What’s Going On?

The San Jose Sharks have been doing really well this season. Currently they are at the top in the Pacific Division and on Monday they had the most points National Hockey League with 81pts. Today, they are behind the Washington Capitals who have 82pts, resulting from their win last night. Am I proud that the Sharks are up there? Darn Right!!! It’s just a matter of how long can they do it for. I’m pretty confident that they will play hard for the rest of the season. Will this be the year that the Sharks take the Stanley Cup? Quite possibly. I think with the way the Sharks have been playing it could be the very year that they do it.

I took a trip down to San Jose a few weeks ago with a friend to watch a game at the HP Pavilion, also known as “The Tank”. The Sharks that weekend were playing the Edmonton Oilers. The game was pretty exciting for me since I haven’t been to a game in over 5 years.

The game started off pretty good with the Sharks scoring pretty early on in the game with a goal by Marleau. The Oilers picked up a goal tying the game. However, later in the first period Setoguchi snuck in a goal to give the Sharks a 2-1 lead.

Following the first period the Sharks were on fire and picked up another goal quick in the second period by Setoguchi making it a 3-1 game. Sharks then went to score one last goal later on in the period by Thorton making it 4-1, but the Oilers didn’t give up. They picked up one more goal in the third period to make the final score of the game San Jose Sharks 4 to Edmonton Oilers 2.

The MVP of the game was Setoguchi, which is a player that is starting to grow on me and for now has to be my favorite player in hockey. Something about saying his name makes watching the game more enjoyable. Setoguchi would also have to be one of my favorite players because he wears the number of one of my all time favorite players in Bay Area sports and that number has been worn by the late and great quarterback of the 80s; the good ol’ number 16 worn by Joe Montana.

In other news, since the Sharks performed well and picked up a victory of 4 points Round Table Pizza gave away free pizzas to all who attended the game. How sweet of a deal is that. Not only did the Sharks pick up a victory, but fans could pick up free personal sized pizzas, with any home victory 4pts and above.

If you haven’t been down to see a hockey game, it’s truly a great experience to see it live and in person. Televised games are just not the same when you can see players brawl in person. I hope to see more games in the future, so if you have time go check out a game and if you have extra tickets you can send them my way too, I won’t turn you down.

Pictures of the hockey game can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. If you enjoyed this post and it was informative and helpful, please feel free to leave me a comment or donation below. Thank you.

The World’s first Kiteboard Course Racing Championship was held here in San Francisco brought to you by the St. Francis Yacht Club. The competition brought contestants from all over the world with a majority of them from the United States. Here they faced off with each other on a huge course.

The course covered an area that was supposedly one nautical mile, but the leg of the race seemed much longer than that. From Crissy Field the boundaries were assumed to be the west end of Crissy Field to the west, Alcatraz Island to the east, Sausalito to the north, and Crissy Field Beach to the south.

Race qualifications began on August 4th through August 6th. Race Finals were held on August 7th and 8th. The qualifying races seemed like it would be a lot of fun. When looking at all the competitors out on the water it reminded me a huge biker gang riding behind one another. It was a pretty amazing site.

At first glance, when arriving to the beach it was surreal to see a beach lined with a rainbow of colors. If one did not know that there was a competition, someone can easily mistake the kites as tents. The week had excellent conditions. It was sunny skies with a few scattered clouds and the winds were good enough for a great competition. Tourists and native Bay Area locals lined the beach front for a glimpse of this sport. To some this event was something new and cool and to others they thought that it was a little crazy to see people being pulled on a surfboard by a kite and going around inflatable buoys. Interesting enough, if you haven’t seen a competition like this before it is something to see for yourself. Like in any sport you will have your likes and dislikes. I felt that this sport was a little slow for me, but I bet if I were to pick up the sport of kiteboarding my opinion would dramatically change.

I had the privilege of meeting a man by name of Lenny at the SalmonAid salmon bake event. At the event we exchanged some conversation and later swapped information. He later invited me to what I would have never experienced if it were not for him. Abalone diving is not something you hear about every day. It’s something that you eat every once in awhile. Most Americans eat beef, chicken, pork, fish, and all sorts of vegetables. Shellfish is great, but I believe most people tend to stay away from it because they are either allergic to it or it can be rather expensive.

Lenny took me up the coast of Northern California in his vehicle along with two other guys, Ryan and Beldon, who I got acquainted with while on the drive to our diving location. During our trip, I learned a lot about the nature of abalone diving. I found out that it is a sport that is done solo. Divers can dive in partners or small groups, but the sole act of diving and capturing abalone is an individual task. If going in groups one person in the group is assigned to be a spotter just to make sure if one person doesn’t come up for air then the other diver has to go in and to prevent a potential drowning situation.

