who here has been surfing this week?

I haven’t surfed in so long, I hope I remember how!! #abandoner. Ha Ha. looks Like there is gonna be something this weekend and I don’t care if it’s wind slop, I’m paddling out

 

Hoping tomorrow mid morning or nooonish, maybe some building waist to chest, not too sloppy. Work's been hectic, and I've been neglectful of da lifestyle, usually I don't play hookey unless it is semi- epic, but I got me a new wetsuitte and I'm Jones-ing for some salt water time, upright, on my hind legs, on a board.

 

Forecast looks promising for a few fun days this week.

 

You mean, "only session in weeks!" Lol!

Yea... I saw some tiny little lines that were breaking PERFECTLY yesterday morning, but thought it was just too small. Looking forward to the weekend to break the dry spell.

 

Lol, semantics... I meant what I said!

Weekend swell is guaranteed to be a good one, cause I'm gonna be in VT all weekend... Oh well. Looks like it may hang around till Monday or Tuesday afternoon. We'll see how many good sessions I miss this year for that reason. If I was single I'd just decide each Friday whether to go north or not, but it's a little more complex traveling with family. If more than a few, it may impact whether we continue to get a rental share in a VT house in future seasons.

 

Monday is the only day I can go thanks to James Earl Ray. First time in what seems like forever. My face is healing up well and I have a new surfing wet suite to try on.

 

Thank you for going to VT so we could have good surf! HA

 

That'd be a no-brainer, for me... I'd keep the house and catch the next swell. No doubt.

 

Of course I offered to work OT this weekend prior to the forecast. waaaa

 

That was me last week. Well, I didn't offer to work, but I signed up for snow removal for the state. Got called in and plowed snow for 27 hours. Oh well, it'll be a nice little chunk of loot.

 

Haven't surf in a couple of months, unfortunately. Work was crazy busy from October until I took off the week between Christmas and NYE to decompress, and then the ocean went flat and it got frigid. Definitely paddling out this weekend though. Can't wait!

 

I agree and that's been my strategy thus far. Going up there 2-3 weekends a month to ski all day and chill all night (used to be party all night, not so much these days but that's totally by choice) with a bunch of friends completely changes the dynamic of winter, in a very positive direction. Seasonal Affective Disorder is completely incomprehensible to me, this is basically my busiest time of year from a social and action/adventure perspective. Just frustrating to miss waves when it's been so flat for so long. But seeing as how I am in a constant state of lobbying my wife to take as many VT trips as possible, it would be strategically unwise to cancel one at the last minute when she's fully bought in and excited about it (especially when it's the only 3 day weekend we get for rest of season without using vacation time).

 

NJsurfer30 - I'm impressed, don't you have a little one? Does wife watch kid while you ski, or you get childcare up in VT?

Granted, we have two kids now (2.5 yo and 8 wks), but even when we only had one I could never convince my wife to take a trip every weekend...

What's your secret...?

 

My wife and I trade off morning and afternoon generally, with whoever's not skiing watching our daughter at the house. I always encourage her to take morning, because I know if I go out first she may get lazy and comfortable and decide not to go out at all... which on a case by case basis is great for me but from a big picture perspective is not great for her long term investment in this lifestyle. The house we rent is only a 5 minute drive from the mountain so it's pretty simple. Some days she doesn't want to go out at all due to conditions or weather and then I'll ski for more like 5-6 hours (unless it's a powder day and then I'm skiing every minute of operating time that she isn't. We're planning to put our daughter in the on-mountain daycare a few times this season so we can ride together, but haven't done that yet. May try to do so this weekend. Also planning to get her on skis by the end of the season (she'll be 2 in May).

I know that most of my days are only gonna be 3-5 hours on the mountain (wife often only goes out for a couple hours so my "half" of the day is a bit longer), and I'm totally fine with that. I prefer surfing anyway, the VT house is more of a social thing than anything else for me at this point in my life. Don't get me wrong, I still ski hard when I'm out, but after 5 seasons living in Colorado I'm not that entertained unless it's deep powder and even then... I reached a point where I realized I'd just as soon cruise around icy groomers with a big group of friends as ski epic powder by myself. But, I'm not crying if I have to leave after a few hours of said icy groomers. Skiing being primarily social is something that's evolved over time though, there was definitely a time when I was skiing 50+ days a year up there, first chair to last, never ever ever ever stopping for food or beer on the mountain, as hard as possible in the gnarliest terrain/conditions I could find. Not coincidentally, I was single, (relatively) broke, and childless then.

At this point I'm just trying to get the occasional great day of skiing, spend a lot of time skiing/drinking/relaxing with friends, and make weekends in VT as much of a no-brainer default habit for the entire family as possible. In addition to having something to keep me entertained and active in the winter, it's really mentally liberating and therapeutic to go into vacation mode every 5-10 days. Living in CO, I was doing day trips to the mountains, and while that has it's advantages (particularly cost-wise), it's not quite the same mental escape because you still end up cleaning the house and doing laundry and grocery shopping and all the other annoyances of the real world. Mentally, going to VT means leaving all that behind and going into true vacation mode every couple of weeks.

 

The new wettie has cursed me, it's lake like conditions here.

 

Haven’t surfed since Grayson. Getting the itch, bad. Should have ample time for a Friday am sess before going on a ski trip with fam and my bae. Then, hoping to score Monday through Wednesday or more. Yew!

 

Swell of the winter for LI and RI this weekend? Looks like it could be a couple feet overhead, maybe even bigger.

 

Didn’t go to VT. Spent most of the day checking spots, trying to find a spot that wasn’t closed out. Was actually prob best when I first looked at 8 am, but I thought it was gonna get better so I waited. It did not get better. Finally paddled out in central moco around 415. Looked more manageable than it had all day. Easy paddle out but way bigger and more mixed up than it looked from the beach. Got one smaller one but the cross chop swallowed up my nose coming out of bottom turn. That was enough for me. Real challenging conditions today. Heading south tomorrow in search of more favorable winds.

 

Yesterday and today was really fun, chest - head and at times slightly overhead. Offshore wind, clean lined up consistent surf, and no close outs really. Just perfect fun rippable waves. I rode both SB and LB. Crowd was light too, life is good.

 

Same thing happened to me- first wave, cross chop... ng

The cross chop was the most challenging, it looked better from the beach then in the water... but was still refreshing to get in!! Got one really good wave, the rest not so great.

After not surfing in over a month, it still felt good!