who here has been surfing this week?

to me, it just seems like when they pumped the sand in late '06-'07, we lost one of the best breaks in DE. Man, '06 we got some swells there and those waves were straight legit, perfect hollow barrels, after they pumped, even with juice it just wasn't anywhere near what it was.

idk...could be the fact that i haven't been there in a long time (i did go the other night....too many damn horseshoe crabs, those prickly fvks). But I've literally checked it out so many times on the way to OC and there was jack sh!t, then gone to OC and it's awesome.

I guess I'm Delawarian that prefers Maryland beaches....and I'm ok with that.

 

Did the 0400 haul to TPTSNBN (state). Good from afar, far from good. No juice, no pop in the waves this morning. They weren't standing up much at all. Even on the 9'6 aircraft carrier it was a workout getting 15 waves within approx 90 mins.

Short period wind swell from Hermine wasn't happening out there today.

Seems like the bars aren't there anymore. Easy paddle out, but I couldn't feel or see any sandbars during minor/limited sande reconne.

Vastly better last week with Gassy Gaston's long/medium period swell Sunday-Wednesday.

 

Well comparatively outside of a few very specific setups it is always worth the extra drive. I live 15 minutes away and until the last year or so following the pump I have went an entire year without surfing in DE once, while never missing a swell...you do the math.

Big NE swells always tear that place up Yankee. It was super super good there for the Gaston swell, but a nice run of heavy NE just tore the bars to hell! That place literally operates the exact opposite of every other beachbreak on earth. The summer flatness lets the bars pile up nice and actual wave activity destroys the sand and gouges a huge trough. Every other beach needs a storm to pull sand back out into the water..

 

Had to go north to Maine to find clean swell, and it was nice to reacquaint myself with lips and barrels and waves that packed a punch. Although gustav sucked some serious ass, it did get in a bit paddle shape for Hermaine, and for that I thank you gustav.

 

Gaston, dummy, Gaston.....

 

I surfed the hook Monday and Tuesday.it wasn't closed to surfers,maybe sunday idk wasn't there sunday,actually I was in lb and sb sunday and it was mini victory at sea conditions.

I actually thought it was a lot smaller than it was down south,til I saw pics from down south and it was a lot bigger,probably 2ft overhead while south jers was chest to head high.

I was pretty surprised how it was Monday,thought it was going to be north winds all day,but the wind turned nw like 3pm and kept getting better.wasnt clean clean,but manageable.the current was gnar gnars,u drift to the north like 200 yards in the first minute of paddling,and u know how it is at the hook,its a point so where u paddle out is close to shore,but when u start drifting to the north u end up pretty far out,then have to paddle south to get in the lineup.it was good tho,lots of outside sets breaking way out at sea,thats rare around here

 

This week was unreal. I know a couple days of overhead waves & a smaller cleanup don't stack up to International standards, but who gives a f*ck about those. Even at the last minute it seemed like this storm could be a real mess for us- surfing and otherwise. And instead, for four days straight, it delivered legit to fun-sized swell and clean offshore conditions.

Sunday I got up early with little sleep. It was big and unruly when I got there- I can't say I was terribly excited to be welcomed home by those conditions after a tropical surf trip. I came up laughing after my first duck dive; I had nearly forgotten how little you could see in our brown-green soup. The current was abysmal, and as the wind shifted around, the waves varied from clean powerful peelers to chopped-up shifty dumpers. I always get spooked when solid swell is sloppy like that.

We got caught by a solid one and my buddy's leash snapped. He started swimming in and I tailed him, just in case. Took off on a fat right; after a fun drop the wave turned into a slopey mound, the kind where your turns feel like they're in slow-motion. It was the only solid wave I'd get that day.

Monday was sublime. Surfed the incoming to high. Well overhead on the sets, there was a little bit of everything for everyone. Hollow, occasionally spitting waves. Squared up, boxy-wedgey waves. Waves with long walls, that just wouldn't stop reforming. Whatever you wanted, it was there, and it was there all day. Near-perfection that just wouldn't stop.

Surfed my Bunger Quad and it was going as good as it possibly could. As the tide went out, it got smaller, but the wind was perfect and the sets never stopped. Grabbed the quad for a second session, only to realize that I had somehow blown out a fin ... the fin and box are just gone. Sh*t. Maybe in the shorebreak on the way in? Thankfully my buddy convinced me to bring my 7'3 singlefin (also Bunger).

