MW Mobile Blog

For friends, family and the random search engine visitor. This blog started as an experiment in mobile blogging from my Palm TREO 600, 700, Prē, HTC Evo, Samsung 5, Pixel 3, Pixel 6 Pro. Now it serves as a simple repository of favorite activities. Expect bad golf, good fishing, great sailing, eating, drinking, adventure travel, occasional politics and anything else I find interesting along the way including, but not limited to, any of the labels listed here...

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Live once. Dive twice.

Underwater Landscape 
Our last dive on the last day before the July break in the abalone season.  A touch more surge, but otherwise conditions were as good as the day before.  Which is to say - very good indeed. Doug and I limit out with three more abs each and Doug shot a cabezon to add to the Saturday feast.  We felt very fortunate to get those conditions on the last two days.  More pics (and video to be added later):

Heading in...

Demonstrating my athletic commando roll under the fence
Doug chooses side entry
abs...
abs...
... and more abs.

In the cove

Doug's Big Head.
Doug's one day take. The fish has a big head too.
On the beach with the days haul (Note to self: clean lens)
Climbing back up the dreaded "Heart Attack Hill"
Pretty darn ugly.
The fish is no looker either.
Enjoying the traditional apres dive brew.

Sigrid helps document the dive


Friday, June 29, 2012

A good day to dive

conditions were spooky great
Two days before the season closes in July, conditions are darn near perfect. Diving with Doug in great viz and almost no swells. Zach was supposed to dive with us, but he still cannot get his priorities straight between quarter ends and waiting abs.  Uploading misc pics now, with update with commentary and video later.

Sea and Sky
For future reference, this is what "darn near perfect" looks like


Doug doesn't think I should ride the top of the tube like this. Bad Form

Abs...

abs...

and more abs.

We could pick and choose




And Doug added some blackies

Doug making some tough decisions

Doug's choice

A good choice

The sun emerged

Zach finally arrives. He needs to get his priorities right. Quarter-end or abalone? C'mon.
The take

Some good eating in the works



Sibling Rivalry

Dueling MMS text messages this morning:

HW at Shag lake.
MW at Sea Ranch.


Sent from my Sprint HTC smartphone.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Last shot for abalone before the break


The abalone season closes for the month of July and I've yet to dive this year.  Drove north this afternoon hoping for good conditions.  Checked out the cove as soon as we got here and it's pretty darn near perfect. Small swells, good viz.  Expecting much the same tomorrow.  I love it when a plan comes together.



Monday, June 25, 2012

National Coverage of San Francisco Public Golf

My well-worn SF public golf cap collection

With the national sports media descending on the City to cover The Open last week, our local public courses took a turn in the national spotlight. Two stories got my attention. First, the Golf Channel did a nice feature on the Sharp Park Golf course controversy:


It is a good piece, but has its flaws.  They fall into the easy trap of presenting the issue as golfer vs. environmentalists. It's not.  As explained here before, this controversy is better understood as enviros vs. enviros.  Some environmentalists who are motivated primarily by improving habitat for the frog and snake support keeping the course with habitat improvement. Others who are motivated by a more extreme strain of environmentalism known as Deep Ecology merely see the frog and snake as a convenient means to an end, to whit:  intimidate the City into giving control of the 400 acre park away to the Feds, closing the 80 acre course, and severely restricting human use of the park. The Golf Channel and Lerner let the WEBLEEDU's (Wildly Equitable Biodiverse Litigants for Ecological Extortion and Deep Untruths) get away with unsupportable assertions, half-truths and flat-out falsehoods in this piece. Otherwise, it's fine.

Bill Fields of Golf World does a nice job of looking past the Open focus on the private Olympic Club course to survey the rich historical heritage of our landmark municipal courses. Plus he quoted me in the second page of his article "San Francisco Munys" - so I've got that going for me:


Entire article linked here. It currently appears to only be available on-line within a preview of their reader application.

Regarding my quote, I talked to the author for about 45 minutes on the phone about Sharp, Harding, Presidio and Lincoln, and apparently the only thing he found useful was this:
"I worry about Lincoln because it's such prime real estate," says SFPGA member Mike Wallach, "Developers would be drooling over the land where the 17th [a 240-yard, par 3 on a high bluff] sits. I think there is a risk there if the city decided it can't afford this and needs to make some money."
Whatever. It sounds like something I might have said.  I don't even know what it means to be a "SFPGA member".  I told Bill that I contributed to the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance and participated in some of their events.  I guess that makes me a "member".

Lincoln's 17th (click to biggify)

In any case, Lincoln's 17th is a personal favorite and one of the prettiest golf holes anywhere. I don't think there is an imminent threat  now, but there was some speculation about turning that piece of land into a conference center a few years ago.

I am just glad to see our local public courses get some national attention. Our city supervisors may be completely oblivious to the assets these courses represent to the City, but others around the country are learning to appreciate these civic treasures.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

19th hole

Beer Beef and Bull
MW 106
RZ 107
RE 116

I did not break 100, but at least I beat Rick. And I got closest to the pin on 7.


The natural order of the universe had been restored.


Sent from my HTC smartphone on the Now Network from Sprint!

Rick's third tee shot on 18 did not go in the water


He is quite proud of himself.

Sent from my HTC smartphone on the Now Network from Sprint!

Rick tees off on 17



Sent from my HTC smartphone on the Now Network from Sprint!

Roy moves the marker on 13


This is not the Roy we usually play with.

This  Roy is a very good golfer

Sent from my HTC smartphone on the Now Network from Sprint!