Surf Report: 3 feet, with the occasional 4 footer
Water: Surprisingly not too cold
Atmosphere: Gloomy all morning with some sun around noon
Winds: Slight on shore
Every thing happens for a reason.
No work Saturday!! Matt and I were sexting about the weekend surf plans all day Friday. He and I concocted the brilliant plan of going to Trestles and surfing the slow rolling waves of San Onofre, and maybe rub elbows with a top 34 surfer, warming up for the Lowers Hurley Pro contest. We were set.
Meanwhile at the Dodger game, Dais and Khang enjoyed a whipping win by our Dodgers on Hello Kitty night. They were deciding between Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. Without hesitation, the decision was made to go to Newport Beach by them. So the text went through to Matt, which came to me. Matt and I both have never gone to Newport Beach, so albeit our hearts were nestled in Trestles, we said, “Yea, let’s try a new spot,” and so Newport Beach was the call.
Christina and Cheryl were staying local, and so was Francis. Dave on the other hand, wanted to hang with us, so even though he had work early in the morning catering in the Hollywood Hills, he made the drive back down to Newport Beach to hang with da boys.
The morning rolls around and I was late. I didn’t rush though, and took my time stretching and grabbing a bowl of cereal while filling up water jugs. I knew in my head I was late, but usually when I rush through things, I tend to fuck it all up. So, I took my time preparing for the morning and headed out the door at 630. I called Matt, saying that we were running late, and called Khang saying I was on my way to his house.
Dais arrived shortly before me, and we greeted each other. We started to unload our stuff in order to load up Khang’s surf mobile. Khang’s dad had already pulled out of the parking lot to do his shenanigans, and Khang usually comes out right after his dad pulls out of the lot.
On queue, Khang rolls out, and we start to pack up the van. We were off to Matt’s in no time.
Matt comes out with all his gear ready and sits back in the trunk. Usually, that would be my seat, but today, he has the honor of sitting back there. DK was unfortunately MIA, but that was good since the back seat was now roomy for one instead of claustrophobic for two. We were packed and ready to go by 715.
As we made our way down the 405, I felt I should text my family in Irvine. Namely, Kiyo-chan. She is an older “older sister” in my life. Not actually blood related, but thicker than blood. Sorry to Aya-chan, my actual sister, since I didn’t text her. (She later got mad at me that I never come visit her, and that I didn’t get her any food.) I shot Kiyo-chan a quick text saying that I’m surfing Newport this morning. She said she would bring my cute, cute niece Keira and watch me surf. So I had to let them know where I was going to surf.
We miss the 55, since we thought it the freeway to get on was the 57. We make a quick U-turn, dodge a few early morning car Nazis, and make it back on to the 55. The rain drops started to fall on the windshield, giving us a blurred outlook on the path we had to take.
Khang bobs and weaves traffic and we end up in a residential spot.
“Where’s the beach?” I ask eagerly.
“It’s right here. Right through there,” he pointed through the houses. I still couldn’t see the Ocean.
“Oh, there’s a parking spot right there!” Dais said. I had seen the parking spot too, and so did Matt. It was a spot where we had to parallel park between two cars.
“Oops, we missed it,” said Khang. As he said these words, he missed another parking spot.
And he missed another.
“Oh, here’s one riiiiigggghhhht heeeere,” Khang said.
“Peeeeerfect,” I said.
It was a spot enough for 1.5 cars, and so we pull up in the all-mighty, all-trusting surf mobile, and bathed in the small sense of victory of having a nice spot. We go check out the scene on the beach by walking through a small space between the houses, pushing aside the banana leaves that flanked our gateway to the Ocean.
We get to the sand, and it looked flat. Well, not too flat, but flat enough for only ten guys out in the water. We watched some of them go for tiny barrels, bob up and down the point, be washed around by the current, and going for one turn waves. Well, it was definitely better than Porto.
“Looks kinda flat this morning huh?” I loud, eccentric voice said from behind us.
“Yea, you might wanna put another pot of coffee on!” I told him.
The loud, eccentric voice belonged to a loud, eccentric man by the name of Cosmic John. He had spotted Matt’s shirt from a mile away and started to talk to us. He asked Matt if he was from Hawaii.
“Yea, I’m from Maui,” Matt said.
