Just me and the fishermen

I paddled out this morning to some fun, although a little on the small side, waves. Generally clean, medium period, mostly thigh high with some knee, and some waist high. I try to respect the people fishing, especially when they are in a spot before me, but damn if they don't tend to park themselves where I want to surf. I tried some new wax today made by Magmalabs and I have to say its pretty good stuff. I had just stripped my 9'6" clean and needed wax, but the shop I was at didn't have the sexwax I usually use, and I had recalled something about magamlabs a while back but had not actually seen any in stores. I suppose since I had just dropped $50 on some new booties, they threw the wax in for free (Yes, right- just like there is not such thing as a free lunch, there is no such thing as free surf wax). The stuff is really good and it has little "embers" or color coded temperature specks so you can remember what the leftover chunk of wax actually is and identify what kind is on your stick. Cool, huh?

Today's rides were not memorable per se, but I love every ride I get. I kept jumping on OK waves only to miss the great set behind them because I couldn't get back out in time. This particular spot has a nice sandbar and when I start getting winded, I just stand on the bar waiting for the next ride and push myself and board into the oncoming wave. I am pretty good at that now and with so many smallish days I am self anointed as the shore break king; flat spot on my fin and all! .

Time to Give Thanks

Two days from Thanksgiving. Things are pretty slow in the office and tomorrow looks like some decent surf for me. Plans are currently to surf in the AM, go to work, surf the AM of Turkey Day then hit the road to visit the in laws a few hours inland. On Friday we come back home and with any luck I can paddle out on Saturday or Sunday. I give much thanks to surfing and all that is has led me to. I do that everyday- give thanks for surfing that is. I can be thankful that the in laws are not coming to our place! I am SO thankful my wife is understanding and supportive of my habit, addiction, evolving way of life (surf life). I am thankful I bought the used local shaped board that is full of surf "mana" and the memorable rides it has carried me upon. I am thankful for neoprene. I am thankful for all those I love and that love me- though it is a short list that doesn't change much. I am thankful for a great job, great kids and wife, and really a pretty great life. Next year perhaps I can be thankful for mastering the art of noseriding and getting barrelled, but for now just catching rides down the line on my log makes me pretty darn happy.

Window Shopping

I'm window shopping surf shops trying to figure out what board I want to add to my quiver. The only new board I bought was my first- a 7'9" Bic Natural Surf which still has its place. In addition to that, I have 3 longboards, a 6' softop for my little grom, a 5'11" thruster, and a 6'8" big boy thruster- all used with most of them coming from yard sales. I enjoy fixing them up and have replaced a glassed in fin (the most technically challenging of my repairs) fixed many a ding, some small scale delams, small patches, and on one did a major rehab that involved adding a full length "patch" to the deck. I also tinkered with graphics and lately have been trying to study up on design since I fully intend to build a board myself (shape and glass) starting this winter. I have some good Aerialite glass and a local source for Teccel blanks. I will write about that project in the future. I like checking out surf shops anyway, so looking at the various boards gives me ideas about what I might buy and/or build. We have great shapers locally and I am considering having one built for me. My 4oth birthday is around the corner and I even have the blessing from the Mrs. (Actually it was her idea!) and I know they could build just what I need even if I don't know really what that might be myself. I know I can stand up on the 7'9" and with a little more volume that length or something in the vicinity might be good in more of a longboard shape. I have seen some really thick 8 footers that interest me. But I also have seen some shorter boards shaped by Will Allison (shaper of two of my longboards and local surfing legend) that have lots of thickness that maybe I can stand up on. Maybe a good fish might be the call? Then I go completely in the other direction to a big, heavy log. Ten feet plus! Maybe even find a vintage board that is still a rider. The longboard association I just joined has an annual contest with both a classic (pre 1968) and supertanker (11" or longer) division and that might be fun to have something that would qualify for those. But gosh, I don't know that I really get everything I can out of the boards I already have! Maybe I should wait til I break one or take more time to ride these and figure out what I want. You might be thinking we should all have this dilemma....

