Not pictured: me getting all of this stuff down there and back to the van. Eternal Recurrence Of Xalepa Ta Kala Table of Contents: • Intro • Dion's Personal Weekly Journal • Podcast Roundup • Claude's Analyses of "Aristotle's" Whoop Data and Food Costs • Last Lines Intro This week I am returning again to a red thread of these zines and my approach to coaching: xalepa ta kala. In my signatures I alternate between this and "more waves more joy". For those who used to participate in book club,...
14 days ago • 30 min read
In the story below I did leave out how T Rock and Pita have transformed my approach. Here's me with tiny T circa 2017. The "End" of the Story Which Is Still A Work In Progress Where we left off: I kept writing the fashion dissertation, and my essential thesis was that the ways we fashion ourselves—the kinds of people we're being through our clothing choices—was deeply ontological and that whatever fashion is has everything to do with what sex and gender are. This led me to develop a theory...
21 days ago • 19 min read
OG Conatus crew: Christina Nizar, Beccy Wirakesuma, Mariza Daras, and the 1975 BMW 2002 Continuing My Coaching Story When we left off last time you found me in graduate school for philosophy at the New School for Social Research. I had learned my lesson about ditching swells to study. Instead I capitalized on flat spells to read and write and attend bonus lectures, office hours, and study groups. After completing my masters degree in 2011, I was officially accepted into the PhD program. At...
28 days ago • 15 min read
Riding one of Barry's weird boards unter the GGB in SF, CA back when I had hair. Last week you learned about my early approaches to surf coaching. I stopped pushing people into waves after I almost got hurt a few times. I decided against group sessions because I had a bad experience as a teenager. And I would never let junky conditions stop me from finding some sort of teaching or learning opportunity, whether that was in the water with someone I was guiding or in my own practice. That's the...
about 1 month ago • 18 min read
Riding my 7'2" Haut at Cowells circa 1991 My Journey to Becoming A Surf Coach Part 1 Happy Friday. First, as always, thanks for being here. If you're new, welcome. This week, with a few new supporters thanks to me actually figuring out how to link discount codes, I thought I'd share my progression as a surf coach. Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start (fun fact: I watched The Sound of Music at least twice a week from 1981-1994): I learned to swim at 5 months old. You...
about 1 month ago • 16 min read
Finding Flow: Family, Money, and the Perfect Board Krishna and Fialka at Private Beach Family, Politics, and Finding Common Ground Closing out my third week in Costa Rica on a high note. I'm back at the Rancho. My dad and I decided to put away our political differences and both acknowledged our part in the fight we got into in the first week (I am sure that deep down each one thinks he's still on the side of truth). I have some key takeaways for anyone currently dealing with this...
about 2 months ago • 14 min read
Surfing & Stress Part II + Go Full Sloth Mode Fialka at "Private Beach" staring down the line of two perfect baby rights! Real talk this week: my HRV scores continue tanking. We're talking a drop from the 80s down to the 40s thanks to some intense family stuff that I won't get into here (let's just say I needed a little space from my Trump supporting father). My nervous system is basically screaming at me through the data. But here's what's fascinating: I'm still having some of the best surf...
about 2 months ago • 7 min read
Surfing & Stress + Pop Up Masterclass Live from Costa Rica!!! Hard to believe it’s only been one full week since the semester ended. The Whoop results of my May don’t lie — I have been stressed out: It’s been a very yellow month. One full sleep at Rancho Diandrew? I’m back to green. I think that’s a sign for everyone to go on a trip to a relaxing tropical climate. But don’t stress out about how you’re going to make it happen! I know, easier said than done, like so much else in life. I was...
2 months ago • 10 min read
End of Semester Thoughts, How to Hit the Lip Backside, Tofu Saag Hello! The semester is over! Wow that was intense. I knew it was going to be a lot of work, but I wasn’t totally prepared for how much work it really ended up being. Three classes. Tuesdays and Thursdays. 75 minutes apiece. SUNY Suffolk Grant Campus in Brentwood, NY. That’s a 70 minute morning commute both from Manhattan and Rockaway Beach and a 90 minute commute back to either location, for a grand total of 320 minutes (5.3...
2 months ago • 11 min read