The Best Session Of Your Life

puckies beach in woolongong.
double shack on one wave....
april, 1979

 

Hurricane Bill '09
Some of the longest waves of my entire life in that one day. Epic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nM2ow06cBQ

 

Cape Hatteras 1982. They were calling it 10' to 12'. Very few people out. Biggest waves I've ever surfed. I had a 5'6" Natural Art twin fin. First couple drops my heart almost popped out my chest. The 3rd or 4rth wave I tried to turn too soon and the board went sliding. Got caught in the wash and at one point I was sure I wasn't coming up. I finally surfaced after swallowing a bunch of foam. Went on the beach and barfed for a few minutes, caught my breath and then paddled back out.

 

im like most of the others here,havnt had the best sesh yet.

thanksgiving always has swell.like for the past 8yrs I think the day before thanksgiving,thanksgiving,and the day after usually see some swell.thats when the noreasters start rolling through

best sesh would be doomsday.funny thing was,i wasn't expecting what I saw lol.I just remember being up all night the night before and the wind was howling hard,sounded like a hurricane.so in the morning threw all my gear in the car and went to long branch,and I wont say it was the biggest,i seen pics of bayhead and it was much bigger,i wont even mention Belmar lol,it was pretty damn perfect.u can backdoor every wave.and each time I paddled back out I tried to take off deeper and deeper,and the barrels were wide open.i never seen that in nj.no matter how deep u are u still come out.it was a magical day.

 

Hey Cep. Happy Friday. You must have got off work early. We usually don't see you 'round these parts until 4:50 on the dot.

 

good call lol,wasn't much traffic got home a little early

 

Things slow down here late afternoon and just as I'm wrapping up to go home...boom...a bunch of posts hit the forum at 4:50. And, being an SI addict I can't just leave them there unread.

 

maybe not the best, but I surfed 6 hours this day and was out of my mind happy
it stands out the most as the best I ever surfed ocean city, hands down
http://www.surfline.com/surfnews/2005_10_18_njersey.cfm

 

Me and my longtime best friend book a trip to CR for our 40th birthdays (a week apart) with two other friends. After a few days around Tamarindo we book a boat to Witch's Rock and Ollies. We surf Witch's Rock a few hours and then head to Ollies. Few minutes later our guide says, "Hey, I have another plan.'' Tells us Ollies might be crowded with other boats and the wind is not right. "I know another spot."

Guide had his buddy aboard and had wanted to show him this spot. We keep going a half hour past Ollies and come to a small offshore reef/island. For the next 4 hours six of us surfed it alone, 150 yard rights just peeling forever. Not huge - just chest high but it was all ours. One wave after another. Total dream session.

I cut my foot on the reef and kept surfing, not thinking much of it. By the time I got back to the mainland I had lost so much blood I couldn't walk to the hotel room. I ate a whole pizza, went to bed and was up for dawn patrol. Good way to turn 40.

 

Wow!!!! That looks like a blast.

 

Probably since I had just met my now wife, so I was trying to impress her, and I knew Reef Road was macking. So instead of paddling across the inlet, I drove her over and when we pulled up there was a few guys standing on their cars trying to see the outside sets. No one out! Hard to tell how big, no wind at all, slate grey sky, so really hard to see the scale. This was spring of 1989, so it was from a no name noreaster. Well over 15 foot faces, and to this day if you ask my wife, she will say 18 foot, and she understates things. Not a drop of water out of place, and long, long lulls between sets, so it was very organized. By the tiime I made it out, I could see three or four other guy in the lineup. My wife said everyone else was on their cars watching. The drops were very easy, as due to the size it would start feathering and with no offshores it was easy going over the ledge, and it was breaking slow on the peaks of the set waves. Very dream like, and as you got into the wave it just kept pealing slowly, so you could make the sections all the way to the beach. I caught 3 waves in a couple hours, they were epic rides. I surfed them conservatively due to the respect for the size, and I did not want to eat it on those bombs. It was barreling on the inside so big you could drive a VW van through it dry. The best part is when we are at a party and everyone starts talking smack, I ask my wife how big were those waves, and she looks at me, shakes her head and rolls her eyes, and says 18 foot.

 

Maldives double overhead and make able tunes never had waves so perfect in my life

 

RR with only a handful of dudes? thats a score sissurfdog
literhody, that sounds super sick

 

The lack of people and the horizon less grey sky, coupled with a completely calm wind made it totally surreal. Only thing missing was a guy playing Amazing Grace on the bagpipes on the beach - another story!

 

This^ is very true. Some great waves I remember in VB were during my first year in grad school in '03. Seems like every time I turned around there was another swell hitting that fall & winter, and I recall it constantly clean. I remember talking to a buddy down in Florida, and he had hear how good it had been up my way too.

Best single wave was this past winter out at the VB pier. I must have fit 9 or 10 solid turns off the lip on one wave; that sucker just kept walling up and was shoulder high the whole time. Never surfed like that before or since.

 

2009 at Macaroni's:
Emerged from the cool A/C berths belowdecks into the steamy tropical pre-dawn. Feeling the sandpaper deck under my feet as I watch empty maccas peeling off chest-high over and over and over. Climbed up to the top deck, unstrapped my gear, tossed it over the side, then jumped off after. Feeling the sting of saltwater on 7 days worth of accumulated reef rashes, while I pull on socks and fins, then paddle across to the break, set up, and get to work. Beautiful perfect lefts that just roll forever, cutback and popoff to your heart's delight, around the headland and into the cove. Long paddle back, watching a dozen more perfect peelers roll in.

From 6 to 9 it was glassy and chest high. A few guys from the Japanese boat paddled out in polite fashion--rotating through, 4 at a time. The Spaniards from my boat swarmed the break en masse once they woke up. Didn't matter. It was a conveyor belt. I'd see 4+ riders up at once on my paddle back. There were maybe 12 guys on waves and paddling back into position at any one time, and maybe a max crowd of 4 on the peak. Never stopped moving.

Applied spf 100 and wolfed down some fruit at 0930 before catching a ride back to the peak. Swell picked up to HH by mid-morning and a light offshore sprang up. Took another 30 minute break at 1230. The Japanese boat left around noon and the swell pushed up to OH and started throwing a little, near the takeoff, with the tide change. Some stormy looking clouds blew by at 1400, but it stayed offshore and the shade was a relief. I was the only guy out again when it got stormy-looking. Then it cleared back up and was back to light offshores and ridiculously perfect lefts.

Sun got low at 1800, and another incredible Mentawai sunset washed across the sky at 1830. The stars were coming out and the moon was glowing when I pushed my gear into the dinghy and flopped into the bottom like a dead fish.

That 12-hour session was textbook "All-Time". I watched the whole day go by on the water, and the waves were perfect the whole time. I must have caught 70 waves that day. I've caught maccas bigger, but I've never had so perfect and nonstop a session as that.

 

One of my best was prob 1998, Oceanside, CA. I didn't have my board, my parents neighbor let me borrow a twin fin fish. Waves were 5 to 6, weather was great, it wasn't real crowded. It was a fun day!

 

late 90's early 2000's a guy would go to the end of some of the northend jetties in OCNJ and play bagpipes, it was amazing surfing nor'easters and snowstorms and being serenaded by that person, just surreal

 

You've probably been in the same line up as me at somepoint.

 

in Virginia? unlikely