Monday, September 26, 2005
Long Island Surf
I'm currently in NYC on business. I flew out on the redeye Sat night and arrived at 6:00 am NY time. My friend Adam, who I met at the Fish Frye in San Diego this spring, picked me up at JFK and we proceeded immediately to his local break, a beach in the town of Long Beach, on Long Island. We got out of the car and I noticed that I had never seen so many fish in one place before. Adam didn't bring his Mandala quad, but it seemed like every other car in the lot had a some kind of fish, including many Mandala shapes. Adam knew most everyone in the lot and a few guys we met on the boardwalk. The vibe was very easygoing and friendly.
We walked across the boardwalk and checked out the waves. The forecast was for 4-6 feet @ 11 secs, but when we got there it looked sloppier. Now I understood why there were so many fish in the lot. The morning temp was in the upper 50s, and the wind was sideshore from the East, with an outgoing tide ("dead low" as I heard many locals refer to it). I had my 3/2 wetsuit, which turned out to be good for the conditions. Adam had a 2/1 shortie, and he was cold by the end of the session. The water temp was about 70 deg and I never felt cold. But, I get ahead of myself.
Anyway, there are rock jetties every 100 yards or so, and they work with the East swell to create a powerful sideshore rip. You can jump in at the East side of a jetty and the exiting current will pull you out into the break, assuming you can duck dive under the gnarly waves dumping in the impact zone. It took me two tries to get out on Adam's 6'1" Birch thumb-tail quad, because I was getting pulled too far East, down to the next jetty, and decided to belly ride in and restart.
The set waves were head high, with mushy lefthand takeoffs followed by weird walls and punishing closeouts. I only caught a few rides and could never get the hang of the thick-railed Birch board. Could have been the board, could have been a somewhat sleepy driver. As the tide got lower the waves got mushier and smaller. We went in after 90 minutes. The best thing about Long Island surfing is the sense of community. Seems like everybody knows everybody else at the local break and that is very cool. Also, warm water doesn't hurt. I don't envy them in Winter, though...
We walked across the boardwalk and checked out the waves. The forecast was for 4-6 feet @ 11 secs, but when we got there it looked sloppier. Now I understood why there were so many fish in the lot. The morning temp was in the upper 50s, and the wind was sideshore from the East, with an outgoing tide ("dead low" as I heard many locals refer to it). I had my 3/2 wetsuit, which turned out to be good for the conditions. Adam had a 2/1 shortie, and he was cold by the end of the session. The water temp was about 70 deg and I never felt cold. But, I get ahead of myself.
Anyway, there are rock jetties every 100 yards or so, and they work with the East swell to create a powerful sideshore rip. You can jump in at the East side of a jetty and the exiting current will pull you out into the break, assuming you can duck dive under the gnarly waves dumping in the impact zone. It took me two tries to get out on Adam's 6'1" Birch thumb-tail quad, because I was getting pulled too far East, down to the next jetty, and decided to belly ride in and restart.
The set waves were head high, with mushy lefthand takeoffs followed by weird walls and punishing closeouts. I only caught a few rides and could never get the hang of the thick-railed Birch board. Could have been the board, could have been a somewhat sleepy driver. As the tide got lower the waves got mushier and smaller. We went in after 90 minutes. The best thing about Long Island surfing is the sense of community. Seems like everybody knows everybody else at the local break and that is very cool. Also, warm water doesn't hurt. I don't envy them in Winter, though...
Monday, September 19, 2005
Saturday in the Park with a hundred of my closest surfing pals
Saturday
Up at 5am, I am the last person to get a spot in the parking lot at 6:25am, a full 25 minutes before sunrise. The full moon has illuminated things well enough to see 30 some odd surfers already catching the shoulder-high waves. Seems kinda small, but I don't want to drive over to the West Side, so I head back to the car to change.
I quickly start to suit up. It's not cold, so I put my key in my wetsuit's shoulder located key pocket. I don't want to replay yesterday's events and I know about car theft at the Hook. Unlike yesterday, when I had the 6'8" semi-gun, today I have the 5'9" fish. Perhaps I am undergunned, but I am willing to give it a try. A dry hair paddle out leaves me in the midst of 30 or so guys at the main takeoff zone, with large groups of surfers milling about on the inside all the way diagonally down the coast.
The board seems to float me well enough to compete with these guys for waves. I see Steve, a guy from the Norcal Yahoo group, and we talk story during the long lulls between waves. A bigger set comes through and I paddle against a guy I think will bail at the last moment. He does, and I stroke into the wave and take a huge drop on my tiny board down the face. I swish through a fairly sedate bottom turn and up the face then down again. The wave sections and I try to outrun it, pumping in the foam to find green water again, but I fail and relax into the spin cycle. Later, a massive 6 wave clean up set comes through. I am right in the middle, so the waves are breaking on top of me, but the little fish is a breeze to duck-dive so I hold my position. At the end of the set I look around and there is no one within 100 feet of me. Some of the guys are way outside, having scratched over the incoming walls of water, and the rest are way behind me in the foam, pulling their boards back to them to begin the paddle out. Steve catches up to me about 15 minutes later. I ask him if he caught one of the big waves and rode it to the beach and he tells me how he rescued a guy whose leash broke and couldn't swim in. The guy had panicked in the foam and Steve managed to tow him in on his back without getting drowned himself. We figured Steve had some generated some good karma and deserved a set wave. BTW, if you can't swim without your board, don't go out on big days.
After a 30 minute lull, a set comes through and I hop on another overhead wave. Big drop, unremarkable bottom turn, trim down the line, try and get a higher line to beat the soon to section wall. No good; ride the foam and kick out.
one hour later, I have to get home to coach at my daughter's soccer game. I paddle hesitantly inside, stopping every 20 feet to see if one last set will come through for me to ride in to the beach. Finally, about 30 feet from the sand, I am rewarded. I paddle into a shoulder high wave that presents another soon to section wall. I fly down the line and as the wave starts to collapse, I zip to the top of the wave and try to nail a floater over the foam. The lip catches my rail and sends me tumbling. Great ending to fun session.
