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Off the lip at Aliso.

Photo: Matthieu Thibaud, by Jason Gould
8-10-10   Nice weekend finally!  Anybody notice the zone at Aliso is steadily shrinking?   Now, it extends from the end of the parking lot to the rocks at the South end.   Everybody has probably noticed that the skimmers are chased out of the swimming zone,  a whole lot faster than the reverse situation.   Point being?  Eternal vigilance is the price for preserving our skim areas.  Increasing population growth, meaning more and more bathers will only make the situation worse for the most exposed to lawsuits,  namely the lifeguard service,  the city, or the county,  or whoever holds jurisdiction over the beach.   To get a zone expanded,  in Laguna Beach (not the county beaches) you must petition the Dept. of Recreation for a hearing on the matter.  
Protect your rights.  Let’s start with our own city, and petition for more skim areas,  and more understanding from the guards.
By understanding,  I mean that the City Lifeguards will not allow any,  and I mean any,  judgement calls on the part of the lifeguard at the beach.  In other words,  the beach could be empty of all swimmers,  and the lifeguard could chase you off just because he has been given strict instructions,  on penalty of being fired,  if he allows any violation of the lifeguard blackball rules.   That isn’t right.  
The same year we won approval for a skim zone at Crescent,  they took it away at Victoria Beach.  Forget having your grom skim where you can keep an eye on him unless you go clear down to Two Rocks in the middle of the cove.  These rules run from the time the guard gets to the beach until he leaves.  Never mind the actual number of people in the water.  Too strict enforcement is too much fear and not enough fun.    Let the zones fluxuate in size with the actual crowds.  Or better yet, as Shakespear wrote, ‘First we kill all the lawyers.’  It’s a comedy!
Tex
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Zero Trash at Vic this Saturday 10 – 12

Zero Trash is a grassroots, Laguna born, group that picks up trash on their adopted streets and beach on the first Saturday of each month.  It is a kick.  By adopting a whole street you get to regularly meet the neighbors on your street, and the beach below it,  that care enough to help keep it clean.  Victoria has adopted Laguna Canyon Road,  cleaning up about a tenth of a mile in either direction.   If you are interested in a little trash picking,  join us at Vic, or any of the other stations in town, or adopt your own street.  zerotrashlaguna.org  is the web site.   We have some trash picker tools to loan out,  and we will supply the bags. We will have a table out front of Vic between  10 am and noon.   It is the best program I have ever run across because it has a regular, repeating date and it encompasses a whole street thereby bringing together like minded neighbors and creating a self sustaining, regular program.
Tex

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2 Beef Tacos please.

8-5-10  Regular as can be,  10am rolls around, a klaxon horn blows, and we know Albertos Catering truck is still running.  Hat’s off to the mechanics who keep it going,  we would probably starve,  or at least lose 10 lbs,  if it ever stopped coming.  Here’s a “salud” to Perla the cook and Rubin the driver/boss, they make some very savory tacos, burritos, and plate lunch meals. Thanks for all the grub, over the last 20 years.  The previous driver, Felix is now semi retired due to health reasons,  and we hope he is doing well.  Ola Felix!  
Gotta go, truck just pulled in,
Tex  
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My Old Man’s a Garbage Man

My Old Man is a Garbage Man.  My dad and his doctor buddy would sing this with mocking enthusiasm,  shamelessly embarassing us kids a bit,  as they went about picking up trash at San Onofre as part of our day at the beach.   Needless to say,  I have also inherited that gene.   I actually like picking up trash,  as long as I have my trusty Can Grabber from  www.pikespeakii.com.   About $20,  it has a metal foot that just doesn’t wear out like the suction cup pinchers.   I have finally learned to store the Can Grabber next to the leashes and bags so that when I walk the dogs,  I have a bag or two for trash,  and a couple for the dogs of course,  and the picker makes it so easy to grab the soggy papers and cups that litter my favorite surf lookouts.   Get one,  store it where you will use it,  like in your car,  and you will be amazed at the good karma you feel when you tidy up some small corner of the world.   Actually he was a general surgeon, family doctor not a garbage man,  but somehow it made him feel better about his own carbon footprint.  Works for me, Dad.
Tex

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Morgan Just Pro Model 2011

Morgan Just dropped by the canyon offices yesterday to talk about his 2011 pro model skimboard and discuss some art options.  Of course we are not going to spoil any of his secrets before they are put into production but trust us, you will like what you see!

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Evolution is daily.

8-3-10  Summer has finally arrived here in California.  At last we are getting some clear skies in the mornings.  It has been a particularly hard year for our business beyond whatever trama has come from the economic depression.  The East Coast was snowed in,  literally, for a large part of the early season out there.   The West Coast hasn’t seen a summer with this little real sunshine since Lynn Haines’s recollection of a summer back in her youth that had only two weeks of heat  in the last part of August.  And BP has caused the largest environmental disaster ever for the United States,  and shut down the entire Gulf Coast to tourism.  We are waiting for a plague or the big earthquake here in California as the next hurdle. Yes, I am knocking on wood as I type.   Difficult times calls for lots of change.  An aquaintance once referred to his difficult divorce as too much evolution at once.  “Humans,” he said “can only handle so much evolution at a time.”  Amen brother.  
Tex
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Roots, Victoria Cove

Here’s a note from an old friend who grew up with us in the sands of Victoria Cove.  Our shack, a shared rental, is at the 2 o’clock position,  dark wood shingles with white trim under the big tree,  half way up the stairs at the N. end of the beach.  The Prietto house is at the bottom of the ramp, next to the lifeguard tower.

Our time there as kids was the mid 60’s.   The Victoria Tribe is still going strong,  and V-ball is the glue that holds them together.   Tex

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Peter Haines going aaaaahhheeee! circa 1978
Launching.  Why not?  What’s wrong with today’s young skimmer’s?  Don’t they read the ancient texts?  Getting air!  That’s it!  And if you got too high, or the water was too shallow,  or you over-rotated you were toast, taco’d, bent, numb, twisted, torqued, out, crying, slapped silly, stinging back blackouts, yes you were hurt.
So,  why isn’t this typically youthful exhuberance practiced any longer, except by old farts like me, desparate to win a heat?  IT’S STILL FUN,  for crying out loud!  Are today’s youth are too inhibited by what their peers think,  to indulge themselves in one of the truely great feelings in skimming?  Is this possible?  Launching!  Jay Williams could do triples back in my days at Vic.  Dave Crowley took it to insane risk levels in the East Coast Championships, doing triples into a foot of continental shelf.  Conley Ware is my favorite of all time.  A trained (how do you teach psycho big balls?) diver with the Laguna High School swim team,  he could mix up variations of tight tucks and twists into perfect jackknife entries.  On a diving board he carried the team to win meets.  On a skimboard it was just plain awesome.  He could also do handstands on the rail of the Aliso Pier  about 50’ up, and do an invert, double back flip into the ocean, at night!  So,  no big deal,  bring a little wildness back into the sport.
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2010 World Wakesurfing Championships

The 2010 World Wakesurfing Championships took place last week/weekend (July 22 – 25, 2010) in Minneapolis, MN.  Victoria Skimboards team rider, Bri Chmel took home top honors in the Women’s Skim category and was the overall Women’s Champion.

Congratulations Bri on a fantastic performance!