Keith was here

seaweed patch

2011-04-10T19:10:00.000-07:00

I have so many pictures that have never made the blog. In the next month or so I am going to try to get caught up so I'll get motivated to pick up my camera again.

Seaweed Patch is a beautiful secret spot in Bali that we surfed often while I was there. It was only 200 something steps back up from the secluded beach to the parking lot after a long surf.

Bruno and I had one very memorable session here where he paddled out only to find a impossible current ripping down the coast. We paddle constantly for about a hour getting to the main peak, grabbing a wave, and battling the current again. It started getting dark and the waves picked up and pushed us down the coast a ways. Lets just say it got a little heavy. We were just trying to get in at this point and get to the scooters and get home. A doogong (indonesian manatee) payed me a very unclose visit that freaked me out even more as he surface about 4 foot behind me and I caught a glance of him of the corner of my eye. The waves were very very hollow, windblown, and crazy. Chunking themselves on a shallow spot in the reef and absolutely imploding shooting air 20 feet out the backs. We survived. Had a good laugh walking up the steps. And stopped three times for cocos on the way home. Good times Bruno!

A more mellow afternoon.

Is there scurfing in heaven?

2011-04-05T18:52:00.000-07:00

if not, this is about as close as it gets.

Kansas!!! Maybe the most rad place on earth..

2011-04-03T06:13:00.000-07:00

Im not sure why I went with that title, maybe it was the first thing that came in my head. It might not be true, but I know one thing that is true and that is that I love my rad family!!!

Pres vs. Chocolate Ice-cream

Chillen Dylan

2011-03-24T19:44:00.000-07:00

Its hard to beat time with family. Meet my nephew Dylan Kayle Hatch world. I'm so proud!!!

Falcon

2011-03-13T07:14:00.000-07:00

Yeah !!! Finally some fishing photos. It about time. I should be posting a lot more soon.

These pics are from last weekend. My brother and I spent 3 days on falcon. It was my first time down there and I can't wait to go back and fish the jungle. It was my first taste of mexicana america in three months. Its a little scary, but Zapata, Texas made me feel at home. The fishing was a little slow and we got blown off the water by a cold front on saturday that sank three bass boats. yep sank!!! We will have to get this lake dialed. We are headed back there in April to fish a tourney.

On another note. I'm home!!! for good!! yep Im ready to unpack for a while and put down some roots. I have been interviewing all week in the Valley mainly around the Port of Brownsville. Everything has been surprisingly positive and I should be moving down to the island or Port Isabel soon. Im also hoping to catch up with friends and family that I have been neglecting for the last 5 years. haha. It feels great to be back in God's country.

Bass Fishing in South Texas

No work, feet up

This is the kind of mesquite we were pushing through, time to buff that gelcoat

Honey hole?

our biggest for the weekend was a 6.5lb. you never know what you are going to pull up at falcon

little tiger creek

Jungle fishing aftermath

west pass, palau

2011-02-18T17:08:00.000-08:00

valentines day with my first love. this day has to go down in the top five surfs ever for me. head and a half and just bruno and I in the water. This place is pretty unreal and there are very very few local surfers and even less traveling ones. The water and coral at the pass is probably the most beautiful I have ever seen. we surfed for 7 hours strait. no joke. i got out of the water once for 10 minutes to reapply.

Maori Enforcer

Reni from Switzerland has been our local tour guide. he has been in palau for 6 months and he one cool cat.

These pics are from the 10 minutes I got out of the water so they dont really to the place justice. The waves were really really good.

This inside section was intense. 6 foot spitters breaking on waist deep reef. get caught inside and it flushed you way down channel. bruno got pretty cut up. he also got two barrels.

all by our lonesome.

What is actually looked like

Okay. not joking. i surfed the best i have ever surfed if my life this day. I was nailing everything. Here is turn #74 in the pocket.

I am still pinching myself.

Ubud

2011-02-13T03:01:00.000-08:00

Bali II

2011-01-28T19:20:00.000-08:00

Sorry there arn't more surf pics. its so hard getting them especially when my camera didn't fit in my motorbike. places we surfed included: Bingin, Uluwatu, Seaweed Patch, Nusa Dua, Mushrooms, Serangan, Hyatt Reef, Keramas, Cangu. Just the memories in my head of the good waves I had. Bali out. Hati Hati!!!

