3 in a Row

Last weekend I had some of the best surf I've had in quite some time. I missed Saturday due to soccer obligation (last games of the season, woohoo). Sunday, drove across the bridge to clean overhead lines stacking up on the horizon. Pulled up, fed the kids some grub, and watched wave after wave peel from the peak, regroup in the middle, then rocket down the line in the shorebreak. Plenty of great rides. Lots of smiles. Rebecca soon got out of the water, and I gotta say, there is nothing better than seeing your wife have shit eating grin walking up the beach. Paddled out on the GH twinny that Rebecca bought me for my birthday, and preceded to catch wave after clean wave. Well overhead. It was pretty crowded, but luckily most of the guys that were catching the good ones on bigger boards, would call me into waves after they passed by, usually leaving me plenty of pocket room. Plus, they would always kick out before the better inside section. Monday rolled around and my expectations weren't that high. Two days in a row of good surf? Couldn't happen. Plus the buoy numbers seemed to be a little smaller. Well I was wrong. It was a touch smaller, still overhead, but even cleaner than the day before. Shifted over to the ledgier part of the reef, and pretty much got a few of the best barrels I've gotten in a few years. Crowd was much more mellow, and the rotation was working well. Tuesday. Nah, couldn't happen. Not 3 in a row. Tuesday we (Rebecca and I, no kids) pulled up to the reef to another perfect weather day. For the first time in a while, we could surf together. We were heading out of town later in the day, but had the morning off, and the kids in school. We've had bad luck over the last year on our rare surf days. Usually the surf is real small, or blown out. Can't actually remember the last time we surfed together when it was good. Just might have been pre-kids. Our session started out pretty slow. It was an incredibly beautiful day, but the surf had dropped and changed directions a bit. Surf PE was in full force. The crowd was thick. We paddled out together, and stayed on the south side. From the lot, there seemed to be some fun looking waves breaking on the middle and reeling through the inside. When I got out, I couldn't seem to find them. I ended up sitting outside with the rest of the pack. 30 minutes went by, still no wave ridden. Then something wierd happened. People started to drift. Some got out for work or school. Some paddled over to the other side of the reef. Before we knew it, we were the only two sitting at the peak on that side of the reef. Waves started coming. Head high, fun, a little softer on the outside, but would reform into some great inside sections. We traded off wave for wave for about an hour. Sharing many during that time as well. One of the best sessions of the year, not because it was epic, or even as good as the prior two days, but because it was pretty much just us.

Here a few picks Tom English shot of me on Sunday:

I remember this last little section. Remember watching it set-up, remember waiting for it, stalling, stalling, stalling. I remember the view and how many I've blown recently. Remember thinking to myself, "No way I ain't coming out of this one." Luckily, I did.