After helping organize nine WordCamps, I’ve made just about all the mistakes. Hopefully I’ve learned from each of them. Recently an organizer of an upcoming WordCamp asked me my thoughts on using food trucks to feed WordCampers. The pro is that you get a nice variety of foods to choose from. Much better and much more fun than the grab-n-go sandwich boxes you’ll find at a lot of camps. (I’m not knocking the grab-n-go option. All options have their pros and cons.) The con is that the lines can back up if food truck logistics are planned poorly. Long lines can dampen the mood of a camp, especially when folks are hungry. And the number one thing to make any camp successful is keeping folks happy. So, here are my tips: Taste test: (This is my favorite tip, because I love to eat.) Test out the trucks ahead of time for service and speed. Again, moving folks through the line quickly is key. All trucks will claim they can move people, but that’s not always true. So if you find the trucks you are considering out in the wild, you can see just how quickly they can turn around and order and…
Continue Reading ⇨A Layman’s Visit to Sacred Craft
Despite some surprise traffic around Camp Pendleton, Peter and I finally made our way to Sacred Craft. It was like walking into surf shangri-la: longboards, shortboard, funboards, quads, thusters, singles, wood, fiberglass, epoxy, experimental, asymetrical…! Where do you even start? Pre-apologize, except for this one phone from the entrance, I was so dazzled by everything that I did not take one other picture. We weaved our way though the booths and rows oogling everything as we went by. Saw some friends from Harbour and Foam E-Z. We watched some guys with huge blue tarp make pretend barrels and skateboard through…
Continue Reading ⇨Our Introduction to San Clemente
Peeb and I planned to head down to the Sacred Craft show today. But we figured we’d make it a whole surf day since we were taking the time to drive all the way down to San Diego. The plan was to surf, go to the show and then surf again, with the caveat that both places we paddled out had to be new to us. Checking the reports showed that most everywhere was 0-2 except for San Clemente and Oceanside. San Clemente was closer and we were itching to get out, so the first surf spot pretty much chose…
Continue Reading ⇨Terrifying Friday 13th Surf Report
Time for the McConaughfronds again. This is the third straight day of flat, flat, flat. I hope you all are faring better in your local breaks (or vacation breaks if you are so lucky). Peeb and I are heading down to San Diego tomorrow for the Sacred Craft. Hopefully that will keep us stoked until this waveless plague passes.
Continue Reading ⇨Summer Doledrums
This may not even technically count as a surf session. The waves were 1-2, and the 2 is being very generous. I really didn’t expect anything, but it was still disheartening. But I put the Merlin in the water a few towers down from the pier and did a lap to the pier and back. When I got to the pier, I did sit for a bit and wait, just in case something rolled in. Nothing really did, just one of the phantom 2s. But being on the Merlin, I was able to pick it up. And then a grom…
Continue Reading ⇨EPF Episode 0016: Lost Winter Waves
Aaron asked me to grab some stills of his new board (the P-volver) from the recent video footage. When I went back into iMovie to get them, I noticed that when I imported last weeks video that it also imported a bunch of video from a whole other day back in February. I’d totally forgotten about it! Mike had brought his tripod that day and he and I were goofing around with the camera testing features and what not. There is some good footage in there too. It’s both awesome and cruel to see those wonderful winter lines. But it…
Continue Reading ⇨Shorebreak and Heartbreak
The US Open of Surfing has finally left town. Well sort of, they are still tearing down all the buildings and grandstands. While I do love when this circus comes every year and I enjoy being able to ride my bike down to watch pro surfers battle it out I don’t like having to give up my usual surf spot for 10 days. Yesterday was the first day of the all-clear, but I headed over to Bolsa Chica with Donnie instead. So, today I decided it was high-time to head back to ol’ Southside. But when I checked the cams…
Continue Reading ⇨Merlin’s Best Day Yet
Donnie and I were finally able to get our schedules aligned to have ourselves a long overdue summer longboard session. When we arrived at Bolsa Chica it looked like shorebreak was going to be the name of the game. But the tide had just hit its high and was starting to recede, so it was worth a shot – and man, did it pay off! The waves were on the smaller side, but there was plenty to ride and occasionally some waist-to-shoulder sets rolled in. After about an hour or so, the tide swing was in full recede mode, the…
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