Rented this sturdy Chevy Malibu and it served us well, from Seattle to La Jolla and back.
Lucia Griggi shooting Matt with his ???. The other thing in his hand i a tide marker he had in his place in San Francisco, and couldn’t part with it.
Weird for a dedicated surf dog to live so far away from the ocean - and I ain’t too keen on Seattle in the winter - but Matt seemed okay with his lovely wife Jodi and lovely boy Teddy Boy - who rules!
Kinda like the song: “I have my books, and my poetry to protect me.”
It was winter, and anyone who knows the Pacific Northwest knows how beautiful it is there in the winter: Fair skies and sunsets beckoned us to take the ferry from Edmunds to Kingston and then around the Olympic Peninsula.
We stopped at a fly shop in Port Angeles to gear up and get local knowledge. This was when the Elwha River was still closed.
Another fly shop, this one in Forks, semi-hoarded and stocked with flotsam and jetsam, near the Hoh.
The Hoh is one of many great steelhead rivers on the Olympic Peninsula: Wild, undammed, perfect. We had a look and had a go.
One stretch of a lovely, wild river. Somebody I want to take my standup paddleboard and fish the whole thing.
It snowed a little. This is Cory Bluemling walking the line close to the mouth of the Hoh River.
Cory tries his hand at photography during another Washington winter sunset.
C’est moi, flogging the Queets River, adding to the legend as the worst steelhead fishermen ever. You gotta know what you’re doing. I don’t.
Lucia has a go at the Hoh.
Flies weren’t working so Cory tried a different kind of lure.
Cory and Lucia fuel up before a long day of fishing and hiking and heading south.
The Kalaloch Lodge were kind enough to offer us a free night and what a dark, cold night it was. I know a lot about the Cascadia Fault and the threat it presents, and places like this are vulnerable.
Along the way Lucia insisted we stop and buy some proper fishing attire.
Cory’s friend Keith. He lived in Malibu for a while but was back in Portland when we passed through. We stayed at his house one cold and stormy night: 1/20/13
Keith Novosel’s quiver from hand-plane to longboard, shot on January 21, 2013.
From Portland we drove over the Cascades and saw a very bad traffic accident and suffered cell phone failure and eventually found Gerry Lopez in his nice home with an epic garage. Gerry had hurt his leg snowboarding so he was a bit hobbled, but welcoming.
Gerry overlooked by a Phil Roberts depiction of Lopez at Pipeline.
Looking out the window, wondering when he can go hit the powder again.
From Bend it was south to Highway 199 into California, there to find the Nolls, who live along the Smith River in the world’s most relaxing house.
Greg and Laura’s place overlooks the Cable Hole - the best steelhead hole on the best steelhead river in California (I think).
Laura let it slip that Laird Hamilton had swum the Cable Hole while visiting Greg. So Cory had to have a go….
So Cory ran down in his wetsuit, plunged in at the top, swam it, got out, climbed back up to the house looking proud of himself and then Laura said: “Laird wasn’t wearing a wetsuit…” So Cory peeled off his wetsuit and….
Greg’s room commands an endlessly breathtaking view of the Cable Hole. And he also has a TV set always tuned to Fox News…
Ooooo that view, nature’s all around you….
Tom Moore RIP (1932 - 2019) A long-time Los Angeles lifeguard and paddler and surfer, Tom was part of the LA lifeguard crew that went to Australia in 1956. That board he has is a Kivlin with a long story and a big pricetag. Tom lost three houses in the Woolsey Fire, and the shock of all that was too much.
I jokingly called Fernando Aguerre’s house “The house that buns built” and then we went downstairs and saw this. So he sees it too, maybe.
Safe to say Fernando is a Democrat. This is one of many many cool boards he has stored in his house on the cliffs of La Jolla, overlooking Big Rock.
Fernando broing down with Barrack Hussein Obama. He did two things you aren’t supposed to do: Wore a t-shirt and asked the president to auotgraph it. But Fernando pulled it off.
How cool is all that?
And last but certainly not least, Capitan Steve Ogles, in his pristine work shop in pristine Coronado, California.