Asia will make you hate commercial fishing. I do.

Our scooters. notice the surf racks.

Indonesian 500!!! green!!! go!!!!

Todd at the warwung. mmmm. tasty nasi champur and nasi goreng.

These hindu offerings were everywhere.

This was a epic little place on Nusa Panida. I wanted to swim so bad.

Nusa Lombongan with a bali volcano in the background. There 10 volcanos on Bali.

bridge, Nusa Lombongan

I thought of a coffee table book if I ever go back to bali. It would simply be photos of the hilarious thing people put on the back of motorbikes.

Downstream of some waterfall.

The guys bought little guns that shoot rubber balls. We had wars on the boat for a few days. T Pain looking hard.

Christmas in the crew mess. Really really not a good Christmas.

Christmas day surf. The day got better.

barreled today in Palau and it feels so good.

2011-01-28T03:14:00.000-08:00

Desert Point Almost

2011-01-27T03:36:00.000-08:00

This has to go down as one of the saddest days in my surfing career. We had a really good chance to score desert point totally empty. Everything fell into place except the 20 knot cross shore wind. For those of you that don't know desert point is considered the best left hander in the world. If you don't believe me than you tube it. The wave is unreal and also really really fickle. We knew we where going to have to get lucky when we woke up at 4:15 am to get in the boat and head around the point. A 7ft @18 second swell was arriving mid morning and we only had until noon to surf. There where not many waves when we got there and we had to sit in the boat for the sun to come up. around 10 am the swell jacked up and the waves started to clean up for about thirty minutes. This was offseason and we had the whole place to ourselves at the very remote break. The wave just never cleaned up and kept shutting down. That afternoon we steamed back to bali on totally glassy seas. The place had to be firing that afternoon, but we missed it. I guess there are for sure worse things that happen to people. Redeem yourself surf god!!!

Camp at the point.

First wave, first wipeout.

The face of frustration.

play afternoon in komodo

2011-01-25T22:45:00.000-08:00

Komodo was one of the wildest places I have been in a while. I really like it. After being in bali and seeing how humans can really ruin a place, it was nice for this Texas boy to get back out into the country. Tristen, Todd and I went on 2 great dives this day, "sultan's rock" and the "Texas yellow flower" actually. We chilled, we dived, we had a really great time getting away from the boat.

awww... no motorbikes.

I'm not sure if you can bring dead coral into the states, but I wish i would have tried. This would look really good on the shelf.

beach but crack

lunch time after the first dive

Seriously, absolutely nobody. This bay was a great spot.

No i did not see a komodo dragon.

Beach Soccer Domination

2011-01-19T18:55:00.000-08:00

And by domination, I mean getting my butt handed to me by a bunch of 6 year olds. I'm not a soccer player. Im just not much of a team sport anything these days. Soccer, however is the best sport in the world because its the only sport that requires just one ball and 4 sticks in the sand. These kids and I had a blast playing on a black sand beach this day in northern bali.

I started off at goalie, where I didn't last long. After giving up three goal including one where I was humiliated (haha) by the dang kid in the red shirt, a some kind of modern indo pele, I was moved to defense. I am apparently not very good a defense either and they soon moved me to forward where i thought i had a few good passes. I even got a high five!!! In a last ditch effort to achieve indo beach soccer "decent" status, the boys gave me a free kick to possible some how redeem myself. Just the 3 ft 5 in. goalie stood between me and bali hindu soccer godliness. 40 ft. over the goal was the result. yep, my soccer skills wont be celebrated by religions anytime soon. By the end of the game all the kids where yelling my name. I had blast.

The peanut gallery. less than enthused.

The chubby guy seemed to be my friend. We were on the same skill level.

Bali I

2011-01-18T01:20:00.000-08:00

Indo fast food, actually they have kfc too.

Anna Bannana

The man, the myth, Rodriguez

Beautiful, but a tourist trap

Offering are everywhere in Bali. I mean everywhere.