The whole sport of abalone diving starts out when divers swim out from the coast with their equipment.  Divers can equip themselves with tools to capture abalone, but they they are not allowed to carry any breathing apparatuses with them in their hunt. Among a diver’s list of tools that he/she can bring out onto the water can be and are not limited to the following items: wetsuit, mask, snorkel, fins, knife, weight belt and weights, depth gauges, at least a 7inch gauge (ruler), an abalone iron (spatula looking tool), flashlight, and personal abalone floats (rubber inner tube encased in a backpack styled cover which allows the diver to use as a flotation device to rest on and to enable storage of equipment and abalone caught). Other optional flotation devices are used such as inflatable surf mats, boogie boards, kayaks, canoes, and even boats.

After a hike out to the coastal waters, Lenny, Ryan, and Beldon got out into the water. The waves were a little choppy, but to me it did not look too bad. The tide was coming in and everything looks totally fine observing from the surface. However, while in the water that is a different story. The three guys told me later that the water was a little rough.

While on a dive there is so many things that a diver has to think about. Divers need to think about their oxygen in their lungs, they have to keep aware of the tide and the waves because within the water there is a lot of power which can easily take you in or out to sea, wave could also smash you into rocks or into fields of kelp. Divers sometimes fear the possible confrontations of sharks, and the fear of suffocating. When divers dive near the coast they face kelp fields. One of the worst scenarios is to be running low on oxygen, thus a diver comes up for air, but while coming up for air it is possible to get tangled in a strand of kelp which can easily attach to your belt or other equipment. Being anchored down the last thing a diver should do is struggle and panic losing any remaining oxygen left. Divers need to remain as calm as possible and either untangle themselves or cut the kelp with a knife.

After collecting three abalone each, the guys come to shore and showed me their wonderful stash. The catches seem really good and large, but no record keepers. The largest abalone caught on record in California is 12.34 inches. It was caught by  John Pepper. Catching of any abalone under 7 inches is punishable by fine and confiscation of fishing license. One article I found on illegal poaching of abalone was written by the Oakland Tribune in 2005. You can read more about it here.

Later that evening, Lenny invited me over for dinner and I partook in an abalone feast. Lenny took the abalone and sliced it thin, where he then smashed it with a tenderizer, breaded it, and then fried it on a skillet of olive oil. Accompanying the meal were rice, green beans, artichokes, and chicken wings (the chicken wings seem odd right in this meal, that’s because I brought them over along with green beans).

The San Francisco 49ers hosted Family Day at Candlestick Park. Free to all fans, the 49ers offered many workshops for the kids, activities for all ages (field goal kick, 40 yard dash, obstacle course, etc), and even autograph signings.

This was my first year at Family Day ever. As a native San Franciscan, I’ve never had the opportunity to come to one Family Day. Having the opportunity with two friends, I decided to tag along for the journey. It was quite a crazy experience. I’ve never seen so many kids running around wearing 49ers memorabilia. Lines were long for free autographs. There were even lines for food and free giveaways. The kids had probably one of the best giveaways ever. They got a free ticket if they completed several workshops at the stadium. The tickets were for upper reserve seats. Their face value was $81.

My favorite moment at Family Day was being able to see the five Super Bowl Vince Lombardi trophies. I can’t believe that San Francisco was home to so many awesome players. It’s kind of sad to see the end of an era. I just hope with the new pick up of Michael Crabtree that the team will pick up a little pace on the many years of drought. I remember the days of Joe Montana and Jerry Rice. That was when I had a deep appreciation for the game. I played in high school and I followed the team, but ever since the team started going down hill it was hard for me to want to stay home and watch the game.

One sad thing to note is that there was this one booth that showed fans the new stadium plans for Santa Clara in 2014. I was so sad seeing this because Candlestick Park will be only a memory. The Giants have left the building to AT&T Park and now the 49ers are soon to leave for a different city altogether. If there was something I could change about the move, I would have the 49ers play in Oakland for a few years as Candlestick Park is rebuilt, but that is only a dream. I hope that I will have the same passion for football as I once did when I was younger.

Overall, Family Day was a great time to see how much fans still appreciate the team. I’m glad I went because that’s what sports is all about, it’s about family coming together to take part and watch the game together.

