LAX - FRA

The whole journey was really nice and I was suprised how multifaceted the USA are.
Beeing in this part of the world showed me how different Europe and America are. (positive and negative sides)

If you want to travel to different countries during a short time another possibility would be a nice Kreuzfahrt.

I hope to see my friends over there again and look forward to my next journey.

Thanks for reading my blog!

My last day in SoCal - Rincon

The day before I asked some guys, who had their surfboard outside, where it should be possible to surf on sunday, if the wind stays like it was on this day. They had a clear answer: "RINCON"...

Rincon is one of the top pointbreaks in California. It breakes on a rocky bottom, is mostly crowded but gives you a really long ride on a righthander, which can get really huge if the swell is right.

We had luck and Rincon was getting big. The entry is a little tricky without booties (I forgot them in the car), because some of the rocks are really sharp and the point is far outside so you have to walk a long way outside of the water or get in and paddle for some minutes to reach the point.
I decided to paddle, but I think it is better to walk because there's no channel or something like that, so you have to paddle agains the current all the time.
The surf was really good but crowded. Suprisingly the crowd was really friendly and there was no sign of localism.

After this great session we went back again to Costa Mesa. On the way we stopped at a outlet-store where I bought some stuff for germany.

Blown out

On Saturday we went early on the road again. Dakin and Levi picked me and Sascha up in the morning. Our plan was to find a good surfspot on the way to SB. In the evening we wanted to stay in SB for some partying. The last thing worked well, but surfing wasn't really possible, because the whole coast was blown out. We had a hard time to get our boards on top of the car, because the wind was so strong.

After some hours of drive we decided to drive further SB to a spot called "Jalama". The swellreport said "7-9 feet" and poor to fair conditions. The feet statement was right, but the conditions were more than poor-. Although the conditions were "big but unsurfable", we decided to paddle out just for fun. I don't know if you would call it fun to paddle out in icecold water, while the wind is blowing fast as hell and the waves were walling up to 7 feet, BUT we tried to make the best of it and stayed in the water for about 30 minutes. (After that time Dakin was nearly drown, I wasn't really able to fight against the current and Levi picked one closing out wave)
With frozen fingers we went out the water, made some pictures and got in our warm clothes again.

The nature around SB was wonderful. We saw everything from big mountains to enormous grassland. All in all we hadn't any good waves, but the trip was unique, because of the wonderful countryside.

In the evening we went to Wayne's house, were we jumped with him and some friends in the jacuzzi to defreeze from our little surfexperience. Later on we went to the "I.V." again (the party district I wrote about one week ago), but this time there weren't really much people.
(The have their finaltests next week and the air was really cold in the night)
Although we found a little party were we had much fun an met some new people.

From OC to San Diego

Friday...

Woke up really early at 6.45 to get ready for the trip. Levi picked us and our boards up and went straight on the PCH (Highway 1 / 101) towards San Diego.

Our first stop was "Trestles". Trestles is described in many surfguides and internetsites as a "worldclass spot" and "one of the best pointbreaks in california and maybe one of the best in the world if the right swell comes in". Don't want to talk much about that, because there was no swell and every surfer we asked about the conditions told us that it isn't any good. So we went straight on without waisting the time to walk 1,5 miles down to the beach.

The PCH goes close to the coast, so we just drove down the street and watched for good conditions.

After 2-3 stops we found a spot in a town next to Carlsbad. I don't know the name of the spot, but the waves were relatively consistant, 6-7 feet high and really fast. We jumped into the water and had a great time for about 2 hours. The waves were huge but the face was rolling down really slow, so I had the time to practice some radical cutbacks and bottomturns.

After this session we jumped back in the car, ate some donuts and drove furhter south.

The next 1 1/2 hours we drove down the coast and reached nearly the border to Mexico.
Because there was no mentionable break we turned around and went all the way down to San Onofre. "San n' O" is also a classic spot, which is divided in different parts of the beach. Most of them are famous for their longboard-spots. When we arrived there the swell was "okay", but not really stunning so we decided to go on to a spot called "Salt Creek", which wasn't really far away.

