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The Sound of the Ocean [hover the mouse over the blue text to see additional information]
By Joe Pivetti

"Hear the sound of the Pacific surf in your deep breathing" tells us to breathe deeply in Asanas and through flows.  Siting surf sites are mnemonics (for me) for pace and transition: Doheny, Laguna, Huntington, Bolsa Chica, Surfside, Malibu, Rincon, Morro, Avila, Cayucos, Cambria, Santa Cruz, Mavericks, Pacifica, Trinidad, Crescent City, La Push and Yasawa. Like on Pizza Port cans, Paramahansa Yogananda's yogi site overlooks Swami's We used to meet up with Judi's brother Don and his family at Navy Beach in San Diego (back when we were allowed to sit on the sand with a beer in hand) Beach play - to the Beach Boys cutback: "Haggerties and Swamis (Inside, outside, USA)." Near where the swallows return on a mission, the Surfari's carved up Doho: "Down in Doheny We had a wonderful holiday in San Juan Capistrano with Judi's folks (our dogs rode on an inflatable raft in the pool) where the surfers all go, There's a big beach blondie, named Surfer Joe". From Laguna's "Top of the World" one has a world's-longest-running-surf-meet view...of the Beach Boys dropping "They're anglin' in Laguna, We often visited Judi's friend Marjory at her house at the "Top of the World" with it's commanding view of Laguna and yachts sailing by in Cerro Azul" [...that's in Peru]. In Surf City, "they're shootin' the pier" (per the Boys); the Safaris song goes: [our] "Surfer...went...to Huntington Judi and I bought a house in Huntington Beach (aka Surf City) right after our wedding, raised James here, and retired here...it's nice Beach...Hangin' five and...The trophy was Joe's." One bikes west through a State Conservation Area (with oil wells) to mushburger Bolsa Chica There's a bike trail two blocks from the house that goes the mile and a half through the wetlands to the beach and I've photographed many birds along that path Beach - for sponging, surf fishing and making smores (its the pits...along PCH). Between Huntington Harbor and the Sunset lies the house rows A, B and C...of Surfside, There's a dog beach at the north end of this community with infrequent art fairs along the edge CA, home of the Seals, the water tower house, and the Surfside Bowl at the jetty. In Malibu Malibu boasts dozens of beaches and our scout trrop enjoyed a seaside hike along some of them "they're shootin' the pier" (hopefully, not at Point Dume) or being shubies at Leo Carillo, Topanga, Dan Blocker, La Piedra, El Matador, El Pescador or Zuma. Steve Bissell's 1973 photo made Rincon Point Rincon Point I've only seen the point from high above, in passing, from Highway 101 famous for bending wave flows, then the Beach Boys kicked out: [after Malibu and HB] "At Rincon, they're walkin' the nose" Nugs are often 6-feet-tall at Lisamu (which is Chumash) or Morro My sister-in-law Mary sold her art and crafts in Morro for years and we often stop there for seafood, sea otter watching and gallery cruising but stayed only once, in abutting Los Osos, which has an elfin forest (Spanish for nose) Rock, a 581-feet-tall, 23-million-year-old volcanic plug (1 of the 13 lava domes in SLO). The Hartford pier (built 1878 and still drivable) of Port San Luis, by 1914, was in the world's biggest oil port (whose U/G pipe leaks required Avila My brother Gus believes Avila the best beach town on the central California coast but that might be influenced by his frequenting the Avila seaside golf course (and not because it's the birthplace of Saint Teresa) Beach be rebuilt in 2016). Cayucos The smoked fish sandwich shop, unfortunately, closed, but the Brown Butter Cookie shop is still baking in Cayucos Creek doesn't quite flow over the beach, just north of the quimby pier line...near KPIG studio, Duckies Chowder House and Schooners live music (à la Fort Vine). West of Moonstone Beach in 1941, oil tanker Montebello was sunk by a Japanese submarine, but, now, Cambria's We have enjoyed walks in and around Cambria and San Simeon dozens of times, staying for weeks at a time Fiscalini Ranch walk's safe...beside its sanctuary marine. In 1885, (banana slug haven) Santa Cruz My son James wed Kim in a Felton redwood glade near Santa Cruz birthed surfing on the mainland...when three Hawaiian princes, on redwood plank "boards", showed locals how to hang ten. North of Half Moon Bay's Pillar Point is Mavericks My mom, Jane, took me with her class to see the Half Moon Bay tidle pools when I was about 10 and there's a picture of her there next to a fellow teacher who looks just like Wierd Al Yankovich?? (named after a pet Berger Blanc Suisse), home to 60-foot heavies (which were big-wave-surfer Mark Foo's...fatal nemesis). Sharp Park Road winds from San Bruno to Pacifica My older siblings, Phil, David and Cathy, attended Oceania High School in Pacifica (site of the largest US artichoke crop in the 1890's), sister city to Catalonia, and a surfing destination since the 1930's. North of (Yurok) Tsurai (overlooking Trinidad My Aunt Joan was born in Trinidad [and Tobago] when Jane, my mom, was three (that Trinidad is much bigger than the Trinidad Island in Huntington Harbor) Bay and a "murdered by capitalism" tomb), after a long walk, one must brave rip tides...to turtle roll freely at...the Big Lagoon. The Battery Point Lighthouse fared better than the bathymetrically disadvantaged... Crescent City We had a one week family trip to the redwoods and all the way up the coast to Crescent City, CA, which was much different than my three months in the "Crescent City" of New Orleans, LA, while working a job for the Alliance Refinery (which 1964 tsunamis damaged more...than the earthquake in Anchorage). The Quileute River and native people run through La Push My son James and I took a trip through the Olympic Peninsula rain forest but the smoked salmon we ate came from our start point of Port Angeles (like French for the mouth) on the Olympic Peninsula (where, erst, a salmon-smoker sign read: "we're out"). Blue Lagoon filmed in the Yasawa Isles,Judi and I left our wedding in a boat but it took acouple of planes to get us to Yasawa to enjoy crystal clear seas, kava, bugs (slipper lobster), private beaches, a bonfire and the village tour where its king, 'til 1987, made tourism a no-goer, and where the Bukama chief, in sulu (an iTaukei kilt), proudly showed us his mower.