Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Tillamook - Newport. People: Zac.

I was considering staying at Cape Lookout, but went past two nice campsites as I received advice on better surfing further down the road.  I checked in to a less-than-scenic county campground (essentially a parking lot) just to surf the break across the street from that campground.  The surf wasn't great, but I still went in to surf the shorebreak - then (happily) didn't end up staying at the campground, see below.

On the way there, I stopped to check out the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  Since I used to work in factories earlier in my career, I always enjoy factory visits (and wastewater plant visits - strange, I know, but I studied water and wastewater treatment).

People: Zac
Zac has life wired.  He is married with two kids, charges big waves, is an ER doctor, and also has a house + land directly adjacent to whitewater kayak runs and a mountain biking trail... and is a heckuva nice guy.  Zac and I were talking after a surf session and he was super cool and offered to let me stay at his house.  I got to meet some of his other friends who also are pretty crazy big wave surfers (two folks with torn meniscus injuries from surfing... one of the guys is in all the big  contests) and we had a little 'ukulele + guitar jam session.  Zac showed me a bunch of the local surf breaks the next day (which unfortunately weren't happening) and then dropped me off in Newport where he was buying a motocross bike. 

I feel like many folks seem to be only able to be 'family' people, or alternatively, they have 'adventures' without any responsibility.  Zac seems to have been able to balance both - it's pretty awesome.

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