who here has been surfing this week?

Apologies for the long-winded blah blah blah. Being on the DL until April suxx arse.

Need to see more amazing surfing pics from Mitchell....

 

No need to apologize, I enjoy reading some of the more long-winded stuff on here and have been guilty of making my own long-winded posts here. I feel like outside of my best friend, who I live with and see every day and a few other close friends, who I don't see nearly every day, I don't have many to discuss surfing with. My teenage nephews too, but don't see them too, too much in these months.

I'm hoping to use my day off to hit the water later today, doesn't look like anything special though. If not, maybe I'll do the bike path or ride my other bike! 59 degrees for a high and sunny.

 

^^^ Great points.

 

Would like to say that the surfing posts of Betty, DPSup, Kan, Valhallalla, Coop & others are really great - - thanks.

 

Parenting - such a good subject. How hard to push? I pushed my kid really hard until age 12. He manned up one day and told me I was ahole. Really hard to hear. For me (and him) I had to back off. I never purposely tried to make him miserable or hate sports but that is what happened. Through introspection and advice I decided to back off. He has flourished since. Funny thing is that I coached youth sports for a long time and most of those kids thought I was great. Too bad I couldn't maintain that objectivity with my own kid. Good news is that we are 4 yrs beyond the tough times and our relationship couldn't be better. There are scars but they heal with time. I ain't preaching - just letting you know my experience with kids (both my own and others). My boy and I surf, fish, shoot together all the time.

 

I think Yankee nailed it. If they aren't having fun then what's the point (other than the parent feeling better about themselves).

I get to surf with a group of 3 grooms (including my little shreddah nephew) quite often, including this past weekend. The froth they have to seek and destroy lifts my spirits in the water. I remember last summer on a clean chest high day I was paddling back out and one of them said "that was actually a nice turn" lol! I said thx buddy. I was wondering to myself "actually"?...lol. I typically gravitate towards the groms vs other buds/cousins etc b/c of the stoke and it does wonders for me personally in the water.

 

This discussion (Yank & Smitty, et. al.) is good stuff.. resonated with my experience.. so I started a new thread topic to as not to distract this legendary thread's topic:
Parenting-Coaching

 

This morning was pretty fun on the LB despite a poor forecast. I checked the wind this morning and it was only 4-6kt SE / SSE so I figured it was worth a look. Turned out to be chest high and semi clean with a little bit of a bump on the surface. Chunky short / mid period swell mix. Mostly coming in from the ESE and the angle was a little weird at times but there were some fun peaks with some long rides when I played my cards right.

Best wave was my last wave, maybe shoulder high and it had a lot of speed compared to the others. I dropped in as it was critical, got back on the tail and made a swooping bottom turn and back up the face for a top turn, as I was bringing the board back around I walked to the nose and rode it all the way down the face as it was picking up speed I walked back to the tail for a cutback and went the opposite direction and then back on the nose into the reform picking up speed back on the tail with a little turn at the end to finish as it got deep and flattened out. Fun stuff.

 

Pretty good day in Belmar.

Well, it was just okay, but a mild February day with some kind of waves is always good.

Definitely a day where I was just a little sad that I didn't bring a longbort though. It was like knee high or so. Got a good 5 hours. My best friend, who only longborts it, had his and was nice enough to let me get a few on his.

Some of my favorite days are those mild to warm days in March and April, sometimes early May. Before everyone starts popping up all the over the place and filling up the lineup just to lay on a board out in the ocean. I just love everything about the atmosphere on a sunny and 65-80 degree day in the early Spring. It wasn't quite that warm here today though.

 

Surfed freight trains on Fri. morn. Drop and hang on. Sat. caught some decent waves but took the worst wipeout in a long time. Got caught up top, pitched and thankfully realized the bort was gonna castrate me. Got my hand on the back of the bort and hugged it with my legs 'till I could push it away. Got a gnarly 6" by 4" purple bruise on my inner thigh but saved the family jewels. Whew.

