Collin Tiura Says: Here’s Some Really Big Abs

Collin Tiura says:

Here are some photos of some pretty large abalones.

The largest ever recorded was 12 5/16″ caught by John Pepper. He’s pictured here……he kinda looks like church people……don’t be fooled.

It contained a chunk of meat that was over 6 lbs after the guts were removed.

My brother-in-law Joe Brennan, worked for the Academy of Sciences of San Francisco at the time John caught that ab and arranged the press release at the ’round-about’ at the San Francisco Aquarium.

It was quite an event (in the abalone world anyway).

I asked John what he was going to do with the meat. He wasn’t sure at the time. My thought was to donate a cubic inch of the meat to the Academy………..enough for all the DNA stuff they would ever need. I thought that was pretty big of me.

And, with the rest of it, I suggested a select few of us would have an ab feed-extraordinaire, get “—-faced” on rum and smoke some damn fine stogies and dance around the fire naked.

The Academy got all but the shell.

You’ll have to wait (at some point) for Gary Larsen to let us know what became of that world class piece of meat.
………..Collin

And here’s some more discussion about big abs.

To: Frank AirstreamRV* Celestre and Collin Tiura,

Frank,

Here’s some Ab photos to enjoy. My buddy Reggie was a commercial ab diver in Santa Barbara in the 1970s.

Jim
1988 Airstream 345 MotorHome

From Jim Reginato….

Sent: Monday, February 04, 2008 10:42 PM

Subject: Fwd: Big abs

some ab pictures. the diver sitting with the ab was my first tender when i was commercial diving. he still dives for urchins. the other pictures are of some nice shells

Come join us at our annual Abalone Fest on for Memorial Day at Salt Point, CA, just south of Gualala.

Hi Reg

Thought you’d find these interesting. Buzz Owens is an old codger lives in Gualala and has THE world’s most extensive collection of abalone His specialty is hybrids and he has written about them in addition to the large reds. He dove commercially a few years in the late fifties, mostly to collect shells and expand his contacts. Pretty nutty, but a true source of info about abs.

My shell is 293 millimeters and sits in there with a large group between 290mm and 295mm. It weighed 11 pounds in the shell. Found it at Pt Purisima on 5/22/1997, the day before the closure began. Talk a bout saving the best for last! You’d think I’da smiled a little bit for the camera.

Sounds like the wind swell is up maybe there’ll be something today.

Marsh

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Want to see bigger images of Collin’s pix? Please click here

Have our beaches changed dramatically?

I look at many historical photos of the Coastside, including the beautiful beaches. After awhile I can’t help but notice that the beaches have changed dramatically. Most of us have no idea how much bigger the beach at El Granada was in the 1920s, or how many rock arches and caves were once part of the scenery at Moss Beach. Sand dunes covered Miramar Beach and there were nice little beaches at Princeton, too.

When did the change begin? The photos seem to say it began in the late 1920s, 1930s. That made me wonder about the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge was built in the late 1930s. Could it have had something to do with the loss of sand on the San Mateo coastline?

John Vonderlin spends a lot of time exploring the remote South Coast beaches, many of them inaccessible, taking photographs, revering and studying the beauty that he finds.

I asked John, could construction of the Golden Gate Bridge have affected the San Mateo County beaches?

John said: I’m no expert, but here’s what I think is going on with the sand disappearing from our local beaches. First, I don’t think the Golden Gate Bridge has had a significant effect on our beaches. The tower foundations aren’t big enough to interfere seriously with the transport of sediment out of the Bay and possibly into the littoral cell south of the Golden Gate Channel.

This is from a USGS site, click here

Whatever part of that sediment that gets swept up in the Longshore current, along with the sand brought down by our local creeks or eroded from the many local wave-battered sandstone cliffs, ends up feeding and sustaining our beaches.

Dams were probably the biggest factor in the disappearance of beaches, perhaps not here so much as other places. The impoundment of sediment behind the dam on the bottoms of gradually growing more shallow lakes and ponds, surely has had an effect hereabouts. But I don’t think they are the main factor. After all, I don’t know of any new local ones being built in a long time, yet the beaches have seriously diminished using the 1972 California Coastal Records Project’s photos as a comparison. In fact, the general trend has been to remove dams in the various coastal watersheds to re-open ther streams for fish migration. Likewise, the friable, easily eroded, sandstone cliffs that contribute so much raw material to our beaches haven’t significantly changed in that timespan.

There is one plausible reason the sediment load carried to the sea from our local watersheds has greatly diminished. And that is environmentalism. Logging has greatly diminished and been forcefully required to improve the watershed protection techniques they employ. Farming is in a similar position as logging is, both as a shrinking business and one that has learned or been required to practice better land stewardship. Based on some of the pictures I’ve taken of turbid runoff entering the ocean from irrigated coastal fields, there is still more that needs to be done.

All in all, erosion control has greatly expanded in almost every aspect of land use in the county, from road building, home construction, and land clearing, to runoff management protocols and wetland restoration or protection projects.

We’re being skewered by our own success. If we prevent sediment from getting in the water flowing to the ocean we can’t expect much in the way of beaches. Unfortunately, I think it is a classic Hobbesian choice situation( i.e. your money or your life) where the Golden Age of San Mateo beaches has come and gone and there’s not much we should do about bringing it back. Enjoy. John

Miramar Beach: The Tsunami Rangers Party Party

Burt and I arrived at Michael Power’s unique homestead in Miramar Beach about 2:30 in the afternoon. We missed the big kayaking event but here’s what we did see:

Parked at the end of the road was this really cool “ride.” Nobody knew what the make was. I suspect the South City Blues Band drove over the hill in it.

