Semi-Radical

Some recent Instagrams from my trip to Yosemite. If you haven’t been, go.
More on my Instagram: @beamercola

Sometimes it works out just right

Happy birthday to me….

Happy birthday to me…

Happy birthday to Beamer…

Happy birthday to me…

aaaannd mannnyy mmmooorrrree

photos by Mollie McDowell

My sister and I took the van down south for a little exploring. Se her co-post

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* wink

Got access to a nice little cabin up in South Tahoe. Lots of snow, sledding, shredding, and late night 7-11 mayorships.

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My sis was in town for the holidays along with my parents. Surprisingly got killer weather. Sis and I took a day to head up North to bum around.
(See sister post here)

Happy Holidays:

I’m officially a citizen of the great city of San Francisco. Moving ~70 miles away from the point breaks I so dearly love. OB’s my new home.

While I was down in Santa Barbara we shaped a itty bitty nuggy. 4’6″ T-Rev to be exact.

I wanted to get a little fartsy with the board, so I yanked one of my buds Will Bryant’s drawings and local artist Kent Keystone himself traced it on.

Weather and surf hasn’t been great – so haven’t gotten it wet yet. Soon.

Went down to Santa Barbara for a week to hang with Ryan and crew. Blast to the max. Shaped a new board (post coming soon).

Can’t wait to get back down there.

This is how it’s done. Everybody take note.

Yeah! Rick Malwitz is doing a free board giveaway! Just like his Facebook and you’re automatically entered to win a FREE quad or twinzo fish.

I want this board so bad I almost didn’t share this – but what kind of person would I be?

He made me a gorgeous 8′ mini log that’s fun as can be.

Knost ripping it on a shorty?

Lifted from Quality Peoples

Might want to put your diapers on for this one…

4’11 Velosim from Ryan Lovelace

Taking the Westy down to Santa Barbara for the weekend to shape my new sled with Ryan Lovelace (linkage). First trip in the car, bought it less than 24 hours ago – let’s hope it makes it.

Got some decent surf at you-know-where. Couple really good sets came through.

Surf trips about to get serious. Say hello to my new 1986 Westfalia Vanagon GL. Sleeps 5, fridge, sink, 2 stove burners. Let’s go!

It’s been fun, y’all

Made the 7 hour drive back to the bay – and landed in Santa Cruz right at low tide. Got straight into my wetsuit and dove in before heading home.

Conditions were super fun – crowd was pretty minimal for a weekend day. Went out with Bill and Miguel per usual. Excellent welcome home.

Slept in the rest stop again and headed down to Cardiff near San Diego. Waves were alright – kinda sloppy and closeout-y, but fun was had.

Drove back to LA to spend the night – had a fun day exploring the sights of LA and a night of UCB and Mashti Malone’s. Oh Mashti Malone, how I adore you…

Tomorrow morning I make the long haul back to Northern California. Not ready to go back, but excited to get back in local waters.

Slept in an awesome rest stop off Hwy 5. Very accommodating – and basically the only rest stop in Southern California. Got up extra early and headed to San O. Waves for days – as far as the eye can see. Fat, slow, mushy waves…

Took my 8′ out for about an hour. The waves could have been a lot better – they were rideable, but felt like I needed a lawn chair out there. Came in, took an hour nap in the sun, and ate a sleeve of double stuf Oreos.

Grabbed the Hob’ and headed to a more consistent spot and had an absolute blast. Basically the only guy on a less-than-10-footer so I had them all to myself. Was pretty cool sitting in the lineup with Tyler Warren and Alex Knost.

Wow, what a morning. Woke up and headed to Trestles about 8. Nervous about the hike down since I’ve never been there before. Waited for somebody to follow – and then as we approached the highway he turned around and said “I’m gonna follow you – I’ve never been here before.” Dang.

Crazy situation – the guys a fellow Austinite – lived there for 7 years while I was there. So we buddied up and surfed the whole morning at Uppers together. Super fun waves.

Here’s a bunch of photos:

Took a day off surf (for whatever reason – haven’t surfed in 4 days). Went and explored the wasteland (sorry) of Venice and then up to Santa Monica to check out the pier. Yep – I’m a tourist. After playing around LA made the drive down to OC to prep for the next morning.

Yesss – been to all the Mollusks now. 2 coasts in 2 days.

So this is the last thing I wanted to write – but NY surf just wasn’t working. Flight left the morning the swell came in – and made the decision to keep the flight and get back to the California weather.

Spent the last day milling around the city and braving the heat. Made it over to Mollusk in Brooklyn.

