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anybody else heading out for tomorrow's bore tide in turnagain arm?
http://www.adn.com/2012/06/03/249039...-expected.html
not sure what the wave will look like - miles of vabeach mush? - but so stoked to get out. made the drive over turnagain pass all winter to ski alyeska and now making the drive through the peaks to surf. beauty in all forms in alaska...
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if i can trunk it, yeah i'll start driving now...think i can make it there by tomorrow from Delaware....lol. Obviously, I'm just being a smarta$$:p.
sweet! try to get some pics or video footage if you can. and yea VB mush sounds about right hahaha
Cresto, Good luck catching the bore tide. Definately post some pics. BTW what's the water temps up there?
ya, good luck! that scenery is amazing!
Thanks guys. No wind in the forecast so it could be glassy. Air and water temps in the mid-40s but it feels much warmer when the sun is shining and it's supposed to be sunny tomorrow. Ill try to get some random person to take some pics. Could be a zoo - can't believe how many sups I've seen on roof racks recently. They're everywhere!
I bow to you. Arigato for the inspiration.
Surfed the bore tide yesterday - "the biggest of the summer" lol - and it was basically shin-high mush. Pretty funny experience. Hundreds of people pulled over along the highway (some of them were wearing welding masks to watch Venus pass in front of the sun - glad I had a nice Texada buzz going to make it all the more surreal...), helicopters and planes buzzing overhead, sup'ers in the gas station in Girdwood in their wetsuits.
Wasn't sure what to expect or where to paddle out so I looked for the narrowest accessible part of Turnagain Arm thinking it would have the most juice there. Paddled out from a highway pullout just east of Bird Point and let the outgoing tide carry me about a half mile past Bird Creek towards the approaching bore. No wind, sunny skies, snowy peaks all around. Chilled by a quicksand bar for about 30 minutes and then heard the front edge of the tide approaching, kind of freaking a little - how big is this thing gonna be? Am I gonna get worked? And then I started laughing, it was small but looked fun. Sections of the leading edge had broken, I managed to ride an almost knee-high glassy face for about 200 feet but there was no real power and after it broke I bailed. There were a bunch of smaller bumps behind the first wave and then a really strong current with small rapids, like someone turned a river on.
As a cool experience in a beautiful place it ranks right up there, but from a strictly surfing perspective it was pretty weak. Maybe I was in the wrong place but I don't see how it could have been much better anywhere else in the arm.
Driving home I stopped at a trailhead to take a leak - just gonna cruise down the trail a bit to get away from the highway - and there's a handwritten sign some nice person posted: 'Warning!! Big brown bear on old moose carcass about 1/4 down the trail!! Very aggressive!!'. That would have been a fitting end to the day - and my life. Gotta love surfing in Alaska...
I gave my email to some random person with a camera on the highway I'll post pics if they send 'em.
thanks for sharing, sometimes its more about the adventure!
Sometimes it's not about the waves, but the paddle out. Great story, keep 'em coming.