July 2006 Archives

Ghosts of Doo Dah, originally uploaded by Nigel Stewart.

Yesterday morning at 7:30 am I paddled out with 40 or 50 other surfers dressed in costume for the Fourth Annual Doo Dah Surf at my old break Sunset. Sunset is a modest point break on the northern end of Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades, California where Sunset Boulevard meets the Pacific Coast Highway at the Gladstone's parking lot.

I started surfing Sunset about nine years ago when I was just a kook. What a nice, easy going spot it's been over the years. Sunset is where I first heard about the planes hitting the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. I haven't been surfing there nearly as much as I used to since I moved to Santa Monica. It's hard to get in the van when I have a beach break just a few blocks walk away.

A few weeks ago I got an email from an old neighbor announcing the Doo Dah which I had never heard of before. On Friday night a friend of a friend reminded me about the event and I was stoked to be able to make the paddle out. I put on a white shirt, a bow tie, a cumberbund, and my old tux jacket after parking near Dos Baños on PCH. I met a guy named Dave from Chino who had seen a Doo Dah promo video on YouTube. He was unable to help me with my bow tie but luckily a surf sister down the way was able to assist me.

The event keeps getting bigger and bigger every year and it has picked up some sponsors along the way. There's a beach clean up thanks to the Surfrider Foundation, a 9:Fish surfboard giveaway, a best costume contest, some Jack Daniels chili from Kurt Bormann, and a general aloha spirit I found to a rare and beautiful thing for the old break. I shot some super 8 and 35mm film that I'll get back by the end of the week.

I also had the Canon G5 point and shoot in a water housing. I managed a few shots out in the lineup but I wasn't able to get some Doo Dah'ers up on waves. I'm hoping someone got me on film or digital while I caught three nice waist high right hand peelers in the 45 minutes I was out there. I had to come in kind of early since it was exhausting to paddle around with forty or fifty extra pounds that the wet tux put on me.

What a great time. I hope to do it again for years to come.

Yes I'm still here. Still swimming through the sea of life. (Cay and I often remind each other to "Just keep swimming" a la Dorie in Pixar's Finding Nemo.)

The last few weeks have been recovery time for me. The cut above my left eye is healing nicely and the colloidal cyst turned out to be non-existent. I have a new lease on life. I've been training easy for a few upcoming triathlons, digging on the World Cup, watching every stage of the Tour de France (Thank you, Tivo), catching up on reading, and doing some home improvement.

Cay and I have decided not to do any travelling this summer. One of our two cats, Brody, has been suffering from a mycobacterial infection since November 2005 and it just keeps getting worse. He's gone through a couple surgeries and has been on a brutal campaign of anti-biotics. There are three large growths on his nose and they are not responding to treatment. He labors to breathe and it is so sad to see him struggling. We are sticking around to help him through this as much as we can. The prospects are not good.

We hope to get out of LA for some day trips before I go back to work in the first week of August. We managed to fit in a couple days of phenomenal longboarding down in San Onofre a couple weeks back. Cay has a set up on Flickr that she shot during our time in the OC. The week before that we were in Colorado for a weekend for a friend's wedding. There's a Flickr set of Boulder on Cay's site here.

I'm hoping to publish pics from Hendo's wedding soon. I shot several hundred and I have to whittle it down.