I'm sitting in Mariposa, just checked the surf report. Ventura is where it is at. NW windswell, W groundswell, with building S groundswell. Malibu! 

http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/deconstructing-two-weeks-of-south-pacific-swell-from-tahiti-hawaii-centro-mexico-california_27647/1/

this is how the surf has been. too bad i can't cut. or read swell charts! ha...

shoulda stayed in san deigo and scored with stan... not like that. 

awww you stud...

i miss you already.
There are experiences during this drive that give me a feeling of complete freedom and awesomeness. 

Like when I start my truck. Rousting the beast.

Its probably one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had. Having bought it without a running engine and fixed everything on it myself, which is no small feat (I think at least) for having no experience working on trucks at all, when it doesn't start I usually have some kind of idea what is wrong by the sounds the thing makes. 

However, what's one to think when you turn the key and NOTHING happens at all? 

eff.

I had dropped doug off at the Airport in Oakland to fly home for a funeral. Having no real definite plan of where I was going I started driving east and decided to go to yosemite. so I thought i was killin it. all alone in my truck with 3 months of living on the road to back me up. 

I pull into yosemite and pull off the road to sit by a creek and read for a bit. Go back to the car, turn the key, nothing. 

nothing at all. what the heck. i had just driven over 100 hundred miles no problem and now it wouldn't even turn over. 

Anyways, there is no real point to me writing this other than to say that when your stuck 1000 miles from home with no one around to help you and next to no cash for a tow truck you feel pretty stuck. Me and doug have been stuck with the truck not starting plenty of times before. But at least then the engine would crank. And having Doug there to take out my frustration on didn't hurt. (JERK!)

 Nothing was going on. 

So I guess the point is that you feel pretty awesome when its all on you to get out of the present situation and through your own genius you figure out what is wrong with the truck and make it start. 

Or goin for a wave and it kinda jacks up a lot bigger than you were thinkin it would and your lookin down over the lip like AHHH what did I just get myself into. And then the lip usually tosses ya over the falls...and you get worked....but sometimes you make it! and you ride this wall of water and you don't even have time to think. just charge it. and you gotta dodge other surfers and control the energy of the ocean under your feet. and sometimes you make it off the wave and start paddling back out....thats the feeling im talking about. 

I'm sittin just south of yosemite right now. Doug is probably drooling all over Adam's bike back in Surrey and I got about a week or so to kill until we meet up again. I'm thinking the surf in ventura is probably fun this time of year. but not before another visit to santa cruz.

We spent about 10 days in santa cruz. The surf is the best I have ever seen, more pool coping than you know how to grind, and more free food than you can imagine. Easy Living. 

Seriously, if you surf and want to score, go to santa cruz. its not thaaaat far...

We're driving to the airport on the 880 and a truck drives by. Full horn the whole way. Me and doug look at each other and doug, in the drivers seat, reaches his hand out the window  and feels for the surfboards... and abruptly pulls over off the highway. 

"Hey man, you should take a look at this"

And its not so much what I'm looking at as much as it is what I am NOT looking at...

so a mile hike back up the highway and i find my surfboards. My beautiful surfboards...

Fearing the worst I dodge 3 lanes of highway to get to them and what do ya know. My 5'10" is obliterated. like, unrecognizable. Fubar. 

And the 6'10" gets away with only a huge chunk missing out of its tail. not SO bad. 

We even noticed the straps were loose earlier that day...

It's kinda strange how that leaves  you feeling. I guess just thankful you still have 3 more save on the roof. At least it didn't happen in mexico...yet...

Nikki split north to San Francisco about a week ago. We were walking down Pacific in Santa Cruz and this kid sitting with a bigger group of kids yells to us "wanna go to san francisco?" Nikki's all YEAH! lets go! And this kid is all YEAH! Alright! get your stuff we're leavin! So nikki walks back to our truck with this kid, packs her stuff and took off to san francisco with them. End of Story. Bye Nikki! We miss you. and We love you. You're the best. It was intense dude. Your gnar to the core. Go save Emily and lets savout. 

I'm gonna start trying to film surfing while I am surfing. Not sure how well thats going to work out. I'm thinking if I just get one arm really really really strong I can hold the camera with one hand and pop up with the other. Right? pff...

