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!

This is the first session that I put together from my pics I set the Pentax W20 to take in interval mode a month or so ago.  Surfer is yours truly and board is Stewart 9′0″ LSP model.  Boring but kinda cool…

Sesh Uno

Second session.  Again….booooring, but hey, why not?  Intervals of 10 seconds.  6′8″ Al Merrick Flyer Tuflite…

Sesh Dos