Pod Room

Ah summer. Warm water, little waves that make the bursts of swell so much fun and the avoidable joys of crowds and stingrays. The days are long, nights balmy and outdoor events so much fun. Thus I begin a blatent plug for the Pod Room. It's possibly the world's smallest surfshop, and definitely the world's best in it's joy per square foot ratio. It's a single room inside a fine old Victorian building at 524 S. Coast Hwy in Oceanside (there's a great organic cafe downstairs) and is run by Chip Bynum who is a fan of the events concept, so he kindly hosts a few. This past Saturday there was art (Harry Daly had me wishing I could break out the credit card), there was music (Jalopy, who have ruled at the past Festivus'-www.jalopymusic.com) and there was even a few chunks of Hydrodynamica courtesy of R. Kenvin. High point (for me anyway) was the Caspar footage. That's the weird 6' Simmons-esque beast mentioned a few posts back. RK has edited down a fantastic little chunk of footage that's popping up here and there- 70percent.org may still have a link to it- and it'll tweak your concept of what a surfboard can be. Very nice, as was the segment of Rasta on his Van Straalen carbon fibre fish. Makes you glad to be a surfer.