Hey, Sketchy Sessions.........and tales of intrigue

here's mine. I was out in ocean shores, WA two summers ago for a family reunion and luckily got to surf for a day (thank god i brought a wetsuit) with our neighbors who happened to be locals and happened to surf. What luck. Anyway, they let me borrow a board and we went out to surf the jetty in town and when i paddled out it was one of the most surreal experiences ive seen yet. There were literally tens of thousands of birds in the water. I could literally not move without gulls being in way. Whenever a set came, they all moved over the wave. When they moved, it sounded like a million people clapping or a huge wave crashing. it was crazy. another thing that kind of weirded me out/thought was kind of funny was that a pack of seals kept following us around and barking at us. Guess the locals weren't too p[leased that i didn't ask permission to surf their break haha

 

This isn't too crazy of a story, just a cool/strange experience. Maybe 3 years ago, me and my buddy wake up early for dawn patrol like usual. Going over the bridge I'm driving like 5mph because the fog is so thick, thickest Iv ever seen fog. So we get to the beach, check the waves but the fog is crazy you can't see more then about 5 feet in front of us. The forecast was 3-4 feet and the winds were favorable so we walk down to where we think the good sandbar on that beach is but we couldn't see a thing so we weren't positive. As were stretching out we see a dark figure moving towards us in the fog. Turns out to be another surfer. He asks if we have seen anyone out but we obviously say no because of the fog. So we all paddle out together and we find all the other regular dawn patrol guys out. It was such a fun day but sketchy as anything. The guy next to you would take off and with in a second or 2 would disappear into the fog. Luckily there were no injuries or collisions and later the fog lightened up. It was intense not seeing the sets come in, not seeing the beach, not seeing anything within a few feet of you. Awesome day though

 

Here I am spmming the thread and ruining the vibe! Too many words. No fun. Im too lazy.

 

Cut the crap Grom brah. Your repetitive salty teen posts are becoming too many words for us to read. This is your second notice. Stop hanging out with the bums you recently befriended. They are not high achievers and you are.

 

Long time lurker here...Figured I would take the plunge. I do this with trepidation as I realize im wearing a bulls-eye by doing so....Couple years ago my bro, couple of buddy's and I visited San Juan Del Sur, Nica, and got these two local tranplants from the states to take us on their panga to some breaks south of the town, more easily accessed by water. I'll start by saying these two guys, while nice, were total knuckleheads. They were down there mascarading as Realtors but actually they just smoked and surfed every day. (not that there is anything wrong with either). Anyway on the boat ride south the engine kept cutting out as the night before a local had tried to steal the battery and started ripping out wires from the panga's center console. So on the ride the ignition kept shorting out. Not a big deal normally as we were probably no more 1-2 miles offshore. However it kept happening and during winter months (this was February) the offshore winds straight howl. To make matters worse all our boards were strapped to the T-top/roof of this panga and were acting as a sail. Luckily one of the guys got the power to stay on and we made out. However, it def. got dicey for a while as we kept getting blown out to sea and neither of the "crew" members had means of communication. At one point I was close to grabbing my board and paddling for it, which would have been a serious challenge. Surf was decent at best and the "spearfishing" spots they took us to yielded no results. Oh well. Lesson learned

In case that story did nothing but bore some of you Legends on SI. here's a link to a story from Matt George I read a while back..awesome/freaky story

http://books.google.com/books?id=mZ...AA#v=onepage&q=matt george fraidy cat&f=false

 

'Matt George' had to have been tripping on tabs when he dreamed up the story of the animals all coming over to him. C'mon, dood.....

 

I'm feeling "social" so i'll write up one quick story.


It was huge double over head on set. Middle of summer no one else was out, too big. I was all amped because it was slopey and looked fun and I wanted to be the man and get some good ones with everyone watching. I "borrowed" my big buddy's 7 ft board. Took me like 10 minutes to get out. I got a few.

I went for the "bomb of all bombs" (That's what my friend said when I got in, which makes me proud). I had no chance. I was way to deep my fins caught for a moment and then I got shot straight down. I got thrashed hard, I tried to time when I would hit the bottom and pogo back up with my legs but I got shot down harder and faster than I ever have and only put one leg out. My foot hit bottom but because of the force my leg bent backwards and I almost blacked out under water. I thought, "Wow I just experienced my first major injury, guess I am out of commission for awhile." My leg hurt bad. I caught some whitewater in. I was so pissed because I still wanted to surf.

I was anxious to see if I could walk and miraculously I could. I had an athletic trainer check it out and she said I escaped injury but I scrapped out my knee or something. Then my friend yelled at me for using his board. The end. Many more and hopefully more to come with safe endings.

Can't wait to surf tomorrow!!!

Peace and good fortune to all.

 

Ok brahs, here goes nothing:

So, it was this one Sunday in early May. The surf was high and the winds strong...

Oh. Wait. You've all heard that story. Well, most of you. Carry on.