We had a look from the outside, took our suites on and went into the water again.
Salt Creek was a fast braking 4-6 feet high wave which was relatively inconsistent. I had a couple of waves, but because it was too inconsistent and we didn't know if we would go out tonight we went out of the water and back to our car.

We drove back to Huntington and had a burger at "T.K.'s Burgers".

Small but good - 36th Street

Thursday was my last day with Sascha's surfing-class. The tide was a little low, but after a short walk from blackies to 36th street we faced fair to good conditions. 2-4 feet with crumbling faces.

We've been out for 2 hours and wanted to get back again in the afternoon, but (like a lot of different times before) nobody called or left a message so I stayed out of the water for the rest of the day.

In the evening we just packed our things for the surfingtrip on friday.

Fair Conditions

Today I woke up really late and stayed in the house for some reason.

Around 4.00 pm, when the surfreport and the webcams said that it would be going off, I went down to Sean's house to paddle out.

Conditions on 52th Street where quite good. 6 feet to occasional 8 feet and partways barreling.

In the beginning I was a little scared, because every wave had a massive lip which was closing out really fast. I paddled in many waves, but made only a few take-offs.

After a short time I got used to the waves and dropped in more of them. I had my best waves at the end of the session, when the sun was almost gone. Later on Sean gave me a ride home and we made an appointment for the next day.

Hopefully the swell is producing some good waves tomorrow morning in Newport.

Epic conditions in 52th Street

Tuesday morning the ocean was flat like a Lake. One of Sascha's classmates welcomed us with the sentence "Welcome to Lake Newport". The class went in and trained paddeling, but I had the feeling that with the upcoming swell the waves would be good around noon and stayed outside the water.
After coming back we chilled a little and stayed at the house.

Around 2.00 pm I went down to the beach by bike. It is a 45 minutes drive, but with a little train you can get it in 30 minutes. After arriving at Sean's house I wanted to get my surfboard out of his room, but he wasn't there and his room was locked. One of his roommates offered his 6'4 Shortboard to me, so I said thanks and jumped into the Ocean.
52th Street offered headhigh waves with occasional 8 ft.. I had a really good session with a big crowd. The current was really strong, so you had to paddle a lot to get away from the river jetties. The tide was going back again but the waves got hollow and fast. While I was pulling in the inside one guy dropped in my wave so I had to jump of the board and got wiped out.
I came up again and recognized that the nose of the borrowed board was a little damaged. (That's why I don't like to surf on borrowed boards) Seemed like if the board was dropped to the ground, because the tide was really low.

I got out of the water, brought the board back, agreed to repair it at my costs and went home by bike again.

Because it was Sascha's birthday today we had bought some Hefeweizen beers a day ago. In the evening Paulina and Levi came over to sit down, eat and drink something with us. We had a good time and agreed with Levi to make a surf- and partytrip from friday morning to sunday evening.

5 Days left ;-(

52th and Golden West

Luckily I still had the rental car on monday, so I took my surfboard in the car and went from spot to spot. Had a good time at 52th at noon and went to Golden West in the afternoon.
The swell and the offshore wind produced 3-5 feet waves which were relatively consistant.

I should get a car for the whole journey next time....Feels so good to be flexible =)

Malibu, Venice, Home

After hangover #2 we hit the road around 2.30 pm.
First we went to a burger restaurant to get some food and energy. After that we hit the road in direction to L.A. We drove through Malibu and stopped at Venice for some hours.

Both, Malibu and Venice, where awesome places. Lots of interesting and crazy people!
We stayed there for some hours, walked along the beach promenade and watched all the attractions.

In the evening we arrived Costa Mesa totally exhausted! Got a pizza and went really early to bed....

Awesome weekend. It will be hard to top this anytime.

Got Shitfaced

Saturday started with a more or less small hangover. After packing our stuff we went down the road in the direction of Santa Barbara, which should be our final stop.

