“Dude, you should have seen the surf out there today,” he said. “It was awesome.”

I sat there sort of disbelieving.

“Are you serious?” I said. ” You’re talking about surfing? Today?”

He sort of looked at me like he didn’t know what I was talking about.

“You should have seen it, man – hardly any guys out.”

Well, no shit, right? Considering what had happened — I had seen the second World Trade Center tower crumble live on TV just a few hours earlier — I didn’t really feel like chatting about surfing at that point. What I was thinking about was the end of the world.

It all seemed so surreal. If it’d been a plot to a movie script, I would have dismissed it as woefully unrealistic. But it had happened. In our country.

That awful day.

So, of course, we can’t forget it, on this 9-year anniversary. At the same time, for the rest of us, life goes on. And now, well – it is an appropriate time to think about surfing. Which is what we did again today in Morro Bay.

It was good to have Slim back for a second week – in a row! Rumor has it, he rented the kids a bounce house, then took off, hoping they’d keep hopping until his wife came home.

I sure hope they did. That way they’ll be tired and Slim can finally get some sleep.

That’s him at the top, by the way. Here I got these pretty good photos of him. But his camera — that one on his arm there — wound up with a dead battery. So you won’t see photos of me on here.

I give and I give and I give.

The second photo is of Boss, the camera magnet. Seriously, the guy ought to be in Volcom ads.  If he’s on a wave and there’s a camera near, there’s some sort of gravitational pull that occurs between man and lens.

And, finally, another Slim shot. Check out that angle there. Slim, I think you’re a longboarder, bud.

The water was glassy, waves had some shape, and we even had a few bat rays floating around the bottom. All and all, a good reminder that on this anniversary of tragedy, life is good for those of us lucky enough to still be here.

_______________

EDITOR’S NOTE: Speaking of 9/11 and batrays. All of this reminds me of what Slim did on Sept. 11, 2001.

Slim, unlike PP, had the day off from their brutal day job and had to get out of the house after watching those horrible images from NY all morning and afternoon. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, I went fishing with the Bias’ own BG and GSlim! Am I right on this BG?

Check it out. Even Mrs. Slim got a fish on this day. And your favorite editor hooked up with a few batrays, as did BG’s little bro. It was a silver lining on what was a heart-wrenching day.

Also, here’s a shot of Ground Zero (in the foreground) when Mrs. Slim and I visited it in 2004. I almost couldn’t take this photo because of what that hole in the earth signified. Sad, sad part of an otherwise awesome city. (Yeah, we give props to the East Coast from time to time on the Bias.)

That’s him above in what will undoubtedly become a framed photo, which his wife won’t let him hang in the living room, so it will likely wind up either in A.) the garage or B.) the extra bathroom. But, hey, whatever, right? As long as the guy can remind himself what the Stoke was like.

Slim wasn’t the only one catching waves, of course. Boss here is just a natural for the camera. In fact, the guy’s like a magnetic force. When the camera is running, the dude just happens to gravitate toward it. And here’s a nice-looking example of that.

Boss had another nice shot in there as well. But since Slim doesn’t get in the water as much — you know, what with his CPR classes and all — let’s look at one more shot of him trimming.

You know, it’s amazing how one little frame can make a ride look so much better than it actually was.

This looks like a perfect San-O wave, doesn’t it? Speaking of San-O, Slim was originally going to head down South with Boss and I, but he had to go and get his fourth new job in a year, and he wasn’t able to tell the new bosses, “Hey, but I’ve got this surf trip planned with my bra’hs. Is it okay if I have the third week of September off?”

Priorities, man! Sure, sure, you want to impress the bosses. And, yeah, they’re paying you and yadda, yadda. We’re talking surf trip, man! Tell The Man you got plans. Because when it comes down to it, ah, you know. Ummm.

What was I saying? Something about cartoons, I think.

Cartoons are funny.

Earlier in the week, it was pretty small out there, but we got a little summer swell starting Friday. The top photo is of Clam, catching a nice little left — perfect for a goofy footer. Clam is like me — he spent a good deal of time living in Indiana, which is why I jokingly say were the only two members of the Indiana Surf Club. He grew up closer to Lake Michigan, but he never surfed the Great Lake.

