I know Thanksgiving isn’t even here yet but I’m a firm believer in shopping early for Christmas and holiday gifts!

Here are a few of my favorite sites for holiday shopping, (and plain old shopping anytime of year, really!):

Beach Trading – They’ve got a great selection of gifts for your surfer or beach lover including Hawaiian seat covers, rash guard shirts, balance boards, shark and fish car emblems, sarongs, skateboards, surf maps, Lion Coffee and much more!

Buy Rash Guards – This is THE SPOT for rash guards, surf shirts, swim shirts and UV protective clothing. They’ve got a free shipping offer if you buy 3 or more of their rashguards.

Buy Hawaiian Seat Covers – These guys have a huge selection of Hawaiian print auto seat covers. They’ve picked out the coolest patterns so you can find a gift for anyone on your list. Who doesn’t want a pair of tropical or floral car seat covers?

Buy Indo Boards – Your one stop shop for all the Indo Board balance board models. Including the Original Indo, the Indo Pro, the Indo Mini Pro and the Indo Kicktail. They even have this rad balance board called the Surf Ball that you have to see to believe.

OK – that’s my 2 cents… anyone else want to chime in with their own favs for Christmas gifts for surfers and beach lovers?

I know I’ve been MIA for awhile… got caught up in all the election stuff, (GO OBAMA!!), and went through post election blues… burnt out yet still wishing Rachel Maddow had more to report.

Missed a bunch of swells and feel bummed about that…

Now this week I’m surrounded by the brush fires in Los Angeles and haven’t been able to go out for days due to the smoke and ash. Believe me, I’m grateful my house isn’t in danger but it’s amazing how so many of us are affected even though we live miles away from the actual flames.

This photo was taken at the beach 2 blocks from my house in Long Beach… ash was falling like a light dusting of snow and smoke burned my eyes… the fires in Corona and Yorba Linda were about 20 miles away but the winds brought the smoke overhead, blocking out the sun and making Noon look like evening.

DANG! Got up late and see I’m missing what’s probably one of the last south swells of the year. 

Going to a Congressional debate for California’s 46th District in an hour but coulda had a quick go-out if I only would’ve gotten my butt out of bed earlier… that’s what I get for not checking the buoys before I went to bed last night!

Oh well… I hope my candidate , Debbie Cook, kicks Rohrbacher’s arse!!!!

More small surf and howling Santa Ana winds keeping me out of the water and surfing the web instead of surfing any waves… I know I should be working, (my boss thinks I am), but I do consider passing along cool sites aprt of my ‘job’… to that end here’s a great new site I found that sells nothing but Indo Board balance boards: www.Buy-Indo-Boards.com

For those of you who haven’t tried one of these you’ll be amazed at the workout you can get to train for any board sports while on dry land. Balance boards are perfect for flat days like today.. you can still get a balance and leg workout even though you’re not in the water.

And for those of you starting your holiday shopping early – you’ll be the hit this season if you give one of these Indo Boards as a gift!!

FYI they also have Indo Board blog where they post tips and sales so you may want to bookmark them and check back… I’ll do the same.

OK – time to get back to some real work… adios!!!

Surf is flat so I’m cruising the net…

Just got an email from our friends over at BeachTrading.com letting us know that they’ve put their sun dresses on sale this week only.

While I’m not a sun dress wearer myself I do think their little Hawaiian dresses are cute and certainly priced low at only $15.95 – and this week only you can get the white sun dress at an additional 5% off that price – crazy!!

What’s really cool is that they’re a one-size-fits-all sun dress so you know it’s gonna fit.

I’d have to call it a draw… McCain people will say he won and Obama people will say he won.

I do wish Obama would have been a little more hard-hitting but I know he’s trying to keep on the higher road and play nice, but he really could have pressed the fact that McCain is basically 4 more years of the same terrible leadership we have now.

At least we got to hear their real differences on foreign policy. I have to agree with Obama that we’re so darned focused on Iraq that we have tunnel vision. Afghanistan and Pakistan are where Al Quaida is hiding out and we need to expand our efforts there. Bin Ladin has still yet to be found, thank you Mr Bush!

I do have to say that McCain looked like an ignorant bully when he stuck to his guns about not talking with Iran or our other perceived enemies. C’mon dude, this is the 21st century! It’s no longer ‘might-makes-right’ and ‘good fences make good neighbors’. Whether you like it or not we’re all intertwined… we can’t just cut off these people. We’re tied to all these countries now be it through their oil, their nuclear weapons, our economies, etc. Telling them to ‘talk to the hand’ is stupid and childish and won’t get anything accomplished.

I’d rate it 55%-45% to Obama – but I am biased.

I hope Biden can walk the fine line this Thursday with Palin. I think all he has to do is let her put her foot in her mouth…

I’m glad to hear, (as of this afternoon), that the presidential debate is now on for tonight – can’t wait to see McCain get his butt whipped!

Just found a great sale over at a new site we like: Buy-Hawaiian-Seat-Covers.com

They have a weekly sale they post to their blog and this week they’re having a special on a pair of their Blue Hibiscus Hawaiian print seat covers.

Hey, for $40 you can make your car seats look like new!

Forgot to set my alarm so I didn’t get up and out until 7am and in the water by 7:20am… surfed Barracuda’s again in Seal Beach… not as much size or shape as last week but still fun. Supposedly it’s still coming up so hopefully tomorrow will be even better, (and I will remember to set my alarm tonight!).

So I heard from all the guys that I missed a good week of surf last week when I was fishing up in Mammoth. That’s OK, I thought to myself, there will be more waves……

Well, this week we have had solid back-to-back south swells since Monday!! I do have to say that we’ve also had south winds and onshore flow all week so the condiriotns haven’t been ideal. In fact Monday and Tuesday I headed down to Seal Beach early only to turn around and go back to bed. 

But yesterday and today the winds backed off enough to get in a couple of fun sessions. Still bumpy and overcast but when the sets came in it didn’t seem to matter.

Surfed at Barracuda’s Wednesday and Thursday – with yesterday being the better day, (more size and less crowd), but today was still definitley fun!

Just trunked it with a rash guard, (it was a tad chilly since it was foggy with no sun – but the water is warm), and caught my share when the shoulder to head high sets rolled in. It was a bit inconsistent with the wait being about 15-20 minutes between sets. This can actually work to keep the crowds low since most guys pull up, take a loo, then drive away when they don’t see anything.