“You know who I’m staying with? I’m staying with Clay Marzo, he’s from Maui too!” he said.
What?
He then goes off and talks about the comet that hit the sun a few weeks ago, and hit a satellite on it’s way. This aforementioned satellite was 5 miles wide and weighed twelve tons.
“You THINK they would tell people things like that, but they don’t! What if it hits the water? HUGE WAVES!!” he said.
“And if it doesn’t? Poor Mr. Obama has to deal with THAT,” I replied.
We laugh, and he goes on telling us about a huge accident where he fell of a cliff. He hit his head hard, and lost all memory four years ago. He dug his feet into the sand deeper now, as if to root his tree trunks into the Earth. He says that he woke up, and felt amazing. He felt that he was reborn again.
“And you got to make new friends, all over again!” I told him.
He laughed and walked us back to our car so we could get changed and hit the water. He talked to us about being happy and how an act like surfing is really important to anyone in this world. “Everyone needs to touch nature, and be in tune with it,” he said, removing the banana leaves from his face as they flapped.
“Man, you’re the oldest grom, Cosmic John!” Khang said.
“You know what, you’re right! I’m only four, going on five! That was great!” he replied.
We pointed out that he is staying right up the street, and that he hoped to see us again later. We said our good-byes and started to get changed.
Matt was definitely skeptical of the guy. I thought he was a nice man, with burning energy, like a magnet. Khang was a bit skeptical too. Dais got a great vibe from him, and had asked him for a card, but Cosmic Joe said that he doesn’t carry cards since they kill trees.
We got changed and warmed up on the Carver. Cosmic John walks by, smoking, saying, “Man, Clay loves to skate too!” Matt was the first one to make his way to the beach to stretch. I followed afterwards, since Khang needed to get some wax on his board, and Dais stayed with him. I walked through the banana leaves gateway again.
I see Matt and Cosmic John on the sand. They were talking. I start to talk to him as I stretched, and he puffed his sweet smelling brown blunt. He had his feet dug deep into the sand. Khang and Dais come by, and we continue to talk. Matt hits the water first right in front of us, and then Dais and Khang go further up towards the Jetty. Cosmic John and I talk even more, about life, love, children with disabilities, and dealing with them.
I told him about a girl that I coach on my basketball team. She has ADHD, so her mom told me sorry in advance for her not paying attention, but to understand. I told her that I wasn’t going to treat her daughter any different, for she will feel it’s ok to be that way. I told her that I won’t push her as I do the other kids, but I will stay strict and expect her to put forth the effort during practice. After a few sessions of practice, her mom came up to me to thank me, saying that she learned how to push her daughter. She said she was ashamed that she was always negative with her comments when her daughter upset her for “messing up,” whereas I was positive with my comments. She also saw how strict I was towards her, but that her daughter seemed to feel as part of the team because I treated her same as everyone.
Cosmic John gave me an explosive fist bump. He didn’t like how Clay’s mom was so over-protective and allowed Clay to be introverted. He got Clay’s half brother, Cheyne Magnusson, to finally talk after two years of not talking to each other. He said that people had to work together all the time, and it’s good not to give special treatment to anyone just because of a disability. If anything, people with learning disabilities are far more gifted than us “normal people.” We chatted a few more minutes, and I told him I had to go catch some waves. He gave me another fist bump and told me to have a great time.
The water here was amazing too. It wasn’t too cold, but the water felt clean and looked clear. I tried to take in every thing, moment by moment, and caught myself thinking about other things while in the line up. Girls, music, what to do tomorrow, who to surf with tomorrow, and what not. I erased those thoughts as soon as I got them, and Just Enjoyed The Surf. The soundtrack in my head was still the song that played right before we parked. This was very similar to the Innersections online qualifier for Clay Marzo that I’ve watched over a hundred times.
I saw Matt catch his first wave as I paddled out. He took a close out left. I hooted him but paddled away from him, all the way towards the jetty.
I saw Dais catch some good ones in the first minutes of our session. The waves were pitchy, but he was still able to manage a quick pop up to get to his feet, and go right, racing against the detonating lip behind him. The waves were breaking fast, and they would usually out run him. He said the waves were pretty fast, but he adjusted accordingly what the situation gave him, and he succeeded.
