Thanksgiving Swell

This Thanksgiving we had back-to-back swell.  This means that I surfed for ~3 hours on Thursday, Friday and Saturday!  You can imagine the smile on my face.  The body is tired but my soul is content and thankful.

Fellow bodyboarder and video/photographer, Lee of  Team Stoked took some video and Al of 808Soul snapped some shots.

I am on minute marker 2:19 but you should watch it all to see how superior the other guys riding skills are.

I cant wait to see what Jeffereys Bay brings!

Enjoy.

Unforgettable Conversations

[Edit - This happened in November 26th 2011 and was sitting in draft mode on my phone.  Still worth a read]

I strike up conversations with other surfers all the time and yesterday I was reminiscing about one fellow I met a couple of months ago.

He was curious about my background, origins and how I got involved with this sport considering how I stick out like a sore thumb in the lineup.  When he discovered I was from Kenya, he went on to rattle out names of musicians that he loved.  Tabu Ley Rochereau, M'bilia Bel, Papa Wemba, Kanda Bongo Man, Madilu System, Femi Kuti, Franco, Les Wanyika, Koffi Olomide...and he went on and on.

This middle-aged Caucasian was more African than me!  He was fluent in English, French and Lingala.  So I took the bait and asked him, 'no offence but how....why..do you seem so African?'  His response, 'We are all Africans my brother just different shades but all Africans'.

I will never forget that conversation.  Suffice it to say, I haven't seen this African since then.

Gobble Gobble!

I was telling Luke and Laila a story about how when I was a boy we used to make high pitched screams so that the 2 turkeys we had could go gobble gobble.  I am thankful for a lovely childhood.

Did you know the Meru word for turkey is 'mbata muchinka'?  This translates roughly to 'duck that shoots'.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Repost: Kid's Video Clips

I thought it might be worthwhile to repost these since the YouTube ones lost some quality.



Luke and Laila swimming clip taken with GoPro Hero.



Laila's swim session.

November Saturday Specials!

The last two Saturday's have been spectacular as far as surf goes and this Saturday looks like it might repeat!

It is times like these that I wish I had started doing this sooner!

TeamStoked this Saturday.
808Soul this Saturday.
808Soul last Saturday.

Thank God!

I always knew the hard questions would come and that I would struggle to answer them.
Well, today Luke asked me a 'stunner-question'.

'Dad, how come there are so many brown people playing sports? I noticed it in Football and Basketball.' 

Wowzer! I proceeded to tell him about God given talents which was pretty well received because..Thank God!..todays Gospel was about....talents! You see, Luke has been following the little kids into the 'little church' where they have a 'little mass' and clearly he paid attention today.

Suffice it to say that I think I did better than Rick Perry would have with the question. If you don't know who that is, Google it.

Have a great week!

Saturday 6AM before the surf session.

Saturday 10AM after Surf.
I took this through my polarized sunglasses

Saturday 10AM same shot as above.
Crowded line-up in the surf but a beautiful day.

Sweet reward

Think i need my own blog:

Children's paleo

Steak, cucumbers and banana....
Followed by non-paleo icecream cones and choc sauce. Yah friday night!!

Happy-face pancakes for Luke & Laila

What a cool treat for stay-home-sick kids!

Naturalization Oath Ceremony

Looks like I will be singing the 'Star Spangled Banner' after all.

I literally just opened this right now.

Wohoo!

Adios October, Hello November!

Was that October that flew by so fast?  All I saw was the tail end of it which was graced by a visit from Mom who just returned to Kenya.  We cant wait for the next 7 weeks to fly by so we can start our vacation and see everybody and do everything.

Unfortunately October wasn't all that it was hyped to be as far as surf goes so here is to hoping that November delivers.  The air and water temperatures have dropped so I broke out my most precious thicker Patagonia R3 wetsuit.

The clip I embedded below was taken by  Mr. Rick Holmes.  For my 'shameless-self-promotion-section-that-i-can-only-do-with-my-family', pay attention to the following minute markers 3:09,4:17,4:40 and 5:10.)

Enjoy and have a lovely November!

Beautiful smiles

Scary car wash... Brother please hold my hand..