who here has been surfing this week?

Awesome Carson. I woke up to a foot of snow and VAS. Slightly jealous.

 

Surfing and burritos... yep i'm in full-on vicarious mode right now.

The anti-working-man tides (high in the morning, and I'm not talking about a wake and bake) are killing my stoke this week. There's been a little wave when I wake up but it's swallowed up by the tide. Yesterday it was pumping in the afternoon but I was stuck in meetings. Excuses for days. HOWEVER my stoke has been renewed by a brand new wetsuit that came in the mail yesterday! I wanted to buy one locally but I'm the most average sized man ever and mediums don't last long in the shops, so I bought one from a shop in Mt. Pleasant SC and had it shipped. At least it wasn't Amazon, right?

I had my last winter suit, a Matuse 5/4/3 (4/3 equivalent) since the winter of 2012/13. It was time to move on maybe 2 years ago but I have been pushing thru, gotta get EVERY penny out a suit that expensive. I have to say, it held up better than I was expecting. After 6 years the knees were worn thru, and my leash rubbed a hole in the back of my leg, but the straw that broke the camels back was when a hole opened up in the chest. I knew that when the water got into the 50's, and I had suit filled with holes, I would just stay home.

SO, instead of buying a new board for xmas I sprung for another supa-fancy high-end wet suite. I landed on the Oneill Mutant Legend 4/3+. It's got the technobutt and all the other bells and whistles, but I really wanted to experience the modular hood for myself. 2 roommates over the years had mutants and I was always wondering what it was like. It did great around the house but now I just need some damn surf during daylight hours to actually try it out.

 

I got out last night for a few hours it was a repeat of the other day maybe thigh high. But nice easy paddle out barely got my feet wet ;-) anyway the water still clear airtemp was around 72 water temp is around 68 white offshore Breeze in cot the mid incoming high tide. I'm not quite getting the Groundswell that SI surf dog is but happy to be in the water none the less.

 

Ocean City Maryland was a festival of freaking kegs yesterday. Burly swell, stiff but not crazy offshore conditions. Perfect swell direction and medium 10-11 sec period. I waited for the swell to fade a lot before paddling out. Then got out and shot these pics.

 

Small but fun leftovers today.

 

Size bumped up overnight. Some 8 second swell that was creating head + waves on the regular. I had an 8:30 meeting, so I paddled out just after first light. With that short period swell, the paddle was a pain in the ass. Got a couple quick ones and managed to get back outside without killing myself. Third wave was a different story. I had kicked out right over the spot where the sand had built up on the reef and the shore pound was relentless. I was paddling back out at the same time a buddy was trying to make it out for the first time. He ended up getting rejected and had to walk down the beach where it was a bit deeper. I finally got back outside and was pretty toast. Got a couple more good ones before calling it quits right around 8. Made my meeting and filled the stoke meter. Good times.

 

Went out to Martins’ Beach as the rest of the SF area was huge or closing out. Turned out to be a decent session with some nice 6-8 ft steep lefts. Martins’ has a nice channel making it easy to paddle out in bigger swells. Got a couple rides I was happy with on my mid-size Vernor treehugger. I like that board a lot as it’s fast and easy to turn on larger faced waves. My fish is getting repaired and won’t get it back until after the holidays.

 

swell pop up that i didn't see coming until night before. Rained off that morning, leaving waist to chest sets. Thought i'd have to grab my gloves, but it became bearable. Took the LB, only a few mid-lengths out there, to the Washout. Crowded in some spots, took towards 12th st to get myself iso time. The rides were long and smooth, but the take-offs were 50/50 if they would soften up. Went towards 15th after an hour, and got some more with mostly local faces. Maybe the last swell of 2020, but i'm gonna keep a look out from inland while celebrating the holidays with the fam. What a year to be alive!

 

Unexpected little swell yesterday, very similar to Unfurled's experience above. Rode a 5'5 at low tide and caught a bunch of fun rides. Rights were fast, bowly and pitching and the lefts were soft and mellow. It probably would have been better with a little more water under it but I spent the morning finishing up my xmas shopping which was well worth it.