Today I decided to spend a day out in Pacifica. I first started out the day at Camelot Fish & Chips, a local pub that serves great food. The restaurant does wonders on fish and other seafood. I haven’t found one in San Francisco that was consistent and I’m glad I came to this spot because they know how to prepare a mean meal.

After my delicious meal, I drove around the small town of Pacifica and checked out a few local shops and found myself at a sea cliff. I spent some time here just smelling the fresh air and checking out the view for as long as the eye could see. While there I saw a man fly over head with paragliding and in the distance Pacifica Pier. Finished checking out the greenery, I decided to take a drive and find that pier.

When I got to Pacifica Pier I took a stroll along the concrete seawall and proceeded to the concrete pier. While on the pier I noticed that there was a high volume of men, women, and children fishing and crabbing off the side. Some had poles and some had nets. I came across a nice couple of folks while there. I conversed first with an elderly gentleman who brought out his kids to go fishing because he wanted to get the kids away from the television. We began to talk about the whole fishing season and what’s legal and illegal to catch. He then on informed me that fishing is totally free as long as you are on a public pier. I had no idea of that and I hope to bring back my old school fishing skill one day.

Later, I walked further and met up with Craig and Deborah. Craig was scaling his striped sea bass that he had caught off the pier at Crissy Field. He gutted up and filleted his fish. After taking all the pieces that he wanted, he had no need for the rest of the body and so instead of letting it go to waste, he gave the head to this elderly lady that so happened to have a plastic bag in her pocket and she was so happy. She went on to tell us that this was better than going to a casino because here she actually got something. Craig decided to give me the center body and I plan to use it to make some sort of porridge or soup with that in a few days.

Continuing on my journey to the end of the pier, I came in contact with two gentlemen who have been striking it rich with crab. Frankie and Russ told me that they got there at about 2:30pm and about every four minutes they had some crab action. Frankie went on to tell me that he made his own snares to capture crab and went into detail about how he used deer fencing to do so. As I was talking with him they kept reeling the lines in and each time they did they caught crab after crab. Some of them of were not of legal size so those had to be tossed back, but it was remarkable at how many there were able to catch. They caught a total of about 24 crabs which were a combination of red crab and dungeness crab. Russ while counting the crab towards the end of their evening decided to give two crabs and for that I am grateful. I had no idea he would be so generous, but I’m glad he did because once I got home I cooked those bad boys up. I couldn’t wait for myself to get any ingredients so I just decided to steam those suckers. And to end the whole day of my excursion after having fish and chips, I ended the night with some delicious crab to top off the day.

Ringing in his bell for the third consecutive year in a row, Leonard Oats took the throne as he came out on top over the six contestants. He was followed by Frank Ware who took second  and Howard Woo who came in at third.

This year’s contest was held at Union Square this Tuesday a little after noon. A crowd of about a couple hundred gathered around the cable car in hopes to see history in the making as six cable car grip-men competed against each other for the title of Cable Car Ringing Champion of the World.

The rules for the professional contest were that may have up to 30 seconds to practice prior to his performance. Contestants may not have any music accompaniment and/or dancers. He must do it alone. And the contestants must ring the bell while in a cable car.

In the amateur competition that preceded before the professional competition each contestant was allowed to ring the bell to accompanied music and by dancers. Coming out on top for his second year in a row Scotty B of KOIT took his second victory. His bell ringing display was accompanied by two break dancers and four green boa female backup dancers as his theme was that of a bar.  Following Scotty in second was Janelle Wang of ABC 7 / KGO-TV. She brought to the competition this year four 49ers Gold Rush cheerleaders to help her. Janelle went on to dance with the girls in a choreographed routine where she then left the dancers to start ringing the bell. Lastly, in third place was Aaron Jones of KBLX. Jones’ routine was that to a slow paced Latin ballroom dancing.

After the competition, awards were given to all the participants. Prizes for the contestants consisted of hotel stays, dinner certificates, other food certificates, trophies, posters, and the championship bell.

Congratulations goes out to the Randy “Big Unit” Johnson who reaches his 300th career victory over the Washington Nationals. The Walnut Creek, CA born player is the 24th pitcher in major league baseball to have achieved such a milestone. Some other achievements are that he is the tallest pitcher to reach the 300 mark standing tall at 6foot 10inches. He has 5 Cy Young Awards. He has 4845 strikeouts. He has pitched 2 no- hitters (one of them was a perfect game). He also even got to demolish a bird in spring training as he threw a fastball against the Giants in 2001. He has many many more achievements, but these are just some to mention.