After several hours of driving we went down to Santa Cruz which is famous for its perfect surfspots. We weren't really lucky and got in the water while it was high tide, windy and everything but not epic. 3-4 feet totally blown off....The spot was called Manreasa btw.

After this refreshment we hit the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) again and made our way down to Santa Barbara. The way down from SF ot SB is really incredible. The amazing countryside is varied and exciting. Because of our late start in the morning and our little surfsession we were a little late and had to hurry. (Which isn't easy with these strict speed limits in the US)

At nearly 10 pm we arrived at Ryan's place totally tired. After having a shower we were relatively fit again and were ready to party. Dakin's friend was at a party with over 70 people so we hit the road again and went to a place near the university of SB.

I don't want to talk about details, because this would take too long.
All I can say is that it was an AMAZING party with hundred of students and college people going wild. I thought that these parties I know from "American Pie" and "Party Animals" are just product of the film industry but after this experience I know that some places in the US are really going down like this.

We came back at 9.00 am the next day and went to bed for 4 hours =)...Amazing weekend

Sightseeing and Partying in San Francisco

We (Sascha, Dakin and I) started our drive to SF at 0.30 am and arrived around 10.00 am because of the traffic jam and some difficulties with the route. Pumped up with some energydrinks we walked through the city and visited several interesting places.

San Francisco is amazing, but I think I would get fucked up really fast, because of these hills you have to walk up and down everytime ;-)
After having a look at the harbor and some famous streets we decided to drive to the Golden Gate Bridge. It is also an amazing place and the bridge is really impressing.

After taking A LOT of pictures and so much sightseeing we decided it was time to get wet. We got in the car and drove down the coast. We stopped at "Golden Beach", which looked pretty good. The first thing we noticed at this beach was that the water was about 10 ° colder than the water in Costa Mesa. I had booties with me but the other guys had to go out barefoot.
We had a great session in head high to occasional two feet overhead waves. After some hours we went out and got in our normal clothes again.
Later on we had some asian food and tried to find the house of Dakin's friend, where we would sleep and have a party in the night.

I think we drove through the half city, but at the end we found their place.
The party was great. We met a lot of new people, heard a lot of new stories and had a lot of fun.

All in all the weekend couldn't start better. Great surf and a great party!

Surfing and preparing the trip to SF

Abstract of thursday:

Went surfing with Sascha's surfing class
Went surfing again at 52th street
Chilled at Sean's place with him and his friends
Went home and prepared some stuff for SF
Got the rental car and met josh.

...Got on the road to San Francisco !

Bike theft, police operation and average 4ft at Newport

Random Shots

On wednesday I decided to take the bike and ride down to the "South Coast Plaza" to have a look at the different kind of iPods, because I want to get one before I get home.
It was a 4 mile drive and I found the place with a little help of some guys on the street. I took the bike to the parking lot (because there was no bike stand) and went into the mall.
When I came back the bike wasn't there anymore. After some minutes I asked several people and finally found a security agent who called some of his colleagues to ask them if they've seen the bike. Unfortunately they took it away to the securitycenter, because they didn't want anybody else to take it....So I had to get in the mall again and after several meters, minutes and signatures I got the bike back again.

After that I went back home again, had a look at the bus connection and packed my stuff for the beach. Travelling with a surfboard in the US without a car isn't really comfortable, but for me it is the only possibility to come to the beach and back again.
On the way to the beach I had to wait at several bus stations. On one of these I got witness of a police operation near a supermarket. The police pulled over a truck with a bunch of mexican people in it. (5 police cars and 10 police officers)
After encircling them they needed about 15 minutes to get everyone with hands up out of the car. I have never seen something like this before...

When I came to the beach the swell was almost gone. I jumped in the water just to get wet and get some small waves, but it wasn't really exciting.

After surfing for a short while I had to get back to the bus. The way back was much faster than the way to the beach.
Although the surf wasn't really good the day was still fun.

Surfingclass and perfect conditions in Huntington

Today we went down to Newport with Jim at 7.30. Conditons were quite good so I stayed together with Dakin and Daniel a little longer after the class. Dakin gave me a ride home, so I got some food and met Sascha again.