The next one is Boss, again at Morro Bay. Boss Man always knows where the camera is, which is why I’ve gotten so many good shots of him.

In this shot, we have Moke, who — despite my efforts to recruit him to the stand-up world — is a sponger. This is a pretty decent shot, but spongers never look as good as stand-up guys.

Finally, here’s a shot of *ME*! It was so small earlier in the week, I was determined that not only would I wear a hat in the lineup, but I also wouldn’t even get it wet. Well, that’s sort of a lofty goal, as it turns out. I did wind up getting it wet, but I didn’t lose it. There were some decent small waves, but instead of an action shot — you know, since there are SO many of me — I figured I’d post this nice shot of Morro Rock. And, of course, I’m giving props to a fine West Coast team here.

Maybe we can drag Slim out next week. But I hear he might be taking his family to church camp.

Flat, gloomy, and we're still stoked. What!?

So that my friends is Morro Rock today.

Flat as can be. Not a soul out. Nothing but Fresno on the fogged-in beach.

Crappiest, unstokable day in quite some time. But are we upset about it? No, ’cause there isn’t anywhere else we’d rather be than this side of the 101.

Life’s just better/happier on the West Coast — even during flat spells (heck, worse comes to worst, we’ll go battle batrays with our snorkle cam). Don’t believe men? Research proves it.

The Westside is the best side, according to Twitter. And we all know Twitter runs our A.D.D., 140-character-limit world these days.

According to a study by researchers from Northeastern and Harvard, Tweets from the West Coast have shown our segment of the population is happier than the other three quarters of the country.

Why, you might ask? We could only speculate it has something to do with the combination of The Stoke, Lakers and Mannymania. All of which means WCBias.com must be the happiest place in the blogosphere. Disneyland’s got nothing on the Bias. Heck, the West Coast even has Disneyland on lock, too.

Let me serenade the streets of L.A., from Oakland to Sacktown
The Bay Area and back down, Cali is where they put they mack down:
Gimme love!
- Pac

Other random news from the week that was:

• A couple of nerds were involved in a pen stabbing at Comic-Con in San Diego. The attacker reportedly wore a blue Harry Potter shirt. Guess the plot’s set for Colors 2: Comic Relief.
• Bud Selig reports that testing for HGH is under way in the MINOR leagues. Elsewhere, MLB, NBA, NFL, PGA, NHL, NCAA continue to bury their heads in the sand.
• Saw a little glob of oil at The Rock today and it reminded me of the mess in the gulf. Also reminded me of some classic BP ads from back in the day: “It’s time to think outside the barrel.” Brilliant. We should have BP copywriters contribute to the Bias.
• Los Angeles Dodgers’ Joe Torre undecided about managing in 2011. In other news: Don Mattingly undecided about managing in 2011: and number of trips he’s allowed to the mound in an inning.
• It’s not as good as Ryantific and BSlim’s chipotle red ale, but the bitter LeBron James beer is back in Cleveland.
• And if that doesn’t do it for you, there’s always the $500 stuffed squirrel ale.
• Double take of the week: Chuck Liddell doing Lipton Brisk ads? Random. Come on Chuck. How about Coors Light “Cold as Iceman” or something. You’re better than that. Or are you any more?
• A week late … remember that crazy week I wrote about the New York Yankees? Yeah, got even crazier with the death of The Boss the next day. Talk about a jinx.  Shortstop Derek Jeter recalls George Steinbrenner.
• Speaking of death. People who die are starting to haunt Facebook users as suggested friends. Which reminds me of my next blog idea — to schedule a post 50 years from now that lists the Top 50 people I hate. No. 1 on that list, myself. Luckily I live on the West Coast, so I’m too happy to do anything about it right now.

- Sent from my itBeFlatPhone.

I had promised good photos and only sort of came through with that. This one on the right is probably the best (click on it for a larger image), though it would have been nice had I been on the other side — or had Slim at least turnned and smile for the camera. “Hey, Slim — make love to the camera, Bra’h!” Didn’t you ever watch Zoolander?

