Monday, January 23, 2006
Santa Barbara is a ridiculously perfect looking place. I mean freakishly so like something weird is going on. No matter, there was also a no cover live music night going on near the hostel so I wandered in on the recommendation of a man I stopped to ask directions. The standard was really good and the beer welcome after a day on the bus.
The decor was pretty idiosyncratic including a red phone box full of brooms and mops as well as an enormous throne that had it been made of gold wouldn't have been out of place in Scarface. The only place to sit was on the floor where there were cusions where upon I got in to converasation with a few local students. One of whom Katie mentioned that there was a spare room in their house as well as a spare longboard so left me with a number to call. What she didn't give me ws the knowledge that cellphones require an extra one at the start so all attempts to call drew a blank.
No matter there was another concrete skatepark on the seafront so I spent the day being shown up by kids young enough to your parent's drunken mistake leaving only to call home and book NZ national park walking. At sundown on saturdays there is a drummers circle on East Beach so I sat and listened and was writing when I got in to conversation with a local who told me about the missing 1.
I managed to get hold of Katie who's 'student' house shared with 5 others is in Montecido, one of the most affluent zipcodes in America. Think summer house, with meadow and garage twice the size of every house in Crookes. That evening I went out to a party with Katie and her housemates Colleen and Katie (one of about 100,000). I am not sure who had a harder job explaining who I was since everyone else there was from the same College but it was fun to be mysterious.
The longer the party went on the later the start time for surfing Rincon (a wave so good it gets a mention in the Beach Boys' Surfin USA) got which was fine, except that I don't have an alarm clock so was relying on the hostle being noisy and unpleasant. Which it was in spades, although a redeeming feature was Thierry who was of a like mind toward surfing so we took his car and followed Katie and Colleen. The water was fairly uncrowded and the weather in the high 60s. To make the southern california day complete we spent the afternoon playing tennis at the college. I can feel a face lift and sports utility vehicle coming on.
Monday got up just as beautiful as the one before so Thierry and I headed to Rincon again before lunch. It was the evening session that was really awesome though. 5ft waves coming through and peeling through 3 sections giving 30 second rides. Thats if you can catch them between the 50 odd people in the water. I was just happy watching the sunset and trying desperately not to take waves that other people were on, a fast route to an ass kicking in these parts. Right at the very end I caught about 3 waves and walked up the beach smiling like the man who surfed the bank at Montecido.
The decor was pretty idiosyncratic including a red phone box full of brooms and mops as well as an enormous throne that had it been made of gold wouldn't have been out of place in Scarface. The only place to sit was on the floor where there were cusions where upon I got in to converasation with a few local students. One of whom Katie mentioned that there was a spare room in their house as well as a spare longboard so left me with a number to call. What she didn't give me ws the knowledge that cellphones require an extra one at the start so all attempts to call drew a blank.
No matter there was another concrete skatepark on the seafront so I spent the day being shown up by kids young enough to your parent's drunken mistake leaving only to call home and book NZ national park walking. At sundown on saturdays there is a drummers circle on East Beach so I sat and listened and was writing when I got in to conversation with a local who told me about the missing 1.
I managed to get hold of Katie who's 'student' house shared with 5 others is in Montecido, one of the most affluent zipcodes in America. Think summer house, with meadow and garage twice the size of every house in Crookes. That evening I went out to a party with Katie and her housemates Colleen and Katie (one of about 100,000). I am not sure who had a harder job explaining who I was since everyone else there was from the same College but it was fun to be mysterious.
The longer the party went on the later the start time for surfing Rincon (a wave so good it gets a mention in the Beach Boys' Surfin USA) got which was fine, except that I don't have an alarm clock so was relying on the hostle being noisy and unpleasant. Which it was in spades, although a redeeming feature was Thierry who was of a like mind toward surfing so we took his car and followed Katie and Colleen. The water was fairly uncrowded and the weather in the high 60s. To make the southern california day complete we spent the afternoon playing tennis at the college. I can feel a face lift and sports utility vehicle coming on.
Monday got up just as beautiful as the one before so Thierry and I headed to Rincon again before lunch. It was the evening session that was really awesome though. 5ft waves coming through and peeling through 3 sections giving 30 second rides. Thats if you can catch them between the 50 odd people in the water. I was just happy watching the sunset and trying desperately not to take waves that other people were on, a fast route to an ass kicking in these parts. Right at the very end I caught about 3 waves and walked up the beach smiling like the man who surfed the bank at Montecido.
