Seal!

So we hit the Santa Monica beach break at a place called chet this weekend. Saturday and Sunday were really nice peaky rollers that allowed for great lefts or rights sometimes all the way to the beach. Due to an achy shoulder I took out the eight foot fun board which was great. It picked up the waves nicely and no last second hard paddles which is usually where my shoulder gets tweaked.

Halfway through the Sunday session one of my compadres pointed out a dark triangle that was poking out of the water about a hundred yards out. Everyone saw it and after the shark sighting a few days earlier we thought that it deserved some looking in to. Lifeguards are cool people in general and they have all sorts of neat stuff in there little huts such as oh, binoculars. I went and asked them to check it out and in stead of a killer shark (!) it was a chiller seal(.).

Who me?

This guy was just bobbing around enjoying the summer sun kind of like us.

Yeah you!

Never hurts to check.

Shark!

So relatively flat surf and busy days have kept me in from surfing lately. We had a great session at a place we call Chowders that was reported to be 2 foot surf and blown out. It turned out to be 5+ foot and really fun! Keep up the good work Surfline! Been back to Chowders since then and it hasn't been as good.
I was going to go for an afternoon session at Sunset so I checked the surf report and found this!

http://www.sunsetsurf.com/sharks.asp

Yikes! Big shark equals good news for Bella. We went on a long walk instead.

Shark^

Dolphin^

Here is some good information on sharks and some flimsy advise on what to do in case of a shark sighting.

http://www.sunsetsurf.com/sharks2.asp

In case of a shark sighting I would advise to:

#1 Warn others
#2 Scram!
#3 Go home caffeinate and watch Jaws! with a new sense of terror!

Shark sightings are like rain days. Stay out of the water the next few days and you should be fine.

In case you or someone you know has any sort of an "unfortunate event" start here:

ABC'S in case of emergencies are alway prudent.
Airway
Breathing
Circulation'
Spine

Pressure points are better than tourniquets unless the entire end of the limb is missing. Pressure points are usually where you find the pulse on a patient Femoral Artery, Brachial Artery etc.. Putting serious pressure on these should slow bleeding down without cutting off blood flow in and out of the rest of the limb.
Cutting off blood flow completely for an extended period of time could be dangerous and actually cause loss of whatever limb is left or sepsis. Sepsis is basically poisoning of the blood stream by, in this case untying a tourniquet and letting dead red blood cells back through your circulatory system.
Tangent.
Oo oo oo.

Just clicked on the following link

http://www.sharkresearchcommittee.com/pacific_coast_shark_news.htm

Cool!

Fly Fishing the Eastern Sierra

So I've been threatening to do a fly-fishing video for a while. I guess it was in the stars because I made this one by default. After switching cars and driving to our destination I had realized that my still camera was still in the truck. So here is my first attempt at taping fish! I had a video camera hanging around my neck and stuffed in my front pocket. Big pocket. So once the fish were hooked I'd pull out the camera and then switch it on and let it dangle. The video I cut out was a little nauseating. Kind of like the last Bourne Identity movie. Shaky Cam to the max. Some of the shots I was holding the camera some it was just hanging from my neck and I was trying to get the fish in the shot. Kinda fun.

Also the soundtrack is a tune that I wrote while my friend was in town with his pretty little daughter Amelia. Thus the songs title.

Hope you enjoy. It was fun to make and I think does a good job showing off some of the prettiest fish on the planet. Each one is like a canvas that is painted differently. A few of these fish are hybrid goldens. Such as golden browns, and golden cut throats. Beautiful. It's a little over 3 minutes long.

I have just viewed it online and the detail is pretty poor. If someone would like a DVD of this vid let me know and I'm sure we can come to some sort of an agreement. It's not high def. But the detail comes through.

Mammoth Blues and Brews

http://www.mammothbluesbrewsfest.com/breweries.html

Great weekend.
Mammoth 5.5-6 hours North on the 395. Their is about 2.5 hours of desert driving so wear a long sleeve shirt and long pants or suffer a wicked farmers tan. Also I brought along my plant sprayer with water in it that I sprayed on my sun exposed parts while driving. Evaporative cooling is great and yes it even helps with the AC on.

