who here has been surfing this week?

Was that the 2nd jetty contest? I was in jersey this weekend and happened upon a contest near a restaurant we visited. Surf at high tide on Sat was super fun

 

Were you in Long Branch? That was the Clean Ocean Action comp.

 

No. It was a high school contest in Ocean City.

 

Yep. I was in long branch. I think restuarnt was called Charlies? I did not surf there. Surfed a little farther south

 

I was a half a beach north of Charlies... had to listen to the whole f-ing comp my entire session. lol

And by the way... Charlies sucks now. It used to be an awesome steak house with the best Bermuda fish chowder you've ever had. Locals mostly. Now it's a tourist trap.

 

Trap worked. My wife somehow heard about it. They asked us if we had reservations which was funny because there were not many people there. We tried to go to our favorite brick oven pizza joint (Rockefeller station) but it was only open for carry out.

 

For those in need of new rubber , the fall of 2020 has wetsuit issues. Most brands are in back order , Xcel , Rip Curl , Patagonia basically have no inventory .

 

Fricken pandemic.

 

Got out this morning after about a week of less than stellar waves/conditions. Wind was offshore, but the swell was very lully with set waves only reaching maybe stomach high. That being said, still have a fun session on the 7'2". Decided that I would roll with me 2 mil suit since the water temps were still decent. Ended up being cold for the first hour with the wind and no sun. Warmed up when the sun came up. Immediately put my key in my 3/2 when I got home and retired the 2 mil for the season. Only bummer was a couple of tourists floundering around on the inside. Got ready to stand up on a set wave and he/she (not entirely sure)was just standing there next to the floating board staring at me. Had to cut sharp to the peak and bail to keep from hitting it/him/her. No dig damage, but with the waves being slim pickin's, was kind of a bummer.

 

Surfing is the only good to come out of this COVID era.

I’m probably at the best I’ve been since 2011 or so.

Dying to take a trip somewhere, but who knows with all the 14 day quarantine bullshit after entering different countries/Hawaii.

I’ve been going at it quite a bit, but only at home in Jersey. But I have been all over the state to surf different spots I ain’t hit in years. I have plenty of downtime.

 

Good timing, too... with this run of surf. I'm pretty much stuck to about a 10 mile radius, but might get outta Dodge soon.

 

Its had the opposite effect on me. Before Covid I was in the gym and in the pool almost every day there weren't waves. Was surfing good and feeling good. Since Covid I haven't gone to the gym or pool and the surf has been crazy crowded. I look at the crowds some days and am so bummed I don't even paddle out. Its such a buzzkill to me. My motivation has been way down, my fitness has been down and I'm surfing like poo. I used to shoot pictures when I was injured and these days I shoot pictures when I just can't get motivated to paddle out. Playing with the camera is more enjoyable than paddle battling. Drove an hour north last weekend to surf away from the shitshow at the end of my street. I really need a surf trip.

 

I feel you, brother. I almost didn't paddle out the best day of the Teddy swell because of the crowd. But I sorta forced myself to. I just tried to stay in the gap between crowds and pick off the ones that would swing wide. I wasn't sitting on the primo peak, but F it... so what. I got a bunch of really good ones, and was happy I pushed myself out of the darkness of a bad attitude and into the light.

 

100% agree. I kind of expect it during the summer and switch up spots to get away from them. Fine...been doing that for 20 years. Then Labor Day came and went...most years weekdays become tolerable at that point and I can go back to surfing the spots I want to surf, but this fall it's still packed on weekdays...then September came and went and no real change in the crowds.

Now October is about gone and most sessions on so-so days in the middle of the week right up until last week, it is still summer-like crowded. There are the 5-10 locals I expect to see year-round and mostly enjoy surfing with but then add a couple dozen grade school learners that stand around on the inside, and 25-50 year old learners from Washington/Baltimore that are ***ing 3 hours from home surfing chest high waves at 3 p.m on a Tuesday afternoon in ***ing mid October.

And i'm in lousy surf-shape not getting any younger. Yeah...its been such a consistent year surfwise, and so consistently aggravating crowd-wise.

 

yo fellas, i started off the wknd getting into the water Friday evening after work. We had two shots of swell this wknd, first from Zeta's impact and the other from a cold front. Friday morning was better than i thought, one of those days waves shape well despite +15mph winds. Didn't jump on that opportunity, so was hoping a rise in the tide in the bakc half of the day would work.Buddy and I grabbed some mid-lenths for some thi to waist. They were playful easy waves that i was glad we caught anything on without a LB. Sunday's session, also an evening one tho it didn't look worthy in the morning this time, was same kinda size - maybe a notch bigger. A bit dumpy tho, but again mid-lengths got us on em and we were much happier. Sunday was a bit more crowded, but we coulda veered away - just daylight and drift got us into it so we sucked it up. Not too bad of a wknd, nothing too spooky bout it despite the wknd warnings

 

Yea, so much for gentleman's hour after 9am on weekdays. Everyone's home now, twiddling their thumbs with time to kill, or flexible work schedules. It's like everyone figured out my master plan. Stupid pandemic.

 

Surfed the last two days. Super clean conditions, but there hasn't been much size. Waist high at best, which was made a bit weak by the tide. Still good to get out there and get wet. Really digging the fact that I can paddle out earlier.