Dan Hamilton

September in Santa Cruz means both "back to school" and "surf's up." You can almost smell the Sex Wax® in the air as surfers anticipate the arrival of winter waves. (Well, except for when the surf contests roll around, and the surf turns totally flat until the contest is over.) But if we complain about it too hard, mother nature blesses us with a mild hurricane, like she did last year during the Billabong.

      Dan, your typical 19 year old Santa Cruz boy-next-door type representz both. He is returning to Cabrillo College where he is taking (big surprise) Oceanography and Lifesaving. Ladies, wouldn't it be embarrassing to be rescued by Danny? He's just too cute! I'm sure you wouldn't be looking your best as he did the thing to your chest and performed mouth-to-mouth on ya! How do those drowning Baywatch girls do it?       

      (Seriously, I don't mean to make light of drowning, please don't get me wrong. Santa Cruz waters have taken many skilled surfers, may they RIP, and even more tourists who didn't heed the warning signs on the cliffs that say "Stay back... will you be next?" The ocean is dangerous, and I admire Danny for wanting to be trained to save lives. It's the kinda guy he is. More of us should be trained, because we who live on the ocean have seen way too many horrifying rescues.)

      Danny also is an avid surfer and somehow manages to balance school, surfing, and snowboarding with his job working at a local surf/skate shop. Santa Cruz is the perfect location for him, I admire his love-sport survival strategy—he lives only 2 minutes to the ocean and only 3 hours to the mountains. Does he skate too? Yup, sometimes. There is a tiny little park almost across the street from where he lives. Danny is very humble about his skate skills, but I heard from "a reliable source" that before he moved to Santa Cruz, he was one of the number one rippers of Antioch, where he worked as a board shaper, and rode for the Hemp Town skate team.

      What more can I say; Danny is a sweetie, a HUNK, and making him even more dear to my heart, he LOVES my cooking! Thanks for being my hunk, Danny, and if you ever see me at the beach feel free to rescue me—even if I'm not drowning—even if I'm not in the water OK Danielson? I Love ya!