The Blues and Brews setting is out in a stand of pine trees. There are more breweries every year and the bands this year were great. Even though it was hot out, there was ample shade and a cool breeze blowing. Their were plenty of choices for food booths and they have added additional porta johns which was great. As per my M.O. (5th year running) I ran around to try different brews for about the first 45 minutes. The goal is to find a new or interesting beer that is clean dry, crisp and properly hopped for it's style and their was a lot of them. Getting slightly intoxicated is not a goal, but it is a pleasant side effect.

I was impressed with Huntington Beach Beer Co. it was a really quality I.P.A. Russian River, Lagunitas and Bear Republic are always putting out a quality product and it was a pleasure to see that and San Diego had 5 or so breweries represented including Stone! My So. Cal. favorite. The guys and girls from The Kern River Brewing Company were there and it was great to check in with them and taste some of their great brews.

After the first burst of tasting (which usually includes some serious smile at the brewer and dump the beer at the nearest convenient tree) I settle in to EJ Phair and enjoy just pouring and shooting the shizzle with whoever comes by the booth. JJ had brought an English IPA and Shorties Revenge which is a strong amber ale. He puts out some of the best beer that I have had and if your in the East Bay Area, Concord to be specific look up his Ale house. I'm not just saying this because he's a good friend but the food is great and the beer is better and it's close enough to a BART Station that you don't even need to risk a dumb drive home. The night ended with dinner at Nevados (really good quality and tasty but spendy) and a cigar under the stars at Mammoths upper lodge. Somebodies got to do it...


Than there was the fishing... Next Post.

We Do Special Requests!

These prototypes were made for a great company that has stated that they will highlight our product in their booth at the annual Veterans Administration Trade Show this year.
(Bella not included)
Pretty snappy no?

The camo cases are to make the pillow available to medics in the military. Keep your fingers crossed!

Saturday Surf and Turf 7/19

So those who know me know that I have this affliction of waking up early and not getting back to sleep. The whole early to bed, early to rise deal does have its advantages.

Saturday I blinked awake at 5:45 and decided that it was surf time. I dragged out of bed and threw my nine footer in the back of the truck. There was a rumor of a significant swell coming in that should be peaking Sunday. I headed to Sunset and discovered that the swell consisted of 3 foot cruisers every few minutes. The typical weekend crowds were there but minimal and mellow.

After picking up some peelers and chatting it up with a few new friends I looked at my watch and it was about 7:45 it felt like the swell was building a little but my shoulders had had enough and the crowds were picking up and getting a little more serious. Time to go.

On the way out I saw a bunch of folks dressed in costumes with their long boards. For example William Wallace was playing bagpipes, Jesus and his buddy an the Arab were chatting it up, their was an alligator with a massive tail and all sorts of costumes that involved capes. WTF, eh. So I changed out of my wet suit and got back to the beaches entry point just in time to see all of these really stoked goofy people just flat out taking over the line up.

(From another year but you get the picture)

I specifically remember a very sullen face older (non participant) guy speeding in from the point and getting taken off of his wave by a squatty female in an alligator outfit. It was great! What are you going to say to an alligator? He just paddled back out and probably had a laugh later that day. Every significant wave was a party wave with ten people paddling for it and six people catching it. Then the trick was trying not to run in to every one else that was on the wave. Mayhem!
One wave had Jesus the Arab and some guy in a cape all zooming towards the beach and laughing their heads off. What a blast!

Dooda Surf 2008. It was really fun to see the pretension taken out of what is just a great past time. It will also teach me to leave my camera at home...

After that it was time to walk the livestock and Bella and I headed to the top of Mandeville Canyon. It was overcast in town and it was socked in on the top of the mountain.

Really good start to a great weekend. Went to the Santa Monica GLOW exhibit that night (someone else can review it. It was neat but not my ball of wax) and then had a mellow Sunday surfing at station 8 and getting ready for the week.

The Toledo Show

Sunday nights, The Toledo Show happens at Harvelle's Blues club on 4th and Santa Monica. Great club, great show. Get there early.


