WARRANTY

Today Erica and I went through the wonderful experience that Patagonia offers known as their Wetsuit Warranty.
We showed up at 10:45 this morning with my "old" R2 back zip, talked to the sales rep for 5 minutes, got the latest seasons edition of the R2 chest zip within a couple of minutes, paid a minimal amount for the upgrade, and left the store by 11:00 am.
One of the best experiences I've ever had with customer service, and I'm more than happy with Patagonia and my new suit.

Setting the Mood

Sometimes, when I'm really lucky, the colors in my photos will tell a story.
I mean that the graininess, and flat colors show that it was a really cold and dismal morning in this particular one.
We didn't even hop in! But we did happen to discover a super cheap log at a certain board swap while heading back to the car...

GO!!!

Kickflips and stuff

Kinda excited to surf tomorrow

We live in a mediocre place ;)
Sunset Cliffs at 6:40 pm...

October Lefts

Erica and I uncovered a beautiful little left, right under our noses!
The conditions made for absolutely beautiful surf yesterday, and the swell made for some pretty fun surf.
Anyways, I took some photos with my underwater disposable camera... and here are three shots from that roll!

WEDGE

SUMMER MESS... from Cam Oden on Vimeo.

Offshore...

Well... It's started... I woke up this morning and saw the flags blowing toward the ocean.
70 degrees at 7 am. Offshore winds. Now all we need is some swell! My goodness, I love Fall.
Also, we're going international: JAPAN LOVES ERICA

Greg via David Dry

Smiles

P.s. New link on the right » Check it out!

Summer Daze

Greg took this photo of Erica, Trevor, and I at Thalia this past summer.
Oh tank top Tuesdays... how I've missed you...

Quality Peoples

I just found this out through checking out the site because of a friend. Super sick that Quality Peoples did a little write up about me. Look mom! I'm Internet famous!

1990-(could have been 2010)

Erica and I decided to head up to La Jolla in between classes today, first mistake.
We pulled up to the beach and it looked really fun! Mostly big and stormy, and I really wanted to take out Ryans FishHull.
I put on my suit, and paddled out as fast as I could. I could immediately tell that it was really powerful.
I dropped in on my first one, to get the heebeejeebies out... It felt fine, and I paddled out for some more.
That didn't go over too well.
As soon as I ducked dove under the first one, the leash string got sucked out of the board, and I had to swim frantically for it.
Seeing the sets line up the back, I decided to head back in to fix the leash. BAD IDEA.
The next couple of minutes literally felt like hell. I have never been so scared of dying in my life.
I held on to the board as long as I could, but when an overhead shorebreak wave doubled up in like 2 feet of water, I threw the board over and tried to swim underneath the massive whitewash.
I managed to get in knee deep water and ran faster than I've ever run to the sand. The board didn't fare as well.
I saw it sitting on some rocks, but by the time I got to it, a giant wave slammed its nose into the rocks :(
I'm really sorry Ryan for breaking your special board... I hate breaking things, ESPECIALLY when it's not my stuff.
Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed my saga. Yup, I'm a b*tch.

wesurfsmallwaves

Ma boy Ryan

Erica and I visited Greg for fall break this year. While we were up there, Ryan let us hang out in his shop while he shaped a board really quickly. Seriously, it took him like 40 min. Unreal.

Point Concept Asymmetrical from Alex Swanson on Vimeo.

Rad

I guess Greg's been killing it up North... Photos by his friend David

8x10

Erica found this super rad deal at Walgreens where you could make an 8x10" collage fo' free! Needless to say we went ape S... This is what I came up with!

Misty mountains

I like to do a lot in a short amount of time, but this weekend has been pretty slow. It's given me time to take a break from the fast pace of my life and just sit and relax. It definitely helped recharge my system before getting back into the school week. Time to remember how lucky I am to be where I am with everything that I have and everyone who I am privileged to be around. I thank God for every day I'm alive on this beautiful Earth.

Mediocre

The surf was very bleh this morning. It had all the potential to be great! No wind, a little swell, warm water... then the 6 ft. high tide started pushing and everything went to S.
Erica took some shots of us having fun on a couple of the few that stopped by where we sat.
So if we had "summer" in September, does that mean that those oh so special October offshore days are coming in late November?

Dinner at Tashas

Some of my earlier T2i shots at Natashas apartment this year... Nothing too interesting, just biding time till Vimeo lets us upload our next video project this weekend. (Non paying members can only upload one HD video a week, heads up on that). Anyways, super stoked on this weekend, after a long week of midterms! Hopefully the weather clears and the surf picks up.

Tonight suckas!

Just in case you missed the first premier in Costa Mesa, you can catch another showing tonight at in Oceanside! (At Capt. Helm)
A super sick movie that you definitely do not want to miss out on.
But in case you do... check out the dvd because it's worth a buy :)

Screen Grab

Point Loma > Westmont

Greg, we know that you're super jealous of us and where we go to school, and that's ok! Just remember, you mess with the bull, you get the horns...

Warm waterz

RyanxAsymmetrical

The man behind Point Concept working on his new asymmetrical test board

Wrecked

I was stupid and thought I could complete a turn at the end of a section last weekend and lost my board straight into the rocks, needless to say, I paid the price :/

Panned

Erica and I have slowly been working on slower shutter speeds; seeing what does and what doesn't work. Erica shot the first two, and I got the last one of Greg on his Almond in Ventura last weekend. It's pretty tough trying to keep it from getting too overexposed while tracking Greg at the same time. Anyways, it's a fun experiment that we are going to keep trying to perfect!

Dane Peterson at Malibu

Dane Peterson at Malibu from Alex Swanson on Vimeo.

Faces

Some portraits of Erica, Ryan, and Greg when we invaded his shaping room last weekend...

Seclusion

Erica and I pulled off the road to find this secluded beachbreak that was throwing some pretty heavy shorebreak... The heavy fog and light rain made the atmosphere calming in the midst of some clean, glassy barrels.

I wanna go surfing

Greg 1-2ing somewhere in Ventura... There were absolutely NO waves in Santa Barbara, so we took a chance and drove a little bit South to hopefully catch whatever South swell was still in the water. Needless to say, we did pretty well! I wrecked the nose on my board on the 3rd wave I caught, so I ended up taking pictures and video with Erica while Greg and his friends slayed the Pacific Ocean.

The Shop

We were up visiting Greg this weekend in Santa Barbara. We didn't really have high expectations for our trip but ended up getting REALLY fun waves, hanging out a ton with Ryan at his shop, and got to meet a couple of Gregs Westmont friends. A really fun weekend and a much needed break!