Vancouver

We finally made it to Vancouver. So far, so good. Beautiful mountains, lakes to swim in, tap water you can actually drink. What more could you ask for? Here are a few early pics.

More Bali surfing

Here are a few more good pics of the kids surfing in Bali. Good stuff, huh? Ben with the victory stance and Abby with an intense look does a little rail grab.

I got to surf quite a bit which was fantastic for me. I ended up hiring this local surfer guy I met on the beach to take me to some local spots, partly to get access to the spots and partly to have someone make sure I didn’t drown or get my head split open on a reef. One day he took me a reef break which was pretty far offshore. We got a guy with a little boat to drive us around to the back of the reef, since it would have been a very very long paddle out. He dropped us off at the back side of the reef and we threw our boards out and then paddled towards the break from behind. I’d never done this before. The current was intense, pulling sideways quickly across the reef, parallel to the beach, so you had to paddle pretty hard just to say in one place. I ended up getting a few waves before being too tired to paddle back out. I learned that without a beach in front of you, there is no undertow or rip to make it easier to paddle out. Its just you against the waves. Too hard for me in my old age, but a great day none the less. I think having the guy pull up to our hotel

with a scooter and two boards on the side rack was fun enough in itself.