Mother's Day was a perfect weather day here in Seattle, and the OHarder's (the new name for when the Ohara and Harder family get together) had Mother's Day Brunch to celebrate the day and new Stand-up Paddle Boards they had delivered from PerfectWave. Both Hilary Ohara and Vanessa Harder had tried stand-up paddle boarding in Hawaii and wanted to make it part of their regular exercise routine, so stand-up paddle boards have been on the wish list for a while.

Below is the gang before we started the lessons with PerfectWave owner Bobby, who is in the middle with Hawaiian Shaka hand sign.

Bobby's giving us lessons. He is the one standing in the below picture.

It's hard to stand when I have my son on the board and he is having fun pretending he is surfing. He already skateboards and snowboards, so surfing is on his list.

But, I eventually get up when he settles down.

Overall a great day for all, and I was busy cooking bacon and pancakes for 20 people, quadrupling the buttermilk pancake recipe.

Hilary and Vanessa did a great job researching what kind of paddle board to get and where to buy it from. They checked out brands like Surftech Laird. What local shops or REI they should buy from. A week ago, they found the place they wanted to buy their boards - PerfectWave, a local shop.

Founded by Bobby Arzadon, a local boy from the Island of Kauai, Hawaii, the Perfect Wave Surf Shop is your direct link to Hawaii, without leaving the mainland.

The Perfect Wave Surf Shop is located in the Northwest, approximately ten miles east of Seattle in Kirkland, Washington.

Ninety percent of the surfboards we carry are made in Hawaii. Surfboards can be custom ordered to suit your tastes. We also carry local surfboards made here in the Northwest along with a full line of accessories, for the expert or beginner.

The girls called me and asked me to come by the shop and met Bobby before buying the boards. We talked about how he designs his own boards in addition to carrying other brands. I asked him what he does for his day job, and he says he runs the CAD shop at Casne. I told him yeh, I know Casne, they are one of system integrators for OSIsoft data center real time monitoring solution.

Casne Engineering, Inc. was founded in 1979 based on a firm belief that there is great value in the engineering process. The engineering process is what matures the owner’s ideas from a dream to reality. This is the vehicle that allows the owner to make informed decisions along the way.

Looking into the future, we see a continuing need for the engineering process, and Casne Engineering remains fully committed to our mission:

" Engineering Excellence Through Teamwork
Anchored in Trust, Integrity, and Commitment. "

One of the people who came over to try the stand-up paddle board is Bobby's Casne co-worker , Nick Wiley, who coincidentally was at OSIsoft's user conference when I was there and we were both at the Data Center Birds of a Feather lunch meeting as we made the connection we were both at the table with HP's Dave Rotheroe.

So, in between paddling and cooking, we talked a bit of data center shop and agreed to catch up later as we both agreed data center monitoring has a lot of potential and is in its early stages compared to other industries.

I am going to have a hard time topping this Mother's day next year. But, maybe a Mother's day brunch paddling on the lake with the OHarder's is a new tradition.