Those of you who live in SoCal have undoubtedly seen stickers on countless cars bearing the slogan “Save Trestles, Stop The Toll Road.”  Well, the fight’s still on (though hopefully near a temporary end).  On September 22, 2008, the US Secretary of Commerce is holding a hearing at the Del Mar Fairgrounds that could very well spell the final word on the fate of one of the best surf breaks in the world.  The TCA (people who wanna build the toll road) are appealing the decision of the California Coastal Commission from a couple months back.  The CCC overwhelmingly voted against the toll road extension, and now the TCA is trying to go over their heads to Washington, where they can make the case to an audience far removed from the actual site in question.  You can help put this issue to bed by showing up on 9/22 at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.  Thousands of people showed up to the CCC meeting to protest the toll road extension, and their voices DID make a difference.

If you can’t make it to the meeting, either because of your schedule, your location, or otherwise, then at least take a moment to fill out a letter to the Secretary of Commerce voicing your protest.  I already did.

The extension of the 241 Toll Road would do nothing to relieve traffic, and would in fact probably worsen it.  Grading of the land, runoff from the road, and the countless tons of concrete that would be poured into the San Mateo watershed area, will all conspire to severly impact both the wave and water quality at Trestles and the surrounding beaches.  And all of this to put money into a giant company’s pockets, while doing nothing to serve the public (literally, nothing).

And even though the rocks there took more than their fair share of skin off the bottom of my toes this morning (pic – not for the squeemish!), it’s still one of the best places in the world to be if you’re a surfer.  So take a minute to help keep it here for future generations!  Save Trestles!

Learn more about the fight at the Surfrider Foundation’s website – www.savetrestles.org.

Check out a video on Trestles at Surfline.

(pic above grabbed from www.surfrider.org – please don’t sue me)

• TRA2 – The Revenge!  Largely because I was so busy with TRA2 for a couple weeks around launch, I didn’t actually get around to posting about it.  So in case you’ve been living under a rock without internet access for the past couple months… it’s here!  It rocks!  Our second set of Photoshop actions comes with 57 new ways to spice up your images and polish your pics.  The actions definitely have a different overall look and feel from the first – less bright and glowy, more gritty and worn.  We sorta took cues from the direction our photography (Chenin and mine, individually) was taking, mixed that in with some broad industry trends, and distilled it into some fabulous new tools.  BAMF B&W might be the coolest BW conversion ever, IMO.  Check Them Out!  If you like em, Buy Them!  I’m still trying to slot time in to get some recipes up and do a couple video tutorials… soon.  I would have had all that done by now, but I’ve been busy with…

• We bought a new house!  After living in our condo in Ladera Ranch for a few years, we decided it was time to get something with four walls.  I blame the new neighbors that moved in, and bought their kid a drumset, encouraging him to bang randomly upon them for hours at a time in the middle of the day.  The unit next to ours was practically empty for the three years we lived there, and the gal that lived in the unit on the opposite side was never home.  So it was nice and quiet, and a great place to work from.  But my office was in the garage.  The kid with the drumset was in the garage next door.  Those garages shared a wall.  So if I didn’t answer your phone call between May and July, it’s because I knew that I would have just had to tell you to call back later anyway, on account of the “music”.  Maddening.  The worst part is that I’m a drummer myself, and have had to forego owning a kit for years because we lived in condos and apartments.  You don’t get to have a drumset if you share walls, I thought.  Because it’s, well, rude.  So it was like a kick in the balls to have the little kid next door get to bang randomly on the skins while I sat next door, drumless, trying to get work done.  Anyway, moving and home improvement has taken up a disproportionate share of time the last two months.  Basically I’ve only had time to do the minimum with the actions, surf a bit, and play with power tools… but I’m glad the home improvement is getting taken care of now, because…

• I’m gonna be a daddy!  Sometime early next year, we’ll finally stop torturing our parents and give them a real grandbaby (unlike the furry one that’s been an acceptable substitute since 1999).  It’s been a long time coming.  Chenin and I have been married over 6 years, and dated for 7 years before that.  Slowly, relentlessly, our aversion to the idea of having a small person running around waned, and eventually, we decided it might not be the worst thing ever.  Heck, we’ve managed to keep our dog alive way longer than nature would have liked, and he still seems happy… maybe we wouldn’t be awful parents after all.  I mean, I’m sure our kid will hate us once they turn 14 anyway, but until then, we’re super thrilled to be adding another little creature to our family.  Bummer is, we won’t be able to do the tradeshows next year because of the timing.  Good part is, it doesn’t screw with wedding season for Chenin.  Speaking of weddings…

• My little sis got married!  Two weeks ago.  To a lovely young British boy.  And now she’ll be living in London pretty permanently.  We’ve become accustomed to missing her, since she’s been living in the UK almost full-time since college.  But it was different saying goodbye to her this time… I shot the wedding, and it was refreshing to know that I still know how to use a camera.  Kinda.  And Chenin shot some as well, in between being the maid of honor, and lamenting the fact that she was the only one there that couldn’t drink.  And Chenin’s frequent second-shooter Nic filled in the gaps for us, and shot most of the reception, so we could try to relax a little and at least pretend we were just going to a family wedding like normal guests… Check out the pics  at Chenin’s Blog.  Congrats Carrie and Adam!
• Chenin got me a bitchin license plate!  Not that it took up any of my time, but it sure does kick ass.  I do get the occasional dirty look from people who completely miss the irony, and instead assume that I’m just another self-important prick that thinks people should thank me if I condescend to fart at them.  But I’m not, and they’re wrong, and I like it.

