minus the Bear - Highly refined pirates

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating infinity

Elliott - False cathedrals

Sufjan Stevens - C'mon feel the Illinoise

Hot Water Music - Forever and counting

Lucero - That much further west

Mastodon - Leviathan

Operation Ivy - Energy

Planes Mistaken for Stars - Mercy