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Here's a sample of what
it was like down near the Ocean City Jetty where the surf was not as large
or clean as 13th Street.
Photo coutesy of Ken Woods of OCWaves. See more: One Two Three Four Five And more here. |
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| Flash message: ASC Duo
Scores Double-Dipping Day with Olga
Neal Carver and I hit the DelMar scoring a 3-hour morning session at 13th St., in pure glass, 5-7 foot range and a two hour afternoon session of glassy 3-5' at NJs northside. Zonked! Tubed! Trashed! The speed police ticketed me for going too fast on one left at 13th Street! Neal and I covered virtually the same ground as two days ago, starting at Indian River Inlet, working our way down to the Ocean City Inlet, back up to IRI and then on to the NJs, checking out several spots along the way. This time the first call was 13th Street, Ocean City, where the largest waves were hitting the most distant sandbars on this entire strip of DelMar banks. Water was in the lo- to mid-50s, air in the upper-50s to mid-60s (in the early morning sunshine). Swell was running from the East setting up mostly lefts as this part of the shoreline faces ENE. My 3/2 Fullsuit, 3-4mm booties, old Seasuit 3-finger gloves (leaky 3mm?), and old O'Neill hood provided adequate protection. Body weathered it through the late morning clouds and coolness and numbing outer fingers, but only because of the adrenaline rushes from the steep drops, crunching curls and speed -- a beach break at its best. Neal, a regular footer, was at a disadvantage on his too long short board (fun boardish type shape) because the takeoffs were TOO steep, TOO critical, TOO down-the-line, barreling speed crunchers. I was in HEAVEN, but only after my first wave... at that point I still had my center skeg moved up too far in accommodation of recent months' sloppy, small mush... praise for them wonder bolts! Back in the line-up, I flipped the board, loosened the bolt and knocked the skeg back 1/2 inch to my PR/reef break setting. Then I was in the groove. For hours. Beat and cold we finally went in for some relief, hot coffee, and food. Next stop: north to IRI or NJs in search of some rights for Neal. IRI-Southside didn't appear to be catching much swell. The Northside was crowded, the waves about 3-5' and mostly closing out on the inside. We opted to explore NJs which we'd scoped out on Sunday. The NJs Northside has a pointy feel about it -- about at "pointy" as it gets in this area -- where the North Jetty feeds the swell into a small, but deep cove. You can take off near the jetty, slide right, hook up with another peak from the same wave or the bowl... continue on and do it again. If you were lucky enough to connect on one of these long rides you rode the wave all the way in, walk backed to the jetty, paddled out and did it again since there was a strong current running. NJs is a fun break and very scenic -- breaks up the monotony of our otherwise relatively non-descript coast line of bland dunes and buildings. I had a few crowd control problems with a couple of kooks, but they eventually moved over to the 2nd peek, esp. the kook on the candy striper board who nearly pummeled me on an out-of-control wipeout after having taken off in front of me. We were both positioning for the wave but I had been on the inside and continued to position deep. Total kook. Couple of other kooky ones out there but I kinda did this winky thing like, you wanna position come over to the jetty with me... which lead to this... Found a nice little takeoff zone almost right on the Jetty that would just SUCK OUT and crunch like a wedger. These were generally in the 3' range but when you made it you could connect with the rest of the wave which often formed into a 4 to 5 foot peak and on down the line. When you didn't make it there was still the joy of a sucking pit. From this takeoff zone you could also paddle straight out for the larger sets breaking just to the outside of the jetty. There was also very little current in this little setup area. The longboarders / shortboarders didn't like setting up here because of it sucking proximity to the jetty. I loved it! Reminded me of some of the shallow reef break conditions in PR ;) taking off over the rocks. Candy Striper should have tried it ;) Neal and I will be doing sessions at the NJs in the future, no doubt about that, but 13th St. was the place to be yesterday. Check out OCWaves http//www.ocwaves.com/oceancitysurfreport/ for some pics of the 11/27 swell -- the upper left-hand pic on today's posting was about the size of our waves at 13th, except our walls were consistently larger. The other pics show the smaller waves breaking to the south and/or north of 13th. Only Neal, a bodyboarder from Bethany named Mark, and myself at 13th St for our 3-hr sesh! Need a rubdown and 3 G&T's!!! Life CAN be stoking, rodNDtube |
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| "Don't Hate Neal Because
He's Beautiful"
Neal Carver Rod and got out of Annapolis early. We were on 404 by 6:00am. Good thing cause we did alot of checking and ended up at 13th street in OC. I decided to ride the 7'10". should have taken the 6'6". It was frustrating due to the solid lefts I was forced to take. Definite tube potential but I missed out due to such late drops. The smaller board would have allowed more angle on the take off. However I got a few powerful rides. Rod caught it good. I watched him take off on some of the day's monsters. Damn flippers kept him in the right spot all the freaking time. After 3 hours. We headed for IRI. Big, but on the beach. Decided on Navel Jetties and my longboard. Wish we had gone their earlier. Nice right point-style set up. Even though I was tired, I still manage to hook a few 5 footers that took me about 80 yds. I like that place, its not what I expected. Washed up and surfed out, Neal |
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| Follow-Ups
From: robb smith Subject: Flash message: ASC Duo Scores Double-Dipping Day Have I mentioned that I hate you and Neal?! Glad you had some good waves... bastards. Gonna be out of town this week (in Florida) I think my trips will be halted for a while. Probably have to catch you on the other side - I hate cold water. Saw Janice's website-- Bruce is she the one who sold you your gay booties? Blurry picture, but she looks like a hottie- it's too bad she is too good for us. Oh well, her loss. Guess I won't be getting my lifetime membership to Surfrider anytime soon. Robb. From: Kirk Mantay Subject: don't hate Neal because he's beautiful. Ha ha. I think everyone should make a point to surf a CLEAN head-high wave at least once a year. We seem to get a few fun big swells (notice I said "fun", not 7' freight train barrels breaking in 4" of 45 degree water) in March/April/May, and then a bunch in Hurricane Season---but what is this with the October-November swells? This is the first year I can remember that had decent waves through the month of October. I am so glad you guys got out! At least someone did! Party Info: Neal, I don't drink beer, only Kahlua mudslides. (kidding). I am so funny. kirk From: Neal Carver Subject: jetties The swell was directly east...which meant that it broke depending on the curve of the coast. OC had a south current (primarily lefts) and NJ had a north current (with rights). Tough to stay in position either way, but NJ had a second peak 40 yards from the rocks that broke head high and afforded long rides. The big sets broke from the rocks through the second peak...sweet rides if you were in the position. You should go take a peek just to see how it breaks on a bigger swell. |
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