Anyone else get some today...?

[yeahman]

Gaping at Sunset and Pipeline past few days.

[Ottime]

money

[Long duc dong]

Nice shots guys!!

I've been pretty busy, but got quite lucky last week.

Tuesday ended up being great, serendipitously.

I was able to get in the water around 1230 in Newport, at 32nd street. It was shoulder high, pushing head high on the sets. The tide was high, but dropping. There was a bit of wind bump on the water.

It was slow, but somewhat fun, when I first got in the water. Within 5 minutes a couple of guys left, and I had the jetty all to myself. As the tide dropped, it got juicier, and it even cleaned up, which is certainly strange for that time of day in Newport. I ended up having a 45 minute stretch where I was the only guy in the water, with shoulder to (almost) head high 80 yard lefts rolling in. The takeoffs were easy, then it would line up across the inside. A few pumps, a couple of top turns, then bouncing off the end section. It was so easy to surf that even I could set up a decent bottom/top turn combo from time to time, which is really saying something. I got about 5 of those lefts in 45 minutes. It was a bit inconsistent, but being the only guy in the water I had my pick when they came. Honestly, if they can design the wave pool in Newport (a complex issue, I'm not sure I support it, but that is another story) to do this, I would be over the moon.

After about 45 minutes alone, a few more guys showed up. The crowd wasn't terrible, but it got a bit bumpy again. In the next 45 minutes I got a couple more okay ones, so I decided to call it a day and get back to my laptop. While the conditions don't sound spectacular, any time you can get the Newport jetties like that without anyone else you really have to be lucky. It was my best session in a while.

Thursday I had a similar mid-day window. It was reasonably clean, with only a slight bump on the water. I went to 36th street, and there were only a few guys on it. It was a bit smaller, chest-shoulder, and a bit softer, but still fun. I didn't get it alone, but with only a couple of guys I was able to get 5-6 decent jetty lefts in about an hour and 15 minutes. It was a tick down, and at times I thought I should have brought a super high volume board, but still fun. With a couple of pumps you could get down the line without bogging. While it didn't look great from shore, whenever you get the Newport jetties with only a few guys it is great, even if it is chest-shoulder high and a bit bumpy.

Newport would be really great if it wasn't so crowded. I don't see that changing any time soon.

It's a bit messy right now. Next weekend looks like it might work out.

[Ottime]

Solid swell arrived yesterday. I was under the weather so did not get a session. And now route to west Florida. So missing the next few days. Get some west coast.


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[CascadeCrudSkier]

I jinxed myself by saying that I've been surfing almost every day, lots of rain and stormy weather since that statement. However, there's been a couple of days where it was decent and now it looks like we're in for a good run. Got almost 2.5 hours of inconsistent but fun chest high beach break this morning and it looks like it'll hold until around Thanksgiving.

One of my best Thanksgiving surfs was in Pensacola Beach at the pier many years ago, hopefully you score something similar. I don't really remember any of the waves but I do remember finally coming out of the water and finding out that the pickup parked next to me had a recently deposited 4-5' bull shark still gasping for air in the bed of the truck.

[PB]

Warning: drift/rant - throwing a fish in the back of your truck to die of asphyxiation is cruel and inhuman.

Wish I was riding waves.

[CascadeCrudSkier]

Agreed completely about the shark, I thought it was pretty messed up.

Yesterday was kind of a dud but today there was a decent amount of swell combined with perfect fall offshore winds and relatively warm water. Right back to hit it again tomorrow.

Token photo of sunset as the swell was starting to fill in last night.

[Long duc dong]

Warning: drift/rant - throwing a fish in the back of your truck to die of asphyxiation is cruel and inhuman.

Wish I was riding waves.

Completely agree. It is wrong on so many levels.

Yesterday I was able to get out for about an hour, around 1130 am. It was still reasonably clean, but the tide was very high. 28th street looked pretty good, but there was no one at 32nd street so I paddled out to the jetty. It was far from great, about waist high, but the shape was okay. I took the funshape, and was glad I did. being the only one out I was able to get 5-6 in the hour, with a few of them lining up off the jetty and actually being lots of fun. I had hoped to head up to Huntington, more size, but simply didn't have the time. I'm really glad this session worked out the way it did. I'm always blown away by how much fun the jetties can be, even at waist high, if you have the right board and no one in the water.

I'm completely off today, so I'll probably paddle out in HB, north of the pier. There are some shoulder high sets coming through, so it looks like it should be fun.

Happy Thanksgiving to all here, hopefully there is swell whereever you are.

[Ottime]

No surf in the gulf but flying back home and looks like I'll get some fun sized surf tomorrow morning. Gonna get busy starting next week and looks like it will be about 10 days before I get out again. Stoked there is something for me tomorrow.


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[teamdirt]

Definitely catching some waves the last few days. Clean 2-3ft right point sand breaks. Great for a beginner here in Salvador.

[Ottime]

Good times this past weekend. Fun sized Saturday. A touch plus on Sunday.

Almost did not paddle out Saturday but ended up at the slab with just one friend for a few hours. Had to wait for them, but still head high bowls through the first section and plenty long rides even when it dropped to stomach to should high on the inside. Love that wave. Still has so much juice at that size.

Sunday ticked up with a fresh swell at about 6@14. Again surfed with one other for the first hour plus. The early sets had some size and girth. In between the bigger sets there was still plenty of fun. Sized dropped a touch later in my session. Then it was six of us, so I grabbed a few more and split.

Wife is in the OR this morning for a scheduled surgery. I'm her care giver so who knows when I'll surf again. Stoked I got these two days u def my belt before being full time nurse for the next few weeks.


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[Dantheman]

I had a chance to get some in Maui last week and blew it.

