who here has been surfing this week?

LBNY yesterday was super fun, although I could have done without the wind (even though it was nice and offshore). Had a few nice rights, always awesome to go frontside there.

Saturday was legit heavy. I walked down and saw some absolutely massive, cold sets come through. No thanks..

 

Because you're there...

That's the answer. Like the cliched Mount Everest question, sometimes I have to ask myself... why did I go surfing. Which got me thinking... is this something we all do?

Sometimes I think surfing has become sort of mechanical for me... just... that's what I do. Looking at the surf today, it was chest high junk. Cold. Onshore. No barrels. One guy on a SUP around the corner... another guy sitting on his board drifting with the incessant current, dragging him up the beach. I knew chances were slim to none that I'd get even one good wave. But I went anyway. I surf because I'm there.

An hour of paddling against the current... three mediocre waves on the fish. A long slog back to the truck.

Then, on my ride home... boots and gloves tossed in the back, hood still up, sitting on three towels for the short ride home with the windows down so the windshield wouldn't fog up too badly... I realized why. The real reason why I go on days like this is because I'd feel worse if I didn't. So maybe it's not so much because it's fun for me, it's more like avoidance of something worse... not going.

Is this just me, or do we all get this way sometimes?

 

Good news - i finally got in water.
Bad news - waves were super dumpy; wind was blowing.
I sucked it up for an hr. Oh well. I am happy i got in the water.

 

Yes, I know exactly what you mean. Sometimes I allow myself to not paddle out and I deal with the negative vibe of not going. I usually tell myself I could have gone out if I wanted to but chose to wait for better conditions. When I don’t want to deal with those feelings, I paddle out no matter what to shake it. It happens.

 

Not just you brother. I'd rather paddle out and KNOW there wasn't anything happening then to head back home and wonder if things got better 20 minutes later.

Although, chest high and onshore sounds like a blast to me. Obviously not if its junk. But yeah. I thoroughly enjoy those days were the wind isn't "good" but there's still a wave. Sections to hit or get around.... could be difficult to get a good one but when you do its quite rewarding.

 

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I went yesterday evening and this evening.

Yesterday was waist to stomach hi, pretty sideshore choppy, windy and cold. But, I hadn’t been out in like 9 days...so I had to go. I got two waves in the hour and a half I was out. It was very sectiony but my twin trailer combo straight up flies down the line. It got dark and my buddy and I surfed well past last light. There was enough light to extend the session a bit and that we did.

This evening was much better. Same size, less cold and windy and light onshore and more lined up. Caught 10 or so decent ones in the 45 minutes I was out.

Off tmrw for a dp and maybe an afternoon sesh. Wouldn’t be mad if this water warms up a little bit for us....

 

I used to always go, but now I'm like, 'nah'.

Plus living at the beach now makes you lazy. When I used to drive 30 min to the beach, I'd always go out cause I just drove 30 minutes to the beach.

 

It’s true. When I lived near Tampa, I had a 2 - 2.5hr drive each way to the East Coast depending on the beach I was going to. When I got there I surfed no matter what. Now, being a short drive to the beach, I might check it 2-3 days in a row without paddling out if conditions are meh. This usually happens following a good swell. It’s hard to get it up for crap conditions when I just scored great conditions. It takes a few days of not getting wet to accept crap conditions and paddle out anyways sometimes. I’m trying to be less picky though, I remind myself I grew up on the Gulf.

 

I can definitely relate to all of the points made above. I also sometimes paddle out because of the possibility that it's better than it looks, or that it's going to get better in 15 minutes. And it's happened plenty of times that I'm right... it ends up being a lot more fun than expected. This was especially true the previous two winters when I was surfing before work. I feel like my subconscious would play all sorts of tricks on me to avoid into freezing cold water first thing in the morning, when I'd been warm in bed half an hour earlier. So many times, my initial instinct was that the waves look like crap and I paddled out anyway and it turned out to be waist or chest high and clean and super fun.

I would agree that living so close means being more willing to pass on mediocre waves. But even more than fully missing it, I sometimes tend to delay going out, waiting for it to get better (which only seems to happen like 20% of the time, usually it gets worse, regardless of forecast). The ability to check it repeatedly throughout the day is awesome, but definitely leads to some days where I spend way more time checking it, waiting, and thinking about surfing than actually surfing.

