The Deadliest Catch

I am a huge fan of the show "The Deadliest Catch" so naturally I wanted to drop some crab pots while I was in Alaska. My cousin Patrick and his girlfriend Lisa were great hosts and they saw to it that it was going to happen. We had access to a boat and a crab pot, all we needed was some bait. And what do you use for bait to catch crabs you might ask? Discarded fish parts!!!
Welcome to the Alaska Glacier Seafood Co. where commercial fisherman bring their catch. This processing plant cleans thousands of fish everyday. Patrick comes here for bait because it is of the highest quality, and it's free.

Patrick says this place has the best head in town, and by the looks of this bin, he really knows what he is talking about...















This boulevard of broken dreams seemed endless. And so did the stench. Not only did I lose my appetite for about 20 minutes, we were followed by cats for several hours after this visit...

















And as you can see, we hit paydirt!!! I should work for their tourism board, don't you just want to hop on a plane and go to Alaska???

The Fish

WARNING: The following entry is graphic in nature and may be unsuitable for some viewers. Pictures contain the actions of catching a very large fish which may be upsetting to small children and vegetarians. Viewer Discretion is advised.


I CAUGHT A 90 LB HALIBUT IN JUNEAU, ALASKA!!!!!!!! Check it out....

This is the Bob Cat, a 20 foot catamaran style boat with twin 225 horsepower motors which means it really hauls ass. I went along with my cousin Patrick, his girlfriend Lisa, and the boat owner, Rob.

This is our view as we left the harbor in Juneau, a glacier in the background. Rob at the helm, Patrick and Lisa looking ahead...











It all started with the rod tip bowing. I waited a few seconds to let him take the bait, and then the reel started screaming as line was being pulled off at an alarming rate. Rob came over to check the drag, and to let me know that this was no German brown trout like the fish back home, I was in for a fight...



















The next ten minutes or so was spent slowly pulling up in the rod till it was at about a 45 degree angle to the water, and then reel like crazy till it was parallel again with the water. My arms were getting tired and I could tell by the amount of line on the reel that I had a ways to go...



















As I was fighting, Rob was calling out instructions all the way, and at one point he told me that I would have to move to the back of the boat whenever the fish decided to take a break. With a little help I was able to traverse the 8 inch wide railing along the side and made it to the back where I could land this thing...














And I can't tell you how happy I was to make it back there without falling overboard or losing the gear.


After another 5 minutes of this, out of breath and my arms on fire, the fish surfaced to a collective "holy shit!!!" from the crew. Rob grabbed the harpoon and put a line in him. This drove the halibut into a rage and he started thrashing around the boat and snapped the line on my rod. Thankfully the harpoon was tied off to the boat and we didn't lose him.














After giving the fish a minute to stop thrashing, it was time to bring him on board. Rob gaffed him just below the head and dragged him into the boat. We all stood there for a minute and just stared at him. We were all giddy and laughing but not saying much at the same time. I couldn't believe what had just happened.




























That white stripe in the last picture is the tape measure, he is 56 inches long. The book estimates that the weight of a 56 inch halibut is between 88 and 92 lbs. I am going to say it's 90 lbs. My arms were still tired when we got it back to the dock, I couldn't lift it off the ground all the way. I have a lot more stuff to show you guys about my trip to Alaska, so keep checking back in!!!

Guess who bought a new camera....

That's right! This site just got more entertaining, especially with shots like the one above. I bought a beautiful Canon A570 Powershot with Image Stabilization and it totally kicks ass. Let me take you on a tour of my day yesterday...

I worked in the store as I do most Saturday's....



This is Heather, she used to run for San Jose State and is now prepping to try to make the Olympic team, she's pretty cool.