On more than one occasion, I saw Dais go for some questionable waves, and see his surfboard just fly up after the white wash mauled him into the shore pound. His board flew up at least five feet on these wipe outs, but he came back up, smiling and running back to the line up to paddle for more.
I saw two female figures pointing out towards my direction, but I didn’t see a baby, so I figured it wasn’t Kiyo-chan and Keira. I went back to my surfing. I then see a man with a cute baby in pink, and immediately knew it was Keira. I may be blind, but I could see her pink hoodie! I paddled in to say hi to Blaine and Keira. They said Kiyo-chan and Gwen (Keira’s older sister “Nene chan”) went all the way south to look for me, but Blaine knew I would be here. He told me that they would be back, and I should keep on surfing.
Khang caught two waves where he was able to do a backside redirect. These waves still burn images in my head like a searing hot branding iron. The first one had a small splash coming out the back as he made a quick, snapping turn. The wave after that one, he did a speed check mid face and some legit spray came out the back.
I told Dais I liked this spot a lot, that it was challenging, but it was a good sort of challenging. Not too intimidating, but not easy one bit. I was having fun.
I saw Kiyo-chan and Gwen come back, so I went back in again. As I was talking with them, taking pictures and enjoying the moment, Dave shows up. He drove from Garden Grove, up to the Hollywood Hills to help work, then drove all the way down to Newport Beach to hang with us. 88% of life is showing up, and he always shows up. I was so stoked to see both my family and Dave. I introduce them to each other, and ask Dave if he was going to paddle out. He didn’t say no, so I assumed he was going to, but I deduced that the board wasn’t ready to be ridden yet, so he just came down to hang out with us. That’s pretty effin’ amazing, if you ask me. If I couldn’t surf, why would I show up all the way down in Newport Beach? I wouldn’t have come. But Dave showed up.
“How big is it?” Dave asked.
“Oh, about three feet,” I replied.
Dave was wide-eyed. “That’s three feet?”
“Well, that one was a little bigger, I guess,” I said, laughing.
My extended family lay out the beach towel as Keira started to build sand castles and Gwen was collecting shells. The skies were still over cast, but the vibe was bright and warm. I told them that I would be heading out to surf again. I paddled back out to the line up. By this time, we have been surfing for a solid 2 hours. However, it felt like thirty minutes to me. I was just taking in the day, moment by moment.
Matt started to talk to an older dude with a green board. Well, maybe the older dude started talking to Matt instead. I overheard a small part of their conversation:
“Man, there were all these low riders right there bro, all bumping some old school music. We would all surf all day, and just get so wasted!”
I paddled away to leave their discussion between them.
A body boarder who was dropping knee on a lot of these waves started to talk to us too. I was giving him hoots for some nice waves, and he was talking to Khang. Khang said that I’ve surfed Diamondhead, and this body boarder, by the name of Noah, gets stoked and says that he was from Oahu. We talk about Hawaii and he completely slips into pidgin on a dime.
“Brah, I was born in Molokai, and I moved to Oahu when I was ten, brah,” he said to me.
I tell him my experiences of Oahu, and he gets more stoked. We talk about our favorite garlic chicken joint, Mitsuken, and our conversation takes flight.
“Oh my god, I love that place. That’s one place I truly miss, brah,” Noah said.
Noah lived around the area, but wanted to travel and surf in LA too. He was talking to Khang about different surf spots around the area, where he has been, where Khang has been, and Khang told him that Malibu would be good, but he’ll have to deal with the crowds. He doesn’t like crowds all too much, so he grimaced.
He paddled in on his last wave, going drop knee, and threw us all shakas on his way out. Noah and the old dude on the green board made us all feel that we were welcomed at this spot.
Even the shredders were super chill too. There was no yelling or hooting and hollering. Just an overall mellow vibe in the line up and on the beach.
Khang also caught the wave of the day. I took the smaller first wave which was maybe a small double up that fizzled out in one foot mush. I look back and see Khang paddling for the four footer, right on the shoulder. He looks poised and focused, not being deterred by anything or anyone. I hoot him, duck dive, and continue to hoot him as he made the wave of the day.
