Friday, July 31, 2009

I'm an idiot!

Just realized my flight leaves here tomorrow at 11:50 PM! Not AM! I have no idea what to do tomorrow. The surf looks to be pretty small....so dumb! Doh! Guess I'll check out LA...

Day 11, PM.

Just got to my hotel in LA, it's called the Custom Hotel. It's really cool and modern and was less than 100 bucks! Seems just as nice as the W, but much less expensive(www.customhotel.com)!

Surfed at Malibu this afternoon which was really cool! By far the most chill people in the line-up! Everyone was friendly, talking and laughing, probably enjoying the thin crowd. The waves were small but up peeling nicely. The wind was offshore and some rides were more than 100 yards, peeling ever so slowly down the beach. I was the only person who was on a short-board, but I did ride my 6"3""(my largest) and pretended it was a funboard. I did a couple of cheater-fives and nobody seemed to notice I wasn't riding a log! The water was colder than the more southern breaks I surfed. I didn't wear my wetsuit, but would have needed it if I wanted to stay out longer. The water was probably 65 0r 70.

Traffic in LA county sucks! I'm sure everyone was going to the beach for the weekend, but it took me twice as long as it should have to get there!

Song of the Day! "You Only Live Once"- The Strokes from First Impressions of Earth.

Later,
Seth.

Day 11 Am update.


Later,
Seth.

Teaser.

A little taste...



Thursday, July 30, 2009

San Clemente.

Yo! I'm in San Clemente now after leaving Oceanside. Surfed this afternoon at Lowers which is at Trestles. It's called Trestles because on the footpath to the beach(which seems like 10 miles!) there is a train trestle you walk under right before the beach. Waves were fun but small. Waist to chest but breaking quite nicely at Lowers. The crowd was not too bad but there is really only one peak, so there is a lot of jockey-ing going on when a set rolls thru. I shot video before and after surfing till the battery died and I'll edit it down to a 10-15 minutes mini video with some music and a bit more production than my normal clips when I get the chance. I didn't recognize anyone at Trestles but there were surely some serious rippers in the water! You'll see from the video!
As an aside, somehow, I ended up driving into Camp Pendleton which is a big Marine base between Oceanside and San Clemente today by accident. I'm glad I ended up finding my way out before someone noticed me and arrested me for spying or something! I thought I was getting onto I-5 and came up on a Guard Station. The guy didn't give me good directions to get back to the interstate and I took self-guided tour of the base.

Song of the Day! "One Month Off"- Bloc Party More like six weeks, but close enough!

Later,
Seth.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Swamis!


Surfed at Swamis which is in Cardiff by the Sea, CA for about three hours. Super fun, super long rights that would reform 4-5 times as they worked there way over the reef. Most waves were waist to chest with some bigger sets just peelin' as nice as can be. Set waves were like the one in the video above. Mostly longboards out, and at most there were 10 people at a time at the main peak. Doesn't get much better!

Decided to give y'all a view of the beach and how different it is from here.




Got lunch at a really cool place called Beachside Bar and Grill in Encinitas. Kinda like a Kickin Chickin but Cali style if that makes any sense. Saw a guy who was surfing at Swamis when I was out named Justin who ended up being from Wrightsville. He said it was really lucky to be able to surf at Swamis with so few people since it's such a quality break that is relatively easy to get to.

Came back to Oceanside and surfed this evening for a while. It was bigger here, but not as clean. More people out today than yesterday as well.

Song of the Day! "Don't Stop"- Chali 2na from the Fish Outta Water album. I heard it first on this Quiksilver video of Clay Marzo. http://go.quiksilver.com/go-moments/#/clay-go-moments/ Click it and check it!

Later,
Seth.

P.S. No, I wasn't high in the video from this AM, I had just woken up, that's probably why I looked so rough! No "fish whistle" for me! Haha!

Day Nine AM.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Day Eight in Oceanside, CA.


You can check out the new Merrick I bought here: http://www.cisurfboards.com/sb_tangent.asp
Cool video with Kelly Slater and Mr. Merrick himself.