First attempt at making putting big photos on the blog. I'm not sure why they arn't clear.

dirty feet

LA

2011-01-10T04:09:00.000-08:00

a day spent with in santa monica and venice. the passport office, fish tacos, and plenty of public transport were all part of a pretty good first ever day in california. I could of rode those busses all day and watched the characters that where getting on. these shots were taken with my new toy called a lens baby. i'm not sure how i feel about it yet, and sorry to the mother of the guy begging for weed, your son has failed.

anchor down maldives

2011-01-06T04:04:00.000-08:00

Dropping the pick back in October.

best barrel in a while

2011-01-04T05:06:00.000-08:00

These days i find myself looking at my watch a lot. I just can't wait to get off work to surf. This was the tail end of the swell yesterday at a place called mushrooms. It doesn't took like much, but the wave had a very hollow end closeout section. I managed to make it out of one and it made me so happy. Not sure what else to say. Don't mind the facial expressions.

Men and the Sea

2011-01-02T04:16:00.001-08:00

Sunset now... watched a 8ft at 18 seconds sw swell roll under the boat all day. Not the best way to start off 2011, but I have a feeling that lots of good things are going to occur this year. I am looking forward to the future, have a open mind, and I am excited to see where this year will take me. These are a few pictures of people living the simple life or at least it appears so. If you own a atlas, they were taken a few days ago off the north coast of Lombok near the Gilli Islands. I really do hope everyone that checks this blog is doing great. Happy New Year.

Karla and I

2010-12-16T03:53:00.000-08:00

One year older and back in Indo

2010-12-09T02:54:00.000-08:00

My life has been crazy lately. Such a emotional mess. Up and downs and all around, I have been through so much during the last month. I'm happy to say that if it weren't for being a little homesick and missing everyone back home, I am the happiest I have been in a while. I turned 27 last month, and I could't of been luckier than to spend the day with my amazing family. It is getting harder and harder to leave them each time. I have been surfing so much lately it has given me some time to clear my head. Thank goodness I know the things that make me happy and I keep them close.

As far as the blog. I am overwhelmed with pictures. Hopefully ill get in a blogging mood soon.

Mex is Rad!!!

Yesterday's Lunch Hour Surf Check

2010-10-27T08:01:00.000-07:00

Would you wake up at 4:30am to surf this with just two good buddies? I can't stop smiling. Surf discovery is still alive!!! Barreled before sunrise this morning. Tripping out in the Indian Ocean....

Hollow Trees aka Lance's Right

2010-10-19T08:04:00.000-07:00

Correr de Foc

2010-10-10T01:47:00.000-07:00

Barcelona!!!! I love you... I spent three weeks in September in one of the coolest, hippest, most fun cities in the world. Barcelona is the type of place, kinda like Austin, where when you walk around, everyone seem way cooler than you are. The La Merce festival was the end to a excellent stay in the city.

We met some friends at a concert on the Friday night of the festival. The venue was in this tiny square right next to a massive Gothic cathedral. Doby Toure was playing the beats. They are a reggae/folk band form Senegal that put on a amazing show playing for over 2 hours. Right up my alley. I was sore the next day from dancing so much.

The girls told us that we have to meet up for the Correr de Foc. I'm not sure what this was all about but it was 2 solid hours of crazy devils running around with fireworks and lots of drum bands. crazy...

The start as they make there way down the street

Giant dragon

That is me on the ground in the blue shirt. I have always loved playing with fire.

Mark and Dave.

The loud explosion got to you after two hours.

Bruno. Towel head.

Yeah. We danced like wild men.

The Boys. Loving life.

The Lake

2010-10-07T09:35:00.000-07:00

We didn't see another person the entire day.

jamie is the man on the gat, and when he threw in some killer vocals, the valley came alive with music. Two bunnies actually came out of their hole and started dancing.

The crazy kiwi jumped in the freezing lake.

Can you spot jamie sitting on the rock?

There was no fishing the park. uhh yeah... untapped fishery. I don't think these trout had ever seen a lure.

