who here has been surfing this week?

I was hoping to score a longboard session this morning but I couldn't find a high tide sandbar that would work with such a weak wave. However, if you live at the beach today is our Christmas (even without a surfable wave) as school officially started back. I'm soo excited for September and we're definitely due some waves. My wife and I have a tradition of shotgunning a beer on the first day of school and after I finish typing this sentence I'm breaking out the pocket knife. Yew!!!!!

 

lb session at the spot of spots thigh high and semi clean not extra long rides but lots of lefts and rights. shit , if its rideable I'm going.

 

Last Wednesday was a lot of fun in jerz. High tide made it mushy but totally rippable still. Made a fun little edit from footy my girl got of me. Might YouTube it and share it. Might not. Here are a few still frames from the sess on my barnacle shred stick.

 

Nice shots man!

 

Thanks, brother.

 

The Color of the water looks great!

 

Kanman ripping...you are making it look fun. That camera puts out some nice footage...lots of clarity.

 

I don't expect much in the summer but surf in the Bahamian shadow has simply been awful this year. Usually we get some small chop every now and then providing an excuse to goof around on a bort. The last time we had surf over calf high was Memorial Day weekend accompanied by 30 mph side shores.

That changed on Sunday when we finally got some knee high plus wind choppe. It was nothing great but it was awesome at the same time to actually surf againe at home. I have a buddy who I usually surf with about 80% of the time. We hadn't surfed together in over three months so it was good to share some waves with him.

The water and shore is still full of sargassum seaweed as it has been most of the summer. Normally our water is crystal clear this time of year due to lack of motion in the ocean but now with all the sagrassun debris you can barely see your feet while sitting on your bort. Fortunately this stuff isn't toxic like the red tides and blue green algae that have hit other parts of Florida. But it's still nasty and in the places it has piled up the odor of decay can be overpowering.

So we surfed some mediocre crappy waves for a few hours. Every so often a waist high bomb with a bit of a line would come through. We all did a lot of whooping just to make the waves seem better than they actually were. There is a chance that there will be some more surfable choppe this week, maybe even later today. I hope so but I'm seriously ready for a real cold front swell. Come on October.

 

The forcaste here looks pretty dismal. Hopefully Poseidon flips the switch on after this weekend. Also, blew the dust off the bow. Bambi killin season just around the corner...

 

Rockin' the front foot traction!

 

How’s Betty? All G I hope!

 

I took the advise of several swellinfo’ers and took a trip to Oahu for two weeks. Just landed this morning, after taking off from Honolulu yesterday afternoon. Great waves and weather, until the last several days when it poured and the hurricane came kind of close. It was just all rain, though. Nothing too bad on Oahu. There was at least something to surf every day. We said screw it and took that trip. I’m hoping to go back in January or possibly Rincon like we did last January. It also got my best friend (who I mentioned had relapsed) to put the bottle down. Hope he’s back to being sober now. I could talk for hours about how great it was, but I need to run for now!

I didn’t miss Jersey or mainland America one bit.... I’m refreshed, but also a bit bummed to be back here haha.

 

Right on man, when you have some time, hop over to the surf trip thread and post more about it, looking forward to hearing more details!

 

Man I seriously thought you did not pull the trigger. Good for you...

 

Yo dudes!
Yep. Still surfing every weekend. Only one time was it too flat to do anything but watch the manatees. The best waves were Sunday. It was knee to thigh high, several waist highs, shortish choppy intervals, and the King of the Hill scored a just about chest high rogue wave.

Finally getting the wheelchair, aka R2D2 , by 7:30. Hoping to improve enough not to have to lean on people for rides. Those self driving cars can’t come fast enough.

Got my ride of the month Sunday. It was a fairly long hip high left, with some nice bumps on it . I paddled for it and was just about to miss it, so took a chance and popped up fast and miraculously was able to actually lift my foot and press down the nose. Victory! Then, it was a thrill to absorb the gentle bumps with knee bending without my knees locking up.

I can’t tell you how much these surfing outings mean to me! I mean, I was always stoked. But to be able to still paddle out, and to witness the encouragement and support by the dudes and my crew, is a miracle.

And humbling. To adapt and shake off the embarrassment of such loss of skills and embrace what is still possible, has been a humbling experience.

 

At times this gets tiresome. The surface of my cup of coffee has more wave action than I'm seeing out there again this morning. Yesterday was no better, and the board remained on the car roof while I was at work. Parked under a tree due to the heat.
My morning routine is to get up early, fire up the coffee maker, check the web cam, and hopefully head out the door for a pre-work sesh. Lately, since I'm already up, I end up doing a 3-4 mile run before work. But much rather be out on the water.
We did have a little bump in the action last week, so the ECSC at the VB Oceanfront had something.
I was able to squeeze in a lunchtime sesh Monday between meetings, paddled around a bit in the hot sun, and milked about 8-9 low quality rides during the hour I was out there. At least it was something, and I'm actually grateful (sometimes I must remind myself) for that.

 

haha, in the words of turtle, "i've seen bigger ripples in my toilet". good news tho, word is the tropics woke. sumtin brewing, may not get sumtin for several weeks but that's what the 'casters are sayin - talking Atlantic

 

50% chance in 5 days

 

I don't even need the tropics to wake up, I just need something to ride, anything!

 

No surfing for me! I took a chance and had a medical procedure done requiring 5 internal stiches and 10 external stiches on my back. No big deal, just a cyst that was bothersome. I thought for sure if I got it done, the hurricanes would form overnight lol but so far so good (or bad for you). I get them out Sept 4th then good to go so it looks like I made it without missing anything. The only thing that sucks is I cant lift anything heavy or get it wet. I am in the water damn near everyday whether its the pool or bay. Can't wait to get wet again. On a good note the red tide never made it to our beaches and south of us where it was bad is getting better due to some Easterly trades finally kicking in. Standing by.