Blogs

Last Saturday, my daughter Carly and I went to Capitola for some good times — wandering around town, visiting the beach. We're usually in Santa Cruz, and Capitola, 20 minutes away, seems so exotic.

We were surprised to find the town officially "closed." When we got there the shopkeepers were hanging "Closed for Tsunami"  signs and locking their doors,

It's almost impossible to get any list down to just 5 items. That's what's so fun about this exercise every year. It's a crazy thing to pursue. But, inspired by the character in High Fidelity, it's become a ritual for me.

So here, on the last day of the year, are my top 5 songs of 2009, not in any

This is a great mashup. These guys are blending 2 or 3 songs at a time and the visual isn't bad either — classical violinist while Lou Reed sings "Walk on the Wild Side," ecstatic shots of Jimi Hendrix. Plus it's such a wide range of music and so well put together. Beyonce is matched up with Lynrd Skynrd. Keep it on for a while, it just keeps going and

On the final day of the Classic I was lucky enough to catch some really exciting surfing. The waves were humongous — even more impressive than Saturday's, and maybe even messier. I was there for a semifinal heat of the Oakley Junior contest, which turned out to be an unexpectedly watch-worthy contest. 

In the heat I saw, the second that day, there were two

Day 6 was a Saturday, so there was a big crowd. A woman saw my camera and pointed out: "There's a guy with A RABBIT ON HIS HEAD." That is unusual, and here he is. By the way, he was singing about the rabbit on his head.

But enough about rabbits. How about the waves?

Inviting?
Welcome to Santa Cruz.

The waves were so tame and lame during the week, but now

Nat Young is a homeboy for us Santa Cruz West Siders. He won last year's Coldwater Classic in Santa Cruz as teenager up against some of the best and most experienced surfers in the world — Local Boy winning Local Contest. Plus, he thanks his mom and dad in interviews.  He also says "surfing is the best way to improve your surfing." Come on, you've got to

Check it out, this is utterly vertical

But he's able to pull it down

…and land it! Doesn't that defy the laws of physics? How can you stand a knife edge up in the water?

The second day, waves were lax in the morning when I'm out with my camera, so I didn't get many photos. But here are a few…

Then, post-game: here are all these great surfers in town, plus

Around Santa Cruz, the water is cold. But the waves are lively, and people like playing in the them. (Thank goodness local Santa Cruzan, Jack O'Neill, invented the wetsuit.)

Our cold water also got us a great surf contest, the Coldwater Classic. Every year top surfers from around the world show up to challenge our powerful waves and each other.

Here are some

The waves were decent at Steamer Lane, Santa Cruz this morning. Big, but messy.