YONDER BREAKS

I've always had this problem when I'm on the cusp of landing new trick, that I keep imagining what it will be like to tell my friends that I landed it. It goes way back to high school, skating my little fun box in the driveway or just trying some flatland trick. It was as if half of the excitement of learning something new was found in telling someone else that you did it, going to school with a, "Guess what I landed last night, guys!" But even back then it felt kind of selfish or like I was acting like a show-off. Was I just bragging, or did I really just want to share something I was excited about? I usually decided on the first one and fought those feelings, as if they weren't a noble enough reason to land a skate trick. Here is a clip from our earliest edited skate video, with homemade ramps in my driveway. Nowadays, this feeling is more about what my Instagram post going to look like, which I'm a little ashamed to admit. Sometimes I'll st...

I try to start each day with some time with God. Usually, this is reading the bible or a devotional-type book, but sometimes it's writing down prayers for my kids or going on a prayer walk. It was something I was really disciplined about in my youth, but got away from about a decade ago. However, in recent years, I've been trying to reclaim that discipline and make it a habit, and it's been really good to do so. But then there are days when I just want to rest, and so I don't do anything. Today was my day off and so I sat down for breakfast after the kids had gone to school and decided to watch TV. I just wanted to relax and turn my brain off, which isn't a bad thing. Well, whether or not my brain was off, the TV turned on but the Firestick inexplicably wouldn't, so after a little hesitation, I decided this was my signal to do my devotional time instead of watch (God interrupts us in ways like this sometimes). Like I said, my time with God isn't always the s...

Playing live was always something of a struggle for me, a sort of back-and-forth between hard work and payoff. After I did my first solo show in December of 2018 at the Republic of Pie (my favorite LA venue to-date, mostly because they pay in pie), I set out to play one show a month for the following year. It was a New Year's Resolution that I actually kept, (as you can see on the  Live  page) and which I talk about in the video from my most recent show below (along with the only other resolution that I kept). My friend Josh Moreno sketched this during a show at the Republic. But at the end of 2019, I felt like I had done a ton of practicing, endless marketing, editing photos and videos, staying up late playing shows my wife or kids couldn't go to...and at the end of it I felt like I had very little to show for it. And so I decided to spend the next year writing and recording more. Well, we all know what happened in 2020, so it wasn't like I had a choice in the matter, b...

If you look back at the history of YonderBreaks.com, you'll see a whole host of ideas and thoughts, ranging from personal stories to practical surfing advice , tips on fatherhood , spiritual insights and music updates . But one thing I've always wanted to share on it is ideas important to me that are hopefully encouraging to you . So here's a recent story with a fresh insight that I felt worthy of sharing. About seven years ago, I broke my arm skateboarding. It was my first broken bone from skateboarding (confirmed anyway...I'm pretty sure I had a fractured foot from trying to kickflip off a sign too many times back in high school). You can see the video of it happening at 0:37 below (as well as catch an early version of " Your Light "): At the time, I was hanging out with my friend Brian , a fellow skater, surfer, father and youth pastor. He is a man of great faith and has been there for me many times, not to mention a fun dude to hang out with. Anyway, I s...

Growing up is kind of tough. Which probably isn't fair for someone of my generation to even claim. We had it pretty easy. Sure, I worked through high school and college, and was always somewhat self-sufficient; but I also had the privilege of going to college with its slower on-ramp to life. Meanwhile, my parents had me in their very early-20s, and had to manage being a parent and newlyweds pretty much on their own, as far as resources went back in the 80s.  Now here I am at 37 and just a month or so ago I told my wife I still feel pretty unprepared for so much I'm meant to do as an adult. I'm okay at parenting , I think, though I yelled at my kids today for something dumb, so maybe not. As far as money goes, I was always just barely making it until I married my wife, and sometimes even then we still are. Since I took those years off to be a stay-at-home dad, I don't really have a career, but keep clinging to dreams someday working out, film being the one that brought m...