Johnson gains his 300th career win as he helped lead the Giants to a 5-1 victory in Game 1 of the double header, where eventually he was taken out of the game due to landing on his left arm/shoulder as he barehanded a ball behind the mound and tossed it towards first base to get the out in the bottom of the 6th inning.

Giants went on to win Game 2 of the double header after a rain delay winning 4-1. Giants take the series from the Nationals.

Today marked the 98th annual Bay to Breakers Run. In length, the run is a little over 7 miles long and the course goes through some ups and downs along the course. The race starts from the San Francisco Bay and continues through SF until it reaches the Pacific Ocean (breakers). Race time begins at 8am with runners this year lining up in seperate corrals. Each corral was divided into how fast a runner can finish the race. The fastest runners in one corral, the fast in another, medium in another, and walkers in another.

The most fun of the Bay to Breakers (B2B) is the cool costumes that people can cleverly come up with. I always try to make it an effort every year to wake up early and head down to get a glimpse of the race. Costumes sometimes are way to funny that it’s like getting a comedy show coming to you. The only flip side of the race that I don’t like is the nude runners. Majority of the runners that run nude are old folks that just like to let it all hang out. Sometimes I just get really disturbed that I have to look away and or clinch my eyes really tight hoping that they walk or run past me quick.

This year was probably one of the hottest B2B that I’ve been to. I picked up a pretty bad sunburn and went home with my face all red. Couple of friends asked me later that day what happened to me. Personally when I looked in the mirror it looked like I had the Asian glow going on. My face was pure red and it wasn’t looking good. I just hope in the next several days that it won’t hurt like a train hit my face.

For future reference, I need to remember to bring a large hat that covers my head 360 degrees and to bring lots and lots of liquids. Can’t wait for next year!!!

Tonight, I went to my first game of the 2009 season at AT&T Park. The Giants were facing the Nationals with an attendance of about 24,000 people. The night started off with a celebration of Indian heritage night, where two dance groups performed some cultural dances from India. The rest of the week will feature other Asian ethnicities and their cultures. Tonight’s pitcher for the Giants was Randy Johnson and he led the Giants to a victory of 11-7. This win brings Johnson with 298 career victories one step closer to achieving his 300th career win. It would be a total awesome thing to see him pull it off here in SF as a Giant. I hope this season will bring the Giants to the World Series. Lots of potential, now let’s see what the orange and black can do!!!

Today marked a really sobering day for the sport of baseball as baseball all-star Jeff Kent retires from the sport with the Dodgers and with him goes a truly awesome player. I will never forget all the great moments I’ve gotten to see as he played for the Giants. Today as I turned on the television, I watched a press conference that he was holding in Los Angeles and I asked myself if this was truly happening and the realization hit me that it actually was happening when i flipped the channel to see it on another sports network. I ended up watching the whole press conference and as I was watching I felt very emotional as I saw probably one of the best players leave the game. In all my experience of watching the sport of baseball I truly believe him to be one of the most genuine and real true players of the game. In my eyes, he is like fictional character (Billy Chapel) played by Kevin Costner in the movie For the Love of the Game (1999) because he loves the sport so much that he gives it his all.

As I watched the press conference, I started taking notes to try and remember this momentous occasion. As I was watching, the hesitation in Kent’s voice was one of great emotion. He spoke with lots of heart and passion for what he truly loved. Kent stated that he was not tired of the game itself, but that he was tired of living out of a suitcase, tired of traveling, and tired of baggage (whether it be bad or the good that comes out from it). He also stated numerous times that he had the utmost respect for the game; He even said that he wanted to lead this game right and with integrity. The motto that he picked up from his father who was a police officer was, “If you do a job, do it right.” Kent never cheated the game and always did what he thought was right.

Kent played for the Giants from 1997-2002, six seasons with the ball club. He hit 1518 Career RBIs, a slugging percentage of 0.500, and 377 career home runs. Out of the 377 homers, 351 of them were homers while playing second base. Kent has 74 more homers than Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg and now leads major league baseball with having the most home runs as a second baseman. Kent has played for many teams starting with the Blue Jays in 1992, the Mets from 1992-96, the Indians in 1996,  the Giants from 1997-2002, the Astros from 2003-04, and finishing off with the Dodgers from 2005-2008. In all of his 17 years of baseball he said that the greatest highlight of his career was to be playing for the Giants in the 2002 World Series despite losing in Game 7. All in all, Jeff Kent will always be a Giant to me and he will be among the greatest players that have ever played the game.