My luck has sucked this year. That and I am not paying attention. 1) Paddled out without zipping up my suit. On what was a record breaking day for low temperature since the 90s or something. Realize after about 20 min in the water and had a hard time zipping up with wet 7 mil lobster claws. 2) I got a crazy bruise on my armpit. Putting the board on the roof of my truck, standing on the tire with booties covered in snow and slush, slipped off and slammed my armpit on the door hinge. 3) Got out after a surf, start the truck up, somehow lock myself out while its running. Phone, towels, keys (obviously), everything in the running truck except me. 4)Driving through the parking lot, towards the sun, snow everywhere. I was snow blind, drove right into 2 or 3 feet of snow that got plowed to one side of the parking lot and I got stuck. 5) I keep my board in my garage, garage door got frozen shut. Then I finally bust it open and now it wont close. Its an automatic door opener so it would close, then go back up. Couldn't figure it out. 6)All the salt they throw down for the snow was all over my truck, including the windshield. Seeing was pretty hard so I after a surf I throw water on the windshield and turn the wipers on the clean it (my windshield washer sprayer thing has never worked). The water turned to slush in about 2 swipes of the wipers, making the whole seeing situation worse. and lastly 7) Another really cold day, I am getting into the water but before I make it to the water I slip on icey sand and bust my backside then have the shore break slam on me while I am down. Today I was thinking about all this and had a good laugh. Thought some of you other cold water/weather guys might find this humorous also, or even better have similar stories so I could feel better about myself
Haha funny stuff Bassmon. Where i surf i never lock my car up. I normally just put the keys in the middle console. After I got out of the water took my gloves off and couldn't wait to get out of the 20 degrees temp. I realise that I lock my keys up inside my car with no one around I had wait for one of the other guys to get out so i could ask for a ride. fingers were frozen.
Yeah man it was rough. Low 20s and no gloves. Luckily one of the other guys got out and let me use his phone and sit in the car while I waited for someone to come with spare keys. I'm just happy all my bad luck comes before or after the surf. My experience with this winter in the water has been great.
yea, i think we've all been there...maybe not in as quick succession as you have this year, but we've definitely all been there. this year: i slipped on some ice & almost busted my ass walking back to my jeep after a surf on the coldest day of the year so far. last year: surfed post-work till dark. i was one of the last guys out of the water, go to reach under my jeep for my hide-a-key, & lo & behold, it's not there. i check the other 3 wheel wells, no dice. i run over to the one other guy's car, explain the situation, & ask to use his cell phone to call my wife. she doesn't answer. after making sure i'm ok, dude drives off. i ended up running, in my 5/4 w/ board under arm, about a mile through town, in the dark, to a friend's house, where i try calling my wife again. still doesn't answer...finally got my buddy to give me a lift home where i got my spare key. turns out the magnet that holds the hide-a-key to the undercarriage had rusted out & fallen, taking my key w/ it. that was a crappy experience.
you know, i was thinking about this post-surf while struggling out of my wetsuit today. it's not the frigid air & water temps, or the shortened daylight hours, the crippling wind, or the ice & snow that make me rethink winter surfing every so often. it's dealing w/ the goddamn outfit required to surf in it! nothing sucks more after surfing for a few hours than trying to finagle a 7mil boot off your foot w/ numb hands, or get a 5mil claw off one hand while the other still shrouded in rubber, when all you want is to be warm again. or trying to get that first part of the suit off your shoulder so you can get your hands free again. i'm always half convinced that yes, THIS is the time i'm going to accidentally shred my suit. but, as my wife says whenever i ***** about any of this to her, "i don't feel bad for you."
njsurfer42, I had that happen with my hidakey, thankfully it was in my driveway when it let loose and I found it before I needed it. This is a summer story but I work at the beach and was done with work for the day. I had pulled some strings and got everything done early so I could be in the surf at the best tide during a really fun day. Excitedly I jumped out of the truck, shut the door and went to the back to pull out my board. Realized that the truck was locked with my keys in it and I was shirtless, boardless, without a phone and no hidakey. All this and perfect warm waves breaking 500 feet from where I was standing. Had to flag a ranger I knew down and thankfully he had a few tools to wedge my door open and slide a hooked pole in there to pop the door, uhhggg. As far as the winter is concerned know one who doesn't surf winters can comprehend walking on sand that is frozen as hard as concrete. Never mind slipping and falling on it, lol.
