The Dawn Patrol

My life has been all about surfing the last couple of weeks, as should be. I sold a few surfboards, bought a fairly new one (below).



I took her for a spin Saturday morning, only to be shoo'd out of the water after about an hour because a surf contest that was about to take place. I did manage to absolutely fall in love with my new board in that small about of time.



After changing, I went over to the cliff to catch some of the contest. The Crew was there and had coffee, kaluha, strawberries, and brownies. We sat and watched the competition (it was a kids event). Those kids were awesome noseriders! There was a tandem event where it's almost like pairs figure skating, where the guy lifts the girl over his head in different poses while riding a wave. (look in the right corner...You can sort see the tadem action)


Later, The Crew and I headed over around West Cliff to Steamer Lane for the Longboard Union Invitational, where the adults were competing. Again, some awesome surfing going on!



All of this stuff occurred before 10am (yes - the kaluha and coffee was before 9am, gotta start early).



Today was less naughty, but just as fun. I took Emily out for her first sesh and she was a complete rockstar! She caught about 3-4 waves herself, and stood up naturally. Little does she know her life has now changed :) hehehe

Hope you all are having a great weekend and enjoying friends and family!

A Quicky

Sorry I've out of the blogging loop lately. Seems my time has been spent doing what I enjoy most, surfing. It seems to be all I can think about lately! I just sold 4 boards of mine to fund one nice noserider. I am going down to Pacifica to check out a 9'4" Pearson Arrow today... in great condition! I am extremely excited!

I've been surfing with the Cowells Crew lately, which is made up of about a dozen individuals who enjoy the malibu-like conditions of Cowells Cove. A great group of people who I think I can learn a lot from. Speaking of learning, I am taking my friend Emily out for her first ever surf session. We are both very excited! I will update you all on how it goes!

Surf & Ghost Towns

This morning I had a really great surf session! It was a nice low tide, glassy, small, but great shaped waves going left. I attempted a few nose walks, but need to practice. It was all about me and the surf today.

I came home at about 10am and later in the afternoon, Ami called me and asked if I wanted to go on an adventure with her and her boyfriend Ken. We headed down to Alviso, which was a port town long ago before they built levees to keep the bay water out. Ken had heard about this ghost town, called Draw Bridge, where during the prohibition it was a gathering place for drunks and whores (because of it's remote location). Well, it was built on marsh land and so it hand been abandoned after booze was legal again. So getting there was quite a trek. We had to walk along the train tracks to get there, and we did encounter two trains going and coming, but there was enough space on the side for us to retreat to. What an interesting setting we had with the San Francisco Bay to the west and Fremont/Hayward to the east. Here are some pics from that little escapade:


Some cracks in the sand I thought were cool lookin'

An eastern view of Drawbridge. I am sure MC Hammer's old mansion was along those eastbay hills somewhere, before he went backrupt

I love the arched style of this old house!

We lovingly nicknamed this part of Drawbridge the "Sex Shacks", figuring that these were the brothels.

It was so well worth the 7 mile hike to and fro, and having to walk along the train tracks, which I am sure was illegal. Keep in mind that all the structures are in marshy, brackish water. Interesting that at one point this was a small town.

That Was Fun

Well what a weekend! I guess Friday is where is all began when I went surfing. I had both Hannah and Alison in the water with me. It's always fun to surf with your friends, no doubt. I had some interesting conversations with Hannah about the word "chonies" (which I taught her) and why we shouldn't have TV's in our home (she doesn't believe in having one, but I do being that I am a lover of nerdy shows and think that there can be some quality television, if you can get past the abundance of junk). Alison said we were talking so much that we were going to end up in Capitola. Yeah yeah yeah. Just a tip to all of you: never shave anything before surfing, especially your bikini area, because the salt water doesn't soothe it at all. That was my undoing for that surf session. My crotch was a blaze as I paddled in.

About a half hour later I met back up with Alison and on went the Cinco de Drinko (it was at hers and her 5 other roommates house). What a party...frozen chonies, more conversation about the word "chonies", beer and maragaritas, random dogs coming in the house, people rockin' out with an audience in the backyard. Fun times.

The next day I was in recovery and did mostly nothing. I went skating, layed out by the pool. I was going to do some homework, but my friend from Atlanta called and we had a 2 hour conversation...whoops.

Today was good. I went to breakfast with Emily and her friend from AZ and that was so nice. After I went out for a surf sesh. I missed Hannah by an hour or two as I had called her before breakie and she was already going out...so I was solo today. Alison and Briana were already sunbathing in their backyard, so she wasn't about to get into the cold water. Oh well. It was so beautifully sunny and warm today and it was nice to just be out.

