Yeah, SI has been a zombie husk of itself for the past few years. I think the rise of The Athletic drove the final stake in
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*** Official 2024 Community Surf Journal ***
- Thread starter b.r.
- Start date
Busy end of the week but surfed the same zone mid beach Monday and Tuesday.
Monday later end of the morning, rode a 6’2” and nearly regretted that when i was walking out over the dunes, saw someone get/make one of the better (if not best) overhead barrels I’ve seen all winter. Made it out and sure enough that perfect wave was a needle in a haystack. Regardless, still fun waves for the day, couple drops ending up on slopey shoulders, board decision worked out fine too. Drifted north a couple blocks to a dead zone and called it.
Tuesday: working at home, watching the cams all morning, thinking ”yeah, no, looks good, eh not that good better work”. Desire got the best of me a little after 12 noon after I saw the wind wasn’t forecasted to switch for a few hours. Jammed down to the beach, same zone as Monday, and welp, the wind switched sooner than forecasted. Garbage. Caught 2 shitty waves, cursed my hesitancy, and went in.
Monday later end of the morning, rode a 6’2” and nearly regretted that when i was walking out over the dunes, saw someone get/make one of the better (if not best) overhead barrels I’ve seen all winter. Made it out and sure enough that perfect wave was a needle in a haystack. Regardless, still fun waves for the day, couple drops ending up on slopey shoulders, board decision worked out fine too. Drifted north a couple blocks to a dead zone and called it.
Tuesday: working at home, watching the cams all morning, thinking ”yeah, no, looks good, eh not that good better work”. Desire got the best of me a little after 12 noon after I saw the wind wasn’t forecasted to switch for a few hours. Jammed down to the beach, same zone as Monday, and welp, the wind switched sooner than forecasted. Garbage. Caught 2 shitty waves, cursed my hesitancy, and went in.
Lots of fun waves. Riding bomdia and townsend on the smaller days and then it got big enough to finally ride my 6-5 driver round tail. 3 sessions in a row on the same board. Overhead point waves on a round tail thruster, it doesnt get much better. This morning was small and everyone is surfed out so I logged some glassy peelers with just a couple ladies and an old guy.
My feet are shredded from the barnacles but I cant stand longboarding in booties.
My feet are shredded from the barnacles but I cant stand longboarding in booties.
B-Grade longboard spot, but brought the GMM2 (my bar of soap) for her swan-song. She treats me like royalty. Love that board, but I'm switching it up to the new one now. Hopefully it works as well!
In 2 hours, had about 30 waves. I'm freaking toasted. Started with maybe 6 people out, and the last 45 minutes was just the wifey and me. Waves are slow and soft here, but while the queen is being defiled by 300+ people, we had a solo session just 10 minutes away. STOKED.
Cleaned the GMM2 when I got home. Damn that's a nice board.
In 2 hours, had about 30 waves. I'm freaking toasted. Started with maybe 6 people out, and the last 45 minutes was just the wifey and me. Waves are slow and soft here, but while the queen is being defiled by 300+ people, we had a solo session just 10 minutes away. STOKED.
Cleaned the GMM2 when I got home. Damn that's a nice board.
Glad to see that things haven't changed. Was always shocked how you could find nearly empty good waves not too far away.
Morning session rode the single fin. Had one really good wave and a bunch of smaller fun ones.
Later afternoon session on alpha omega . Hoo lee sh!t the board is good. I may get a quiver of these
Later afternoon session on alpha omega . Hoo lee sh!t the board is good. I may get a quiver of these
Edit: I meant to say shoked
It really is a super efficient, functional design, despite the ugly square outline. I think I only remember one bad sesh and that was because I didn’t like the stupid krypt hatchet fins. Otherwise, GMM2 always pleasantly surprised me with how it worked in everything. My last one was just too small for me to comfortably paddle by the end. Gonna have to get another one in my quiver again soon.
Slightly smaller (the old faithful is 5'7"x 19" and the new one is 5'6" x 19") but slightly more volume because it's thicker but with tapered rails... and glass-on Gephardt fins. That one inch is irrelevant in this design, so stoked... erm, stocked... to give it a whirl. Just put the tail pad on it last night!
