Standup Zone Forum
Stand Up Paddle => Sessions => Topic started by: stoneaxe on March 08, 2018, 06:11:30 PM
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Feeling a bit beat up at the moment...got my ass handed to me a 1/2 dozen times before giving up. Probably wasn't the wisest choice to go out....I've been unable to drive all week because my heads been all screwed up...head cold and storms screw me up royally. I was wheezing this morning so maybe a touch of bronchitis coming on too. Foolishly decided to go down to the beach this afternoon...just to look. Then turned around came home and suited up.... ::) Forecast was 5-7' and clean....it was 8-10' outside and 5-7' at the beach...6-7 sec period but the big sets were really nice looking waves.
The beach is absolutely destroyed from the two storms. The road just opened this afternoon from the damage caused by Riley but the parking lot is still closed.....seawall breached in 3 places, parking lot washed out or covered 18" in boulders. Snack bar that a good friend just sold last year took a beating...concrete patio washed under, flying boulders knocked out concrete blocks in the walls. The hotel on the beach is going to be closed for awhile...lots of damage...one corner of it is just gone. The beach itself is completely changed...lost a lot of sand or pushed it all around anyway. Had to park and walk a 1/4 mile in to where I could get into the water.
So.....out of shape, dizzy, and sick I'm standing looking at this slamming beach break and wondering how wise this is. Not being the brightest bulb I wait for a lull (not really) and go for it. When it gets like this at Plymouth it can be sketchy getting out. There is a channel of sorts but it's deceiving and with all the rebound off the cliff and beach the water near shore is a mess, tough to get up and going...at least when I'm feeling like this it is.
I kept almost making it and then getting slammed. Rejected hard on the 3rd attempt in shallow water and came down on my ribs on a rock....thankfully not the large pointy one 4' to the right. Took a break for awhile to make sure nothing was broken, catch my breath, and try and warm up. Getting washed around has the wonderful 38 deg water flushing my suit and I'm getting cold...no truck nearby to get warm in so I huddle out of the wind behind the wall for a bit and just watch. I'm fucking determined to get a damn wave......it looks so awesome outside....mother nature laughs at my determination....she starts throwing sleet....I get rejected 3 more times. Tide has dropped and now it doesn't even look like I can get out. Cold, sore, and frustrated I head back to my truck.
Still better than not going
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Good for you brother. Some of my best sessions were when I thought I was stupid to try--and some of my worst. Just don't get hurt, or at least don't get seriously hurt.
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sorry to hear of denial--but glad to hear youre a fighter--you have to be, given the cards youve been dealt
keep fighting--what the hell else can you do?!
good luck
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Yeah i know..some of mine too...but I need to know when to fold em. It looked so sketchy. I watched it for 10 minutes before going out and convinced myself I could just make it if i could get out beyond the shoal...such a tease but almost doesn't count. Once in the water it was even worse, there were a lot of weird rips and you got sucked out right into the impact zone. Feeling as I did it wasn't smart....wasn't getting enough O2 to start, couldn't catch my breath getting slammed, completely disoriented in the wash. Literally crawled out of the water after the rib smash. Pride is a silly thing...nobody there to see it...but I just couldn't walk away without trying. I need to find a vest that fits me...at least maybe I won't die from stupidity when its on.
Fighting is a good thing.....it's losing that sucks.... :P
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Sometimes you show up for an ass-kicking. But at least you willingly showed your cheeks. I'm impressed.
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At least you gave it a run Bobby!
I stood at the shorebreak for 45 minutes, waiting for a break.
Admittedly I have learned my lessons the hard way in sucky shorebreak, it is nothing to take lightly.
There was just too much ground to cover between waves.
Water sucking off the beach would suck you into the beach slam, with no easy escape.
Getting back to the beach, through the shorebreak is always more dangerous...
so as I stood there, pondering my options, the waves started closing out and the session looked like a bust...
so I walked away.
For the 1st time in my life...... I suited up and didn't go out.... and all of it perfectly recorded on SoloShot3 ;D ;D ;D
Didn't look hard from the beach, but annoyingly deceptive.
Sheepish for sure.
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suited up? you poor thing creek--you put on a pair of boardshorts for nuttin!
looks nasty!--thk goodness for the ss3 or id accuse you of chickening out!
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To be accepted we have to be willing to be rejected 8)
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That looks like a carbon copy of what I was trying to get through....except for the board shorts....you're smarter than I am. I had the same thought about it looking makeable from the beach....came SO close.
