MetaTidal

Taylor and I took off to Mustang Island State Park to camp and hopefully slide a little in the middle of my week off.  After getting skunked so much on my time off, I was feeling like the surf gods were never gonna help a brotha out.  I never lost hope….and was rewarded with 3 solid days of surf.  woooohoooo!

I surfed in Galveston for a few hours, light winds, 3′ southeast swell coming in…foggy when I first arrived but soon cleared up and Jim met me out for a few waves.  It was fun and I wanted to stay longer but I knew that if I wanted to surf fish pass on North Padre Island I had to get out and pack up my schiiiite, grab the puppy, and hit the road. 

After the 3 hour drive, including the short ferry ride, we headed straight to the pass to get into the water.  Solid 6′ lines waiting for me.  I surfed for an hour, got worked a few times….but had some really nice rides.  With the sun setting, I grabbed Taylor (tired from barking the entire time I was out) and put the tent up.  The fire didn’t go so well and I blame it on the wood being too green.  It was a little spooky camping on the beach by myself, not a soul in sight.  We slept well, besides Taylor barking and growling at something around 2 in the morning.  I investigated but figured it was a bird or some nocturnal animal she heard or caught a scent of…either way…

The next morning was a bit smaller but still in the 3-6′ range.  I surfed the more consistent left side of the 2 jetties (fyi - the difference between a jetty and a groin is that jetties are designed to keep waterways open from sediment and groins are ‘designed’ to keep sediment from being swept away by longshore current - tmi).  It was really shocking that I had such good surf all to myself for practically 3 days with only the occasional fishermen visits.  I surfed the 9′ Stewart LSP model in the morning and then the 6′8″ Al Merrick in the evening and had equal fun on both.  The morning session was a little better, with light offshores and better form.  I took every left possible, since it was easier to paddle out next to the jetty and the wave form was virtually the same on every ride, except of course the occasional drop-in barrel every 1 out of 4 or 5 waves, very makeable.  The evening session was fun but I definitely swallowed a little more salt then I had hoped.  Literally coughing up saltwater and almost throwing up kinda makes you get the wheels turning on what it must be like to actually drown.  The waves were a little more unpredictable and I was beeeat!  But the good news was…our fire that night was be-lazing!  Not to mention Taylor slept the entire 8 hours of darkness.  Her endless pursuit of shorebirds and dune crabs must’ve worn her out.  I hoped for some knee high surf the last morning, seeing how the wind was non-existent the previous day and the swell was sure to drop.

To my surprise the swell had held it’s size and I couldn’t pack the gear and dog fast enough to hit the emerald green waves.  I surfed the Al Merrick for roughly 3 hours.  Like your favorite song on repeat, it was drop in, duck, come out, hit it off the lip, build some speed, cut back.  The waves weren’t very long, maybe 30 yards or so, but just enough for me to not want to leave such good waves for the reality of cleaning the truck of all the sand we had accumulated in such a short amount of time and of course that other awful reality…work. 

One thing that I continued to think about while I surfed by myself for these few days, was that part of surfing for me is sharing it with other people stoked about surfing as much as I am.  Mostly Megan, but also my bro, Aaron, Spence, Jim, Vu, Chris, Ed, Tu, Jaime, etc. and countless numbers of friends and familar faces I’ve shared many sessions with over the years.  Every paddle back out had waves breaking with no one on them…but should’ve…hmmm…or not.  Sometimes it’s nice to share the camaraderie of a ‘Hey! Did you see that?’ or ‘That was a nice wave, eh?’, just not too much camaraderie…