Correct - and set up as a thruster with pretty big fins. I'm tricurious after riding the prior as a quad. Tried it as a tri with medium fins and it didn't work. Tried it as a twin with a small trailer and it didn't work. So curious about these big glass ons. I'm pretty freaking optimistic.
Today was glorious. Finally got some really good waves on the AO. Quiver killer for sure. So many good waves, where was everyone? Hahaha
Got a session report that might make you chuckle....I've just spent a week in morocco, and had a bit of an accident during the first session. Tried to make a section (surfing backside), realized I wasn't going to, then tried to straighten out. Way too late for that though....my feet lost contact with the board and the lip threw me forwards. Not quite sure how exactly I've managed to do that, but I basically fell from 6 feet and landed on the board with my face.
Felt the nose crack, got a bad hit to my teeth and almost lost consciousness. Walked up the beach, trying to figure out how bad my nose is and whether I still have all my teeth. Steered towards a chick on the beach to ask her if I need an ambulance straightaway. Much to my surprise she walked away. Still very much in shock/pain I was walking back to the car when I realized "dear lord something is wrong with my cock". Looking down I found the little guy dangling out of the wettie (which explains the chick's escape). Took me about 5 minutes to figure out that I had knocked out a fin with said cock, leaving but a very curious cut in the wetsuit. Luckily, no harm whatsoever. My leg must have hit the other fin, cracked the box and I got an hematoma.
Nose is broken and bruised, but I was able to surf for the rest of the week. My weirdest and scariest surfing accident by far, could have ended way worse. Great story though, and we still got some epic surf that week.
Felt the nose crack, got a bad hit to my teeth and almost lost consciousness. Walked up the beach, trying to figure out how bad my nose is and whether I still have all my teeth. Steered towards a chick on the beach to ask her if I need an ambulance straightaway. Much to my surprise she walked away. Still very much in shock/pain I was walking back to the car when I realized "dear lord something is wrong with my cock". Looking down I found the little guy dangling out of the wettie (which explains the chick's escape). Took me about 5 minutes to figure out that I had knocked out a fin with said cock, leaving but a very curious cut in the wetsuit. Luckily, no harm whatsoever. My leg must have hit the other fin, cracked the box and I got an hematoma.
Nose is broken and bruised, but I was able to surf for the rest of the week. My weirdest and scariest surfing accident by far, could have ended way worse. Great story though, and we still got some epic surf that week.
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Shocker this morning despite the waves being really good. Packed my groveler when the waves definitely called for more lumber.
Happens to the best of us.
Did the opposite. After 4 very busy and stressful work days I finally had a morning off, and there was a clean, HH swell running. Just wanted to cruise so took the 8'0 Keogh gun. Paddling out there were endless waves peeling through outer point and not a soul about, but of course it slowed down as reached the lineup. Picked up again, and I got really nice waves solo for an hour, then with two other for 1.5hr.
Totally overgunned, but just what I was after, and even at just HH that board drives so hard off the bottom.
I feel restored, and fcuk did I need that.
Did exactly that myself.
Headed to Stu Point with the new Bar-of-Soap board, a 5'6"x19" GMM with glass ons. Didn't bring anything else, and much to my surprise, it was about twice as big as I expected. Only about 12 guys on top when I got there, which winnowed down to 4 of us, and then the one of me a the tippy top for the bomb sets. Stok... erm, stocked!
Board worked great, but the waves were well overhead and solid/throwing a bit at the point. I have three other boards that would've been much MUCH better for the job. Still, managed to get a bunch and make the drops. Had more than one trying to pump for speed down the line and that big ol' bedonkadonk (the tail of this board is WIDE) and felt it slide out. Saved it, but not my most glorious session. Learned a lot about this board quickly.
Still had a blast, was able to pick off about 15-20 waves in the 1-1/2 hours I was out with the biggest being a few feet overhead, saw some old friends, and christened the new bar-of-soap. It's a keeper FOR SURE. It worked, I can tell it'll work well, but today was not the day for that board at that spot.
Debating an evening session, despite the fact that I'm toasted again.
Bro, if your dick fits through that little hole in your wetsuit , it must be freezing.