I was a little buzzed and had my camera with me. So enjoy.

http://www.harvelles.com/Harvelles.html
The Toledo Show is considered a burlesque show but is really like stepping in to an artists canvas. The dancers are really good, sexy, tortured as per the formula and it all works. Apparently the band has off nights. When we saw them everything was clicking.
Again good seats are a good thing for the show. Try to get near the dance floor. Try to get near the stage. It's worth the I believe, $10 cover charge and they say it's the best show going on Sunday night. It's hard to ague.

Hiking Kenter 7/10

To get to the top of Kenter trail head:
Go to Bundy.
Head North
Bundy turns in to Kenter after Sunset.
Follow Kenter up a long and winding road till it dead ends.
That's it.

When you get there you can follow the trail all the way over to a housing tract that is accessible from the valley. Halfway up this hike their is also an oak tree that shades a bench that over looks really, the whole LA Basin and has a great coastal view. That's usually what I do.

This time of year staying on the main road is a good idea but even there keep your eyes out for these guys.
I walked past this little guy (and so did Bella) and he was maybe 2 feet off of the trail. He was really lethargic as it was pretty chilly out. Notice the camouflage and the fact that he's sleeping in an almost strike position (in strike position his head would be raised and cocked back).
Western rattlesnakes are equipped with a venom that dissolves soft cell walls in whatever it bites. When the cell wall dissolved it creates serious pain and swelling. The swelling can block blood flow to areas distal from the bite and cause a serious issue. The venom can make its way to vital organs and that is also a problem. If you want to see a picture of Ms. Bella's ear after she was bit last year email me. It's pretty ugly.

From Mayoclinic.com

If you've experienced a snakebite:

• Remain calm
• Don't try to capture the snake
• Immobilize the bitten arm or leg and try to stay as quiet as possible
• Remove jewelry, because swelling tends to progress rapidly
• Apply a loose splint to reduce movement of the affected area, but make sure it is loose enough that it won't restrict blood flow
• Don't use a tourniquet or apply ice
• Don't cut the wound or attempt to remove the venom

Seek medical attention as soon as possible, especially if the bitten area changes color, begins to swell or is painful.

____________________

I'll add. Go straight for the medical attention. Don't wait for the symptoms. Time is important on this one. Also keep the bitten area lower than your heart. I don't know how much this helps but it makes sense to me to use gravity to your advantage here. For example, if your hand is bitten keep it down by your side, not up in the air. Just a thought.

Don't let snakes keep you off the trail. Rattlers keep the rodent population down and are a part of the Wests ecosystem like 'em or not. They don't want to mess with you and would rather be left alone.

That being said the next time I go out I will be taking my hiking polls so if I see one of these little natural wonders I can fling it off into the bushes.

Fishing The Kern River

JJ and I met up in Kernville for a fishing weekend this fall. I had heard about fishing this river from fly-shop owner Guy Jeans ( http://www.kernriverflyfishing.com/ ). He had spoken to SouthWest Fly-Fishers Club a few months back. Knowing that Kearnville was not to far away and hearing that the fishing was pretty decent, we planned a three day weekend. The first night was spent at a hotel as we did not really have our bearings yet. The second night we also wound up in a hotel because the first nights hotel was right next to the Kern River Brewery http://www.kernriverbrewingcompany.com/ . Really good beer. JJ owns a brewery as well so once he gets talking with the owners and brewers its really easy to get in to beer "tasting" mode. When tasting with full pints it's really easy to not want to drive to find a campsite.


The river was high from that seasons run off and we had very little luck during our first day of fishing. We fished along the main back road in to Kernville that was heavily fished and used by rafters. It was really slow and a little discouraging. We caught a few but nothing worth bragging about.

First day= a few small (really small) fish.

Good sign! We were on the tail end of a yearly Stone Fly hatch!

On our second day after having stopped by the fly-shop we learned (or were reminded in my case) that about 25 minutes north of town there is quality water. This is a section maybe 4 miles long that is designated as single barbless hook/no bait/you can only keep I think it was, 2 fish over 16 inches a day. This allows the fish to grow to decent sizes and keeps casual plunkers from depleting the fish stock.

We hiked in and WoW! The first day was fairly productive. We used emergers and a few small nymph droppers and caught a decent number of fish but day two we pegged it!



