just met with KP-sounds like this year’s event had the magic vibe of last year’s, with all the usual suspects doing their part to make it such a fun, magical happenin’!sorry i missed it, but had no choice (due to injury ) to all of you who where there, i appologize for my absence-i very much wanted to see all of you again!
There was some board-busting surf at SA 2004…well, sort of…here’s a view of John Mellor from the peanut gallery:
Vaqueros de las Olas minus one…we missed ya Matt (not really, we just missed Santa Maria tri-tip) : ). Stoke hangover…more later. Whew, what a weekend!!!
yeah, i can hear it now-KP and big bay al raggin’ on me, claiming i was mia due to some hag i hooked up with, or opted for baja, etc.as i lay on an ice pack saturday, figurin’ they knew i was a no-show, the crap started flyin’ at my expense-i would expect nothing less!!!(especially with KP leading the charge!)
Quote:
There was some board-busting surf at SA 2004...well, sort of....here's a view of John Mellor from the peanut gallery:
Poor finbox never got a chance to live…
Naaaaaa, not KP! You shoulda been able to feel the guilt all the way in Ventura after we found out what happened. Big Al was quite reserved…he was the only one there with a sports coat.
Blakestah…John copped a few before disaster so I’m sure he’ll have something to report.
I did get a chance to catch a few waves before the event at a different location and both the fin system and board worked fine. The board was actually ridden on quite a few waves.
Heck, I thought the waves were pretty chunky. The cause of the breakage though was probably my misguided attempt at trying to keep board light by chambering the center stringer. The stringer was broken right at the end of one of the chambers. That and… shall we say, “operator error.”
yep- a sport coat, tight pants and nunn bush lace ups!!!and all with uncordinated patterns and colors!( friggin’ artists!)
Matt, we could have put you in the decompression chamber at the north end of the beach. The Cave of the White Canoe. A mysterious T-shaped cave in the green sepentine cliff.
The Cave of the White Canoe is like a wave. It has a tunnel that goes left and a tunnel that goes right. Crawl back into the darkness of one tunnel until the ceiling pinches down to meet a floor of cool polished cobbles. Pay your respects and/or leave an offering. Then do the same in the other tunnel. I don’t know which tunnel is the spirit of the left wave, or the spirit of the right wave. The entrance is an exit. Left is right, and right is left. It’s best to treat both with equal respect. Then go back to the Shamans seat at the entrance (exit?) sit down on the sand and lean back against the cool, green stone. From here you can see across the waves to the sea stacks at the south end of the beach. And then you will see what the Shaman saw.
that would have worked!i came close to driving up anyway, figgerin’ there would be some mystical healer or person that could have got me straightened up, but to be honest, the drive alone would have been too much discomfort, and i certainly didn’t want to do it on the funny blue pills i have been taking…
All this is fascinating, lovely, and beautiful. I’m glad you all got together and had a happy-happy time.
But the rest of us… the ‘unjazzed’ by dint of distance and responsibility… we want the hard-goods.
Pictures please.
Board discriptions please.
Raffle results.
Yours in jealousy,
Eric J
Mike has the Raffle results and a whole lot of pictures so you’ll have to wait a bit…Only words for now. I only hope someone got some photos of the Sunday morning session. Just about everyone was in the water though…Sandollar was just about maxed out for two days but Sunday’s go out was an absolute classic. I’ve never been to Tahiti or maxed out Pipline, but the hoots, oohs and aahs were flying with every set.
KP, Paul Jensen, Mike Paler and Keith Melville were dominating the lefts at the south end of the cove riding mostly single fins from 7 foot to 12 foot long. The Poolman probably got the best wave that I saw, a smoking well overhead left. Keith had a couple of grab rail drops, one were the tail slid out but he righted the board at the last second and powered through a couple of sections and slid into the open arched his back, hands down and wrists locked behind his back with a big grin on his face until a huge chunk of white water cut him down at his ankles (Schooled!!!). Paler was pushing some really nice railers and appears to have found his hull legs. Paul was killing it on a 12 footer with a radical raked flex fin.
