1st Fathers Day

Yesterday, being my very first Fathers day, was my day to pick out itinerary. Naturally, with my newly healed shoulder (more on that later) we went down to San O' for some surfin! It was crossed up NW/SW swell with light onshore winds to make it nice and choppy, but it fell great to be in the water. I went out once a little over a week ago, which was my first time since I hurt my shoulder almost 3 months ago! Anyone who surfs knows that after that long out of the water, any waves are great waves.




Since my shoulder still feels tender I'm using the longboard just while I get back into the swing of things. I feel awkward having been out of the water for so long, but am not having much a a problem. Maybe next time I'll take the fish just so I don't make the longboard a crutch and forget how to ride shorter boards!

Laura and Levi hung out on the beach and played. I'm extremely proud of Levi's appetite for sand, (see picture below)

Hope all you dads had a great Fathers Day as well. Never forget that you are 100% vital to the well-being of your family, and take your responsibility seriously.

Foto Friday

Dad taking not one, not two, not three, but FOUR kids out......AWESOME.

Kook Stand-up paddler snaking not one, not two, not three, but FOUR kids surfing on one wave?.....NOT AWESOME.

From here, originally seen on SurfySurfy

Happy Memorial Day!

Taken from the National Fatherhood Initiative, remember, this holiday is not about barbecuing and the start of summer. Its about remembering all those who have fought and died in the name of freedom so we can live in this great nation, the freest country the world has ever known. We need to pass this on to our children.

Use your day off to teach your kids these important values as you celebrate Memorial Day. Tim Red, our Director of Military Programming and a former service member, has some great ideas for teaching your children life lessons around Memorial Day.

Teach Sacrifice and Service. Don't just talk about it - get out there and serve! Put a care package together with your children, or make cards for service members. You can even sign up to welcome troops home from deployment. For more ideas and opportunities, visit United Service Organizations (USO).

Talk with a service member. If there is a family member who has served our country, have your children visit with him/her to hear his/her stories. You can also visit service members in your community, via your local VFW or American Legion, to hear their stories. They'll love the captive audience and will appreciate an in-person thank you.

Attend a community event, parade, or memorial. Most communities have a Memorial Day parade, an event to salute local service members, or a memorial you can visit. Take your kids to these events and memorials - it's a great way to spark conversation and talk to them about courage, sacrifice, and freedom. You can find a listing of special services in your community here.

Fly the American flag. Buy an American flag and fly it outside of your home during Memorial Day weekend.

While you're enjoying your long weekend, remember our service members and teach your kids the importance of their service, as well as values like courage and sacrifice. Don't miss this great opportunity to teach important life lessons!

Father Knows Least

They say that people who are experts at any particular activity are not necessarily the best teachers. I try very hard not to listen to “they” because often “they” are wrong. While I don’t consider myself an expert skier, I am an experienced ski patroller at a little ski area in southeastern Indiana. I know a thing or two about turns. I have skied for nearly 25 years and patrolled for 8 years. I’ve stolen as much winter from southern Indiana and Ohio as humanly possible.

Barreling down a powdery steep carving huge GS turns is more than an experience. It’s an emotion akin to raw joy. Like many parents who ski, I wanted to pass my passion on to my children. I decided I would teach my kids to ski. I was self taught. Under my direction, I’d have them ripping turns in no time. I’ve seen the little ski whizzes buzzing down the black diamonds, no problem…

Read the rest here.

Open Eyes-Surfing after Kids

From The Outdoor Parent

Jurassic Five blasts out of my alarm at 6:00 in the morning. I’m out of bed before the second note, rushing to turn the alarm off before it wakes up Laura and Levi sleeping next to me. If Levi wakes up, it’s going to take a lot longer to get things together. First things first — start the coffee. Then, a quick yoga session in a feeble attempt to loosen shoulders tightened up by a week of hunching over a keyboard.

Read the rest here...

The Outdoor Parent

Today I am happy to announce the launch on a new website that I have the pleasure to be involved in in a small way. The Outdoor Parent was the idea of Fitz Cahall of the Dirtbag Diaries, where those who've been reading the Dirtbag Dad Diaries know allowed me to shamelessly use and alter the name for this site.

The Outdoor Parent is in our own words...

The Outdoor Parent is a collection of surfers, climbers and skiers who have embarked the greatest adventure -- parenthood -- and lived to tell about it. Stories, perspective and reflections on parenting, children and the outdoor lifestyle.

I'm am going to be a contributing writer on the site, as well as Steve Bohrer, and other fathers and mothers of like mind who are doing what we can to raise our children with a love of, and respect for, the natural world and all life has to offer outside of our "modern" bubbles.

