who here has been surfing this week?

Yeah I have surfed every day since last Saturday, and hopefully will get to ride a wave tomorrow. They haven't been big waves, but they have been keeping me in the water.

 

Been a great week, surfed 5 of the last 7 days (soon to be 6 of 8) - back in the 3/2 and gloves/boots are off!

 

Got a fun dp sesh in So. MoCo this am on the Simmons. Size ranged from knee to shoulder hi on sets. Glassy and not completely lined up, a little disorganized, but still some good fun.

I managed to get one backside right going from jetty to jetty. I pulled into this wedge up that ended up reeling down the line. The Simmons flies so fast. It beats every section. I did a suite kick out and paddled back just laughing to myself.

Also, saw a huge pod of dolphins and some fully breaching. Can’t complain amigos/amigas.

 

That's one thing that has me so incredibly stoked this week. The waves have been good. Normally when we get a stretch like this there's a couple of eh days. Or small days. But this week everyday has been in the chest high range, super clean, and just picture perfect. It was funny. I was talking with a guy todayin the water. I said somthing like "Tuesday through Thursday was really good, today's ok" then i laughed. Looked at the waves. And said "it's great that we can say today was just ok, look at it out there, it's awesome"

Nothing epic. But it's been super high quality waves non stop. I don't even know what to do with myself anymore.

 

Rolled up expecting light NE and ended up catching offshore for about an hr b4 it switched back NE. On set chest high. Had a few quick tubes. What a way to end a great week of surf.

 

I've never seen such wind direction changes in such a short amount of time as I saw this late morning/noon time. It was glassy when I got in around 10. 15 minutes later or so, it went E/NE but light. Then it went slack again, then around 11 it went E/SE at like 10 mph. All in about 90 minutes. Tide was low enough that it didn't affect the waves too much so that was good. Bout waist and similar to what Kanman said above. Beautify day. Lots of fat people on the beach in shorts.

 

sounds like a beastify day

 

Another day of that nice glassy stuff that I love so much. Shifting and variable winds for a little while later on. Hit one spot in Northern Ocean County and it was kind of okay, but nothing special. It's a real hit or miss spot, but has it's moments. Hadn't been there in a while. Drove down to Seaside Park, it got better down there, but the winds were back and forth until later. Probably 3.5 hours-3 hours 40 minutes) of combined surf time. Called up a buddy I haven't seen in a while. He joined us in the lineup after he went home after work and had something to eat. He didn't stay out very long. We still until after dark. He's not in very good shape.

Forecast don't really look like anything worth bragging about for the next couple days, but it's been a pretty nice May so far. I think my percentage of surfing days last May was slightly higher, but can't complain about this May.

 

I said this about a week ago. Surfing is such a weird thing. But i love it.

So iv been up at 415 everyday to surf (with the exception of Monday) since last Saturday. Worked all day all week. Yesterday i was hurting. Super tired during the day which isn't normal for me. Even after being up early to surf, the stoke usually pushes me along. And believe me, i was stoked. Told a coworker I'd help him out and cover his 24hr on call shift. So after working all day and being shot, i had to work overtime. Got home by 7. At 730 another emergency call came in and i had ti go out again. Didn't get home till 1030 and didn't get to bed till around 1130. So shot. Saw conflicting wind forecasts so figured I'd be up at 415 to see what it's doing. I was kinda hoping the wind would have more E in it so i could catch up on sleep but low and behold.... it was offshore and light. Still sleep deprived i headed to the beach.

No one out. Rainy. Glassy thigh to waist high waves coming in. Looked a bit weak but decided to go anyway. Sesh started out ok. Little cruisey waves for the mini sims. I was enjoying myself. Then for about 30 min it turned on! Waist high sets non stop. Not super punchy or anything but a nice wall, a wave to actually surf ya know. Got a bunch of fun ones completely solo. Got one really long right handed "face barrel". Then it started to die out.

It's funny because now I'm amped again. I need nothing but sleep. Got to do a side job today to make some extra cash. Weddings are expensive. But the slightest opportunity at waves and i can't say no. It's not a want but a need. And when it pays off, my entire energy level shifts.

I'll sleep when I'm dead. I gotta go surf

 

Drove down to RI yesterday afternoon but in this case Surfline was right and SI was wrong. Wind blowne choppe but hey, at least I didn't need gloves which was great.

 

Floated around a little bit. Nothing special, but nothing terrible, either.

Frickin thunderstorms were scary as hell late in the afternoon and into pretty much the entire evening. I could still hear the thunder when the radar was showing the storm miles and miles out to sea.

By the way, water temperature in Cape May is not 63 degrees, as shown on the forecast page. I'm gonna say that's about 10 degrees off, maybe 8 degrees off at least.

 

Worked that side job yesterday and made a quick grand. Job took a bit longer than anticipated. After i met a a friend and his wife at a bar. I haven't been drinking much at all, and felt it. Passed out without setting any alarms.

