ben snowing

It has ben snowing. It has ben snowing alot! I don't understand why the media is calling it a horrible winter. I think it is the best winter EVER!


I'm not oblivious to the fact that all of the snow is a hardship for many, but I really love this stuff.

Sarah and I have had so much fun getting to ski around Annapolis. It has been insane. We had to close the store last Saturday. Sarah andI crossed the bridge into downtown and skied up to the State House and St. Johns.

I worked most of the day Monday, and then Sarah and I had a evening ski at Quiet Waters.

If snow is a drug, I'm addicted. I played hookie from work this morning to ski untracked for 3 hours. Can't wait until the next session. Powerless. Need another fix. Want more.

ben travelling

I flew to Orlando a week ago to check out Surf Expo in Orlando*.

On Thursday I got a chance to meet and hang out with 17 year old Kai Lenny. Kai is a Naish team rider and is one of Maui's up and coming young waterman. He is totally stoked and he seems like a good kid . When Kai calls up his "friends" to go play he calls Robby (Naish) or Laird (Hamilton). How cool is that? Maybe if I had Robby or Laird as playmates I could really learn to surf and windsurf too. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and a real treat to spend some time with Kai. I wish him all the best in the future.

Kai

I also met with Steve Walden and Brandy from Walden Surfboards. Brandy is a sweetheart and Steve is celebrating his 45th year of shaping boards. It is hard not to be in awe of someone with so much surfing history and I appreciate Steve taking the time to show me and talk about his boards.

Tom Price drove up from Melbourne on Friday to spend the day at the show with me. Tom is an avid surfer and it was good to get his opinions on all the different boards. We started the morning in the R&D booth talking to local Florida shaper Chris Birch. We have one of his boards in the shop, so it was nice to meet him in person. Chris has a great reputation for his shapes, but after seeing some of his paint jobs and pin line work, he is completely underrated as an artist.

Chris Birch Art

Look for more of Steve Walden's and Chris Birch's boards in the shop this summer. At noon Tom and I went to a seminar hosted by Shaun Tomson tracing the history of modern surfboard design. I'm such a bad surfer, and all of these guy's are so good. It is unbelievable to be in the same building with all of these great and future surfing legends. I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy!

Shaun Tomson

After the show I went south to Melbourne to spend a couple of days with Tom and his family. The Saturday surf forecast was so-so and the winds were supposed to build later in the morning. We got going early, I slammed a cup of coffee, and a bagel, we headed just down the street to surf.
Tom let me use his beautiful 9'6" Hawaiian Salt Step-Deck board out of Ricky Carroll's R&D shop.
The shore break was pounding. Tom and his son Dane were on their small boards and punched on out. Me.... I just got punched. Tom surfed in and paddled his longboard out for me. He said he didn't want me to get "thumped", but I really think he was more worried about his board more than me! Once through the whitewater I paddled on out and even managed to catch a couple of waves. My pop ups are bad on a good day, and with my bad back they were exceptionally ugly. It was still fun to be in the ocean in January. Tom and Dane ripped. I guess it helps when you get to surf all of the time.

Tom's 9'6" and Shorebreak from hell

After the surf session we went toward Sebastian to the Marsh Landing Restaurant and ate Gator and Catfish. After lunch, we went looking for Manatees and then visited Mel Fisher' Treasure Museum and looked at some recovered booty from sunken ships. Surfing, gators, manatees and sunken treasure, the true Florida tour.

Booty

Another early surf session Sunday. This time I managed to get out under my own power without getting munched and even got a couple of rides. Once again Tom and Dane ripped it up.

Tom & Dane check out the surf

*When the truth be known the real reason I went to Florida was not surf expo, and not to go surfing, but that I had run out of Da kine Diego's hot sauce and needed to restock! After surfing on Sunday we rounded up the rest of Tom's tribe and drove up to Satellite and stuffed ourselves with Da Kine Diego's Insane Burritos and then I was able to leave Florida fat and happy with a new stock of sauce.

Love Da kine Style

Monday I made a token appearance at the shop, and then Sarah and I left for Mountain Creek in NJ to meet with our Burton rep and preview the new 2011 boards and clothing. We arrived at the mountain around 6, and were on the snow shortly thereafter and rode until closing at 9.
We spent most of the day Tuesday looking at the gear, but we did get a couple more hours on the snow after work. I had wanted to be on the road by 8, but we took a few extra runs and didn't get rolling until a little after 9. Oops! Rolled into Annapolis a little after 1:30 in the morning.

2011 Burton

Orlando, Melbourne, Annapolis, New Jersey, Kai, Steve, Brandy, Chris, Tom, Dane, Da Kine's, Manatees and Gators
.......What a long strange trip its been. Glad to be home. Can't wait to go again!

ben believing

Wow! I can't believe it is 2010. I can't believe it has been over a month since my last blog post.
I can't believe I was able to cross country (city) ski in Annapolis before Christmas.


I can't believe Christmas has come and gone. I can't believe how much fun we had at Roundtop snowboarding and eating chili New Years Day.

I can't believe how good the snow was at Whitetail last Monday. I can't believe how bad I tweaked my back at Whitetail last Monday.

I don't believe that I will actually listen to my chiropractors advice and not go snowboarding on Sunday.

Everybody has to believe in something. I believe there is snow, and it has to be used.

UPDATE: 1/12/10
I blew off snowboarding on Sunday to give my back another day to rest. Went to Whitetail on Monday. Snow conditions awesome, my back so-so. Still, I had a great time, it just sucks not to be able to go at it full tilt. Beat laying around at home on an ice pack. I got a most excellent massage from Chris Perkins on the way home, in hopes of minimizing the damage and speeding up the recovery process.

ben kicked out

Sarah kicked me out of the house this morning! She made me go paddle. Damn. Calm winds, 60 degrees. The sun coming up on one side of the bay, and the full moon was still over town. Pretty sweet morning. Hopefully Sarah will let me back home after work.

sunrise 12/03/2009

December Moon


City Dock, Annapolis

Another bonus day on the water!

ben on the bay

Not many days left. Maybe none at all. Every day on the water might just be the last one 'til spring. You never know.

