Saw this on wannasurf - one of the best or worst days surf stories I’ve read/heard for a while: “Yeah, after the bomb went off a month later it was uncrowded in november, and it didn’t rain enough. I only had one buddy to surf with and he was from Margaret river. We made the HUGE HUGE mistake of going surfing the morning of Galungan. There was nobody on the beach, no boats out to the reef, no surfers anywhere… perfect day,huh?.. and just this big slick going out to sea at Hyatt Reef, that I thought was oil. Me and Andrew decided to paddle out to Hyatt cuz there was a new swell booming out on the reef. [It only looked 6 to 8, from that distance] Well we paddled and got separated cuz the rip was just insane doing the out to sea thing, and as I tried to paddle away from the slick, the current would have none of that and took me to the center of it. Guess what? It wasn’t oil- it was blood! I guess they had slaughtered all the ritualistic animals in the lagoon and there was about 100 yards of solid,nasty,chunks and particles,blood as thick as gravy. Now what would be YOUR first thought? Yep,…mine too. At that point it was useless cuz the rip was so powerful thru the reef pass that turning around and paddling in was not an option. I looked for my friend and saw him out in the impact zone just getting cannoned by huge walls of whitwater. andd another surprize, it wasn’t 6-8 ft. It was more like 20 foot faces with bigger sets. WAAHOOOPS BUNKIE !!! I tried to paddle towards the takeoff spot on my 7’6” but you would have needed a 10’0" Brewer Hanelei gun to try and control your destiny at that point. It was out of control and my buddy Andrew paddled by at one point after paddling just to stay out danger and yelled " I creased me board mate, if anather one hats me I’m gunna dah out heah!" Yea, at that point he yelled what are we gonna do? and I knew we had bit the big one. There were no boats, we were sitting 2 kilometers out in the ocean dodging channel close-out sets and the current was trying to drive us over towards the dry reef part of the wave. We were trying to take off on anything that would drive us in over the reef but no go, it was just too damn big for the boards we had. I yelled to Andrew that the only way we were going to get in was to paddle across the channel and try to get washed in across the reef, and from there we could make the paddle to the island across the lagoon. Not enough space to tell the whole story at this point, but I lost Andrew again, paddled against the current for ANOTHER 45 minutes, had a tiger shark come straight up out of the channel and pop his or her head up and take a look at me in the middle of all that blood again, I shouted “YOU"RE THE LEAST OF MY WORRIES NOW!!!” and resumed trying to paddle back to the Isle of Bali from whence I had departed. When I made it back to the sand it was a 2 hour ordeal, and I stood up on the shore, took off my leash, and swore I would never surf again. I went looking for Andrew and when I found him, our eyes met, but no words were said. It was a given that we had just escaped a really bad situation. So yeah, George, there’s plenty of action on Bali in November, and you will find me sitting on the cliff above Newbreak, wondering why my 35 year EXCELLENT surfing career couldn’t have ended on a happier note. By the way, somehere back in the archives there is a note that Hyatt Reef was Rabbits favorite wave. He might have the answer as to how to get out of that predicament I found myself in, that lonely spiritually bankrupt Galungan day off the coast somewhere of Bali in November. Other than that the water sure was a wierd blue at six in the morning."
Not as heavy as your story, but fun Hi Sue, Just another note from your bottom-dwelling brother. Last week I had a bad day at the office. I know you’ve been feeling down lately at work, so I thought I would share my dilemma with you to make you realize it’s not so bad after all. Before I can tell you what happened to me, I first must bore you with a few technicalities of my job. As you know, my office lies at the bottom of the sea. I wear a suit to the office. It’s a wetsuit. This time of year the water is quite cool, so what we do to keep warm is this: We have a diesel powered industrial water heater. This $20,000 piece of shit sucks the water out of the sea. It heats it to a delightful temperature. It then pumps it down to the diver through a garden hose, which is taped to the air hose. Now this sounds like a damn good plan, and I’ve used it several times with no complaints. What I do, when I get to the bottom and start working is I take the hose and stuff it down the back of my wetsuit. This floods my whole suit with warm water. It’s like working in a Jacuzzi. Everything was going well until all of a sudden, my bum started to itch. So, of course, I scratched it. This only made things worse. Within a few seconds my arse started to burn. I pulled the hose out from my back, but the damage was done. In agony I realized what had happened. The hot water machine had sucked up a jellyfish and pumped it into my suit. Now since I don’t have any hair on my back, the jellyfish couldn’t stick to it. However, the crack of my bum was not as fortunate. When I scratched what I thought was an itch, I was actually grinding the jellyfish into my ass. I informed the dive supervisor of my dilemma over the communicator. His instructions were unclear due to the fact that he along with 5 other divers were all laughing hysterically. Needless to say I aborted the dive. I was instructed to make 3 agonizing in-water decompression stops totalling 35 minutes before I could reach the surface to begin my chamber dry decompression. When I arrived at the surface, I was wearing nothing but my brass helmet. As I climbed out of the water, the medic, with tears of laughter running down his face, handed me a tube of cream and told me to rub it on my bum as soon as I get in the chamber. The cream put the fire out, but I couldn’t shit for 2 days because my arsehole was swollen shut. So, next time you’re having a bad day at work, think about how much worse it would be if you had a jellyfish shoved up your arse… _________________
