brindleblog'n

wasssssabbiiii.....it is about 1:00am am I am just getting home from finishing painting the mural at Cabo Cantina
This place is going to go OFF!!!!!!!!
Should be opening this weekend......plasma screen TV's playing 24-7 surf DVD and a killer sound system

This is a truely fun cantina surf style joint

I added Patron Silver (my favorite drink of all time) and Jose Cuervo........check it out......let go have a drink!

I'm way behind in my bloggness......
going back in to airbrush some more of the mural you see below
airbrushing a jetski
airbrushing an airplane rudder with a sexy woman on it
airbrushing surfboards
I need to just airbrush soemthing for myself

sunday, all day and after work monday night till midnight I painted a mural in the Cabo Cantina in balboa by the pier (the old Studio Cafe)

opens soon.....here is a sneak peak

Hey had friday off and getting back into the swing of things
check this out
click here

last year I had the pleasure of a harmonic surfing convergence, similar to a celestrial harmonic convergence when all the planets line up, but this was all the surfers I knew lined up. It was an evening glass off session at san onofre, and everyone was there.

Somedays, especially when a swell hits and you've had a chance to surf it a few days, everything aligns for you. A kind of harmonic surf convergence. Your paddle arms are strong, your body is used to the water temp and your surf endurance keeps for hours. You're a lean mean surfing machine...or so you think! It was a fairly large southern swell with waves 5-7 feet in height and everyone was catching waves left and right, literally.

The waves at Sano do not break top to bottom for long and the break itself is commonly reffered to as California's Waikiki. The wave rolls over the rock bottom to set up long rides, left or right. Long rides mean long paddles and I was feeling strong this day. I'd paddle out to the line-up, see my neighbors NeoN, Rueben, Wynne & Bob yelling team Dolores (the street we live on). They'd take off on some large sets and I'd see them disappear toward the beach with epic surf grace and style. Look left, see some friends. Look right, see some more friends........look all around and see faces with smiles ........thank god I have my paddle arms because this is a very fun day and everyone is getting the longest rides of their lives........all the way to shore.......every ride.

I caught one of many long rides to shore, a classic right that seemed to go forever. A surfer gets that stoked feeling a after a good ride that helps drive him back out to the line up as fast as he can tolerate the paddle arm burn. They get that look on their face, like I can't paddle back out fast enough, too busy to talk. I too posses this look. As I'm paddling out and I hear this voice on my left...."Hey Brindley! good to see your actually surfing and not on the computer." I didn't recognize him at first because he was wet and I'm getting old so my vision lacks clarity but I did recognize his voice. Its Chris Schroeder, known as the Schroed's. I airbrushed a board for Neon a long time ago that Schroed's shaped and glassed, we stayed in touch after that through the computer via NeoN.

I paused for a minute and watched as Chris, on his short board, snatched an inside steep wave. I see him dissapear, then with lightning speed he raps an off the lip so hard and fast the spray doubled his stance.
Three times in a row he slashed the lip deliberately with a professional polish.......I had to turn around to make it under the approaching wave and I lost visual contact with him. Chris too had a surfing convergence and was fully shredding this day. I paddle out and see NeoN and say......"shit........first time I've seen Schroed's surf....that guy rips!"......NeoN shakes his head and replys...."welcome to my world!" We rock......we both laughed and caught the same wave in.

After you've been surfing awhile you begin to get to a point when you experiment with weather conditions. Stormy seas, night time surfing, early moring and sunset.

This story is about surfing in the fog.

My first experience surfing in the fog was at the cliffs in Huntington Beach, again in the 80's when I had no money, loads of time and was a starving student.

Huntington can really get socked in with fog so thick it is unsafe to drive. You have to navigate from pure memory and drive with your lights off so that your lights won't reflect the fog. My buddy and I negotiate ourselves ever so slowly to the cliffs where we had surfed many times before. There is absolutley no way of telling how big the waves are except for the sounds of the sea and those are often misleading. We suit up and paddle out. My eyes are wide open and I feel very alive. No one in the parking lot but us which means we have the beach to ourselves this morning.

