Since we are no longer allowed to talk about anything other than topics related to surfing, I tried to figure out what to post since you can talk about board design, fins, wetsuits, and where to stay in Puerto Rico only so much before I want to smash myself in the junk with a hammer. So here goes: Guys have talked about keeping journals of surf sessions. As boring as it may sound, I will start posting my VERY DETAILED accounts of my sessions. Big and small. Feel free to throw your own detailed session description in. Love to hear about them. Date: Sunday January 27th, 2014 Time: Low Tide ish, about 9:30 Where; The Chavez family low-tide sandbar. Located somewhere South of Ocean City NJ and North of Avalon, NJ. Who: Chavez, Chavez's bro-in-law (dumb-a$$ married my sister), Middle Chavez son (Age 15), Chavez's nephew (Age 15) Conditions: Knee high, waist high at best but nice clean lines. Water Temp in the 35-38 range. Winds light out of the west. Air temp: Upper teens low 20s I reckon. Boards: All on longboards except me. I rode a 7 foot hybrid. Suits: All in 5/4/3 wit hoods. All in 7mil boots except me in 5mil (I was fine). All in 5 mil gloves or mittens. Length of session: Bout 2 hours. Why go on such a small day when it's so cold?: Cabin Fever. The night before, when Momma Chavez rang the dinner bell (texting the lads to get their collective a$$es home to eat), no one responded. It fell upon yours truly to go out and find the little b@stards. To the woods I went. Following the sounds of neighborhood youth and the sound of my nephew's ATV, I came upon said nephew and middle Chavez son, both 15, towing smallest Chavez (Age 7) behind the ATV in a brushy clearing. They weren't towing him on a sled, or an inner-tube, or a piece of plastic, they were DRAGGING him. He thought it was great, getting to hang with the big guys. After numerous ideas for administering a$$-kickings to the guilty youths passed through my mind, I decided that a surf the next day would be a better way to occupy their simple brains. Quote of the session: 'Dad you could lose some weight, you look like a walrus doing a trick at Sea World when you rode that last wave." Nephew to my bro-in-law.
hey chav-man, I appreciated that posting .if I got some time later after some house cleaning I'll try and post something of my last memorable session. It was a doozy of a sesh
Yep this is just what I thought would happen and partialy why I created another PR thread rather than reviving an old one. Good work Cavez can't wait to read more. Bet we start to see threads about why people suck so much for basically "tweeting" their day on SI now and boy won't that be fun for all. Not a dig at you Cahvez I really do like your style man.
I surfed East side in spots that are rarely clean, 500+? yards offshore and light crowd. (10 guys on a 2 peak left) only 55 min from HNL. I cant name the town or the spot as someone recognized me right away and said: 'first time here, huh? dont tell anyone, this spot deosnt exist'....but I saw it from the car on the highway with binocs. It was neat exploring the whole east side and just picking a reef corner offshore with a few guys on it to try and get some since NS was maxing and bad winds I also cut myself on my fin going over the handlebars, big gash on my arm, and then paddled in bleeding 500+? yards at sundown. needless to say I bugged myself out and started counting strokes to keep my mind off big things in the water. 632 strokes. far paddle waves 3-4' local scale, wind offshore, water 78, air 82ish, sunburn was an issue earlier in day, water was crystal clear and it was a day in paradise. This was an off the beaten path beach and no thonged beauties
MIS. Paddle from the beach park just past the well known bodysurf spot?... Looking at it from the side at first?
Crystal clear water and razor sharp reef. Scored a couple days in a row when the Konas were blowing. Some of the most memorable sessions I had in Hawaii. Scariest dusk paddle I've ever made.
I came down from the top and went down, not up from the bottom, skipped the Mormon town (BYU students surf a lot and those breaks get crowded when they work)and kept going, fun, not epic by any means, but it was better than 95% of my sessions back east
Now a session synopsis closer to home. Attached pics are from a late November session at an obscure beach at the south end of a south Jersey barrier island. Rumored to break only occasionally, I had never seen it work as a point until then. I truly started surfing in '97 and this was in 2008. We surfed it twice in a week before the sand shifted again. First time (on longboards) it was 1.9'@10sec and an EPIC longboard session. I'm claiming 1/4 mile long glides, dead glass and thigh high. I don't recall what the buoy read on the day the pics were taken. Pretty shallow and lots of sand bc it's close to an inlet, so a big swell gets all broke up. Super fun and memorable because I'll probably never see it happen again.
Saturday was waist to rib high and by the time I got done with errands it was onshore and crumbley. I was bumming because the surf reports predicted shoulder plus sets and clean all day. I had my shortboard (Orion swallowtail 6"'4" ) and my longboard ( Mindless 9'0" single fin ). I stood on the beach and watched it for a half hour, trying to decide which board to use, and almost went home. I finally chose the shortboard because it was too closed out for the longboard. You know how it looks better once you are in the water? Well it was pretty fun, and I got a bunch of short weak rides and felt all good because no one else but a couple other guys could connect them. Weak bouncy waves are good to keep your timing and paddling sharp for when there is a good swell. So it was time well spent. Then a few jet skiiers came out and found a side peak to themselves and did backward flips off the junk. It was fun to watch but they were upwind and the smell finally got to me and I paddled in. Then I fell asleep typing this up. Later.
