YONDER BREAKS

I've been skateboarding for a long time, over half my life actually. And through all those years, there is a big lesson I wish I had learned earlier, because it could have saved me countless hours, pain and heartache. The tragedy of it is, though I know it to be true, I just can't seem to act it out consistently! And that big lesson is:  put your feet down. Let me explain:  fear  plays a big role in skateboarding. When you're hucking yourself down sets of stairs and trying to balance on rails that could potentially end your ability to bear children, naturally there is an element of fear involved. Fear, when acted out in kicking your board away (bailing) eventually turns to habit, and habits are hard to break. For years I would try the same trick, over and over and over, kicking the board away every time. Sometimes it was justified -- I didn't clear the gap or the board wasn't under both feet -- but often times I could have landed the trick by just simpl...

Originally published on the StoreYourBoard.com blog . A friend sent me this picture earlier in the week with the caption, "Too bad we're at work...."   A big WNW swell has been hitting Los Angeles all week, but I'm likely going to miss it because the sun comes up as I'm on my way to work, and goes down before I get home. To make matters worse, my car broke down last week, so the bus has doubled my commute time, making an early evening surf session impossible. The swell is weakening as the week goes by, from what I hear, so by the time Saturday hits, I'll have missed the best parts. So what do I do in a crisis such as this? I've narrowed it down to a few options: Quit my job and go surfing Call in "sick" and go surfing Miss the swell The first option sounds pretty appealing, but not so practical. Number two is against my code of ethics. So that leaves option three -- and with it comes two sub-options: complain or deal with it. And s...