Anniversary

[Beasho]

It has been exactly 4 years since I brought home and immediately went out to surf my first 10’ Jeff Clark Stand Up Surfboard complete with built in mast track.

Since that first day in 2009 I spent 10 days struggling to catch waves.  Then I thought I had it.  It was winter in Northern California so I had no choice but to brave the winter swell and figure it out.  I stuck with it, was warned to buy a flotation vest, and within 3 months had caught my first wave at Mavericks.  This was easy and life was good.

I then proceeded to break my board, break my ribs (twice), catch the biggest waves in the my life (25+ feet), catch the smallest waves in my life in Ct., SUP surf with my daughters, SUP fish with my kids and my dog, night SUP, travel SUP,  nearly drown a few times, break my paddle, buckle my board again, and again, break all my leashes, bounce off the bottom a few times, get scared, SUP with whales, buy a surf bicycle, buy several more SUP’s, sell a few SUP’s, sell all my prone boards, SUP a tsunami, get brave again, burn 524,300 calories, lose 149.8 lbs, regain 149.8 lbs  and spend 699.1 hours over 588 sessions catching 9,312 waves for a total vertical drop of 60,595 feet.

Now I am left to wonder what I should do when I grow up?  Any advice from old-timers    I mean how long can this relationship go on?

[Beasho]

Here she was new and then slightly used.  Still my favorite go-to board when it gets bigger and windier.

Although people snicker at me and ask about the 'black box' I just reply that it holds a flight recorder.  

Ohhh and PS: Tell your board guy not to put a handle in the stringer.

[SlatchJim]

Beasho, if there was anyone ever that was born to be an outdoor accountant, it would be you.    Nice board history.

[stoneaxe]

Wow...impressive diary/stats.

My advice....don't grow up. One of my favorite quotes is " You're only young once but you can be immature forever"....

[kayadogg]

Two things I'd like you to expand on:  1) Waves in CT??? By small, I'm guessing LI sound small.  and 2.) Please go into more detail about the tsunami. 

Awesome stuff.  I admire guys like you and Creek that record all of this fun stuff and can really look back and put it all together.

[lucabrasi]

Pretty cool. Impressive board repairs too.
Hey, what about stripers per cast? Fish per hour?
Maybe a condo in Del Boca Vista when you grow up but sounds like the relationship will keep going on for a while.

[SCruzSUPr]

Beasho

How long can this go on?  Seems like the relationship has legs.

 Like my wife likes to tell me - "I may kill you, and then again you may just die, but divorce is NOT a possibility..."

Doesn't look as if this SUP thing's gonna let you go!

P.S. Live long and prosper 

[supthecreek]

Awesome post!
Love the synopsis!

Like Stoney said... don't grow up

How long can it go on?
Well, I'm in my 50th year and it is as fresh and passionate as ever... if anything, MORE passionate! It is an unending, unrelenting passion that is frontal lobe EVERYDAY. Period.

Keep lots of sharp pencils around for more stats

[Beasho]

Hey, what about stripers per cast? Fish per hour?

Now you're playing into my (other) wheel-house.  I am only sharing this Uber Top-Secret data because you guys purportedly surfers, and not (at first blush) fisherman.

During the summer I hang up my wetsuit and head East to Striper land (Ct).  Here is the data from the summer with a sweet radar plot by location.  For you naturalist we release ALL of these fish.  Rather I kept 2 the whole summer.

Rule #1: Fish over 36" are considered regal and always released
Rule #2: No nets allowed.  All fish are lipped by hand, or maybe Boga grip

[Beasho]

And since a picture is worth . . . .

If anyone has to beat the family record I am glad it was my daughter.  This fish represented 3.4% of the catch 45#.

Alternately a cute video of what its like to take the ladies fishing.  My daughter ( 8 ) helping her cousin (9) catch her own record fish.  Unedited but nice fish none the less:   

[OUTSIDEWAVE]

totally cool  How did you ever remember all the waves? I get 7-13 waves a session and can only remember  60%, Plus I wan to here more about he tsunami.    Here is one to add for your goals   a how about a few tidal bores?  great post ,   

[Beasho]

Truth be told I only counted the last 2,966 waves.  This was during the past 13 months.  I had been recording sessions and time and extrapolated the rates from my actual count back on to my previous hours of SUP'ing since I started on 11/13/09.

So the 9,312 was estimated.  But not without a bit of foundation.

Here is another cool plot of wave Rate / Hr.  

The curve of best fit suggests that I caught 20 less 1 X Wave Height in Feet.  Since my average wave was estimated at 6.5 feet this worked out to about 13.5 waves per hour.  I have found this to be pretty universal for my location and gear.  

20 / hr is really pushing it, but keeps the heart rate up.  In big waves your happy to make it home without breaking anything after maybe 8 waves in an hour.    

[headmount]

Ha.  You don't need any advice.  This is the best thread I've ever seen.  Maybe you're guilty of rubbing it in, but we all love it.  BTW your daughter just beams.  What a fish.  Lucky guy.

[surfinJ]

 

Happy life, all in, no end in sight.
We're too lucky to be part of this so I guess we'd be stupid to stop.
Imagine your (our) numbers in another four ...

[1tuberider]

Now I am left to wonder what I should do when I grow up?  Any advice from old-timers    I mean how long can this relationship go on?

Why would you want to grow up?  Forever or until 6ft under!

I live to surf and surf to live.