Doug, Jeremy, and I camped out on a beach somewhere north of Santa Cruz and south of half moon bay (Mavericks anybody?) a few nights ago. Beautiful spot. No body around. Hiked in through a farmer's field and down onto a long, windy, sandy beach with rocky shelves sticking out into the ocean. It's a nice spot. We camped out there for a night and drank our "Simpler Times" to sleep. We woke up and made breakfast which consisted of 2 potatoes, 6 eggs, 2 cloves of garlic and a few ounces of extra virgin olive oil all in a pot over a fire. From there we drove to some state park which wanted way too much money for us to afford to stay so we kept on keepin on to San jose! What a wonderful thing sikh temples are. To the wary, mostly hungry traveler free food is the best thing that can come your way. Where is there all the free food you can dream of? Any sikh temple of course! So we spent our evening watching a beautiful sunset in san jose full of fresh indian food. 

Another good spot for free food: Hare Krishna Temples. We were lookin at their weekly schedule and once a week there is an event in the evening called "Feast".

Heck yes it is a feast. Everyone sits on the floor in a big circle and people walk around and around with huge pots of the best vegetarian food you will ever eat. And apple crisp, and fruit salads, and smoothies....and oh you want some more? here ya go. No one asks where you are from, or what your doing there. You're welcomed in, sit down, and they feed you like a king. So cool. You can even head in early and get in on the chant fest, bang cymbals and hit drums. If thats your thing... 

I was kinda getting over San Diego. I mean, Southern California is great. No doubt about it... but eventually the number of people around (especially in the water) and terrible air quality do get to you and it leaves you missing the pacific northwest. so me and stan hopped a plane north to his hometown of Gig Harbor. The whole reason was to drive his '73 (?) VW bus down the 5 down to San Clemente to see Lauren off before she split to Brazil. 

I don't now a thing about VW buses... only land cruiser... and even then, really only my own truck. But that was kinda why I came, to fix us when we broke. Well, we broke. at about 2 am in nor cal surrounded by fields of agriculture and drainage ditches for miles. So that kinda sucked... the I-5 is scary. and working under a bus thats inches off the highway with semi's ripping by at 70 miles isn't much fun. We got a tow and got an inline fuse replaced. Thought we were killin it till a few miles down the road we were broken again. Eventually ran a new wire to the fuel pump and we were rollin. and feeling pretty good that we actually fixed the van ourselves. we made the drive in 3 days i think? about 18 hours hanging out on the side of the road scratching our heads later. Anyways, Me and doug had driven the 101 all the way down earlier so it was cool to take the 5 the whole way this time. The west coast is LONG.

uhh. 

hmm.

yes. Biking to Hollywood.

Doug and Nikki had just left to hitch out to hollywood. There I am sitting at James' place thinking I'm missin out on all the fun. And the chances of scoring a ride with 3 people hitchin are slim so I stayed back. Instead I decided to bike there and just meet up with them there. Right? 

So I beach cruised my way through Newport, Huntington, Seal Beach, I dunno really where I was when I got picked up. Next to the ocean and some wetlands...

anyways, I'm biking along and this truck drives by with a canoe up top and slows down at the light I'm waiting at. I throw out my thumb halfheartedly. Like, yaaaa right these folks are gonna take me and my bike down the PCH...well they did. Mike and Yakura. And then they offered to drive me to Hollywood. So I'm stoked. We drove to their place in Long Beach. Things get kinda weird now. I had a shower and we're hanging out Mark, after taking another shot of Vodka, pulls out a box and shows me a postcard from his Ex. weird? random? ya, Yakura thought so too. So they get into a fight and come to the conclusion that driving a few blocks to meet this Ex girlfriend of Mark's is a good idea. For both of them. RIGHT. We get in the car and pull up to Eileen's house. We walk in and you could cut the air the atmosphere was so thick. But still I was just kinda enjoying the moment being thrown into this kinda drama totally randomly. Eileen and Yakura are sitting there talking about Mark and life and what not.... and then Yakura just kinda exploded in anger on Eileen and was yellin and being all crazy... so they left... which left me at Eileen's place with all my stuff just kinda sitting there like...what just happened?...

ANYWAYS....

i ended up chillin with Eileen for 2 days eating her raw vegan food and watching her grateful dead dvd's. This lady is dead head to the core. And had ridiculous stories about psychedelics and following the dead around the world. I could go more into detail....but its 7:30 am, all three of us slept in the truck again tonight, my back is sore....and honestly, i guess the whole Eileen experience was really cool to have been part of, but writing it down and trying to actually explain what all happened clearly is way too much effort right now... How bout this, Eileen, you write about our visit and I'll throw it up here. You're far more eloquent than I am anyways.

