SANTA BARBARA FITNESS MAG

Id like to give a huge thanks to Mark Olson from Surftech. I had the owner of SB fitness mag, his staff writer, and video person down at Ledbetter for a SUP lesson yesterday and Mark had the whole fleet of Surftech SUP boards laying on the beach upon our arrival. Mark, you DA man!! The mag is doing an article on SUP and our new store so I gave them some video and a lesson. Should be a good article. Not sure about the video because I hate seeing myself on film. Thanks again Mark. OUT.

BLUELINE SUP

OLD SUP PADDLES

I dug up this pic of my old SUP paddle quiver. They are all home made out of wind surfing masts and outrigger blades. Very primitive compared to my new quiver of super light and strong Quickblade paddles. OUT.

BLUELINE WORK CREW

Even the kids are helping with the work. Every little bit helps. Thanks to all that have been stopping by and swinging hammers and dropping of beer and food. OUT.

WAYNE RICH IN THE HOUSE

Wayne came by the shop today to check on the progress. We will be carrying his full line of high performance long boards as well as his new line of SUP boards. Wayne is a good friend and we at BlueLine are stoked to have him in our store.

BLUELINE LOUNGE

The soon to be infamous "BlueLine Lounge" is well under way. The building we rented is an old auto body shop and we are turning the spray booth into the lounge. Flat screen TV, couch, coffee table, refrigerator, carpet and the works. This will be the spot for friends and family to hang out, watch TV, eat lunch and feel at home. More soon. OUT.

BEN HARPER AT THE BOWL

Don't forget that Ben Harper will be playing at the Santa Barbara County Bowl this Friday night. We have friends driving down from Marin County and San Francisco for the show. It always is a great time at the bowl. Be there or be left out. OUT.

BATTLE OF THE PADDLE

Ron House was in town the other day and dropped off a stack of Battle of the Paddle posters for me to pass out around town. Keep your eyes peeled for these cool Drew Brophy posters. They will for sure become a collectors item one day.

PAU HANA

Another day at the salt mines. Took the kid out for a early morning paddle and then put some hours in down at the shop. Should be open in a few weeks. OUT.

BLUELINE SUP STORE UPDATE

Local SUP style master and good friend Oliver came by the shop today, strapped on his tool belt and busted out some fine wood work. I am so stoked to have help from friends like him. Also, Ron House stopped by the store on his way up to Lake Tahoe and gave us the thumbs up on the store. He will be at our grand opening along with a few other big names that will be announced later. We will be open in a few weeks and plan on having the grand opening party in mid October. OUT.

BLUE CREW

Work is in progress on our new Santa Barbara SUP surf shop. BlueLine Standup Paddle Surf, Santa Barbara......... coming soon! BlueLine SUP will offer many different SUP brands and SUP accessories as well as the usual surf shop items. We will also offer a friendly, knowledgeable staff that has many years of experience in the SUP biz. Come in and check us out, ask questions or just hang out in our lounge and watch surf videos during your lunch break. We should have our doors open in a couple of weeks. Website any day now. Keep checking back for more info and updates. OUT.

THE KEIKA PADDLE

Today about 50 kids including my son Ben and 7 or 8 support boats did the 1st Keiki Friendship kids paddle from the Goleta Beach pier to Santa Barbara's Ledbetter Beach. It was an awesome event to help support Hospice of Santa Barbara's "I have a friend program". All the kids did great and a couple even paddled the whole distance without taking a break on the boat. Congrats to all the kids that did this wonderful event. OUT.

MORE SUP KID BOARD STUFF.....and stuff.

It seems that my pics of the SUP kid board has attracted some attention. I get comments and email from all over the world. It's amazing what these blogs can do. Ron House called me yesterday and said some guy from Australia called him about getting one of the green SUP kid boards. He saw the board on my blog. I get calls like this all the time. I have been thinking about bagging this blog due to the fact that I am super busy and never planned on being a blog geek. After some more thought, I think I will keep it going for now and see what happens. Please feel free to comment on posts so I can get a feel for how many people are looking. If there are enough I will keep feeding the blog beast. OUT.

LOTS OF WORK

One of my business partners (Will) in our soon to be SUP store showing what little money we have left. Come on, it ain't that bad....is it? As you can see we have a ton of work to do. It will be a hard yet fun process. OUT.

BLUELINE PADDLESURF NEWS FLASH

Today is Jr. Lifeguard surf day at Ledbetter Beach. BlueLine Paddlesurf will have a fleet of SUP boards out for the kids to have fun with. I did this last year with 2 SUP boards and the boards never touched the sand. This year I will bring 4 or 5. My son is on his 2nd year with the Jr. Lifeguards and it is a great summer program for kids 9 years old and up. It makes them tough in the water and keeps them happy and healthy all summer.

Also, BlueLine Paddlesurf has donated a new Gerry Lopez 10'3" SUP board along with a Quickblade paddle to the Santa Barbara Swim Club for their 2008 Swim-A-Thon fundraiser grand prize. The kids are fired up and I'm sure the parents will want the board as well. The kids will swim for two hours or 200 laps, whatever comes first. Swimmers obtain pledges/donations per lap.

So what about BlueLine Paddlesurf? After giving it a lot of thought and exploring many options and opportunities over the past few years my business partners and I have decided to ramp things up. We are just about to launch our new website and we are working on opening up our 1,700 square foot Santa Barbara SUP retail store. We will be a fully dedicated SUP surf shop open 7 days a week under the name of BlueLine Standup Paddlesurf, Santa Barbara. Stay tuned for more info. OUT.

VIVA LA FIASCO....on your beach cruiser!!

It's that time of the year again. Old Spanish Dayz in Santa Barbara. Don't forget that tomorrow at high noon we meet at the dolphin fountain at the pier for the 20 something year old Outlaw Fiesta Cruiser Ride. That's right, tomorrow at noon. Be there or be left out of one of the most unique Santa Barbara events. I think last year there were close to 300 dudes and dudettes on their beach cruisers heading out to Goleta and then back. Be there!!!! No, you wont find any info about this ride....it's the OUTLAW ride. Yes, people have been hurt on this ride including myself so please ride responsible. Yup, I was the guy two years ago that landed in the ICU and had my jaw wired shut for 3 weeks after doing a face plant. Yup, the chain fell off and over the bars I went. See ya tomorrow.OUT.

2008 paddle announced

The 2008 Friendship paddle will be Sept 13th. We will start from Santa Cruz Island and paddle across the Santa Barbara Channel to Carpinteria. This paddle is not open to the public but you can help. I do want to thank all the people that organize this event every year. The paddle raises money for a chosen individual that has a terminal illness. Last year we paddled from Point Conceptoin to Miramar beach in Santa Barbara. It was an amazing experience to do the paddle on a SUP board and help someone out in a big way. If you would like to help this year all gifts are tax deductible. You can mail your contribution to 920 Garden Street, Santa Barbara, Ca 93101, payable to THE FRIENDSHIP PADDLE. Go to www.friendshippaddle.org for more info. Thanks.