Surf Ride Board Shop in Oceanside here: www.surfride.com

And here is the Surf Ride board, mine is the 6'3'' round pin.

Song of the Day! "Lassoo"- The Duke Spirit from the Neptune album. I don't have this one but I've been hearing it on the radio a lot and I like it. Alternative rock band with a female vocalist; I'm all about it!

Later,
Seth.

Adios San Diego!

Headed down the rocky cliffs to the break at Sunset Cliffs.
Sunset Cliffs.
View north from Sunset Cliffs.
Longboarder rippin' it up at Sunset Cliffs. After walking down the trail it's about 150yds out.
Beach at Sunset Cliffs.
Longboarders out at dawn as seen from Sunset Cliffs on Ocean Beach.
View from Imperial Beach, south towards Tiajuana.
Downtown view from my hotel room.
Split peak at Ocean Beach pier.
San Diego sunset.

Time to head out! San Diego has been awesome and I have to say thanks to my buddy Jay Lewis who proudly showed me around and showed me some really cool sights and good surf! We tried to surf today but wasn't much out there unless you had a longboard. We took a cool hike down to the beach at Sunset Cliffs. Jay really showed me some cool spots like the one's in the pics above. In Cali to get away from the crowds takes some long hikes, but it's always interesting things to see along the way.
Well now I'm off, headed north. Probably to Carlsbad or Cardiff. Update coming later!
Seth.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Day Seven. Imperial Beach!


Song of the Day! "In One Ear"-Cage the Elephant. Didn't think I was going to have one today because didn't spend much time in the car so didn't hear a lot. However, this came on the radio right before I got back to the hotel. Don't songs that you have on CD or your ipod seem more enjoyable when you hear them randomly on the radio? I think so.

Later,
Seth.

Day Seven. Getting my ducks in a row...

Yo! Big Monday in San Diego...


I know these are getting longer, if they are starting to get too long, let me know.

After this I booked my return flight as well and its going to be a marathon. Only an hour or two between stops but I'll leave Indo in the AM on 19th and arrive in LA a little before midnight the same day but spend about 24 hours in a plane. Same track as getting there but in reverse. I was considering a different return path and staying a night or two at each changeover city but instead I'm going to hurry back so I can see more of the US. More on that later!

Working on getting travel insurance now...

Later,
Seth.

Day Six PM.

Finally made it! Got to San Diego about 1:00 today and met Jay Lewis at his house in Ocean Beach. We decided to head to Blacks Beach which is at the bottom of a big cliff, north of the city. Surfing here is no small venture. We had to park in a neighborhood at the top of the hill and walk down a trail for about 1/4 mile to the beach. The walk back up is even tougher because of the steep incline. The waves were 5-7 ft with pretty good lines and just a touch of onshore wind breaking probably 100 yards out. The sets broke out farther and were pretty easy drops and if you got to the inside a little barrel section would sometimes pop up. Water was around 72 and people were wearing anything from full suits to baggies. It was fairly crowed by my standards but Jay said it wasn't bad so I can't imagine what "crowded" look like here. I rode my new board(the WRV) and it rocks! After surfing I got a guided tour of Ocean Beach from Jay and then we ate at some mexican place in Ocean Beach which was quite tasty!

I'm now downtown in San Diego, staying at the W (http://www.starwoodhotels.com/whotels/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1433) My room is sick! Had to step it up from the 29.99 fleabaggers from the last few nights on the road! Planing on getting a good nights rest and getting my flights lined up to indo tomorrow, then see what the surf is doing and maybe check out the city a bit.

Here is so video from early this AM in the Mojave. I'll hopefully have some more surfing footage sometime soon. I uploaded this video in a larger format. Tell me if it's better or not.



Song of the Day!-"I Got Mine"-The Black Keys from Attack and Release. Two guys, one guitar, one set of drums. What else do ya need?

Later,
Seth.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Day Six AM.

Up and hitting the road. Just checked the Surfline forecast for SoCal and the surf is 4-6ft occasional 7ft. Sounds good to me!

Now that it is light, I can see some of the Mojave Desert scenery for the window of my room and it sure is beautiful!