Still Dry; Shoulder Update

Still haven't been out in the water for some time due to my shoulder. I have an MRI scheduled for tomorrow so we'll see how it goes. I'm hoping that its fixable. I'd almost rather it be something that requires surgery but can be fixed, as opposed to something like tendonitis that never really goes away. I have that in my elbow since little league days and its extremely annoying!

On the bright side, there hasn't been that much of a great run of surf over the last month. I torture myself with the daily reports from SoCal Surf Forecast and when I'm not out and its really good then the torture is almost unbearable. When the surf is marginal I can deal with it though.

In the absence of surf or outdoors related news today, you get Levi's Easter portraits.

Sense of Smell

In light of how busy I've been at work and working on another project to be announced soon, I've been neglecting (sorry) this blog a bit. Some of you may have read this post on my pre-fatherhood blog, but I thought it was worthy content for DDD. Enjoy!

My senior year in high school I had a job at Holiday Inn working in the banquet service. I'd be there from right after school until sometimes three to four in the morning, watching drunk people do the macarena at weddings, corporate Christmas parties etc. I remember when I first started I was excited at the prospect of free food (loved food, still do!) from the surprisingly good kitchen. I commented on it my first day, and I've never forgotten what my supervisor said. Apparently, when you've worked in food service for a while, you actually get to the point where just the smell will satisfy you. Of course you still have to eat, but the additional temptation to eat more than needed just goes away after a short time. I found this to be true, and even there I didn't last long at that job, that always stuck with me for some reason.


Being a new father, moving, and working a sales job in the current economy, time to get out in the water has been more than scarce for the last several months. I was on the road to work early one morning this last week and decided to take the scenic route up PCH from Newport to Huntington Beach, for the sole purpose of seeing if the smell of the ocean would help me through this long dry spell. I have to preface this with the fact that I didn't spend much time actually looking at the surf, not so much because I was driving, but that when I'm out of the water for a long period of time I just get frustrated seeing waves I can't ride.

Back to the experiment. I drove, windows down, several miles up, PCH, breathing in the fresh ocean air. For a moment I thought it would actually help, and really in a way it did. Part of the meditative benefit of surfing I believe is the the smell and sense off the ocean, and I got that. The only problem is that it still made me want more. Some surfers want more than just their local break, which has driven surf travel and exploration for decades. Part of being a "surfer" was the search for the next great wave, almost a constant limbo of being satisfied yet still yearning for more, knowing there was something more out there to experience. That's how I felt only in a sad, almost pathetic lesser degree. I am actually at the point where just being able to see the ocean, sense it and breathe in its aroma, makes me feel like I've reached that much more of a connection. I'm far from content with being out of the water for so long, but that's the thing about surfing, no other past-time (I don't' like to call it a sport) is so holistic in its experience. Maybe I'll write on that later.

Photo by Ryan Tatar

Walkabout

Not exactly a hike, but just getting out for a walk around the neighborhood with Levi feels good, like I'm doing something right to get him outside. Just throw him in the carrier and go. He seems to like it as no matter how cold it is he is quiet and just soaks everything around him up the entire time. Ehow.com has this list for the question "How to Get Kids Outside?"...

Step1

Set up a swing set or play equipment for younger children.

Step2

Put up a basketball goal, volleyball net or skate ramp for older children. Kids will be more likely to go outside if they can engage in an activity they enjoy.

Step3

Take family bicycle rides or walks together. Encourage outdoor activities by setting a good example.

Step4

Plan a scavenger hunt for your children and their friends. Send them around the neighborhood looking for various outdoor things.

Step5

Sign your kids up for a camp where they can explore the outdoors and participate in outside activities. This introduction may foster an appreciation for being outside.

Step6

Limit the amount of time they are allowed to spend watching television or playing video games. Without these distractions, they will want to get outside to play.

I've decided to simplify it for people like me with short attention spans. Here's my list...

Step1. Turn off the TV and go outside.

That's it. Not, send the kids outside, go outside yourself. I'm going to be making a conscious effort to habitually be outside. Working in the yard, playing walking anything, just being a family that gets out of the house and having children outside from an early age will make a world of difference 5, 10, and 20 years from now.

Surfin'

This last Thursday was a surf day for the family. My brother and his family moved to San Diego so we went that direction. Stopped off in North SD and were pleasantly surprised as the reports were not very optimistic. Its been a long time for me so the small, semi-clean conditions were good for a paddle out. I did end up re-aggravating my shoulder that I sprained several years ago. Goes to show I need to get it in the water more to keep loose. Needless to say it felt great to be in the water, and beyond that, there's something even more satisfying now that my family is here with me.

