Give a Nephew a Boogie Board and He'll Never Work (very) Hard Again...

My nephew Emilio is playing with my dogs on the beach while I'm washing the truck in the garage. What is wrong with that picture? Just teasing- the dogs get a few shots at the surf each day. So does Emilio. And I've always liked taking care of my toys- no matter what year, model or number of wheels they had. Reminds me it's time for an old fashion waxing with real wax and a buffer. The salt air here is brutally corrosive and we polish anything metal or paint here in wax.

It's amazing how fast a boy can go from inner-city kid to Surfer Bro. I suppose it's the same for everyone that age who moves to a beach tourist town. The clothes change, the sports change and the friends change (for the better mostly). Lucky for him the girls change too. He's adapting well to beach life while living here with us and going to college in TJ. OK- he's doing better than just "adapting". He mountain bikes, body boards and runs on the beach with the dogs every morning. He's getting good grades and travels Baja doing PowerPoint presentations to secondary school students. He even has obtained the permit to rent umbrellas and chairs on the beach out front of the house (He's letting his younger cousin Louis do it this summer). So he's motivated and doing fine- we talk about his goals a lot. I do need to get a little more work out of him though. Seriously.

Yesterday Emilio asked me to take a video of him out in the water. Usually the strong afternoon sun has us behind closed blackout curtains, but the marine layer moved back in and things clouded over. He didn't catch any waves that session- but he did meet a family of dolphins at arms reach. They breed just south of here and pass through on the way up and back. It's cute when they teach the young ones how to body surf. They are curious and playful in the wild- just like you would imagine. And when dolphin are around - you never have to worry about sharks.

Click the Surfline logo above to see the local surf report and a satellite image. Emilio is trying to get ME back out in the water on one of the surfboards I have stashed in the garage (behind my golf clubs if that tells you anythng). Maybe the long long (1o foot) one when the water warms up in a few weeks. The sign in the video is the rules for using the ZMF- Zona Maritime Federal. I really need to get Emilio up on a ladder to white out the "Dogs on strap" rule. It clashes with the "Your Dogs Welcome Here" sign I posted on the seawall.