My Surfing Year 2000 Retrospective

The Surfing Year 2000 Retrospective
"My 3 Best Surfs of 2000"

This past year started slowly but finished up with lot's of bang busting fun surf. I don't recall much water time between Jan 2000 and July 2000, much less any of it worth considering in the ASer's "3 Best of..." category. Seems like all the good surf sessions could place in the "Top 3" but here goes:

1) Dec 31 - Maria's Beach, 5-8'. Sunny/molasses glassy for most of the session. Saved the year's "best" for the last day of the year! Five foot walls that looked average evolved into 5-8' faces off the 2nd rock (Maria's point) with consistent 100yd rides down towards Dogman's, working sections and bowls along the way. Very mellow session w/long period swell. Most of the morning session was shared amongst 4 or 5 souls, 12 of us by late morning at the point. Indicators was on fire with consistent 6-8' machine-like barrels. I started to recover from a bout of
the flu and regain my confidence in the water after a few tired and hairy days (hey, you'd better be when taking off near 2nd rock as the water sucks and you scream high and tight so as not to trip up on 1st rock at low tide, along the ledge line). Alex still out with cold.

2) Dec 26 - Wilderness, 5-7'+. Morning glass at "Brian's Beach" between Ruins and Shit House, Wilderness Beach area. Lefts & rights. Tubes and screamers. Brian, Alex and I. A "Top 3 Surfs of 2000" session -- the 2nd Day of Christmas gets our vacation jump started with a hotshot: warm
water, warm skies, and hot waves. This day was a true indicator for more great surf to come.

3) Sep 19, 2000 - Afternoon session - GuidoPalooza 2000 (GP2K). GP was re-christened GordonPalooza! After an eternity of waiting with a dozen other gonzo'd ASers the waves finally showed up. We had been surfing nice smallish waves, larger slop, sharing stokin' but borderline wave sessions with the Great Lakers, downing countless brews and meals, and been glued to TWC for the latest Gordon forecasts. Most everyone had left for home by Tuesday noon, when we received a call from the Lakers who were on the road back to Ohio, Edmund and Jason, ecstatically bumbling something about 5 foot and going off in Rodanthe. Boards were quickly thrown into my Explorer and pedal to the metal we were rocketing north. We pulled into "S-turns" where a large number of folks were out riding some nice 4-5 footers. But looking down south you could see line after line peeling off. We scooted south, Flek sweet talked some cottage owners into letting us park out on the street and off to the breakers we went. The wind was blowing hard enough to sandblast the hair off my legs, coated my hair, and layered my aloegatored face. There were only 2 or 3 persons out, waves were going off at a steady 5-6' and nothing but fast barrels.

The GP2K session had Foon, Flek and I stokin' grins for days. Maybe this session should be #1? It was my best surf of the year going into month #9 and it certainly eased so much pain and anticipation. Post-GP2K took me down to OC/Md for several 3-hr one-way feeble attempts at surf -- snookered each time -- but sharing these trips nowadays with KC and hooking up at the
Foonbunker makes it a much easier day trip.

Honorable Mentions
Less I forget to mention several other memorable sessions, my 4th of July SoCal trip was unforgettable. The surf was fun and average but my swell and story sessions with ASers JohnH, TTweed, Sdbchguy and some non-ASer paipo boarders made for a well-rounded trip. Alex (my son) and I also surfed several new breaks on this trip (although none were at their finest) including SanO, Trestles, Salt Creek, and Blacks. The SoCal ASers' hospitality is 2nd to none (like all the other ASers around)!

Lastly, I had a good, solid spring session at the Ft. Pierce Inlet to help shake off some winter blues.

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Last updated on 12/29/05