Then my trip back to LAX turned into hell. We sat on the runway for 3 hours, then turned back and went to the gate. Then told us they’re going to take us as far as Chicago – but we’re not getting to LA that night, and all flights were sold out the following day. Eff. I opted to get as far as Chicago and figure it out from there. I Amazing Raced it to every flight leaving for LA – and was squeezed onto one last minute. Woo!

Checked out the Saturdays get together. Absolutely packed. But ran into a lot of people and met even more new ones.

Stocked up on some of them fancy shirts

Made the long flight from LAX to LGA. It’s HOT here. Waiting for the swell to kick in – supposed to come Sunday – which is the day I’m leaving, so I might be extending my trip. I didn’t fly all this way to not surf…

Randomly ran into Ryan Lovelace and friends again in Malibu and we went down to the “Stoked on Summer” opening at Space15Twenty off Sunset. Awesome exhibit with stuff from Kassia Meador, Jeffery Jones, Joni Sternbach, Kyle Lightner, and Dan Monick. Herbie came along for the ride and had a perpetual line in front of him for a quick pet.

There were 4 prints for sale, one being by the lovely Will Bryant back in Austin. What’s up Will!

Thai food was destroyed. We then braved the Saturday midnight traffic to get the hell out of LA after seeing this (NSFW).

Woke up at 7 and blazed the trail down to Malibu this morning. Super low tide @ 7, got here about 8:30 and it was starting to pick up. Put on my new 3:2 and paddled out with about 15 other people. Small but fun morning session, but quickly started to fill up. Caught one of the longest waves of the day and was getting hoots from the inside lineup. Yay Malibu.

The sun was baking me so I went in at about 12 and made a PBJ and watched the stream of surfers flood into the water. Told about 40 people that I am, in fact, not leaving my primo parking spot, and gave them my condolences.

Figured what better chance to break in my new beaver-tail. Chilly, but nice.

Malibu is CROWDED! (Full disclosure: it’s Saturday) Drop-ins 4 deep, each person barking at the jerk in front of them. Lots of yelling. It quickly got unsurfable. One drop-in resulted in losing my board and almost hitting some chubby kid on a shortboard (who yelled at me). Sorry brah!

Just spent the afternoon with the very accommodating Ryan Lovelace in his shop. We glassed a board, climbed the roof, ate some pizza, laughed at Segway school, sold a bike, and discussed my next board.

Outside the glassing cabaña

The pup

Rooftop view

Talking about how the roof is gonna cave in

Lust

Vamp-eer ghosts

5’4 Velosim (here)

So last night was my first night on the road. It was… interesting. Went hunting for neighborhoods to set up “camp” in San Luis Obispo – but the neighborhood I found was just asking to get a ticket. Followed a tip I found online and found a nice spot in a hospital parking lot – but the security golf cart with flashing lights pulled up, so I kept moving. Ended up at a rest stop halfway between SLO and Santa Barbara with a bunch of truckers – I stood out to say the least. Found a nice spot and crashed for the night. Slept decent – better than expected.

Moved to a Starbucks parking lot to steal some internet for a couple hours. Snuck my dopp kit in and took advantage of their facilities.

Beautiful as expected. Took the long way down Hwy 1 for the visuals. Couldn’t have been a prettier day.

All packed up and headed out!

Making my first pit stop in Monterey to leech some free internet from Starbucks to post this. Weather couldn’t be better. 77 degrees and sunny skies. Planning on dinner in San Luis Obispo and making it to Santa Barbara by sundown.

Just got back from the premier of Patrick Trefz new film “Idiosyncrasies” at the Rio.  Super fun.  More than half of the surfers in the film were in attendance.

Definitely check it out.

New South swell rolled in yesterday afternoon so I figured I’d get a nice warm up session with Miguel.  Ended up surfing 6 hours into the night and had to head in because we couldn’t see.  Met some friends out in the water and went and destroyed some burritos with them.

Miguel’s Taco Tip: “Get one super, and one regular.  Then push the excess of the super into the regular.  Now you have 2 normal sized tacos”

Thanks Miguel.

T-minus 4 days.  Starting to round up all the supplies I’ll need to brave the wild wild west.  Here’s my list thus far:

• Sleeping Mat
• Sleeping Bag
• Tent
• Surfboards
• Pop Tarts
• Wetsuits
• DSLR
• PBJ Ingredients
• Mollusk Surf Hat
• Golf Club Drink Dispenser
• Skateboard
• Clothings
• Water jugs

Missing anything?