There. One of the surf reports updated below (#15). Some pictures would really help the mental imagery of the coast. Oh well.

Another day in Corvallis. I’m itching for some real leg-stretching exercise and am pretty tired of being cooped up in a hotel. I’ve seen the same college football preview on ESPN far too many times. I can’t wait to drop these dogs in a cage soon and go exploring by bike or running shoe. Should be less than a week.

Mary said her interview went well this morning. I hesitate a little to write that here, because if it doesn’t work out, well, you know, you don’t want people feeling badly for you. Noone wants to feel like they failed at something. I won’t deny though that our hopes are high on this one. It would be a sweet school-year schedule and the foot in the door at an outstanding school district. I’d give it 50-50 odds. We’ll be fine if it doesn’t pan out, but I also won’t complain about having immediate health insurance if it does.

I’ve just begun to look for jobs in the area.

Sorry about the two posts below. I’ll do my best to update with full details when I get on a better Internet connection than the timelimited and relatively slow Corvallis Public Library connection here.

In short, Ill just say that two days of saltwater surfing at Devil’s Punch Bowl (eight miles north of Newport, OR, which is an hour west of Corvallis) easily confirmed the decision to move to this state. Had an absolute riot! And nothing, repeat nothing, beats peeling off a wetsuit after several hours of getting pummeled by waves and being handed a warm bowl of fresh clam chowder by your wife who has been patiently waiting on the cliffs above. I had a feel-good buzz that lasted the rest of the day yesterday after that.

Also surfed about fifty feet away from either a seal or otter poking it’s head out of the ocean yesterday morning. Very cool.

We just got back from three nights of camping at Beverly Beach State Park, packing up to our first tastes of Oregon rain this morning. Beautiful camping location, though lots of dogs for our own mutts to bark at. 

We also just found out that our rental agreement went through. In about a week we’ll have a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath townhome to live in. Sadly, sans furniture, but it’ll be good anyway. Signed our deposit for the place this morning. Our first official ties to this area. Picked up a Corvallis-Benton County library card this afternoon, my second tie. The attachments are good. For at least a year this’ll be home.

Surf Report # 16

Location: Devil’s Punch Bowl State Park – 8 miles N of Newport, OR
Time: 10:00 am- 12:30 pm
Air Temp: 51° F
Water Temp: 52° F
Wind: From W 4 mph
Waves: Salty
Gear: 5/3 wetsuit, 5 mm boots, 3 mm gloves, .5 mm hood

Details to come…

Surf Report # 15

Location: Devil’s Punch Bowl State Park – 8 miles N of Newport, OR
Time: 1:00 pm- 3:00 pm
Air Temp: 59° F
Water Temp: 52° F
Wind: From N 17 mph
Waves: Salty
Gear: 5/3 wetsuit, 5 mm boots, 3 mm gloves, .5 mm hood

We drove by Devil’s Punch Bowl State park last night on our way to look for a campground along the coastal highway, but only stopped long enough to wander around the cliffs above the beach, watch the throngs of surfers below, and eat some seafood at Mo’s at Otter Crest.

After camping at Beverly Beach State Park last night, waking leisurely and cooking breakfast over the campfire, I decided to give the salt water a shot. The waves lined up gorgeously in the deepest part of the bay and seemed to gain some size and messiness as you wandered down the beach. Most of the surfers (and there were lots, probably at least thirty at any given time) congregated near the smaller cleaner waves, so I wandered down the beach to avoid bumping anyone’s elbows.

It felt so good to pull on a wetsuit again after a couple of months away and I literally ran into the water with my board under my arm. The first few shots of saltwater to the face and eyes were a little startling even as I was mentally bracing for the sting, but everything normalized after the first half hour or so (save for the occasional gulp of salt down the throat).

I quickly discovered that I had no need to feel self conscious about my surfing skill level and surfing near other surfers turned out to be pretty much a non-issue. Sure, there were a few guys pulling off long graceful rides down the lines, but for the most part people were obviously very recreational surfers. Old ladies, old men, kids, lots of guys in their twenties. Nothing fancy, but I easily caught more than my share.

Waves were good sized and way more predictable than in Lake Michigan. Much easier to navigate your way back outside, though I have a lot of work to do to smoothly pop through the breakers. I had a couple of spectacular wipeouts, cartwheeling under water, board bouncing off my head, legs and arms akimbo, laughing as I burst back to the surface. And a couple memorable rides, caught outside and ridden all the way to shore with a few pseudo bottom turns thrown in for good measure.

Lots of sunshine, hours of waves, and good friendly vibes throughout the water. This was a nice site to stumble onto.

I remember visiting Steeno in California a few springs ago during March Madness basketball and loving being able to watch tournament games at 9 or 10 in the morning. Ditto for West coast Oregon. I love getting my sports highlights early in the day if I choose, but still being able to watch late west coast games later as well. Watch some Michigan football over breakfast, then go tailgate at Oregon State USC in the afternoon!

Not sure what our plans are for the next couple of weeks. We should find out by Monday if we got the house we’re trying to rent, but since we can’t move in until after the labor day weekend no matter what, we’re going to have to occupy our time somehow. Right now, I’m thinking we’ll probably head to the ocean for a while and do some camping (I’m ready to get my first taste of salty ocean surfing too!) Mary’s interview is on Wednesday, so we have to be back for that and will probably stay in the Super 8 again for at least one night before that. It’s all an adventure these days.

I can’t wait until I get my computer set up again so I can start posting some pictures.