who here has been surfing this week?

"Think small... think small... think small..."

 

Love the birds in the pics, that's aweome

 

I feel like I'm starting to sound like a broken record. Waist to chest, little to no wind. Clean. Fun. VERY light crowd for a Saturday which was really nice.

 

Not much has been happening up north, had one chance to get a little morning sickness last Tues, clean waist high at 7 am, went home to make calls, coffee, and took my time, by 9 it was gone.
Went mushrooming for my first time last week, scored Hen Of The Woods, Oysters (which really pleased my buddy who took me out, said they usually don't show up till next month) and some type of Chestnut mushroom? Once again, these really pleased my friend, he is in his mid 70's, been doing this since he was 5. He said they were his dads favorite mushroom, he hadn't seen them in a while, brought back memories for him.
I only kept a couple big caps from the Oysters, they were the size of my palm, fried them in oil with a little salt, and holy sh!t they were delicious, had a meaty taste different than portobellos or buttons.
I am hooked, taking my kid to volleyball practice in a little and plan on hitting up the patch of woods near the boys and girls club.

 

Mushrooming sounds like a blast. Take a nice walk through the woods and get some food out of it!

 

Paddled out Saturday afternoon to play in the wind swell. It was bigger than it looked and pretty fun in a challenging way. I caught one really satisfying left where I got a super easy cover-up.

At the end of the session I was paddling for a doubled up set, and despite my best effort I pearled and lost my grip on my board. It shot out behind me, and according to my wife the wind caught it and twirled my heavy ass nose-rider in the air for a bit.

Instinctively I put my hand out of the water first, but I guess I completely missed because I came up to take a breath and before I can open my eyes... WHACK!! The nose of the board hits me right in the front/bottom teeth.

First thing I do it count my teeth with my tongue. They are all present and accounted for. Next I spit in my hand to see if i'm bleeding... oh ya lots of blood. I belly ride in and my lip is already swelling. Wifey catches up and I start explaining what happened but my lip is searing.

Fortunately the bleeding stops in about 10 minutes and I don't need stitches. I pick up a bottle of makers mark on the way home and self medicate with that and a bag of ice.

 

Great way to start the week....paddled out before sunrise, got a few nugs, shot these around 8:00, wasn't even late to work. Mid Atlantic looking to get hooked up this week.

 

interesting. just talked last night with a bud about if we don't do PR in February, what'd be our backup...Mainland Mexico via Mex City. Looking forward to hearing your report, also in midst of reading Bad Karma that talks about mainland Mex.
Yesterday noon after a somewhat of a hangova and Monday work BS, i took to the water with this bullet board i got on the cheap, called Snowflake. Soft push around waist hi, sideshorish, by the pier - which is currently being rebuilt but not affecting our surf boundaries yet. Waves looked tempting, but once you're out there you're kinda like ehh... Got a couple and was somewhat content to ride something. It's a fast board, but pretty useless around here - maybe on that trop storm this week, i'll use it once more. Still rocking just the rashguard. Undecided on when i need to wax off the boarts

 

I got a rail to the nose last year. So much blood, looked like I was chumming for sharks.

Given the stiff offshore breeze, I smartly lingered underwater knowing the scenario, and even put my hand out when I surfaced, no matter, the board waited for me, then came down with wind driven force onto the bridge of my nose. Thought it was broken, but just ended up being a blood fest.

 

Yea, the hand out of the water first works great... until it doesn't. Glad to hear it wasn't broken. Face injuries bleed so much!

 

Part of my haul from Sunday... viz was incredible. Shot two stripers and my son shot a nice tog.

 

Nice. I've always wanted to try that but between the boat traffic and the muddy water in my area never did.

 

Spearfishing in NJ is... shall we say... "challenging." LOL. We got out at sun up, and dove for about 45 minutes. As soon as we left the place was swamped with boats. Like, 6 boats all targeting bass, but not a single fish caught. Why? 'Cause they weren't feeding. They were just there, hanging out. Probably fed all night, because you can see the bass in that pic has full belly. Visibility is "good"... meaning in the 8' range... only about a dozen times a year, and "really good"... meaning in the 12' range... maybe, MAYBE 2-3 times per year. The rest of the time it's take what you can get... with 4'-5' viz being the norm. Which sucks.

If you spearfish in Jersey, you gotta be on it when it's good. That's what it's all about around here. Take it when it comes. Don't force it... that's when bad things happen.

 

Sup guys?

I made it out yesterday for an after-work session. It was either last year or the year before that the town of WB decided that pay parking should go until 7pm instead of 6pm. After work used to be the free-parking session. Now it costs me 5 f***ing bones to go surf after work. $5 to park for an hour. I'm paying the town nearly minimum wage to put my van on their road for an hour. Fortunately after 10/31 parking is free again, until 3/1.

Anywho, I paddled into some mixed up ground/wind swell. I was going to take it easy due to my busted lip but that lasted until I dropped into my first wave. It was challenging and difficult to get a good one but there were some rewarding rides. I stayed out until past dark, which is about 7pm at this point.

Came home and made chicken parm over angel hair pasta, but substituted a mix of Colby jack, pepper jack and pecorino romano for the parm. If you like strong Italian cheese, you need try pecorino romano. Made with sheep's milk, it's not for the faint of heart. I also made a big romaine salad with a pile of feta.

 

One of my favorites!

 

yesterday afternoon was a LB session. Lotta regulars there in one spot, same spot i happened to park. walked to the end of a vacant jetty. Got skunked more than i caught, but the rides were stellar. It was a strange angle, and all those lightweight wahines were able to take two paddles and they were smooth sailing. Was kinda jelly, but still in good spirits. Kinda hoping this Epsilon goes up quicker than usual, got a kayak trip in the Edisto rav'r on Saturday and i wanna catch all the waves it produces

 

Glassy, waist high longboard waves yesterday afternoon. Super thick fog. Gave it that kinda creepy Halloween vibe.