Fire in the sky

Happy full moon-autumnal equinox! This is the first time these two celestial events have shared the sky in a long long time. Unfortunately the stars didn't align quite so nicely for Igor. Sideshore and onshore winds plagued the whole event leaving us a little discombobulated from the churning seas.

Sliding Igor:
No pics, no lined up long period love, no clean faces to draw on. Just pesky onshores, big chunky-junky peaks, fat-ass shoulders, a busted out fin box, lots and lots of humbling rides and a steady stream of nose dribble to carry me through 'till the next swell arrives.

photo: snapped by a friend yesterday @ sunset, nearly fullmoon on the rise.

Earl-ee Friday Morning

Summer's Fun...
but fall is SWELL.

Paddling out to greet Earl after it lined up and organized itself a couple Friday mornings ago. Turned out to be just Good Clean Fun

Maybe it's Wild

Maybe it's the 12 @ 16, maybe the pace yourself paddle out. Maybe it's the groppling hold downs, nasal enemas, and rips' like rivers. Or maybe it's the drawn out lines on head and a half faces. It's not the endless sunshine, not the bikini clad girls, and it's not the 80* water. Those things were around all summer long. Whatever it is, I felt it today. Exhilarated, an acute sense of being alive. An energy sent up from the depths of mother ocean that humbles and rejuvenates us. We soak it in and carry it back to land until we can experience it all over again. Thanks Earl.

Stacked

I SMELL SWELL. Sprouting off the coast of Cape Verde, Earl is nipping at the heals of his big sister Danielle while I wait anxiously to greet them. A few weeks ago tropical storm Collin passed by and delivered mostly clean conditions for several days, yet he generally lacked luster.

This will be my first fall in North Florida. And though the landscape is foreign, it is clear the seasons are changing, waves are on the way, and things are looking up. Hopefully, these are the first signs of things to come.

breakfast buffet

double over ankle peelers, midweek morning, not a sole in sight,
looks like logging for breakfast.

PRide

Perhaps a little misguided at times, but no shortage of American pride in these here parts of Nor Fla. Happy fourth.

Wavewise:
A little pulse of storm surf pushed through Sunday. 5 @ 8 crossed up, chop and slop. Enough to get some fun drops and race out onto the face for a few well placed cutties if you happened into the the right peak at the right time while paddling in the mini-maelstrom . Actually, it was the biggest surf I've seen in the short time I've been here. Fast enough to get my rails hissing and my fins whistling so I was a happy camper. Can't ask for much more in the summer doldrums I suppose.

MOOOooooo

I'm happy to report that the herding mentality is alive and well on the 1st Coast. A little poking around and a healthy dose of dumb luck put me onto an exposed low tide sand bar at a sharky inlet. The mini peelers were doing their best impression of a sand bottom point down the bar and into the channel. Granted summer is upon us and the only waves of consequence are heat waves. Still, the little summer offerings were glassy and nicely shaped and it was just me and 10 feet of foam while others desperate to get wet congregated like cattle around the pier up the coast.


photo by injun joe

Waves of Change

There's a race of men that don't fit in,
A race that can't stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
And they climb the mountain's crest;
Theirs is the curse of gypsy blood,
And they don't know how to rest.

-Robert Service-

"Not all who wander are lost"....but many who do are hopelessly so. It's true, I've had more zip codes than I can count on both hands. But I like to think that it is new experiences and opportunities I seek rather than some other reason I can't stay still. My landlubber days have drawn to an end. And though not exactly beach front, my latest address has the sweet smell of the ocean and puts me in easy striking distance of this...

and this...

yet, on any given day it is more likely to look like this...

wave fotos found on the net

Childhood Stoke

I recently unearthed a box of old photos.
My very first water shots (plus one)...

These were taken with the bright yellow Minolta Weathermatic camera I got for my 14th birthday. They must be from the summer of '85, the year I transitioned from a sponge to a surfboard and had my first stand up rides. I love the expressions of pure stoke in the top two. Doesn't really matter that it is waist deep and ankle high. Joy is where you find it.