Matt took a mean wipe out from the jetty. He paddled hard for it, and even before he popped up, his visage changed from determination to “oh fuck.” He still popped up but his eyes showed that he knew he was in for a good wipe out. The rest of us just hooted him as he went down with the lip, still wide eyed and in slow motion. The white water detonated with him, and we all gave a collected “OHHHHHH!”
Matt came up, laughing it off. Definitely the wipe out of the day.
Khang went for a wave behind the jetty, and took off on a frothy lip. Matt took off about ten yards inside from Khang on a pitchy lip. Dais even took off right next to me as I paddled out of the way.
All three went tumbling down like toy soldiers: First, Khang ate it. Then, Matt ate it. As I duck dived, I saw Dais just fly over the board with a smile on his O-face, free falling five feet.
So we end the session after a good four hours. I saw Matt catch his last wave all the way to shore, and I paddled for a small crumbler to end the session. My surf family was mingling with my extended family, and it turns out Dave has a new adopted daughter. Keira was all over Dave.
Gwen made me promise that next time we meet, we spray paint my board together. She wanted a bright blue bottom with arrows on the blue, so we pinky-sweared to seal the deal. Gwen is also an accomplished swimmer, so she made me pinky swear to teach her how to surf. Yay!
We parted ways and Dave and I headed back to the car. We caught up on the days’ happenings, and saw Matt, Khang and Dais at the car, getting changed. Cosmic John comes walking down the street as we got changed.
One thing lead to another, and Cosmic John returned to us saying, “You, from Maui, and you (pointing at me) can come up to the house. I’m sorry guys, but I didn’t want to just bring in a group of five guys at this time.”
Khang said it was cool that we go to the house, and so we walked up the street. We walk up the stairs to the house. Clay’s house. He opens the door, and I see an older man, with big broad shoulders and thick legs greet us. Another, tinier, less athletic man with green eyes says hi to us too. He said his name was Shane. And then there he was, sitting on the couch, with his unkempt blonde hair, stocky arms with blonde hair standing up, a strong stocky neck, and tree trunk legs. The man himself, Clay Marzo.
Clay Marzo is one of my favorite surfers of all time. He hails from the island of Maui and is a professional surfer. He doesn’t do too many contests, but he free-surfs a lot, all over the world. I fell in love with his surfing since Young Guns 2, seen here:
He always surfs so dynamically, unpredictably, and so intuitive. He doesn’t see waves, he feels them. He also has super glue under his feet, and his limbs are stolen from Gumby. Although he is younger than I, I look up to him.
And there he was, sitting on the sofa. I introduce myself and shake his hand.
A person with Aspergers Syndrome doesn’t suffer from the disease, they suffer from other people. They can’t deal with social situations at all, and so they come off as shy, introverted people. But they are experts in one thing, always. People brush them off as weird people, but to me, they are masters in their art.
The stocky man with Clay turns out to be Adam Klevin, his photographer and videographer. He is a Californian transplant living in Maui for the last twenty years. He asks Matt about Maui, where he’s from, and both Clay and Adam are stoked to find “one of their own” right here in Newport Beach.
Once Matt and I find that he is Clay’s photographer and videographer, we have to shake his hand again. We are big, huge, gigantic fans of Clay, but all the footage is shot by this man himself. He gets stoked and says, “Man, you guys like that stuff too?”
“Oh man, all the surf porn we try to watch,” I say.
“Yea, I was actually watching Innersections this morning, and just watching Clay’s section,” Matt said.
“Oh, man, you guys are really into it!” Adam replies. “Hey, lets go outside and chat,”
Clay and Adam take a seat on the balcony, so Matt, Cosmic John and I follow. We chit chat for a bit more about video sections, and I just had to let out my giddy grom side out.
“Man, I’m sorry, but I’m such a big fan of you. We both are. And so I’m just really taken back that I’m in your presence. Like, shaking your hand was just out of this world.”
Adam just laughs, “Yo, do you want like an autograph or anything?”
“No, it’s ok, I’m sure he gets that all the time, and I know he doesn’t like too many new people, so it’s ok… just… man! Your surfing is so amazing.”
Adam smiles at that, and Clay lets out a small smile.
I invite Matt to join the conversation, but he just replies, “Naw, I’m cool just being here, being present.”
Adam invites us to watch an unreleased Costa Rica section that they just shot.
