Stop To Smell The Roeses

Man has it really been over a month since I have posted.

"Life moves pretty fast.

If you don't stop and look around once in a while,

you could miss it."

This is a pretty famous quote I hope all of you know it. But in the last month it has been my life. Most of you that know me well know that I have had a pretty crazy start to a my new year. LIfe has been up in the air and sometimes out of control. But the dust is starting to settle and things are looking up.

The years started out great. I took a little extra vacation time after the holiday to enjoy some time by myself doing what I love with out the holiday crowds. Well I can't say totally away from the crowds. The first thing on the list for the new year was to check out the Rose Parade.

The Rose Parade played host to an estimated 900,000 people this year. I did really feel like camping out so I skipped go to the parade and chose to just go to the post parade to view the 43 floats up close and personal. I got lucky and just so happen to talk to the right old man standing in his driveway. He had free tickets to the event and offered them up to me, saving me $20 and having to wait in line to buy them.

Me and my friend Liza squeezed our way up to the front of the crowd waiting for the gates to open and once they did we made quick to get in and start seeing the floats before the place got to crowed. Here are some of my favorite floats.

Next on the calendar was to get some surf in down in Mexico. sadly I don't have any photos from this because I didn't want to risk leaving anything in the car or getting stolen so I only took my passport, some cash and my surfboard. Here is a photo I pulled of the net. The location is out in the ocean off this little island. It was super fun I have never surfed there before so it was kind of scary. Mainly because of all the wild life around it felt very sharky. Oh well it was still fun.

After my vacation was over and I had to go back to work I had to come back to some sad stuff. One of my co-workers was leaving Billabong to move back to Chicago to start a family and move on to bigger and better things in work. It was a very sad day Brad had been a good friend to me since I started at Billabong. He is the one who got me into Mopeds and a lot of the games I play on my iPhone. He was a fun guy and he will be missed. We did a little going away gift for him.

Over the next few weeks I did some little things.

Went to my cousins Eagle Court of Honor

Attended my friend Sean Collins Memorial Paddle Out

Went to Disneyland and almost got the high score record on Toy Story

And lastly um I took a little long weekend trip to the island of

PUERTO RICO

As I said in my last blog post this trip was already planned. So about a week ago I jumped on a plan after thinking I wasn't going to get on (stand by is very stressful when you on a schedule) and headed to the bahamas. I was gone for 4 days... 4 days of non stop fun. I did more then I ever though I would do in that short of time. I think I saw every street of Old San Juan where I was staying. Checked out the old fort there. Went swimming in a nice little bay in the rain. Saw part of a huge Music Festival that their local bank was putting on. Jumped off a bridge. Snuck into a hotel to go hot tubing then went to a better hot tub on the roof of an apartment building. Ate some yummy food (this was hard to do cause I'm on a diet and everything was fried).

But the best part of the trip was going to the Rainforest. Where I did cliff diving, played on a rope swing, and slid down some natural water slides. Here is a little video from that part of the trip.

We were the only people there because it is not a place the tourist go its a locals only place.

So yeah thats been my last month and a half. Sorry if I was MIA from any of you but as you can see it was crazy and this isn't even everything there is some stuff that can't be said :)

Years End

Well its New Years Eve and I got so much to show for it.

This year has been filled with so much fun I can't even tell you how great my life is. I have made new friends, traveled to new location all over the planet and just grew as a person.

BUT now is the time to look to the future and what it holds.

So here is a look into my future or what I hope it will be. I guess the best place to start is my New Years Resolution. Last year was to surf 150 day in the year. I am happy to say I did complete this goal. And just like last years goal this years is about surfing also. My resolution this year is to Surf 20 new locations that I have never surfed before.

I have two already planed, in a few weeks I am heading to Puerto Rico to visit my friend who lives there. I also have already booked my next big surf trip to Mainland Mexico in September for 10 days. I also have a lot of places in LA and Santa Barbara that I have not surfed so this should be an easy one to complete. So I have also decided to try to do the most popular resolution out there. Yep you guessed it weight loss. I want to try to get back down to 150-160 lbs. This means I need to lose about 15-20 lbs. Doesn't sound to hard right, Well you talking to the fast food king of Orange County and the Candyman of Billabong. And on top of that they always say the last 10 lbs. are the hardest to lose.

