Merry Christmas!

Karissa and I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We're headed to Costa Rica in a couple of days, so stay tuned for some sunny shots of us surfing in board shorts and bikinis. Hope you all have a wonderful few weeks. We'll see you on the other side! - Justin W. Coffey

Some Endless Summer

Feast your eyes on the first nine minutes and fourteen seconds of Bruce Brown's Endless Summer (via EOS).

Eddie Bauer's Downlight Jacket

Eddie Bauer has been in the down business since day one. My old man bought one of their Skyliner coats sometime in the 1970's, and has since passed it on to me. It's tough, warm and indispensable at times. But it has seen better days, and so when an opportunity to use and review the latest down layers from our friends at Eddie Bauer presented itself, we jumped.

Karissa opted for the Downlight Linear Hooded Jacket, which features 800-fill Premium Goose Down insulation, a windproof shell made from recycled ripstop polyester and Eddie Bauer's StormRepel durable water-repellent (DWR) finish on the outside. The fit is fantastic. Light enough to put a Cloud Layer Pro Fleece beneath, and yet warm enough that she can wear it in the winter without anything else.

I went with the traditional Downlight Jacket (sans hood), which features the same Premium Goose Down insulation and StormRepel finish as Karissa's coat. One of the few differences we noticed between our two coats, however, were the tall interior pockets on the inside of Karissa's jacket. Aside from that they're essentially the same. An excellent outer layer for those windy winter mornings out west. Oh, and they also work well as a makeshift pillow!

ATHERN

Mark Matisons and Jed Petley mining the mystic mountain. Produced by Peripheral Perceptions.

Cause Costa Rica

Karissa, Chris, Rena and I are headed to Costa Rica in a couple of weeks. Fifteen days of surf, sun, etc. Unable to return to a certain southern surf spot due to circumstances out of our control (read: the government), we settled on a spot in Costa Rica that a friend (and fellow log lover) had suggested. We'll be staying in the northwestern corner of the country, walking distance from a beautiful beach break that offers everything from a soft inside section, to powerful peelers a little further out. And offshore wind... all day, every day. So with just fourteen days to pack and prepare for our adventure, I thought I'd put together another #duds collection featuring a few things I'll be taking to Costa Rica.

Mini Malibu

Short film featuring a few of the boys and girls from Nineplus surfing on a small September day.

Day Trip

Topless trucks, custom-built bikes with surfboard racks on the side and lots of little logging waves?! I'll be damned if this short bit of film (produced by Deus Ex Machina) doesn't make me wanna drop everything and escape to Indonesia. Click here to learn more about the Temple of Enthusiasm.

Wayward

A few months ago my friend Duffy left his home in Seattle and headed south aboard his Harley. What some would call a wayward journey - "difficult to control or predict because of unusual or perverse behavior" - Duffy's trip was more of an experiment in my mind. Are there still open roads and unexplored areas of America? Can someone still point their wheel in one direction without knowing exactly where they'll end up? Is all that motorcycle shit still magical? And so it went; hundreds of highway miles, skate parks, surf spots, coffee shops, cold beers, friends and family. An excellent adventure. Follow the link and watch three short videos Spacecraft Collective has since produced.

Where is Ol' Uncle Hurricane?

Mark Yaggie and Nick Power riding golden-brown bastards of eastern origin. As seen on Surf-A-Pig.

Twenty and Ten is Ten

Surfing with snow on the sand is pretty rare in these parts. If we're lucky, clouds will accumulate during December and litter the ground with cold little crystals, leaving the city of Seattle and surrounding suburbs frozen for a few days. Snow being such an odd occurrence, city officials and citizens alike are wholly unaware of what to do when the ground is white and the temperature remains a few degrees below freezing. Panic ensues. Car accidents everywhere. People slipping in the middle of the street. There's a run on milk and canned goods at every store in Seattle. People stay inside Starbucks, dreading the commute back to their homes, offices or apartments. It's silly. And so Karissa and I escape. Driving west at the first signs of a freeze. Better to be where there are waves than trapped inside some coffee conglomerate, waiting for it to warm up.

Honestly, though, we weren't sure what to expect this weekend. Cold, yes, but snow on the ground and ice on all the roads?! Shit. We fled on Friday, riding a six something ferry across the Sound. We stayed the night near Port Angeles - a rather cold night I might add - before continuing our search for surf first thing on Saturday. The roads were alright. Icy at times, some snow on the shoulder, but once we rolled onto the reservation the conditions became increasingly worse. Side street were now sheets of ice, and the long gravel road out to the end was covered in a light layer of ice and snow itself. We took our time. Fargo, being but one wheel drive, would not easily escape the ice, if we so happened to get stuck. But alas, we arrived alright. And after surveying the situation, we decided we'd better surf while there was still some sun in the sky.

Cold? Yes. But bearable. With our wool-lined Patagonia wetsuits, lobster claws and 7mm booties, the water was not what we were worried about. It was the offshore wind, blowing anywhere from five to fifteen mph at times. Cold across your face, a frozen, gives-no-fucks kinda cold. I surfed first while Karissa stayed ashore to take a few photos. It didn't last long, though. I was outta the water within the hour, shaking and mumbling my way back to the van. Karissa paddled out while I was taking what may have been the longest shower of my life. I did, however, get back to the beach in time to take a few photos myself. Waves? They were alright. Small, but clean. With offshore wind and sets separated by minutes instead of seconds. That night Karissa cooked on our camp stove and we sat inside the van and drank beer and consumed copious amounts of chili with cheddar on top. The sun set shortly before five, and by six we had both climbed into bed, trying desperately to stay warm. The temperature that night was said to be sixteen.

Mexico Calling

A couple of months ago, Mele Saili and a few of her friends took a surf trip to Mexico to shoot this short film highlighting Seea's latest line of rash guards and surf suits. Brought to you by Bing Surfboards.

Rumpl

My friend Mr.Fox just shared a link to this rather cool Kickstarter campaign. The company is called Rumpl, and they've developed "a modern blanket inspired by active lifestyles," utilizing the same materials found in all those fancy puffy-coats people wear. Their blankets are designed to be used both indoors and out, and feature 20D rip-stop nylon with a DWR coating which makes them stain and odor resistant. Their blankets use synthetic down insulation, which will keep you warm while also allowing the blanket to be laundered. Available in four sizes (Throw, Twin, Queen and King) and two color combinations (blue with white piping or grey with orange piping), it looks like Rumpl has reached their fundraising goal and should be shipping soon. Follow the link for additional info.