The coolest presents really are the ones that are handmade, with care, from a friend.  Case in point: the Aqua Space Coaster made by the multi-talented Mark Urkov.

Hand planes are just bitchen.  Like getting through on the phone to make a request on The Mighty 690AM (c. 1978) or an Orange Julius on a summer afternoon.  If you know, you just know.  I fully intent to have the coaster at School Yard by the weekend.  Boss.

I asked Urkov about his inspiration; perhaps this was not such a good idea:

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What’s in a picture?  For starters, an insurance co-pay of $590 for an MRI, a surprisingly painful series of Cortisone injections, and the not-so-welcome news that I received a 50-60% “slap-tear” of my upper, long biceps tendon.  But what a shot, huh?

Indeed, the details around the shot—on the periphery, as it were—are far more interesting.  Location: Pipeline (Ehukai more precisely); Event: Da Hui Espression Session Invitational Bodysurfing Contest.  Three long-time friends, as well as my ripper of a son, Daniel, converge on the North Shore for a week of waves…and we were not disappointed.  Solid 6-8’ surf at Wiamea most of the week and bigger few days for the Da Hui event.

I’m not so sure how exactly we got in, but it came down to Da Hui looking kindly on a few old mainland lifeguards, some of whom they’ve seen at local contests (thanks uncle Teddy) and a few random contacts (Al seems to know everyone), as well as sitting around patiently for four hours until they gave us the go-ahead and our own heat at the peak of the day.

None of us disappointed; all charged.  And, as for the shot, which was taken from a drone camera some 15’ off the deck, well let’s just say it was awesome right up until that point where I blew a fin and got punted into Pipe.  I took four or five solid sets on the head while trying to get the fin back on, at one point grabbing a rock/corral head to keep from sliding farther down the beach.

As a lifeguard, I know that I would have been paying attention to my sorry ass getting drilled inside, but I was in good company—a North Shore guard in my heat was getting waxed next to me and we were both giving it all we had to get back in front of the scoring tent.

A few days days, a few beers, a thousand laughs later and what had transpired started to sink in.  Generosity abounded on the beach and we had Pipeline all to ourselves for a magical few hours.  Fantastic waves, great mates, and Daniel watching his dad.  Too cool.