Above pic: Nice crowded day at Cowells, even at the foot of the stairs! You can only imagine what it was like in the water. Look at the below pic.

*sniff*

Ami gave this to me yesterday. Yes, thank god for friends.

Ok, Much Better Now

After having a talk with my best friend Ami, and friend Jessica, and hearing all my lovely blogger ladies' comments, I am feeling a lot better! Going to Stats helped too - guess the concentration took my mind to a better state. Just so everyone knows, my freakout session is officially over and I have decided to give the situation some time and space. I think perhaps that would be best, just to let it be (just as the songs says).

I do have some upcoming surf sessions planned for the weekend and the much anticipated Cinco de Drinko! I have swimming tomorrow and I always feel like a rockstar afterwards, and also a Bag-a-Movie with Ami. Life looks so much better when you are totally ripping on The OC and a bad movie.

Thank you all for your great advice and support. I love you my ladies!

XOXOXO ~Leigh

At A Loss

So here's been the deal with me for the last couple months: I love a woman who is not in love with me (if you recall my posts back in December and January). For the last 5 months I have been trying my best to be friends with her and had been succeeding. I had liked someone else, and so had she. I gave her encouragement and advice on her boy situations and she has been supportive in all my girl endeavors. In the last few months our friendship has grown, we've been talking a lot more, having phone conversations, and hanging out once in awhile. It's been a pretty big deal to me because this was the woman who said we could only be "surfing friends". I feel like I had conquered that and proved that you can't set a limitation, nor label, a relationship. But I feel like this last weekend she had totally betrayed all that.

Her and I went surfing about a
week and a half ago and had a blast. Seeing that we had such a great time, I called her on Friday and wanted to see if she was up for it again for Saturday morning. Well, she wasn't feeling too good and we chatted for a bit and I said "Well, don't worry too much about surfing, just feel better ok? Maybe we can go Sunday morning." and she enthusiastically said "Yeah!" and told her to give me a call and let me know how's she's feeling, and she replied "I will." So Saturday I went out and surfed and had a good time and text msg'd her that it was fun and that hoped she was feeling better and that she'd come out to play on Sunday. No response. Ok, not a big deal...she usually responds but she's probably busy. The next day, I was hoping I'd see her out in the water...nope. Well, she's again probably got a lot going on... so again, I text msg'd her the surf conditions, telling her she should get out and surf and asked how she was feeling. No response. Tuesday, I emailed her telling how fun it was this weekend and she finally replied to me. She said she had been busy and that she did in fact go surfing both Saturday and Sunday in the evenings. Hmmmm... she never once mentioned that she was thinking about going in the evening. And she usually always responds to my text msg's at some point. I mean, she doesn't have to respond, but it would've been nice to know what was going on.

Am I expecting way too much as a friends? Am I taking this too personally? Am I letting my personal feelings for her get the best of me? I am upset, but should I be? We both really did have a good time the past weekend, so I just don't quite understand what happened here. She once mentioned to me that after I told her my feelings that she had retreated (Drama Post) in fear of us getting too close and me getting hurt. But somehow I don't think that was really about me. I called her yesterday, saying that I was bummed that she didn't mention wanting to go out in the evening and how I had wanted to surf with her. No response still. I guess she doesn't want to surf with me, that would be my interpretation of what's happening. I just don't understand why.

My heart and my mind are in conflict, making what I should do extremely difficult. I would like to believe that our relationship is more than her just loving the attention I give her. She has no idea that I love her (she thought I had a silly crush, and I am over her), at least I think she doesn't. If that is the case, that it's all about the attention, I don't want her to know and have that advantage. Besides, my love isn't the point of all this, it's about the treatment of a friend that is the issue. The only real option is not to say anything to her at all for awhile.

Hearing, "There will be someone else" and "be patient" is of no comfort when you know you absolutely know who you love. Thanks anyway if that is what you were thinking of commenting :) Well, I have a "Cinco de Drinko" party on friday, so at least I will be getting out for some social contact.

Yay, It's May!

Spring is certainly here in the Bay Area! I went surfing 4 times this week as indicator of the season. Things certainly are slowly getting back to way it should be. The surf was pretty small scale and it was foggy, although the waves were consistant and no less fun. Nicole was my surfbuddy for the weekend as Alison was in NH and no word from Hannah. I was hoping to see Steve out, but didn't. I did see lot of regulars out though and that's another sign of the season.

I dropped my English/Critical Thinking course. It was just way too much. My best friend and her boyfriend are moving to The OC in a couple months. I am pretty bummed but happy to see opportunities opening up for them.