who here has been surfing this week?

Sup guys? Been surfing too much to post lately!

Friday night was the best of the weekend. Solid chest to head high swell coming in with a light offshore breeze. Got off work and raced down to the beach. It was crowded but most people were on short boards and here I am rolling up on a super flat 9'6.

I paddle out just a few feet deeper than the lineup, and before I can even sit on my board here comes a cleanup set. Everyone scratches out of it's way but I turn and take off late on a solid right. All I can think is how much earlier I could have been on this wave.

So I paddle back out, this time I go directly to the peak. Now i'm about 50-75 feet further out than anyone else in the lineup, except for one SUP'er waaaay down the beach. I wait not even 5 minutes and here comes another set. I let the first wave (scraps) go the guys on the inside and I turn for a beautiful head high a-frame. I'm to the right of the peak. I'm in super early, fade right, bottom turn to the left, big cutback and slot into the right just as the wave starts to break. I look over my shoulder and all the guys on the inside are duckdiving.

I can't remember how many turns I did but that was a loooong ride to the beach. I head back to the peak and still no one else is out that far, even the other longboard dudes. The next 2 hours are more of the same. Frequent chunky sets all evening. By the time i'm catching my last few waves I have reached Nirvana. That's the only way I describe the feeling of surfing the best you can surf in good waves for several hours. Pure zen.

So we head home and hit the grocery on the way. Hands down, the best thing about having a giant surf van is being able to securely lock up my boards out of sight when I need to leave them in for a few minutes or even days. I used to stress the **** out when they were strapped to the roof of my Honda.

We cook pepper-jack cheeseburgers on the grill, with grilled mushrooms and onions, sliced tomato, romaine lettuce, and artisan whole-seed mustard. On the side we had a huge Caesar salad with a whole head of romaine and one of those fancy refrigerated salad dressings you get in the produce section. I wash it down with a Sierra Nevada Torpedo tall-boy and fall asleep on the couch with my wife watching Ice Road Truckers re-runs. What a life.

 

Yeah, we are getting the goods in New England. I checked my regular spot early this morning and it was packed. Offshore, glassy as hell, and packed. Parking was even getting bad early. I decided to check a different spot that would have sideshore winds, hoping it would be less busy and it was. At its busiest there were about 10 of us out, and when I left only 3. Perfect. The spot is known for its long lefts, and everyone goes for the left, but on the bigger waves the right is one of my favorites in town. There was a long, long lull between the bigger sets but they did come through, and I got a lot of gems. I got a solid overhead bomb, easy early drop, deep bottom turn heading right, and just a big solid wall in front of me to play with. The right hits deeper water so it holds up forever, your not really trying to outrun the closeout or make the next section, just a big steep rolling wall that even an old bastard like me can carve to hell.
I had a quick ham and swiss on whole wheat, lettuce, tomato, lots of mayo, and a nearly over ripe orange, it was dripping with sugar. Time to get some work done, I do plan on heading out later to take pics and vids, if any come out ok I'll post them. Tomorrow is supposed to be big, getting a little bit of the butterflies.

 

Completely forgot to mention that on Sunday I surfed with Lamb of God front-man Randy Blythe. I saw a wild looking dude out there and upon further inspection (and seeing his post on kook of the day) I confirmed that I was in fact, in the presence of a metal god. ****ing epic.

 

It was a total raging disorganized mess with constant Non-Stop waves not coming in sets. It was anywhere from five to eight feet depending on where you were sitting. Sadly I report my first attempt to paddle out I did not quite make it. I know shame on me second attempt something magical must have happened in the window opened up and I paddled out in no time which was weird. Caught a few or maybe a few caught me fast fun rides but short-lived. Anyway it's always really good to hear you guys talk about your surfing Adventures and it looks like we're going to have surf 4 weeks down here.

 

Winds changed direction for the afternoon

That is awesome, didn't know he surfed

 

Pretty epic couple of days. Last night it was bombing down the street from my house.

My 15 year old.



Cory Lopez showed up and was destroying the place.

 

Had a breakthrough with the salty fuckers at Campgrounds. Got "invited" to the main peak by one of the bros as we were sitting and chatting.

About waist high and not a breath of wind. Took out my 7'2" Kies Wide Nose Fish, which doesn't look much at all like a fish, and got a ton of waves. The board is really good for just gliding down the line and make some easy turns. It's way too much board for me to throw around at 150 pounds.

This work from home thing is a hygiene killer. Threw on a hat when I got home, grabbed a bowl of Trader Joes Maple Nut Cluster Crack Cereal and got to work. Oh, and a cup of coffee, of course.

 

Sick! Your 15 yr old charges CJ

 

Thanks. His big brother does too but is a little more elusive to photograph these days.

 

This great run of swell continues... Smaller today but this morning there were light winds and glassy conditions for the AM surf check. Hope to get out againe today after work. Better tide situation then, too...

 

Plenty of swell in the water but the wind has been blowing sideshore for like 5 days straight.

While the surf junked up I have had plenty of time to work on my main project at the moment, restoring a 1976 19 foot Manatee run-about. Very solid boat with the original 85hp Evinrude that still runs great. The only issue is that about 2/3 of the plywood floor has rotted. At this point I have the floor up and all the old foam out. I removed 100+ pounds of water-logged foam from the hull, and it's been drying out for about 3 weeks. Yesterday I spent a brand new longboard's worth of $$$ on the pour-foam and fiberglass needed to finish her up. Still need to buy plywood for the floor though.

The boat is essentially a giant surfboard: Wooden stringers, surrounded by foam, and covered in fiberglass.

Can't wait to explore some of the uninhabited islands around here once I get this rig back in the water.

 

A few more samples from this week.

 

photo by Torcia , NY .

 

Carlsbad is uniquely positioned on a bend in the coast. It picks up some of the south swell that areas to the south of us don't. Today was one of those days. There was some steep south in the water that was nicely broken up by some NW wind swell. Campgrounds was crowed as fuck, but I sit off to the north of the main peak in a area thats just past a deep hole, so most set waves taken from the main peak don't run all the way through. There are exceptions, but it's a good spot to pick off some of the walls from the long period swell. I took out my 6'4" Kies thruster today and got a bunch of good ones. Some of them were slightly overhead ( to me, at 5'4" ). Great morning of surfing. Now, I've got to jump on an IT All Hands call where we will probably be discussing the upcoming lay offs.

 

Thanks. I think I'll be alright. My boss and his boss have both said they think everyone in our group should be fine. We are viewed as the innovators and problem solvers and the company is committed to our site in Carlsbad (corp office is in San Jose).

Yeah, that spot was really cool today. With the angle of the swell, the secondary peak was a sweet little bowly section. Super fun.

 

Unridable this morning... first time in several days. But what a run of surf we've had! Surfed every day for almost a week straight... I lost count.