Thanksgiving Day, Sarah and I usually go for either a mountain bike or road ride so as not to feel too guilty before the holiday feast. We awoke to fog and drizzle, so rather than climb into bike clothes, we opted for wetsuits and paddled the SUP's around Annapolis. There was not a breath of wind and the water was total glass. Not exactly the workout I needed, but it was fun to be on the boards. We came home and I made Oyster Stew to warm our toes and begin the excess calorie loading. Several hours later I served up a apple wood smoked turkey and all the fix'ns. Thankful for everything we have, and all of our friends. Thankful my shorts had an elastic waist. Too much food, but.....yummm.






Fast forward to Sunday. I started my day out with a 38 mile road ride in hopes of burning off some of those Thanksgiving calories. I came home, grabbed Sarah and took off to the boat for what was our last sail of the season. We had more wind than I expected, but it wasn't too cold and we had a couple of nice hours on the Bay before getting back to the slip just before dark. Other than some trips back over to winterize the boat, I guess we are done with her for the season.










Awoke Monday to the forecast of rain. I had thought about going to the beach, but I just couldn't motivate. I climbed into the wetsuit and paddled the SUP ( in the rain) for an hour and a half. I paddled up the creek across the street from the house and looked at all the boats tied up in their slips. I thought about how I was surrounded by literally thousands of boats, yet I had the Bay completely to myself. Pretty cool.





















Before long, I will be playing in the frozen snow, but in the meantime, there might just be another session on the unfrozen snow. Just maybe.

ben to hatteras

Cape Hatteras Light

Sarah and I returned last week from our annual fall Hatteras trip. We were joined by house regulars John and Dorothy. Mike and Jen Wazenski stayed for a few nights, and we had Bill Gassaway and Mark Ingino in the bunk room. Long time regular on the trip, Fred Hyla didn't make the trip this year due to a injury. Fred is always good company, and we missed him.

We were treated to good 5.5 and 5.0 conditions on Sunday and Monday. Mike and I had a nice session on the reef Monday. Mike launched (and landed) a bunch of big jumps. Me....I launched and then proceed to explode most of my landings. Still we had a good time playing on the reef before making the speed run back to the house. We spent Tuesday morning on slalom gear and 7.5's and 6.5's. In the afternoon, Sarah and I drove to the lighthouse for walk on the beach and to snap some pics.


My shoulder is messed up and was killing me, so I took a breather on Wednesday. Sarah got a nice morning session on the the 6.5. Wednesday afternoon we drove south to the Indian Town Art Gallery in Frisco , where I bought a couple of cool photos from long time windsurfer turned photographer Don Bowers. We drove over to the Frsico bath house and ran into Jim and Elisa, who we know from cross country skiing at White Grass in West Va. They were staying up in Rodanthe and invited us to have dinner with them later in the week. We talked to them for a while before another nice sunset walk on the beach.

Frisco Pier, Golden Sunset

No wind on Thursday, so Sarah I packed up the beach chairs and took the SUP's down to Frisco and played in some nice small waves.

Surf's Sup

Friday was a bit of a disappointment. Forecast was upper 20's to low 30's. Bad shoulder and all,I was was pumped to try out my new 80 liter Naish wave board and some small Ezzy Wave Panthers. We got up early, but the wind never really happened. I got a couple hours on my 5.5 Naish All Terrain Sail the the 95 liter Naish AT board. It is a sweet combo, so I really shouldn't complain. The wind backed off and Sarah stole the 5.5 from me. I was too lazy to rig another sail, so I organized some of my gear and headed for the hot tub.

Mark on the 5.5, The Quiver, Sarah rock'n the 5.5

Le Spot

We had to check out of Le Spot on Saturday morning. Sarah and I checked into the Light House View Motel in Buxton, and then headed back down to Frisco for another great day on the beach and more SUP fun. Waves were huge, almost double over ankle. The water was clear and we could see all sorts of sea life swimming around as we paddled up and down the beach. Lots of bait fish and I paddled over a little ray. Nothing too big, but a reminder that when you leave the beach that you are stepping into the food chain! Sarah had a posse of dolphins swim close by, so that was cool. I'm a big fan of fins that go up and down and not side to side!

Double Ankle High!

Maybe if I get real low, I can get tubed! NOT!!

Sunday morning we caught sunrise on the beach in front of the motel and then went down the street to the Orange Blossom Bakery for coffee and Apple Uglies. Nothing like a big wad of fried dough and apples covered with sugar to start the day. Once again, we spent the afternoon on the beach in Frisco playing with the SUP boards. We drove up to Rodanthe and had a delightful dinner with Jim, Elisa, and their friend Lisa.

Sunday Sunrise Service

Monday was another beautiful day of hanging on the beach and playing in the waves before heading home to Annapolis.

Sarah gets air!

Hatteras is one of my favorite places in the world. It is a special place. I'm blessed to have been there, and even more blessed that I been able to go back many times. For the most part, we had beautiful weather and a great time. Less than three days after we left the Outer Banks, the East Coast was pounded by the remains of Tropical Storm Ida. Buxton, Hatteras Village, and Rodanthe all suffered a lot of damage. From what I understand Hwy 12 has just reopened in Rodanthe. Several houses were lost further up the road in Nags Head. It will be interesting to hear Jim and Elisa's tales. Part of my heart lives down there, and I wish the locals many alohas and a speedy recovery.

Official End of Summer 2009!