Getting sucked into the beach slam is exactly how I got my ribs smashed...fell on one and got pushed into the shallows....beach suck grabbed me and pulled me right into the base of the next one...then it was a washing machine spin cycle and slam. Thankfully I managed to grab onto the rock I had crashed into or I would have been dragged back out again. Would have been very embarrassing to drown in a foot of water..... ::)
Can't believe how sore I am today. Fighting hard for maybe 30 mins total and a few beatings in the shallows and I feel like I went a few rounds with Mike Tyson...except I still have all of my ear.... :)
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Good for you brother. Some of my best sessions were when I thought I was stupid to try--and some of my worst. Just don't get hurt, or at least don't get seriously hurt.
Zackly! Eddie would go!!!
Some of my most memorable surfing, windsurfing, & paddle surfing sessions at Jalama...one of the most powerful beach breaks on the planet...were when I overcame fear and doubt and just saddled up and gave it a go...those successfully ridden waves are etched in my mind...the beat downs in the cold shark infested death currents...not so much...;-)
I have found it the hardest to overcome the fear and doubt if you are around others who are hemming and hawing...definitely, avoid the "hem haws" and their group think, if you are on the fence...as they most likely will help convince you not to suit up...and, if you do, it can affect your mental game...
Of course, there are THOSE days when it's best to know when to hold them and when to fold them...and, live to surf another day...of course, lots of factors come into play when making the decision...due diligence...preparedness...confidence...risk/reward...DESIRE...etc...but, you never know unless you go...and, we aren't getting any younger...there will come a day when we all hang up our spurs...so for now, I'm trying to stay stoked for life...one day at a time...YMMV...;-)
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That's some ugly looking beach break Creek. I doubt I would have tried that. I would have been standing right beside you--actually probably a few paces back. You first.
Wardog, Jalama seems always nasty. I windsurfed there several times long ago and had a session where I got out easily in a lull, and then couldn't find a way in other than getting the shit kicked out of me, which is what eventually happened when I went for it. I should have just sailed onto the beach at full speed and run up the beach like a chicken instead of trying to dismount and exit in the water. Broken mast, torn sail sleeve, bashed board and a sailor bruised and battered.
Still, I tend to be excited to see no one out. I'm never looking to join the club in the lineup. The best days seem to be the ones you pay a little dues for. But it's a really bad idea to push that to extremes, as I've found to my regret a few times.
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At the last BOP (Salt Creek) I was looking like Creek does in the picture. 10'+ waves and I holding my 14' race board. This was a couple of days before the race. Where the race actually started was a fairly easy Run-Jump-And Paddle entry, but there were a ton of people practicing right there. So I walked up the beach to what we call Gravels. This is were I used to get pitted hard on purpose on my boogie board when I was a kid. The kids still do it there and it's fun to watch. It has a thick lip and just a shore pound. I thought I could time it just right, run and jump right over the lip just after it brakes. So I ready for a race start, run at just the perfect time and fly over the lip with my board under me. I kinda got splashed wet as I went over, so as I pushed up to get to my feet, my left hand slipped. I landed face down on my board. Then..... Uh Oh...... That next wave caught me and my board, and just pitted me. I still had my arm around my board as I got slid up the beach backwards on my ass. And yes... I had gravel in my board shorts. As the water receded, it left me sitting there on the sand just laughing at myself. Just in case no one else was:)
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I forgot all about that. I nearly drowned at Salt Creek practicing starts with my 12'2" starboard "race board". I did the same thing--moved down the beach a little to get away from the crowd. I got slammed, then shoved onto the bottom with so much force I couldn't move. I eventually got my feet under me and could stand and then run like hell up the beach.
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That's some ugly looking beach break Creek. I doubt I would have tried that. I would have been standing right beside you--actually probably a few paces back. You first.
Wardog, Jalama seems always nasty. I windsurfed there several times long ago and had a session where I got out easily in a lull, and then couldn't find a way in other than getting the shit kicked out of me, which is what eventually happened when I went for it. I should have just sailed onto the beach at full speed and run up the beach like a chicken instead of trying to dismount and exit in the water. Broken mast, torn sail sleeve, bashed board and a sailor bruised and battered.
Still, I tend to be excited to see no one out. I'm never looking to join the club in the lineup. The best days seem to be the ones you pay a little dues for. But it's a really bad idea to push that to extremes, as I've found to my regret a few times.
Most of the time Jalama takes care of letting you get in too much trouble because it takes a lot of luck on the big days to penetrate the inside shorepound no matter what wave riding craft that you are on...if you do get lucky...plus, good timing...right gear...lots of experience...etc...then, oftentimes it's a case of careful what you wish for...HELP ME MR. WIZARD!!!...;-)
I've seen guys bust over $5K in windsurf gear and then also get heli-vacced out to the hospital...double whammy...KACHING KACHING...