WORST DAY SURFING WAS ALSO THE WORST DAY FOR AMERICA! 9/11/2001 Matunick RI. Solid 2-3 foot overhead and absolutely beautiful. Crowded but the vibe in RI is amazing. Great people. Besides there were plenty of waves to go around and not many poeple catching them. Got in the water at 7am ish. Surfed a good 3 hours till we were tired and went to the car for some water and food. Back at the parking lot, and it is a tight lot, but with many cars there. Everyone seemed to be in the parking lot crowded arround in buches listening to the radio. We get to our car and the people next to us said that the World Trade Tower blew up. I am not a talented enough witer to express the next hour or so of how the parrking lot was the most surreal place that I have ever been in my life. We all felt this extreme sense of isolationa and beilderment, that “this cannot possibly be happening”. But it did, and it was. I’d say there were maybe 70 people in the parking lot and all had the same oddd look on the face. I was with a few friends who worked in manhattan, they did not know anyone in the towers, but understandibly felt a strong urge to return home to their families. So we packed up and proceeded to head home. But did not make it far. All bridges and tunnels and roads anywhere near NYC were closed preventing us from returning. So with a strange amount of guilt we headed up to Point Judith, got ice cream sandwhices and sat on the hill overlooking the pretty waves that were rolling in. None of us really felt like paddling out but we realized that it might help take our minds off things, so we headed back to matunick for another session before finally finding a hotel to crash in that night. It’s a strange feeling surfing on perhaps the best day of the year when something of this magnitude happens. i had a few friends that were surfing the Cove in Sandy Hook which is within eyesight of the Manhattan skyline and they actually saw the two planes hit and the eventual crumble of the buildings.
I read a story on the internet of a surfer (I think from Texas) who was surfing in Western Africa who was bitten badly by a shark, made his way back to the beach, bandaged his wounds for the long drive back, became dehydrated, stopped by a watering hole to drink only to be attacked by lions! Somehow he lived and his wounds by shark and lions were confirmed by doctors. This was on the net up until about a year ago. I cannot find it, don’t recall the site, and didn’t save it. Rob Olliges also: 11 Sept. 2001; big Ruggles @ 6am; get out to hear Howard Stearn describe the attacks (is this a joke?); remembered brother flies for United (he’s OK), no joke; NUMB; passed burning car on way home…
This is a surfboard design forum. I know it’s cold and there is nothing else to do…
This is a community. Some of the best post had nothing to do with board building. RIP Ramone. Rob Olliges
With all due respect, I’ve been part of this community since the beginning. Keep it about surfboard design and talk fluff somewhere else.
At the top of the page it says “Swaylock’s Surfboard Design Forum,” there must be plenty of other sites where you can talk story or correspond with your friends.
Does it bother you that much? I’m sure you can sacrifice the extra millisecond it takes to load all the threads.
…Leave Rob alone he’s a brother here,and paid his dues,how about donating to the site instead of mothering it.Herb
i signed on with a question, which i found the answer to—thank you very much BUT, there are no worst days of surfing, only days of surfing-----
lighten up
this is a fun site the way it is.iam having a good time here.There are some really classic characters here!!! If you want to be all serious go watch the news.Surfing and surfboards are for FUN!!! REMEMBER[smile]
Sorry about being an uptight prick! I just have not been laid in a long time and ran out of meds .I will go away now and be an ass somewhere else so you guys can have fun.Sorry again bye
Herb’s kinda like Arnold
Agree with Herb. Sometimes reading about how to put a fin box in for the thousandth time can get a bit tiresome. Every now and then a break from the norm is OK with me. And something like this thread does apply to shaping because it should inspire us to appreciate the time we have here on the planet and not waste it thinking about shaping that new killer design that has been floating around our collective minds and to actually go out and make it happen. Drew
…Herb is kinda like Arnold. …But you can kinda understand me when I talk.Herb
The Herbinator! Sorry couldn’t pass it up.
hasta la vista baby