So moving on here is a little update in my life. This is a little of what I have been up to the last few weeks and what I am going to get into next year.

Next year I am getting more into becoming more of a watermen.

So I am go to be taking up

Body Surfing

And a new thing called Dolphin Surfing. It is just like body surfing but you ride under the water behind the wave. I can already body surf pretty good so I am hopping to pick up and get better at both of them really easy. Next I am going to try my hand at skim boarding.

I was luck to get this beauty for Christmas and can't wait to give it a try.

That about does it for new things for next year.

So here is what I have been up to.

*Hanging out with my good friend Bay at here house.

This is us at her families Christmas Eve Party.

This is me sledding in her backyard in CDM.

They have snow made for the whole neighborhood to come and have a

White Christmas.

Went shooting with some of my friends from work. We shot rifles, hand guns and shotguns all day from like 10 to 5 it was a great day out and we had tones of fun.

Got myself a Universal Studios pass. Don't know how much I will use it seeing I did almost everything the day we got the pass but who knows it could be fun to just go back and hang out.

Went and looked at Christmas lights in Balboa it was fun had a good time (some people have way to much time on there hands) this house had a soap blower on the roof to make it look like it was snowing and the lights blinked in sync with the much that was playing.

And last of course was play with my camera. I have been having so much fun taking photos with it. Be it shooting around Disneyland or of my friends jumping on the tramp. I love my camera best gift I could have got myself.

Well I hope you are having as much fun as I am these last few days of 2011. And I look forward to seeing all you next year. The last year we will be here Dec. 2012 (haha if you believe in that crap)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Naked and Famous in the Rain

No I'm not talking about the Red Hot Chili Peppers song.

I'm talking about the latest concert I went to. Last night I enjoyed a great concert by

THE NAKED AND FAMOUS

The Naked and Famous is a band from New Zealand and have only been out since late 2010. I have been into them since about December 2010 when I came across their song Punching In A Dream on a blog I follow. Since that point on I have been a fan.

I tried to see them a few weeks back at Belly Up down in San Diego, but tickets sold out before I could get any. So When I found out they were playing down the street from my house at another small venue I didn't wait. I quick called the box office and snatched up some ticket and cleared my calendar. Needless to say it was well worth it. Turns out the venue SOLD OUT the next day, I guess it pays to be on Myspace sometimes still. Seeing this was the site that sent me the email first informing me that they were playing there. Well anyways the show was amazing the venue is under new management and it's looking better then even and the sound system is amazing. My only down fall was once again I couldn't bring in my good SLR camera in only point and shoots. So you will have to settle for some iPhone photos instead of others. I am working on getting a Press Pass so I don't have this problem any more.

But until then enjoy.

Here is a little video I made from the the night.

Christmas Present Updates

So I told you all about my Christmas presents to myself. And now is the time to share them with you. Here is the first things I did with my camera.

Went to Disneyland with some friends:

Was hired as the photographer for a fashion show:

(photos got published in the local newspaper)

Went street skating:

(self photo thanks to timer and tripod)

Took an almost great photo of my bros dog:

Well that was my camera next I guess would be my phone. To start off I guess I should tell you that I have yet to use SIRI. One of the main new things on the phone. And now that I have a good camera I haven't been using my iPhone as my camera that much. But I did watch a webcast of the Billabong Pipe Masters on my phone from the beach. Here are some screen shots from the event of my art work that I do every year.

And last is my new surfboard. She is a beauty. I rode her yesterday for the first time. I normally don't ride my boards for at least a week once I get them to let the glass harden. But it turns out my phone wasn't working I guess and it had been sitting in the shop for a week waiting for me. I am currently working on the art that I am going to paint on it. More on that to come.

My new T-Pat 5'11" 18" diamond tail

Hope you enjoyed the photos. More to come you can count on it.