Full Circle Surf

Last week I made my way back to the beaches of my childhood. The place I first flew a kite, first felt glide under foot, and the place I first dreamt of being a surfer. The barrier islands of Lower Slower Delaware and OCMD are not necessarily known the world over for their quality of waves. Yet the stoke and dreams of a beachie life are as thriving and rooted here as anywhere. The summer people and boardwalk culture obscure the beauty and potential this place has to offer. But, under the surface there are the people that live and breathe the ocean life, a core of dedicated fishermen and wave sliders that are on it anytime it's good and even when it's not.

As the swell season is winding down, I was grateful for the three days of 60 deg. weather, well groomed bars and the chest to head high conditions. The water was still plenty cold, and the murky run off left me with a sore throat. But a few fresh pints of Dogfish Head and the Maryland Crab soup made it all alright.

Photos from the St. Patrick's day swell 2010 courtesy of Nick Denny.

Fall Fun Ones

My first fall on the east coast in 18 years proved fruitful....wavewise.
Not that I could be on it every little window of opportunity,
but I was there...when I needed to be.

tweaked film shots from New England

Winter Warmer

Mexican color swatch

time slows, air flows, frigget shows

amphibious friend, hopefully headed for cleaner waters in the spirit world

the last of my vitamin D treatment for the winter

As the wind howls and the thermostat out the window reads 19F these shots from last week seem like an eternity has past. I am thankful to have soaked up as much as we did. My skin is brown, the fire inside is rekindled and my heart feels lighter. Sometimes I think all I need are empty waves, warm water and fresh fish. Then responsibility hits me over the head and I remember... "time to make the doughnuts"

Winter Missions

"I don't care if it rains or freezes, long as I got my plastic Jesus,
riding on the dashboard of my car..."

snowy roads @ dawn

1st light on glass

long drive home...

Hope everyone's getting their fill. I have been left to reflect on waves gone by and to day dream about dawn to dusk missions from winters past as these December swells roll through. Trying my best to weather my landlocked holddown at the moment. A few strategic missions have helped fill the void this fall, but all in all coming up short on filling my cold water quota this season.

*top photo: unknown

Nor'easter+Ida=Nor'Ida

Nor'ida wreaked havoc on Hatteras and much of the Eastern Seaboard last week. Apparently the roads leading off the Cape in NC were closed four days. However, it delivered some cold water gems to New England over the weekend and into the week and Me and "T" were there to greet them. Long period, lined up, offshore, crisp, clear and sweet. All was good, except for the chicken wings...

Cosmic Connection

A few weeks ago I surfed a spot (in a state) that I had never been to before. After a few hours of much needed water time, I decided to check the wave up the road before the sun went down. I got in my van, pointed it north, found the pull out I was looking for and grabbed the only parking space available. Not a minute later, the guy parked in front of me walks up to his car dripping wet and calls my name. I couldn't believe it. How random. Or was it? It was my old friend Trevor (the names have been changed to protect the innocent). The last time I ran into Trevor was 12 years ago. I was at a New Years Eve show at some random venue in San Francisco. I was in line to use the men's room and recognized the guy in front of me...it was Trevor. Keep in mind that neither of us lived in CA. at the time and we hadn't seen each other for maybe 4 years before that.

Trevor is an old friend from my "blurry" years. We shared some crazy experiences together. A few that come to mind involved a coast to coast flight with a very large and very stinky suitcase. Another, Texas girls on vacation with their church group and more pitchers of margaritas than anyone can remember. We were young and we were dumb but we had fun. That was another lifetime ago...

So, there we were, once again, cosmically crossing paths. Once the initial shock wore off we went to have a beer and some chowder and some more beers. Trevor informed me it was his birthday in the morning. Instead of parting ways, we called our wives, called into work and decided to ring in his birthday sharing waves together. The last time that happened....Baja Norte, 1990.

Sweet Relief

swell dying fast but still finding cover

I finally found my way to the sea again! I managed to score a few sessions of a decent little ground swell before it faded away into the night. It's been way too long and drying out is hard to do. Discovering rocky points on the East coast gives me hope. Learning to love a west wind, a little disorienting. Accepting the windows of opportunity are so short lived, a hard pill to swallow. Ahhhh but being wet again, engulfed in the salty embrace of mother ocean, that is all that mattered. The token fuzzy photo was snapped this morning after I got out. Inspired by a salt stained glider.