Surfing those waves in 'trim-mode' proved to be every bit as fun as the quad. I was having the time of my life, getting in early, crouching for a slow cutback, and walking to the nose for a reform, high-line cheater five all the way to the beach. Okay, maybe a cheater one, haha. I'd come back from the bi-polar experiences of Indo to waves, boards, and friends of home, all at their best. Everything was right in the world.

We surfed so much that we forgot to have a proper meal- capped off a surreal sunset with a pitcher of Margarita and some Mexican food. Doesn't get better than that.

 

Probably the most jealous I've ever been this week. First we get "fair-to-good" forecast with overhead surf on Tuesday, and I'm all stoked since I know you guys are scoring up there. Then the day of it's blown out overhead surf. Waited all day to score but the winds never died and it was basically a typical VAS noreaster. F U Surflie I'm resigning my membership!

 

That pretty much sums it up.

One guy on a 9'0 got a wave from WAY outside at Stones (if you know where that is) and made it all the way past the end of the rocks and into the middle, where it broke again. Insane. I've never gotten a wave there like that in my life. Probably never will.

Oh... and today, it was pretty much over. Chest high junk with 1/10 the juice it's had for the past... almost... week.

But I ain't complainin'

 

Pretty great day for me. Had to drive south a bit. Down to Sea Isle City and then a couple spots in Ocean City. A good combined 8 hours of surfing. Hope to get a couple more days in over this next week, before I have to go back to work for 7 months and get barely any time to surf.

Today was nice. Got to surf with some dudes that I barely get to even surf with once a year, who live down in Sea Isle. Hopefully I'll get something a little more local today.

 

Got out a couple times before and after work yesterday. Clean and waist high. The mysterious and elusive surfer girl in the thong from the day before was nowhere to be seen. Mostly flat out there this morning with thunderstorms.

 

Good surf story, Slashdog. Enjoyed reading it.

 

I had to go to work...

 

^^ HOF Plat

 

That's awesome Slash..

 

Last night and this morning's sessions were pretty wild. Despite the buoy and forecast fading from the last swell there were still plenty of sizeable waves out there. I figured it would be knee - waist at best, but it turned out to be waist to chest and even some head high peaks out there.

Although, with the onshore winds it was a constant barrage of white water so it was a lot of work but when I got one, it was time to boogie. I took the Fish out last evening and the LB this morning.

The inside and mid bars were all torn up and it was pretty ugly looking but I just kept paddling out as far as I could till I found a bar waaaaaaaaay outside that was breaking. Sometimes I couldn't be far enough out because no matter how far out I got there was a set breaking another 50-100 yards out from where I was already, it was like I was riding open ocean swells I was so far from shore. I kept looking back to make sure I wasn't getting sucked even further out and that's when I started to hear the Jaws music playing lol

I managed to get into a handful of screamers and just held on for the chunky, bumpy, lumpy ride. I obviously prefer a nice clean wave face but this was fun to me for some reason, it was like an aquatic rodeo! I was able to keep control on most of them and took them all the way to shore for some really long rides. But the paddle back out was punishing. A couple times I got stuck on the treadmill for like 5 minutes and then decided to get out and walk down and paddle back out, which seemed to do the trick. Not the best conditions, but dammit I had a blast!

Wave of the morning was the largest wave I had ridden on my LB in quite some time (been riding my SB's on anything over waist high for a while). Easily head high at the peak, the drop just seemed like it was going and going and going. I just got back on the tail and did my best to not fall.

Like a bucking bronco it tried to toss me several times but I would have none of that! No sir. Once I got through the drop I was able to actually carve this one up, made several turns and took it all the way to the sand. What a way to start the morning...

 

Waves have been kinda slow but went out on monday. Only about 2', pretty fickle. Ended up cracking my center fin off on my groveler (Getting repaired for $65 at ropers).

Long period SW swell was pretty fun this morning. I got to use my brand new AJW potato Launcher 2. First Session. Caught about 20 waves. Pulled into a few barrels I never made it out of but it felt really good under the lip. Really responsive, went were i needed it to...

Last wave, bout a 3' thick close out. Pop up to see the board cracked in half right on the stomp pad. $450 for about 20 waves... Not stoked!!

I do have a meeting with a client at the casino this afternoon - I think im gonna bring $50 and throw $10 on 5 numbers. possibly a quick new board. I play 23 & 25, give me 3 other numbers to play!

 

9, 12.

You still need one more

 

17

 

13