At the end of our drift we discovered that allowing the nymph to rise to the surface and then slowly pulling it up stream for a short distance was what they were looking for. It wasn't the most fish we had caught in a day but it was close. Most of the viable looking holes were producing really nice trout.


All of this while the river was really considered to high to have a good fishing day. Brilliant!
Kernville= Good Beer/Good Fishing/Friendly Locals/2 hour or so drive.

We will be back. Oh yes we will.

Lone Pine Rocks(!)

(Click on these images to enlarge them)

Sharks Fin is a rock that we have climbed on two separate trips and there are three or four routes up it that are really fun! The views are great from the top as you can see Mt. Whitney and a large portion of the Alabama Hills. It is located right off of the Whitney Portal Road so it's convenient as well.

On this trip we spent one night in Lone Pine. After climbing the next morning we could hardly hold a canteen because our arms were so tired. We drove to the the base of White Mountain Peak on the Eastern side of the valley and walked through the Bristle Cone Pines. Didn't get any really good shots of the trees but I did get a view of the Sierras.

Than that night we camped in Bishop...
And climbed the next day. Bishop really is the climbing mecca it is cracked up to be. The varied terrain and sheer quantity of climbing is fantastic. Really incredible rock formations that are just fun to look at and really interesting and challenging to climb. If any climbing gym rats read this do your self a favor and take a weekend to get out here. It's worth it.

San O 6/23/06

So,

This was going on down the beach from us. We hit San Onofre on Saturday and this happened sometime that weekend.

http://www.wetsand.com/article.asp?locationid=7&resourceid=9293&ProdId=0&CatId=2327&TabID=2327&SubTabID=0

Yeah, it was good. We had a few 9+ footers and a whole day of really fun cruisers. Really, we surfed until we were physically exhausted and sun baked. Great day with no video or photographic proof. Grrr. We are going back in July and can only hope for similar conditions.

The surf crew minus Mr Baule doing our best Joshua Tree cover shot at the self realization center overlooking Swamis.

Our host for the weekend Scott. Scott self realized that if this was Halo he could have killed everyone at the center by now.

6/26/08 Surf Chum

Just a quick note. When doing any sort of outdoor activity one must always take in to consideration X-factors. Minimizing X-factors usually increases safety. So, when their is a recent wave of fatal and near fatal shark attacks up and down the west coast and the spot that you have designated to surf has a seal carcass rolling around in the shallows... Best to either move, way north or way south or go get a cup of coffee and get on with your day.

A side note, I think it was a seal carcass. About the right size but, man, yick. Coffee called.

Brother Jon

Jonny Miller is a fellow White Teamer and a freaking madman. Being part of the Navy Reserve he was called to go to Iraq and dropped everything and went. Jon is a team player and is pretty renouned for diving in front of pucks to keep games close. He also keeps track of everybody's birthdays and even brings in a birthday card for the team to sign. It really adds to the family feeling that we've got on the team and the Navy is lucky to have him.

Jon even likes camels. He is our eyes and ears in the desert so we always look forward to his emails.

A quick and funny, exerpt from one of Jon's emails:

I'm telling you, the Arabian Peninsula is NOT like the drive from LA to Vegas, with mountains and craggy peaks and panoramic bluffs. It's just a shithole that feels like a hairdryer the size of a building is following you everywhere you go.

Refreshingly un-CNN.

Honestly, if you put Jon Miller next to Dennis Miller their would be so little difference it would be uncanny. Sports fan, stats geek, political commentator, and really dry humor. Jon may be the only guy on the planet that has (and uses) a Houston Texans Hockey Jersey. If Dennis called in sick for a radio show Jon could sit in and really no one would notice or care.


Keep up the good work Jonny we look forward to hearing your stories over a beer at Joxter's soon.

Santa Monica Mountains

The Santa Monica Mountains are really pretty stunning, as all natural places seem to be if you look closely enough. I have had the privilege of growing up near these mountains so it's been a fun project to try and extract some of their beauty and share it through photography. After rain storms or in the morning fog have been my most successful outings. Bella loves these outings and requests them frequently. It's hard to say no.
From leaving the apartment to the beginning of the trail heads is generally under a 10 minute drive. I can squeeze in a pretty good workout in to about an hour and it's a pretty Zen way to start the day. Overlooking the city from a perch that is devoid of city rumble or walking through a canyon that has a river flowing through it really puts you in to a proper frame of mind.