A couple of my worst experiences there were windsurfing and trying to hang onto my gear and having huge heaving waves explode on me as I was all wrapped up in it...bad idea...let it go and dive...then swim as fast as you can to try and retrieve it before it gets turned into useless debris...and, also having a back foot come out of the strap on an aerial off the lip...ended up in the hospital on that one...wave came down on sail, board, and me under all of it...fin went through my harness and wetsuit into my abdomen...over-rotated loops are bad...then there was the time I was trying to help a German windsurfer who was getting pummeled as he let his rig go which hit me in the head...saw stars and had to go get stitched up...concussions are not good...etc...etc...fun stuff to think about as the Jalama windsurf season is getting ready to start...;-)
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One year at the Jalama Shootout it was big and the wind was funky. 18 masts broken that day. I was lucky and got a couple of waves and came in second in the senior men’s division.
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I wish I could find the picture of Kim Reilly about to get eaten by a 8' shorebreak at the finish of the Wellfleet SUPathlon.....knows she's about to get pounded and she has a huge smile on her face.
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Seems like a lot of comments here confirm that sucky shorebreak is worth respecting.
As this guy, on Cape Cod is about to find out.
Shoulda been looking at the wave sucking up behind him.....
instead of the well formed distraction ;D
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I dunno if the kids at the Wedge respect those mutant shore pound waves that they play in or not...but, they should...;-)
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...then there is Jamie O'Brien...he's such a freak...somehow paddles two boards out at the Wedge on Hurricane Maria and does a perfect board transfer...rides it all the way into the shore pound...
https://youtu.be/CvbmiQ0zG0E
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A+ for effort. amazing the draw of the surf. Sounds a few notches tougher than what I was out in on 3/8. But quite on par w/my attempted go outs on 3/3. the sideshore wind aand current were STRONG at the point break. Surfers were hiking a good 1/2 mile down the beach for jump ins. Twice in a row I failed to make it out on my 9'0" lngbrd and got swept all the way to the end of the point only to have a 15 minute walk back for another attempt. Waves from storm Riley were MUCH more powerful, hollow, and larger than usual for here.
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...then there is Jamie O'Brien...he's such a freak...somehow paddles two boards out at the Wedge on Hurricane Maria and does a perfect board transfer...rides it all the way into the shore pound.
Paddling out at the Wedge is usually easy, twenty yards down the beach it's almost flat, even in reasonably big surf. All the energy gets refracted into the jetty. In the surf in that video though, it looks impossible. Getting out of the water is feasible because of the weird way it drains. There's a kind of channel right in front of the wave. The big challenge is not getting folded into a little wad in the impact zone. But yeah, JOB is a freak.
Pictures of big wedge make me queasy. I never had the balls to go when it was big, even after years of bodysurfing it in small stuff.
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...then there is Jamie O'Brien...he's such a freak...somehow paddles two boards out at the Wedge on Hurricane Maria and does a perfect board transfer...rides it all the way into the shore pound.
snippity... But yeah, JOB is a freak...snippity...
You think?!?!
At 20 seconds into this clip he does another board transfer from a short foil board...and, sets up perfectly for a dry barrel...
https://youtu.be/2SakLjnOers
It would be pretty tough being in his posse...maybe being rejected is not such a bad thang...;-)
https://youtu.be/m_Gw8uSzxOQ
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Yeah, I've seen some of the shit they do to Poopie. That kid is going to have parts pointing in every direction by the time he's my age.
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Yep, JOB and his crew are just surfing's version of Johnny Knoxville and his "Jackass" crew. Poopie is Jamie's version of Johnny's Steve-O. Sadly I feel more sorry or embarrassed for the two of them than I do happy for, or amazed by them. :(
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So, brother, you were my inspiration this morning for hardening the fuck up and getting in the water. I went to foil at the Harbor at O-dark-thirty and it was cold (yes, really), windy, the waves were short period and messy, I forgot to bring rubber, and the few people there were just looking at the water, huddled in sad-looking groups. I was going to blow it off but I thought of you and simply couldn't. So I went. Got a few good rides right away, including a long one that featured some rudimentary form of pumping. Then I caught a big one that broke suddenly and did a clumsy faceplant. My board got caught up in the whitewater and the front wing gave my shin a whack.
