| (click on pics) | Friday, May 10, 2002
- 7:30-10:30 a.m.
Naval Jetties, Delaware, East Coast USA Intermittent Fog & Sunshine, air: mid-60s, water: 56F Semi-glassy, southerly winds picking up late Waves waist to chest; H->L tide. |
||
 |
Kahuna Carver and Jaco Taco met at the ASC rendezvous spot for the early morning, foggy dawn patrol down to the DelMarVa shore. "Weekday Mantay" had a 45 minute jump on us (4:15am) since he had to leave the coast at 10am for an afternoon work session--he was tasked with reporting on conditions. The drive went well but we encountered several patches of deep fog that made you keep your fingers crossed for fear of rear ending some unlit chicken truck or crushing some wandering bambi. | ||
 |
After a quick stop at The Snake's Pit, a good place to grab a cup of watered down coffee, some grub or dispense with some early morning relief, we restoked the Whistler and beelined for the coast. Weekday called us with an update at around 6:45: only one car parked at the NJs gate, no wind, and conditions favorable. Neal pushed the Whistler up a few more notches adding a thunk, ka-thunk, thunk to the windy whistling chorus. |  |
|
 |
We pulled in about one-half hour later to find only Kirk's car, unloaded our gear and set out for the hike down to the beach. Minutes later the park ranger showed up, opened the gate, we hurriedly tossed everything back in and onto the car and sped off to the parking lot overlooking the break, saving us a good 15 minutes walk time. |  |
|
 |
We popped out of the car to lay eyes on a surprisingly nice NJs with only Weekday out in the water. Snapped a couple of pics and grabbed the gear, but in my rush forgot my wax and sunscreen (on a foggy cool morning one forgets about the sunscreen... exposed faces & necks do not!). Swell and wind forecasts all week long had been all over the map so we really didn't know what to expect... except for the usual 1-2' weak mush. The glassy, uncrowded waist to chest had us stoked. Neal charged down the trail to catch some early Friday morning NJ juice. Do you think he is excited? |  |
|
 |
After about an hour of sharing
countless waves between the three of us a longboarder joined us and in
another hour a couple of dads with kids trickled in. The grommets
ripped the little inside peaks and the dads joined us on the outside.
Very mellow, fun session. Early on we rode many waves with a couple
of pods of dolphins who were fishing way inside and amongst us. I
caught a couple of waves where a dolphin
skimmed out in front of me and on after one ride, Neal asked if the dolphin had hacked my flipper or board because he was right on my tail for the entire wave! Both Neal and Kirk caught several good rides, Neal on his funshape and Kirk on his new longboard. Neal also rode a few on his longboard, but he should have brought his shortboard for this session! These waves had enough juice breaking on the shallow sandbars for several maneuvers and occasional down the line speed. |
 |
|
 |
"Weekday Mantay" Report: Friday Surf Report Date: Sun, 12 May 2002 16:51:39 -0000 Well by now you all know that we had a fun session on friday. Here's the rest of the story: I left "late" (4AM) and hit the road. Neal and Rod apparently crossed the Bay Bridge about 40 minutes after me. Fog on the eastern shore was pretty thick, which is the standard when a front has passed through the night before. I got to Naval Jetties at about 6:20 and the gate was closed, of course. Put on my running shoes and ran the 0.4 mile street to the beach overlook and saw in-between the jetties: closeout barrels! Intrigued, I tried to check out what was going on past the north jetty. It was hollow and a little dumpy, but looked pretty ridable from that distance. I couldn't really see if it was lining up really well or not. Too lazy to drive somewhere else, I called Neal and Rod and told them I was paddling out. I paddled out at the second point, and quickly paddled into a right in the thigh-waist range. Was amazed to look back and see the tail of my board in the barrel. Tried to slow down and ease back into the barrel but only managed to get a little spray over the back of my head before I totally wiped. Took the next left I could and dropped in, turned, squatted, and rode into a sandy close-out barrel, about stomach high. I was already stoked and it was only 7AM!! The surf was so clean that the sunrise made it look like mercury--perfectly silver. A pod of dolphins was feeding in the surf, and stayed with us all morning. Rod and Neal showed up at about 7:30 (the park ranger opened the gate for them) and the place was on fire. The three of us perched on top of the jetty and picked off as many set waves as we could. Neal and I had some in the chest-high range and I can honestly say that Rod had some clean, steep drop-ins in the shoulder-high range. Neal and I occasionally took turns being waveless for 20 minutes at a time, but each time we'd make a comeback with bigger dropins and longer rides. Rod was never waveless, and pretty much dropped in right on top of the rocks every time, giving us no chance to paddle for it ourselves. Neal made some amazing sections where (I couldn't tell) either he beat the hollow close-out or he was in the barrel and THEN beat the hollow close-out. He was riding his 7'10" fun gun, which may have helped matters. From the lineup, you could watch someone drop in, and then watch the dolphins in the wave chasing the surfer....without the surfer even knowing it. Cool. At about 