Mick’s face was one of the first one who greeted us when we arrived to the Bing surfboard factory on the hill in Encinitas. He has a face you rember, it’s the archetype of the American dream with a perfect smile. I remember I wondered if all Californian guys were gonna look like that, later I found out that they don’t.. And if his look is hard to forget, wait til you see him surf!

The following day we packed the car full of Bing boards and drove to San O. Watching Mick surf made Petter and me speachless, he was proabably the first really good longboarder we came across and even though we have met many good ones since then we havn’t yet seen anyone who is as fast on the board as Mick. A noose rider out of this world. It’s amazing to watch! When people on the beach comments his quick moves his friends tell them that he used to be a ballerina and that’s why he is so good..

Mick Rodgers is not a ballerina, it is his dedication and love for surfing that has taken him where he is today. He started surfing when he was six years old, now he is a team rider of Bing Surfboards. He works in the surf factory when he’s not in school or in the surf. He is a “eat, surf, sleep, eat”-guy and his friend Kyle told us that he sorts You Tube surf clips after the date they were added, that’s how many surf clips he is watching!

To make the American dream even more perfect he drives a beautiful, old Chevrolet truck. It matches perfectly to his Bing logs.

We are leaving California.. uhuhuhuuuu..

It´s always like this when traveling round on a bigger trip. Leaving one place for the next one is part of the adventure of being on the go, still so hard some times.. This goodbye was one of the harder ones. California has been better than in any californian dream we could ever dream. And we have been dreaming about california quite a lot. High way one, the surf scene, the oldies on longboards, san franciscos tilting streets, the golden gate, napa valley, the road food, the big size cars, cans, supermarkets, the high calorie big size food plates and the calorie measurement below all the dishes in the menu, the perfect californian youths and the bing surfboards. Everything was so perfect. We are really thinking about attending to the university here here for next autumn.

Would it be possible to study in lets say california, sleep in a van and surf every day? That would be my dream of a study life at least.

Mexico here we come!

Stopped in Pfeiffer National Park, Big Sur and got the chance to try our Sea to Summit gear. We have been sleeping in their sleeping bags in the car and just love them, but this time we got the chance to try out their Specialist duo tent, a tent that folds as big as a small pet bottle. Looking at it from the outside Petter had his doubts if it would fits us both, but when we got in in we were amazed over how spacious it felt and Petter who’s 190 cm fitted with out any problems. Once back out on highway one we met Stan, an extraordinary bird/wildlife guide who knew Big Sur like the inside of his pocket and showed us a very rare bird; the Californian condor. A amazing bird with almost 3 meters wing span, not many years ago there were only 22 wild condors left. The biologists has made a great job fighting for them and we were lucky to se 14 of them.

Look closely at this last image. Compare the bird to the cars just below it. When one of them cruzed over the road the it looked pretty much as wide as the whole road! That’s how big they are.

I guess it haven’t been the easiest thing to follow how we traveled through California, that’s because we traveled back an forth… A lot. The original plan was to go from San Francisco to San Diego but because of different reasons (you know it hardly ever goes as planned, at least not for us) we ended up driving on the highway 5 down to Encinitas, San Diego then back up the same way to San Francisco and then to wine countries before we got to the amazingly beautiful Highway 1 all the way from Sonoma to Encinitas again. Here’s my notes from the trip, don’t now if they’ll help you or make you guys more confused.. Forgot to put out Santa Cruz and Maverricks I noticed now tough.

Went back to Encinitas, San Diego after our Highway 1 road trip to pick up a brand new board and say goodbye to the Bing family.

And here it is, Matt Calvani’s version of the Mini Simmons aka the board that brought back the joy of surfing to me. As you can see it looks quite huge compared to me, but I need all the volume I can get plus that being a 5’10 makes it possible for Petter to surf it too. In the beginning I wanted to bring a longboard on our adventure but now when we started to travel with buses I am so glad I didn’t.. I can catch any wave I want with this incredible board , super small cute waves. It’s easy to maneuver, easy as h*ll to paddle and I got so much more confidence in the water with this one compared to other boards. In the beginning Petter was a bit skeptical to it, don’t know if it had anything to do with the pink-ish color but now he does hang fives on it and catches more waves than anyone else in the lineup..

Read more about the board here and if you’re a Swede wanting to get your hands on one  look here.

Linn named her dog malibu after this beach so it was pretty cool to drive down and check it out. It’s super famous for being the most perfect longboarding wave in the world. Now one of our stickers are stuck on one of the trash cans, yey!