"A bad day surfing is better than a good day at work." Does that apply here? Did you at least get some good rides? I went to Vermont this past weekend and got 3 days of expensive snowboarding in. Super bowl Sunday morning had 5 inches of powder on the side of Stowe that people forget exists. Monday snowstorm makes an annoying 6 hour drive 8 hours of sketchy white knuckling it. Tuesday went out in fairly cold conditions and now im sick as a dog. Surfing definitely pushed a sore throat viral...worth it. I have one wave still stuck in my head. Hope your luck improves.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who locks himself out. Reading these posts reminded me of a good one from this summer. So I surfed DP for a good 3-4 hours. Get back to the truck and I forgot to take the hide a key with me or something. I don't remember but point is I was locked out of my truck. I have a bad habit of this, so I keep a spare key in my wallet. Problem is when I surf my wallets in the locked truck. So I walk to the little beach hut thing where they sell food and stuff. I tell the guy behind the counter "I locked my keys in my truck, do you have a slim jim?". The guy handed me a slim jim, like the meat stick snack. HA. That one always gives me a chuckle
You weren't "snow blind", you just couldn't see because of the suns reflection. If you were snow blinded, the things you listed would seem 50 times less significant haha. It is when your eyes are exposed to the suns reflection off the snow and your eyes actually sunburn, aka severe burns on the surface and under the surface of your eye, literally blinding you. This could last a few days or be permanent
lmao...great post! I have had a few things happen just like that, but never back to back. Thats pretty crazy, at least got wet. I have done the zipper thing several times...also, I put a suit on backwards once ( first time when using a chest zip, looked around to see if anyone saw me do it...lol) and after doing that, I felt like an idiot, surfed like one too, wish I didn't go out. So cold one day, before getting out of my suit, I put my brand new board on the pavement and left...a mile away from home, I guessed I warmed up and hypothermia was going away and realized what I did...drove back and thank god it was still there. I now go home with a suit on...not sure why i never did this in the winter - so much better!
Nothing dramatic to report. I did go out one time last winter without my booties. Had left them at home. It was before the Holidays, so water wasn't that cold - maybe 50. But the waves looked fun. "Really, how bad could it be?" I said. After 45 minutes, my feet were completely numb and red as all get out. Could hardly stand up on the board and had to hobble out of the water and back to the car. Took at least an hour for my feet to return to normal color. A week or so ago, I put the board on the roof of my car and did not strap it down immediately as I usually do. I was getting so cold and had to get into some dry clothes. Almost forgot to strap it down before leaving. I fear that the push button lock on my car will cease to work sometime upon my return from a session. It's been a real advantage so far (don't have to deal with a key), but I'm concerned that that salt water on my gloves will eventually take its toll, rendering the buttons inoperable. I usually try to take a glove off first.
yea, i've historically been bad w/ that. the hide-a-key was intended to remedy that, & it has (except for that one time). i've been super paranoid about it ever since i was like 12: i was surfing w/ my dad down in cape may around thanksgiving. got out b/c i was cold...went up to the car to change, then back to the dunes all bundled up to watch while my dad kept surfing for another hour or so. he comes out of the water..."hoo, i'm chilly! you got the keys?" "uhhh..." long story short, we had to find a pay phone, call home collect (this was like 1992), & wait for my mom & sister to drive down w/ the spare set of keys, about 45min. to an hour...my dad did not speak to me the entire time.
Yes. I think my most serious surfing injuries have been sustained trying to get the damn winter rubber off. I have a torn labrum in my shoulder now that I'm pretty sure I can trace back to when I tweaked something taking my suit off a few years ago.
i went thru some poop to learn this lesson - which you all can have for free no strings attached. (the lesson, not the ….) a HIDE-A-KEY is mandatory for njsurfers. your muffler system has a plate (in various spots) over the pipe to prevent excessive heat from exhaust system from burning occupants of car. put the h-a-key ON TOP of this plate which (should) negate effects of gravity. so far so good w/this...
All I can say is my problems seem trivial compared to what you just went through! I can't even get myself to want to put my wetsuit on (even if I'm inside my house). I'm like njsurfer42, only worse, I can't even put the wetsuit on! Man, locking the keys and not being able to see - you're a diehard Red Bull level surfer! Well, I paddled out this afternoon in 6 @ 9s windswell and it was really fun. The exercise did me great. It's a LOT easier when the sun's out and there's no wind. Then the 38 degree water doesn't feel so bad. But it's obvious that it's February as the water in the shorebreak is frigid while the water outside in the lineup isn't that cold. The paddle wasn't too bad today but I needed to duckdive a couple times (in my 3 mil hood). The water felt great though. Thanks to Ben for helping me with my wetsuit hood and paddling out with me and catching some waves. I don't know if there will be much tomorrow and this weekend won't be that hot. I guess I should be further thankful that there actually was some oxygen in the air, not just frozen sea-spray and frozen boogers that have circled the globe.
Not surf related but getting locked out. Last night I went out to snow blow one last time before calling it a night and realized that the wind was blowing the snow into the garage so I stopped and went inside the garage and did the push the button jump over the sensor trick and went back to snow blowing. when i was done i was going back to the the garage and realized i couldnt get it open so i go to the front door and its locked. F**K!!! This was a new house i had got over the summer and hadden made any plans for this situation. Luckly i was able to find a window which was still not latched and was able climb back into the house all covered in snow. Think its time to set up a hide o key for the house somewhere cause that was scary as f**k. (P.S. my wife is working up in Bangor all week and would have been over 3 hours away with the only other key.)
I had a real sh*tty lock out experience while I was traveling for work. Brought the boards, went for dusk sesh, got back to the rental car at 9 and realized I had accidentally stashed the wrong key. I drive a Chrysler and I had rented a Dodge - keys were pretty much identical. Stuck on the side of the road wearing a nice damp wetsuit and holding a surfboard until I walked to a Carl's Jr, borrowed a cell phone to call Enterprise, and then waited two hours for them to get me a tow truck. When the tow finally showed up I was jogging laps around my car to try to stay warmer! I signed up for AAA the next day