“Oh, so three of our homies are outside, just skating around, and they love to watch surf porn too… can they come up and watch this video section?”
Cosmic John adds: “Yea, I didn’t want to invite them all of a sudden, just five dudes all at once… ya know?”
“Oh, yea yea! Bring them up! Have them come in!” Adam said. Jeez, what a cool guy. All of these guys. They were such amazingly good people.
I left Matt alone in the house. I felt bad at first, since I knew Matt wasn’t good with new social situations, but I figured he’s in the hands of good people, and he’s a man, he’ll handle himself. I run down the stairs and go get the guys who were chilling on the beach.
We all get together and head up to the house. We open the door, and see Matt, half naked, getting a massage from Cosmic John.
“See, right here,” he pressed with his fingers on his leg. Matt grimaced in pain.
“Yo man, you gotta relax! Breathe, man, breathe,” I tell him.
“No, he’s relaxed! He’s relaxed down here, that’s what counts!” Cosmic John said. He brought Dais closer in, to see his work since he knew Dais was a massage therapist.
I introduce da boys to everyone, and we all take a seat. Clay stares out the balcony window. Adam puts on a clip for us. We are all watching the clip, talking with Adam and Shane. From the back, I can hear Shane say, “That’s good energy,” referring to us.
“See, there’s too much air, right, in, here!”
CRACKKKKKK!!
We all look towards Matt. What the fuck was that??
That would be his back being stretched out into the universe. Cosmic John switches it up and stretches the other side, this time slower and deeper.
We all start to watch video clips and ask Clay some questions. He answers in one word answers, “Yea,” and “Thanks.”
“How does he stay in the barrel so long?” I ask.
“He’s just comfortable inside there,” Adam answers.
Clay goes out to the balcony and invites me out. I get to have some one on one face time with him while everyone chilled inside. I knew from reading Transworld Surf that he doesn’t like interviews too much, and if I were to interview him, I should do so in the water. So, I just asked how his knee was (he had surgery on it,) music, and how he likes Cali. I wanted to ask him a gazillion other questions, but I refrained, instead just looking outside the balcony and finding things to laugh about, like a family of skaters with the mom lagging behind on roller blades. I could feel his nervous energy around me, so I didn’t want to press my luck. We talk a little basketball, and I tell Clay that to me, Magic Johnson is the greatest Laker of all time. And to me, what he does on a surfboard is what Magic did with a basketball. He gives me a smile, laughs, and says “Thanks.”
He motions to go inside, so we both head inside. Now Adam was getting a massage from Cosmic John, and we were all just lounging around the house.
Eventually, our appetite grew exponentially and we couldn’t hold it in. Khang and Dave used their expertise to pick an amazing spot in Westminster, and so we started to head out the door. We shook everyone’s hand once more, and Matt and I took pictures with Adam, Clay, and Cosmic John.
“Hope to see you guys again,” Adam said.
“Yea, I mean, we met today for a reason. I’m sure we’ll see each other some other time,” I told him.
We head down, out of the house, out of Clay’s house, and get back to our cars. Matt and I were super giddy, recalling what just happened.
“Man, I wanted to fondle and dry hump those boards so badly!!” I said.
“I know, dude, you had one on one face time with him!!!”
I couldn’t believe it.
We headed to an amazing Viet Namese restaurant. We had a lot of vos ban xeo and vermicelli and in between chews, we still couldn’t believe we had just hung out at Clay Marzo’s house in Newport Beach. It was just so unreal. The meal was the best meal I've had in months. Not just because I love fish sauce, but because of everyone around eating and talking about the day's events and ideas that were being passed around was very fulfilling.
None of the happenings would have happened if it wasn’t meant to be.
I was meant to not have to go to work today. We were meant to go to Newport, not San Onofre. We were meant to miss the 55. We were meant to miss three parking spots and get that one right near Clay’s house. We were meant to meet Cosmic John. My extended family came out and joined the amazing day. We were meant to have a challenging yet fun time at this new spot. Dave was meant to come and hang out with us. We were meant to meet one of our all-time surf heroes, Clay Marzo and his small posse. We were meant to have an amazing lunch afterwards.
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| From L to R: Adam, Clay, Cosmic John, and myself, KK |