In the afternoon I decided to take the bike and ride down to Huntington Pier. It is a 6 mile drive, so I decided to take my camera and nothing else. When I arrived I faced perfect conditions with "50 metres and more"- long rides, 4-8 foot waves and offshore wind. I made some pictures but I was angry as hell that I didn't have the chance to bring my surfboard.

Good conditions in Newport

Monday I went to the beach at 7.00 am and found good to fair conditions at Blackies/Newport. I went first in the water at Blackies and paddeld over to the first river jetty.
The surf was really fun and I enjoyed beeing in the water after some days. For preventing another ear infection I used earplugs, which worked really well.
It got pretty crowdy after some time, but the locals seem to be relatively friendly.

At 10.00 am Sascha picked me up again and we went back to the rental station to give the car away. We got 15$ of, because the car wasn't really satisfying our needs.

Later on I wanted to go to the beach again, but because nobody was going to paddle out with me I stayed at home.

The rest of the day wasn't really interesting. Just relaxing, watching some series with Sascha and so on...

Long drive home

We woke up relatively early, had breakfast, went to the mall again and then back on the road in the direction of L.A.

We had a 8 hour drive back home through the dessert. Suprisingly the landscape was mostly interestening. We passed a sandstorm, high mountains with snow on the top, green hills and a lot of other interesting stuff.

In the evening we did nothing, because we were too tired to go out.

Phoenix #2

On saturday we woke up a little late, went to the mall where Josh works and had some good american breakfast at home.

In the afternoon we went playing volleyball with Josh, Chrisity and some friends. Was quite fun, but not really professional ;-)

In the evening Ulrike made us some selfmade burgers and hot dogs, which were really tasty.
After that we went to Eddie, one of Josh's friends, where we watched the USC-fights, drank some beer and went to a bar again. Later on we went to Christin's house where she made a little party. The evening was really funny, so we went to bed relatively late....

Shopping and drinking in Phoenix

Without more than one hour of sleep we stayed at Ulrike and Joe's house, which are Sascha's aunt and uncle. After having some conversation and some food we went to "Arizona Mills", where we stayed for some hours and spend some dollars on clothes and shoes.

On the way back I felt the loss of sleep, so I went to sleep for some hours....

In the evening we had dinner at "Fuddrockers", which is a burger-restaurant in Sunnyslope.
After that we went with Josh (Sascha's cousin) and his friends to "The Native New Yorker", where we had several drinks and shots.

Viva las Vegas

Thursday morning we went to the surfing class, but because of my surfer's ear I couldn't get into the water. Sascha and the other guys went in and I shot some photos from the beach and from the pier.

At 11.30 Sascha went to the rental, got the car and came back to our house to pick me and our baggage up. We left Costa Mesa around 11.30 and drove straight to Vegas. It was a really long drive, so we arrived when it was almost dark. (around 5.45)

Beeing in Vegas was really fun. We went to all the big Casinos like Caesar's Palace, Bellagio, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, MGM..... Beeing under 21 sucks in Vegas, so I wasn't allowed to play Poker or stuff like this. Because of that we played a little on the machines. Sascha invested 6$ and won about 45$. Pretty lucrative.

After 6 hours in Vegas, loud music, crazy people and gambling we went to the car and got on the way to Phoenix. This drive was about 6 hours long so we arrived in the early morning. Rotating helped us to stay awake, but it was a really hard time, because the route, right through the desert, is really monotone.

So let's have some fun in Arizona.

Surf Break -> Watching Prison Break

On wednesday we did nearly nothing. I woke up late, waited for Sascha, watched the other season of Prison Break, went to the gym and then got some food. In the evening we watched PB again and went to bed early.

So...that's it.

"Surfer's Ear"

At tuesday Jim picked us up for the surfing class. Waves were small but quite good. I went out with Daniel and some other guys from the surfing class so we had a lot of fun. We stayed outside for almost two hours and catched a couple of good waves. There was a big crowd in the water, so we went close to the pier to stay away from them.

