Hey, Sketchy Sessions.........and tales of intrigue

All my creepy, fog encapsulated far out-at sea stories are from the west coast and baja...

But I did catch a nice 3-5 foot day here on Hilton Head in the spring. I started at the most commonly surfed beach on the island. We have a small jetty/rivermouth that seperates the beach from a private community beach to the south. I started about a mile north of the jetty and caught about 5 waves. By my fifth wave, I had drifted past the jetty, past the rivermouth and ended up about a half mile into a private community... Nothing like yours... now that I think about it, mine isnt much of a story at all. Just an all too common day on the Atlantic with side drift... booo me. If we start a west coast thread, I could actually contribute.

 

Bout 5 years ago,Middle of October.Roll up to the break where my buddy is.The water is bloddy red and my friend is catching about 3 foot waves and having a blast.Took me a few minutes to decide if I should go in.So of course I go in,theres waves.Starts getting dark and my bud catches a wave and starts yelling.He thought something was chasing him(pretty funny)Turns out it was phytoplankton lighting up so I was told.They left an extreamly bright blue trail behind his board(not to be confused with a Chemtrail)It gets dark and its also a full moon.Its hard to describe but every motion in the water lights up bright blue.If you paddle it leaves a huge bright blue trail,if you catch a wave it leaves a blue steak behind it even when a wave broke it just lit up.One of the coolest things Ive seen out there.I hear its common in tropical waters but rarely in N.J..

 

okay so here is the story i had to live away from the coast for a year or so and was living near lake Erie and i would get a session here or there, but i was starving for some surf i was pretty depressed i had been sitting around the house after college classes/work doing nothing, so i really hadn't done anything physical (surf/swimming( related in 5months, completely out of shape you get the point. it was the time of the year when the huge south swells were hitting costa rica and said( im sick of this i need to some motivation) booked a plane ticket and left 3 days later i find my south in Liberia and surfed a few spots and traveled all the way down to mal pais.
.the first day im there it was about 10-14 so i met up with some people from new jersey seemed like some cool dudes and talked as if they were shredders(which they weren't) ,and they where told about this point break of course sounded good plus ive never surfed one. the beaches in santa teresa and hermosa weren't that great from the bigger swell which i surfed earlier in the day to tried and work up some paddling stamina. well we walk a few miles down the beach , make it there and what do we see beautiful huge left lines great for me im goofy .
there was only a little patch of beach to paddle out and a second little gape about 30 feet away and the rest is all volcanic rock imagine a break water but lining the beach but with razor sharp rock about 15 foot high and no escape, we had no local info on it so we watched a few dudes paddle out and i was like lets go, one of the dudes was to scared to paddle out and other dude was hesitant but i talked him into it. we waited for a lull and started paddling out, i started to get a head of him and he got sucked back into the shore pound. so it was just me and a local guy which was about 30 meters in front of me. everything is going great ducked a few waves and all is good all until suddenly i started getting sucked to left towards this huge 20ft rock before the other little other opening in the beach, i didn't freak or anything but kept trying to paddle north towards the line up it was getting stronger and started to pull me towards the long line of volcanic beach note: there was also huge waves smashing against them.
so i do get sucked into the land of no escape and at that point my only hope was to paddle for that little gap with all the strength in my body i was able to escape w/o getting pinned into the rocks, but still had a little paddle in then this huge wave pounds me before the shore break i ditched my board not to get thrown into the huge rock and ducked under the wave which was powerfuly enough to... surprise throw me into some under water reef and my feet and legs got cut beyond belief then after i was able to make it to the little patch of beach, it could of been a lot worse, i think i made the best of situation and it could of been a lot worse.

 

Bioluminescence, it's awesome when it happens, I've surfed at night during a full moon in the gulf and this happened, also did a bio tour in PR in their world famous phosphorescent bay, which was like a salty bath tub, so salty the water was almost milky, felt good tough.

