The new Howard Special Mini

The new Takayama Howard Special Mini.

Over at Mitchs they've got a few new versions of what looks like the Flow Egg, called the Howard Special mini. This board looks super fun. 6'10" to 7'6" with a sanded gloss and tweaked v in the tail as well with Jack Jenson tuned side fins and Larry Allison tuned center fin. Can you say speed?

Church, SANO, and 38th St

Paddled out at Church yesterday, one of the first south swells of the summer and got absolutely hammered on the paddle out by consecutive waves on the head. Usually, when Church is firing, you can paddle out to the peak from the side. Yesterday the waves were closing out at the shorebreak, and there was no real "channel" to paddle out to get to the peak. I was seriously going to give up trying to make it outside when I finally made it out. Exhausted, the sets were well overhead, walled and ugly. Kevin caught a good right that held up, and he took it to the beach. I got the next one which was a semi close out. Dropped in, got a few pumps down the line then it closed out. We then went to Sano

San was more of the same. The shorepound was unforgiving, and we met up with Trace and Austin. I finally made it out, but the waves were shifty. I spent the entire two hours chasing ghosts, and caught just five waves. Kevin was on fire, with his wave count into the double digits. I had a bad day with the Red Scorpion. The waves were essentially gutless big gobs of mush, but the Scorp spun out on the first wave I took, the fins for whatever reason didn't hold. On the second wave, I stepped on my leash (Big days, I wear a cord), third and fourth waves, I didn't even feel comfortable on the board. It felt like a whole different board than what I was used to. Just a crappy session. It wasn't any fun at all. I did talk to Liz, she is one of the Takayama riders, not sure if she is a team rider but she is pretty cool anyway.

38th St. Newport
Now I haven't surfed any jetties in Newport for a long time, at least since Paul moved to Hawaii. Today, I went down and found a parking spot, and paddled out at 38th st. First shift consisted of the groms, going for a session before school. Second shift could've well been the groms dads. Waves were definitely better than Sano yesterday. Hollow, with an occasional overhead barrel. I had a blast on the Red Scorpion. The lefts were coming in pretty consistently for the first hour and I scored several hollw lefts, placing my arm in the barrell (and filling the armsuit with water in the process) just for fun. I got maybe 8 or nine solid fun waves, and a host of smaller fun waves. I love Red Scorpion again.

Donald Takayama Scorpion 5'6" Quad at Lowers

Kassia Meador and Donald Takayama at the retail store

My Favorite surfer