 

It all starts when a retard (not me) decided to drive to Astilleros to surf 4 foot beach break Driving on a very inclined beach with a steep grade and very soft sand.... seems ok at first...then.... we are doomed We are stuck in deep sand. We are kind of panicking because the tide is rising at an alarming rate. I have to run up the beach and beg for someone who has a truck to help us. This is not easy, being as there are only about 40 vehicles in the whole village and 35 are boats. I said {Pagolo}. (I pay it) to the owner of the truck-----the response is (Quantos dolares?) how many dollars.....I replied 20$......This was apparently not enough and before I could counter offer 21$, He leaves to drop his kids of at school. I thought I had it easy(compared to BILL) because I could not see the truck being slowing swallowed by the sea....I just had to wait for the truck....Meanwhile BILL is watching the sea slowly move the sand out from under the tires and further the incline that will lead to the truck falling into to the sea. This cannot happen, because we opted NOT to carry full coverage (una problema). A fisherman said he sees it all the time and that we are not the first gringos to have this happen to. HE keeps repeating to BILL in Spanish: ‘Your car will be in the sea soon, it happens a lot. The tide is rising, if you are going to do something, now is the time’. Since I was not back at the truck with reinforcements, BILL resigns that fate of the truck is unfortunately obvious and decides to surf in front of the doomed car while a crowd starts to watch the show. BILL has moved passed from stage 1, fear, to anger, to bargaining (with the tide) and has moved onto resignation at his point, about a half step from acceptance that the car is GONE

After el hombre with the truck returns, I am panicking because I looked from where I was in a pair of binoculars and see waves washing under the truck. Totally bugging out.... screaming the F=bomb....etc. We arrive and hook up a rope and now the crowd is 10-15 people. IT is quite a spectacle-....the rope breaks....a big wave hits the door.......********************.......We are digging out the tires while fishermen braid a huge rope and start to attach that. Waves are washing the sand away and the truck is sinking...sinking...sinking...unevenly at that and the truck is on the verge of rolling over on its side and crashing into the water.....the line is attached again. 4 people are pushing our truck (Nissan Frontier , f@ck that car) and a Toyota land cruiser pickup with 5 people on the back are pulling us (people are weighing the back of the Toyota down.) so this is now about a 12-15 man operation...The truck is unstuck...we are moving...the ocean and its evil crony the moon no longer can rob us of thousands of dollars. The truck is moving...going....ohmygod we are....stuck again. This time the tide is not a problem. but BILL took our stuff out of the truck and set it against a log and its now about 40 yards away (2surboards, expensive camera, rash guards, wallets, sunglasses etc). It was safer to put them on the ground while the car may have ended up in Davy Jones Locker. But while we are pushing our car, the Toyota has loaded our stuff and taken off. I am running down the beach after them and they are not stopping. I am screaming and yelling and they keep on going. But then they got stuck. The only reason we got our boards and stuff back was because the other truck got stuck and I caught up to them. They explained that they were doing me a favor and that they would hold my stuff until I gave them money for helping us. **** THAT. I got a lil assertive and got the stuff back (all of it) and then I told them we would return with money. Meanwhile I am ****ting myself because they have machetes in the car and here we are 2 gringos in BUM**** Nicaragua demanding our stuff back. finally the car was on the road........headaches were fixed and , I did give them a reward, but only half of what I originally offered when I was under duress of them holding our stuff ransome....****ing thieves.

I could tell you the story about how we destroyed the brush guard while saucer eyed on the front of the truck and then paid 14 dollars to have it welded back together, but that’s another story.... so far we have only had the rental car 72 hours.... lets see what happens next



for the record this was 10 years ago and I was lil more reckless and A LOT dumber then.

sketcher artist is funny and sweet life had a good story bout nica, the link was CRAZy good.
this is a pretty fun thread

 

now THAT was a nice read! Perfect thread for a laugh while I wait for this rain to die out and the winds to shift around offshore (hope we got some swell lingering!)... thanks for the stoke everyone!

 

That reminds me of a session: One Easter a few years back a bunch of us knuckleheads and our families were camping out on Peanut Island which is inside the Palm Beach Inlet between Singer Island and Palm Beach. It has an old Coast Guard station and JFKs secret bomb shelter (now open for tours). A cold front came through that night, and it rained like a monsoon, and the next day it was blowing hard out of the NW cold and offshore and a new swell hit. It was way overhead, probably 10 - 12 foot faces.

Reef Road was the call, and my buddy Larry had a little dingey we used to ferry over to Peanut Island, so we took that out the inlet and just south of the jetty is the break. All he had was a little anchor, and we noticed after catching a couple of sets that the dingy was getting blown out to sea.

So we decided to take turns paddling for the boat and riding it back to the break, but we started getting tired from all the surfing and paddling and started arguing over who's turn it was to get the boat and it was blowing out to sea and to the south and finally we both laughed, paddled about a third of a mile out to get it, and decided the session was over.

We made it back safely, so it was not really that sketchy. But I totally forgot that it happened until I read this story of Nica surf adventure.

 

Since I've gotten what I will from this swell...

Head out to the Pier in VB this morning. Few heads beat me (I got there at 6:35) to the beach and had been attempting to get out. I notice they are at about 17th street. I jump in, paddle out much closer to the pier than them. They left very quickly after that (never got past the breakers). I get in a few rides that were quite fun to say the least. Seriously, before that wind got all crazy northerly, it was good and no one out. I see one character finally make it out around 7:45, but he got pummeled by a freak set so I'm yelling like I always do to the world "TAKE YOUR EAST COAST SURFING MORE SERIOUSLY". Dunno why, but he gave me that look...you know...the evil "this is my break kook since I own a surfboard" look. I am just effin beside myself and take another wave. With the way they were coming in and my view of the clock tower, there is a wave every 10 minutes that is being ridden. I am stoked! I'm making my way out to line up with pylon one and the end of the first hotel, almost in position and WHAM! no more than 2-3 feet from me, splashing me was a large sea creature that hit something. That was effin sketch. I'm talking convulsions because that was too close to home. Needless to say, I rolled the F out! I waited until another dude wanted to paddle out and he became my new friend until he got pummelled. It was nice while it lasted. Y'all shoulda been up early, but no one really was.