Later,
Seth

Day Five Update.

So I was in Oklahoma this morning and now I'm in California. Went Through Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona today! 960 miles! Please just go to Google maps, put in those two places and look at the ground I covered! Thanks for all the FB posts today from all of you! I sure needed the encouragement!
Good news from San Diego though. I talked to my buddy Jay who says he was surfing 12-15 ft Pacific perfection today! After my ground covering today, I'll be there by lunch time tomorrow! Hopefully there will still be some swell for me!

Song of the Day! "California Waiting"- Kings of Leon. 'Nuff said!

Later,
Seth.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Day Five Update.

Relaxing at a Starbucks in Albuquerque, taking a break from the road. Here is a little footage from this AM.

The plan to get to San Diego from here is to go thru Flagstaff on I40 to Lake Havasu City and follow the Colorado River down to Yuma, get on I10 and head to San Diego.

Gonna hit the road now! Later,
Seth.

Day Five AM.

Bout to hit the road from Elk City, OK. I'm pretty close to the Texas border and will cross thru TX at the top where it is quite narrow, then on in to New Mexico. I'm super excited about the Southwest! This will be my first visit. San Diego is about 1200 miles from here, so I think I'll be getting there Sunday evening. Not sure where I'll stop tonight, maybe near Flagstaff, AZ.

For those of you who remember Mark Sutton from high school (before he became a country music star !), he said to tell everyone hello! He saw on facebook that I was near Nashville and called me yesterday. We weren't able to meet up, but it was good to talk to him, it's been like 10 years. Check out his band Brother Trouble on myspace http://www.myspace.com/brothertrouble

More later from the road!

Seth.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Windfarm footage!


I found out that this footage I took is of the Weatherford Wind Project owned by NextEra Energy Resources. It takes up 3800 acres, consists of 71 turbines made by GE Energy and produces enough power for 31000 homes(106.5 megawatts). Each tower is 262 feet high and each blade is 126 feet long. Pretty darn cool!


Must be living right! Found a cheap hotel in Elk City, OK with wifi and the TV remote works.

Later,
Seth.

Day Four!

Hi all, I am currently in Oklahoma City getting a bite to eat and taking a break from the road. Here is a video I made earlier today.


Arkansas didn't stay flat for too long once I got closer to the Ozarks. In Little Rock I missed an exit and had to take an exit of the interstate on to a surface street. While I was there I figured a bathroom break was due, so I pulled into a parking lot of an empty building and ran around back. In the back I saw a huge black widow spider, in a web on the building. I ran to the car to get my camera but the spider was gone when I got back. It was probably the size of a silver dollar. I've never seen one that big and wish I could have gotten a pic.

Here in OK it is hot! 97 degrees at 5:30! Nothing much to see but Indian Reservation casino signs and cows with the occasional oil well-head pump. Don't think I'll make it to Amarillo like I was hoping, it is another 275 miles, so I'll probably drive till dark and call it quits for the night.

Song of the Day! "One Big Holiday"-My Morning Jacket from the Okonokos live album. This one fits in title to my current situation and happens to be my favorite song as well. It is an all -out rock and roll, guitar riff heavy, jam. I would put it in the same class with Eric Clapton's "Layla". Just like the latter, the former gives me chills just about every time I hear the first riff. It absolutely is pure musical energy and once it starts it doesn't let up till the end. The entire Okonokos albums which is a two disc live recording, plays like a classical concert. If you are a fan of music I can't see you not enjoying Okonokos or at least appreciating the band's incredible musical writing and talent, so check it out! Just like WSP's Till the Medicine Takes, this one always gets a play while I'm on the road!

Thanks for reading and don't forget to leave me some comments! I need to know y'all are reading or I'll quit going to all this trouble! :)

Later,
Seth.

Day Three! a day late...

Hey guys! Sorry no post yesterday. I drove all day(14 hours !) after surfing in the AM and when I got to my hotel in Lebanon, TN that claimed to have wifi, it was nowhere to be found. Guess you get what you pay for(my room was $34.99). I can't update from my iphone either.
My plan today is to keep driving west on I-40, not sure where I'll try and stop, prop just go till I'm tired(maybe Oklahoma?). Here is the video from me surfing at Ocracoke on Wednesday.