Malta

2010-10-05T08:32:00.000-07:00

Lots of things can happen in a busy two days. A wild night out in old packed allies, kebabs, fuel, provisions, navy seals, afternoons off, pizza, red wine, lots of photos, a bus ride, barb wire, more guns, and we are off. I'll be at sea now for a few weeks straight with only the Somali pirates in between me and a Maldives right hand peeler. I miss everyone back home pretty bad. I hope everyone is doing well.

These feel really good

2010-10-02T09:46:00.001-07:00

Surfing is my drug of choice. Turns like these get me so high. And yes, I pulled this one off and was stoked for the pic. Thanks Hans.

Roxy's

2010-10-01T08:02:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite shot from the trip, bevo smacking the first lip of the day

These are some really low resolution shots of myself at small, but super fun roxy's.

going for dinner, the daily commute in the islands.

tucking in.

I had a really funny "conversation" with this guy. Neither one of us could understand a word of each other.

Sweet shirt.

This girl was super cute. she wouldn't come close to us, and was obviosly shy. We saw her later watching us on the beach and as soon as we got into the boat she came running out waving goodbye.

Bethany Hamilton, the girl that got her arm bit off by a shark.

Bintangs. One of my favorite waves we surfed. it did a crazy below sea level sucky thing before the wave unloaded on the reef. I surfed it for about 8 hours one day. Maybe thats why I only got one lame photo.

There was a star studded line up at roxies that day. there were three boats, the rip curl boat, the nike 6.0 boat, and us. The lineup inculuded:

Steph Gilmorethree, time womans world champ,

Coco Ho, very cute, we hadnt seen a girl in week,

Nat Young, America next big goofy kid that might win a world title,

Dusty Payne, on the ASP world tour,

Michelle Bourez, Tahitian on the ASP world tour,

Anna Blanchard, surfer magazine said that she is the hottest surfer alive,

Some ausie chick that was hotter than Anna,

Carrisa Moore, rips harder than i ever will,

Keith Jud, the guy that sucked compared to everyone else,

and Bethany Hamilton.

Big Mountain Post

2010-09-26T08:52:00.000-07:00

Deciding to fly home halfway through my Indo trip was the best decision I had made in a while. Going up to the Spanish Pyrenees was the best decision I have made since then.

I don't consider myself a mountain man, but getting out of the city and into some fresh air was a no brainer. We did the trip last minute and in typical Keith fashion, absolutely no plan.

Enjoy the pictures and look out for another post from "the lake" soon.

exactly what we were trying to get away from.

we didn't have the gear, but be definitely had the stoke needed for the hike.

Bruno stoked on his slingshot he bought off a gypsy lady.

Apparently they call slingshots "shanghais" in kiwi talk.

There are no bears in the Pyrenees but safely never takes a vacation.

baguettes, cheese, peppered salami. survival kit complete.

Bruno gives his idea two thumbs up.

ahhhh. a serious lack of people.

Is that a billy goat or a Texan with a afro.

Jamie totting his guitar.

mountain trail walking. we ended up not sticking to many trails.

stunning view.

Boom!!!

We stayed in a mountain refuge camp for the night with a bunch of crazy euro hikers that were not too fond of the loud youngsters.

Alphabet soup, chicken,s salad, bread, wine. Happy.

click, click. myself snapping shots.

We took out heavy wet weather gear from the boat.

shanghi can shooting contest.

We sat on this same wall until about 11 pm that night drinking wine, laughing, and telling stories. The lake was perfectly calm and the moon was out making for a very sureal night. I was one of those moments that will deffintly be stored in the memory bank.

Mark

Not sure what this berry was but i did enjoy multiple handfulls of wild blueberries that I found.

the boys and the boat yesterday

2010-09-24T05:10:00.000-07:00

outside a village

2010-09-13T12:51:00.000-07:00

thunders on a flat day

sure.. there are no germs on the deck. good thing i dont mind germs.

this is a fwd to myself in about 10 years with my sailboat.

the actual break that was in front of the village in the previous post

bintangs. one of my favorite wave we surfed. i didnt get a good picture because i surfed about 8 hours this day. It did the amazing below sea level suck thing off the reef.

no one

Rags left. yes it will cut you.

more robo!

more bevo!

sometimes there is nothing better than a spitting tropical downpour.