And the recency of good swell is definitely a major factor. Which is why I went out yesterday, and had my worst session in months. I haven't had a good session since christmas eve and I'm getting desperate. Grayson swell I couldn't get my car out in time to get to the beach, and it was gone by the next morning. Saturday was huge and heavy but the wind wasn't quite right (and I'm a pussy). Got one brief ride but was mostly just relieved to get back to the beach alive. Sunday was the coldest session of my life and while I found clean waves by heading south, they were mostly closeouts and I never got one that lined up for more than a couple seconds.

Chest high and onshore can absolutely be fun, but yesterday wasn't, at least for me. Surfed a spot where I've rarely seen anyone else out (other than friends I meet there), even on great days in the summer, that can be sick under the right conditions but often tends toward very hard closeouts and has strange currents and rocks to navigate getting in and out of the water. Made it out initially but got swept right in front of some rocks. In the process of fighting the current to paddle over I got caught inside and spent the next 20-30 minutes repeatedly trying to paddle back out and getting caught and beaten back to the beach. Shockingly powerful waves and difficult paddle out for chest high (could've been partially the spot?). Finally got out and walked 100 yds up the beach and tried a different paddling lane, made it out but it was almost too dark to see, at which point I ate shit on a closeout and got beaten back to shore. Completely exhausted after less than an hour in the water, and with about a 40:0 ice cream headache to wave ridden ratio. Still waiting for that next legitimately fun session, maybe today?

 

The only upside to a session like yesterday where I get completely shut down (i.e. zero rides, period, which thankfully only happens a couple times a year at this point) is it seems to more often than not be followed by a good session. Like the one I just had on my lunchbreak. Which was only about 25 min long, but waves were chest to head high and perfect and only 4 other guys out. Super efficient, got three rides, two really really good ones, before heading back to work. As much as very short winter sessions have obvious drawbacks (i.e. more time and effort spent changing than actually surfing), it feels like good waves just come to me nonstop. I'm guessing my subconscious knows I gotta be efficient and makes me paddle for everything, but it's weird, like I see the waves through some sort of filter that makes them all look more rideable. Whereas when I go out for a long session I am pickier, but not intentionally... I tell myself to paddle for anything that looks like a wave, but then I just don't see them coming that frequently. Maybe I've just been lucky recently on my short sessions.

 

Its been pretty big in SD the past few days. Ended up surfing a novelty wave inside the inlet yesterday. Pretty cool experience

 

It was solid head high plus liners today in Jupiter, got out too late, about noon, the wind swang around a bit onshore but still kinda light. Just got back. Wind made it kinda lumpy and kinda close outish, and I ate it on the first two. My new wetsuite was nice, I can breathe again! I went up from a L to a XL, got the ONeil hyperflex. Water is down to 70 degrees, burrritos.

A few guys were getting some steeper rights and some long lefts. I finally got into a few. Last wave was sweet, a long left that connected to the inside. Not too bad of a current, wish I had all day to surf today, but gotta make a dollah, hollah hollah. Life is goode.

 

Got out on Sunday, def not epic, actually it sucked and was cold as hell! BUT, I hadn't been out in quite a while. Wind was cranking in from the north and waves were kind of breaking all over the place. Only was out for about 45 minutes, but scored a couple decent rides. Seemed like conditions were getting worse so I wrapped it up. Cold as hell, waves sucked, current cranking, wind cranking, still had fun!!!

 

Clean chest - head high waves this afternoon! Soooo much fun on the LB. Medium period ESE swell with light WNW wind making for long rights and some A-frames mixed in where you could get a fun left. I took my time early on, just soaking it in and enjoying the great weather and perfect waves. Then I started picking them off one by one, each one better than the next. Finished on a high note with one that will be remembered for a while. January has been awesome!

 

2 sessions today , ocmd , stomach to shoulder on standout sets, I think Grayson undid some of the dredging nonsense they killed our breaks with this fall. Some new bars are forming, caught a few nice lefts.

 

Cold, hollow, low tide thumpers. Heavy wet-suit, water 40 deg., air 30 deg. Can't wait to go to PR.

 

Smallish clean lines yesterday. East swell, moderate NW winds. Maybe a longboard session this afternoon... that would be a nice change.

 

Cold AF yesterday but fun tubes. Ice cream headache season. Cant wait for the tropics either. Enjoy your PR trip - first year I am not going in a while, settled for Barbados this year. Hope to get back to PR next year.

 

All you dudes planning trips to the tropics... getting jealous.

I'm looking at Ireland in June. What is WRONG with me!?!?