It is both scary and thrilling at the same time. Fog typically equals no wind so the sea surface is ideal for surfing. We paddle out and can see no further than 5-7 feet max. in a radius. You echo locate your buddy by talking out loud and paddling toward the noise. The waves were a solid 4 foot with long intervals. You had to focus and be ready to snap your board around at the last minute to catch a wave or to get under a wave ready to break on your head. You take a few "toad" waves (take off and die) till you get the rythm. We surfed for an hour with the beach all to ourselves. We took a break and talked with each other about chicks, parties and important nothings that brohs talk about in the line up. Then my buddy said...."listen"? can you hear that?......and I said "what" with really big eyes ready to flip and paddle?....he said exactly.....I can't hear anything...we are in a rip tide.

In thick fog you cannot see the beach! We took a total guess and began paddling in a random direction. I was pretty damn spooked to freely admit it, because anyone who knows me knows my sense of direction is not the best. I made it a point to paddle exactly behind him so if we are lost at sea at least I have someone to hang out with! Misery as they say love company. We got tired of paddling, stopped and without a word to each other just listened intensely both facing the same direction. Seemed like a 1/2 hour went by without a word. We heard a wave crash way way off into the distance behind us and we simulataneously pulled a 180 and dug hard with our paddles to gain some ground. We had been paddling way out to sea and I felt like we would see the oil rigs soon!
That pretty much ended our surf session for the day and we still laugh hard to this day when we ask each other "seen any oil rigs lately?"

I remember in the 80's a clean crisp february morning in huntington beach, very much like today, not a cloud in the sky and you could see the snow on big bear through the big smoke stacks on Newland street. The sea was a maximum of 5 feet high close out sets with cleaner smaller ones, a calm sea surface and no wind. The movement of the waves made its own offshore plume which makes anyone smile. Friends of 5 all having an awesome day. Maybe 7 other people to share the waves with our gang. We dominated the peak sections all day long together egging each other on with hoots and hollers. Eventually our pack of buddies cleared out the other guys and we had a section all to ourselves. As the day warmed up we got in the rythm of catching a wave and paddling as fast as you could back out to catch another one. Almost like a rotation.

I believe there is nothing quite as cool as to be paddling out and see your friend on a wave coming right toward you with a huge smile on his face as he sets up for a big cut back right in front of you to power water in your face. I gladly except this joust and await my turn for payback. Payback is a bitch they say and payback shall be mine today on you broh later. All in good fun.

I paddle over a little to set up for the big payback on my unfortunate victim. I let him catch a wave in to set him up and here comes a wave. The sweet taste of revenge is mine now, I've passed up better waves in order to time this one out. I charge the wave, pick up speed on it to hook a huge round house of a cut back and drown the bastard with my spray. Assessing the wave at the last possible second I decide to pull off a huge fly away.

A fly away to familiarize those whom need to know is hitting the lip of the wave and catapulting yourself skyward by jumping off of your surfboard. If you time it just right you can launch upwards of 12 feet or more in the air depending on the size of your wave and your speed.

So the wave was setting up more for a classic fly away than a cut back. I laugh remembering the panic on the guys face seeing me charging so hard and fast at him wondering how the payback will unflod or if he would get run over. I hit the lip hard and very fast and launched off of my surfboard. It was the largest fly away I'd ever had. I felt like I was 20 feet in the air. My surfboard leashed yanked the board behind me on my flight toward the skies. I decided since I had so much airtime to extend one arm like superman and I let out an adrenaline scream. The landing was awkward as it almost always is.

I hear later that there had been a lull in the waves so all my friends were watching me on the wave for a second.
When I surfaced from my epic flight all my friends paddled over to me laughing their asses off. Saying they had never seen such hieght in a fly away ever........You could hear them still laughing in the line up 1/2 hour later. Fucking brindley, you're a crazy man

We all got out, went to georges health food store when it was still over by 17th street, muched on some killer grindage and slurped the smoothies. What an awesome surfing memory.