I did not mention before, that the water quality is more than bad in California after a rain. (It was raining from monday to Sunday) Because of that I was really scared at sunday and monday afternoon. I couldn't hear anything on my left ear.

After a big research in the internet and talking to several people I thought about having "surfer/swimmer's ear", so I went to CVS and got some drops which should dry the water in my ear. (BTW: Swimmer's ear is an infection of the ear canal that is caused by many types of bacteria or fungi)

Because nothing of this helped I went to the doctor at tuesday afternoon. The doctor predicted that the ear is infected. She told me to get some antibiotic drops and stay out of the water for one week. For this 5 minute inspection I had to pay 110$ and anothter 30$ for the medicine.
Summarizing I was waiting about 3 hours for some drops, which blocked my ears again, and the advice to quit surfing for a week.

Frustrated of that I went to the pharmacy, got my drops and two pairs of earplugs and went home. Tomorrow I won't go surfing, because the ear is to sore to get the plugs in and I don't want to get it worse than it is right now.

BUT: Quit surfing for one week of my 4-week-journey !? - NO WAY!

Random Shots

Travelling through Costa Mesa by bus

On monday Sascha had school, so I decided to go down to Huntington by bus. I bought a day-ticket for 3$ and needed 30 minutes to reach the beach.

The waves were really rough and there were only 3 people out who got wiped out on nearly every wave. (Wavesize was about 8 to 10 feet and closing out) I decided not to go in and had a look for the next bus, but because of this f***ing bus-system I had to wait for almost one hour.

So I walked to the direction of Newport along the coast and took the bus at another station after one hour of walking. On the Beach there is a pretty little street where you can walk down until Newport. In Newport I faced really good conditions. About 5 feet and nearly no wind. I had a good session in there and went 3 times in the water. I stayed there about 3 hours and went then to the bus again. (I have to mention that all the busdrivers, except from the last one, were really nice and wanted to talk to me because they liked my german accent. So I heard a lot of interesting stories)

The way home was a little stressful. After getting in the bus in Newport I didn't know the exact route so I just asked the busdriver, but she couldn't help me. I just remembered that I had been to Harbor Blvd. once, so I dropped of there. But I didn't know that Harbor Blvd. is that big, so i dropped of at the wrong place. Walking through Costa Mesa with a surfboard under my arm seemed to be really funny for some people but not for me ;). After a 4 mile walk and some irritating situations I found Adams Ave. which is about 500 metres from our house....

Random Shots

52th Street goes WILD

Sunday we checked the swellforecast and recognized that the best time to go surfing would be around 01.00 pm. Tim brought us to Sean's place, which is about 25 meters away from the beach. We checked out his place and went directly in the water.

At first it was a normal swell like 4-5 feet, but after certain minutes it got really huge, timewise it was about 4 feet overhead. After a time it was closing out, but I had a good time out there. Wiped out many times and was under the water for a really long time. All in all it was a huge day.

After getting back from the beach we chilled at Sean's place for a while, where he lives with 3 other friends. In the evening we did nothing except chilling in Sascha's room. I'm sorry for taking no pictures, but I didn't want to take my camera to the beach when I can't have a look for on it.

Random Shots

Saturday

Me in front of Tim's Truck in Irvine

Andrew

Sascha, Ashley and me

Chelsea

Saturday wasn't really special at all. We cleaned up, relaxed and went shopping to Irvine.

In the evening Ashley picked us up to Andrew's place where we hung out and played some rounds of Poker. After one bottle of citrus-vodka and winning the jackpot of 40$ the "german boys" went home ;-).

BBQ Party

A part of the 193 $ we left at the store

Rebeccah, me, Sascha and Tim

Our guests

After a couple of drinks

Friday night we made a little BBQ Party.

After relaxing the whole day, we went to the store to get our stuff for the party. It wasn't really cheap, but now we have about 1 1/2 liter vodka and really much food left.

The party was really fun, but at the end everything went a little wrong, because of some disagreements between some parties.