7 palm point

el chef

i need to hurry and get these pics up. which wave was this?

the only toilet i have ever sat completely sideways on.

so many more indo photos to come.

Hossegor for the weekend

2010-09-06T13:12:00.000-07:00

I know its cliche, but when in France, do as the French do. Wine, baguettes, public nudity, no showers, tiny cars, and funny accents were all part of the game. T-Pain and I decided last week that it was going to be a while before we get waves again so we went ahead and drove across Spain to go surf. We left in a rush FFriday afternoon after a sweet little bbq at the shipyard. We pushed our little surf mobile to the limits driving 160km the entire way, about 100mph no joke. We got in at about 2 am which was perfect for a little beach sleeping. I lied on my board bag, watched the stars, and listened to the booming surf. It got cold that night and we woke up a little damp but who cares it was a good night.

I look big standing next to that car.

T-Pain (Tristen). Born and raised in Bahrain, schooled in Ireland, and stoked to be waking up on the beach still warm in his sleeping bag.

T-Pain is a secretly very funny dude. Especially when the Arab starts coming out. He had me cracking up all weekend.

Is the water warm?

No, the water is not warm.

La Nord, Hossegor

ooooh!!! fun shories

Downtown Hossegor

Old WWII German bunkers that line the beach. Not preserved historical sights.

Camp spot night 2. I finally got to use my tent.

Breakfast of baguettes.

Two questions. Whats over the sand dune?

And how fast can I run down the sand dune?

in a village

2010-08-25T15:54:00.000-07:00

Today

2010-08-24T12:43:00.000-07:00

alone 16 mile tender ride Ibiza big rocks Fanfarlo sunset

Scarecrows and Telescopes

2010-08-20T14:05:00.000-07:00

Scarecrows and first indo surf.

Early morning Lance's Left.

A Hawaiian shredding Telescopes.

The crew doing a beach assalt.

Paul, Sam, and I barefoot.

The budyadahri was a converted indonesian cargo boat thatwas used to haul lumber to Thialand.

That is a big dugout canoe.

Our speedy always keen to take you for a surf and make the paddle outs non existent.

Telescopes was a super fun, and had a great hollow section.

The bar at scarecrows came with a complimentory whale skeleton.

There are lots of really crazy ausie blokes in the mentawiis, Bevo was no exception.

Meal #6 out of 112 or something. The food was great.

Me, myself, and I enjoyed this sunset.

Another crazy australian bult this place with stuff he found on the island.

We had small waves the first weeks. Saying that everything was at least head high. It was a good warm up for the 12ft at 16 seconds peak.

Tropic thunder.

Robo is the man.

Vehicles

Indo Mission Complete

2010-08-14T12:03:00.000-07:00

The bad thing about Indo is that once you go there, every other future surf trip is downhill. I went, I surfed my brains out, and I met some cool people along the way. More about the trip in many future posts. These pics are from a few days spent in padang, sumatra. In 2009 they suffered a 7.1 magnitude earthquake that killed five hundred people. It was a very poor place and a real eye opener into indonesian and muslim culture.

After my trip, I flew around the world back to Texas, and then back to Europe. I met the boat in St. Tropez where I had a argument with a man selling ice cream. I was sitting on the dock waiting for my ride when i felt a sudden craving for some gelato. I asked for 2 scoops in a cone. 5.00 Euros!!!! I just had left padang where i watched really nice friendly people climb through trash cans to get something to eat. I simply told the guy i wasnt paying five euros for 2 scoops of ice cream!! I said it was too expensive and it was not worth the money. I then gave him a euro and said take it or leave it. The ice cream was tasty. Im not sure if the man agreed with me or if the frenchmen was just annoyed talking to a cheep texan... Not a very good story but going to indo opened my eyes just a little bit more, and I can only hope that some of my photos will do the same to you.