I lived in San Luis Obispo for a few years and got decent at surfing. Nothing like I can ski, but decent. Now I maybe surf once a year and hadn’t surfed in two years, but last week I spent five days in Kaanapali with the family. First day there Fleming was breaking waist to shoulder-high and the surf shop had a hybrid nose 5’-10” 33 L in the rental rack that was perfect. Managed to stand up the first wave I paddled into and caught a few more rides before my ribs were too sore to paddle. Nothing very impressive, but catching waves on a shortboard right away after so long felt great. Felt strong paddling and would have stayed out longer if my ribs weren’t so wrecked.

The next three days didn’t have swell and we explored, hiked, snorkeled. The swell was supposed to pick back up Wednesday and the guy at surf shop said Fleming should be good again so I rented the board from the day before. I went for a sunrise run up a trail that starts at Fleming, and when I finished it wasn’t breaking. Dreams crushed. From Fleming I could see up to Honolua Bay and the right point was breaking. It seemed big from pretty far away which made me think it was above my pay grade. I had a brief thought to run over to the overlook real quick and take a closer look, but the run had taken longer than planned and I was late for breakfast with the family. That was a critical mistake.

We had breakfast, went down to the beach for a while, then about I noon I decided I should go take another look at Fleming since the tide had dropped about 1.5’ from the morning. Then I made mistake number two and invited the wife and kiddo along. They had wanted another day bodyboarding and were also bummed about the lack of waves that day, and I figured if it was surfable there would be enough inside waves for them to get bodyboard rides in the whitewash. Why *not* bring them along, right? That’s just being a good dad, right? So, we rallied and headed up there.

We get there and it’s still not breaking. I could see that it was still breaking in Honolua, so since we were there I suggested we drive up to the overlook just to see it since it’s a famous wave. We get there and it’s actually mostly about head-high with some outside sets getting to what looked like 1-2’ OH. Peeling but not barreling, 8-10 people out. It’s at the high end of what I’d feel comfortable paddling into, but it’s a point break and easy to stay in the channel and escape if needed. I definitely could have given it a shot. But, it was either what looked like a long paddle from the cove, or a closer access from what from across the bay looked like a sketchy rocky entry in the surf. There’s no beach at Honolua so the wife and kiddo were understandably not very keen on finding something to do while I surfed alone. We also had a sail trip booked later that afternoon, so she was worried about being late for that. Realistically I could have given it at a good effort and we would have been totally fine on time, but it was a reasonable concern, especially if anything went wrong.

Besides it being almost too big, the family not being encouraging, and the time issue, I was also worried that it was a localized spot and I'd get chased out of the lineup anyway. So, I made a decision I’ll regret forever, kept the board in the car, and drove away. When I returned the board the guy at the shop asked how things went and I told him the story. Crushingly, he told me the other entrance I was looking at was actually not too bad, the vibe is “pretty aloha” unless it’s fully barreling and a bigger crowd, and if I was catching waves at Fleming on that board I probably could have handled the size. Given Hawaii's reputation I was kind of shocked how forthcoming he was with beta and actively encouraging me to surf there. I guess very few tourists rent shortboards and even fewer actually catch waves on them, so that's a good unlock to show you're not a clueless haole kook.

I absolutely should have got in the water. Would I have actually gotten a wave? Who knows, but I should have been in the water. If I had taken a closer look earlier that morning I would have been in the water. If I had left the family at the beach I would have been in the water. If I had driven to the other side of the bay to take a closer look at the closer entry I would have been in the water. If I had stopped at the surf shop for beta I would have been in the water. It's easy to be mad at my wife for not being supportive in that critical moment, but ultimately it was my decision alone and my regret to live with. So many potential decision points that could have ended with me being in the damn water instead of wondering “what if” forever.

I always keep in mind that hindsight is 20/20, but it doesn’t ease the pain of knowing you had a chance and blew it. I can’t get the image of the wave breaking from the overlook out of my head. Worst FOMO I’ve had since it went blue in AK the day after I left. Maybe worse, since at least in AK everyone at Pulseline thought there was no way they’d fly that day and I had already left. In this case I was standing right there and didn’t go.

I’m not sure I’ll ever entirely get over it unless I can make it back to Maui and ride that wave. With the fickleness of surfing who knows if that will ever happen. It’s worth a try someday, but far from guaranteed.


On a more stokeworthy note, the next day we headed to the east side for two days. On the way we stopped at Ho'okipa Beach and it was firing. Definitely above my pay grade that day and I had neither time or a board anyway, but there were a bunch of people tearing it up. Spent a good half hour watching and it was super cool to see. Easily the highest performance surfing I’ve ever seen live.

[Ottime]

^^^^ I've found most breaks in Hawaii are more mellow than one might expect. Especially if you paddle out and act respectfully. Like watching a few sets from he channel before trying to catch any, not dropping in on folks and waiting for your turn in a line up. You can not be too timid, but it helps to not be aggressive either. Next time.

[Dantheman]

Yeah, live and learn. We have a big anniversary coming up next year and have already decided we're just going to go back to Maui. It's the cheapest and easiest tropical destination to get to from SLC, she loves it, we have it figured out, and I'll get another shot at Honolua.

Going to try and flip the script here and really train for the trip by spending time paddling in the local reservoirs and doing lots of dryland pop-ups in the lead up. Obviously nothing replaces time in the ocean, but that will go a long way. Doing some research, if we're there for a week mid-December again Honolua should be breaking at least 1-2 days.

[whitekingsalmon]

Dan the man... sounds like you should just go try n catch a few at 1000 peaks area... you won't catch anything on the outside at the bay. OTTIME you obviously haven't spent much time in hawaii other that the tourist breaks...