We saw the international flags and a kayak parked by the side of the road. The sound of the South City Blues Band drew us into the courtyard of Michael’s place, first walking through an unusual walkway studded with enormous rocks and carved, the work done by Michael & his friends. And however “down” Burt and I might have been before we arrived–that feeling was wiped away as we transformed to another time and place. Pete Douglas, of the Bach Society down the road, burned up the dance floor with Miramar chanteuse Susan Pate.
But the star was Michael Powers himself; scroll down to watch the “proverbially wild man.” I also posted a little quicktime video below.

Tsunami Rangers Party On in Miramar

Burt and I arrived at the party feeling a little blue but we left feeling great. Watch the video below; you’ll see why.

Music was provided by the South City Blues Band & Miramar vocalist Susan Pate.

Click on mikepowersparty below

mikepowersparty

Below, Miramar Beach photographer and “Tsunami Ranger” Michael Powers and wife Nani show us their high energy. They also had to dance because it was a freezing cold day!

A Little Old Moss Beach-Montara Story For You

I wrote this in 1977. The story was researched at the San Mateo County History Museum.

While Jurgen F. Wienke lay awake, staring at the ceiling, wife Meta dozed peacefully beside him. Instead of sleeping, Wienke, who built the fashionable Moss Beach Hotel overlooking the gray-blue Pacific, reflected on recent happenings at his resort.

It was the 1890s, and famous scientists often arrived to study the remarkable marine plant life there.

Why only last weekend, Jurgen was thinking, David Starr Jordan, the first president of Senator Leland Stanford’s university in Palo Alto, signed the hotel register.

Jurgen, who enjoyed the title of “Mayor of Moss Beach,” glowed with pride. He knew he had reached the pinnacle of local success when his most prominent guests braved a twisting mountain road to reach his resort near the cliffs of beautiful Moss Beach.

As the Mayor contemplated the long hours of dedicated work, he thought he heard gunfire above the sound of the crashing waves. In a split second his mind returned from reverie to the present. What was that?

A ship’s horn blared in the distance. Curiosity fully aroused, Wienke bounced out of bed, and without disturbing his still-sleeping wife, changed into outdoor apparel. He tip-toed past daughter Lizzie’s bedroom and slipped out the front door.

It was dawn.

Once outside, Mayor Wienke listened for more clues. As he walked briskly among the rows of cypress trees he had planted, he remembered nourishing them through several periods of drought. Again, the sound of a ship’s horn jarred Wienke’s thoughts back into the present.

He glanced out to sea but the fog concealed anything that might have been there. Then, that sound again, the sound of a ship’s horn. This time he went back to the hotel, mounted his horse, and rode right toward the sound.

He rode as far north as the Point Montara Fog Station where several people were running toward the sandy beach. The mayor recognized David Splain and his daughter among them. He called out to David, the fog station’s caretaker, and rode fast to catch up with them.

David Splain told Mayor Wienke that a ship struck the jagged reefs (it was the third to do so at the same place.) Wienke wasn’t surprised. He said that most sailors called Point Montara a dangerous part of this stretch of coast.

And then the thick fog lifted, like a stage curtain, revealing the hazy outline of a schooner stranded on the rocks.

Continue reading “A Little Old Moss Beach-Montara Story For You”

They’re Back: Kent Provo, Renee St. Louis & Ellie El Granada

Here’s my favorite [independent] Coastside painting contractor, Kent Provo

And Kent and Renee’s dog, Ellie, wearing her holiday best

All three are back from Baja where they saw beautiful sunsets

and look at this pretty horse

(All photos, except the one of Kent, courtesy Renee St. Louis.)

Xtreme Kayak Event…Time: High Noon, May4….Place: Miramar Beach…Wear

something INappropriate to cheer on the Tsunami Rangers.

Dear friends & family,

SINCE ANCIENT TIMES, COASTAL PEOPLES HAVE GATHERED BY THE SEA IN SPRINGTIME TO CELEBRATE THE PASSAGE OF THE WINTER STORMS AND ENGAGE IN CONTESTS OF SKILL & ENDURANCE. HONORING THIS TRADITION & BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND, WE WILL ONCE AGAIN CONVERGE HERE ON MIRAMAR BEACH AT HIGH NOON THIS COMING SUNDAY FOR THE TSUNAMI RANGER/REEF MADNESS ANNUAL EXTREME SEA KAYAKING RACE & FESTIVAL. FEEL FREE TO DRESS IN DASHING SEA GYPSY, PIRATE OR VIKING GARB & BRING ALONG A DRUM WITH WHICH TO URGE THE RACERS ONWARD… & OF COURSE YOUR FAVORITE GRUB & GROG TO SHARE AT THE GREAT FEAST THAT FOLLOWING THE RACE ARE WARMLY WELCOMED! A LIMITED NUMBER OF OFFICIAL RACE SHIRTS WILL BE AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE, & LIVE MUSIC BY TSUNAMI RANGER JOHN LULL’S SOUTH CITY BLUES BAND & MIRAMAR BEACH’S OWN WONDERFUL VOCALIST SUSAN PATE WITH WILL ROCK THE STAGE, SETTING YOUR HEATS TO POUNDING & YOUR FEET TO DANCING. HOPE TO SEE YOU HERE!

Much love, Michael & Nani