Indo Mission

2010-06-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

Wow, where has the time gone. I had a plan to put big post up with some spanish photos before i leave, but its just not going to happen. I am off to indo for a month. Thats right, surf for a month!!! You are not going to believe it when I post pictures in August. Im going to miss everyone. I will miss you cale, there will be a next time. I will miss you hatch family and my daily visits to your presley's blog. Rachel and Kyle, SELL THAT HOUSE!!! Ill be home to fish in the new bass boat soon. Make that money papa, I hope the rest of the harvest goes well. Mama enjoy the sumer and dont worry too much about me. I will email you every chance I get. Karla, only we know our understanding, and you I dont think I have to express how much I miss you EVERY DAY!!! I hope this find everyone looking at my post doing well and making the most out of these live we are living. Ill be back in a month with many stories tell.

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-20T09:26:00.000-07:00

Illettas Beach Today

2010-06-19T15:29:00.000-07:00

Easter Island 2

2010-06-13T13:38:00.000-07:00

I am finally getting caught up on my posts. Here are the rest of my Easter Island adventures.

We are still floating around in the Atlantic and only a few days from civilization. Congrats to Cody and Britney Johnson. That is my little cousin who got married this weekend. It has been a tough weekend for me knowing that all me family was together in one place celebrating such great people coming together. I wish you all the best codeman. I am truly sorry i couldn't be there.

Roadside mystery meat. I didnt see any cows, pigs, or goats this day, only lots and lots of horses. Oh Yeah... that is a woman. A very beautiful woman.

Joey and I, rough day.

Bruno trying to catch a yellow fin.

BBQ with Beno

Who is this guy we are going fishing with?

We ended up catching a nice buzz.

These guys were fighting a big tuna on a hand line. They looked quenched, so we gave them a few beers. Stoked!!!

Buying veggies for the hunggie.

Local ice head. I think.

Locals treating us to dinner.

Beno is a serious cool dude. He was so generous and showed us around Easter Island and introduced us to the locals. He did it all. I hope your well my friend.

The guy in the blue shirt is THE big wave surfer on the island. After dinner he was very exited to show us all his videos of himself surfing. We had the hunggie in his backyard.

A hunggie is the Easter Islands version of a luau. I am for sure going to try this at SPI one day.

I was taking notes.

Boston

2010-06-08T14:52:00.000-07:00

I wasn't feeling too inspired to take photos this day. It took me quite a while to even snap my first photo. Boston is a rad town. I suppose I would probably think different of the place in mid January, but this day was a amazing, sunny, warm day in May. It was one of those days that really warms up in the afternoon. After a little shopping for things i can only get in the US, I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in a outdoor cafe drinking cappucinos.

The wog

I poped this guy serving cookies after church.

Cocos From Below

2010-06-06T14:23:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of a few days working in the Cocos Islands.

Bluewater diving. Kinda creapy even in <100>

School of trevally.

We filmed the sub making its decent, and then shot off and went for a pleasure dive.

They went down t around 2000 ft.

Langosta

Myself riding the anchor chain.

We got to go on a night dive and saw hundreds of white tip reefies.

Orca eating a Turtle in the Galapagos

2010-06-05T08:24:00.000-07:00

The northeast has been good, but it is time to move on and get started with this circumnavigation. I will be getting back to Texas the opposite way now, an hopefully not looking back and doing this with no regrets. At the moment we are underway in the North Atlantic. We will pass just to the North of the Azores before we slip through the Strait of Gibralter and on to Palma on Mallorca. I have come to the realization that I am not going to see many family or friends for the next six months or so, and it has made me quite homesick. Yes, Keith does get homesick. Especially during a week when my entire family is getting together at the lake and celebrating Presley's first birthday. I really do miss everyone. And I really do miss you Karla McCorkle. What that girl means to me is beyond words. I hope everyone is doing well and living life to the fullest, being happy, and then helping other people be happy. Maybe even making this world a little better place for all of us.

There was a Mama and a calf and they ended up getting very shallow. You can see the waves breaking over them.

You can just make out the turtle in the orcas mouth.

Thats is the fin or the turtle at one point the turtle got flipper totally out of the water

The Frigates were there to clean up the mess.

