who here has been surfing this week?

The beach after the sand replenished has a deep drop off exploding in shallow water . I had 3 waves detonate ion my head and must have clenched my jaw . Since the dentist was in my hood he came over gave it a wiggle and out it popped . Getting a crown cut off next week , oh joy !

 

I had a painful, bad tooth for years that I finally had extracted and prepped for an implant this fall. They packed it with ground up cadaver bone and it healed up nicely. I get the screw part of the implant in April. Not looking forward to that...

 

I have extensive implants in , if the titanium takes u r good to go LB. My adult son who is 28 rejected the titanium , and ended up with a bridge .

 

Overall 50gs is what I have spent in 40 years . Crowns , root canals , bridges , than they go bad and so you get to add implants into that equation . If thats the worse that happens to me I am good . 71 this April

 

Well... Since I'm made of iron, titanium should not be a problem.

LOL!

 

i've had a few put in and one that had to be removed, quite a few years later. the removal was an excruciatingly painful procedure that took a solid month to heal. can't imagine one getting knocked out

 

I thought it was bad deep as I had been complaining since summer . The leaky syndrome is my vernacular yet the DDS stating it was in solid and just a gum issue . As he had removed 10 crowns and replaced them with implants he knew I wanted this one out . He did laugh in my kitchen , his comment was that was easy .

 

ahh, got some rides this morning. warm air temps, cold water - boots, gloves, no head cap needed IMO. Took the 7'2 hog molly to get me back in rhythm for PR. Knew i could get some, size was TBD yesterday with forecasts perplexed but i tried convincing my bouyz last nite that there'd be a good chance before it rains thru the wknd. Stomach to shoulder hi, soft but enuff size to power u down the sand bar to grab a double otw to shore. Lotta peaks to get on, shorty approved so well worthwhile n crowd was minor. So glad to get on it, feeling betta prepared now and in general just feeling betta

 

Just got back from a strike mission to Puerto Rico with my son. Chased a swell that didn't quite live up to expectations but regardless we found fun surf every day from shoulder high to a few feet overhead. Not a lot of pictures this trip between myself surfing and a couple days where the sun never came out.

I have a Love-Hate relationship with Puerto Rico. Had a couple of days where I felt like I could live there and a couple of days where I swore I'd never go back. Had a couple sessions that were super fun and a couple where the crowd totally ruined it.

 

Exactly why I stopped going there about 15/20 years ago. I just couldn't deal with the crowds... especially when there's marginal swell and only a few spots would be working. Fortunately, there are tons of other islands that get great surf and are relatively uncrowded. They're just harder and more expensive to get to... and may or may not have great accommodations, entertainment, etc... if that's important to you.

Glad you scored though... just that blue water is enough to start me dreamin'...

 

Longboards and overfoamed surfcraft along with the influx of newbies has killed surfing especially at places like Puerto Rico. We did a dawn patrol at Jobos yesterday and a surf school instructor was taking 10 beginners out. That's just shocking to me.

Wilderness was in the excellent range on Sunday and despite the great surf virtually no set waves were ridden by guys on HP shortboards. Even my 16 year old was beyond frustrated. Forget spots like Marias. Dream waves at spots that are overrun by people going strait and using foam for the paddling advantage and to mask lack of ability. So frustrating.

Did get Wishing Wells going off Saturday morning with a light crowd and Monday Morning I got the pick of outside set waves near the rocks by being extremely patient sitting 40 yards further out than anybody. Had about five gems that connected from all the way by the rocks to the far end of the beach.

 

got back in last night myself from PR, just caught up on emails. Was unrideable until like Sunday at least up north. Didn't see anything until Sunday evening at Wilderness, crowded, was thinking of paddling out then it just poured down. Was with a bud, so wasn't gonna hold him up for it. Next morning was feasible, went to Surfer's Beach (without a leash cuz i like to spread out my surf sht like a moron leaving it in bag at aguadilla airbnb). Had a couple decent ones, head hi conditions there, lil unruly n disorganized but drifted west real quick so popped out of there. Knew we were going down that day to La Parguera, riding thru Rincon. Saw Sandy beach had some waist hi's, but nobody was out there n kinda wondered why so i decided to check Domes. Buncha ppl south of the spot but only a handful north by the rocks so i stayed up norte. It was waist to chest, and the handful of ppls out there were mostly a group of friends - several of dem were pretty dam good busting a couple airs and quick snaps. Had a baker's dozen, then headed south from there and nothing was producing after. I wouldn't say it was a good "surf" trip, but we ended up seeing so so much sht along the coast all the way. Rain was a bummer, but maybe an actual pinned down PR surf trip at some point in the future. Now that i have traveled the whole coast of PR...lil bit of a self accomplishment for myself, I would feel better of when, where to go

 

Ol' Barry Cuda will tell ya... there was a time when you could get Marias or Wildo on solid 8' day with only a handful of guys out. NOT during spring break or winter break, but on a regular weekday in January or February. I distinctly recall getting Domes at first light all to myself one time for about two hours before anyone else showed up. This was back when everyone rode single fins, and surfers from all over camped out in tents along the beach. At one time I was one of them.

 

Puerto Rico is a lot like Hatteras in that you have to know when to be where based on wind and swell. We stayed near Wilderness this time.

Thursday we got Jobos really fun before dark with only a couple other people out.

Friday Rincon was the call. It was a zoo but the waves were good. Last picture of my post above is a set wave at Domes on Friday.

Saturday was firing at a number of spots. We found Wishing Wells firing with not many people around and just stayed there. I know other spots were bigger and better......but way more crowded. We went and checked the crazy Left at Survivor Beach in the afternoon and it was borderline doable. There were some sick left barrels out there but nobody was out. Had there been one other soul giving it a go I'm sure my son would have paddled out.

Sunday morning Wilderness was really good but was a zoo. Guessing Jobos was fun too in the morning. By 1:00 on Sunday it was not very good at Wilderness. Terrible actually. Wind had swung around. You really have to be on it in the morning in PR when the trades are blowing.

Monday was back to Rincon where it was Shoulder high with overhead sets about every 15 minutes. Kind of crapped out mid day but got good again late afternoon.....then got super crowded as it got closer to dark.

Tuesday morning dawn patrol at Jobos was really good. By 8am it was getting crowded. The first picture in my post above was taken around 7:00 Tuesday morning at Jobos.

The two shots below are from Sunday morning at Wilderness before the wind got it. Neither one of these were set waves. These were more or less the scraps guys were catching on the inside or that swung wide.

 

First time I went was in 1996 or 1997 and back then the Isabella and Aguadilla area had no crowds at all. Rincon probably 1/4 of the people in the water of what I see there now.

 

My first trip there was in '82. All of Rincon seemed to be just a bunch of hippies. I'd actually hitchhike from San Juan to Rincon and 9 times out of 10 I'd get picked up by other surfers.

 

First trip we stayed in this hotel over top of a dive bar on the beach at Jobos. It was in better shape back then but its still standing.

 

Since we're totally derailing this thread... here's a legendary beach shack literally sitting overtop a prime surf spot in Tortola... Bomba Shack at Apple Bay (aka Capoons Bay)... a rippable right with a pitching peak that you can get barreled on takeoff, then another barrel section on the inside. The left is a down-the-line, hollow but smaller freightrain that's pretty shallow. But you can lock into the pocket the whole way.

But the Bomba Shack...oh man... nasty stuff happens there, especially on full moons.

 

CJ , The Good , the bad , and the ugly is PR . Love the water down there , no doubt about that !

 

LB , Cane 12/1/95