My Surfing Year 2005 Retrospective

The Surfing Year 2005 Retrospective
"My 5 Best Surfs of 2005"

Isn't it a certain portion of luck to always have a tough call on noting my Three Best Surfs of the Year (usually expanded to the Top 5)? This is the case once again. Yes, lucky is me to have had the good fortune to travel beyond the DelMarVa for some fun and varied waveriding, but nonetheless, some of my memorable sessions/best surf was local coastal.

Feb - Puerto Rico. Very weak and inconsistent surf for most of the 8-day trip, but there was one outstanting overhead morning session at Maria's Point followed by a fun head high session in the afternoon, mostly Maria's and Pistons. (Trip with Paul Martin.)

March - Oahu. My first session was at Laniakea. My waveriding was exceptionally weak... chalked it up to jet lag. Had more fun later at Turtle Bay. The highlight session was my first ever Pipeline session, in small Pipeline, with Neal Miyake. Caught a nice left tube and a good Backdoor wave. Great fun!

May - Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Another relatively weak collection of surf during an 8-day visit, but we did score on an uncrowded, solid head+ afternoon at Playa Negra. (Trip with 11 others from the Annapolis Surf Club. Surfing with me at Playa Negra were Paul Martin and Mike and Brett McDowell.)

May - DelMarVa. An exceptional late May morning at the 48th St area. Solid lefts, 4-7', just two of us north of 48th while the crowds converged on lesser waves at the main 48th St peaks. When 48th St is working it is hard to beat for down the line screamers. (Surfing with Neal Carver.)

Sept - Cape Hatteras (Ophelia) - GuidoPalooza. Surfed rolled in Sat-Mon, but it wasn't until Monday afternoon that it all came together for me: size, steepness and speed. Also real fun waveriding days in crappy conditions at Assateague with new Guido, PaipoJim and following day in nice 3-5' at 48th St, still from Ophelia generated swell. (Cast of characters from GuidoPalooza - not many went out that afternoon.)

Oct - DelMarVa - Minefields. When this break is working overhead it can provide Island-like juice and lines similar to a point break. It was working. (Surfing with Paul Martin.)

Dec - Space Coast, Florida. Warm water sessions in December are always fun! Caught some o/h surf with offshores along the sandbars/reefs. (Trip with Paul Martin to Brett McDowell's.)

Call that a lucky seven :)

PR and CR are booked for Spring 2006; solid plans for N. Oregon sometime later in the year; GuidoPalooza in the OBX in Sept; and PR again for the annual year-end. Who knows what else might be in the mix :) My surfing life is good!

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Last updated on 12/29/05