Who Lives a long way from the ocean?

I live around 2.5 hours away from the beach currently as I go to school in central Maryland. I make day trips when I can to random spots on the Delmarva. It is tough, and I plan on eventually moving closer, but I live for the chase. Zach you make a good point about it becoming a lifestyle. For me personally, just the adventure, and little break from the Baltimore/DC clusterf*** is enough to get me stoked. The anticipation being halfway through Delaware, and checking the cams/charts/radar. The arrival. Friends think I'm crazy, but I love that chase.

 

Been there brother. That is why we had the "Towson Surf Club"... It probably still exists.

 

Colorado ! River holes in spring time, SUP during summer, ocean surf for a few weeks a year. Ski a lot !

 

Haha.. My buddy is the same way. Every time we pull up he's looking for a sh!tter

 

snowboarding the glades and hucking a few boulder drops in deep powder is as close as you're going to get to the surf experience...if you're still skiing in the depths, you're blowing it

 

Never missed a powder day in 11 years. Like everyone else catching all the good swells. Vacation always surfing somewhere.

 

It's body's natural stimulants. Women who love to shop have to shart themselves when they get to the mall. Fact. It's a conditioned response bro. You're stoked and frothing and if you start to poop in that instance it doesn't make you a bad dude. Just one that needs to be close to a toilet or at least TP.

 

I live 3 minutes from the nearest beach, however the best break (the only one good enough to surf) is 40 minutes away.

Thats usually the problem with most people, you live near a beach, but you gotta travel to the really good breaks.

 

i live about 5 mins from the ocean but about 20 to my spot.

 

I wake up early, take the 10 min. subway ride using the last uncrowded car so that I have room for my board. I change to the LIRR and take the 30 min. ride out to long beach. then i go into the burger king rest room and change into my 5/4 and booties and pull on a coat and jogging pants. then i walk 5 blocks out to the beach in the snow. i surf until i run out of energy or get too cold and i walk back to the train station in my wet suit. then i go in the stairwell of the parking garage and do the dance to take off the wet 5/4 and change back into jogging pants. by this time i'm pretty tired and take a nap on the train ride back. the coldest i've done so far is about 15 degrees.

 

Damn, bro, you get the hero of the year award. That is heart. Respect.

 

Ditto that

I live three hours away
I go everytime the swell looks good
Takes $ and time but u know. Wtf
At home i train for triaths Love bikes. Love to swim. Love to lift weights.
Hate the run but do it like a man
This Way i can put in a three hour sess in big cond without losingnmy breath. Im 41

 

Baltimore? Frederick? MoCo?

 

this Thursday swell is gonna give me diarria I can already feel it.im looking forward to an hour worth of surf til I go to the dr

 

As always, well said by The Seen.
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I live in what most of you would term Satan's Kingdom (metro DC). It is, actually, Satan's Kingdom, because you send us YOUR moron politicians.

I drive 2.5-3 hrs ea way to surf 'my break' over on the eastern shore.
$110 gas RT. Every time.

This year, I've surfed almost every single week & sometimes x2 per week.
I got no complaints: I'm fortunate to be able to surf, and I'd do whatever it takes to surf.
3 hr drive solo is meditative.
3 hr drive w a dog is meditative & full of goodness.
3 hr drive w human company is awesome fun & laughs.

I don't mind putting in extra effort to surf. Ever.
Makes it that much more special.
When I have to work harder for something, you bet I appreciate it much more. Human nature.

Work is all that I do during the week. Work out & road bike to stay ready for surfing.
CEO of three companies. Surfing is my reward.
My goal: surf treks whenever I can. This year: Florida, CRx4, PRx2, SANx3, France, and more.
I don't pay for plane tix (miles).

My 3 hour drive leads me to a perfect place. Perfect to me. Come across that bridge & know exactly where that wind is coming from. Know exactly what the surf will look like. Dodge a few very large critters. Head for the place where very few go.
I surf where there's none of that east coast beach replenishment hoo-hah; so, if one knows what winds the break can hold, and what tides shape it up just right, and if the bars are lined up, which they have been all joyously effing year long, then even when it's dead red it's so many waves. And no one out.

FJ's piling on the miles without complaint.

 

This is a good read. Some of you cats are impressive with the efforts. I've done the same for other endeavors, like driving from Boston to Toronto and back same day or flying to Vancouver and back same day. You do what you have to for what you want, and the price is in the eye of the beholder. If you're getting your passion fulfilled the price tag seems like a bargain. Fortunately, I have a very short ride to the break yet drive 2 hours each way to Rhodey any time there's better swell there. Like this Thursday.

Couple questions for pickles - mainly want to know if anyone's caught him in the stairwell during the in between stage of the wetty change out.

 

Ha, that would be pretty funny. but it's dead at long beach in the winter time, pretty deserted. it does smell like piss in there though. but usually it's so cold, i'm going as fast as i can to change and doing jumping jacks to get the blood flowing.

 

Bro lunges work way faster for increasing blood flow as you're using bigger muscles. I'm not suggesting you lunge in dried up piss though. Just make sure you have compression shorts on under the wetty. Don't want to end up under "registration", if you've ever seen that Seinfeld episode in the parking deck.

 

I'm with Pickles. I've made that trek. I made the mistake of changing in the LIRR bathroom at Long Beach- smells like piss because there IS piss all over. Once a guy was heating up a sandwich with the hand dryer.

00:45 minutes to 1:15, depending on the subway, and I'm at Rockaway. I change under the boardwalk. On the colder days this past winter, I just wore my wetsuit on the subway, underneath clothes, and put the clothes over it on the way home. Looked like I pissed myself all over, haha, but no one gives a sh*t on the subway anyway. Some days it felt like it took hours to warm back up.

Usually I enjoy my trip; sometimes I see people from my neighborhood, other times, I practice my Spanish with Puerto Ricans that used to surf back home. Sometimes I get caught in drawn out conversations with people on drugs. Once I saw the Space Shuttle Atlantis piggy-packing on a 747 at JFK- I thought "WTF is that on the tarmac, looks like a spaceship." I put on my glasses and it WAS a spaceship. So f*cking cool.

Whenever the train crosses the bay, I get a really good feel for what the wind is going to be like. Sometimes it's glassier than expected and I get amped up and change into my wettie right there. Sometimes it's the opposite (like when there's ice in the bay).

The best thing about a commute, though, is that it forces you to get wet- after a trip, you've gotta get in. I have been stuffed and learned a lot on days that I simply insisted on going in.

Sunday I got into JFK around 10am, and from the plane, the waves looked better and cleaner than I expected. I got home, grabbed my board, and went right back out the door.