MetaTidal

So, I recently took off to Mustang Island for an overnight excursion with Taylor.  We camped at the state park and surfed the south and north jetties.  The surf was good, running in the 4-7 feet range with decent form and light onshore winds.  The weather was perfect for camping, dropping into the upper 40’s at night and a clear sky filled with stars.  I had went to the Port A grocery store after my first sesh and gathered some veggies and jalapeno sausage for the HB dinner later that night.  One carrot, a yellow onion, one clove of garlic, one jalapeno, the sausage, and 5 packets of butter from Whataburger, I know I know it’s not surf related, but it was the best damn HB dinner I ever had!  After the evening sesh I got the fire started, ate, and enjoyed the clear crisp night before turning in. 

In the morning the form of the waves were better then the day before, 3-6′ with some nice lefts wrapping off the jetty, and after 3 sessions on the 6′3″ Anacapa, it was refreshing to get back on a longboard where I was much more in my element.  As I pulled up to the south jetty there was one other surfer putting his wetsuit on…I got outta the truck, took one glance at the waves, gave a “What’s up?” to the guy and started to get my board out.  It was odd to me that the guy didn’t even look at me when he replied, as to act tough or hard with all his tats.  Funny thing was 10 minutes later, he was still just standing there with his wetsuit half pulled up looking off in the distance.  Then I noticed that he tried to pull his zipper up again and it didn’t stay up.  But in no way was he going to ask me to pull it up after he had acted so tough.  Finally, I asked him if he needed a hand with that and then it was as if we were old buddies, talking and surfing together for the next few hours…I just find it odd that an unspoken ‘man’ code says ya can’t ask another man to zip your wetsuit up….

Anyway, Megan and I are planning on going one of the last two weekends in March, so mark your calenders.

Okay, so I recently acquired a pop-out board…’Designed in the U.S. Made in Thailand’.  A 6′3″ Anacapa designed by Al Merrick and spit out of some machine in Thailand.  Anyway, surf has been small and crappy…and I was bored.  Sooooo, I decided to spice it up a little with some stencils, spray paint, and an always over-priced traction pad.  First, I made the stencils out of the plastic covers found on a notebook and cut them out with an exacto knife.  Traced the traction pad and cut the shape out of some cardboard, I used some double sided tape to stick my ‘cardboard’ pad to the board.  I didn’t want to paint the fiberglass where the traction pad was going, because I didn’t want the paint to interfere with the traction pad glue when I stuck it on.  Then, I cleaned the board with denatured alcohol, sanded with 400 grit sand paper, and cleaned again with alcohol.  Next, I cut some masking tape into thin strips to make some lines across the board….sprayed the first yellow coat over the masking tape, star stencil, and cardboard pad.  Let that dry and then sprayed the black over the skull stencils and, finally, sprayed a UV resistant clear acrylic coat over all of it.  And presto….kinda like it.  Hopefully, it doesn’t fade or peel, only time will tell.  I’ll try to update in a few months if it holds or not.

Megan and I brought a few boards and Taylor to South Padre Island to meet up with my bro and Kate for the last weekend of the year and hopefully the last swell of 2006.  South Padre Island is located at the southern tip of Texas (roughly a 6 hour drive) and has some of the better and more consistent surf in Texas. 

We had fun and it was refreshing to go to SPI again, since our last trip down south was over a year ago.  The waves had good size and form, a solid 4 feet when we got there and built to 6-9 feet.  We surfed at Isla Blanca Park and then the Port Mansfield jetties when the swell switched from south to north.  The jetties require a 20+ mile drive on the beach and can get sketchy on a high tide with surge, some areas of the beach are completely covered in water to the leading edge of the dune system…  The waves at Port Masnfield were breaking very nice with a little current running north to south.  I surfed the newly acquired 5′10″ M10 hogfish the 3 days we were there.  The inside was a little steeper but protected from the current.  Megan decided to paddle to the outside and caught a few nice overhead waves, Kelly stayed around the end of the jetty with me, and Kate opted for the inside just far enough in to not get pounded.  I had a few good cover ups and a couple nice carves but overall I took more on the head then pulled into.  Held under a couple times, which is rare for Texas.  Definitely watched some of the biggest barrels I’ve seen in Texas with 3-4 feet eyes, gushing air….with no one in them.  We built a fire and warmed up between sessions and Kelly took some vid with the Pentax while getting pounded on the inside.  And as most of you that know me, I brought the video cam but didn’t charge it…my specialty.  Nothing special but enjoy….

Port Mansfield Vid

There was one kinda big blemish on the trip.  While driving out to the jetties on Sunday morning we heard a loud ‘POP’ as the bungies, which held down our shortboards, came undone.  I looked in the rear view mirror and saw our fishes flying in the air and crashing onto the hard packed sand at 40 mph.  My fish was aight, however my bro’s board had the tail busted and a fcs plug broken in half…yeah…bungies…no more!

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…