Big south swell weekend - Santa Cruz

Friday 7/24 - Monday 2/27, 6'6" Taylor, 5'11" Progression Fish
Santa Cruz
+ Nic, Joel, Colin, Taylor, Will-Mo, Josh

If ever there was an surf weekend noteworthy enough to try and revive Let Me Crazy, this past weekend of spectacular south swell would be it. Here is a quick summary of all the sessions:

Friday
6:30pm-8:30pm Mitchell's Cove with Joel and Taylor

Saturday
6am-10am - 1st and 2nd Peak with Nic, Joel, Taylor, Colin, and Will-Mo
11:30am-3:30pm - SHK with Nic, Joel, Colin, and Will-Mo
6:30pm-8:30pm - 38th with Nic, Joel, and Will-Mo

Sunday
11:30pm-3:30pm - SHK with Nic and Joel
6pm-8pm - 38th with Nic, Joel, and Josh

Monday
11am-1:30pm - Manresa with Josh
3pm-5pm - The Hook with Josh

Friday - Mitchell's Cove with Taylor and Joel. Those two were catching a bunch of waves. Within the first 10 minutes I went for a huge wave, got really high in the lip as I was trying to get into it, and ended up taking off into an air drop and massive wipeout as I took the wave on my head and slammed my butt into my board somehow. Ouch! We all ended up catching a few fun ones amid the incredible rides (and a couple sick barrels) from the really good surfers flying down from the point.

Saturday - wow. Not really sure how to describe it. I'm still shocked from the devotion to waves we all displayed. Got up at 4:45am and ended up with 10 solid hours of surfing. Dozens of really good waves. Fast walls. Top turns. Plenty of B.I.s (blowing it). Aggro locals. Laid back locals. Collisions. Big waves. Small waves. Scorched skin. 20 wave sets. 20 minute lulls. Really sore muscles. Overall, it was an intense, exhilarating, wave-filled, fun day of surfing. Dozens of waves among the Thrashtown crew.

Sunday - another session at SHK was probably one of my all-time favorite sessions ever. Nic turned us onto this gem of a spot some time ago and I can't get enough of it. It's well known enough, but I don't think anyone realizes the true quality of the waves there. My theory: you can't really see the waves well from the main scoping area (they look small and weak, actually) and there is no pull out or parking lot or lookout anywhere else to see the waves from the front. Consequently, the wave, while less consistent than it's famous next-door neighbor, is far less surfed and has waves that can be better. Yes, I said it, better.

Monday - beach camping, our own peak at Manresa, sun, tacos, lazy waves at The Hook, and a nice day of relaxation and good times with my good friend. Definitely worthwhile despite the lack of waves. Sorry you didn't really get to experience the good south swell, Josh. Don't worry - fall is just around the corner and with a little more practice on the new 6'10" Doug Haut, you will be charging. Only his first time surfing such a small board, relative to his other boards, Josh was already getting to his feet. I'm stoked to see him pull into some meaty waves at OB on it.

Let me take a step back. I haven't even acknowledged that my blog was essentially dead... it's true. I did the biggest B.I. of all, worst than Joel's double wave B.I. at SHK on one of the best sets (two crashes on back to back waves that would have been all his, haha sorry Joel, I had to fit this in somehow) - I let my sacred wave journal die. Perhaps it was because I was too regimented about being structured and getting every session and detail down. Perhaps I just found it to be tedious. Maybe I just got lazy. Whatever the reasons, I realized I enjoy writing about my sessions and looking back on good times with good friends. It's fun to look back and remember when you get a little crazy - charging some huge closeouts at Kelly Ave with Nic before work, trying to surf storm chop crap with Colin when no other surfers are out, or driving all over the place with the whole crew in a desperate search of waves. And this past weekend was a great example of Let Me Crazy!

Sesson 15-23 - Mar 25-April 2 - Baja

Baja surf trip = random dirt roads leading to beaches, beach camping, cacti, my car stuck in a sand pit and being rescued by a friendly Mexican Jehovah's Witness, solitude, sea urchins (ouch!), flat tire down said dirt road miles from town, sleeping on the beach, sleeping on a major ant highway system, pff showers?, fish tacos, and of course - lots of WAVES!

Surf Playa San Pedrito, Cerritos, and La Pastora in the Todos Santos area for about a week. It was great. Lots of waves, sun, relaxation, and fish tacos. Loved it. The surf was very good in the beginning, not so good at the end, but overall I feel very lucky to have gotten that many waves. Will definitely have to go back. I was inspired after this trip to take a couple years off, buy some sort of vehicle (and learn everything there is to know about fixing it), head down the Baja coast starting in the beginning of winter, take a ferry from La Paz to mainland Mexico, and just keep on going... Crazy? Let me crazy!!! I'd like to find something productive to pair the trip with (like some sort of volunteer work, maybe an ethnographic study of different cultures, perhaps a stop somewhere to work on an off-grid alternative energy project, or maybe even becoming a master knitter).

Enjoy the pictures:

Session 11-14

Let Me Crazy! Who could let a blog with such a witty title die? People spend agonizing hours perusing obscure quotes from out of print literature to try to find something witty enough to merit blogosphere worthiness! I'm going to try to breath some life back into my blog and catch up with a few sessions at once. I know I may be missing a couple sessions in here, but at least I'll get back on track.