Foggy Coast

Five points to anyone who can name the fine dining establishment that I had just walked out of when I took this photo.

Here is a shot of the glued sides with front and back tail block and kerfing installed (with clothes pins as clamps!) Pretty cool no?



Now it’s time to work on the back and front of the guitar. For the front, gluing, clamping and scalloping the braces is the fun part. Other luthier web sites show really complicated ways to glue down all the braces at once. I just used a series of scrap 2x2's and the four clamps that I started off with. I glued them one at a time but really, why rush?
With the scalloping: (shaving off the sides of the braces to adjust the sound of the guitar) my instructional books talk about "tap tuning" the top of your guitar to adjust the sound. It probably takes a lot of guitar building to get something like scalloping down to where you can thunk the top of your guitar and get a feeling of what the finished product may sound like. I just made it look pretty and called it day.
This is my clamping pattern for gluing the back. The small whiteish strips of wood that are by the rear clamps will go under the rose wood and under the those clamps to help maintain the curve on the guitar back.

Building a kit guitar

Building a kit guitar was an idea that was introduced to me by a college buddy JJ Phair (check out his brewery and ale house at http://www.ejphair.com/alehouse/index.php ). We go fly fishing two or three times a year (more on that later) but anyways when this guy gets in to a hobby he really gets in to it. By the time I heard that he was building his own guitar I think he was starting on his third.

So, after talking about it for a little while I bought a rosewood OOO kit from Martin. Check their website and dig around a little bit to find it. Building a guitar is intimidating for sure but it's been a really Zenney experience.

My first step was to build a work bench.

Then I just followed the instructions. I am trying to use a bare minimum of tools. Partially for budgetary reasons and partially because I liked the idea of building a guitar with only basic hand tools.

I won't go in to too much detail but I'll post some pictures and highlight some of the things that I did along the way.

First Blog

So,

This blog is the result of a week long dream that culminated with needing something to do during the Lakers Celtics 3rd game. The Lakers are ahead and really at the end of the day basketball is not hockey.

Nor is it:
Surfing
Luthiery
Guitar
Hiking
Bella d Dog
Photography
Rock Climbing
Half Baked Politics
Philosophy
or
Strategic Boozing.

So, Why blog.

I have been telling people that I am going to post my guitar building picks and damn it, at the end of the day I have some pretty good pictures and video from the weekend and weekday adventures that my schedule allows.

Why Olaf.

I gave an art show at the Durango Bagel when I was living in Colorado. My roommate was pretty artistic and I decided that with all of my time in the mountains, painting them shouldn't be that tough. I used the pen name Olaf Danielson and fabricate a bio that I thought was pretty amusing. The staff were the only ones who were in on the joke and tourists and locals both bit. It went like this:

The Artist:

Born in a small fishing village in Finland I began to appreciate the outdoors at an early age. My fathers business was processing the refuse from others fishing vessels. He worked hard but, he would make time to teach me his love of painting.

When it became no longer politically or socially acceptable to process and distribute native seal and dolphin species, the family business went in to bankruptcy. I am now here in the US working towards a better way of life.

These painting were mainly inspired by local mountains and my homeland. You can see a marked progression from one to the next as these are my earliest works.

I hope you enjoy them,

Olaf Danielson
Age 15

The oos and aahhs and "Honey, you have to read this" were the gift that kept on giving according to the staff. The paintings (are pastels really paintings?) were either of the Colorado Rockies (mountain range not baseball team) or of Mediterranean scenes that I pulled out of magazines. Not very Finnish.

Here are some of the paintings from my first and last art show.





Anyways, the name served me well and to be quite honest I run my own business's and I don't really need business partners seeing my published mirth online. If they want to know about me surfing during the week I'll tell them about it... Yeah.

So that was my first post. I need to figure out how to post my guitar pic's, surf videos etc...

Peace