 

I love some people's punctuation, it makes the story so much easier to read.

 

Had a two hour session in CA with a couple dozen feeding and or breeding sharks. If anyone watched the show “Diamond Divers” on Spike TV, my best friend and surf buddy in San Diego was Sam from the show. He is the one that was hooking the pump into the sea floor on the TV show about 140 feet deep off the coast of South Africa when he cut his hand on the pump and got his arm stuck… 2 minutes after that, on camera he starts getting circled by pretty enormous great whites… He made his way up the pipe to the boat without being shredded, but it was crazy to see your boy on TV in a situation like that… Anyway, that does in fact relate to this story. Sam and I were going to surf a reef out by his house that we had surfed hundreds of times. Right before we paddled out, we heard a whistle from up on the cliff. It was another surfer who was pointing down into the reefs. We turned out to sea looking for what he was pointing at. And then we notice about 15-20 dorsal fins in the water. Circling, splashing, but not really moving quickly. Just circling. It looked like they were either eating or breeding. The smaller sharks were abour 3 feet long and the larger ones were about 6-7 max. We looked at each other, basically doing the “Should we go somewhere else”? I was pretty much ready to leave, but Sam kept saying, look, the biggest one is only 6 or so feet. It looks like they are feeding off the reefs. They aren’t interested in us. With that very quote, he jumped right off the edge of the reef and started paddling out. I took a big gulp and followed. So right where the reef point lines up, it goes left into the shallow reef. So for the next two hours, I was taking left handers, in the 4-5 foot range about 150 yards long right into the pit where the sharks were. They didn’t leave the whole time, so as I got to the inside, about 20 or so feet away, I just kept popping off the back and sprint-paddling back out. Every other surfer that approached the reef that day looked, waved to us as if we didn’t know and then eventually left without paddling out… It was a uneventful session as far as any bad shark incidents, but the waves were perfect… In retrospect, it was stupid, especially seeing that my close friend makes even stupider decisions while in South African Waters, with a bloody hand surrounded by great whites….

 

i honestly tried to paragraph it as you can see but it didnt work.. im still getting used to forums sorry to inconvenience you

 

The first time I surfed hollow waves, or I should say tried to surf hollow waves: I had only started surfing in June that year, trying to acquire as much skill as possible for the fall swells. I graduated from a 7' single fin waterlogged beast to a brand new 5'9" twin fin fish. It was thick, fat and made for waist to chest high summer surf. Fall came, and the first real swell was about 8', glassy and hollow, and breaking left really fast. We were surfing this spot called Blowing Rocks. The waves would break on and under the rocky ledge and shoot up through blowholes in the limestone, hence the name.

We didn't use leashes because it was considered being weak and soft. I paddled out, and on the first wave I took off, and did not have a clue as to how to properly angle a take off, or how to paddle down the wave a bit when it is really jacking to avoid the lip. So I get totally launched, and the board is now about 10 feet from the rocks, and I swim as fast as I can to get the board before it gets smashed. By the time I get to it we are both a bout 2 feet from the rocks, and the surf is surging, and sucks the board back out, real fast. It just shoots right past my head, and I duck just in time to avoid it drilling me. Then it comes flying past my head again, this time toward the rocks, and I swim away from the rocks before I get thrown on them. At this point I decided it was better for me to save myself than the board. I had to swim about a half mile north against the current to find a place to safely get out of the water. Then I see this tourist in a speedo walking up the beach with my board in two pieces. He gave the shredded foam and fiberglass to me and I wanted to cry.

 

surfed ocmd back in the day. night calm summer morning with glassy waist high conditions. 2 other dudes out. one guy noticed something floating inside of us and when we went to check it out, it was dead dude. turns out he had a heart attack swimming and floated down to us. creepy.