Before Laura and I had Levi around, I almost invariably surfed alone. I'd go at dawn before work, or I'd spend the working day at San Onofre on my days off, leaving around noon to meet Laura at her work for lunch. Now, I don't get out so much, though I would love to get out early in the morning. Now that we live close enough to the beach I can get up for a dawn patrol, then come home for a morning with the family before work, yet I haven't taken advantage of that yet. Work is taking up to much of my time lately, its hard to justify any free time spent away form my family. 60+ hour work weeks can be harmful to a young family so I try to commit every second available to spending time with the family. Hopefully in the near future work will allow me fewer hours and I'll be able to get out in the water more.

Now, there is a trade-off, those serious surfers, climbers, skiers, bikers etc, know that participating in our chosen lifestyle (I don't call them "sports", and they're not mere hobbies for most) when we don't get that psychological, emotional, and physical re-fuel of getting out there regularly, our mental state tends to suffer. Using myself for example, when I'm out in the water on a regular basis, I'm more even-tempered, I feel better physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Its our personal recharge, a way to clear out all the mental garbage we accumulate in the modern world we live in.

I've discovered though, that as I focus on appreciating the incredible family I've been blessed with, my being in the water, or going snowboarding (that used to be my main passion for years) doesn't take precedence as my family trumps everything. Now, its important to have time to yourself, and believe me, if I had time, I'd be in the water ever single day there were waves! The point is is that in this spot I'm in I'm not willing to to sacrifice my family time for anything. I have a beautiful wife and awesome son that I don't spend nearly enough time with, and whatever "sacrifice" I'm making by not being in the water as much is of little account in the bigger picture. Not only that, but the times I do get out to the beach with my family are absolutely more rewarding than just being by myself. There's nothing like kicking out of a wave and looking at the beach to see your wife and baby boy watching and waving.

Bedtime Stories for Wanderers

If stories are the currency of travel, then writer Ryan Nickum is a very wealthy man. By the time he turned 30, Nickum's passport was chock full of the brightly colored patchwork of entry and exit stamps from dozens of distant countries. He was consumed by a desire to travel and haunted by the inability to sit still. The gaps in his resume developed into oceans between jobs. Cynicism grew. The overwhelming urge to quit the job and pack a bag sprang up every six months like a song that would not leave his ears. With his career stalling and idealism flat lining, Nickum looked into his past to search for the seed of the travel affliction. There was only one person to blame -- his father....

Listen to the Short at the Dirtbag Diaries.

Milestone!

Yes, my son (highly advanced as he is) has rolled over for the first time! Pardon the image quality, it's a cell-phone camera. And for an additional disclaimer, the cheering is not me, I have a very masculine baritone voice(wishful thinking), the cheering is my beautiful wife.

Fatherhood

One thing I'm realizing about fatherhood, and desiring to raise your children with a love for the outdoors. The issue that we run into after the fact is not just raising them outside, but getting outside ourselves.

Between family and baby and mortgages and car payments, its really hard to get time to get out to the water or up to the mountains. What we once took for granted now feels like to slipping away. I got a comment from a new father that he had an 18 week-old baby boy and was totally stoked, but hadn't been in the water in weeks and was about to go insane! I know exactly how you feel. Surfing is different than many other outdoor activities in that its more of a spiritual and emotional pursuit than other sports for most participants so being high and dry for long periods of time (days for some people, weeks for others) really has a negative effect on our psyche.

On the flip side. We're dads now. Being a dad is the second most important job I'll ever have on this earth, #1 being a husband. Family comes first in everything. I've read in my any surf magazines, articles, etc speaking on the effect and power of surfing in someones life, and read something along the lines of "marriages have failed because of the powerful pull of the ocean..." or some such nonsense. When I sit back and look at the big picture, one day a week in the water when the waves aren't even good, with a happy, close, and loving family is a lot more important than catching it every time the swell comes up.

Now that contentment with my new lot is setting in, my biggest concern really is what I'm going to be able to do when my son is old enough to join me. Will I even be in good enough paddling shape to show him how to duck dive a 10ft wave? Will he be able to look up to me and see something he wants to be athletically? I was watching On Surfari a few episodes back and Shayne (the father) was surfing a longboard while holding Banyan, his son. Am I going to be confident enough in my abilities to do that with my boy? I was a while ago, not so much now.

When I sit back and look at the big picture, its easy to know what the right decision and attitude is for the moment, but there's always that nagging in the back of your head when you look at the surf report and know its going to be good, yet know you're not going to be in the water for it. I'm sure its the same for many other activities as well. When its a lifestyle, not a hobby, its difficult to let it go at all, but that's what fatherhood brings you, a dramatic shift in priorities, that are more than worth any sacrifice.