8 Hour Barrelfest

Session #1 6:45a -12:45p

Session #2 3p -5p

Sore as hell.

Santa, I Have One Wish...

I want a 4X4 van with big tires, an extended roof, custom interior for camping and surf racks for my quiver!

..."You'll shoot your eye out kid."

Surf this week!?*

The B-Dog and I hit the inlet way outside yesterday. A surprise leftover swell in the waist high range. We SUPed the sand bar next to the red bouy and both caught a great set wave. The tide was going out with light offshore winds and it still had waves coming in.


Saturday looked hopeful and now Magic has it forecasted for Sunday. Of course, I fly out on Sunday at 6am.


On the bright side, I may get to ride my doll on vacation. Butch may get to try a ride on a Uli Lopez in San Diego. We'll make it a double date. I'll even buy the coffee!


I have my Channel Island 6'2'' Al Merrick for sale (check out photo to right). I believe it is one of the best top to bottom shortboards on the market. I surfed it well at 175 lbs in warm water. I have it at the Surf House, Carolina Beach.


Getting ride of your boards is TOUGH. Every board is connected to a fond memory of a day in the water. Something we never want to forget and spend a majority of our time trying to relive.

Another One & Done Swell

The day after the swell, Sunday. CB inlet #17.


Sunday afternoon had some critically insane drops. I must of wiped out on a 1/3 of my waves. Shifting peaks with bottoms that would drop out and leave you hanging in a foot of water! I had off shore winds at 10 mph and the waves were 4-6 feet underhead! All to myself.



My new 6'6" Allison. I took it for test run Saturday at Masonboro.

Sunday AM

Large surf this morning. Head high plus sets breaking really far out. SSW winds. I'm waiting on a wind change.

I just edited the morning post with a PM update. I waited till 3pm to go out after watching guys struggling to make the paddle and only catch a wave or so. Lots of inside current and some overhead bombs. I pulled out the shortboard but went with the paddle board instead. I paddled straight out in a rip and was out the back in a minute untouched by whitewater.

More iSUPs by C4

C4 10'

The website description says for up to 200 lb rider.

C4 8'1' for up to 150 lbs for kids.

If you have kids, travel or live in an apartment the inflatible boards are the way to go. The soft deck and flexibility allow you to feel safe and comfortable.

We may have a ULI to compare it with shortly!

I left my board in California until New Years and will have it back home when I return if anyone wants to try.

My Blow Up Doll...

will go anywhereand anyhow.There's my new blow up doll in the back seat. Depending on how many people were around I would deflate her in the parking lot. When you push the release button everyone within 40 feet would jump. I was still a little shy with her. She's straight up 20 lbs, but feels about 10 lbs less than the Sub V.

The inflatable is a fun travel board. I can get the board, pump, 3 piece paddle, a wetsuit and some clothes all in one bag under the 50 lb baggage limit. The trick is getting the final bit of air out. It's really cool seeing it come to shape. The flex in the board makes it more difficult to take on whitewater in a paddle stance, so you have to go surf stance. On the other hand, I jumped over chest high whitewater cleanly. The threat of the board flying back and beating the hell out of you is non issue.



I found this drive up coffee spot while leaving Sunset Cliffs. Butch and I always get a coffee after a good early morning surf. This will be our new place. When I asked for two coffees the girl at the window looked at me funny, it was just me and my doll in the car.


I surfed the left pretty much all by myself. It could wall up nicely with out breaking hardly. I've seen glassier days here but these are the typical morning conditions. 60 degree water and air, light to no wind and you can see 10 feet straight down to the bottom.

San Diego's Surf

I surfed three spots while in San Diego.

#1: Tourmalines/Old Man's and Pacific Beach Point

This spot is what I invision California surfing to be, a parking lot filled with surfers of all ages, genders and abilities. If you need some ideas about outfitting your surf vehicle this is the place. "Four wheeled changing rooms". You can tell there are a lot of surf veterans here. The waves are really enjoyable here. Farely long and soft waves. A longboard spot for sure. The area is crowded but there are inside waves, outside waves and way outside waves when it's overhead. To the far right there is a right hand rock point break. There are several take off spots and with big swells you can hardly see the guys on the outside. There are reefs farther up the point that break bigger. Most of the waves in front of the parking lot were in the waist to chest high range with a few bigger sets. I saw and rode waves several feet overhead off the outside point.

#2 Mission Beach

This beach is walled up and shut down at low tide and big swells. The first day, waves were a couple feet overhead on sets and pounding. With small swells and high tide the wave is fun and workable. The wave were around chest high and I was on the isup this day. I got tired of paddling back out through the whitewater and the crowd closed in after 45 minutes, so I got out.

#3 Sunset Cliffs

This is a great area for SUP. Reef breaks everywhere. I caught a ton of great rides. Each morning I was the first one out around 6:30 and surfed for 20-30 minutes alone. It was hard for me to tell the size of the waves from the cliffs because it was my first time surfing there. I was thinking it was waist high until I got in the water and realized how far out the waves were. My first few waves were around chest high and then I started catching solid head high sets. Perfect A-frames with nice workable shoulders. The ISUP worked great! I caught a handful of waves that were overhead and the board held nicely. When it got to about 10 guys or so I surfed the less popular left in front of the stairs and stood on the inside. Most of the surfers have long boards at this spot and waited for the big sets. I took all the chest high waves that rolled under them and surfed them almost all the way into the rocks every time. It was like my birthday or something! In the video, the break just to the left is a bigger wave that came alive as the tide dropped. I can really see that this spot can get BIG. A couple sets closed off the channel between the two spots. Double overhead waves would probaly make me nervous there. And they can easily get that big during winter NW swells. I tried to dive in with the ISUP from the rocks like the locals and ended up no were near my board. It looked as if I threw my board backward and slide off the rocks. Luckily the tide was still high and no one saw it! I can hear it now, " some kook with a blow up board fell in today". I did witness a shortboarder fall on his ass will getting out. Lucky for him his board broke the fall. CRACK!

This area is truely a wonderful place to SUP/surf in the winter. Swells arive almost weekly and anyone from the east coast would appeciate even the smaller days. The water doesn't get quite as cold as ours does and there are no 30 degree wind chills to deal with. I believe I could wear my 2 mil on the SUP throughout the winter. I saw someone in boardshorts SUPing.

More SD Photos

Great flat water paddling to be had in Mission Bay. You can run, bike, blade or paddle for miles.


A shot of Windansea from the south. Short boarders here only! A great A-frame wave. There's plenty of reefs around when the swell is good to SUP.

I see surfers always at this rock break. 4 or 5 guys makes it crowded. It's between Windansea and Birdrock. This was in the middle of the afternoon and it's still glassy because of the kelp beds just offshore.

ISUP foot shot. I was trying to shoot Butch who was riding the wave with me! The action sport photographer I am, got this shot and one of the sky.

San Diego, Day #2

Mission Beach wave early. Day #3


I believe the guy on the wave was riding a 7'6" custom board that was locally shaped. It surfed like a potato chip, nice round and tight turns. Light offshore winds and pretty much sheet glass conditions seems to help your balance.



Butch on a long roller at P.B. Point. It takes a session or two in order to get used to surfing closer to the bottom of the wave. You can go back in forth top to bottom with the wave barely breaking. Not the typical run and gun I'm use to. Some really long rides and then you just stroll back out. During really big swells the waves are caught twice as far out and riden all the way to Tourmaline's.

The "GB''s first wave on Sunday at Tourmaline, just to the right of the parking lot.