Forty-four-year-old Finn Madsen grew up two blocks from where I lived in Cardiff. I would see him around when he was a young man; he rarely spoke to me or anyone else, and I figured …

Like skateboarding, snowboarding, sailboarding, and kiteboarding before it, foilboarding sprouted from the promiscuous seed of surfing. While foilboards and surfboards appear similar if observed from the deck, their bottoms differ radically. Surfboards have fins. Foilboards, …

It’s another dreary Monday morning in this, the summer of yuck. As what feels like the whole world races onto a single, dreaded workaday I-5 onramp in Oceanside, stress reaches the breaking point. Horns honk, …

At 2200 square feet, the average American house offers ample ways of escape from the inevitable (if occasional) unpleasantries that accompany extended cohabitation. Each party can usually find a corner into which to retreat for …

Party at the snakes' place The joke is that nobody is from here, because we are on the edge of nowhere, but, sure as snake’s teeth, the right kind of folks will settle just about …

Video:You Don't Need a Record To Attend Set Free ChurchThe painter Michael Cassidy is either the least or most practical person I know. Least in that he doesn’t measure success in terms of money; most …

Alternative medicine has been defined as “Medical therapies not regarded as orthodox by the medical profession, such as herbalism, homeopathy, and acupuncture.” But while those practices may have been filtered out from the mainstream of …

On the second day of the second month of the twenty-second year of the twenty-first century, a skateboarding legend and a future skateboarding legend discussed their chosen sport within earshot of a writer old enough …

“If Ponce de León wanted to find the fountain of youth, he should have jumped off the boat.” —Lifelong surfer Skip Frye A paralympic superstar turns to the waves In 2016, 60 Minutes featured local …

A farewell to arms It is my guess that none of the 298 guns — shotguns, .22s, .38s, .45s, and the occasional AR — turned in to the Vista Sheriff’s Department at their “Guns For …

These days, many family garages function as little more than halfway houses for discards on their way to the Goodwill. Or maybe home-adjacent storage facilities: a place for keeping holiday decorations between holidays, camping equipment, …

“Whenever some kid tells me they want to become a pro surfer, I suggest they take up a tennis racket.” — Four-time World Surfing Champion Mark Richards There are an estimated 17 to 35 million …

The only time I was ever really happy was as a boy, surfing the waves at Malibu. — John Paul Getty While there is no straight road to happiness, I learned early on what would …

I grew up in the United States with a German-American father and a Mexican-American mother. Her name, Lupe, was a common feature of racial jokes at the time, but I could camouflage my Hispanic roots …

Homes at end of Oceanside Blvd. claim emergency The city never got approval,” says Mackin. “They just started doing it. These homeowners had carte blanche to put as much rip rap as they wanted on …

Lions and tigers and bears. Is it possible to say the words without at least thinking of Dorothy’s punch line? But a stronger exclamation might be appropriate as Nola the 600-pound white tiger leaps ten …

“We’re a wasteful country. A study by the USDA from 1997, but still in wide use, reports that ‘5.4 billion pounds of food were lost at the retail level in 1995.’ The ‘retail level’ applies …

I don’t recall when I first heard the word “prepper,” but it was definitely derogatory, perhaps a step above — but certainly related to — “hoarder.” A prepper, as I understood it then, was someone …

His was once the most celebrated name in boxing—“The Old Mongoose,” “Ageless Archie,” or simply Archie Moore, the longest-reigning light heavyweight champ. Archie was born in Benoit Mississippi, as his mother claimed, or Collinsville, Illinois, …

From the moment we spotted the billboard proudly shouting: “Oceanside, California’s Best Kept Secret,” as we wheeled in from L.A. on southbound Highway 101, my brother Dave and I were frothing. Crossing that imaginary line …

A quiet street and an old hotel Jacumba is a kind of living ghost town out in southeast San Diego County, on the Mexican border, in what’s called, the Mountain Empire district. It has come …

While the world seems geared toward breeding out individuality, surfing celebrates those who successfully break predetermined boundaries. Still, in a time not long ago, fog shrouded our tribe’s favorite activity, and we tumbled into what …

The Baja Peninsula is a Rorschach test. Visitors see heaven or hell in an arid landscape. Three million-plus citizens see a homeland free of the congestion of their northern neighbors. Surfers see a crooked finger …

Andy Powers plays a little ditty he made up on the spot on a guitar he built by hand, in the home he rebuilt to perfection. Powers, who ranks among the best guitar makers in …

The great kelp forests off our coast grow up to two feet a day under ideal conditions. At their peak, individual strands can reach over 100 feet in length. Usually, however, they are ripped from …

After 44 consecutive years in business, Gordon “Grubby” Clark, closed his doors for good. Clark’s company, Clark Foam, once produced most of America’s surfboard blanks, the foam cores essential to building surfboards. His closure resulted …

Nothing cries as convincingly as a pedal steel guitar. While that sound breaths emotion into Hawaiian, country, and even rock n’ roll music on occasion, it is more often associated with Nashville than Oceanside. Yet …

Tijuana Sloughs in the south and Cotton’s Point in the north bookend the 70-some miles of San Diego coastline. Sandwiched between these two deep-water reefs is one of the lushest wave gardens on earth. Prime …

If I were ever going to see a UFO, I figured it would be in the desert. Then, last Tuesday while innocently driving through In-Ko-Pah, near Desert Tower, that rock edifice standing lookout over a …

Before the invention of the Morey Boogie Board in the early ‘70s, the surf mat was the vehicle of choice for the novice wave rider. Until that time, liquor stores along the coast rented these …

When Jim Mullin wrote about “San Diego Surf Lingo” for the Reader in 1976, most surfers in our area were riding seven-foot single fin surfboards, smaller twin fin, Fishes, or the newly revived longboards. Progressive …

It’s been over half a century since comedian Jack Benny cut the ribbon signaling the opening of Emerald Isle Golf Course in southeast Oceanside. Since then the course has doubled its original hole count from …

Michael Bream’s original down to the oxidized paint 1965 VW twin cab pickup is what auto racers call a “sleeper.” Sleepers are cars that look slow and drive fast. Bream’s vintage VW qualifies by appearing …

“When you add it all up, a surfboard costs a few cents a wave.” — Legendary surfboard shaper, Bill Caster Generally ranging between 800 and 1,200 dollars each, custom surfboards seem expensive until considering the …

Carl Ekstrom began surfing in 1948, four years after his brother, Woody, had mastered the sport at Windansea, from where the family was nearly forced to move after their rent was raised from $12 to …

In the early 1960s, surf shops, which had been little more than beach shacks where balsawood blanks were sculpted into surfboards, were replaced by storefronts where surfboards were sold along with T-shirts and trunks. By …

Paipo boards are small wooden surf craft made to be ridden prone. Alaia boards are paipos’ bigger brothers and can be surfed while standing. While known in Encinitas for building and riding both traditional-style paipos …

Artist Andy Warhol became famous for finding art in things as common as soup cans. While surfboards are not that common, pop art’s crown prince did have a brief brush with the functional art form. …

Just prior to the advent of the pro surfing tour in the mid 1970s there was a group of San Diego-based surfers who set the pace for the sport. They helped dictate everything from how …