Woke up at 515 in a panic. I was late! Hungover and way out of it i stumbled ti the beach. Check it and it's not breaking. Saw some good looking lines coming in though so i waited an hour and then went. Once it started breaking it was pretty fun. The bar is so shallow that it'll go from not breaking, to a nice wally wave. No fat dribblers inbetween. That's not to say there weren't weak ones. There was. But plenty of fun waves to be had too. Made it totally worth it.

Now it's time to catch up on some sleep. Between surfing 8 out of 9 days, work being busy/overtime, side jobs.... I'm shot. Very grateful for that fun run of waves though. After i finally do catch up on some sleep, i got a feeling depression will set in from lack of waves. Got spoiled this week

 

Stop teasing the buoys. I would love some OH and glassy right now. Also, be cautious jumping off them rocks at sunset. Broke my leg there years back from being too ballsy.

Not actually sarfing today, but mind sarfing and hanging with the moms. She just gifted me with that ice cream headaches book aboot NJ/NY surf culture. So far it’s interesting and the photos are pretty good.

 

On Saturday, my amazing crew picked me up and drove me to the beach. They plunked me into the beach wheelchair and rolled me down the sandy boardwalk to the ocean. This is no mean feat in that the sand is lumpy and creates much resistance to the body, but not to the mind.


What a nice sight to behold as we crested the top of the path: semi clean, gentle knee to thigh high turquoise waves with some rare larger ones rolling through to suprise the lineup. The weather kept the part time surfers away, so the whole time there were maybe 12 in the water. They were all locals, so the friendly vibe out there was as fun as the waves.

Each wave paddled for is precious in that each paddle subtracts from the limit that my legs and arms can tolerate before a complete shut down. Time is also ticking, in that every 15 minutes requires 10 minutes of rest on the chair.

With that limitation, however, one becomes so very mindful of the preciousness of any wave opportunity.

A few gentle knee to thigh highs were the starting point. Pointing my feet sideways upon popping up is now a feat (no pun intended), so, there are a couple of fails when they point forward, side by side—

And then there was the ride of the day. Somehow, I was in position for the rare waist high that rolled through that day. Oh yeah, here I go! Paddled so hard for it, just seemed on the cusp of catching it, you know the feeling... knowing that it was now or never in that the arms were weakening, the clock was ticking, I thought, “What the hell— pop up and see what you can do!”

Popped up, or these days, scrambled up, feet were magically in position on the board, teetered on top of the wave, ... and then was able to move the front foot out of sheer determination, and stomped down on the nose- WOOHOOO! Slid down that wave, turned to the left and had a nice floaty thrill— witnessed by my crew member. She said it was shoulder high. I thought it felt more like waist. Who cares? It was simply a wonderful gift!

That wave will hold me the rest of the week. ( Still trying to figure out how to do Dawn Patrol. The park beach wheelchair is not available until about an hour after sunrise. Some dudes offered to carry me, but, I dunno, someone will get hurt!)

The trick, ageing surfers, is to stay in the present and not bemoan the loss of skills. Don’t worry how bad you look out there.... Just get out there and do what you still can do, even if it pales in comparison to what you lost.

 

Page 420! Had an early Friday night, which usually gets me up break of dawn. Had both the LB and the newly bought Loehr board strapped ready to go that night. Drove up to Washout, surprisingly nobody really around but a few. They were waist hi, only a couple blocks were getting that punch and the one i was on prob had the most ppl. i got out to the right of them, had a few good rights than lefts. tried out both boards, prob there an hour or so and drove back to grub n bring out beach chairs on the front. had another session with the roomie for about an hour and then it chopped with low tide incoming. Last wknd there on Folly, i'm a lil more inland now - halfway btwn work n play. gonna keep an eye on the forecast, lotta push throughout the week but plenty of rain. and it's getting hot, fire

 

The surf has abanndonned us.

 

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We've had a heat wave here the last few days but the swell has been big and crossed up. Took the wife out yesterday so she could work on a base tan before our upcoming trip to CR.

Very surprised to find the wind was still offshore in the early afternoon although SwellInfo forecasted all day onshores. At least they got it right with the waves, as it was bigger and much cleaner than the day before.

One of the enforcers was on the peak and was politely directing all the visiting traffic towards the shoulder, leaving the peak to 3 or 4 of us. Biggest surf I've had since January, faces on the sets were running up to 10-12 feet making for some loooong drops. Big fast carvy walls with a few tubes.

Not perfect, but a very fun day considering the size. And the water's back into the mid to upper 50's. I even got a little sunburnt lol.

 

The Atlantic Ocean by me remembered that it's New Jersey and that it's May and this kind of surf is unsustainable for consecutive late Spring's.

Maybe a little something tomorrow for me. Looks like we're gonna get a ton of rain though, beginning in the late afternoon/early evening.