Sunday morning brought slightly cleaner conditions and wanderlust among the GPers. Tripped it as far north as
S-turns, but the spot was vetoed due to larger waves (although not as clean) and less crowd at the sandbar out in front of the house. Robb initiated the "cooler session," of which I can proudly say that everyone in the lineup partook! Took out a waterproof camera and got some decent shots of the participants (and the drinking in the lineup), and found that on a sectiony, semi-line day, the superior paddling done by the likes of Ferg and Robb was making all the difference. Everyone got an ample supply of waves, and some great pictures were taken. I have to admit that I had a moment of "cameraman's angst" upon reviewing the photos and realizing (duh), that only two pictures were of me--one of me riding away from a closeout, another of me trying to walk the nose and get to the shorebreak. (I got Neal to take over picture-taking duties for about 5.5 minutes before he got antsy for more waves). a "mix and match" session for me, with some long-ish rides and a really thick, dry closeout barrel ride, but some fun rides were had and I think overall everyone had a real blast out there (especially given the cooler antics). 

As Sunday wore on (and drinking didn't halt), some severe threats were issued to the surf prognosticators (Kirk, Rod, SteveM) regarding the surf forecast (chest+ and offshore winds for monday morning). Captain Intensity (Robb) led the verbal attack with such surly quotes as, "Therethhh not even a thweelllll out dthdthreere. N Yorrrrrrrr tt-tt-trying to telllllllllll me thath it'th gon be overhid tamarrow. Bullthit! What do you even know! Ith gon be llllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattt!!! tamoroow!" The surf forecasters were truly humbled by this display of wit and sobriety. 

So Monday's dawn patrol brought chest-head swell with winds slightly offshore. The "haters", being too hungover to even break wind, let alone check the wind, missed the session. For a few short hours, conditions were perfect. After about 20 minutes of trying to ride lefts on the E ground swell and finding EVERY ONE closed out after about 20 yards, I submitted to King Neptune and rode backside rights for another hour or so before the winds started to pick up.  Although I was a little bummed to still have to be riding backside so far from DelMarVa (the home of backside surfing for goofyfoots), the waves were outstanding and I had a few really fun, really memorable rights that gave me room to do several turns, floaters, etc. Everybody else was having a great session too, with the prone-riding contingency going OFF. Like all good things, the clean waves had to come to an end, and sideshore winds picked up by 9am and really made the surfing more dumpy and challenging. 

However size kept increasing through the day, with some sets that seemed to be about 1' OVH, and more and more of the waves in the head-high category, maybe 1-2 feet bigger than it had been in the morning. I went out again with the shortboarding and prone-riding crew, only to find that my 9' is simply too long for dumpy sandbar waves. Paddle, paddle, takeoff, down the face, rail into the wave, ride over. Blah. Chris and Robb had outstanding sessions and were busting through the closeout sections with a good amount of style, while I was being given an understanding of why the 7'6" that had been promised to me the week before really WOULD HAVE made a difference, despite all attempts to convince myself otherwise up to that point. Eventually it got too choppy for even the monster paddlers, and everyone packed it in for the evening, wanting to save energy for our "last session" on tuesday morning.

So Tuesday arrived and whowed conditions waist+ and semi-glassy/closed out....but with no power. Only a few paddled out, and most were able to pick a certain peak and work it pretty effectively with a WHOLE LOT of paddling. It took me over an hour to do that....really frustrating. Rod had a blast watching me cursing and batting at the waves out there.  Surf very much like monday afternoon's sandbar crunchers but with another wrinkle---no power. So have to use a shorter board, but better make sure it paddles well. I eventually found a peak I liked and worked my wave count up from 1 every 30 minutes to one every 5-10 minutes. Waves closing out, very frustrating. Not a great way to end my GP travels but at least the session turned out okay, and the flame of "positive vibe" was at least slightly rekindled by being able to have a good number of (shortish) rides toward the end of the session. Even when the waves suck, it always feels good to know you're picking them off successfully and working them as much as they can be worked (see: my va beach session with SteveM 2 weeks ago). Too bad for me during this session, that accounted for about 45 minutes of the 2 hours I spent paddling around for sandbar slop. We packed up the goods and hit the road, perhaps wanting to seal up our GP memories before the surf got any more lame. 

The Food Lion sandbar treated us pretty well over the course of our stay, although I'm impressed (depressed?) that the inshore trough was so significant that I never found a wave that broke all the way to the beach, no matter what the size. As recipient of the Hound Dog award, I would like to state, "Barrrrrrruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!", and I now anoint myself, Legend of Beagles. Thanks to the organizers of course, and I'd like to send a shout out to all my homeyz in lock down, that gots to be strong. Keep bangin' and ballin', yeeah yeeah!  And pass the courvousier! Thought everyone would appreciate that. Pics posted later this week, hopefully before I head down to Wrightsville NC for the family-sponsored surf vacation (some in the ASC would say that would make me a sponsored rider, or maybe even a "Team Rider."). Ha ha! Good to meet all of you, hope to surf with you real soon, at a time when you can see that I can actually competently surf!!!

Kirk aka Weekday