This next one is of Moke, who is a sponger. We try not to hold that against him (too much) because he’s actually a pretty decent sponger, which is almost as good as being, oh, let’s say a mediocre stand-up surfer.  Here he is almost blocking my view of Morro Rock.

And since we’re all about brotherly love here at the Bias, here’s Slim and Moke together. I think they had a notion of going for this wave, then decided, “Nah. We only go for five foot and above!”

We were lucky to get anything, of course. When we first pulled up to the beach, Slim and I were like, “Ugh.” Because, honestly, it looked like crap. And gray. And cold. But we went out and got a little serrendipitous Stoke. Nice shape, decent size (for summer) and lots of opportunities.

I didn’t like the part when my board snapped off of my leash. But, hey, who doesn’t need a good swim every now and then? Better today than on a 7-foot day.

By the time 10 rolled around, conditions had already started to slop up. But that was ok — Slim had to get back to Paso and his 4-H chickens.

Being the unselfish person I am, I decided to conentrate on the other guys in the lineup.  So enjoy. Oh, an Slim? Catch ya next time. Meanwhile, happy anniversary!

While BSlim was taking his family to church on Sunday, those of us with the TS (True Stoke) were out catching some waves. Despite the crazy winds that have prevailed here, the TS crew managed to find some rideable liquid in Shell Beach, CA, where we glided on water like Clyde the Glide.  Of course, the winds cause this things called upwelling, which brings the really cold water to the surface and makes you say things like, “Damn — why’s it so COLD?” Faced with 48-degree temps, we bailed after an hour.

A glutton for punishment — but needing excersize since I’m rather whale-like at the moment — I drove from the ocean to the basketball courts for a day of activity only a true bulimic (TB) could appreciate.  Proud of myself for doing so much, I’ve rewarded myself with a day of snacking.

Of course, this usually results in Pembertionian saying something like, “Good lord — look how FAT I’ve become!” and then he thinks of ways he can make his photos look slimmer but eventually concludes the only sure way is to just stop eating so much.

But I’m not going to do all that here. Instead, I will carefully select and post only those photos that don’t make me look (too) fat.

Not only did I get the GoPro cam, but I also landed the board mount, which attaches with a strong adhesive so you don’t have to forever mutilate your board. BSlim was offered a chance to use the GoPro board many times, but he turned it down. As a result, you’ll see our surf bud Dan on some of these waves  but no Slim.

Like this little shot here. I actually started to go for this wave, but then I pulled back. Just as the wave began to break, I saw Dan at the bottom, and I thought, “I hope he remembered to turn the camera on.” Well, he did, and this was probably the best shot of the day.

The great thing about Morro Bay is that you seldom see big crowds there. So our little surf posse pretty much had all the waves we wanted. And it was a good day — shoulder-sized waves (sometimes more, like Dan’s wave here), with some shape.

Of course, when you get the GoPro, you’ve got to ham it up a little. But I’m not really that great, so this is really the best I could do. One day I’ll walk the nose. Or catch a barrel, and I’ll be sure to post the evidence right here. And I’ll be like, “Dude, check out this awesome nose ride — I posted it on WCBias!”

Hmmm. So now I’m thinking that maybe I should have sized these photos a little differently because I’m trying to fill in the gaps with text, and now I’ve run out of stuff to say other than, you know, “I like surfing” and “Surfing’s cool.” So if you want to just ignore the rest of the text, that’s fine with me. I’ll just keep yammering until I post this final picture, of the surf posse:

Well, 3/4 of the surf posse. Because, you know — someone’s got to actually take the photo. So there’s sponger Jay — also known as Moke — in the foreground. Dan — also known as Boss — is on the left, and our very own BSlim has surrendered his precious anonymity for a little face time on the Bias.

When it was done, we all agreed that it was a good Stoke, and then we went to the liquor store nearby to get refreshments and resumed our normal, land-lovin’ lives.

– All photos by BSlim, WCBias.com.