Best sessions of all time

2004 - playa dominical, rio baru river mouth, costa rica. head high and barrels start to finish, lefts and rights.

i got covered up more times that day than in a whole year in wrightsville (that's not saying much tho)

duck diving you could hear the cobblestones bouncing around.

 

I was riding a 5"6".....dimensions were 38-24-34..........slipping and sliding......
Oh, wait....you mean surfing???

 

best session of all time: the one your currently having.

 

Hard to put a "best" label on any one session, but I have a few that will stay in my mind forever...

My first ever trip Tortola... about a foot or so overhead and perfect. Like you see in the mags. Only a handful of guys out and we were all tripping.

A winter Nor'Easter several years ago at a local spot in Long Branch, after the wind went offshore. Hollow dredging tubes on every wave. A day built for tuberiding. Made most... ate sand on a few. But everything was perfect... the perfect board for the waves I was riding, and I was just super dialed in that day for whatever reason. Most tube time I've ever had in a single session.

Irene. Most perfect surf I've had at my local in 20 years at that size... which was about DOH on set.

Camping out for a week on a little island off the coast of VA. Solid backhand tubes for a full day on a borrowed board. The session was awesome, but the trip as a whole is a memory of a lifetime.

Basque Country. 8', hollow and groomed the day I arrived, and beautiful French boobies on the beach for miles. I was a young man at the time...

"Discovering" a break in PR on Easter Sunday. Loooooong paddle out to what looked like chest high waves from the beach. Turned out to be well overhead tubing deep water lefts. Had it to myself for about 3 hours before the locals came out. And that was the end of that.

 

mind telling us what break this was?

i surfed josiah's bay at chest high and clean one day. but it was no where near epic.

 

Best session, I was 21, surfed La Jolla 3-4, clean and glassy that morning. That afternoon I Flew back to the east coast and immediately drove to a friends house in Union Town, PA. The following morning I snowboarded Seven Springs. That night went to this cool a$$ little bar and chowed down on nachos and beer. I was happy

 

Tomorrow morning! I can feel it!

 

Brigantine. Hurricane Bill
Or Spring lake, Hurricane Igor

Or some random day in Oceanside. got a really good, long barrel in front of a bunch of guys.

 

Somehow that made it better huh? HAHAHA

 

Last Tuesday on Lake O.. I know, I know, there's no waves on the lakes..Kiddie pool, the whole deal. It is true, it's mostly meager with the odd good day. Well, at around 10am we were standing around near Toronto with drizzle and onshore ESE winds and about waist high and took the chance of heading to a point near Hamilton as the winds down there had switched to SSW (offshore). In the water for nearly 5 hrs till dark, lightly groomed head to well overhead sets and fast, peeling rights.. SB and LB, 2 buddies called it the best surfing day of their lives. It actually got better through the afternoon and we didn't expect anything good let alone epic. Rare.. NO BS at all, I'm Canadian, I can't lie eh..
Also, Gert back in the late 90's in Maine, and other tropical systems in N.S.

 

I'd love to score on the Lakes one day. Me and Bill are coming out there. Nice to hear a report from the field, glad you guys scored.


One that stands out in recent memory was the Cristobal swell, it was just perfect and overhead all day. So many deep balls to the wall barrels. I came out of one in particular and this dude starts hollering and going nuts from the beach...I know know DP, sounds ghey, but it was nice.

I clearly remember my first barrel fest. Twas a grey summer day in my youth, I remember the tide dropping, the water colour, and just pulling in to barrel after barrel. I knew it was special. My mom was all like, come on we gotta go, and I was just like, one more wave mom!

 

HAHAHA I was just giving ole Scobey a hard time. It's always nice to get some props after a nice wave

 

Lagundri Bay, Nias 2007. It blew me away to be halfway around the world, actually sitting in the lineup at such an iconic spot watching the sets approach, hit that reef so perfectly while tucked into a bay with losmen and mountains in the background. I doesn't bother me that much that I surfed it reluctantly....the good ones are seared into my memory forever.

 

Fo shizzle. Actually had another wave that day that my homie saw, ran over a touron(he was right in the middle of my line) and boosted a roll on the end section. Oh schit, that was also the day I gave an elderly woman a salt water baptism, in front of the whole beach. Awkward.


Mitchell I'm jelly.

 

kinda did

 

you win

 

2009 - a spot in AC right before dark. The crowd was clearing out because it was getting sketchy and people were looking at us like we were nuts for goin in. Made it to the back no problem, and a bomb rolls through. Biggest one I ever saw at this spot

Soon as I noticed the shape of the shoulders I yelled to my buddy "I'm backdoorin' this beast!" ...and he just gave me the crazy eye, like we're gonna die here look.

Once that big lip started to bend over, and I seen the size of the barrel... there was this weird kind of pause. Time just stopped for me bros. I had this moment of clarity like..this has been done before, I can do this!

I grabbed on and dropped in balls deep. Even locked my legs out with a little soul arch like I'd been in one that size a hundred times and then BAM! She turns at me and says "You got cash for this white boy?"

 

In no particular order:
-Pavones-1999, there for three weeks but the first week, two days in particular, it was all time...turning straight at the flat rock and walking the road back.
-Jocko's-1996 or 97, rising swell, massive lefts started pumping in. We surfed for an hour or so catching really good waves then it just started to rise fast (3-5' became 4-8' quick). To date I caught the wave of my life that day.
-Rodanthe- Cane swell. Few feet overhead and perfect. Rights were setting up so perfect from drop to long drawn out bottom turns...stall to pig dawg...dry open pits. Best outer banks session I ever had over 30 years.
-Santa Cruz- 1991, pull up with my girl, while checking surf (19 years old), dude walks up with a fatty and immediately passes it to me. We smoked out and paddled out and had (at that point in life), the best freaking time ever...seals, sea"weed", and really fun surf.
-Indo- 2016-......time will tell! Hoping for a Mitchell Moment for sure!
-PR- One particular sesh at tres palms....big gnarly and perfect
-.....

One thing is for sho....the yearning for the next best sesh is something we all probably dream about on the daily but getting in the water and surfing (most times) any session is the "best"!