REALLY

ARE YOU KIDDING, FEBRUARY 24 AND IT'S 57 DEGREES.  GLOBAL WARMING YES PLEASE.  MY LAWN MOWER, WEED EATER AND CHAIN SAW ARE RUNNING RIGHT NOW.  there was a shoulder-chest SW swell today but by lunch time it was sweeping down the beach.  It's suppose to go W tonight and knock a lot of it down but there is always hope for some scraps.  I got out yesterday and was all by myself for 45 mins on a nice spot then one other guy came out and we swapped waves for an hour or so.  Nobody else in sight, after 2hrs I called it a day.  Finally got some good waves (waist or better) on the mini.

thinking back to last year

thinking back to last year jan.18th this swell showed up.  the water temp on the 12th was a bur 43. unless it gets really cold really fast we could hover in the 50's for a while. it is 52.2 @ johnny mercer's right now.  ten degrees is that a lot?

tropica storm sean swell

 



ts sean pics and some light at night

 a late tropical storm (sean) and we get a nice swell at Wrightsville beach yesterday, after a bunch of NE wind blasting the beach.  gale force W wind pretty much killed any chance of getting some seconds, though there was something to get after the tide fell out a bit, but i had to work all day today anyway.  the moon jellies were still on the beach but not nearly as bad as Monday.  water temp has dropped to 64 and it is suppose to drop into the thirties tonight.  some real neoprene is in the near future and i can't wait.  later

wrightsville beach and north wind

Wrightsville Beach, N.C. some nice waves to be had with some drift and slightly chopped up faces.  Sun was out and low 70"s but the moonjellies had taken over the beach and the line up.  every other stroke and you were hitting one or ten of them bastards.  shit was driving me crazy and after an hour i bailed to take some pics and hit the road.

today the fish are safe and the surfers can only wait for a wind change or get on the road and find a spot somewhere else.

katia pt2

pt 2 of Wrightsville Beach Katia swell.  afternoon was a bit more crowded.  multiple drop-ins going on as everyone was trying to get theirs.   school groms were out in mass and killing it. 

what not to do before a swell.

April 5, 2011 Swell at Wrightsville Beach 
A crazy wind started blowing yesterday and there was no swell yet.  So I wandered down to CB skatepark to get a skate on.  At 9:30 there was only me and 3 other older guys in park.  The wind was howling 20-30kts SW and I was thinking of today.  Swellinfo was showing building seas all day and a wind switch around lunchtime.  Headhigh and offshore sounded good to me.  I decided to try and roll in.  Have not even attempted that yet as I have only been skating for 2.5 years since a 30+ year hiatus of flat ground and hill bombing on my old G&S Fiberflex.  I got the first one although it was somewhat wobbley.  After a few minutes I decided it was time to give it another try, bad idea, rear trucks locked up and I was eating concrete some four feet down in the flats.  My left wrist got torqued but did not hurt to bad.  I continued skating and after a while decided to give another shot.  I had to get back on that pony, as I tell my son, and give it another shot.  Success, although it was wobbley also.  Four hours later and my wrist was killing me.  This morning I could barely move it.  Greg at HotWax told me last year don't skate before a swell, I guess I should have listened to him. 
  As I check the WBlive beach cam there was a mess of a SW swell, easy head high and drifting mad.  The wind was still blowing SW 20-25 kts with gusts to 40 as the band of heavy shit barreled up the eastern seaboard, now it was just a waiting game for the wind switch.  That happened almost on cue and at 12 noon the wind was W but still howling in the 20+kt zone.  I went and looked at it and with a hurt wing decided to past as the drift was still strong and it still was not lining up on the falling tide.  I managed to get a window this evening and surfed til dark on the incoming tide and falling swell.  It still had some chest high sets coming and not to many people in one spot.  I didn't even notice the wrist.  But I probably won't try new shit before a swell again, but then skating is skating and if you ain't trying life is boring.  It's hell being 43.  Sorry for not having any swell pics, maybe next time.

just missed it



margaret mccallister in the fog



dreaming

S wind blowing it out

The report was chest to head high with a hard S wind from 3am through out the day.  Got the call to work early yesterday morning and didn't mind because of the forecast.  At 5am there was not a stitch of wind on the river and it was crazy foggy, less than half mile visibility.  I knew if the swell was there it would be like last week.  The entire ride down river, working and the ride back was foggy, not a bit of wind.  Dreaming of a swell that I was going to miss because the fog had slowed everything down.  The Margaret shot was taken from about 300 yards.  As we approached the marina the sun broke out and the wind came up hard.  I decided to go look at the beach with wetsuit on.  It was 12:45 by the time I got to JM's and the SW wind was blowing it out but I got 45mins before I had to leave for other obligations.  I hope somebody got it good,  I just missed it.

medium wednesday surf at wrightsville beach

morning bar break

a.r. with a rooster shack wide glide

a.r. wideglide cut back



evening right

After a couple of days of N and NE wind the front rolled the wind E then SE and SSE and started howling a gale overnight Tuesday.  Wednesday morning WSW formed some nice rights and a few inner bar lefts as the tide fell through the morning.  The wind was moving offshore and as the tide began to fall in the afternoon some nice rights showed up.  I was took my son skim boarding and while taking some photos of him eating sand, I caught my boy A.R. hitting it this afternoon on one of his Rooster Shack creations.  This morning it was knee high and 37degs after the front had pushed offshore and now we wait again.

thanksgiving waves

Masonboro Turkey Day

11/26.10 thigh and 15SW





11/28/10 cold sunrise

Turkey Day at Masonboro was small but when your with a good friend and nobody else out it doesn't really matter.  Friday there was a bigger swell maybe waist high sets every 5-10 mins and a few people scattered along the beach.  Carolina Beach Sunday morning I was glad to see nothing except the sunrise as it was 35degs w/ a 10KNE wind (~29deg windchill).  NOT READY FOR COLD WEATHER AND COLD WATER, but it is coming.

Wrightsville Beach @ 39 degs.

Getting ready for the boat ride to Masonboro yesterday morning.  @ 0645 it was 35 deg. and N wind @ 10-15knots.  We got in the boat to head over.  Glad the water is still in the 60's.  For the first hour there were only 7 of us there.  By 1100 there were probably 15 people total in the line up that spread out over a 1/4 mile series of peaks.

Wrightsville Beach Gems

waist and peeling

unknown air

Wrightsville Beach 52 degrees and 10knots NW High Tide @ 6:45a.m..  water temp was 68F. Looking fun early this morning.  Had a spot for almost an hour by myself before the beach got crowded.  More promised for tommorow and Sunday. 

here we go

001: 6'5" "walden minimagic wannabe" Recycled from a 9'2"windansea found on the roadside.
Loose and squirrley you better hold on, this thing has very little rocker and take off's on
steep faces can be really fun or really painful. Shaped and Glass at my buddy's Rooster
Shack. You learn a lot doing it all yourself.  Then you have to learn to surf it.