This is your chance O'. Show us your imperfection. Nobody is perfect and you can't be perfect all of the time! Never went over the falls @tres in front of your buddas? come on man...One humbling experience in the water...just one, show us your human!!!
The most kook thing I ever did was in head high jax beach when I first started surfing. It was my first time on the east coast and I had a 10 ft LB. I was paddling back out and tried to whip around into a wave but it got too steep and I got pitched over a guy trying to paddle out. I guess he did a duck dive as I flew over him because when i looked back he was further out than me. I felt like the biggest KOOK on earth.
Sure you do, nutbag. You're no better than anyone, and prolly a lot worse than most, although you like to tell the image in the mirror otherwise every morning.
Haha. Bingo. On this, we agree whole-heartedly. In agreement with you also T-loke. I regularly summit Mount Kook. One of the most memorable times was a chilly fall swell, Thanksgiving perhaps. It was probably shoulder to head. I must have been cold, because after I suited up, I put a wool hat on. Over my hood. After choosing a spot, I finally paddled out. On my first duck-dive, the wool hat gets pulled down over my face, and I'm underwater, looking at my board through the holes of my hat-turned-mask. I came up, took it off, and paddled in with the thing in my mouth. That's just one of the standout highlights. I also surf poorly on a regular basis. Definitely have one or two leashes that are improperly tied to my board. My main board now, which I purchased used, has multiple stickers and a f*cking Go-Pro nose mount. Pretty lame, but I met a ballerina at the beach, and she said she liked my board. So I guess it's pretty badass, haha.
Been surfing only 3 1/2 years, so each sesh generally provides multiple opportunities for kookery. Hesitating while paddling into a wave or before the drop never goes well. Paddling out and finding water is only knee deep due to a sandbar. Sometimes I'll look back at the beach, hoping no one saw the numb-nuts stunt I just pulled. But why should it matter? I'm the one in the water (sometimes making a fool of myself), not them. Age (60) is also a humbling experience - realizing that I don't have the strength, endurance, and cannot afford the recklessness I once had.
1st trip to OBX. My buddy and I drove from Charlotte NC to Hatteras to camp the day after we graduated high school. I had been surfing for about a year at this point. We left Charlotte at 4 am and got to the Pea Island bridge around 9-10. We still had a little ways to go but were dying to surf so we pulled over after the bridge. Prior to his I had only surfed in southern NC on weak little waves. This day at Pea Isl was probably chest high to slightly bigger. Well out we paddle. About 3/4 of the way out a big wave rears up in front of me and I go to duck dive it but don't get anywhere near deep enough. Wave hits me at the lower back and pulls my trunks down around my ankles and rolls me backwards. Pretty sure from the beach it looked funny as hell.
lol gnar! that happened to me one time too. It was a wave breaking in 2 feet of water (over reef). I was like a flounder trying to get my trunks untangled from lease and avoid reef....I bet it looked funny
Not strapping the board on top of the car, that one sucks, cause not only are you embarrassed as ****e, but you now have a board beaten to ****e. Worst *ever* was when I was 14 and dropped in on *the* guy, the one all of us groms looked up to, the guy who kept kooks in line, and commanded respect in the line-up. I caught a wave and just plain didn't look back over my shoulder. I took him out on the way down, and to compound matters beyond redemption, my skeg caught him in the leg in the white water, and opened a pretty good gash in his leg. He didn't kick my ass cause I was so young, though he should have. Took years to get back in his good graces, I've never gotten so much **** in my life. But it taught me a valuable lesson. Always look before you drop
As a kid in Florida in the 80's, I'd wanted to surf since I could remember. Finally saved enough to get a beaten used board and walked in to the incredibly intimidating shop with my mother (which didn't feel great to start with). Said I wanted to buy a 'surfing board', which got the laughter of everyone in the shop. Guy who worked there said there was no such thing and that I probably wanted a 'surfboard' instead. Although I've had more than a lifetime of kook moments, that one left the deepest scar.
1. Accidentally dropped in on J. Frederico my first day at Rocky Point in HI. I didn't even see him until he came flying out of the pit at Mach 2 screaming at me. I apologized, and he was actually super cool about it and called me onto a wave about an hour later...I went over the falls on that one hahaha. 2. Accidentally ran over another guy's board at Asilomar, CA (Monterey area). My fins slashed right through his board, which apparently was brand new. It was definitely his fault, but it was also totally avoidable, and I felt like an idiot. The surfing community up there is pretty small, so I saw the same guy many times after, and tried to apologize several times but he always just gave me this butt-hurt face and never said a word. 3. Also first winter in HI, rolled up to Sunset Beach on a huge swell with my 6'-6". Some old guy approached me and was like, "you sure that board's big enough for ya?" I was super green at the time, and he helped me locate some more protected spots, but I still felt pretty kooky afterward. 4. (Not me, but funny) A friend of mine had just started surfing and wanted to paddle out at Laniakea on a 8-10 ft day. If you've ever been there, it's not a super dangerous spot, but that kind of size is fully capable of drowning anyone if you screw up. He got caught in the current and ended up sitting at the peak with the local crew. Hawaiian guy looked at his fun shape and said, "Hey bradda, this is some real Hawaiian power. You might wanna paddle back inside." My friend just said, "Ok" and paddled in lol. He's a really humble person to begin with, but the exchange was really funny. Fast forward a half hour, we can't find him and start freaking out. I was on the beach because a closeout set had snapped my leash and sent my board back to the inside. When I made it back out, it was super creepy...lots of broken boards that day, and there were random noses floating around the outside. I saw a whole board just floating that looked like my buddy's and just freaked out. Next thing I know, the most perfect wave I had ever seen was plopped right in my lap. I turned around and took it. It was super crowded, and I'm on this long right passing dozens of people, all the while not enjoying it and just feeling guilty like everyone is staring at me and thinking, "where's your friend?! he might be dead, and you just rode another wave??" Eventually we found him. He was fine. But I still feel guilty about catching that wave and leaving my friend for dead.
Reminds me of a similar story. I moved to HI and drove up to Haleiwa with a guy I worked with to surf up north for an early winter day. He put his board on the back of my pickup and went back to grab something else out of the car as I commented, "wow that's a really nice shape." He said, "thanks man, it's a few months old but I take really good care of it." Suddenly this wind gust came and blew his board a few feet in the air and straight onto a rock. He got super pissed off, "why'd you have to say how nice it is? it's all your fault!!" hilarious.