Back at the A-Frames to the north of the left, I saw great rides by our host John, Gary Geist, Forrest, Nellyda, Darren and the UCSD crew (Darren on Paul’s wooden fish). Ambrose was sitting outside a picking off mackers. Big Bay Al was all over the place on a sub-6’ Pescado (those tail slides in the tube were on purpose weren’t they?).
There was 30 to 40 people out that morning and nothing but smiles all around…“You want this one?” No, go ahead, you take it!" Every one was cheering the drops, urging each other to go, commiserating in the pounding if you chose poorly…
Roxy the Surfing Dauchsy shared the inside with the Melville girls while Jonathon cheered from the beach…
The part of Sunday I’ll remember the most was a sunset session with 4est. Just the two of us in slight off shores. Koolaid-green back lit walls that never stayed open quite long enough. When you took off, the wave would block out the sun momentarily. You would drop in shadow and turn into the light…what a day.
Thanks for the recap LeeV. Sounds like a great event.
I patiently await the pics and results.
Someday - maybe - there will be an SA East gathering… though if it does happen I fear Murphy would prevail and I’d be unable to get to that either!
Tonight, while I turn the shed into a dust storm (sanding boards #'d 8, 9, & 10), I’ll be repeating my ‘Thank God for Paler’ mantra.
This is a great site.
Eric J
Hey Lee, great post. That Sunday morning session was definitely the highlight of the weekend for me. I’d love to see photos of that morning if there are any more (other than JM’s snapped board)…
PS for a wave that good, I’ll gladly get “schooled” any day!!
I snapped a few wave shots on my way down Sunday morning with a camera not suited for the distance. So I wasn’t very discriminatiing. Didn’t wait for set waves.
John is coming in with chunks on this next photo.
Boards? There was lots of boards. I think the boards outnumbered the riders by about a 3 to 1 ratio.
Mostly I was focused on the paipos and bellyboards…
Here’s some more of the little guys…
I saw Keith get the “White Canoe” wave Ambrose had identified the day before. A big outside peak that no one seemed to be able to figure out. Keith sat patiently and finally nailed it. I saw it from the shoulder as he dropped in on a nearly double overhead looming peak, negotiated a couple of meaty sections and cleanly kicked out on the shoulder way inside. Nice ride Keith!
Here are a couple of shots of Lee and 4est on Sunday evening. They had the whole place to themselves - literally, they were the only two out. I’ll post some more shots somewhere as I have time.
Lee & 4est…
paddling out…
Sand Dollar Overview… look close to see Lee & 4est at far left of photo.
Sorry to hear about the injury Matt. You also missed out on my inagural hull session. Kirk lined me up with a shiny new bojorquez and i finally understand what you guys constantly talk about. After i wrestled the thick wide fish to the outside i was impressed with how easily it caught and dropped into waves. I got some really late critcal drops that the board handled really well. But once i got to my feet i learned what you guys were really talking about. It was the smoothest board i have ever ridden. I also loved how the board did all the work by itself. It was definitly a different feeling but i loved it. I then got a couple of waves on the stringerless keyo but had a hard time finding cooperative waves. Now to the business end of the post, where can i get one? Darren
I surfed Sat. and Sun. after most of the"S" gang left the beach.I did see the Darren crew out and slinging it.Also Halcyon Rich,and proneman(I think?).
Sunday,I waited for almost 4 hours watching the build before going out.I knew it was time when I passed JM on the hwy w/ a broken board.As I started my decent down the cliffs PaulJ.,Ambrose,Mike Swaylock,and a host of others.were leaving…I got 4 waves that late morning…I could go on about myself…but…let me put it to you this way…I will always have the memories of those choice waves for the rest of my life…You CAN’T put a dollar figure on that ! Herb
I only surf on days that end w/ the letter “Y”
well, i pretty much got a blow-by-blow of the event from Kp, and all of you had similaer input.the only thing is i wish you hadn’t posted about KP’s bombin’ left Herb, cuss that’s all he raved about in every other sentence!!!it was like-paul and i paddled out and i got this insane left…darren was on the wood fish, then i got this insane left…alex was out and i got this insane left… herb and i talked story about skateboards, then i got this insane left…ahh ya all get the idea!!!