Pipe

The season started last week.....


Pipe's Big Day from MSW Six Weeks North Shore on Vimeo.

Ahhhhh - warm water.   I wonder what that feels like.

Ice

Didn’t bother with the dawn patrol this morning, been struggling with a cold the past few days.   34 degree air, 50 something water.   I’m sure the waves were there but I can barely surf when conditions are tolerable.   
However, I couldn’t resist the temptation to go out at lunchtime today at Blackies in NB.   What a mistake.  The water was 50, maybe less, hard off-shore wind.   It looked great.  Wore a 3/2, caught a couple of waves and then couldn’t function because of the shivering and had to go in.    This is sub-par!

Here's a couple of poor quality pics from the blackberry:

Turkey Day

Today Dave, Steve and I were the turkeys who braved the 38 degree air and rode down to uppers at the crack of dawn to find ankle to knee high snappers.   Took some pictures and everyone headed home dry.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

Weird Fog Action

After 4 rounds of  Advil (600mg ea), some TLC from the little woman, and ample treatments of Tiger Balm I was back in the water today without a hint of low back problems.   This is when drugs are good.   The waves were a little less consistent and a tad smaller than yesterday but well worth effort.   It seemed to get a little soft with the tide peaking in the middle of the session and the fog dropped in too.   No surfing for me tomorrow, got to do my part to keep the economy going.   The weekend doesn’t look like it’s going to be all that surfable either; no swell and rain/wind is forecast for Sat & Sun.  Get it while you can boys.

Good Enough

Today was a good day.  Minimal crowd, chest high plus waves and an off-shore flow.   It doesn't get much better.   I caught a lot of good waves until my low back started acting up, then the donkey show began.   Cut the session a little short, took some Advil and lathered up with Tiger Balm when I got to work.   See you tomorrow (I'll try to leave the donkeys at home).

Forgot the camera today but took a few pics with the Blackberry:

Nice

Paddled out by myself at 5:45.   Waist to chest high waves, hard off shores and just a little swampy with the high tide.   There was never more than seven guys out the whole time.   Dave and Fred went to lowers, they said it was good with minimal crowd as well.    

One of my favorite places

Surfer Interview Fail

In case you haven't seen the Bill Murry impersonation of a surfer sterotype, here is the epitome of an ingnorant stoner surfer. Right up there with Jeff Spicoli.

Small, Cold and Uncrowded

Another cold ass morning.   Air: 43˚, Water 62˚, Hard off-shores.   Paddled out at 5:45, caught a few fun belly high waves.   Then at around 7:00 we had a long lull.  At 7:30 I caught a small wave, fell off when I hit a kelp speed bump and paddled in.  An embarrassing exit, I hope nobody saw me.

Misery Loves Company

Suited up in the garage and was on the beach by 5:30am.   After 10 minutes of an occasional knee high wave I was just about to turn around and go to work dry.  Then what looked like a belly high set rolled through.   So I paddled out at 5:45 by myself.   Caught a few meager wind waves and then: The-Long-Lull, at least a half hour.   During that time both Phil and Dave paddled out assuming that if I paddled out there must be waves.  Obviously, they don’t know me very well, I'll go out in just about any conditions.  How do you like me now Bitches!

Small, Soft and Inconsistent

A hard off-shore morning, 48 degrees on the beach at dawn and 62ish water.  Belly to chest high waves, not too many takers.  Way better in the bay.   Boy, the seaweed speed bumps are really becoming a problem.

Thanks Richard for putting Brisbane on the map

F'n Kelly SlaXter

Ho-Hum another World Title for KS.  Is that like 10 or something?   Any more and he's just showing off.

Lucky

Got to Uppers around 1:00 this afternoon.   The wind was stiff on-shore.  The waves were a consistent waist to chest high, but pretty chopped out.

After ten minutes of watching I thought: what the hell, might as well get wet.   With in half an hour the wind backed way off.   I'm not saying it got glassy, but it was definately acceptable.   No crowd factor to deal with either.    In the end a good time was had.

Finally

After spending the bulk of the week helping my wife recover from minor surgery I got to surf this afternoon.   Showed up around 12:30 to an empty line up - 2 people out. 

Surfed until 4:00, a few more people showed up but when I got out of the water there were 8 people out.  

It was a good thing because it was a bit drained out, inconsistent and only belly to chest high.   The kelp was an issue too on the smaller waves (kelp speed bumps).   Other than that it was perfect.  Pretty much sat by myself on the point the whole time.

We came, We saw, We went to work

Another classic fall morning, we had everything going except some swell in the water.   Stood there with Dave for 15 minutes.  I knew it was going to be small, but inconsistent knee high waves just wasn’t going to cut it today.   The 5.1 high tide at dawn wasn’t helping either.   No pics today, camera is officially dead – back-up arrives tomorrow, unfortunately I will not be surfing the rest of the week, much higher priorities to deal with.  Probably back in the water by the weekend.   Enjoy the swell Wednesday and Thursday.   

Lifted from Surfline