PrintPrint
12/02/08
Seems like a good time to start this blog with what looks to be a cold, flat week without any swell coming our way. If you look at my favorite surf forecast site, www.magicseaweed.com and run the swell model you’ll see that the Atlantic has plenty of northerly swell heading somewhere else later in the week. Of course, this is SC and living with lowered expectations is a handy survival technique, but I can still complain, can’t I? Plus, magicseaweed has forecasts and photos of just about every surf spot in the world so I can always look for somewhere I’d rather be.
And if your car will make it without crapping out and if your wife/girlfriend/significant other will give you a fun pass, looks like all that wind swell is heading to Florida, so a road trip sounds pretty good to me. Speaking of trips- mahalo to our adopted local boy, DK, who just got back from a surf trip to Agadir, Morocco. That pretty well throws down the gauntlet for off the grid travel. I guess if you are going to stay surf stoked while living in Europe, you just have to suck it up and go someplace exotic. Check the pics of Morocco on the seaweed site and you’ll be jealous. Speaking of jealous, Big Ed and the R.E. crew are heading down to Costa too. Guess I’ll just sit here at my desk and grumble.
Plus it’s a bummer it’s wetsuit time, again. Seems like I spend a lot of time getting dressed and undressed. Totally rules out that “just go get wet and surf the slop” session that I live for during the summer. And Mrs Blog can be a total drag about bits of rubber hanging in the shower stall beyond her allotted time period. My favorite booties got so funky they were banned, so I finally broke down and bought some new ones. The nice O’Neils with the Velcro strap across the instep. See what I loving husband I am?
So this blog is going to be about surfing on the East Side. Why? Because this is where I surf and it’s my blog – so there. Plus, I like it over here in my own little world. The vibe is so much better and the crowds are less. Sure, I’ll admit hands down, that the waves are better at the washout, but I’ll take a better vibe over better waves any day. At my spot it’s usually just me and one other guy out. Yo, Bongo.
Sure, there’s something to be said about pushing your level of surfing by mixing it up over at the Snake Pit and there’s been plenty of occasions when that’s held a certain appeal for me, but this summer coming will mark 40 years of surfing just about every swell we’ve had and I really don’t have anything I need to prove anymore. Nor the will to prove it. I’m just stoked not to get caught inside by a set and pummeled with a bunch of people watching. At my age, I’ve become fond of taking my beatings in private.
My best friend Vinnie and I learned to surf the summer of 1969 on a 9’6” Royal Hawaiian popout his mom bought at, get this, Eckerds drug store over here at the Sea Island shopping center. It weighed about a 1000 lbs and we were too wimpy to carry it alone so it took the 2 of us. Cool thing is, he still has it in his garage, so maybe we’ll take it out to the beach this summer for some kind of ceremonial re-enactment. Because if there is one thing I’ve learned over these years, it is that if I can think up some meaningless, foolish act of utter stupidity, I can always count on Vinnie as my wingman.
12/02/08
Seems like a good time to start this blog with what looks to be a cold, flat week without any swell coming our way. If you look at my favorite surf forecast site, www.magicseaweed.com and run the swell model you’ll see that the Atlantic has plenty of northerly swell heading somewhere else later in the week. Of course, this is SC and living with lowered expectations is a handy survival technique, but I can still complain, can’t I? Plus, magicseaweed has forecasts and photos of just about every surf spot in the world so I can always look for somewhere I’d rather be.
And if your car will make it without crapping out and if your wife/girlfriend/significant other will give you a fun pass, looks like all that wind swell is heading to Florida, so a road trip sounds pretty good to me. Speaking of trips- mahalo to our adopted local boy, DK, who just got back from a surf trip to Agadir, Morocco. That pretty well throws down the gauntlet for off the grid travel. I guess if you are going to stay surf stoked while living in Europe, you just have to suck it up and go someplace exotic. Check the pics of Morocco on the seaweed site and you’ll be jealous. Speaking of jealous, Big Ed and the R.E. crew are heading down to Costa too. Guess I’ll just sit here at my desk and grumble.
Plus it’s a bummer it’s wetsuit time, again. Seems like I spend a lot of time getting dressed and undressed. Totally rules out that “just go get wet and surf the slop” session that I live for during the summer. And Mrs Blog can be a total drag about bits of rubber hanging in the shower stall beyond her allotted time period. My favorite booties got so funky they were banned, so I finally broke down and bought some new ones. The nice O’Neils with the Velcro strap across the instep. See what I loving husband I am?
So this blog is going to be about surfing on the East Side. Why? Because this is where I surf and it’s my blog – so there. Plus, I like it over here in my own little world. The vibe is so much better and the crowds are less. Sure, I’ll admit hands down, that the waves are better at the washout, but I’ll take a better vibe over better waves any day. At my spot it’s usually just me and one other guy out. Yo, Bongo.
Sure, there’s something to be said about pushing your level of surfing by mixing it up over at the Snake Pit and there’s been plenty of occasions when that’s held a certain appeal for me, but this summer coming will mark 40 years of surfing just about every swell we’ve had and I really don’t have anything I need to prove anymore. Nor the will to prove it. I’m just stoked not to get caught inside by a set and pummeled with a bunch of people watching. At my age, I’ve become fond of taking my beatings in private.
My best friend Vinnie and I learned to surf the summer of 1969 on a 9’6” Royal Hawaiian popout his mom bought at, get this, Eckerds drug store over here at the Sea Island shopping center. It weighed about a 1000 lbs and we were too wimpy to carry it alone so it took the 2 of us. Cool thing is, he still has it in his garage, so maybe we’ll take it out to the beach this summer for some kind of ceremonial re-enactment. Because if there is one thing I’ve learned over these years, it is that if I can think up some meaningless, foolish act of utter stupidity, I can always count on Vinnie as my wingman.
Print