Swellshots

Over the past few weeks I have been doing research on cameras and underwater housings. After the disposable underwater cameras on my trips to Fiji and the Great Barrier Reef produced (the expected) poor quality photos - I didn't even post them because they were so bad - I decided to make the jump to a better camera.

I have been using a point-and-shoot Kodak for the past few years on all of my travels and I wanted to upgrade to a DSLR.  I went to Beach Cities Scuba, the local dive shop in Newport Beach, to get some more information.  A really knowledgeable guy named Chob was their camera expert and he filled me in on all of the details.  Even if I went with the lowest level Canon (the Rebel T2i), when you add the lens(es), housing, flash and other accessories, I was looking at spending $7,000 at the very least.

The new rig

Because of the costs I started looking at "prosumer" cameras (designed with the serious amateur in mind).  Chob steered me toward the Canon Powershot G12 digital camera, Fisheye FIX G12 underwater housing and Sea & Sea YS-110a flash.  That's the one I went with and I've been pretty happy so far.


I'm still surfing a lot but have been taking time out to practice with the camera in the water.  There are many more things to take into account with this camera - aperture, white balance, ISO, shutter speed.  It makes it even tougher to adjust these controls with the knobs of the housing... and then you have to take the waves into account.  If you don't watch out you'll be slammed by a wave while you're trying to change something.  I went out the first time without any tether and just help the camera with my hands.  I quickly realized that wasn't a good idea when I had to swim out of a weak rip current so I bought a wrist leash just in case I had to let go of the rig.


The first day I went out and shot some body boarders one of them asked me how much it would cost to get prints of him.  I hadn't even thought of that, but maybe I can make my money back.  I realized that I needed a name that people would remember (like Aquabumps), so I came up with SwellShots.  I'm hoping to add more to the linked Picasa album as I spend more time in the water.  Make sure to save it as a bookmark!

Why am I doing all of this?  I have a month off from work because the project got extended.  There is a big gap in the month of May and they asked me to go on leave to save money on the budget.  I started researching surf camps and vacations and found one called Morro Negrito.  It's a full week of surfing and nothing else.  I'm going to extend it another week to see the rest of the country, though I haven't figured out the details yet.  I already got the flight (with points) and put the deposit down for the week.

But back to the photos... here are a few of the best pics I've taken so far.

This Girl Can Flow

I can't stop listening to this covered song by Karmin... I think it's better than Chris Brown's original.

Karmin - Look At Me Now (Chris Brown cover)

Austin Part II

After The Foals concert on Thursday night, we still had two full days left in the Austin.  I had to put in some hours for work and stopped into the BackOffice Associates to hang out with the team and get online.  The guys in the office pointed me to an awesome lunch spot in downtown that consisted of a collection of food trucks.  They highly recommended the Korean Mexican fusion truck called Chi'Lantro.  The kimchi tacos and kimchi fries were the best.

6th Street is hopping

I met up with Rameen, his girlfriend Katie and their Austin friend Christy that afternoon.  We all went out on 6th Street for some bar hopping but I couldn't tell you which ones we visited.  I would compare 6th Street to a mix between downtown Nashville and Bourbon Street in New Orleans (minus the open containers).  It has the country flare of Texas mixed with the concentration of bars and street closures to cars that you get in New Orleans.  6th Street is the center of South by Southwest and even though we were about a month late to see it.  Maybe next year.

On Saturday Rameen and Katie left to spend Easter with Katie's parents but Christy was cool enough to let me hang out for the rest of the weekend.  She brought me over to a friends' place and we hung out for a while, then took their boat out on Lake Austin (actually a reservoir created by a dammed section of the Colorado River).  One of the guys was Australian, so we had a lot to talk about.

Zappa wake surfing on Lake Austin

A few of the guys took turns wake surfing.  I had never seen it before, but they start out being pulled by the boat like a wake board.  Then they eventually let go of the rope because the forward force of the wake.  I never took a turn - growing up I never had any luck wake boarding, water skiing or anything else, plus I was having fun taking pictures with my new camera.

The guys were drinking a cocktail from a big thermos called Cariboo Lou that was pretty good.  I'll have to remember it whenever I'm looking for an easy drink to make.  They got the name and the ingredients from a TECH N9NE song, and I quote:

Half a bottle of 151
Off of the jug one cup of Malibu rum
Baby that's what's up
Then you fill the rest of the jug
With pineapple juice, and it's cracking

On Saturday night we hit 6th Street again and started out at a whiskey bar called Tenoak.  I noted this bar in particular because the bartender served me what might be my new favorite bourbon - Willett Reserve.  It's sippin' whiskey, not for mixing - just how I like it.  Thanks to Christy for putting me up an extra night in her house even though we just met!