Session 11 - Feb - MNT
One of the most amazing sessions I've ever had. Joel and I surfed the south end on a day that everything else was rainy, stormy, blown out, and junk, but the south end of MNT, nestled into the corner by the rocks, was offshore and cleaning up into amazing right barrels. I witnessed a couple guys get some incredible barrels. Joel and I were trying to get shacked too, and it was super fun to try. While neither one of us got a clean barrel, we each scored some incredible waves. Joel, good work!

Session 12 - Feb - OB
Hollow and fun. Difficult to surf, but fun.

Session 13 - Mar - GWC
Nic and I tried to find some waves amid the coming onslaught of springtime wind and chop. It was pretty fun. We both got a ton of waves. Nic was catching a bunch of really good ones. I like GWC as a spring and summer spot - my theory is that it is quasi-protected and for whatever reason, it handles short period NW windswell fairly well. It can be unexpectedly fun and heavy.

Session 14 - Mar - GWC
Nic, Joel, Colin, Ryan V, Taylor, Julian, Will, Josh, and me - what a crew. Party time! Aside from the lack of decent waves, we had a good time. Good times and I think one of my last sessions before - BAJA! Stay tuned...

Session 10 - Feb 19 - K-AVE

Thursday, 7-9am, 5'11" Progression Fish
+ Nic

I'm in a constant state of procrastination and catch up. Each time I catch up with a couple I'm behind on, I get a few new ones that get backlogged. No, I'm not in college. I'm just a surf blogger. But I guess it's better than not haven't anything to report on.

This was a memorable session, not because I was catching waves, but because of the waves that Nic and I were trying to catch. Heavy, hollow, beastly, shore-pounding slabs of destruction that looked like they could have been makable by Kelly Slater. Naturally, I thought I could make them too as did Nic. We were both charging, and Nic was getting a few good ones. I was going for a few good ones. Overall, it was an exhilarating way to start of the day. Check out Horace the Pig for some pictures.

Session 9 - Feb 18 - LM

Wednesday, 7-9am, 5'11" Progression Fish
+ Nic

Catching up! Kind of like what all my buddies have to do when we surf together. Heyo!

The double donut, pre-work, dawn patrol sessions are a great way to start off a workday. LM looked questionable when we were suiting up, but it was a beautiful morning and the conditions were clean so we went for it. I ended up surfing the far north end, going after some rights and Nic was a bit further south. Overall, it was a great session. There were some fairly sizable, walled up rights to be had and I definitely got a few of them. Of course, I crashed on a few good ones, too. I find it really fun to go after bigger waves with my fish. Generally, even though it is so short, because it is so thick and flat it planes well so I can get into the wave fast and early and set myself up to beat the sections. Nic was charging to my south and racking up quite a few good waves - lefts and rights. While it's great to get out there before work, it's definitely touch to drag yourself back to the car to go to work when you're having fun and the weather is good. Ah well, there's always tomorrow morning...

Tahoe - Feb14-16 - Squaw, Northstar

Overall, a great weekend of continued snowfall, deep powder, and fun skiing. Saturday I skied Squaw with Shireen. Next day, we went to Northstar as Squaw was mostly shutdown due to the high winds. Northstar is not a bad choice on really high wind, stormy days. People don't seem to be as aggressively into powder and the treelines between the runs on the backside can have powder all day. It was really fun. Monday was a pretty epic powder day at Squaw. I left Shireen at home because she didn't want to leave crazy early (she got picked up later by a friend). I skied alone in the morning, doing laps on KT and then I strategically moved over to Headwall as it opened. My first run on the Slot was very memorable. Long fall-line, deep snow, and few people had skied it at that point. Incredible! Sorry, no major cliff hucks or inverts to report on. While I love a good cliff drop here and there, I'm way more into actually getting some powder turns in and I'm not into risking injury. I met up with Shireen and Matt in the afternoon. Shireen was tearing it up all weekend on her new Volkl's. Good times.

Session 8 - Feb 8 - PP-Beach, Hook

Sunday, 11-2pm & 4:30-6pm, 6'6" Taylor
+ Nic, Joel

So behind on posts! Been really busy at work lately, and as such I've been trying to avoid the computer when I can. Consequently, I think I may have lost all my readers. Well, let's be honest - I don't think I ever had any to begin with so I'm back to where I started... or left off... or always was... I'm just going to back slowly away from this paragraph...

I admire Nic and Joel's dedication and willingness to paddle out in anything! I usually pride myself in paddling out if there is anything rideable, but I was definitely a little more hesitant to go out that the eager Bennetts. "No one else? Big waves? We're in!" What they seemed to have clearly turned a blind eye to was the closed out sections, the onshore wind, and the chop.

Nevertheless, I followed the eager brothers into the waves. It was actually pretty fun. We were all paddling into waves from way too deep, especially Joel. I went over the falls hard on one. I was slammed hard on another takeoff and felt water shoot up my nose and ear at the same time while somersaulting through the kelp. However, there were some waves to be made and they were walling up nicely if you could stick the drop and make the first section. I got my confidence back on one in particular where I did my best impression of a lip-smacking hack, followed by another fun fast section. It was more of a gradual move to the top of the wave then a fun re-entry, but I'm counting it as a hack.

A little relaxation and basketball later, Nic and I headed to the Hook for a evening session. We both caught a few waves and as it got dark, the crowd dissipated and we had a few sets virtually to ourselves. I finished the day with a waist high wave that kept walling up in the dark - I couldn't see that well but I did my favorite surf move all the way down almost to the next peak: pumping up and down the wave! Yeehaw!