As you can probably tell, I did all my airs, layback snaps, and other cool tricks RIGHT AFTER I went out of frame! haha!
The next video is from Thursday AM, before and after surfing. I'm pretty sure I left Hatteras early and it's pumping by now and clean(it was nasty when I left), but plenty of waves await on the Cali coast and beyond!

The drive yesterday was pretty easy considering the distance(765 mi) and time it took(14 hours). The longest part was getting out of eastern NC and to the interstate. It rained a lot of the way which was a blessing because it kept it cool. Between Asheville, NC and Knoxville, TN is absolutely beautiful and a fun drive. I-40 twists and turns like the Blue Ridge parkway but at 60-70mph, lots of fun and really nice scenery!

I'm keeping to my healthy eating plan so far. Bought a cooler and stocked it with lots of fruit and veggies and drinking nothing but water and hot tea. Had my first fresh apricot yesterday! Until now only had them dried. Got another for breakfast this AM! I am missing my coffee for sure, but getting use to not having the caffeine.


Song of the Day!(for yersterday) "California on My Mind"-Wild Light from the Adult Nights album. The title definitely is how I'm feeling! Great song even though the title betrays the gist of the song. WARNING it has some harsh language for those with sensitive ears.

I'll try to post an update tonight whenever I get off the road!
Later,
Seth.


Wednesday, July 22, 2009

New Video!

Finally got it to load!

Thinking I'm going to head back down to Buxton area and give it a go tomorrow morning(I'm in Kitty Hawk now, not too much surf here, must face to much to the north for this SE swell). Want to get a good session in before 4-5 days of landlocked driving.

Song of the Day! "Should I Stay or Should I Go"-The Clash. Exactly my predicament right now!
2nd Place! "The Fixer"-Pearl Jam. New PJ and it rocks! Heard it today for the first time.

AM Update.

Something happened trying to upload my video from this morning so I'll try again later this afternoon.
I'm headed up to Hatteras Island now, hopefully surf will be good up there this afternoon. This AM the surf was waist to chest breaking way outside which made it pretty mushy, hard to make it all the way to the inside. Wind is onshore so it tended to be pretty sectiony. Had a good time though!

Looking like WavePark(www.wavepark.com) will be my destination in Indo, got a spot reserved for AUG 8-18(yup 10 days baby!), just got to check on flights now!

Lastly, looked at possible routes across the US today and it looks like I-8 would be cool, most of it I have not seen before so it kinda looks like this: Asheville, Memphis, Little Rock, OK, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Phoenix, then San Diego and up the coast to LA!
Later,
Seth.

Change of plans again!

Still trying to nail down my plans in Indonesia and it looks like now I'll be going to a place called Wavepark(www.wavepark.com) from August 8th-18th. Have to hustle to get there! But for now going to hit the surf for a a couple hours here in Ocracoke. Checkout of my hotel is 11, so I'm going to surf till then, check out, and head over to Hatteras this afternoon. Hopefully my cell phone will work over there, no service here on Ocracoke!
Later,
Seth

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Howard's is still the jam!

If anyone was wondering, Howard's Pub(www.howardspub.com) is still awesome! Had an awesome grilled teriyaki tuna salad! I've resolved to try and eat really healthy this trip. Nothing but fruits, veggies, and fish. I think this can be a good opportunity to break bad eating habits so thats what I'm going to try and do. No processed food, nothing fried, no coffee(gonna be tough!), and no booze! I was going to try and not eat meat but I figured a piece of grilled fish would be healthier to eat than pass up. So we'll see how it goes.

Also, just a thought.... there are a TON of people here! You sure wouldn't guess there is a recession going on from looking around here. Maybe peeps who usually go out of country to vacay are staying in the US and coming to places like this... If so, that can't be bad. US dollars staying in our borders rather than going overseas!

