Barrells: A quick write up
First off nothing can ever describe a barrell. There is no word in any language that can sum up the feeling of barrells. It's just like pow skiing, no matter how experience of a rider and how amazing of a writer, nothing in writing can remotely comphrend the sickness of the experience. But like many others before me, I'm gonna try.
This is why we surf-
12.14.04. Santa Cruz, CA. Little Wind 'N Sea. 6-10 feet. Minus tide. NW swell.
I skateboarded down to the end of my road, which happens to end right in front of 4 of the best breaks in town. I glance to my right. Wind 'N Sea. I lived on the cliff above that break for 16 years, so the moment a saw a ripple, looked at the tide, glanced at the wind, I knew it was going to be firing. I don't know the back of my hand, but I know Wind 'N Sea. I skate back very quickly, suit up, grab my board and run down to the cliffs.
I start the paddle out, and realize that it's a lot bigger than I thought. I scramble my ass through one of Santa Cruz's most powerful breaks. I get out to two other people out. W.N.S although one of the best breaks in town is hard to check, hard to get to and hard to surf, so it largely remains very uncrowded.
The session starts of right. With a right. Then a left. another left, and another. And then many more lefts. The rights were closing out because the tide was on it's way down still. It was still too high. But I knew it would get good soon.
But when the tide finally started to reach it's low peak and a couple other peeps came out, I decided that it was time to go right. You see the rights at W.N.S are hardly surfed. They tend to close out...right in front of a shit load of rocks. Pretty much, you don't make the wave, your in the rocks fearing your life, limbs and board. But like I said, I know this place more than I know the back of my hand. For years I was scared of the rights at W.N.S. But now I love them, cause they feel like one of my personal playgrounds.
The horizon enlarges, changes color. A set was coming. I was a little inside, so I start scrambling out to sea. Paddle over one wave. Get through the bigger second. The third wave is a macker. Solid 10 feet. The few other dudes are scrambling to get position to go left. I say fuck the left, I want to go right. But, shit. It looks like it's gonna close out. (Meaning it's just gonna be one big wall that comes crashing down all at once. i.e. can't surf without consequences.)
And this is why I surf...
I say "Fuck it." I'm gonna go anyways. I quickly turn a 180. And dig. Dig with all of my arms, shoulders and back. --You see the bigger the wave the faster you have to go to get in and not get tossed like a midget at a world's strongest man comp.-- The bottom begins to drop out. The wall gets vertical. I throw the board under my feet and feel locked on my board. Then my focus shifts. From making the drop, to looking down the line and making those instinctual desicions on how you're going to surf this wave. Shit, I almost forgot. The wave I took off on looked like it was going to close out. So instead of making a arcing bottom turn, I lock the board high in the wave and point the nose down the line. That's where all the speed is. Riding the near vertical part of the wave. I start pumping. And what looks like a brick wall crumbling in front of me starts to form. I start racing. Only one place to go on this wave. The commitment, I think is the best part. Cause, everything in you is telling you that this wall of water is going to absolutely crush you. That this wall is gonna fall on you and there is no way out. But, your mind says fuck it. I can get through this. I pulled high and felt the wave start casing over my head. I realize my knees are locked. My 6 foot frame is standing dead tall in a barrell that feels like it could cover a VW Bus. I stand there and the slow motion kicks in. It is truly mesmerizing. It feels like a physical impossibilty. Somehow, someway there is a liquid that is on all sides of you, but your still dry. And then the wind inside the barrell is insane. Undescribable. It's just a vortex of nature encircling you.
I then see the barrell start to speed up. A little 3 foot nub makes the barrell a couple feet longer. I unlock my knees and starting pumping my board for more speed. Just like pumping a skateboard, I weave up and down the wave face, still in the barrell. As I'm pumping and the slow motion continues, I see a guy at the opposite end of the barrell paddling out. He's eyes were wide open, gazed down the barrell. I even made eye contact with him and think I gave him a bit of a smile. I continue to speed up and drop the nose down, point it down the wave face, race out of the barrell and arc a bottom turn around the guy paddling out. I kick out of the top of the wave, land on my board and land a couple feet behind the guy paddling out. He turned around, looked at me and said. "That was SICK!!!" I didn't say anything. It took me a couple of minutes to comprehend what just happened. Half way back on the paddle out, I let out an almost laughing, "holeeey shit. that was fun."
This is why I/we surf. I wanted to add this to show the occasional snow rider reading this forum, why tuffy, Pu and I get so stoked on surfing and keep posting over and over and over about the ancient wave sliding.