On a side note, my friend Will got his undergrad degree at UT and made these recommendations.  I didn't get a chance to check any of them out, but will the next time I visit the city.  And there will be a next time.

Brunch/Breakfast tacos

• Juan in a Million - really cheap and really good, probably won’t leave hungry
• Maria’s Taco Express
• Torchy’s
• El Chilito

Lunch

• Texadelphia - great cheesesteaks, chips & queso, the one on the main drag is the original and the best
• Chuy’s - good Tex-Mex
• El Arroyo - good at Tex-Mex at the end of 6th Street
• Dirty Martin’s - good, greasy burger close to campus

Drinks

• Trudy’s - home of the Mexican martini (they’ll stop you after 2)
• Iron Cactus - good place to grab drinks and watch 6th Street from bird’s eye view

BBQ

• Franklin’s - someone told me that this place was really good, it started as a food truck and just opened a regular restaurant
• Stubb’s - food is ok, but usually have good live music
• County Line - all you can eat, not as far of a drive as the Salt Lick; probably 20 minutes from downtown
• Iron Works - good spot close to downtown

The Foals in Austin

Taking a break between sets

Rameen and I reunited in Austin this past weekend although it has only been a few weeks since I saw him in Houston. We planned this trip to see The Foals play live months before UK made the Final Four. I've been listening to a lot of XM radio lately, and coincidentally both of the opening bands (The Naked and Famous and Freelance Whales) are in rotation on Alt Nation. This was going to be a rocking show.

We decided on Austin because it was a city I'd never been to and was supposed to be really fun. The band came through LA and Dallas - boring. Let's try something new. Disco, an American friend I made in Sydney, was back in the States (temporarily - he got the bug and is moving back to Oz) and lived in Austin so he joined us at the concert.

My flight was delayed so the guys picked me up directly from the airport and we headed to the show. I took my new camera along and got some pretty cool shots throughout the night. The venue was La Zona Rosa and it was a pretty good place to watch a show - intimate, but not too small.

As far as lineups go, this was probably the best show I've ever seen.  All three bands really rocked out.  Here is the set list of Foals as I tried to note it during the show. It was kind of hard because some of their songs blend together.

Blue Blood
Olympic Airways
Total Life Forever
Cassius
Miami
After Glow
Black Gold
2 Trees
Spanish Sahara
Red Socks Pugie
Electric Bloom

Encore:
(Unknown) - (New Song)
The French Open
Two Steps, Twice

I took a ton of pictures; here are some of my best shots from the night.

What Women Want

I'm glad this guy finally cleared it up.

Shout out to Anna

Anna and I circa 2000

My girl Anna was interviewed for a story on fashion by CNN. Check out her blog - yes, I'm a guess blogger on her site!

XM Music

I get XM radio in my bumping Hyundai rental car. Here are some songs you may not have heard if you're on the main stream airwaves...

Peter, Bjorn and John - Second Chance



TV on the Radio - Will Do



Ellie Goulding - Heartbeats (cover of The Knife)



The Limousines - Very Busy People



Foster the People - Pumped Up Kicks



And for those of you that insist on the poppy stuff, this is the first BEP song I've liked in a long time.  Yes, it's mainstream, but it still gets my head bopping.

Black Eyed Peas - Just Can't Get Enough



I have some more to dish out but I'll let these marinate in your ears for a bit before I drop the next batch.

Final Four - Houston

Rameen <3's denim

I can’t believe that Kentucky made it to the Final Four this year. We had a lot of disappointing losses and most of them were by less than 5 points. The guys started clicking at the right time and swept through the SEC tournament, then beat OSU and UNC on the way to Houston. I knew that UConn would be a tough opponent – I actually picked us to lose to OSU in my bracket but I did choose UConn to go to the Final Four.

Since I had the time and frequent flier miles, I started looking up ticket prices on the internet. I found tickets through the NCAA website that ranged from $150-3000. You could buy a semifinal and final combo but I went with the semifinal only (but you can watch both games). I found some decently priced seats in the upper level for $200 (plus a $40 surcharge that I didn’t find out about until later – ouch) and convinced Rameen to buy one. He only lives 4 hours away in Dallas and was going to ride in with a friend. The upper level was waaaaaay up there in Reliant Stadium, but I hoped that it would be worth it.

