LA Week One

Its been about a week staying at Craig's house in Hermosa Beach, which -along with adjoining Manhattan and Rodando Beach- is referred to as the Southbay area of Los Angeles. I have been staying on the couch of his duplex apartment which is only about 200 yards from the beach and Pacific Ocean.

In the last few days I have ramped up the triathlon training as a way to provide a bit of structure to my un-employed beach living. In addition to the Olympic distance LA Triathlon I am doing on September 9th, I have recently signed up for a long course (30 m bike / 10 m run) on August 25th in Santa Barbara, and a Half-Ironman triathlon (56 m bike / 13 m run) in Vancouver on September 16th. As part of training for these I have been doing runs through Hermosa and up into Manhattan Beach and doing some longer bike rides into the Palos Verdes ("the PV") hills to the south. The PV ride has some ridiculous views of the Pacific and actually goes right by the famous Donald Trump golf course, which I believe recently was on the loosing end of a mudslide. Swim training is predictably convenient, as the Pacific temp is over 70 degrees and there are multiple open water swims that meet each week.

Other than my tri training I have been doing a bit of surfing. There is a nice swell which is not to crowded just off Hermosa pier which I can walk to. I have been borrowing a board from Craig's buddy Simon which is 7'8'' which they refer to as a fun board. It is easier to turn than the long boards I have been on in the past and I think I may buy my own here soon. I am certainly up and paddling into waves but still not getting real long rides or making to many turns. I am trying to make some progress on the board so that I am ready for the surf down South in Costa Rica and Argentina. By then hopefully I will be posting some real surf photos. All my other initiatives such as cooking, Spanish, and MMA classes have kind of been pushed to the back burner by the above pursuits. It seems that despite my unemployment there are still not enough hours in the day. I am hoping that once I get my own place rented out here and Laura moves up, that I can get a more regular schedule and pick up one or two of the above classes. Laura is understandably on my case to get that whole Spanish language thing down before are trip.

So the social scene in Hermosa is less like local beach community and more like little Hollywood. Craig took me to a club called Shore on Thursday and it was an interesting introduction to the west coast night club scene. Tight long sleeve t-shirts with raised embroidery decorations and spiked/mussed hair seemed to be the uniform for the dudes. Dudes in fact were in abundance, leading to a lot of unnecessary testosterone being misspent over girls who wouldn't even get a second look at a NY bar or on Texas college campus. I also got jumped by some guy out of the blue, who came flying over a couch and shoved me into the wall. Craig got into the middle between us but not before the bouncers swept in and promptly tossed us out of the club. I don't know who the guy who came after me was, or what pissed him off, but I thank him. At least I was out of Shore.



A crash course on LA traffic courtesy of the 405



El Porto surf break on Manhattan Beach. Obviously not to huge today.



Looking down the sandy beach that runs from miles from Rodando up through Hermosa and Manhattan.