Yeah, I grew up in Clear Lake and making quick runs down to Galveston or taking the boat out into the Bay - sometimes the gulf was awesome. Salt water fishing is where it's at.
Yeah, for me it was being able to get to Surfside in under two hours to go surfing. Now I live in Baltimore and my wife and I just bought a camper on Chincoteague Island, VA which is about 5 minutes from from the Atlantic coast of Assateague Island, so I can get my surf fix on the weekends. The 3 1/2- 4 hour drive from Baltimore to any part of the Atlantic coast makes it to long for a day trip. Assateague Island is some beautiful coast. Lots of woods and wildlife, wild ponies, clean beaches, good waves. It's really nice.
I would never be out in this [obviously] but this is swell from Katrina last year in S. Padre. It would be fun to watch something like this in Texas.
Cheetah you scamp, Is that another one your Laird Hamilton pics that you claim was shot in the Gulf? I remember the shot you posted last year of Hamiton from Riding Giants. p.s. If that shot is real, where did you get it? I'd like to see more.
Ha! that other was a pic of LH at Teahupoo -- j/k [obviously] but the photo above is real sent from a friend. It was taken at the channel that separates S. Padre and Boca Chica -- the Rita swell was supposed to be bigger. I'll try to find some more... Third Coast Surf site has a decent gallery link.
Here is the giant version of the same image with proper credit at the bottom. Katrina Surf SP _________ Many more cool pics at : Rev Surf
Those are great. Thanks. I'll never question your pics again..... until you post a shot of Waimea and claim it was taken at the Galveston jetties.
Awesome insight guys, if I end up in Houston, it sounds like I'll want to be around the Midtown area a few of you were talking about. Seems to be very centric, good mix of nightlife, business, downtown access, Rockets access, etc. Seems like it would pricy though relative to other surrounding areas, is that true? Austin seems beautiful no doubt, but the job market there scares me a bit compared to Houston, cost of living seems higher in Austin as well... hmmm No wonder there are so many poor hippies there!
Here's a pic I took from the seawall of one of the jetties -- the Flagship hotel is just to the left out of the image frame...
Some advantages for each city: Houston 1. Much more diverse. Period. 2. Big city with much more to do (only a plus if you like the big city atmosphere) 3. Sports. Austin has UT. Houston has Rockets, Astros, Texans, Dynamo. 4. Traffic. It's bad in Houston but 10 times worse in Austin (and yes I do avoid the freeways) but even then it's bad. 5. Attitude. Houstonians don't have a superiority complex and are generally pretty laid back. Austin is a city infatuated with itself and it shows. It's trying desperately to be a San Francisco but it's not working. 6. Nightlife. Austin has 6th street (which I find overrated). Houston has much more open late. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to catch a late movie only to realize that all the theaters stop showing movies at 10 or 11. It's like Austin has a bedtime and all shops and whatnot close early every day. 7. No dogs in restaurants. Seriously you can have dogs in Austin restaurants. Austin 1. Much better place if you prefer outdoors activities although the weather isn't much better. More outdoors places to go. 2. Close to UT sports (only a plus if you went to or root for UT). 3. State Capitol and Government. 4. More live music to choose from. Most of it I find mediocre but I'm just not into the type of music that gets played here. If you are, there's a lot of it. EDIT: Closed a parenthesis in Houston #4.
You are right. We aren't getting a 16 lane freeway. We are getting 18 lanes of Katy freeway, which is 12 lanes of freeway and 6 frontage lanes. I would think 12 lane freeways are available in many big cities.
i've lived in both cities. they both have positives and negatives. everybody keeps mentioning austin traffic -- and i agree to some extent. where i live in austin, i don't have to drive on any freeways to get home or to work. therefore, it's really a special occasion where i come into contact with the traffic. in fact, the traffic is really only bad for those who don't really live in austin. the people who live north on 183, mopac, or i-35 are screwed. also, those who live in the exreme south must experience some pretty annoying traffic. i, however, live in austin. i also ride a bike. on the same note, i lived in the montrose in houston and worked centrally. therefore, i didn't experience traffic in houston on a daily basis either. however, when i was in high school, in kingwood, traffic on 59 north was unbearable. houston: culturally diverse, big-city advantages/opportunities, access to the coast. austin: extremely laid-back (to a fault sometimes), tons of outdoor activities, access to killer lakes. houston: humid and somtimes a bit impersonal. austin: the most segregated city i've ever experienced, annoying fu#*s with bumper stickers like "keep austin weird" and "live music capital of the world."
So I've read the above and "Austin is a city infatuated with itself and it shows." So, seriously, just curious; Is it better to live in a city that hates it's self?
Where do people get this idea? Outside of rushhour (which is actually limited to just a bit over an hour), you can get from corner-to-corner of the main city in 15 minutes. Even if you're in the worst of rush hour, it probably won't take more than about 45 minutes to get anywhere. Houston's rush hours can occur at various, random hours of the day, and, because of its size, you could very easily get stuck in much longer traffic nightmares. It has nothing to do with the quality of the freeways or whatnot, but just simply the fact that you have farther to travel at those slower speeds. Unless you live and stay inside the loop area, or live and stay outside the loop area, you're probably going to have a longer commute in Houston than Austin just due to the distance of travel. If you live and work inside the loop, that's similar to living and working in downtown Austin, in which case you'd have a five minute commute regardless.
