From: johnlake@microsoft.com (John Lake)
Subject: howdy
Date: 03 Sep 92 11:00:07 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corporation
Keywords: good to be here finally


Hello all.  I think I have finally figured posting out, so if you
get this I guess i did.


Here is a little about myself:

My name is John H. Lake and I live in Bothell, Washington (near Seattle
in the US.  I have live here in Washington all my life and have been surfing
for about 7 years.  I learned to surf here and will never leave, it's just
too damn beautiful.  Yes the water is cold and during the winter it can be
pretty rough.  But we almost always have waves.  The only other place I 
would consider living is in Oregon (one state south).  Anyways I have 
enjoyed reading all the posts for about 4 months now and decided it was
time to join in.

I ride shortboards mostly, but during the summer I like to ride a longboard
when it's smaller.  I hate riding shortboards when the waves don't have 
any real juice.  Too much damn work.  I have a pretty good selection of 
boards.  I have a 9 foot longboard made of epoxy that I shaped and glassed
myself,  a 10 footer in the works, and a 7'10" egg shape (mini-mal).  For
shortboards I have a 6'10" rounded pintail, a 7'2" real narrow squaretail
with six deep channels, a 7'6" gun and an 8'6" big gun on order.  I wear
a 3/2 mill O'neill when the water is warm enough and 5/4 mill with built 
in hood for when it gets colder.  My 5/4 is made by Hotline of Santa Cruz
and is by far the best wetsuit made in my opinion.  Wouldn't wear anything
else.  As you can tell by my boards, I like big surf.  The bigger the 
better.  Some people think its a "dick thing" but I just love the drop
on a big wave.  Enough about myself.

Now for a few answers to questions that I read about but never answered:

As for the location of that spot that they called Bells Beach in the 
movie Pointbreak, it is located in Northern Oregon and is called Indian
Beach.  One of my friends is that older grey haired guy in the background.

As for contact lenses, I have worn mine since I started surfing and have
only lost 2 lenses.  I lost them because of strong offshore winds and 
because they were about 2 years old and kinda dry from being so old.
I lost them about a week apart but I have an insurance deal where I 
get my contacts that makes it so I only pay 20 bucks apiece.  I think
from what I've heard it all depends on the persons eyes and what type 
of contact they have.  Mine are soft daily wear lenses.

as for hints about learning to surf, my personel suggestion besides 
all the others that were posted, are doing what I call POP-UPS.  All 
you do is lay on the floor and practice jumping to your feet in one 
smooth motion.  Do as many every night before you go to bed as you 
can do and when you get out there and are surfing it will just come
naturally.  One of the worst and hardest habits to break is dragging
you
^^^
oops!
your knee when you go to stand up.  I know cause I did it when I first 
started and it was hell to break the habit.  I still do them everynight
just for the hell of it.  Also a friend of mine was taught this when 
he first started for a couple weeks before he went for his first time
and on his first wave, he popped up and angled down the line.

As for my favorite 3 movies, I will agree with Nigel on BUNYIP DREAMIN'
(I loved the segment of Munga Barry on that grinding right by himself
plus it's all great music and no narration.  I hate narration).  My 
other favorite is RUNMAN 69 just cause it's low budget and sick.  It's 
made out of Malibu, CA.  You'd like this one Nigel, trust me.  And of 
course there is and always will be ENDLESS SUMMER.  Truly the classic
surf movie.  I think ENDLESS SUMMER II should be a good one too.  The 
star of the movie is a really cool guy named Wingnut (aka Robert Weaver)
that is an unreal longboarder.  He's got a lot of good style.  He came 
up here last year for a longboard contest that we have every year for 
fun with guys from Oregon and British Columbia (Canada).  Really legit
guy.  My last choice is FIVE SUMMER STORIES (also by Bruce Brown).

so my votes go to:
BUNYIP DREAMIN'
RUNMAN 69
ENDLESS SUMMER
FIVE SUMMER STORIES

well I think I've wasted enough time.

I sure hope this works, I posted to alt.test first and it worked there.

also I hope this wasn't too long.

DEEP BARRELS TO ALL!!!!


johnny action
Surfking/Superhero
master of absolutely nothing