• Surf’s been great this summer!  I’ve had a whole lot of super-fun sessions at Uppers, San-O, and even Oceanside, where we expected knee-high mush one morning, and instead found head-high beachbreak barrels.  Almost made one of em, too (they were all pretty much suicide anyway).  Bought a new 6′1″ Al Merrick Flyer II early in the season, and have been trying to break it ever since (rocks in Cabo, rocks at Trestles, rocks at Salt Creek).  I’m surprised the thing still floats after as many times I’ve tried to snap off a fin or bury the nose in the sand at a beachbreak.  Also picked up a 6′4″ Flyer for smaller days.  Super fun board.  And Labor Day weekend was killer, again (last year it rocked, too).  Surfed all weekend.  My arms feel like I just swam over here from Tahiti.

• I have a real office!  Like a big boy!  With furniture that didn’t come from Ikea!  One of the up-sides of all the hassle of moving is that I have an office with a window and air conditioning.  With a fully finished floor.  And I bought some big manly furniture to put in it.  And a new Mac Pro, which means I’m pretty much just another grunt in the Apple Army now.  But it does have its perks… like pretty animations whenever I switch applications.  And ridiculously fast DVD rips for our Apple TV… or my iPhone… or the waterproof headphones for my iPod shuffle that I take surfing sometimes (told you I was Apple crazy).  Anyway, I still have enough PC parts sitting around to coordinate a mission to Mars, but I’m thinking more and more lately of just putting them all on Ebay – “Whole shitload of PC parts – NR”

• We’re Your Favorite!  Bludomain’s blog readers voted the Totally Rad Actions their favorite, beating out Kevin’s stuff, JB’s stuff, Jesh’s stuff, and others.  Quite an honor!  Thanks to all who voted… I promise to keep making kickass tools that you can’t live without.  Or at least to keep coming up with the best names for actions that I can.

• In other, minor, action-related news, we have a new tutorial on the site on using Yin / Yang, Big Blue, and Green With Envy.  It’s been up for a while now, but I never actually posted about it.  Showcases a cool way to use them that you might not have thought of.  And I’m going to be contributing regularly to the new DWFU section of the Digital Wedding Forum with video tips and tricks… the first video is online now, and covers how to use multiple raw conversions to extend the dynamic range of your photos, in a quasi-HDR technique that’ll save your bacon someday.  Check out the Yin / Yang video in the Tutorials section of our site, and the DWF video at DWFU.
• I also just picked up a refurbed Deardorff after my old 8×10 took two successive dives off the tripod, face first, onto the concrete.  Which is fine, because I’ve always wanted a Deardorff, and this was a good excuse to get one.  Also picked up a minty 250mm f/6.3 Fujinon-W to go with it, and to compliment the 14″ f/6.3 Kodak Commercial Ektar I already have (which might not even work properly after taking the brunt of the first fall to the concrete).  Made a new ghetto-style homemade lensboard for the 250, and just checked the camera for light leaks… looks good to go!  Anyway, it’s been way too long since I shot anything, and I’m going to force myself to get back in the saddle, now that most of the springtime craziness is behind me.  And the new lens is a lot more modern than the old Kodak… syncs at 1/400.  Which makes me happy because outdoor flash stuff likes 1/400.  Copal-2?  Dunno… I like it, though.  Gotta get busy making some of those images in my head come to life… Look for some LF stuff sometime soon.  (update – I thought the 250 would cover 8×10, but I’m pretty sure it’s made for 5×7… vignettes pretty bad even with no movements… so I’m back in the market for another wide lens for 8×10)
• Found a really cool old rusted ceiling tin at an antique store, and just screwed it to the wall in our living room last week.  I like it.  Prettiest piece of $50 junk I’ve ever seen.

That’s just about all I can think of for now… Now that life is somewhat back to normal, I’m going to try to get back to posting and shooting some more.  Been way too long.

What have y’all been up to?

This afternoon was fun!  Started to fill in for the last couple hours of daylight, and the winds died down, too – almost glassy.  Only 4 guys out.  I love when the forecast is right on the money for a change :)

http://www.surfline.com/surfnews/article_bamp.cfm?id=13099

Starting with this – went out surfing this Saturday, and just as I was coming back in after the session, we had some pea-soup-thick fog roll in. I love fog, and I love surfing, and when I get to experience both at once, I’m pretty stoked… By the way – this was a color image. I didn’t convert it to black and white or tweak the saturation at all… that’s just what it looked like. Swear. And there were at least 20 guys sitting out there in the lineup. You just can’t see them (which makes keeping your spot in the lineup tricky because, conversely, when the fog’s this thick, you can’t see the shore from the water, either). Cool.