a weblog by Dax

Ying and Yang

Posted on September 18th, 2006 by Dax.
Categories: blog post.

What a perfect week of surf we had last week, September 10th-16th, 2006.

Spracky and I went surfing on Sunday, then I was able to go surfing Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

After the last decent swell that came through in August I started to realize that I needed a new board, something that could float me better. I have lost 17 pounds in the past three months, but the board that I was using, and still call my favorite, a 6′4″ Rawson, just wasn’t doing it for me, it’s not the boards fault, I just couldn’t get the speed up to catch the waves. I found a nice semi-new shape by Al Merrick, it’s called a Flyer and is a bit more forgiving in smaller surf.

With this new swell that came through, thanks to Hurricane Florence and Gordon, I was really excited about trying out my new board.

On Sunday, Spracky and I went to one of my favorite spots that most people don’t go to. It’s not super secluded, but I think most people overlook it’s potential with it’s three very distinct peaks…until Sunday. When Spracky and I got to the beach there were twenty surfers already in the line-up.

I paddled out to the line-up pretty easliy, so I started to worry that the new board might be a bit of a boat when trying to maneuver it on the waves. The first wave I paddled for I was able to catch quite easliy, but when I went to turn up the face of the waves I realized that the Flyer did not have the “flickability” as my Rawson, and was quickly dismounted by the wave. So I caught a couple more waves and started to become more and more familiar with the board.

By the end of the day I had two of my best rides in the past six years…that’s a long time. The rides themselves were almost identical. I caught a nice right, and immediately started going down the line, then there was a lump in the wave before I could make it to the next section, so I snapped the board back to the left and then quickly dropped in on the next section and snapped the board back to the right. At this point the wave shot up and I tucked in to get ready to get tubed, a very tight tube that wasn’t all that clean, but none the less, it was a tube. On the first of the two identical waves I caught, I immediately got slammed by the wave at this point. On the second of the waves, I started to get sucked up the face of the wave to try to get more speed to utilize when the wave was ready to shoot me out. But as I began to gain a good amount of speed the wave closed-out all the way down the line, and I was buried with it.

Needless to say, I was pretty stoked.

I went out on Monday, and didn’t have as good of rides, but I still had a great time. Tuesday was way to rough, so I rested. On Wednesday, the waves started to get really big…for Northeast Florida. The wind was still blowing onshore, so there was a considerable chop out there. But Thursday was by far the nicest day of surf for the week.

I went out at around 10:00 AM and the lines were perfect. You could see the sets rolling in. And, of course, there were plenty of other surfers in the line-up. I headed out to the south a little because the current was heading north. The face of the waves were easily four to seven foot, clean and mostly glassy. As I paddled out I would look down the face of a passing wave and I could see the beautiful tubes all the way down. I went for the first couple of waves, and really couldn’t get on unless I was really deep in the take-off. I eventually caught a couple of rides, but nothing spectacular that I can remember. I got out a little after noon, and decided to go get some food and rest and that I would head out later in the day.

Around 2:45 PM I got back to my spot and I was extremely happy that I went and got some rest. There were only a handful of people in the line-up and the waves had a very slight chop to them, but they looked the same height as the morning. I paddled out and noticed that the waves weren’t tubing like before, but occasionally an outside wave would show up and the face was easily eight feet. I arrived in the line-up where I wanted to be, my arms were really tired because I only took Tuesday off from surfing.

The first set came through and a couple of people caught the waves, I decided to rest just a bit. By the time the next set came through I was ready to ride. The first wave was to close to the shore, so I paddled out just a bit, and I let the second wave go by. I saw the third wave and it was a beast. I immediately started to paddle for it. Next thing I know I am looking down the face of this wave and it shelfs right up, so I stand up and started flying down the face of this thing. For a split second I looked straight at the wave, instead of looking down the line, and I all I could see was wave…nothing else, no sky. I quickly turned my attention back to the line of the wave. I kept flying up and down the face, slashing when I thought that I wouldn’t fly off. I was having a great time. Next thing I know, I feel this huge force knock me off the board from behind, and I found out that I had overstayed my welcome on this wave, and the wave had decided that it was time for me to get off. When I started to paddle back out, I saw just how far down the beach I was, and I realized that that had been one hell of a long wave.

The rest of the day was pretty much like the first wave of the day, almost every wave I tried for I caught, and I even got a couple of decent backsides in.

All in all it was a really good week, what a huge difference from just a couple of weeks ago, and I’m not refering to the surf.

Dax out-

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