YONDER BREAKS

The other day my daughter took a photo of me, pseudo punching towards the camera. I found an AI button on my phone (which I hadn't used before) and told it to make me look like a kung fu master. Here is what it spit out: For reference, here's the original: My first thought? Man, I look cool. Maybe I need to get back into karate... Then I thought how amazingly real that photo looks. If I sent that to ten friends I think at least nine of them would assume I was going to a costume party dressed as a Shaolin monk and made a commitment in hairstyle for the role. But my next  thought was, Wow, my daughters are going to grow up in a world where nothing is true... We've all seen or heard photos and videos of famous people saying things they never really said, all generated by Artificial Intelligence. But the farther along it goes, the less fake they appear to be. Now imagine the digital Wild West that we're heading into where nothing you read or see or take in can be trusted a...

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)   Way back in high school, when I first started trying to follow Jesus, I was really open about my faith. I wrote songs about God and watched Christian TV (even though most of the programming was geared towards old folks). Everyone kind of knew where I stood with Jesus, which I think was a good thing. However, as I got into college I realized that a lot of people around me, some really close to me, withheld parts of themselves because of my faith. They wouldn't tell me certain things or swear around me; ultimately, they didn't want to "disappoint me" if they weren't living the way I did. It was a rude awakening when I found this out, as I asked myself if I even really knew these friends and family members around me... A teenage me at our local skatepark in my "Got Christ?" beanie. And so, when I became an adult...

I haven't been skating much lately, as I've been spending much of that time rebuilding my backyard mini-ramp . I've also been trying to get into surfing more lately so I don't feel like such a poser, having written  a book about surfing  and all... Anyway, after getting home from a bike ride and then a surf, my friend Shawn asked if I wanted to skate that day. Three sports? Why not, and so I headed out the door for a noon session. Here is Shawn doing a sweet layback from an earlier session. It was pretty relaxed, cruising around the bowl with him and another middle-aged skater. I don't think any of us was feeling particularly gnarly that day, though I did learn to roll-in to the mini-bowl frontside (I usually go backside ), which is kind of scary. But as we skated, I threw a few flip tricks ( kickflips , varial flips , etc.), and they were working. Now, this is fairly rare, as the energy it takes to flip your board over from flat ground far outweighs the ener...

This might be just for me, but I am going to write it out in case it speaks to someone else also... Sometimes when you read the Bible a verse will seem highlighted to you, as if it demands your focus. The other day I was reading in Romans and that was the case for this verse: "Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God" (Romans 1:1) And sometimes the verse that feels like it's being pointed out by the Holy Spirit doesn't really make a lot of sense! This is a simple introduction, but as I sat with it and let it ruminate, I think God was pointing out something. Notice Paul's title and self-description here: servant and apostle . There are a lot of things Paul could have written: Jew-turned-Christ-Follower , Pharisee , tent maker . But he chose first off a servant of Christ Jesus, and then his calling as an apostle who is set apart to spread the gospel of God. It got me thinking: what would my introduction be? In ...

Okay, this one is a little silly... Years ago, on a small-surf but sunny day at Dockweiler State Beach , my wife took this cheesy photo of me standing with my Wavestorm : Photo by Katie and not Mitchel (though he thinks he took it) I've mentioned before that I used to write for StoreYourBoard.com, and did a piece on the Wavestorm  as a good beginner board. There's also a chapter in All Roads Lead to Dockweiler about it, also using this photo.  Well, fast forward many years and one day my friend Aaron sent me a link to a guy offering surf lessons on Facebook who was using my photo for marketing, asking if it was me.  Nope. And then a few months after that, he noticed it had popped up on Craigslist as a print: I couldn't believe it! Someone was selling my likeness as "original" art. Well, he wasn't the only one, as Aaron also found this one about a year later: Apparently, this image needs to be out in the world! And so, I am launching the first OFFICIAL Rick-a...