Author Topic: Tanker surfing South Carolina  (Read 3222 times)

ninja tuna

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Tanker surfing South Carolina
« on: February 19, 2021, 05:58:23 PM »

Beasho

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Re: Tanker surfing South Carolina
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2021, 08:34:41 AM »
Love the guys stoke.  STOKE, STOKE, STOKE. 

And the disclaimer at the end was interesting -->  There was a HUGE amount of effort that went into this. 

He had a crew of ~ 10 people at least 4 vessels . . . .

https://youtu.be/1xGmh1l0jg0?t=1809

« Last Edit: February 20, 2021, 08:39:20 AM by Beasho »

Wetstuff

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Re: Tanker surfing South Carolina
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2021, 01:56:56 PM »
Ja, he rode that Blue foam squirrel pretty well and had a great attitude throughout. At ~16min he was 'scratching' for it. It was cool. 

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surfcowboy

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Re: Tanker surfing South Carolina
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2021, 08:01:01 PM »
Chasing tankers is hard I hear. For a great example look up the Half Life guys on YouTube and see them try for a couple of days. It’s cool to see the hard part.

Fishman

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Re: Tanker surfing South Carolina
« Reply #4 on: February 22, 2021, 06:33:47 AM »
This is awesome. Thanks for sharing this N Tuna. I had no idea this could be done with freighters and so close to where I live. I thought it was strictly a oil tanker thing. This is now on the 2021 list of things to do. Maybe more of the foiling version trip than a surfing trip but we'll have to figure that one out.   
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Night Wing

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Re: Tanker surfing South Carolina
« Reply #5 on: February 22, 2021, 03:23:05 PM »
Chasing tankers is hard I hear.

Chasing tankers (or any ship) is hard. But instead of chasing a tanker (or any ship) to prone or sup surf a bow wave, the common sense approach is to let the tanker (or ship) "come to you".

In the video below, you will see a young man sup surfing a bow tanker wave at Port Aransas, Texas. He gets into the water at his launching point and paddles out to a spot where he stops and meets an incoming tanker (or any large ship for that matter) so he can sup surf the bow wave from the ship where the wave takes him back to his launching point. Watch the video in full screen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6bskUBzZu8

I have done this and I'll explain how I do it.

If I plan on surfing a ship bow wave, I always take my laptop computer with me and make sure the battery is fully charged in it when I do so. I stop at the closest McDonalds and use their free wifi. While I'm at Mickey D's, I access the "Marine Traffic" site which shows me any incoming ship which will come through the Galveston Ship Channel and the channel lies between the South and North jetties.

The Marine Traffic site is easy to navigate.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/

Basically, I launch my sup board at 16th Street at Port Bolivar on the Bolivar Peninsula and paddle out to the Boat Cut paralleling the North Jetty. The North Jetty is at the end of 17th Street. The North Jetty is 6 miles long but I just paddle out to the Boat Cut and wait for the incoming ship.

Once I see one (or two) incoming ships traveling anywhere between 10-14 knots, I know the bow wave will be big to give me a very long ride which takes me back to my launching spot at 16th Street.
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capobeachboy

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Re: Tanker surfing South Carolina
« Reply #6 on: February 24, 2021, 09:35:28 PM »
Love Ben and his Jersey boy stoke & love for novelty waves. Tanker surfing is so rad. In 2012 my bro Ken & I did the Paddle for Humanity in Austin for ULI Boards and surfed tanker waves with Capt James and Tanker Surf Charters in the Houston ship channel. Talk about long rides! It was sick.
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surfcowboy

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Re: Tanker surfing South Carolina
« Reply #7 on: February 26, 2021, 09:09:55 PM »
Night Wing, thx for the 411. I know that area a bit. This is one area that SUP has an advantage. You can self tow into waves.

I want to try that with a wing.

 


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