The tickets were mailed to me overnight and that’s when I found out that they retailed for $90. In hindsight it may have been cheaper to scalp lower level seats. I think we could’ve gotten them for around the same price that we paid. There is also something to be said about the peace of mind that goes with guaranteed seats and not having to worry, haggle, and hope they’re not counterfeit.

Our friend Mark moved from Atlanta to Houston a few years ago for work, plus after Brandon graduated from GT he and Kelly moved there for his job. The fact that so many of my friends have moved to random places out of Atlanta has been one of the reasons that I have been so happy to travel all of the time and be away from home. They offered up their places to stay but I have to give a shout out to my friend Tag that got us a free room at a Hilton closer to the stadium so we wouldn't be spending too much time in commute.

Rameen and I met up with Kelly and Brandon along with Mark and some of his friends at Dog House Tavern in Midtown, one of the main nightlife spots of Houston. We took it easy on Friday night and then just relaxed in the hotel on Saturday morning. The official Final Four tailgate started at 1 pm but we didn't stroll in until after 2.

There were all kinds of events going on and at least half of the crowd was for UK. There were some confused Duke, Kansas and OSU fans walking around... I guess they didn't want to waste their tickets. It wasn't that great and we ended up finding a random tailgate party in the parking lot with some UK grads. We didn't know each other in school but ended up having mutual friends.

Snagged lower level seats at upper level prices!

Rameen and I went in at halftime of the Butler/VCU game but immediately left because we didn't realize that they didn't serve beer at NCAA events. Rookie mistake. Luckily, they let us scan our tickets out so we could re-enter later. We rejoined the dwindling tailgate for another hour or so. I hatched a plan to bum lower level tickets off of VCU fans leaving the stadium. We could get back in with our legit tickets and then just use the stubs to sit in the seats of people that were leaving.

After VCU lost and fans poured out, we walked up to a guy and got his tickets for section 105, row 15. That was easy. The seats were so much better than our original seats, I can't even tell you.  Our new friend Peyton tagged along with us since all of her friends had their tickets together.

It was a great game and although we didn't win I wasn't too upset.  A one point loss was a long way from the shellacking they gave us in November.  The 2010 team had much higher expectations and next year's team has the same, but no one expected these guys to make it this far.  Next year's tournament is in New Orleans.  I don't want to jinx it, but is anybody down for the trip?

After the game we met back up with Peyton and her friends and went to Sawyer Park, a bar in The Heights part of town.  They had all been there the night before and met up with some native Houstonians that were absolutely crazy.  They kept taking off their shirts and pouring drinks on each others heads like they were water boarding.  When a bucket of beer was emptied, they would put it on as a hat and beat each other over the head.  It was great to watch but you had to keep your distance or else they would try to get you to participate.

We had to walk for about 15 minutes to find a taxi but we made it back to the hotel on the campus of the University of Houston.  After sleeping late, Mark met up with us again and we had lunch on campus.  Rameen said it reminded me of Louisville's, but I guess I haven't enough time there to recognize it.  He had to catch a ride back to Dallas and Mark was going to take me to the airport.

I got an email that my flight was going to be delayed so Mark drove me around the city for a while.  We stopped at a folk art museum in the middle of a neighborhood called The Beer Can House.  The owner started siding his house with old beer cans in the late 60's and continued the project until he died.  What you see in the picture is the result.  The curtains hanging from the eaves were links of aluminum can rims connected by pop tabs.  Beer cans were cut and stretched, then nailed to the siding.  There was a movie and gift shop as well as a few other small works of art inside the house.  It's really the only unique, must see piece of Houston that I would recommend (and only cost $2).

Mark also took me to the Art Car Museum which was only about 5 minutes away from The Beer Can House. An artist/mechanic/engineer created all kinds of automobiles out of parts from junkyards. Some were actual cars, but more were random collections of wheels, hoses, metal and propane tanks to shoot fire.

I wasn't that impressed with Houston... but with all I heard about it from friends, I didn't expect to be. It's not a place I would vacation and not a great place to do sightseeing. Everything is spread out and there are strip malls and big box stores everywhere you look. I'm sure there is some culture somewhere, but even my friends that live there have said they're getting out as soon as they can.

Next up for me is Austin in a few weeks to see a concert. I have high hopes for that city - I've heard nothing but good things!