After a good nights kip in luxury at the Hilton it was time to say Adiós to all the AWT crew and after running airport shuttle for a fair few I hit the roads once again destined for the delightful little town of Ojai buried away in the vineyards just north of LA. Here I was to be reunited with my very good friend Mimi who had coincidental been attending a yoga therapy tune up summit in the area. We planned a blissful few days together chilling out at our delightful airbnb hide out complete with hot tub, fire pit and obviously glasses of wine and we succeeded the first night. Then things went a little pear shape: first up Mimi is an anatomy crazed, body posture, myofascial release fascist and after a week in the desert doing all sorts of ridiculous and silly things my fascia was not pleased I can tell you that. Morning number 1 we worked on shoulders, Lats and QL muscles which had me squealing in agony, Day 2 was the ankles to knees (way more painful than you think), Day 3 hips and Pelvic floor and Day 4 Glutes and Lower back..........dear god I thought she was supposed to be my friend :-0 Still I got my own back, it just so happened that her stay coincided with the biggest swell seen in SoCal for around a decade. Obviously I was well aware a good swell was coming in and not completely aware of the full magnitude of it at that stage I dragged Mimi off to a surf shop to get a body board (sounding familiar Dad.....see you shouldn´t feel bad I do it to everyone!). Our first attempt was relatively unsuccessful as we failed to find fins for Mimi but not to be deterred and with a promising building swell the next day we hit the shops got some fins and tried again. This time we attempted a different break and I think we were both rather brave......after paddling out through the somewhat heaving shore break we swiftly realised that this thing was a warping fast barrelling sucky wave that was pretty damn difficult to drop in on and closed out rather sharpishly. Some while later after a good number of attempts, a multitude of pull backs and with balls in our mouths we resolved to chalk another 1 up to the ocean. So it was that after getting back in through the shore break; which most likely appeared more akin to the laundry getting done on the beach than a surfer and body boarder, two bedraggled rats found themselves at Malibu Beach. Wow what a spectacle..........it was a solid 8-10ft on the sets, Laird Hamilton was shooting the pier and the life guards were on red alert with the boat out back trying to rescue bits of pier as the posts were knocked down and in between that a number of surfers who were being sucked into the pier by the outrageous current. Not wanting to be outdone Mimi and I saw it fit to at least flip a few handstands in the shore break as we decided tat was all we´d be achieving this day. I could have stayed all night watching but poor Mimi (not as fascinated by the scene as myself) managed to prise me away I believe with a large Barnicle knife. The following days I had to behave myself and stay away from the waves in order to retain a good friendship.......hard I know but one must suffer hee hee hee!! We instead; checked out Malibu Pier hit the pirate swing, before hanging out on muscle beach in order to demonstrate I supreme yogic pole dancing skills to the muscle clad brigade, we ate great food in Santa Monicas healthy hipster streets, attended some of my favourite yoga classes and headed back out to Ojai for some hiking above the wine valleys. Each evening we managed to unwind chilling in the Jacuzzi and warming our feet by the fire under the stars. Tough life :-)
