who here has been surfing this week?

That's awesome with the figs PJ, my pops had a couple of small of fig trees in his yard out in California. It was kind of a weird fruit fresh, we ate them skin and all, never really knew what else to do with them. Salads I guess?

 

Heal quickly!

 

Solid swell today

 

Great shots. I enjoy all the pics

 

What state was that in Manic? We had waves here but not that big or good and insanely crowded.

 

Rhode Island CJ, we had some serious weather the night before, lots of wind and some power outages. I didn't expect anything except victory at sea so I worked and checked it after, surprised it was as good as it was, but didn't paddle out myself, just took pics for about an hour. Winds were howling offshore, I was too tired to pull on the wetsuit and paddle out. They are from 3 spots within a quarter mile from each other, one spot was crowded, over 12 easy on one peak, paddle battles, right next to it was a long reeling right point break with maybe 4? I don't get the herd mentality

 

What was it like down your way CJ? It was solid shoulder high and hollow here. Nice long, fast rights. Sometimes a bit too fast, but definitely good.

 

SSW swell in the water today and dead calm. Only drawback was the incoming tide pushing up to 5'+. Got a bit swampy. Waves were in the chest/head range on the sets, a bit walled, but there were a few broken up sections. Got a few good ones. My wetsuit (Vissla 2m chest zip)was rubbing me under my left arm. It's never done that before. I have a nice raw spot in my armpit now.

Straight to work. Had some toast and a piece of cheese. And coffee. Always coffee.

 

Tough night last night.

It all started Tuesday morning. My van has been pulling to the right a little since I bought it and now the front passenger side tire is starting to wear unevenly, so I decide that I need an alignment. I have done all my own work to this van since I got it (I don't trust mechanics, been ****ed over way to many times), but I don't have the hardware for a front-end alignment so I decide to take it to a shop down the road.

My wife has been going to this place for years for oil changes, brakes, tires, and always is happy with the work and says they aren't pushy about doing extra work so I give them a shot. I make the appointment and drop off my rig. I also asked them to take a look at my breaks. They call me an hour later. The alignment is done and they give me an estimate on the breaks. It's a few hundo for pads and rotors, and now that I'm towing a boat I need to be sure the brakes are right, so I say go for it.

Get the van back at the end of the day and it's driving straight and smooth. Sweet. Now it's Wednesday. I work all day, watching the cams, drooling over the decent surf, and finally at about 5:30 I load up and head for the beach. I'm getting down there in the rush hour traffic when I start to smell the unmistakable scent of burning brakes. At the first light I stop and a big cloud of smoke comes up from under the van. I have babied this old rig, and it's never had an issue until now. I'm crushed.

On top of that, I'm stressed TF out from work and I'm jonesing to surf. Y'all know the feeling, where you're trying to surf and the conditions are fickle, and you're about to miss the window because of STUPID BULL****!!! So I pull a quick u-turn and start heading back to the house. What would normally take 5 minutes takes a half hour because I'm afraid my breaks are going to catch on fire and I'm going slow as ****.

Get to the house and park and the front right wheel is smoking like ****ing cheech and chong, brake fluid dripping all over. Load the boards on my Honda, and now I'm hauling ass toward the beach. I'm reaching the limit of my nerve, racing toward the beach.

I get there and the dudes I always see at this spot are getting out. It's basically dark at this point. I paddle out and it super fat with the high tide. But then I see a wave on the horizon. It's a full on set and coming right for me. I turn to paddle, catch the wave, hit the white water and splash over the back as it walls up in the shorebreak.

Normally this would have done little for me, but I was so thankful to catch one wave. It healed my broken mind. I head home, stop and pick up a few beers, and grill some chicken thighs and brussels sprouts for dinner.

PS. I called the shop this morning and ended up limping the van back over there. They said I have a seized caliper, mostly due to age, rust, how my old pads were past 100% wear when I replaced them. I believe them. It's an old ass van with almost 200k miles.

F***in' way she goes, man.

 

Dude, I feel for you. Vehicle issues are the worst, always an unexpected cost and hassle. Especially on the way to decompress in the water.

 

Still energy out there today with better winds. I surfed a point I haven't surfed in over a year, it was around shoulder average with bigger sets, and had a blast. Easiest spot in the world, even with a little size. Surfed till I couldn't paddle any more. No energy to even cook, I just got some clam cakes and chowder. I was the only one at this little seafood shack and the kid made the clam cakes about baseball size. Could only get two down.

 

frustrating thi hi swell. My body needed the ocean, but all i wanted to do was puke. It wasn't good enough thru the pressure of working at 8am and trying to catch something. Got like one or two rides, it was bleek. It sux the daylight is not till 7am around here

 

Hey all! I haven't been surfing much due to some personal stuff going on, but I was able to get some head high Teddy leftovers and also some decent wind swell yesterday. For both sessions, I met up with a buddy and it was just the two of us out, an easy thing to do around here if you're willing to give up a little quality for quantity. It's also a bike ride away instead of jumping in the car, which is great for quick sessions. I can be out of the water, showered and dressed in under a half hour if I stick closer to home.

Teddy: On big days at low tide in the south end of this specific barrier island, there is an outside sandbar that reliably breaks. The waves tend to crumble out there and are never hollow, making even overhead surf incredibly fun and manageable on a long board, while never really being worth it on a short board. That was the case with Teddy. I haven't had a chance to fix my 9'6" yet, so I took out the 9' board and swapped head to overhead waves with my buddy. Tons of long nose rides even though it was a little bumpy. I was exhausted since I wasn't able to surf for like a month beforehand, and it felt great to use some of those muscles again!

Yesterday: Same spot, but at high tide this time because we were surfing the inside break. Waist to shoulder high, with a little side/offshore bump to it. The rights were super mellow and perfect for hanging out in trim and doing some turns, while the lefts were fast and steep and perfect for cheater fives and hanging toes. My buddy and I feasted on waves for 2 hours and generally had a blast. Just further proof that it's better to not be a perfect wave diva, just paddle out and get some!

 

Wednesday afternoon Delmarva. I was sore from surfing in the morning and the afternoon light was pretty ideal for shooting. swam out at my local and got a few shots of some buddies on some fun sized runners.

 

Shoulder high-ish and clean at about three of the jetties near my house. Everywhere else was poo. Insanely crowded. The crowds are becoming a real buzz kill for me. Last night I surfed one of my regular spots with a very annoying crowd of about 15 people. Out of that crowd there were about 3 people I recognized other than my son. Hassled for a while. Got a few bloopers. Finally got a good one and went in out of frustration.

 

I like those. What are you shooting with?

 

Got out late this morning after dropping the midget off at school. Was in the water a little after 8 AM. Still swell left over from yesterday and again, not a breath of wind. Way less crowded today too, which was pretty awesome. Sat just off the main peak at the campgrounds and got several good ones. Last wave was the best. About chest high. Dropped in right at the peak and it didn't run too fast, got about 3 or four "turns" before straightening out and Huntington Hopping to the shallows and jumping off and walking right up on the beach. Dropped the mic and headed home for a full day of trying to get a Datastax cluster running on a Kubernetes cluster in AWS. My brain box is fried.

 

My brain box is fried trying to figure out what a Datastax cluster running on a Kuber-thing-a-majig is. Is there a hammer or wrench involved?