Didn't feel too bad, I got a few more, but the usable takeoff point was small and it suddenly got crowded with four prone foilers, two prone shortboarders, two SUPS and two longoarders with Chris P, Dave K. and three other SUP foilers headed out. Too many targets for Mr. Hazard. So I went in to look at my owie and warm up a little. I decided I was done, the wind looked to be picking up and the surf was getting smaller. As I drove away with the car heater on full blast I made the mistake of looking at the surf. The wind died dead and a nice set rolled through. Screw it, breakfast calls.
So this goes in the category of "Blame Stoneaxe":
(http://www.ponohouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wingwhack.JPG)
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You guys are insane!!
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Blame StoneAxe, but take credit yourself when things go good.
That's what little bro's are for.
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Blame StoneAxe, but take credit yourself when things go good.
That's what little bro's are for.
Absofuckinglutely.
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:) makes me warm and fuzzy inside....and like I mentioned on FB. Kind of a karmic zen circle jerk.....I was thinking of my geezer brother as I was trying to paddle out.
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I just read about the surfer in little Compton that got killed last swell, hitting the rocks from what I read. Brought a little chill. That rock I mentioned very likely would have killed me had I landed on it in the same fashion as the one I did hit. we have to consider that we are one small mistake away.
Truth is if I'm going to try and go out in this kind of stuff I should be in better shape. And it was stupid to try feeling like I did. I simply shouldn't have gone. I mentioned pride, and I truly was thinking 'my bro would go"! This isn't the first time that thought has cost me pain though..... ::) But if I was in shape this post would have been about the awesome session instead of the whine about rejection. I have a bit more to deal with than some but that's not what caused it.
I owe it to my wife and family to stick around for awhile. This is the 2nd time in the last 6 months where I felt after like it could have easily been much worse with just a twitch....missing the tail handle in the 1st or the rock on the 2nd. Both situations deciding to go when I probably shouldn't have. So I either need to get in better shape...and gear up appropriate to the situation.....or start sticking to milder challenges. I hope I can rise to the challenge again but truth be told I'm getting a bit tired of fighting. Not so inspirational but truth rarely is.... :P
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My daughter sent me this pic...no idea who DC Photography is but they captured a great shot. This is where I was trying to get out....not that day obviously but the next. You can see why there was so much erosion damage. This spot always takes a beating in nor'easters but this may be the most emblematic pic I've seen of it....you can see the sand and rocks flying.
I was thinking of getting a print from the photog and framing it for our friend...who sold that snack bar last year...caption..."Good Timing"..... :)
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We are always one small mistake away. One time when I was driving across the country I came across a guy doing 30 in a 65, in a car full of mattresses wearing a helmet. I thought "You fool, when a semi rear-ends you in a blind curve those mattresses will soak with gasoline and burn you to a crispy critter". There is no such thing as safe. You can stay in your house and lose your balance lurching from the sofa and bash your brains out on the coffee table. So the best strategy is--live.
I'm sitting here on a rainy and cold Maui day making up lists to go race Peyote next summer. I didn't realize I was so excited to race until I noticed my right hand was shaking. A few days ago I tested my depth perception on corners on the jungle route to Makawao. I was a little concerned my double vision might not be really gone, that my brain is just compensating and I'm still fucked. Nope, I'm good to go. I hit my late apex chalk marks on the nose in my crapmobile. Some of the locals might have wondered what the fuck I was doing, but at least I wasn't texting. And Peyote is ready to go, gonna be a lot of fun.
Bummer about Sandy's, they had some nice fried clams.
The only east coast race I'd really like to do is the Pittsburg Vintage Grand Prix, and the Kastner Cup race the weekend before. But that's a silly long haul, and it conflicts with a race in Spokane. Elvis (my daughter, Elizabeth) would kick me in the nuts if a skipped a race in her hometown, so for the sake of my comfort, I'm gonna blow off that long tow.
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I'm not about to lay down and die but I don't want to die by stupidity either. Had to laugh about the losing balance off the couch...I've done that a few times...no deaths yet.... :) Best one was getting out of bed and just kept going....put my head through the closet door..... ::)
Sandy's went immediately down hill. The guy took a hugely popular place. Paid a good price because Sandy made good $$ there. She offered to give him her recipes and to help him get things going....he said no thanks...then jacked up prices with his new menu which is not as good.....now he's complaining he's not doing so well....and now this. He owns the buildings and leases the land from the town. Can't be a happy camper....has to be $30,000 in damage that I can see from outside. AND it's getting hammered again as I type this.
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Hoping tomorrow afternoon has a different result at this same location. Snow died sooner than forecast, maybe the wind will back off sooner too.
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Forecast is a bit windier than I'd like but if I get deep in the cove I can get out of most of it. Cliff is close to 100' there. This for tomorrow at 11:00.