This is Heidi, Tim's wife. Heidi is doing a gait analysis for one of our customers. Heidi is also a nutrition guru.
That's Tim in the blue shirt chatting with a customer.
That's Chris in the light blue shirt who usually pitches a shit fit whenever someone brings in their dog, but the tall guy with the dog is Rob Komas who I affectionately refer to as Jack Nicholson, because he is super smooth and way cool...
After work I went to the A's game fundraiser...
This is Karen, the soon to be ex run team manager. She is absolutely smashed in this picture.

This is Jesus wearing his Dodger hat at the A's game. Other than being a Dodger fan he is a pretty good guy.

So there you have it! I am off later this week to Anchorage where I am sure to have plenty more pictures where these came from! See ya!!!!

I have limits, people....

This was my first season as a coach on the run team and it really was a great experience. I met some really nice people, made some new friends, and I felt like I was able to make a difference for a lot of people who were training for a marathon for their first time. But as many coaches warned me, there is always that one participant who seemingly will go out of his or her way to drive you crazy, and this season his name was Seth. Seth is in his late 40's, never participated in an athletic event in his life, yet thought he knew everything. Any advise or direction he was given by the coaches, he would disregard it or simply do the opposite. When we told him to slow down, he sped up. When we told him to stretch, he walked away. When we told him to take a fuel belt with him on his 18 mile run at Portola Valley, he relied on the waterstops and ended up with heat stroke and was taken away on an ambulance. NOT coincidentally he strained his IT band the same day and it was his/my nemesis for the rest of the season. I would tell him to rest it, he would run Rancho. I would tell him to roll it, he would sit in a hot bath and aggravate it more. Clearly you can see where I am going with this.

Last Saturday I arrive in my hotel room in San Diego the day before the marathon and I kick off my shoes and step out on the balcony. My room was on the third floor and below the balcony was the quad area of grass and the swimming pool. A lot of smaller TnT teams were in meeting in groups near the pool and I was watching the coaches work their crowds when I noticed a familiar face from the distance leaving the pool area wrapped in a towel, it was Seth.

"Seth, what's up?" I call down....

"Not much, I just did 20 minutes in the pool" He replies.

"Thought you'd go for a swim the day before your race, huh???" I ask.

"Yup..." He answers...

"That's great. When this is all over, I am going to strangle you...." I proclaim.

"Ha ha! Just do it at the victory party, I don't want to miss my race." He laughs.

"Sure thing Seth, you %#$@^@&*&! jerk" (I said this under my breath...)

Two things to consider....

I had a question for my new boss regarding what time I should arrive for work on Tuesday, my first day at the new job. His response was 8am, and that my hours would be 8 to 5 everyday. Immediately my thought was "wait a minute, that's like 8 hours everyday with a one hour lunch break.... WOW!" Now I understand why labor unions went into effect, these conditions may be too much for me to bear. If I can't check scores on ESPN.com I'll really be up a shit creek...

Speaking of ESPN, I had another moment of clarity yesterday which involved the world wide entertainment leader. As long as I have been involved in athletics, I have been hounded by the argument that golf is a sport. By definition, sports involve athletes and contests that test skill as well as physical exertion and stamina. In other words, games like Billiards, Poker, and GOLF may be very skill intensive and take years of practice to excel, but this alone does not make them a sport. The one argument golfers always seem to make to me is "well, if it is on ESPN, it must be a sport..." Well, if it's that simple, explain this. Why is it that yesterday I tuned into ESPN while eating lunch and I found this Athletic juggernaut:

THE SCRIPPS SPELLING BEE

Oh yeah, I thought about doing the spelling bee but I don't have the time to invest in training for it, so I decided to do an Ironman instead. Nice work, ESPN you whores... Nice touch having Stuart Scott report from the scene as well, I'll bet he fired his agent this morning. And nice argument, golfers. So as you can see, the only reason they put Golf, Poker, Billiards, and in this case the spelling bee on ESPN is because people who buy cars and Rolex watches will watch. It's about advertising dollars and business, it never had anything to do with sports.

Oh, and by the way, the next time you are on the course and actually see someone who resembles an athlete, kindly point him/her out for me...