At the beginning of 2014, I took a pledge to participate in the Big Year in Beer. Part contest, part endurance effort, and all fun, I had no idea what I was getting into. Here we are on New Year’s Day 2015, and suffice to say I lost the contest worse than Florida State lost the […]
Surf Trip 2014: The Bigger, Badder Staycation
I turned 40 this year. So did my friend Scott. For 20+ years we’ve been adventure-seeking friends. For the past 10+ years we’ve gathered each fall for a weekend camping and surf trip to catch some waves and have some fun around a campfire. They’ve all been great trips. But this year we wanted something worthy of our 40th birthdays. […]
Mud run. Check?
When I think “rugged maniac,” I think of someone like Bear Grylls eating worms and hacking his way through a tropical forest. But here I was last weekend, jumping over a wooden gate (the event’s first obstacle) to stand at the starting line of the Rugged Maniac 5k mud run at the Alameda County Fairgrounds […]
Portland: The beer scene goes to 11
In Oregon you can’t fill your gas tank without help from an attendant. So when my sister said, “There’s a gas station down the road that fills growlers…” something didn’t compute. A what? Where? Growlers? Are you kidding? A couple hours later we were in the car, driving from her place that sits conveniently on the […]
On ‘The Twenty’
I spent five years of college in San Luis Obispo, most of which included surfing everywhere imaginable in SLO County. While my friends and I had plenty of great waves and sessions nearby, it’s also a fickle stretch of coastline that lent itself to many, many disappointing drives back and forth to the beach. So […]