New England Sriper

2010-05-28T18:29:00.000-07:00

Picked her up of a chartreuse bucktail and my coastal bend custom rod made by my brother Kyle. check his blog out at coastalbendrods.blogspot.com.

The Lobster Docks

2010-05-24T18:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I got off work and went to check the surf. The waves were small, cold, and crowded, so I opted for a little sunset stroll instead. The lobster docks smell. I actually gaged at one point from the rotting bait they use. I had a nice conversation with a fisherman. He approached me and I thought he was going to offer me some drugs. The gut just looked like a junkie. He ended up just wanting to chat and I talked to him for about 30 minutes about the local area and some fishing stories. I think I might want to be a commercial fisherman and live the simple salty life.

Rhode Island Shrinkage

2010-05-20T17:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the boys and I got a few cold water waves. Lots of shivering and laughs were had. We took the protector around the point because we didn't have any wheels. We actually scored some good waves. We ended up surfing this head high right hand point call ruggles. The wave is set in front of these ginormous mansions. We all surfed until we couldn't feel our feet anymore. Good memories.

Heading out of Newport Harbor.

Jackets to go surf. Thats not right!

Bruno was fired up as usual.

Brad can go surf, not even catch a wave, and still be smiling.

I was still warm at this point.

Buzzy!

Tod had just got back yesterday from a month surfing in south and central america. Talk about culture shock.

Man pose.

Covert Opps Explained

2010-05-12T08:08:00.001-07:00

High speed chases, guns, undercover uniforms, helicopters, and crazy mercenaries are not quite in my job description, but when asked to help such a beautiful place such as cocos island, we decided to help.

Cocos Island is a protected marine sanctuary some 300 miles west of Costa Rica. The island has a 12 mile no fishing zone surrounding the island. We were asked to help try to catch some of the illegal fishing in the area.

In the past the Costa Rican government has had problems prosecuting illegal fisherman in the around the island. In order to prosecute them, they must actually obtain photos with the boat and fishing lines in the water. This is difficult in the park rangers patrol boats because the fisherman carry modern radar and can see any approaching vessel. This has led to only one fishing operation being fined ever.

With the help of our owner, this was the first time a helicopter had ever been used to chase illegal fisherman. The morning of the flight the park rangers were very excited. We could see numerous vessels on our radar even before the helicopter left. We found over 10 boats fishing within the park boundaries and we were able to get photos of several in the act of fishing.

Once the boats were found by the heli, our tender was transmitted the position and course of the boats. In the tender we had one park ranger, one Costa Rican coast guard, a Finnish journalist, myself, mark, and RAMBO. We can alongside two boats and gathered their information. We had blacked out the name of our boat and had to where plain shirts without the boats logo.

I wasnt quite sure how I felt about catching working class fisherman trying to feed their families. As a fisherman myself, I felt for the men on the boats just trying to earn a dollar. I felt this way until i found out the facts. The fisherman all fish out of Puntarenas, Costa Rica. In recent years, the Japanese have infiltrated the port with money in order to feed their sick appetites for shark fin soup. The Fisherman go where the money is, which has lead to the practice of shark finning. Along with tuna, most of the fisherman around Cocos are shark finning which is a horribly inhuman .

So thanks MarViva and Cocos. I hope we helped

Choper

Stoked to have guns onboard.

We called this guy Rambo. He looked like he just walked out of the jungles of columbia. He was a mercenary from way back, and we guessed that he had probably killed a few people with his bare hands. Bandana, gold chain, harry chest, knife strapped to calf, aviators, short shorts. Thats the recipe for a bad ass.

Cocos Sunset Cruise

2010-05-08T14:23:00.000-07:00

MEX IS RAD!!!

Covert Opperations

2010-04-21T10:10:00.000-07:00

This is a quick pic of a operation we participated in on Cocos island. We had to blackout the name of the boat and wear plain clothes to not leak our identity. The guy in the back was classic! We called him "Rambo" and he looked like he was some sort Central American mercenary from way back in the day. He had a knife strapped to his calf and everything. And yep, they had guns. Rad Dudes!!! More pictures and the story coming soon.