9AM (1hr after high tide), the size didn't really drop but the windswell (ENE knee-waist) kind of died, which meant we had to wait for the longer period E sets (waist-chest) to pop through. Didn't matter to Rod. He was still stealing waves. About 4 more people showed up, all locals. They were all mellow, for once. Must have been the waves. I had a dry spell on the jetty point, and switched to the second point, and caught fire. A right, then left, then left, then more rights. Okay granted the lefts all closed out in nasty freight train sand barrels after about 15 yards (but dude, they were DARING ME to drop in, I couldn't resist), but the rights seemed to go on for longer than I could reach into my (limited) bag of longboard turns (I was riding my new "no nose concave" longboard). By 10AM my eyestrain headache was killing me (never took a break out of the water in 3.5 hours), and I knew Whitey (aka my employer) was probably calling for my head, so I paddled in and headed back for the Western shore. From what Foon said, the swell lost its shape maybe early in the afternoon, and never regained it. Sure, maybe not a "perfect swell." But for better or worse, the funnest and best waves I've surfed since September. And that's got to be worth something. Weekday or not. -Stoked Weekday Warrior |
||
The "Electric Ham" after a 3-hour session at the Naval Jetties. Ham charged it all morning long scoring several long rides deep into the pit of the cove. "Weekday" had to
|
The "Electric
Ham" Report: HAD A BLAST
Date: Mon, 13 May 2002 Great job on the reports guys. There is not much I can add. It was a ton of fun. For those of you wondering what surf vehicle was shot in the photo, it was the "Crofton Go Cart". For some strange reason, I chose to throw luxury to the wind and take my no radio play'in, soft rack humming, timing belt need'n mini mobile. It made it fine with two boards, just a little humming. The surfing was great. I got to use my fun board for an hour+ then switched to my longboard. Great rides on both. The most amazing thing were the dolphins. I don't know that I have ever been out numbered by so many dolphins in that close. They were right with us. I actually thought that Rod hit one. As he took off, this dolphin came right out of the back of the wave. I guess he was displaying proper surfing etiquette and let Rod have the wave. It was also great to meet up with Foon and Scott. It ended up being a real plus day on the club encounter side. Thanks to Foon for a Brewski, Hotdog and Balcony views. BTW - Rod your head must have been screaming on Sat. My head and neck were so burned it took several G&T's to put the fire out. I cant imagine how your head felt since you "normally" wear sun screen. Till we surf again! - Neal
|
||
 |
Neal and I headed down to
see Foon and talk some Annapolis Surf Club and GuidoPalooza business, knock
back some brewskis, and pray for an outgoing tide to shape up some waves.
The brews were good (Andy Woodard: please note the cozy being put
to good use!), but the waves never shaped up as southerly winds moved in
to
chop things up and create a north flowing current. Neal gave it a shot (...he must've thought it would be weeks until his next session), but Foon and I passed and watched from the shore. Just after Neal paddled out, Scott Woodling and his 10 month old son, Ryan, dropped by. It was lot's of fun shooting the hay with ScottW after a long overdue absence. KC, do I need to remind you that you missed it, again??? |
 |
|
 |
Foon Report: Friday score card! Date: Fri, 10 May 2002 14:29:00 -0700 (PDT) Rod and Neal just left OC after a full day of surfing and fun. Apparently they hit it great with Kirk this am at NJs with a foggy but really lined up swell. OC was not nearly as good and we were socked in pretty solid from dawn until noonish when the roving ambassadors of ASC showed up at the Bunker for a visit. I'll let them report the morning sesh but we all had a nice time including ScottW who showed up with infant son Ryan, watching Neal get hammered by OC shorepound. True to form the boy kept going back at it until he'd take his share of dumping drops. He left smiling which is the whole point of this exercise isn't it. Swell seems to be holding at knee to waist. The wind got on it good from the south this afternoon. There's no telling what the wind will do tomorrow. I'm scheduled to attend the Surfrider Foundation Adopt a Beach meeting at 133rd at 10:00 and may be found in the water before or after. -Foon |
The Kahuna tells about surfing in the skin in 56F! Click on pic for the movie. |
|
 |
Grinds:
Pre-session: whole wheat blueberry bagel + home brew cappy; Post-session: Becks, FoonDog, Heini & more Becks Dinner: Salmon and yellow rice, beans. GP Postscript: During the balcony session at the Foonbunker I had mentioned having recently read about a Surfing Santa but could not remember where. Turns out it was in an article by Steve Pezman, The Cat's Ninth Life... On Visiting Miki Dora Near the End," in the current edition of "The Surfer's Journal." The story tells about the recent visit by Pezman and Muñoz. Miki had told Muñoz to bring his sense of humor. Pezman writes, "As a gift, Mickey had selected a silly surfing santa that danced hula on a surfboard. Muñoz ventured that is represented perfectly everything Miki hated about surfing, hopefully providing the perfect bit of levity." So ya see, Andy of Alabama, you had better resuscitate OUR surfing santa and bring him down to this year's GP. |
||