The water finally dipped into the 50's yesterday. This was my first session of the season with booties, which even with 3 mils feels like I'm wearing clown shoes for the first few waves. No gloves needed yet, which is good because mine fell apart last winter. All the talk about 7mm mits makes me grateful that I never need more than 1.5mm gloves down here.

No travelling this year for me. Just shipped the last of the xmas gifts for my family this morning. Hoping to score my second xmas swell in a row.

 

Sub 50 here Head and it lets u know it with a good flush !

 

One day years ago, 2013 I think, after it ice stormed and snowed for about a week the water got to 48. That's the coldest water I have ever been in and the coldest I have ever seen in NC.

 

Saturday - Waves dropped by a couple feet from Friday, but was nicely lined up and super fun. Great early morning session. Got some of my better waves every. Things are starting to really come together. The waves are slowing down in my mind.

Sunday - Still a little leftover bump. Took third shift so my wife could run long in the morning. It was a nice change paddling out in the full sun and getting out around lunch. Just a touch smaller than Saturday, but I was able to get pretty much all the better set waves because the rest of the crowd were older or learners. Good times.

Monday - Down to dribbly leftovers. Took a little more foam and I'm glad I did. Got a half dozen or so decent waves before calling it a morning.

I'm done working for the year so it's books and the honey-do list. I am re-reading the Foundation Trilogy by Asimov. I first read that series when I was in high school, so I should have forgotten it all by now!

 

Headed to the surf spot yesterday I checked the report and it called for 2 to 3 and offshore. I timed the ride right and it was totally crap. I have fallen into the lazy mans trap of checking msw and wavefinder and another site that shall not be mentioned. In going back to tracking swell

 

I agree with you, something similar happened to me the other day. a strange feeling

 

oh HELL NO you did not jus spam this thread with bot nonsense!!

 

When you woke up, were your sheets all wet and sticky?

 

Merry Christmas , Asbury Park looking s to Shark Rivet Inlet

 

Surfed beach break yesterday, it was a quick session. Didn't want to crowd the one good spot so I settled for mostly closeouts, really should have went for a shorter board. All in all, it's always great to get out. I started getting into some serious couch time, didn't want to keep making excuses for not paddling out. Air temp barely above 40, with a brisk breeze coming up once in a while. Water temp probably in the mid 40's.

 

Holy smokes that sounds cold.

I got out for a quick session Monday afternoon. I was trading waves with one other guy and he caught a glimpse of me in a tiny tube. I came out and shook the water out of my eyes and there he was paddling over the shoulder grinning ear to ear. We didn't speak a word to each other. Just shared the stoke of some small, clean, desperately needed waves.

I got back to my desk and my boss had emailed me for some urgent info like 5 minutes after I ducked out to go surf. I finally got busted LOL. No real harm done fortunately.

 

(This would be a great thread topic) I have never written down (but have a mental list going) of things that have blown up I was out in the water. Just from a quick recall these are some of the things that have happened while I was surfing and discovered upon paddling in:

• 9/11 attack - if you surfed on the east coast this was a pretty common experience. The entire mid atlantic was FIRING that morning.
• Mother taken to ER due to shortness of breath/dizziness (ended up not being serious)
• Father taken to ER with severe GI distress after having him over for dinner. (I ducked out early to surf, leave him to spend time with wife and family, he ends up doubled over in pain and they take him to ER while I'm surfing)
• Father falls on back steps, busts his head. (this one was severe and was a life changing experience for both him and myself).
• Wife fell down and broke pelvis. I came in after surfing and had like 9 missed calls from her phone. She was in to much pain to call, it was a good samitaran calling me from her phone at first then her from the ER. I stressed hard over this one. I had been surfing for like 3 hours and she was ready to be picked up from the ER by the I found out.
• I've never gotten in trouble workwise dipping out to surf, but one time I was in my wetsuit in my car getting preparing for a work conference call getting ready to paddle out after the call was over. As people started joining the call, someone mentioned that my boss was going to be late joining the call from his truck and was at the same beach parking lot monitoring an oil spill response. I ending up pulling up my wetsuit hood, putting on shades and took the call from my car incognito worrying he might be right in the same lot. During the call I found out he had already been there and left, so i finished the call and surfed. By board actually got oily during that session, and cut the session short. I learned that wax doesnt beat oil in the traction game.