 

Hit it for an hour as the tide was dropping. The choppy wind choppe hit the bar by the jetty and bounced up to head high peaks, lefts and rights, and it was a paddle duck dive fest got four good ones in an hour, ate it a few times, and cut my ankle with my fin like a kook as I was duckdiving the choppy chop choppe. The only time I have been to the tower back up the beach for a band aid in years and he's busy talking to some random up the beach so I bled out. It's my ghost typing.

No, I'm still here but I could have bled out. If I was really bleeding. It was just a scrape. But I was kinda bleeding so I had to get out of the surf to not excite the wildlife, but it was only superficial, not a tendon or a hole. Life is goode.

 

What a great write up dogg. I felt just like I was right there with you bleeding out even though it wasn't really anywhere near as bad as you initially made it out to be.

I too got out into the choppy windchop choppe for a while Tuesday evening. It was just like Saturday only a whole lot smaller and not as clean and not as good and a lot more choppier. I still found enough fun ones that I could stitch together for some reasonable rides. Looks like some bigger choppier chop on tap for the weekend. Nice to surf at home for a change.

 

Carnage from Sat. near castration.

 

Lingering E / ESE windswell / trade swell mix this morning still hanging around the waist - chest range light winds putting a slight texture on the water but overall pretty clean. I opted for the Fish today and It was fun for a good 45 minutes on the mid incoming tide but the last 10-15 minutes were meh once the tide got on it. There were some decent shoulders early on with a few that allowed me to do what I wanted. I'll take it. Water is so warm right now, I haven't seen a big fish recently, i'm sure that's about to change though as Spring / Summer is approaching, already feels like it outside.

 

Saturday was pretty beastly. i can see how some ppl got whipped by the shoulder hi, boulder like slabs. Pretty tough paddle out then too. Went out yesterday evening to the Washout, much cleaner than my outside break. Had some good ones on the 7'2" Hog Molly. Mostly waist, but some shoulder hi as well. Little bit of chop, they broke quickly so plenty of short timed waveriding. The better ones were those that carried me all the way to ankle hi water, . lefts and rights, a few cutbacks here and there

 

Yeh I got pitched and the bort came shooting back at my family jewels. Managed to get a hand on the tail and gripped it with my legs until I could push it away. Sketchy few seconds. Lucky I just got a gnarly bruise coulda been worse.

 

Paddled out for about 45 min after work yesterday, waves were in the chest high range and fairly bumpy/sloppy but with well organized sections and enough power to get long but unpredictable rides (that alternated between sections with cleanish faces and fast whitewater sections connecting them). Paddle out on a board I am not yet very competent on so no great rides, but got a good workout thanks to current and chop and caught a couple fun ones. There was a beautiful rip right along the jetty that made the paddle out zero effort, almost like riding a chairlift, but once outside it was extremely difficult to stay in position for anything (or even keep track of what "position" was). Hoping there is something left after work today but seems highly unlikely with the hard offshore winds right now.

 

Waves looked awful yesterday afternoon with a stiff sideshore wind. Then a line of storms rolled through, shifted the wind and it lightened up a lot. Got better. Paddled out on the new mini simmons i just made. The board felt great. Fast, and stable in waves that were steep and pockety. It was so warm out, i took the gloves off and shot some pics with a waterproof point and shoot for a bit after surfing. Hands didn't even feel cold...that water has got to be near 50.

 

Good work Mitchell!

Swell is all but gone here today. I managed to get a few knee high sliders this morning on low incoming tide but it was pretty weak overall. Bright and beautiful sunrise, light offshore wind, glassy conditions, just not enough swell. Winds are about to pick up and blow in some VAS conditions this weekend, praying for a window of opportunity but not looking too promising.

 

Saturday, 5 foot marijuanas reef, good times Sunday 4-5 foot yards, mental lefts
Tuesday 2 foot Rockies, fun session on brand new bort

good times in trunks, more on the way, hope the doo doo water gets dispersed