Venice Beach...

This beach is a great example of what happens when people reach critical mass...I saw everything from your regular Joe's to street entertainers along the long stretch of boardwalk. Besides for the wild people, on the boardwalk and beach, one could buy just about anything they might want here at Venice beach...

amazing biker


dancing, on roller skates!

US Open Surf Finals at Huntington Beach

Being in Huntington Beach to watch surfing is very cool. Essentially, every shop in the main part of town is related to surfing or is a restaurant...long story short, surfing is king in this town.

Oh and the beach is really nice too. Imagine people on the beach basking in the sun, playing volleyball, building sand sculptures, and just hanging out with friends. Behind them is a nice little boardwalk for walking, biking, and roller blading. And in front of them is the water, a nice blue green with people swimming, playing, boogie boarding, and of course surfing!

The day I was there, Sunday, they had the Men's quarter finals, semi finals, and finals for the Jr's, Long Board, and US Open. Everyone was sitting on the beach until the US Open finals came on and then you had to work your way to the waters edge to get a decent view on the beach. Everyone else was camping out on the pier or in a VIP (purchased ticket) area, which means I was officially in the water with surfing professionals! All of them did some pretty cool tricks out on the water, but part of their runs depended on the waves, which I heard weren’t as high as they have been in the past. One of the coolest things I saw was a surfer come out of the wave onto the top of it, bounce off the wave, and get back into the wave...and this was the start of his run...it was ridiculous! He scored pretty well on that run too, but the scoring system is a bit of a mystery to me.

Here is a quick guide to surf scoring, which would have been helpful before I went, but it seems like judges have a lot of wiggle room for their final decision. This leads to guys having a sweet run and recieving a 4.25 and then other times he would have a decent looking run and get a 7.25?...This is apparently worked out through averages and having enough judges posting scores for the surfers.

Outside of surfing they also had a couple of huge skateboarding ramps/bowls setup for competitions during the day and a huge motorcycle jump where they had sponsored riders doing tricks at certain times during the day. BTW, these guys are certifiably crazy!

Would I go back and watch surfing again? Heck yeah, in a heartbeat!

AVP in the LBC

It started off as an early day where I was on the road at 6:15am. This was so I could try out a new coffee shop in the area, they sent me a coupon in the mail for two free drinks, and get to Long Beach by the time the gates opened at 7:30am. Not only was it an early start, but the sunshine decided to sleep in a little. Not to worry because the sun came out for the final and the day turned into a scorcher.

For the women's final I was in sitting in the South end first row by a lot of photographers. I bounced around a bunch during the earlier games trying to find a good spot, decided that I really liked the end zone area, and I figure that all of those photographers can't be wrong, right?

Throughout the tournament and the final, May/Walsh killed the opposition. They were leaps and bounds above the rest of the group...it almost wasn't fair! Maybe it was because they had to take time to relax and meet some of the fans...This wasn't just womens play for the entire day, the Men were still jockying for position for their final the next day. So that means I got to see some of their tournament play too. All I can say is WOW! It is amazing to watch some dude get roofed (aka blocked)! Rogers/Dalhausser played really well against Lambert/Metzger, but I thought that Rosenthal/Gibbs were going to win it after watching them play on Saturday. I was curious so I watched the replay on AVP.com and Rogers/Dalhausser won the tourney.

I also accomplished a couple of California missions while I was down in LBC. I was on TV, since the game was televised, and I was in a movie called "Match Point." Now my part was small, person in crowd at beach volleyball game, but I just might make it onto the screen! With that in mind I might be cut too, who knows...I guess only time will tell.

Weekend time, what are you going to do?!

I'm going to Disneyland! Not just the morning, or afternoon, but all day!

A good friend, Steve, and his wife Reyna were down in California at a wedding. I was convinced they came for E3, but I was wrong...it was a wedding and then an internal calling brought then to the happiest place on earth, Disneyland!

Steve and Reyna are Disneyland professionals! They have been so many times that they probably know the fast pass system better than the person who invented it. Because of this expert knowledge we covered a lot of ground during the day and had great seats for the show, Fantasmic, at night! With that in mind I had a few nostalgia missions that included Space Mountain, the Matterhorn, and Splash Mountain...but I left the direction up to the pros.

We started the day with a fast pass from Space Mountain! This is a great ride that is completely dark except for a few stars all around you. The stars don't provide enough light to show you which direction the track is going to twist, turn, or dive at next, but they sure make it feel like you are going faster than you really are. Mix that with the wind blowing in your ears and it is a screaming good time.

Next we hit the Indiana Jones ride, which was one of the coolest rides in my opinion. Essentially, there are thousands of combinations that the ride can take since there are many random decision points throughout the ride. These decisions include different directions that your car can go and Indy's speeches. Sweet ride with a great ending!

A couple other highlights were Pirates of the Caribbean, California Screaming, and Astro Blasters!

Pirates of the Caribbean got a nice update with the release of the new movies, but I miss the pirates chasing the ladies and their ale, but still a nice relaxing ride.

California Screaming was a new experience for me and this ride gives a cool twist on your traditional roller coaster. Instead of being pulled up to the top of an enormous height and being dropped, this coaster stops you about 100 yards from the first big hill. Then the speakers on the coaster by your ears countdown to launch! Once you launch you are pressed back into your seat only to get lifted out of it at the top of the first hill. Somewhere in the middle there is another great spot where the first car gets held over a nice big drop before the coaster lets go! Three letters for this ride...F-U-N.

One of my favorite rides at Disneyland was Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters! This is a cool interactive ride that gives you and a friend a ray gun to aim and shoot and different targets throughout the ride. Each target is worth a certain number of points, but if they are lit up they are worth even more. Then at the end the ride takes a picture of you and your friend in action, which you can email out once you are off the ride!

Watch out bad guys, these Space Rangers are good!

A day at Disney wouldn't be complete w/o dinner with fireworks in the air. They apparently have a fireworks show every night during the summer. We weren't to concerned with the fireworks because our last stop for the day was the show Fantasmic. This show has a mixture of live actors dressed as your favorite Disney characters and projections onto walls of water all over by Pirate Island. The show uses Mickey as our main character and his battles with some of Disney's most notorious villians create a great show.

Wow, this was a fun filled day, but how could it not have been? I was at the happiest place on earth with some good friends!