We're somewhere in Ventura. That's really about all I know about this place. I'm sitting in front of a church, and I know we came off the 101....but other than that I have no idea where we are. or what are going to do here for 3 days until our trucks exhaust is fixed....

Savage Tests of the Savage Quest

-having trouble loading videos, will put up as soon as we feel like it.-

So we've left Ocean Beach San Diego.  Surfed once, skated a lot, and I might like to add that I, Nikki, for thee first time ever successfully dropped into OB skate park bowl four consecutive times at about 3 in the morning with a few alcoholic beverages in my system and with a little help from some killer skaters who were rippin' in the park prior, doing bowl transfers and such, no biggie.  This was all happening just as dear Kristoff was just about to arrive to San Diego with Stan in the VW, from his trip to Washington.  He will have to tell you more. 

 Last week we arrived  in Newport hanging out at James' place while Kristoff got his computer fixed, it was a good time, practiced some tunes, ate some really great vegan food at this girls house who started hosting vegan potloch type sunday dinners, how lovely, hmm?  

Met some cool cats on the other side after attempting to get accross the bay for free by swimming.. i was shortly stopped(observe photos added)

Nonetheless, I got somewhat restless with having to be quiet after 10 o clock so myself and good ol' Duggy decided to hitch to hollywood with a feeling of optimism in our back pockets.  About 25 paces outside James' on our way we decided to go to Venice beach instead.  After 10 minutes of waiting this kid getting off work picked us up only because he knew no other living soul in the radius of 13 miles would, and that doesn't have anything to do with the fact that it is the 2nd richest city in Cali.  So our pick up buddy took us all the way to Long Beach and told us a bit about himself along the way, going to school and working, economics and psychology, rad kid, so he had to go to work as soon as we got to 4th st in Long Beach. Me n Doug chilled at Cherry park and went for a stroll in the streets.  We're cruising down 4th st and ask some kids if theres a food bank around.  They let us know of  a vegetarian restaurant down the way that does meals by donation every sunday.  So we go kick it the 

direction pointed out and end up having this crazy amazing experience that is an experiment done all by volunteers. As soon as you walk in your meal is paid for, there are no prices on the menus and you can have anything you want, even 3 meals.  They definately served with love. (Refer to video for more information(video nnot available just yet))  At the end your give a donation of whatever you feel.

Later on we gave our pickup buddy a call and hung out with him, watched this crazy movie called The Holy Mountain by Alejandro Jodorowski. Check it OOOUUUUUT!!! THIS IS NOT A MEXICAN WESTERN!!

Next day all 3 of us drove to Venice beach and hung out for the day, ended up coming back to Long Beach to stay at our new friends house.  Doug bused back to Newport this morning to meet Kristoff.  

TheSavageTest: so we heard that Kristoff, thinking we had gone to Hollywood, biked out there from Newport, on a beach cruiser.  Thats about a 2 hour drive.  I couldn't believe it.  That is truly savage.  Well since we were not there, he was MIA for a little while.  

So today I ate 50 cent potato tacos, helped friend do laundry, hung out at the park, and went to friends pops house in Huntington beach for a lovely sushi quality ahi tuna bbq.  So incredibly amazing.  Driving home we were pulled over by the cops for a brake light being out.  Now keep a neutral mind when reading this.  Basically due to a misdemeanor for graffiti 5 years ago in san fran and blah blah blah, they took him in to jail, i was left with the car while he might be extradited to san fransisco.  Pretty lame, wicked kid, so I had to drive back to his place earlier tonight and so now I am in his room on his computer waiting for a call to see if I will drive to San Fransisco tommorow to pick him up. Not 5 minutes after i left with the car another cop pulled me over for the tail light. They've really been slammin

 hard lately.  At least they weren't assholes, as long as you don't approach them with an attitude and stay neutral they are generally alright unless they themselves permanently live with a cactus stalk up their ass.  

And let us remember

It is always good in the hood so long as your keepin it real.

Hopefully the video uploads work, should get some sleep, chip chip cheerio an too da loo

I would also like to dub San Diego as one of the many vortex's of this universe. 

Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, n the whole of Vancouver island as well

peace and love

Nikki