Lastly, I going to post a song of the day that I listened to and stuck out in my mind. Gonna try and do this everyday, so today's was: "Surprise Valley"-Widespread Panic
WSP is great car music and I usually start any car trip with the Till the Medicine Takes album.
Until manana!
Seth.

Day One Rundown.

Hi all I've made to Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks! I was in the water 15 minutes after the ferry got to the dock! Caught a little surf this afternoon; waist to stomach with the occasional bigger set, but closing out pretty bad with onshore wind. So cool here, you can just drive right out on the beach, park and surf right in front of your car. Might try to set the video camera on the dash while I surf and get some footage in the AM!
I'm staying at the Silverlake Hotel in the Village, cool place nice view of the inner harbor area. Got to go get something to eat, haven't had anything but water ALL DAY! Headed to Hatteras Island tomorrow most probably! Later!

Monday, July 20, 2009

Final Farewell!

Getting it all together...

Going to need this for Cali I think...

My new addition! 6'1'' x 18 3/8'' x 2'' Rounded Pin, Flexlite Epoxy. Should be a great barrel board for me!
The new guy with the old reliables. The Natural Art is my "good surf" board(Chest high and bigger). It has been with me on both trips to Costa Rica. It's a typical 6'0'' x 18 1/4" x 2 3/16" Squash tail. The Sharp Eye is a 5'10'' x 18 1/4 x 2 1/4" with fuller nose and tail for small surf. The Sharp Eye will be going for the Florida stop but won't be much good after that(I hope).

Depending on how the new board rides I might or might not pick up a bigger one. We'll see. Hopefully Cali/Baja will be a good test to figure out what I need for Indo.

Just getting a bit longer...and a bit crazier!

Tentative schedule so far!

Been working on my trip to Indo this morning; so far it looks like this but yet to finalize anything:
Leave Myrtle Beach AUG 1 for Los Angeles(spend 3 days at Huntington Beach)

Leave LAX on the redeye for a 14 hour flight! to Hong Kong(spend 2 days)

Leave Hong Kong for Singapore(spend 2 days)

Leave SIN for Padang, Indo via Jakarta (yikes! where those al-qaida bombings were last week!)

Stay overnight in Padang for early puddle jumper flight to Mentawai!

Going to take a totally different return trip and hopefully see some more of the world! More to come!

SUPER PUMPED!!
Seth.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

SethAroundtheWorld1 p.2

So, videos can only be 100mb so here is part two.

Also I forgot to mention the thought to do this came from my good friend and neighbor, Julia Hickman Ryan. She has a great blog you can check out at http://www.pawleysislandposh.blogspot.com.
Later,
Seth.

Video Intro.


So here is the first video. It's crazy how funny you sound to yourself talking on video! Hopefully I'll become more polished in front of the camera as time goes on.

I'm also going to try and post any links to any sites, authors of any books/articles, etc. Just general giving credit where it is due to keep it legit. So I think Surfline is the only thing mentioned so far, the address is www.surfline.com . It is a great resource for anything surfing related; from webcams of spots along with forecasts to articles about surfing events.
Later,
Seth.

A bit more of the plan.

I'm planning on using video to document a good bit of what will be presented here. A trip to Best Buy this morning produced a Panasonic SDR-S26P/PC camcorder that I'll begin recording with as soon as the battery has a charge. As usual with my electronics purchases, I did no research or planning before buying(which is dumb), but came home with what seems to be a pretty good camera. It is flash memory based which I figured would be better for travel since it has no internal hard drive. It has a 70x optical zoom lense which I'm hoping will be good for shooting surf footage. It's small enough to easily fit in my backpack and it was comparatively cheap.

So, with that being said, hopefully later today I'll have my first video post ready to go! Later!
Seth.

Day One.

So, I guess I'll lay out the basic plan for this and give a little insight into why I've decided to do this. I'm planning a solo surf trip to Indonesia, hopefully leaving around August 1st and lasting the better part of the month. I thought it might be cool to document the research and planning leading up to the trip, and fully document the journey along the way. This is my first experience with blogging so any feedback or recommendations are welcome! Later!
Seth