Up at 5am, I am the last person to get a spot in the parking lot at 6:25am, a full 25 minutes before sunrise. The full moon has illuminated things well enough to see 30 some odd surfers already catching the shoulder-high waves. Seems kinda small, but I don't want to drive over to the West Side, so I head back to the car to change.
I quickly start to suit up. It's not cold, so I put my key in my wetsuit's shoulder located key pocket. I don't want to replay yesterday's events and I know about car theft at the Hook. Unlike yesterday, when I had the 6'8" semi-gun, today I have the 5'9" fish. Perhaps I am undergunned, but I am willing to give it a try. A dry hair paddle out leaves me in the midst of 30 or so guys at the main takeoff zone, with large groups of surfers milling about on the inside all the way diagonally down the coast.
The board seems to float me well enough to compete with these guys for waves. I see Steve, a guy from the Norcal Yahoo group, and we talk story during the long lulls between waves. A bigger set comes through and I paddle against a guy I think will bail at the last moment. He does, and I stroke into the wave and take a huge drop on my tiny board down the face. I swish through a fairly sedate bottom turn and up the face then down again. The wave sections and I try to outrun it, pumping in the foam to find green water again, but I fail and relax into the spin cycle. Later, a massive 6 wave clean up set comes through. I am right in the middle, so the waves are breaking on top of me, but the little fish is a breeze to duck-dive so I hold my position. At the end of the set I look around and there is no one within 100 feet of me. Some of the guys are way outside, having scratched over the incoming walls of water, and the rest are way behind me in the foam, pulling their boards back to them to begin the paddle out. Steve catches up to me about 15 minutes later. I ask him if he caught one of the big waves and rode it to the beach and he tells me how he rescued a guy whose leash broke and couldn't swim in. The guy had panicked in the foam and Steve managed to tow him in on his back without getting drowned himself. We figured Steve had some generated some good karma and deserved a set wave. BTW, if you can't swim without your board, don't go out on big days.
After a 30 minute lull, a set comes through and I hop on another overhead wave. Big drop, unremarkable bottom turn, trim down the line, try and get a higher line to beat the soon to section wall. No good; ride the foam and kick out.
one hour later, I have to get home to coach at my daughter's soccer game. I paddle hesitantly inside, stopping every 20 feet to see if one last set will come through for me to ride in to the beach. Finally, about 30 feet from the sand, I am rewarded. I paddle into a shoulder high wave that presents another soon to section wall. I fly down the line and as the wave starts to collapse, I zip to the top of the wave and try to nail a floater over the foam. The lip catches my rail and sends me tumbling. Great ending to fun session.
Slow Summer + South Swell = Surf Frenzy
After the fact South Swell Surf Report
Friday - I took the day off from work sick, (cough). Went to the Lane first, crowded, so I checked out all the spots west of there in town and then decided to check out some spots outside of town. Those spots were crowded too plus they looked small and windy, so I drove further up to check out a certain cove North of town. It was crowded, but was working, with big lefts at the South end of the cove. I suited up and paddled out to the much less crowded morth end, just to get warmed up, leaving my car key hidden under a sock in the field. (My Bodyglove wetsuit has a poorly located key pocket right at the shoulder blade in the back, so I can never close the suit until after I have locked the car, resulting in more coldness than necessary if I try to use the pocket).
After dodging closeout set waves and waiting around forever for something surfable, but not yet feeling like I wanted to deal with the crowd at the South end, I noticed a school bus load of kids had arrived at the beach and seemed to be carrying around white plastic bags. Crap! Tomorrow is Coastal Beach Cleanup Day and they must have come early. My key is in danger of getting found and thrown away. I paddled in and indeed, the sock and my key were gone. I inquired discreetly and it turns out a teacher had found the key. She pulled it out of her garbage bag and said, "I felt bad for whoever lost this key." I wanted to say, "then why didn't you leave it there?", but I kept my tongue in check.
I returned to SC for some lunch and then headed back to the Lane. The wind has picked up a bit and things are looking kinda inconsistent, so I opt to head back home to do some errands, dreaming of Saturday morning.
Friday - I took the day off from work sick, (cough). Went to the Lane first, crowded, so I checked out all the spots west of there in town and then decided to check out some spots outside of town. Those spots were crowded too plus they looked small and windy, so I drove further up to check out a certain cove North of town. It was crowded, but was working, with big lefts at the South end of the cove. I suited up and paddled out to the much less crowded morth end, just to get warmed up, leaving my car key hidden under a sock in the field. (My Bodyglove wetsuit has a poorly located key pocket right at the shoulder blade in the back, so I can never close the suit until after I have locked the car, resulting in more coldness than necessary if I try to use the pocket).
After dodging closeout set waves and waiting around forever for something surfable, but not yet feeling like I wanted to deal with the crowd at the South end, I noticed a school bus load of kids had arrived at the beach and seemed to be carrying around white plastic bags. Crap! Tomorrow is Coastal Beach Cleanup Day and they must have come early. My key is in danger of getting found and thrown away. I paddled in and indeed, the sock and my key were gone. I inquired discreetly and it turns out a teacher had found the key. She pulled it out of her garbage bag and said, "I felt bad for whoever lost this key." I wanted to say, "then why didn't you leave it there?", but I kept my tongue in check.
I returned to SC for some lunch and then headed back to the Lane. The wind has picked up a bit and things are looking kinda inconsistent, so I opt to head back home to do some errands, dreaming of Saturday morning.
