Liquid Image Show

Went to see Casey Turner's band Liquid Image at the 710 Beach club in PB last night. Joey Taylor, long time friend of Casey's and fan of Liquid drove down and crashed on my couch to ensure he could catch the show too. Liquid Image is the band that was at all of our FIT Surf Club Shugga Dugga parties back in Melbourne, Florida. They played at the Hustler, College Campus Cafe, the Rat on campus, The Mighty Mushroom, and even got a gig at the Hard Rock Cafe in Orlando that I saw. It was a great show and Casey's still got a great thing going. I believe he plays acoustically in a band called the Stained Glass Saints quite often in PB so I hope to catch them. Casey was also in the FIT surf club and a solid surfer on the FIT Surf Team in the earlier part of my time on the team.



It turns out that Chris McCredie that I knew pretty well in high school at Melbourne High School was there to see the drummer of Liquid Image because they are friends. Chris is the bass player of Mower, a local San Diego band that's pretty unreal. I've seen them play with Sprung Monkey a few times in Mission Beach at Canes. They also do their same music in the band called Slower that's all acoustical. You can check out their site at Mower and Casey's Band at Liquid Image. Great show.

iSociety and the Silversun Pickups at 4th and B

The local station FM949 gave out free tickets to a surprise show to 4th and B in downtown San Diego. iSociety opened up and they were a great band. It was great that the SilverSun Pickups were the headliner. Very solid, great sound and one of those new great bands out there.

Surf City AllStars

My wife and I went to see the Surf City Allstars via Dean Torrence formerly of Jan & Dean. I had connected through a co-worker that was working for Dean's brother-in-law so I connected through him directly on e-mail. He told me the fancy hotel in San Diego to go to, the room, and to blend in. It turned out to be an annual truckers convention. Open bar, free food...Cheryl had a couple of glasses of wine, I had a beer and some food.

The cool thing is that David Marks and Al Jardine two of the original members of the Beach Boys were in the band too..that made for the really good authentic Beach Boys/Jan & Dean sound. We had a great time and left after they did the air guitar contest/giveaway. I'd love to catch them again! I managed to see Jan & Dean on Jan's last concert a few years ago right before he died. The Surfaris opened up. Some great music was heard at both shows!

In the mid-70's when I was in elementary school my dad gave me some 8 tracks and 45's of the Beach Boys and Jan & Dean. Ever since those days I really thought surfing and skateboarding were the coolest things (I had already started but wasn't very good at all). I always wanted to see these guys. I'm thankful I got to see the last Jan & Dean show and this show too. Hope to catch them again in the future!

Back to Esquina Del Mar, Costa Rica

I went to Costa Rica with Bill Robson and Kevin Smith to Pavones at the end of March. We really didn't land much more than waist to chest with occasional 2 feet overhead at the peak but it was still a great trip and at the right tide, some great waves. Kevin is Greg Smith's younger brother. Greg was a good friend of mine who passed away a few years ago and I became good friends with Kevin while hanging out with Greg and during a trip to Panama (Santa Catalina, Venao Beach). Kevin brought the hat that Greg bought while we were in Panama with Greg's ashes in it and a couple of cool Pictures of Greg on one or two of the trips he and I had made to Pavones. It was a great tribute and if it weren't so expensive (with a wife and two kids in San Diego, it is) we'd go back more often.

My first trip to Pavones was in 1992. But my most memorable (and perfect huge south swells) were with Greg in 1993, 1994, and I believe 1996. Greg and I had gone to the Outer Banks of North Carolina several times and caught some great south swells there at any one of the sandbars and piers there. Travelling with Greg was always a good time. And if I can help it I'll be making a few more trips with Kevin too...Good surfer, good traveler, and a funny dude.

I read Allan Weisbecker's 2nd book "In Search of Captain Zero" which was a very cool book and ended right there in Pavones. This was my 7th trip (sometimes we went back to Pavones to catch a 2nd south swell within a month) in 8 trips to Costa Rica. Lots of bills to pay and to deal with a scratch in the car that the credit card insurance company is supposed to pay for. Here are some shots. Nothing good of the surf, we were always just surfing when we could to catch the right tide due to the lack of major swell in the water.

Select Pictures of Riley and Evan

Here are a couple of shots of the kids in March and a shot of me in El Salvador in 1999 for a trip when a few of us drove from Florida through Central America and this is one great right hand point break we surfed...I went to Costa Rica a couple of weeks ago and had a great trip. Although the huge south swell never came the left point that I've been too a total of 7 times so far was as good as it needed to be to have an amazing trip.