Any Given Morning

I recently joined the Wrightsville Beach Longboard Association and though I don't know most of the members it is a good group and I like being with like minded folks. One of the members just had a movie in the local independent film festival, Cucalorus, entitled Any Given Morning. It really was a good film. Thirty minutes of surfing footage, narrative, interviews, and all of it seemed to hit home with me. The link above goes to a static web page, but a trailer is being worked on and she is going to be taking pre-orders for the movie soon.

On this past Sunday and Monday(Veteran's Day Holiday for this bureaucrat) I surfed some OK longboard waves. Sunday I rode the Weisbecker Board, but forgot my leash which was interesting. I was essentially alone in the water as far as surfers went, but there were a lot of people walking on the beach enjoying the bright day and crystal clear, Caribbean blue waters. I wasn't alone in the water if you count the 2 or 3 pods of dolphins. There were maybe 15 or 20 total swimming and feeding as close as 10 yards away. I could see some of the finer details of their markings, things like little notches in their fins. I missed a few good set waves as I preferred to watch the graceful arcs they make in the water. Monday was a better surfing day, cleaner and a little bigger but nothing spectacular. The picture is from the same day and probably a few beach accesses south of where I paddled out. Different board, and I had my leash this time, different waves, different day, same spot; It's continually impressive how different surfing is for me from day to day , session to session. I thought of Any Given Morning and how I am not alone with these thoughts.

Weisbecker and the club with no roster

A call to action!
I am a fanatic about Allan Weisbecker and his literary works. His latest memoir is out and avaiable. If you have read In Search of Captain Zero and / or Cosmic Banditos... then what are you waiting for...
http://www.banditobooks.com/ezine/books/cygawa/overview

If you don't have any cash...send me and email and maybe you can borrow mine-In a few days a copy I donated with be available at the New Hanover County Library. Or if you want to kill some time online while you are supposed to be working or doing homework...go here...
http://www.banditobooks.com and please join the forum. As a moderator I get a little bored and like the conversations.

What's even better is that he is an accessible kind of guy. Check the website, send a message or give him some feedback and you will see.

Big Days

Hurricane Noel brought lots of grief to many, but it also brought surf and with that joy to others. Saturday was big, a little chilly (full suit for the first time this season) and fun. I has some trouble getting clean rides because the steepness of the wave faces and my relative lack of higher surf skills made it hard to get past the drop. My pal with his board, 2 feet shorter, had similar problems so maybe it was just tough conditions. I think I had as much fun watching others get good rides on Saturday. I have not seen, with my own eyes in person, that many surfers get barrelled. By this I mean a true, inside the tube and back out again legitimate "getting shacked" experience. That day I did see this happen and more than once. I also saw a local board shaper and was impressed how he maneuvered his longboard on these same waves. Its a little frustrating, but mostly inspiring. I may get a board shaped by this guy one of these days.

Sunday was a different story. It was cleaner conditions, smaller, but plenty big for me. I found myself wishing I had waited and not gone out the day before. My body- arms, shoulders, stamina- was lacking and I found myself having to quit sooner than I wanted to end that session. At the next public access north of me, I could see the kite festival going on and the colors pulled taught against the sky provided a change in scenery. As I stopped I passed along the good news of promising surf to the fellow surfer just getting ready to walk down to the beach. It seems I made him happy even before he got wet.

Feeling small

The surf has been pretty big the last week or so and I can usually push past the impact zone and get through the breakers and to the outside. I know there is a return on that ivestment, so I "will" it to happen and then just float around and rest for a few minutes once I punch through. I haven't been working out as much lately, telling myself I am getting enough surfing in instead, but this morning I feel pretty small. I couldn't get through, the longboard I was tethered to wanted to get ridden, but I didn't have it in me. I applaud the pair down the beach that made it out. Sometimes I do better when a buddy is with me, maybe its peer pressure, maybe I am just being shamed into paddling harder. All this said, its still a good day when I paddle out. I will sleep well, maybe my muscles have been conditioned a little in preparation for saturday when the effects of TS Noel reach us and clean up.