 

It was a cold cold summer morning. Swell peaking at 19 feet 26 seconds. Couple legends out along with myself and the" metal militia" boys. Swell wrapping perfectly into our favorite rock cove. 500 m long rights with a almost dry takeoff section right into dredging bus sized barrels. Pull in or don't even try was the motto. Sky dark blue and cloudy. Tide started to drop . . . . And so did the guys surfing the waves that day. 1 by 1 they would drop in and not come back. Some say they were caught in the 23000 m deep gorge located right on the the inside of the break but others thought maybe they just transcended into the 4th dimension. Anyway . . . .look at the horizon yelled sunny Garcia!!! Me and my metal militia boys paddle hard 30 foot faces right at us, I turn airdrop. . . . I can see the reef exposed below drop in pull in!!!!!! This is when time stops. I start traveling at light speed and then bammmmmmm!!!!!! Wake up on kitchen floor sweating. Must of got that laced ****?!

 

Okay here’s a story that’s not too crazy but still a little sketchy (it’s the best I’ve got). It was probably about 5 years ago, so I was still at semi-grom status. My buddy and I have just come over the crest of the hill and look down at the break to see some clean waist high lines, so we’re psyched. Another friend comes up the beach looking all spooked. He goes, “Hey guys I wouldn’t go in there. Just saw something in the water. Could have been a shark…blah blah blah.” The kid is a wicked germophobe so we figured he just saw a bluefish or something.

The waves were looking nice and that’s not something we get too often so we laughed it off and went surfing anyways. Had a fun session without incident. I get home and what do I see on the news? 16 foot great white spotted off the coast. Yikes!

 

the bioluminescence thing sounds awesome to experience, But a creepy red triangle story of my own does stand out in my head.
About 3 Years ago I woke up around daybreak and road my bike to check the waves (down in south jerz), a few people from work said it could be fun so I decided to take a look. I got there and it was clean 2/3foot waves,so I took out my longboard, . Paddled out all alone. The sky was thick and grey, but the sun was peaking through a little bit. It was eerie, I never mind paddling out alone but that I day I got a weary feeling in my stomach. I get out there and catch some fun ones, and for some reason there was nobody else out. No fishermen no walkers/joggers, lifegaurds, or other surfers. The closest surfer seemed to be about 4 jettys south of me and after a few minutes he seemed to have went in. I thought it was weird. The water also looked darker then usually it wasn't even green it looked tar black. I just did not feel right, started to bug out a little, looked around, shook it off. I just felt like something was watching me, that I wasn't the only one there. I took the first wave of the set in and got out of the water as fast as possible. Wonder why I bugged out like that, whole thing was just so odd. Wonder if the other guy had the same feelings that I did and ducked out...

 

I'm waiting for the climax to that tale. Was quite a buildup. In the meantime, it's no secret that rcarter's the guy to go to for happy pillz but in your case, the severe heebie jeebies schizoid-paranoia is cured best by Starchy's nectar. This time of year, he covertly slips it in his egg nog.

1943: Best 8-bit Nintendo war game ever.

 

My "sketchiest" session happened in the days before gopro's. My buds wanted some water shots and since we didn't have money for a camera or housing I had to go old school. Paddled out with a pad and some charcoal pencils and set to work. Most exhaustive session of my life but I did get some good footage, see attached:

 

My nomination for best post ever. Yeah, that's a big claim around here but this thing would give a run to SNL's Jeopardy skit. Genius.

 

Don't be pulling cool surf shots off the internet and claiming that it's you surfing! We're on to posers like you!!!

 

sketchy... A night out on the town in tamarindo, twas fun, apparently the hostel had a curfew, and I stayed out past it, couldn't get back in. I'm pretty drunk and aimlessly walking down the beach, because what else is there to do? I'm hanging out by the river mouth and I see a set of yellow eyes, low to the ground and they started charging at me. Having absolutely no idea what was about to happen I braced for impact. The eyes drew closer, and closer, I just knew that I was about to get eaten by a croc... here we go... turned out to be a beagle. She followed me around all night and we even shared some chicken on a stick and watched the sunrise together. True love.